The input of Witte had a major effect on the growth of the Russian economy, with significant production increases in the heavy industries. Coal production rose from 3.2 million tons in 1880, to 16.1 million tons in 1900. There was also the striking development of oil in the Caucasus, which helped increase oil production from 0.5 million tons per year in 1880, to 10.2 million tons in 1900.
The programme of rapid industrialisation that Russia had undertaken during the 1890s greatly increased employment opportunities in the urban areas because the new industries required large amounts of workers. During the late nineteenth century an increasing number of peasants decided to migrate from the countryside to the cities, in order to find work in the factories. Many of these peasants were young and literate males, who wanted to escape the backwardness of their peasant lifestyle, which was dominated by patriarchal order and dull agricultural routines. Virtually any employment in the cities seemed exciting and desirable compared to the hardships of peasant life.
The peasants of a particular village or region would set up an association in order to secure factory jobs and living quarters for their fellow countrymen who intended to migrate to the cities. As a result of this system whole factories and areas in both Moscow and St Petersburg were often ‘colonized’ by the peasants of a particular locality.
The factories suffered much disruption during the summer time as a large number of the industrial workforce returned to their villages to help with the harvest. However towards the turn of the century, this seasonal migration began to decrease as the peasants became more settled within the cities.
The massive influx of peasant migrants into the cities had not been organised or supervised and the resources for accommodating them were wholly inadequate. As a result of this there was severe overcrowding and a great strain on services such as water supply and sanitation. The domestic water supply was a breeding ground for diseases like typhus and cholera, and St Petersburg had the highest death rate out of all the cities in Europe at the time. In the workers’ districts, less than one in three apartments had a toilet or running water. Excrement would be left piled high in back yards until wooden carts came and collected it at night. There was such a shortage of accommodation for the workers that up to six people could be crammed into one room of an apartment. Others, were less fortunate, and were forced to live in the flophouse or eat and sleep by their machines.
The migrants found it difficult to adjust to the regulation of factory work, with its long hours and harsh discipline, which was a contrast to the slow paced rural way of life. They resented the arbitrary fines and petty injustices, as well as being referred to in the familiar form, which was associated with serfdom.
There was a growing sense of class awareness amongst many of the workers, who began to view themselves as working class rather than peasantry. Workers were becoming more aware of their poor living and working conditions and their exploitation at the hands of their employers. In the cities, there was neither the Russian Orthodox Church nor the village elders to mould the peasant migrants’ view of the world. The industrial way of life, left particularly the younger and more literate workers open to many new influences including the emerging trade unions and revolutionary groups.
The growing trade union movement worried certain leftwing individuals like Plekhanov, who believed that ‘a concentration on trade union activity would simply make the proletariat a subordinate element in the development of Russian capitalism’. The tsarist authorities also saw in the trade unions a possible means of quieting any revolutionary instincts amongst the Russian proletariat. Sergei Zubatov, who was chief of police at the time, devised a plan for setting up trade unions under police supervision, and as concessions were made by the employers, he hoped that this would strengthen a sense of loyalty to the Tsar who would be shown to be on the side of the workers. This policy of ‘police socialism’ was at first quite successful in gaining a degree of control and influence over the workers. However the conservatives of the Tsar’s court accused Zubatov of ‘aiding the cause of radicalism’ and in 1903 they secured his dismissal.
This period saw the emergence of several political groups that all challenged the nature of autocracy and called for reform but there was a considerable range of opinion between them. The Liberals were a group that stood for constitutional reform and political liberty. The Liberals consisted of mostly middleclass intellectuals, professionals, members of the intelligentsia and zemstva officials like Prince Lvov. There was a tradition in Russian society of a feeling of compassion for the working class and peasantry from the intelligentsia, who recognised the great contrast between the rich and the poor and believed that political reform would change this. The more conservative members of the Liberals merely wanted an extension of the consultative principle through some kind of zemstvo organisation on a national scale. Other groups of intellectuals and university teachers, who were not directly connected with the zemstvo movement, were more concerned with social reforms such as universal primary education and an end to a separate legal status of the peasantry.
The more radical wing of the Liberals demanded a fully fledged constitutional programme of a western type. They wanted a constitutional monarchy with a parliament elected by universal suffrage, as well as self determination for the nationalities of the Russian Empire.
The Liberals were essentially a middle class organisation but claimed to ‘defend the interests of the labouring masses’. However because they only had the support of a minority of Russian society, they did not pose a significant threat to the regime in 1905.
The two other groups, the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats, were ‘purely conspiratorial and Socialist in aim’. The Socialist Revolutionaries were a more organised party that grew out of a revival of the Populist movement, when a number of veteran members of the People’s Will returned in the 1890s from exile in Siberia. The Socialist Revolutionaries were a party that aimed to represent the peasants. They demanded an end to redemption payments and the distribution of land between the peasants. True to their Populist origins, they had no wish to see a vast industrial proletariat develop along western lines, and they instead looked for an ‘immediate transition to a decentralised mass of workers’ co operatives’. As a result of these policies the Socialist Revolutionaries attracted much support from the peasantry, who were enticed by the prospect of gaining land. The peasantry made up nearly 90% of the Russian population, meaning that the SRs had a large support base from which it could launch a possible attack on the government. Due to this the Socialist Revolutionaries could well have posed as a significant threat to the Tsarist system in 1905 if their leadership had been stronger and had some support base in the capital.
The Social Democratic Labour Party was founded in 1898 and was based on the principles of Marxism. They believed in changing the current system through a workers revolution. However they became divided over a number of issues, and in 1903 separated into two separate groups – the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Lenin who emerged as leader of the Bolsheviks, proposed that the party membership should be ‘limited only to dedicated revolutionaries, people who would eat, drink and sleep the revolution.’ Where as Martov of the Mensheviks, argued that ‘membership should be open to anyone who accepted the party programme and was willing to follow the instructions of the party leaders.’ The Mensheviks believed that Russia was not yet ready for a revolution because the economic conditions were not right and the proletariat was still too small. Where as the Bolsheviks believed that a dedicated party could lead a small proletariat into power. There was also the issue of decision making in the party. The Mensheviks wanted decisions to be made by members after open debate and free votes. However the Bolsheviks believed in ‘democratic centralism’ where the party leaders made the decisions. Both the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks competed for support from the Russian working class. However the working class only made up a tiny fraction of the Russian population and therefore the Social Democrats were not looked upon as a serious threat to the Tsarist regime in 1905.
The Tsarist government’s economic policies during the 1890s caused increased industrialisation and urbanisation, which led to severe social changes in Russian society, with the development of an urban working class. The poor living standards of this new societal group gave rise to social unrest, which in turn led to the emergence of new political parties like the Liberals, Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats. The SDs were of little threat to Tsarism in 1905 because their working class support base was only a minority in Russia. The Liberals consisted mainly of intellectuals who although called for reform were not really prepared to fight a revolution. Possibly a more dangerous threat came from the SRs who had the support of the peasant masses and because of their sheer numbers could bring about severe disruption in Russia.
However whilst the Tsar still maintained the support of the armed forces it would be unlikely that he would be overthrown in 1905.
