Alexander III
History AS - Unit 1
Should Russia Industrialise?
What They Need
- government backing + stability
- entrepreneurs
- space
- infrastructure
- tech
- workers
- natural resources/raw materials
- capital: efficient agriculture, money + materials
YES
- railway expansion - easier transport/communication
- more modern banking system + emancipating serfs - social stability
- general incentive + motivation
- enormous population - big workforce (88.6%)
- low-land plain -> place to build natural resources -> rivers, seas etc.
- guaranteed annual dividend etc.
- learn lessons from other countries
- technological development -> ability to reconstruct weaponry
- Crimean war defeat - awareness
- import less/export more - strong economy
- lots of production/capital
- more efficient production + communication
- great power -> virtuous cycle of growth
- attracts foreign investment
- less dependence on foreign goods/trade -> keep themselves up
NO
- limited land for farming
- Russia is VERY big -> scattered resources (difficult to claim)
- lack of entrepreneurial middle-class -> not enough for great development
- lots of bureaucracy/opposition
- poor communication across country
- people are not investing money + huge debt
- restriction of market; surplus
- 'Landless Proletariat' -> vulnerable - reliant on employer
- cities can expand -> revolutionary
- everyone working on industry; less on farming (+ military)
- alienating slavs etc.
- Europe might refuse to buy from Russia
Progress of Industrialisation
Agricultural
- increased indirect taxes -> increased grain exports (1881 - 1891: < 18% SO bulk of export trade was in grain
Industrial
- railway building programme: 632km (1881-85) --> 1292km (1891-95)
- reduced imports (increased tariffs) - Tariff Act (1891) - iron/cotton etc. protected from competition
- foreign exports/workers advised on planning + techniques
- huge factories -> expanding industrial cities - railways helped iron + coal industries; 1887: 30, 888 factories + 1.3 million factory workers + 1908: 39, 856 factories + 2.6 million factory workers
- Putilov works -> smaller quantity, larger profit
- Russia's annual growth -> 8% per year
- Gold Standard - 1897
Failures of Industrialisation
Agricultural
- peasants -> heavy indirect taxes - forced to give grain to sell abroad
- 1891: bad harvest - famine (1.5/2 million died)
- neglect of agricultural modernisation - peasants could not be forced into producing more
- protectionism - prices too high
- inadequate land provision for serfs
- rural population 'explosion' - doubled
Industrial
- Trans-Siberian Railway -> drain on finances - Russia's dependence on foreign loans (had to be paid back with interest)
- neglect of domestic/lighter industry
Social Impact on Industrialisation
Middle Class
- small traders/workshops owners -> new opportunities - became greater (e.g. factory owners etc.)
- bankers, doctors, lawyers etc. in higher demand
- lived within zemstva councils (only 1/2 million middle-class)
- v. high demand for work/accommodation - 3/4 ex-peasants worked in factories etc.
- livestock roamed streets -> 'peasant markets'
- workers ate/washed together - excreted outside -> a bed was a luxury (others slept outside/by their machine)
- many moved to find work in cities - wages failed t keep up with pace of inflation
- workers suffered brutish treatment during factory life
- tsarist government - limited concern (often illegal strike activity (1904-5) - violent repression)
- bad mistake for government to allow large + unhappy working class in cities - provoked overthrow (1917)
Witte's Social Policies
- wanted to relieve distress + consequent process during harsh period of industrialisation
1886 - laws to set up factory boards - help in industrial disputes
1897 - law that reduced hours of work to 11.5 hours
- Gold Standard - stabilise/encourage external trade + devalued the rouble by 1/3 -> fully convertible - increased inflow of foreign capital from 40 million (1893-6) -> 144 million (1897-1900)
BUT much debt: 1.25 billion (1861) -> 8 billion (1914) (20% of annual budget = 10x Ministry of Education)
Problems of the Rural Economy
- peasants' income remained low during good harvest (bread prices kept down)
- faced starvation during bad years (1891-91 + 1898 + 1901)
- grain yields were poor compared to west; inefficient farming methods
- averaging holding fell from 35 acres (1877) to 28 acres (1905)
- soil deprived of manure - output from American farms was 1.5 times that of Russia + British farmland was 4 times as great
- old methods used; solcha (wooden plough) + medieval rotation systems
- large gap between richest + poorest sections - kulaks took advantage of less favoured + sometimes bought out impoverished neighbours (loans from peasant banks)
- kulaks became a small 'capitalist peasant' class - employed labour + acted as 'pawnbrokers'; bought peasant grain in autumn (providing them with money to help them over winter BUT selling it back at inflated prices in spring