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Summary Social Change in Tsarist and Communist Russia (AQA ALevel)
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This document covers all the social change in Russia as required by the specification for the Alevel Exam.
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ChangeRussian Society Continuity
1855-1894 -Poorer peasants saw life getting worse, according to a zemstvo survey in the 1880s, 2/3
Nobility of the former serfs in Tambov region were unable to feed their households without
-The landed elite saw their personal landholdings decline considerably after emancipation, falling into debt
as some sold out to pay off debts and others abandoned farming in favour of more - Despite improvements in health care, provided by the Zemstva, a large proportion of
rewarding professional activities the peasantry were turned down as unfit for military service and mortality rates were
-In 1880, nearly 1/5 of university professors came from the hereditary nobility higher than those in any European country.
-By 1882, more than 700 nobles owned their own businesses in Moscow, while nearly 2500 -Average life expectancy was around 27 for males and 29 for women, in England it was
were employed in commerce, transport, or industry 45.
- Some found places in the zemstvo and provincial governorship (kept status) - Economic change failed to improve the lot of peasantry and may even have affected
- Though there were changes to their position, most former serf-owners retained much of them for the worse
their previous wealth and status and society remained highly stratified. Cultural change
Middle class -70% of the population subscribed to the Orthodox church , which had a close bond to
-Russia’s middle class began to grow due to industrial expansion tsardom
- Bankers, doctors, teachers and administrators were in greater demand, although their
- By the late nineteenth century, church administration had been moved to the Holy
numbers added up to no more than 500,000 in 1897 census.
synod and the tsars position was becoming more secular
- Government contracts to build railways and state loans to set up factories, provided
-Nevertheless Imperial Russia remained strongly Orthodox state and the moral
tremendous opportunities for those who were enterprising.
Urban Working class domination of the orthodox church over the superstitious and ill educated peasantry
-The expansion of industry was accompanied by a growth in the urban population. was hugely beneficial as a means of control
-The number of workers was no more than 2% of population by 1894 - Every peasant hut held its icon and the mix of superstition and religion was an integral
-It was still common for peasants to move to the towns to work temporarily, while part of peasant culture
returning to their villages to help at peak times. -Priests had close ties with the village, they were expected to read out imperial
-By 1864 1/3 inhabitants of St Petersburg were peasants by birth and the proportion manifestos and decrees, keep statistics, root out opposition and inform the police of any
continued to rise suspicious activity
- In 1882-90 there was a series of reforms; regulation of child labour, reduction in working - After a report expressing concern about clerical poverty in 1858, an ecclesiastical
hours, a reduction in excessive fines and payment in king and the appointment of commission was set up to investigate church organisation and practice in 1862. In 1868
inspectors with powers to check up on working conditions reforms were introduced to improve the education of priests
- However these contributed very little towards improving the lives of the growing working - Under alexander III the church was given increased control over primary education
class - Alexander III’s policy of Russification enabled him to promote orthodoxy throughout
- Although peasants were attracted by the prospect of regular wages, payments were rarely the empire
generous - Radical sects which had broken away from true orthodoxy in particular the ‘old-
- There were around 33 strikes per year between 1886-1894 despite them being illegal
believers’ were persecuted by the state
- Nothing stopped the relentless drive from the country side to city
-The Ukrainian Uniate Church and the Armenian Church were subject to persecution
Peasantry
and in central Asia and Siberia there was enforced baptism.
-The kulak class emerged who bought up land , they employed labour and sometimes
- More than 8500 Muslims and 50,000 pagans were converted to orthodoxy as well as
acted as ‘prawn brokers’ to the less fortunate, buying their grain in the autumn to
40,000 Catholics and Lutherans in Poland and the Baltic provinces under Alexander III’s
provide them with money to tide them over the winter, but selling it back at inflated
reign.
prices in the spring
-From 1883 members of non orthodox churches were not allowed to build new places
of worship, wear religious dress except within their meeting place or spread any
religious propoganda
, 1894-1917 -There was some social mobility as nobles sons chose to join the business world, or those of peasant stock
Conditions in towns (Working/Living) rose through and work and enterprise to join the ranks of middle management and perhaps within a
-There were 2 million factory workers in Russia by 1900 and 6 million by 1913 generation become factory proprietors
-Between 1867 and 1917, the Empire’s urban population quadrupled from 7 to 28 million - The growth of education of education and the demand for more administrators also fuelled a growing
- By 1914 ¾ of inhabitants of st Petersburg were peasants at birth middle class.
