History Essay – Russia To what extent did Witte achieve economic modernisation in Russia? Russia saw a lot of changes in the years 1881-1903. A lot of these were due to Witte. The Russian empire wasn’t strong as it seemed and it was certainly not modern. Witte tried to change this with a series of projects, to help the economy and industry of Russia.
This was all thanks to Russia’s finance minister Sergei Witte. He tried to bring Russia’s economy up to the standards with the rest of Europe as they were seen as backwards compared to other countries. The best way he saw this was through industrialization. This is because the market was heavily controlled by the state and the development of heavy industry allowed for a fast catch-up, rapidly covering the 'gap' that existed in the country's economy. Besides all this such industrialization improved the overall military capability of Russia.
This was sometimes called ‘Revolution from above. During the years 1928 to 1941 Stalin decided to introduce a series of reforms in order to radically change Russia’s economy. This would not only create a more prosperous country, but as well would stand out the figure of Stalin and would make him a memorable leader for his acts, moving of the way the image people had of Lenin as the real and unique leader Russia once had. During these years, through collectivisation and industrialisation (Five Year Plans), Stalin was able o successfully improve Russia’s economy. This was mostly due to his policies of collectivisation which made economic sense and forced a lot of peasants to leave the land, which was a process needed in order to change an agricultural rural society to an urban and industrial one as well s the fact that his industrialisation plan increased massively the heavy industry in Russia; the production of raw materials such as iron, coal, steel and oil all increased successfully.
The 1880s saw an industrial expansion in Russia. Coal and oil exports rapidly increased meaning more money was being brought into the country. The government however, used it for increasing military power such as making new weapons and employing more soldiers rather than helping the structure of Russia. To help the structure of Russia they could have spent it on building new roads and railways, and investing in new agricultural equipment which would help the economical transformation of Russia a lot more. Sergei Witte was minister of finance from 1892 to 1903 and wanted to modernise Russia.
He felt these areas would help to solve Russia's three biggest problems; Communication, Size and Social Divide. Witte's industrial policy covered many areas. The first was huge investments from France. Witte used this money to kick-start various economic plans he had. This money was important because the economy in Russia was poor at the time; bearing in mind there was a huge number of peasants and very few working class people at the time may suggest a reason for this.
Sergie Witte's attempts to modernise the Russian economy during the period 1892-1903 were very successful. How far do you agree? Sergie Witte made several attempts to modernise Russia during the period during the period 1892-1903, however they were not always successful in the grand scheme of things in the country as he successfully freed serfs, however they were not completely free and were still heavily taxed. He however did manage to somewhat modernise Russia but one could argue that it was not to a great enough extent. Sergie Witte's aims included creating a bigger business class as that is what was driving other countries forward such as Britain and Germany.
With 90% of the country being illiterate, there was no way for the country to industrialize (which would also go on to effect their economy), without people being able to read or write, it became even more difficult for the country to move forward. The economy became weak very quickly because of the growth in population (keeping in mind that the amount of people who were uneducated was still 90%), they relied too much on their primary source of income which was agriculture, this resulted in the land developing crops less as they were constantly taken at every chance possible therefore making the land weaker (and a weaker land meant a weaker income). Another factor that also had an effect on the
These taxations also led to strikes and demonstrations becoming commonplace so could have caused Bloody Sunday itself. Witte’s economic reforms also led to another economic factor that caused the 1905 Revolution, the industrialisation of Russia. High speed industrialisation of Russia led to urbanisation causing a high density of people living in the towns and cities. This aided a social factor, the creation of a new urban working class and led to poor working and living conditions in Russia, this caused even greater resentment of the government and helped the formation of the SDs who also had a part to play in the 1905 Revolution. This high density of people living in towns and cities made it easier for revolutionary parties easier to rally and less easy to crush than when most people lived in more rural areas.
The government can be seen to be doing this through the vast amount of Council house’s that were built. This new approach was revolutionary compared to the previous Conservative government with Classical Economics where if Unemployment was low the government would not intervene; for the first time action was being down to prevent Unemployment. There were problems however, inflation had started to rise and by nationalising the Coal industry, mining became inefficient as there were now too many people working after the government overmanning of the mines.
The system of land distribution was unfair and most peasants received 4% less land than they had rented before, many received much less. In reality they had less land than when they were serfs. This was seen as unfair as they believed that, because they had worked the land for generations, it should now belong to them. The Mir still restricted peasants’ movements and as consolidation and enlargement of property was difficult, there was little incentive to improve the land and adopt modern methods, resulting in a decline in productivity The huge redemption taxes also meant that the peasants had to sell many of the crops they needed to eat and the Mir kept the peasants tied to their commune and still controlled by rules. Peasants felt disappointed and disillusioned and many rioted.