Report to the Tsar

Report to the Tsar

Your Eminence,

I have several issues of concern about the state of the country that I

would wish to bring to your attention. These problems are under three

main focuses: Health of society, the economy and the political theme.

In the society, there are problems for the peasants. Most villages are

still run by the local Mir and the Abolition of Serfdom in 1861, as

well as the large taxes imposed in the 1890’s has saddled most

peasants with large debts to pay off which they cannot do. Also, apart

from the Abolition of Serfdom, the peasants have had no other reform

in the standard of everyday life. Although this is not a major concern

for us at the moment, it should be looked into. The peasants’ methods

of agriculture are backdated as most are still using wooden implements

and primitive techniques and this is making their work grossly

inefficient. The population of the peasants has also doubled recently,

which led to the famine of 1891/2. After this, the peasants seemed to

be wondering if the government is competent enough. This is worrying

as the peasants make up 80% of our population, so if they were to

revolt as one…in general though, the peasants seem reluctant to change

the system, so although they need to be watched, I don’t think they

are a serious threat at the moment.

In my opinion, the working class of Russia presents the biggest

potential for trouble. They seem to always be thinking of new ideas,

and this could be dangerous. Another thing is that there have been

around 10,000 strikes a year from around 1896 onwards, especially in

St Petersburg, our “flagship” city. This is an embarrassment and

should be dealt with thoroughly. These strikes have been united and

very well co-ordinated, and this is the main problem. At the moment

they are only striking over pay, which is punitive. If however, they

were to start striking about political views and values, I dread to

think what would happen. A thing of note is that Marxists, a