-Livestock roamed the streets and there were numerous outdoor ‘peasant’ markets including one -The growing middle class found their natural home on the councils of the zemstvo and in the town and
on red square state dumas, where they exerted an influence beyond their size
- Workers often found themselves living in barrack-like buildings, owned by factory workers and - By 1914 there were 5000 vetinary surgeons , 4000 agronomists, the number of doctors rose from 17k to
dangerously overcrowded and lacking in adequate sanitation 28k between 1897 and 1914, the total number of graduate teachers doubled between 1906 and 1914 to
-In st Peterburg in 1900, about 40% of houses had no running water or sewage system 20k
- 30,000 inhabitants died of cholera 1908-1909 due to poor sanitation Workers and Peasantry
- Rents remined high, taking half a workers wage -Although most peasant protest before 1914 was the result of traditional grievances- a failed harvest or
- women comprised 1/5 of industrial workforce in 1885 but 1/3 by 1914, though they were the unfair land allocation, the slow process of awakening the peasantry from their inertia to political activism
lowest paid , earning less than half the average industrial wage
was already underway by 1914, although it was to take the exceptional conditions of the war to complete
- The wages of industrial workers failed to keep pace with inflation, avg industrial wage increased
this task
from just 245 roubles to 264 roubles per month in the years down to 1914 while inflation was
- In urban areas, former peasants, alienated from their families and their roots gradually lost something of
40%.
- Normal factory working hours were reduced to reach 10 hours by 1914, although this did not their former identity and began to associate with others who lived with them, sharing grievances, they
apply to workshops, which were far more common. turned from religion to Marxism
- 85% rise in primary school provision between 1905-1914, only 55% of children were in full time Cultural Changes
education by 1914 -The fundamental patriarchal structure of Russian society remained untouched, however economic and
-In 1914 there were 3574 stoppages political developments had brought some new opportunities and aspirations for women
-Lina goldfields massacre 1912 -Increased women found greater independence through factory work, though Alexander III and Nicholas II
Conditions in the countryside (working/living) tried to cut back on women’s educational opportunities
-Strip farming persisted on 90% of land and there was still widespread rural poverty - In December 1908, the first all Russian congress of women was attended by 1035 delegates in st
-The gap between richest and poorest peasants grew wider as the kulaks took advantage of the Peterburg and it campaigned for a female franchise
position of the less favoured and sometimes bought out their impoverished neighbours -Govt expenditure on primary education grew from 5 million roubles in 1896 ro over 82 million by 1914. By
- A minority emigrated to Siberia encouraged by government schemes from 1896 to sponsor 1911 over 6.5 million children between 8-11 were receiving primary education (44% of age group and only
emigration , however only 3.5 million from a peasant population of nearly 97 million 1/3 girls)
- Areas of former state peasants tended to be better off than those of the emancipated privately - 40% illiteracy in 1914
owned serfs because they had been granted more land -The number of books and publications proliferated, particularly after 1905 when the press boomed, there
-a large proportion of the peasantry were turned down as unfit for military service and mortality were 1767 newspapers being published weekly by 1914.
rates were higher than those in any European country. -Secondary education remained elitist, however between 1860 and 1914 the number of university
-In 1914 there was still around 60% illiteracy
students in Russia grew from 5000 to 69000 (45% women), however although a quarter of students in
- Peasantry remined at the bottom of social ladder; even though their sense of community and
secondary school in 1911 came from the peasantry this amounted to only 30k individuals
their loyalty to church and tsar was largely unblemished
Nobility
- More serious writers and artists used their art forms to address problems in Russian society during this
-1/3 of noble land was transferred to townsmen and peasants between 1861-1905, and there perios, eg Anton Chekhov produced a stream of stories and plays from 1880s until his death in 1904,
were certainly nobles who struggled to meet debts and failed to understand modern money continuing the realist tradition
management etc - By the early twentieth century the nineteenth century classics of Russian literature could be obtained in
- However there was no redistributive taxation or attacks on landed wealth to diminish their cheap massed produced editions
income, their power within the local zemstvo remained and they were regularly appointed to -The relaxation of censorship controls in 1905 produced a silver age of Russian culture dominated by
provincial governorships, and each province had its own noble assembly, which met once a year. poets. Experiments in modernism e.g Igor Stravinsky’s music, serge diaghilev’s ballets, which offered new
- Indeed in May 1906 , the first meeting of the united nobility took place, which showed nobles and shocking challenges to convention.
determined to retain their property rights and traditional interests in the face of change. The -By 1914 , Russian culture had broadened and diversified, nevertheless some aspects of Russian culture
nobility were largely successful as they retained much of their previous wealth and status and behaviour seemed to exhibit little change.
Middle Class - 1913 was the terecentary year of the Romanov dynasty and Nicholas and Alexandra revelled in
traditional jubilee rituals organised in celebration. Touring his Empire to jubilant and obsequious crowds,
Nicholas returned convinced that ‘my people love me’.
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