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Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism

Russia’s economy and society

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1 section A

Overview

Russia in 1894, Witte's industrial drive and the Trans-Siberian Railway, the fastest-growing industries, factory and housing conditions in the cities, the mir and backward peasant farming, redemption payments, the famine of 1891, and why industrial growth made tsarism more vulnerable.

What you need to know

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Numbers

In what year did Nicholas II come to the throne, and what sort of country did he inherit?

Numbers

Which minister drove the surge of industrial growth in the 1890s, and how did he pay for it?

Key term

What were conditions like inside the new Russian factories?

Questions from this subtopic

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  1. 1

    In what year did Nicholas II come to the throne, and what sort of country did he inherit?

    Model answer

    1894; an empire of about 125 million people stretching across Europe and Asia, the great majority of them poor peasants living in villages.

  2. 2

    Which minister drove the surge of industrial growth in the 1890s, and how did he pay for it?

    Model answer

    Sergei Witte, who raised heavy taxes at home, borrowed on a large scale from French and other foreign investors, and put the rouble on the gold standard in 1897.

  3. 3

    What was the Trans-Siberian Railway meant to do for the Russian economy?

    Model answer

    Open up the coal, iron and timber of Siberia and link Moscow with the Pacific coast, although it was still single track and unfinished when war broke out with Japan in 1904.

  4. 4

    Which industries grew fastest during the great spurt of the 1890s?

    Model answer

    Coal, iron, steel and oil; output of coal and pig iron roughly doubled and the Baku oilfields made Russia one of the largest oil producers in the world.

  5. 5

    What were conditions like inside the new Russian factories?

    Model answer

    Shifts of eleven hours or more for low wages, with unguarded machinery, fines for small mistakes and no legal trade unions to complain through.

  6. 6

    Where did factory workers in the growing cities live?

    Model answer

    In overcrowded barracks and tenement rooms shared by several families, sometimes sleeping in shifts in the same bed, with filthy water and almost no sanitation.

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