Describe the main grievances of the Russian people at the beginning of the 20th century

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Describe the main grievances of the Russian people at the beginning of the 20th century

In the early 19th century Russia was still a typical pre-modern society. A century later it had been transformed. The main changes that effected the Russian community took place in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.

Although the country was prospering in terms of economy, 80 per cent of the population were classified as peasant who lived in small farming villages that were using primitive farming methods. At the beginning of the 20th century, half the Russian population was illerate. This may have been due to the fact that until the 1860’s the peasants had not been set free, although the Emancipation Act was attempting to correct this, not much had changed.

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Industrial growth after the abolition of serfdom did not really help progress the economy. One school of thought expected that the abolition of serfdom would create a spontaneous upsurge in industrialisation. The Emancipation act did nothing to stimulate a sudden upsurge in industrialisation, but it did not entirely block economic progress either. Though the size of peasant allotments did remain roughly equal, the amounts they actually farmed did not, because poorer households, with insufficient labour or livestock to farm their own allotments, rented them to wealthier peasants who could farm extra land.

Industrial production did not grow ...

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