Developments In Working + Living Conditions In Countryside Flashcards
What persisted with conditions for farmers?
-strip farming persisted 90% of land
-widespread rural poverty
What happened to the gap between rich and poor peasants?
-got wider as wealthier entrepreneurs (kulaks) took advantage of the less favours
-with help of loans from peasant banks kulaks bought out impoverished neighbours
What happened to life for the poorer peasants?
-life getting harder
-minority migrated to Siberia through gov schemes with trans Siberian
-only 3.5m of 97m able take adv of this
What was wrong with this gov scheme?
-clearly inadequate in alleviating pressure of a growing population on resources
What were living standards like?
-varied in different parts of country
-more prosperous commercial far,ing in peripheral regions like Baltic, Western Ukraine to western Siberia
What continued with the nobles?
-continuation of nobles’ landowning + backward farming methods concentrated in Rus heartland
Why did these conditions vary?
-areas of former state peasants tended be better off than emancipated privately owned serfs
-due to being granted more land
What happened to the peasants lot?
-remained a hard one
-despite health care improvements through zemstva large proportion of peasantry turned down as unfit for military service
What were mortality rates like in Russia?
-mortality rates high than in other European countries
-too few doctors for large rural population
What was wrong with education?
-teachers in short supply
-few received basic elementary education + 1914 around 60% illiterate
Why did Russias land hungry peasantry remain at the bottom of the social ladder?
-large families living in primitive wooden huts
-monotonous daily diets + few possessions beyond tools + religious icons
What remained despite these hardships?
-their sense of community + loyalty to church + tsar remained largely unblemished
