Imperial Russia

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Imperial Russia

• Pre-Revolutionary Society

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Tsarist Russia

• 1881 Imperial Russia covered area two and half
  times size of USA.
• European Russia Poland to the Urals
•         Asiatic Russia Urals to the Pacific
•  Population rose from 40million in 1815 to 165
  million by 1914.
• Vast ethnic diversity Census of 1897. Sixty
  different nationalities, five general social
  classes.
• Slavs all Russians, Serbs, Croats, Poles,
  Slovenes, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks,
  Bulgarians, Belorussians

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The Tsar

• The Tsar An absolute and autocratic monarch
• Since 1613, members of the Romanov dynasty
• By law and tradition the Tsar was the absolute
  ruler
• 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 also out of conscience Tsar Nicholas
  1, declaration of 1832.

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Catherine the Great
Peter the Great
Alexander the 2nd
Nicholas the 1st
Nicholas the 2nd
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The Tsarist government

• Three official bodies through which the Tsar
  exercised his authority.
• The Imperial council
• The Cabinet of ministers
• The Senate
•  Appointed not elected. Advisory or
  Administrative roles only
• By beginning of the 20th century all of the major
  European powers had some form of democratic or
  representative government not so Russia.

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The Church

• Russian Orthodox Church Independent of the pope.
• Fully supported the Tsar.
• An essentially conservative organisation wholly
  committed to preservation of the Tsarist system
• Used its spiritual authority to teach Russian
  people it was their duty to be totally obedient
  to the Tsar as Gods anointed.
• Church used to stifle receptiveness to
  revolutionary ideas and movements

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Tsarist Russia Social and Economic Structure

• Ruling Class
•         Tsar and his Royal Family, together with
  members of government. 0.5 of population. (825
  000 people)
• Upper Class
•         Gentry or nobility hereditary
  landowners, wealthy merchants, church leaders,
  bureaucrats, high ranking army. Isolated and
  protected from harsh realty of Russian life. 12
  19 million people.
• Commercial class
•         Middle class. Began developing in the
  late 1880s. small scale manufacturers, factory
  owners, financiers, clerks, white collar workers.
  Also included writers, scholars etc the
  intelligensia. 1.5
• Industrial working class
•         Ever expanding class. The proletariat
  Marxist term for the working class. 4

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Tsarist Russia Social and Economic Structure

• The Peasants 82 of population
• Attempted reforms by Tsar Alexander 11, the
  emancipation of the Serfs 1861 had failed to
  modernise agriculture or make life for the
  peasants any easier. It has also disrupted a
  centuries old social and administrative
  structure. Government had to compensate
  landowners and feudal lords for the loss of their
  serfs.
• Agriculture was inefficient
• Much of Russia was unsuitable for agriculture
• Not enough productive land to go around
• Peasants were entitled to buy land but prices
  were too high
• High taxes to pay landowners back for losing
  their serfs after 1861
• Crippling mortgage payments
• Antiquated farming techniques and equipment
• Largely illiterate, deeply conservative and
  religious, resistant to change
• Feared by the ruling classes as the dark
  masses. To be kept ignorant and in check.
  Tsarina Alexandra Russia always needed to be
  under the whip. Lynch p6

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The Peasants
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The Army
 The Army Masses of peasants conscripted into the
army Punishment for criminals Severe discipline
and harsh existence. 1m soldiers died in
peacetime under Nicholas 1 (1825-1855)
Maintaining armed forces accounted for 45 of
annual government expenditure High ranks were
preserve of Aristocracy
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Secret Police

• The Okhrana
• Infiltrated political organizations and trade
  unions
• Dealt with internal security, communists and
  anarchists
• Responsible for 26 000 deaths without trial

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The Cossacks

• Were a fiercely independent group from the
  Ukraine
• Used by the Tsar to keep the masses under control
• Use violence and terror to deal with troublemakers

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