2.9 Social Developments to 1914

Question 1

Number of factory workers in Russia, 1900 + 1913

Answer 1

1900: 2 million factory workers
1913: 6 million factory workers

Question 2

Between 1867 and 1917, what happened to the Empire’s urban population?

Answer 2

Quadrupled, from 7 to 28 million

Question 3

By 1914, what fraction of people living in St Petersburg were peasants by birth? How does this compare to 50 years earlier?

Answer 3

3 out of every 4 people - had been 1in 3 50 years earlier

Question 4

By 1914, how much of St Petersburg’s population had arrived in the last 20 years?

Answer 4

half the city’s population

Question 5

At the turn of the century in St Petersburg, what percentage of houses had no running water or sewage system?

Answer 5

About 40% of houses

Question 6

In 1908-09, how many inhabitants of St Petersburg died of cholera?

Answer 6

30,000

Question 7

When was the industrial depression? (where urban conditions were at their worst)

Answer 7

1900-08

Question 8

What was the average industrial wage increase from 1908 to 1914? What was the inflation rate at the same time?

Answer 8

245 roubles a month –> 264 roubles a month
while inflation was running at 40%

Question 9

What piece of workers’ legislation was passed in 1885?

Answer 9

Prohibited night-time employment of women and children

Question 10

What piece of workers’ legislation was passed in 1897?

Answer 10

Hours of work reduced to 11 and a half

Question 11

What piece of workers’ legislation was passed in 1912?

Answer 11

Sickness and accident insurance for workers

Question 12

What were normal factory working hours reduced to, by 1914? Why in reality did this not have much of an effect?

Answer 12

10 hours.
However, this did not apply to workshops, which were far more common

Question 12

What was the percentage rise in primary school provision between 1905 and 1914?

Answer 12

85%

Question 13

How many children were in full time education by 1914?

Answer 13

only 55%

Question 14

Why was political activism in towns comparatively rare before 1905?

Answer 14

partly because strike activity illegal + secret police efficient
BUT ALSO
because of the relatively small numbers of workers + their desperation to get and retain jobs

Question 15

From what year did strike activity escalate again? How many stoppages were there in 1914?

Answer 15

from 1912, strike activity escalated again
By 1914, there were 3574 stoppages

Question 16

When did workers at the Lena goldfields go on strike? What happened?

Answer 16

1912, went on strike for better wages and conditions - troops sent in + 270 workers killed, 250 injured

Question 17

On what percentage of the land did strip farming persist?

Answer 17

90% of the land

Question 18

Why did the gap between the richest and poorest sections of the peasantry become wider?

Answer 18

the wealthier kulaks took advantage of the less well off + sometimes even bought out their impoverished neighbour with the help of the peasant banks

Question 19

How many moved to Siberia from 1896? Why?

Answer 19

only 3.5 million, from a peasant population of nearly 97 million, encouraged by gov schemes to sponsor emigration from over-populated rural south + west to new agricultural settlements opened up by Trans-Siberian Railway

Question 20

What was the size of the peasant population by 1914?

Answer 20

nearly 97 million

Question 21

Where was there more prosperous commercial farming (and therefore better living standards)

Answer 21

in the peripheral regions of the empire - parts of Baltic, western Ukraine, northern Caucasus (to the south), western Siberia

Question 22

Where was the continuation of nobles’ landowning, and backward farming methods mainly concentrated?

Answer 22

In the Russian heartland - Figes noted that these were to become the areas that supported Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the more prosperous areas centres of counter-revolution

Question 23

What was Russia’s European ranking in terms of mortality rates

Answer 23

Mortality rates in Russia were higher than those in any other European country

Question 24

In 1914, what was the rate of illiteracy?

Answer 24

still around 60% illiteracy

Question 25

How much of all nobles’ land had been transferred to townsmen and peasantry between 1861 and 1905?

Answer 25

Around 1/3 of all nobles’ land

Question 26

From 1896 to 1914, how did Government expenditure on primary education grow?

Answer 26

1896: 5 million roubles
1914: over 82 million roubles

Question 27

By 1911, how many children between 8 and 11 were receiving primary education? what percentage of the age group was this?

Answer 27

over 6.5 million children between 8 and 11 - 44% of the age group

Question 28

By 1914, how many newspapers were being published at least weekly?

Answer 28

1767

Question 29

Between 1860 and 1914, how did the number of university students increase?

Answer 29

grew from 5000 (in 1860) to 69,000 (in 1914, 45% of them women)

Question 30

How did secondary and higher education remain elitist?

Answer 30

although a quarter of students in secondary school in 1911 came from peasantry, this amounted to only 30,000 individuals

Question 31

When were the tercentenary celebrations? What opinion did the Tsar take away from them?

Answer 31

1913, Nicholas returned convinced that ‘my people love me’