Question

What were the social, economic and political conditions in Russia before 1905?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Peasants were divided. Some peasants were capitalists who employed workers, some peasants worked as labourers, some peasants were rich and others were poor. Large properties were owned by Orthodox Church, the Crown, and the nobility. Peasants were deeply religious, they had no respect for nobility

Explanation:

Answer 2

Answer:

The following were the social, economic, and political conditions in Russia before 1905.

Social Conditions:  

• About 85 percent of the population in the Russian empire depended on agriculture at the beginning of the twentieth century.

• Cultivators cultivated crops for their own needs and Russia was also a major exporter of grains.

• Moscow and St Petersburg were the prominent industrial centers.

• When foreign investment increased in the industries and when the Russian railway network expanded many factories were set up in the 1890s.

• Iron and steel output quadrupled, and coal production doubled.

• Craftsmen and factory workers were almost equal in number, in some areas, in 1900.

Political Conditions

• Some Russian socialists felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically made them natural socialists.

• So the main force of the revolution was the peasants and not workers; and Russia could quickly become a Socialist country when compared to other countries.
• Through the late nineteenth century, Socialists were active in the countryside.
• Socialists who respected Marx’s ideas founded the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party in 1898.
• Political parties were illegal before 1914.
• The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in 1898 by socialists who respected Marx’s ideas.

• In 1903, this party was divided into two groups - Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks, who were in majority, were led by Lenin who is regarded as the greatest thinker on socialism after Marx.

Social Condition

• Russia was going through a bad period economically.
• Periodically, the land was pooled by the Russians, and as per the needs of the individual families, the commune divided it.
• Workers were divided in Russia, which was visible through their manners and dress.
• Peasants were divided. Some peasants were capitalists who employed workers, some peasants worked as labourers, some peasants were rich and others were poor.
• Prices of essential goods rise while real wages decreased by 20% leading to the famous St. Petersburg strike.
• This strike started a series of events that are together known as the 1905 Revolution.
• During this revolution, there were strikes all over the country, universities closed down, and various professionals and workers established the Union of Unions, demanding the establishment of a constituent assembly.