what was life like before Russian revolution
Answers
About 90% of the population were peasants, poor and neglected. They were freed from serfdom (which under many masters was basically slavery) only a few decades before, and this reform was far from perfect, leaving many peasants with too little land to live off. The vast majority of the peasants was illiterate, couldn’t even write their own names. They couldn’t afford any professional medical care, and even if they could - there were no doctors in villages, you’d have to travel for up to several days to the nearest city to see one. The peasants lived in simple wooden houses covered with straw, worked from dawn to dusk in the field every day in spring and summer, and in winter their days were busy as well - making clothes, furniture, repairing tools and vehicles, taking care of the cattle. Bad harversts could easily lead to famine because only a few peasants could afford to squirrel some of the harvest away as insurance for bad years, most Russian peasants only had enough to feed their family and cattle throughout the next year and maybe a little extra that they sold to buy tools and other things they couldn’t make themselves. Peasant boys were regularly drafted to serve in the Russian army (the time of service was 7 years at the end of 19th century, but was shortened to 3 years in 1906) where they were treated little better than animals. Their only entertainments were church services, beautiful nature surrounding their villages and in autumn when the harvest was over and they had some time to themselves - weddings, dancing, singing and listening to simple self-played music.
A few percent of the population were artisans. They led more comfortable lives in cities compared to peasants. Artisans usually lived in apartments above or behind their shops, some managed to achieve a level of prosperity that allowed them to buy nice clothes, take family photographs, go to theaters and concerts, travel to their relatives in nearby cities and villages, get medical care from professional doctors. Many professional artisans could read and would borrow books in public libraries. Their children went to recently opened free state schools and could even attend universities if the family could afford to support their child for that time. But their sons were also subject to army drafting, and if their business failed they had little choice but to work for other luckier artisans or in factories.
There were also workers. But industry in Russia at the time was just beginning to develop, so this social class was ridiculously small compared to other European countries. Workers in Russia at the time usually came from poor peasant families, they came to cities in hope to earn their living there. Most were illiterate or had only the most basic reading and writing skills. Their working conditions were terrible and inevitably took a toll on their health, they could be fired without any reason and were paid very poorly. And as opposed to the workers in other European countries and in USA Russian workers for the most part weren’t organized in unions which made it impossible to fight for better working conditions. They lived in small rented rooms and apartments, a whole family usually had only one room at their disposal. But workers could send their children to school, go for walks in city parks, read books from public libraries if they were literate, buy clothes and gamble if they had some money to spare. They could get some basic medical care. Some workers managed to rise through tha ranks and get white-collar positions that paid much better and then their lives got much better - better housing, better food, more entertainment, better clothing, better medical care.
Merchants were the fledging Russian middle class. Some only bought and sold, some owned factories and sold the goods manufactured there. Many merchant families began as artisans or peddlers who became wealthy over the course of several generations and could even rival nobility in their lavish lifestyle. They children weren’t drafted to serve in the army and had access to all levels of education and could pursue different careers if their parents didn’t insist on them working in the family business. However merchants didn’t have access to court which drove many of them to marrying off their daughters to impoverished nobles or bribing courtiers to get themselves some sort of a title of nobility to finally get access to high society.
During the period of time before the Russian Revolution, life for the working class people and the peasants was very difficult. They worked for little pay, often went without food, and were exposed to dangerous working conditions.
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