Problems facing Imperial Russia

Social

Political

Economic

small villages and

Geographical

Only arable land in the black something region and European Russia

This resulted in poverty and subsistence farming

the Church still had a large influence

Russian orthodox

Pobedonostsev

Witte

increasing the railways

Tsar is in control

autocratic society

Land crisis

Mir - the peasant communities

each year they re distribute the land

Strip farming

Land Hunger

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

Ethnic tensions

russification

all gov and services in russian

it was the official language you couldn't speak any thing else

Antisemitism

there is nor parliamnet

no voice for people

very reactionary

hand in hand with the nobility

very feudel

82% of pop. peasants

emancipation in 1861

Stolypin

population stagnation

testiles in st petersburg and moscow

ineffective transport

goverment is highly beaurocratice

there is no free press of freedom of speech

redemption payments

lack of education

lif expectancy was 40

only 40% were ethnically russian

Very difficult to raise capital on a large scale

No functional banking system

Before 1890s russia was not on the gold standard

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

Much of income under witte went toward the railways

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

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

Huge variety of race, culture, language and religion across Russia then

Controlling so many diff peoples and huge land area is v difficult

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

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

Low no of urban workers shows a low economical developement

Urals region produced iron

Many small scale businesses in villages

this limiteed the expansion of industry

Financial backwardness had discouraged entrepreneurialism

The Tsar's level of power highlights how backwards Russia was politically

However no extension of political rights

In 1894 it was still a crime to oppose the gov. or tsar

There was no parliament, although there were illegal parties

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

Redemption payments and mortgages were abolished

Agriculture

Stolypin's neckties

This lifted a weight off the shoulders of the people

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

The number of Kulaks increased dramatically and they were increasingly supportive of the 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

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

Herzen provided the backing for the anti tsarists to fall in with

Herzen was a revolutionary propagandist painting the blackest picture

The Russian Army

1825-1855 peacetime over 1000000 deaths caused by rigours service

Army is made from conscription

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

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 )

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

Belief that large country needed large army

19C 1.5 mill men

Poor conditions

Severity and discipline

Grim soldier living conditions

Brutalising experiences

50% of annual spending is on the army

45% of gov funding going to army and navy

4 % of annual spending to education

Higher army positions for aristocrats

Commissions bought and sold

Promotion on merit not a thing really

The Peasant Problem

Ruling classes deep ingrained prejudice to was peasants

Masses illiterate and uneducated

didnt want to grant rights to the masses

People feared and contempt the dark masses

They need to be under the whip

Fear that if educated these masses would be uncontrollable and threatened their own privileges

Safe ignorance

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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

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Social structure

0.5% rulers

12% upperclass

1.5% commercial

4% working class

82% peasants