Question

descibe the composition of russian empire before 1914

Answer 1

Please follow the given below!

This is what Russia looked like before 1914.

1. Russia was an autocracy. The ruler Of Russia was the Tsar and technically everything that happened in Russia was his responsibility which he shared with no one and was responsible only to God for his actions. The Tsar was entitled the Tsar and Autocrat of all The Russians, Grand Duke of Finland etc, etc.

2. The Russian army was technically the largest in Europe but chronic shortage of funds meant that the Russian government could only afford to call up a fraction of those eligible each year to serve in the army. The army was backward, short of modern equipment and officers were appointed on the grounds of family connections rather than ability. In a war in 1904-5 the Russian army was badly defeated by a Japanese army and this led to a near revolution in 1905 which was only averted by the granting of a Duma or Parliament. In any one year large sections of the army were employed keeping down the peasants who frequently revolted against their conditions.

3. The vast bulk of the Russian people were peasants and until the 1861 Emancipation they were serfs which meant that they could be bought, sold and even used as gambling payments. After this they gained their freedom but they had to pay for this in long term redemption payments to the government. They literally bought their freedom. These payments, high taxation, low prices for their grain and their very small landholdings which got smaller every year meant that there was little chance of the peasant becoming a western style farmer and supporter of the government. Also the culture of the village was against getting richer and anyone who did was suspected of being a "gangster" or "mafia" as they talk about in this century.

Hope it helped!

Answer 2

$\huge \mathsf {\underline {RUSSIAN \: EMPIRE : }}$

• The Russian empire in 1914 was ruled by Tsar Nicholas II. Besides the territory around Moscow, the Russian empire included current day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.

• It stretched to the Pacific and comprised today's Central Asian states, as well as Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The majority religion was the Russian Orthodox Christianity but the empire also included Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Buddhists.

_____________________________