Chapter 9 - Social development to 1914 Flashcards
Social development to 1914
How many factory workers were there in Russia by 1913?
6 million
By 1914 how many people living in St Petersburg were peasants by birth?
Fraction
3/4
What were the workers’ living conditions like?
- lived in barrack-like buildings
- overcrowed
- lacking in adequate sanitation
- workers had to eat in canteen
- workers had to wash in communas bathhouses
- high rents (often half of a worker’s wages)
In St Petersburg for example, about 40% of houses had no running water or sewage system.
30,000 inhabitants died of cholera in 1908-09.
Issues with workers’ wages after the industrial depression.
Industrial depression = 1900-08,
Wages failed to keep pace with inflation.
- wages increased from 245 roubles to 264 roubles per month in the years down to 1914
- whilst inflation was at 40%
Workers’ legislation laws.
1885 - Prohibited night-time employment of women and children
1886 - Decreed that workers had to be employed according to contracts overseen by factory boards
1892 - Employment of children under 12 forbidden and female labour banned in mines
1897 - Hours of work reduced to 11.5 hours
1903 - More efficient system of factory inspection
1912 - Sickness and accident insurance for workers
What was the % rise in primary schools provision in the year 1905-14?
85%
What % of children were in full-time education by 1914?
55%
The Lena goldfields massacre
1912
- northern Siberia
- workers worked long hours for a low pay in inhospitable climate
- 1912, a group of miners went on strike
- the Bolsheviks helped spread these activities
- when the ringleaders were arrested, several thousand miners converged on one mine to present petitions
- they may have been encourage by the authorities in order to get them together
- they were fired on
- around 500 were killed or injured
- set off a wave of sympathetic strikes through Siberia and beyond
Strip farming persisted on what % of land?
90%
Which areas tended to be better off?
Areas of former state peasants tended to be better off than those of the emancipated privately owned serfs, because they had been granted more land.
What was the % of illiteracy in Russia in 1914?
60%
What continued in rural communities?
- sense of community
- loyalty to the Church and Tsar
Social developments in the nobility
- position of the nobility has suffered as a result of Emancipation
- some thrived on favourable arrangements for land distribution, or involement in industrial enterprises
- some nobles struggled to meet debts and failed to meet money management, investment or the need to adjust living standards accordingly
- May 1906, the first meeting of the ‘united nobility’ took place, which showed nobles determined to retain their property rights and traditional interests in the face of change
- this organisation reflects the strength and determination of this class
- some adjustments, but as a class generally retained much of their previous wealth and status
Continuity in the nobility class.
- others serving in government or with strong military connections retained much of their former influence and lifestyle
- no redistributive taxation or attack on landed wealth to diminish their incomes or harm their traditional ways of life
- Nicholas was keen to see noble influence in the zemstva retained
- the nobility were regularly appointed to provincial governorships and each province and district of the Empire also had its own noble assembly which met once a year
How much of the nobles’ land was transferred to townsmen or peasants?
~ 1/3
