After the emancipation of the Russian Peasantry, land was given to the peasants. This was between 1861 and 1866, but because the nobility had lost their land when the peasants were given land, the peasants had to pay a tax until 1905. As the years passed, the land allotted to each person decreased from 13.8 acres to 7.3 acres as the population increased. Due to this increase in population and decrease in land, a series of famines struck the rural areas. As the peasants mainly occupied the rural areas, they were perceived to be living in poor conditions by the Russian people, and as response to their conditions, peasants started taking a stand, and voicing their opinions; change was proposed in the end when peasants were given more freedom, …show more content…
After their “peasant economy [had] come to a full collapse and ruin, from which it will not recover in several years”, the peasants started getting furious (Document 5). They became frustrated as their living situation continued to decline rather than improve. Anton Chekhov, a physician, and short story writer, depicted in his short story “Peasants” the life of peasants. He wrote that “they lived in discord, quarreling constantly [...] Who keeps a tavern and makes people drunkards? A peasant.” (Document 7). Peasants were seen by many as the root of the problem and trouble makers. They were blamed for many of the problems in the society. After Nicholas II became Tsar and Russia started to industrialize, the peasants were believed to create more tension. Police Report 4894 to the Ministry of the Interior, claimed that “there has recently emerged a series of peasant disorders in the form of systematic damage to the noble’s fields and meadows” (Document 9). The Nobles were significantly favored over the peasants as the new image of them being the cause of the problems engraved the minds of the public. This was the case until Tsar Nicholas II created the Duma in …show more content…
After Tsar Nicholas II created the National Assembly called the Duma, a great political and social unrest led to the Revolution of 1905. After that, members of the Duma stood up for the peasants. Sakhno, a peasant representative to the Duma, said in his speech in 1906, “Why can a landlord own a lot of land, while all that remains to the peasant is the kingdom of heaven?” (Document 10). Sakhno was protesting the inhibition of the peasants to own land, and to be equal as the landowners. He argued that the only reason that the peasants were arguing was because they were lacking provisions to feed themselves and their families while the landlords had more than enough. Others, such as Katerina Breshkovskaia, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, vouched for the peasants to be able to be educated. She wrote that “The peasants intensely desired education for their children, for they realized that this was the only way in which they could escape slavery they themselves had endured.” (Document 6). While she supported that they should deserve an education, Serge Witte, a Minister of Finance, wrote in a private letter to Tsar Nicholas II, that “It is not enough to free the peasant from the serf owner” claiming that it was “still necessary to free him from the slavery of despotism, to give him a legal system [...] and to educate him.” (Document 8). He
Russia's industries were beginning to develop and the number of people living in towns was increasing. These people were the urban working class of Russia and they were not as eager to accept the poor wages and conditions as the peasants were.
Around the early 1920’s, Stalin took power and became leader of Russia. As a result Russians either became fond of Stalin’s policies or absolutely despised them. Stalin’s five-year plans lured many into focusing on the thriving economy rather than the fact that the five year plan hurt the military. The experience of many lives lost, forced labor camps, little supply of food, influenced the Russians negative opinion about Stalin. Having different classes in society, many Russians had different points of views. For the Peasants, times were rough mainly because of the famine, so they were not in favor of Stalin and his policies; where as the upper classes had a more optimistic view of everything that was occurring. Stalin’s policies affected the Russian people and the Soviet Union positively and also had a negative affect causing famine for the Russian people.
The peasant’ revolt in the German states during 1524-1526 consisted of peasants, unwealthy soldiers, and craftsmen. These rebels authored Articles and met in Memmingen, Swabia, during 1525, which was known as the Peasant Parliament. Many rebels and others were killed in several battles that ultimately led to the revolts being terminated by authorities. The causes of the peasants’ revolt included lack of compensation for services, feelings of spiritual inequality, lords refusing peasant freedom without reimbursement, and the peasants’ manipulation of Lutheran principles; while the responses to the revolt incorporated negativity, violence, and authority intervention.
