Class Structure in Imperial Russia - Essay Example

Submitted: The structure of the Russian Society in 1861 Individuals in the Russian Empire were mostly segregated into what became to be known as the social estates or sosloviyes. In particular, subjects of this Empire during this time were grouped into the following; the clergy, nobility, merchants, peasants and Cossacks. The native people from the region of Caucasus, which was considered to be a non-ethnic Russian territory were registered as the inoroditsy which literally translated to "persons from the other region". According to Resnick and Richard (20) this group of people was non-Slavic hence the connotation as persons from a foreign region. Caucasus was composed of areas such as Bashkirstan, Tartarstan, Central Asia as well as Siberia. A considerable proportion of the population within the Empire belonged to the peasant group which accounted for about 81.6 percent of the total population within the Empire. The other category was composed as follows; Clergy which accounted for 0.9 percent, nobility, accounted for about 1.3 percent, merchants and burghers all of whom accounted for approximately 9.3 percent of the total population within the Empire. The military on the other hand accounted for about 6.1 percent. According to Resnick and Richard (76) it is estimated that more than 88 million individuals were peasants during this time. Of this group, approximately 10,447,149 were males all of whom were formally serfs while the remaining group was the state peasants. Statistics further indicate that this group was about 9,941,891 males and the type of peasants domain accounted for about 842,740 according to the Empire statistics of the year 1858. One of the major changes that the Russian society underwent in the year 1861 was the famous emancipation of the serfs. It is imperative to note that the problem of serfdom was spread throughout the entire Empire. By mid 19th century, it had become apparent for the rulers within this Empire that this problem could not be ignored in the event that Russia wanted to be modernized and reformed as argued by Resnick and Richard (153). In this regard, the issue of the serfs being freed took center stage throughout the entire Empire. Hence, against this backdrop, serfdom was abolished by Tsar Alexander II during this year. Evidence from literature indicates that Czar Alexander actually managed to emancipate about 44 million peasants from the state oppression. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that the said Czar knew very well that the only way for Russia to the rest of the world was indeed ready for modernization and was through the abolishment of such a system of oppression. Though the move was noble, it caused several problems within the Empire. This was further aggravated by the fact that majority of the freed peasants were uneducated. One of these problems was that the land provided to this group was actually quite small in comparison to what they had been allocated as plots when they were serfs to the Empire. In a nutshell, each plot averaged about 8 acres which was a far cry of what was being offered to them after their indictment. Other than ensuring that the serfs were emancipated in mainland Russia, Czar Alexander was also concerned with this problem in Georgia. The process of liberating the serf in Georgia called for delicate negotiations to ensure that he did not loose the much earned nobility loyalty and whose leadership power greatly depended on the readily available labor from the serfs . The other challenge which the Czar was faced with was finding a workable solution that would be agreeable to the land-owners within the Empire. However, from the evidence provided above, it is justifiable to state that he failed in this issue of land ownership. Although he eventually succeeded in liberating serfs in Georgia as well, his inability to solve the land problem brought more harm than good. Most notably, he brought them under the colonization of their landlords since most of them still had to work for them due to poverty and lack of education. This state of events was perpetuated by the much held theory among peasants that land belonged to those who worked on it and therefore they held the opinion that it belonged to their landlords. Hence, it is justified to say that emancipation of these peasants created another type of social class which was defined based on land ownership. The second structural change in Russia during the aforementioned period was in terms of industrialization. After the Germany unification which occurred during the period from 1861 to 1891, Russia was convinced that perhaps it was time for its industrialization. This desire was given the much needed impetus by Germany's emergence as a strong nation both politically and military wise. According to Resnick and Richard (179), Russia's journey towards industrialization was initiated by Sergei Witte, who had served the Empire in the capacity as the minister for finance from 1892 to 1903. Convinced that Russia had the potential to become industrialized just like the other European nations at the time, Witte came up with a draft of proposals that which would help the nation to become as such. Indeed, his single-handed efforts culminated into Russia posting an economic growth rate of about 3.5 percent between 1892 and 1910. This rate of economic growth would have propelled it to become one of the economic powerhouses within the larger Europe (Resnick and Richard, 286). Although this development was towards the right direction, the rapid industrialization at this time presented the Empire with unprecedented social and economic challenges. In particular, this industrialization resulted into overcrowding especially in the urban centers. At the same time, most of these urban workers were exposed to poor conditions. For example, the population of the Capital, St. Petersburg had increased to 1,905,600 from 1,033,600. Moscow on the other hand was experiencing similar population increase. As a result, this created a new social class known as the proletariat which was bought about by the said overcrowding in the cities. At the same time, this population increase presented this social class with other challenges such as lack of access to basic amenities such as water, health care and accommodation. This was further aggravated by the poor working conditions at the workplaces which were mainly characterized by long working hours and low wage pay (Resnick and Richard, 63) To add to that, rapid industrialization caused significant migrations of the peasants to these urban places despite of the aforementioned challenges. To them, this development offered an opportunity for a better life. At the same time, individuals moved from these urban places to the rural zones; an aspect which led to the introduction of urban culture in such regions. Consequently, this led to significant changes to the peasant culture and way of life. The cultural and economic transformation among the rural peasant was mainly catapulted by the moved of material goods from the cities and flow of information through word of mouth or press. As it was expected, this led to enlightenment of peasants as well as the entire population and thereby fueling discontent among persons throughout Russia. In order to express their discontent, the people opted to use strikes as one of the feasible ways of addressing their plight. By this time, there existed only two types of classes; those who had the economic resources and those who lacked such resources. Among the peasants, the unifying factor was the need to improve their economic standards and be able to own land. Russia's decision to get involved in the World War I only served to increase the discontent and thereby making the need for economic emancipation among the peasants to be a matter of an emergency. The government on the other hand resorted to be autocratic in order to maintain the status quo. By this time, peasant group and the other lower classes were still grappling with social oppression since they had to pay redemptions to the government. Against this backdrop, it was inevitable for Russia to acknowledge the fact that the people were yearning for radical changes as was evidenced by increased incidences of public disorder and strikes in different parts of the country. Consequently, this set the stage for the Russian Revolution due to increased opposition to the Czar Alexander's reform-led system of rule. Work Cited Resnick, Stephen and Richard Wolff. Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR. London: Routledge, 2002. Read More