Why Was Russia Considered Backward in the Early 19th Century?

Authors Avatar

Why Was Russia Considered

Backward in the Early 19th Century?

The views on Russia and how modern it was in the early part of the 19th century are varied and focus on different aspects of Russian life; politically, economically and socially.  Russia was very different to much of Europe and the rest of the world, but this does not necessarily mean it was behind the times.  

Russia was being ruled by a Tsar (Emperor).  The tsar was autocratic and held all power over the country, there were no other official people who had a say in what was done such as there was in America, Britain and much of Europe too.  Democracies were seen to be the best system to run a country; it was a lot fairer than an autocracy as the people’s views could be heard.  The people of Russia had no say in what was done and they had to abide by the laws due to strict punishments, Article One “God commands his (the tsar) supreme power to be obeyed.”  Also, those who could influence the tsar’s views were the rich land owners which made up only 11.4% of the population.  They only cared for their own interests so the remaining 88.6% suffered, for example, only the poor were made to pay taxes.  Most other parts of the world were recognising the importance of its entire people and decided as a country what to do; Russia was seen to be backward in this sense.  

The tsar also an inherited position, the country did not know what to expect when a new tsar was crowned.  The tsar could be forgiving or, and in most cases was, a despot.  Most other countries had a democratic system and elected in a body of people or party each with different policies.  Although the monarch in Britain was born into the position they also had the elected government which had more power.  In the past Britain had worked on a similar system to Tsarist Russia as the monarch had the most power, but Britain had moved on since those times.  It could be considered backward to leave all power and responsible to one person that was not even chosen to be the tsar as other countries were abandoning this system.

Join now!

The Black Sea was essential to Russia’s trading as it gave them access to Europe to trade.  It was essential for Russia to trade as they had few towns and could not produce much of the materials they required.  The Black Sea was controlled by Turkey which could hinder this trading.  This is not really a proper argument to say Russia was backward as they could not help what another country did, but it was considered backward to not have many towns and rely on other countries for so much produce.  Britain was encountering the Industrial Revolution and revolutions ...

This is a preview of the whole essay