Pre-Revolutionary Russia
Russia was a highly backward agricultural country prior to the revolution of 1917. Most of the agricultural land was owned by the royal family, the nobility and the clergy. Most peasants had to manage to survive on less than three acres of land using primitive tools and methods of cultivation. To compound their problems they were required to pay huge sums in rent and tributes to their land owners every year. These hardships created great discontent. Moreover, Russian industry was behind the times and highly dependent on foreign investment capital. Industrial workers had to endure hard conditions, received extremely low wages, and worked 12 to 14 hours a day. During this period it was considered a crime to form trade unions. The government did nothing to improve these conditions and the majority of the Russian people suffered from poverty and disease ("Causes of the Russia Revolution").
The structure of the Russian government itself, along with an increased feeling of separation among the general population and the tsar contributed to the eventual revolution of 1917. Russian society was composed of subjects, not citizens....
These subjects were denied most civil rights of any kind leading to friction between the ruling class and the working classes. Additionally extreme censorship in all forms existed, tsar, Nicholas II, maintained complete control over the formation of any sort of group, and restricted any political discourse. Nicholas II separated the classes further by dismissing the zemstvos.
In the 1850s when Alexander II began implementing a series of modernization practices that would become known as the Great Reforms. Most notable of these would be the emancipation of the serf class in 1861. The emancipation the serfs meant they would become free peasants who were provided with a share in the land. These reforms maintained the peasant village as a self-contained entity, with its own decision-making body, comprised of an elected village elder and other officials, who were tasked with communicating with both the government and the world outside of the village. This body would provide a means of dispute settlement, taxation, and land distribution amongst the families of the village. This continuation of traditional dealings helped to provide a sense of…