In the years leading up to World War I, social unrest among the Russian people was spreading rapidly. There was a huge social gulf between the peasants who were former serfs and the landowners. The peasants regarded anyone who did not work as a parasite. They had always regarded as all land belonging to them. They regarded any land retained by the landowners at the time serfs were freed as stolen and only force could prevent them from taking it back. By the time Russia entered the war, one peasant rebellion had already been suppressed and several socialist revolutionary movements were developing.
This change happened with the Russo-Japanese War. After Russia faced its loss from the war, many urban workers and peasants revolted. The government was forced to create a national parliament called the Duma. This paved the way for more peasant reforms and an increase in production.
Human beings can only be oppressed and mistreated for so long before they rebel against their tormentors to show that they will not be victimized any longer. Everyone has their breaking point, that time when they are just pushed too hard, and eventually the peasants reached that point. They decide that they had been abused for long enough and that it is time to put a stop to it, so they do. This revolt had been a
The need to abolish serfdom was a persistent and, according to Mosse writing in 1958, biggest problem in Russian society since the reign of Peter the Great. All the problems of Russian Empire stemmed from serfdom and would automatically be solved with its removal .
In order to discuss and understand peasant revolts, the peasant’s lives and their dwellings must first be understood to show how life was from their perspective. As mentioned earlier, the daily lives of these peasants were filled with physical labour on the farm. Life on the farm meant that life revolved around the seasons. A bad summer crop meant that there would be food shortages in the winter. Houses were very simple, with minimal amounts of furniture. The houses themselves were usually made out of stone, and had straw roofs. Mattresses for beds was made from straw, if at all, as some houses were recorded having beds with no mattresses. It has also been noted that out of all furniture found in a sixteenth and seventeenth century French farmer dwelling, chairs were seldom found .
The Extent to Which Sources Agree that Russian Government Policy on Agriculture Constantly Fails and Peasants Resisted it Under the Tsarist
A strict class system imposed upon the people marked Russian society during the 18th century. The upper nobility represented only about one percent of the total population. The remaining population, approximately ninety percent of Russian society were considered to be peasants. In this peasant class, fifty-five percent of them were classified as serfs. The growing practice of serfdom bound individuals to the land due to the debt owed to the landowner from taxes. Strict adherence to these societal roles led to restrictions on an individual's freedom to make choices and decisions. Alexander Pushkin in The Captain's Daughter created a story that illuminated limitations and conflicts that stemmed from the class system in 18th century Russia.
...e situation, to portray many different ways in which serf liberation affected the peasant class. Many contemporary writers criticized emancipation adducing it did not bring any change in peasant’s lives. For example, Nikolai Nekrasov’s ‘Who Lives Well In Russia?’ may be considered a critic of the emancipation. This book is about seven peasants who met after the emancipation and ask each other if they are living well. The answers are negative and the villages were they come from have names that reflect their feelings: “Patched”, “Holey”, “Barefoot”, “Shivering”, “Burned”, “Hungry” and “Harvestless”.
The autocratic monarchy of Russia was unfair and unrepresentative of the Russian people, as the majority did not have the right to vote, let alone its peasant class. accounting for almost eighty five percent of the total population. This class lived in poverty, and were answerable to their landlords. and the Mirs, who would often use brutal measures to stabilise them. Nicholas II introduced the October Manifesto, which labelled Russia as a constitution, and the Tsar no longer had absolute power.
Furthermore, the farming methods were still old - fashioned and life barely rose above the starvation level. The peasants were dissatisfied. with the situation, leading to social difficulties within Russia. Working conditions for both peasants and the working class have barely improved, resulting in an urge for change among many Russians. Their most important desire was the longing for a new leader to replace the Tsar.
In the years leading up to the revolution, Russia had been involved in a series of wars. The Crimean war, The Russo-Turkish war, The Russo-Japanese war and the First World War. Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite. Rents and taxes were often unaffordable, while the gulf between workers and the ruling elite grew ever wider.
Conditions gradually improved for the peasants, for example in 1864 judicial reforms were made in order to make the system fairer and end class privileges, and in 1882 the Peasant’s land bank was set up enabling enterprising farmers to acquire more land. Reforms were also made under the rule of Nicholas II who bettered conditions for workers by introducing a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and improvement in working conditions. Also in October 1906, the Tsar’s Chief Minister, Stolypin introduced legislation that enabled pe... ... middle of paper ... ...