Сергей Девятов – The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials (страница 4)

The peoples of Russia spoke 146 different languages and dialects, but the majority of the population, almost 80 %, was representatives of five peoples. «Great» Russians (Velikorossy) made up 44.3 % of the population (55.7 million people), «Little» Russians or Ukrainians (Malorossy) accounted for 17.8 % (22.4 million) and Byelorussians for 4.7 % (5.9 million). All in all it was 66.8 % of the population of the country. In addition, in the Russian Empire there was a large population of Poles (6.3 %, or 7.9 million) and Jews (4.2 % or 5.1 million).

Migration and colonization in some regions led to a large mix of races. Fifty percent of the population of the 50 Russian guberniyas and Siberia were Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians, in the Caucasus they were only 34 %.

Concerning other peoples living in the Russia Empire, the majority (10.8 %, 13.6 million) were those who spoke Turkic languages, the Tartars, Bashkirs, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Chuvash, Nogai, Yakuts and others.

The multinational population of Russia led to a complicated confessional composition. About 69.4 % of the population (Russians, Byelorussians, Georgians, Romanians, Finns and other northern nations) were Orthodox Christians. To the second group belonged Muslims (11.1 %) with Turko-Tartars and Caucasian mountaineers practicing this religion. To the third group belonged Catholics (9.1 %). They were Poles, Lithuanians and some of the Armenians. 4.2 % of the population practiced Judaism. To the group of small confessions belonged Lutherans, in particular Latvians, Germans, Finn, and Gregorian Armenians; Buddhists and Lamaists, Mongolo-Buryats, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and northern peoples.

The population census in 1897 estimated that there were 2.2 million Old Believers and others who did not accept church reforms of the 17th century. However, some specialists think that in fact they were more than 20 million. As they were pursued by the Police and the Court, they concealed their religion.

The result of a century’s cooperation between the state and the various confessions was a decree «On Strengthening the Basis of Religious Tolerance» adopted on April 17, 1905. It guaranteed the right to freely change from one religious community to another, and with certain conditions from Christianity to non-Christianity. Old Believers and other schismatics were given equal rights with all the other religious confessions. It was also officially was forbidden to call Buddhists and Lamaists «idolaters» and «pagans.»

(Actually, when the Provisional Government came to power in February 1917, confessional policy was re-targeted at building a secular society in a religiously neutral state. After October, 1917, an effort was made to eliminate religion not only at the level of the state and public life, but from private life as well).

The population of Russia was divided into 4 «statuses» (with different rights and liberties): nobility, clergy, urban dwellers and country inhabitants. Urban dwellers were subdivided into noble citizens, merchants, bourgeois, and craftsmen. Country inhabitants consisted of peasants, Cossacks, petit bourgeois and artisans. At the beginning of 20th century, two parallel processes were taking place. On the one hand, there was the overall unification of social classes, their coming together and strengthening as classes. On the other hand, the overall class structure was rapidly decaying.

In terms of social structure, we have to take into consideration the fact that at that time about 76.5 % of the population earned its living in agriculture, 5.7 % in trade and transport, 10 % in industry, and 7.8 % in non-industrial activity, including education, medicine, science, and state service. One of the particularities of Russian social structure was its polarization. The upper middle class and landlords were numerically insignificant, while the majority of the population was small-scale owners and semi-proletarian layers. They comprised about 60 % of the population, and if proletarians are included the number rises to almost 80 %. That could not help but aggravate social contradictions in the country.

As is well known, Russia was one of those states trying to catch up in terms of economic development, but it was quite late entering the path of modern industrial development. The basis of this development was the appearance of industrial factories that exploited the labor of serfs who worked under the quit-rent system. In search for the money to pay this tribute, the peasants either had to search for work in the city or were engaged in small-scale craft production in the villages. This is how the textile industry appeared. It was the textile industry that catalyzed organic and autonomous industrial growth of the country. By the turn of the 20th century, the expansion rate of the economy was relatively high from the point of view of global standards. Russia belonged to a group of countries with quickly developing economies like the USA, Japan and Sweden. At the turn of the century, Russia was fourth or fifth in iron ore, iron and steel smelting, mechanical production, industrial consumption of cotton and sugar production. Russia was the leading country in oil production due to the development of the Baku oil production complex. The length of the railway system was the second in the world to the USA.

The economic crisis of 1899–1903 temporarily interrupted economic growth. Many factories were closed, but several fruitful years gave a new impulse to industrial development. After the crisis, monopoly concerns began to develop as syndicates and cartels began working in close cooperation with banks.

Thus, Russia at the beginning of the 20th century can be defined a semi-industrial country – that is, agriculture dominated over industry. Colonial holdings of Western European countries were separated from the metropolis by the sea. Russia was an empire where the metropolis and under-developed colonies were united in one territory and in one state. The European territory of the country accounted for about nine tenths of industrial and agricultural production. Clearly, however, at the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was just beginning the transition to a predominately industrial society.

Russia managed to make progress because of foreign business and investment. In this regard, the Empire was not different from other countries that were rather late to enter the path of industrial development and enjoyed the support of their rich neighbors. While not deprecating foreign investments, it was still national capital that was the determining factor in the economic development of the country. One of the most significant features of Russian monopoly capitalism, however, was the leading role of the state. The state determined the amount and distribution of government acquisitions, fixed taxes and privileges and controlled banks.

Russia entered the 20th century as an autocratic monarchy. The head of state was Emperor (Tsar) Nicholas II, a member of the Romanov family – a dynasty that had occupied the throne since 1623. His power was not limited by formal norms or public institutions. The Tsar relied on the Council of Ministers (a consultative assembly of policymakers) and on the State Council (supreme legislative committee).

Administratively, Russia was divided into 78 guberniyas, 18 oblasts and the Island of Sakhalin. There were administrative units that consisted of several guberniyas. They were called general guberniyas and were established mainly on the outer periphery of the empire. The Tsar usually authorized the Minister of the Interior to appoint the governor (Head of the guberniya). Guberniyas consisted of counties, oblasts, and districts. Further division was specialized. There were volosts (districts) for autonomous peasants, lots for land captains, lots for judicial investigators and so on. By the 20th century local government (zemstvo) had already been introduced in 34 guberniyas in the European part of Russia, in all other parts everything was under control of the state. The zemstvos mainly dealt with economic issues. They consisted of guberniya and district representative councils and an executive board. Elections to zemstvos were held every three years.

Bureaucracy was one of the most important elements in a monarchical authoritarian system. Often, due to his power, an official had extensive opportunities for personal enrichment. In spite of popular conceptions about Russian bureaucracy, the number of officials was not that great. If we compare the number of inhabitants in 1897 (129 million people) to the number of the officials (146,000), we see that for every 800 citizens there was only one official. (To compare, in the 1980s there was one governmental official for every fifteen people).

The political construction of the country outlined above had a corresponding specific ideological doctrine. As far back as in the 1830s, Count Sergei Uvarov (Minister of Education) called this doctrine «official nationality theory.» It was based on a three principles: Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. The patriarchal basis of Russian conservatism and monarchism reflected Uvarov’s metaphor, and such views faced increasing difficulties fighting against rational liberal and social concepts.