Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Russia in Mid- 19th Century: The Population
- Habitat
- Covered 2 continents (Europe & Asia) and one sixth of world's landmass
- Large parts uninhabited/ sparsely populated
- Northern part (Tundra)= frozen for
most of year
- Endless miles of (impenetrable) forest
- Open plains and grassland (esp. Black Earth region)
- Far south= desert
- Climate= difficult for agriculture
(unpredictable rainfall and droughts)
- The People
- C15th onwards= Moscow inhabitants conquered the people around them
- 1859- Vladivostok and eastern Pacific Ocean became part of Empire
- 1964- Georgian and Chechen people secured
- 1860s-70s= central Asian area (inc. Turkestan) conquered
- Over 100 different nationalities under the control of the Russian state
- Population divide
- Russians= 1/2 of population
- Mostly in European part of Russia
- St Petersburg= sophisticated European Russians
- Desert south= nomadic Muslims; lived like Native Americans
- Social Structure
- 1859- population 70 million
- 90% peasants
- Nobility
- Less than 1%
- C17th= given landed estates by Tsars
- In return, nobles serviced the Tsar- as
armed forces officers, or public officials
- V.E. in supporting the Tsar
- Acted as judiciary and administrative officials
- Huge variations in wealth
- Count Sergei Seremetev= one of the richest
- Owned nearly 150,000 male serfs
- Majority owned fewer than 100 serfs; X fund lavish lifestyle
- Some= poor
- Not all Conservative
- Active minority looking to reform Russian Society, esp. Serfdom
- Others wanted more representative government, like liberalism in Western Europe
- Middle Classes
- Small, due to absence of industry on a large scale
- Merchants, wealthy & influential
- Entrepreneurs and businessmen (only became more
dynamic in 2nd part of Century)
- Most= bureaucratic clerical
roles in central & provincial
gov, & running shops and
stores
- 9%
- Peasants/ Serfs
- 90%
- Huge variation between
- 1/2= SERFS
- Tied to land-owning nobility
- Tied to estate- X leave without permission
- Required 3 days labour a week (more at harvest time)
- Or, pay dues in cash/ produce- or all 3!
- Some nobles would pay for extra work
- Plot of land for own use
- Nobles= police, judge, and jury (no access to legal system)
- No rights as individuals- could be sold, traded, forbidden to marry
- Some landowners educated serfs! Others whipped them
- Central Russia & Provinces
- Labour service= Black Earth (land= fertile; agriculture= main activity)
- Estates near cities= produced foodstuffs for urban market
- 7% = domestic servants (no land, not paid= worst life)
- 1/2= state peasants
- Lived on estates owned by the state/ Church/ Tsar
- Paid rent to state for land
- Legally free!
- Still under control of state administrators though
- Still had restricted travel
- Better off than serfs
- Larger land holdings
- Could get more involved in rural handicrafts/
work in factories to supplement their income
- The Mir
- Village commune controlling the peasants; an assembly of households
- Run by peasants
- Meetings allowed discussion of ideas
- Allocated land; amount of land depended on size of household
- Fields were divided into strips so everyone got good and bad land
- Pastureland and meadows held in common
- Inefficient; time wasted moving between strips
- Responsible for making sure serfs fulfilled
labour/ payments on private estates
- Dominated by older peasants
who resisted change
- Punish: chose who was conscripted for the army
- Cooperation & mutual support; violence,
jealousy, rivalries
- Farming
- 3 field rotation system
- Wheat, rye, oats
- Household plots for houses
- Garden plots for food and livestock
- Fish, beer, vegetable soup
- Workers
- No industrial revolution- few large scale industrial works
- Spinning mills St. Petersburg
- Technologically backwards
- Peasant handicrafts