In the late 19th century, Russia began its process of industrialization following its defeat at the hands of Western nations in the Crimean War. Russia's Industrial Revolution was further helped along by its growing population and an increasing labor force. As the industrial process continued, it gave new job opportunities such as: in mining, factory work, and railroad construction. This influx of jobs was taken by an influx of people, where it came from the country to work in the cities as cheap laborers, taking up dangerous and low-paying jobs. In spite of all these changing times and circumstances, the tension between the upper and lower classes remained tenser than ever before, building up under the fabric of society.
Explain why in the years 1906 to 1911, Stolypin attempted to reform agriculture. (12 marks) Stolypin attempted to reform agriculture for many reasons, one of the most important being to strengthen tsarist autocracy. He strongly believed that the future of Russia depended on building a prosperous peasantry. There was widespread rural poverty but an upper class of peasant that farmed efficiently and were wealthier, they were known as the Kulaks. Stolypin believed that the encouragement of a class such as the Kulaks would make them hostile to further change therefore more conservative and loyal to the Tsar as the Tsar had made them wealthy.
To regain the support from people, he needed to carry out the reforms in the October Manifesto. His improvements included different aspects, such as political, social and economic approaches. However these were expedients rather than real reforms. He also appointed Peter Stolypin as the prime minister to stabilize the country. Nicholas II had tried his best to regain people’s support and stop the revolution tide through the reforms after the 1905 Revolution.
On the other hand, the growth in population compared with national output shows less production per head, and therefore less efficient production. His policies did little for agriculture considering 80% of the population were rural peasants. It is thought he focused too much on heavy industry, neglecting others like light engineering. Finally, Russia became overly dependent on foreign loans (never good if a financial crisis were to occur and foreign loans have to be repaid). Tariffs making goods scarce and heavy taxation meant prices for Russian consumers increased, whilst their wages stayed low.
Due to businesses like these integrating vertically big businesses were made easier to grow. By 1913, 14.7% was what the US produced units relative to the world in 1880 became 32%. Another point is the fact that through the work of Carnegie, steel has become a major product of the US, this increased the steel production thus providing lots of employment. This results in a massive growth in the economy . Due to big businesses like one of Carnegie’s, small companies which were less profitable were ruined, this resulted in the economy benefiting from monopolies.
In 1890, Russia encouraged a ‘great spurt’ as their industry grew rapidly. A major reason for the exceptional growth was the increase in the output of coal in the Ukraine and of oil in the Caucasus. However, the motives of the tsarist government were military rather than economic. Economic expansion attracted the tsar and his ministers because it was a means of improving the strength of the Russian armed forces, as a growing industry would produce more and better guns, equipment and ships. An outstanding individual involved in Russia’s development was Sergei Witte.
Hence, though peasant life was at its best in its history, all these reforms did for the majority was ignite the hope that more liberating reforms were to come. Unfortunately the untimely assassination of Tsar Liberator by the extremist group, ‘The Peoples Will’ led to the rise in power of Alexander 3rd, who’s views towards the ruling of Russia differed greatly from his fathers. Many of the liberties granted through the reforms were stripped by Alexander 3rd’s own reforms. Peasants control over courts was restricted as courts for government opponents became government controlled. Many government opponents would have been protesting about how unfair the Russian system was towards peasants and hence through trial by jury, they would have been sympathised with.
Much like Tsarist reforming leaders, Witte and Alexander II, a poor economic situation also significantly influenced Lenin’s reforms, showing a nuanced continuity between factors influencing reforms in the Tsarist and Communist state. The peasants were at first discontented by the reform, for” a tax of 10% was imposed upon the harvest” (Acton), leading to crop prices temporarily rising, causing a famine reminiscent of the Tsarist age, indicating little change. However a year later the grain harvest increased by 19 million tonnes, this proved to be significant as the impacts of the NEP allowed Russian society to become more self-sufficient, without the need for imports. The reform was also significant, as it encouraged the growth of a bourgeoisie in the form of NEP men; older Bolsheviks viewed them as a threat to the socialist government, yet they accepted that a middle class was a necessary step towards complete socialism. The view that Lenin’s reforms were significant, therefore is credible, for despite gaining a government that had been ravaged by two wars, and rapid inflation, after about eight years Lenin’s NEP encouraged great economic growth, thus consolidating the position of the Bolshevik government in Russian society based upon Lenin’s work as a reforming
The consolidation of serfdom accompanied the growth of estate agriculture, particularly in Poland and Eastern Germany. j) In the 16th century, European economic expansion and population growth resumed after the great declines of the late Middle Ages. k) Prices for agricultural commodities also rose sharply as gold and silver flowed in from the New World. l) Polish and German lords had powerful economic incentives to increase the production of their estates. (1) Lords seized more peasant land for their own estates and demanded more unpaid labor.
There were many short and long term effects of the Russian revolution. Firstly the short term effects following the Russian revolution were that Lenin hoped the constituent assembly (parliament) would show the rest of Russia how good the Bolsheviks could be for the Russian nation and how popular their leadership was. However they only gained 161 seats, compared to the social revolutionaries who won 267 seats. Obviously the Bolsheviks had become popular in Petrograd, but beyond the capital the population hadn’t been more in favour of the social revolutionaries and hadn’t been convinced by Lenin’s promise yet. In reaction to this, he shut down the assembly in order to keep power for himself.