Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Problems facing Imperial Russia (Economic (Very difficult to raise capital…
Problems facing Imperial Russia
Social
small villages and
the Church still had a large influence
Russian orthodox
Pobedonostsev
very reactionary
hand in hand with the nobility
very feudel
Land crisis
Mir - the peasant communities
each year they re distribute the land
Strip farming
Land Hunger
Ethnic tensions
russification
all gov and services in russian
it was the official language you couldn't speak any thing else
Antisemitism
only 40% were ethnically russian
Huge variety of race, culture, language and religion across Russia then
Controlling so many diff peoples and huge land area is v difficult
82% of pop. peasants
emancipation in 1861
redemption payments
lack of education
However no extension of political rights
population stagnation
lif expectancy was 40
The Peasant Problem
Ruling classes deep ingrained prejudice to was peasants
didnt want to grant rights to the masses
Masses illiterate and uneducated
Fear that if educated these masses would be uncontrollable and threatened their own privileges
Safe ignorance
People feared and contempt the dark masses
They need to be under the whip
Social structure
0.5% rulers
12% upperclass
1.5% commercial
4% working class
82% peasants
Political
Witte
increasing the railways
Much of income under witte went toward the railways
Railways created to encourage migration of workers, goods transport and military transport
Trans siberian railways never finished and more of a show of russian enterprise than anything
put russia on the gold standard
Lead to increased poverty due to the fact that this made the population had to pay more as the gold standard was higher than the ruble
Due to this reform, inflation lead to a decline in the industrialisation of the towns and cities as the wages became higher and thus harder to pay a fewer number of workers could be employed leaving a huge number of disaffected workers unemployed and on the streets
Wittes reforms made Russia too dependent of foreign investment and loans, he focused far to much on heavy industrial at the expense of light engineering and he paid on attention to russia agricultural needs
Tsar is in control
autocratic society
there is nor parliamnet
There was no parliament, although there were illegal parties
no voice for people
Since 1613 tsars had been from the romanov dynasty
Article 1 of the ‘fundamental laws of the empire’ as issued by Nicholas I in 1832 “ the emperor of all the russias is an autocratic and unlimited monarch. God himself ordains that all must bow to his supreme power, not only out of fear but asl out of conscience.”
faith in the tsar remains strong
Stolypin
Redemption payments and mortgages were abolished
This lifted a weight off the shoulders of the people
Agriculture
Land banks introduced
Stolypin tried to replace the old method of strip farming with a more modern and individual system of farming
Agricultural output increased by a third but next to the dramatically increasing population this was still not adequate.
peasant land ownership increased by 30 percent
Stolypin's neckties
The number of Kulaks increased dramatically and they were increasingly supportive of the Tsar.
goverment is highly beaurocratice
there is no free press of freedom of speech
Gov. censorship imposed on all books and journalism
those with liberal ideas were forced under ground
19C wide variety of secret societies of reform and change
They were regularly infiltrated by agents of the Okhrana
3 official bodies which the tsar exercised his authority through
The Cabinet of ministers, ran the various gov.
The senate, supervised operation of the law
The Imperial Council , a group of honorary advisors
The Tsar's level of power highlights how backwards Russia was politically
In 1894 it was still a crime to oppose the gov. or tsar
The bureaucracy
Corruption greatist in places where the attempts form greatest reform were
Peter I tried to construct civil service
Nepotism and incompetence major factors in russia's backwardness
Alexander Herzen claimed it had Become money grasping elite who taxed people. Sucking the blood of the people with greedy, unclean mouths
Herzen provided the backing for the anti tsarists to fall in with
Herzen was a revolutionary propagandist painting the blackest picture
Everything in the hands of people who first thought of themselves
In 19c efforts made to reform and curtail the abuse but overall not successful
Economic
Russia very behind Europe
Agraiain economy - subistance farming
this results on things staying the same and there isn't any more money going back into the system in order to develop industry and farming
testiles in st petersburg and moscow
ineffective transport
this limiteed the expansion of industry
Very difficult to raise capital on a large scale
No functional banking system
Before 1890s russia was not on the gold standard
Financial backwardness had discouraged entrepreneurialism
Low no of urban workers shows a low economical developement
Urals region produced iron
Many small scale businesses in villages
50% of annual spending is on the army
4 % of annual spending to education
Geographical
Only arable land in the black something region and European Russia
This resulted in poverty and subsistence farming
1894 imperial russia covered 8 mill ^2 miles and cover en a large part of 2 continents europe and asia
Population growth between 1815 and 1914 = 80 mill -160 mill
Population concentrated in european russia ( the are also of many of the great historical events with st petersburg and moscow )
The Russian Army
1825-1855 peacetime over 1000000 deaths caused by rigours service
Army is made from conscription
Many peasants recruited to keep them in check
Lower ranks mainly filled by enforced enlistment
Conscription generally used as a punishment
Some remote camps set up and penal colonies rather than training
Until 1815 russia's army was just a way of putting down uprisings with in country
1890
64% of the peasants called up for military service were declared unfit
Belief that large country needed large army
19C 1.5 mill men
50% of annual spending is on the army
45% of gov funding going to army and navy
Poor conditions
Severity and discipline
Grim soldier living conditions
Brutalising experiences
Higher army positions for aristocrats
Commissions bought and sold
Promotion on merit not a thing really
Agriculture
Inefficient pattern of agriculture
No agrarian economy
Purely subistamce farming
Land a source of weakness rather than strength
Arable farming limited to only the black earth region and european russia
Not enough fertile scoil to feed all
Growing population
Mir redivide the land each year
Under the Emancipation Decree of 1861 the price was too high
Tax on bought land
Repay current land owners
Big mortgages for ex surfs from gov. Fund not able to repay for generations