Pre-revolutionary Russia: society and political conditions

Pre-Revolutionary Russia

Russia was a highly backward agricultural country prior to the revolution of 1917. Most of the agricultural land was owned by the royal family, the nobility and the clergy. Most peasants had to manage to survive on less than three acres of land using primitive tools and methods of cultivation. To compound their problems they were required to pay huge sums in rent and tributes to their land owners every year. These hardships created great discontent. Moreover, Russian industry was behind the times and highly dependent on foreign investment capital. Industrial workers had to endure hard conditions, received extremely low wages, and worked 12 to 14 hours a day. During this period it was considered a crime to form trade unions. The government did nothing to improve these conditions and the majority of the Russian people suffered from poverty and disease ("Causes of the Russia Revolution").

The structure of the Russian government itself, along with an increased feeling of separation among the general population and the tsar contributed to the eventual revolution of 1917. Russian society was composed of subjects, not citizens. These subjects were denied most civil rights of any kind leading to friction between the ruling class and the working classes. Additionally extreme censorship in all forms existed, tsar, Nicholas II, maintained complete control over the formation of any sort of group, and restricted any political discourse. Nicholas II separated the classes further by dismissing the zemstvos.

In the 1850s when Alexander II began implementing a series of modernization practices that would become known as the Great Reforms. Most notable of these would be the emancipation of the serf class in 1861. The emancipation the serfs meant they would become free peasants who were provided with a share in the land. These reforms maintained the peasant village as a self-contained entity, with its own decision-making body, comprised of an elected village elder and other officials, who were tasked with communicating with both the government and the world outside of the village. This body would provide a means of dispute settlement, taxation, and land distribution amongst the families of the village. This continuation of traditional dealings helped to provide a sense of stability and equality to the peasants. It also perpetuated a tradition of collective action that then carried over into the later industrial workforce. This system of land distribution, equality amongst workers, and the separation from the central governing body would provide the basis for the revolution to come. Despite the fact that the aristocracy dominated positions in the zemstvos, Nicholas II endeavoured to limit its political power and obstructed any possibility of forming a nationally elected assembly. Nicholas's inflexible hold on the autocratic past resulted in the failure to provide the governmental changes needed to resist revolution.

In the final analysis the Russian Revolution was driven by social and economic influences. These social and economic conditions were different depending on whether they were rural or urban. Peasants in the rural setting were discontent with the requirement to pay redemptions to the aristocracy. These peasants pushed for a communal ownership of the land they worked, finding it wrong that they had to pay to cultivate. Ultimately, whether individually or in a group, the peasant's wanted ownership of the land they worked. This was most closely tied to the Russian land-owning disparity.