Knowing the history of your country provides an opportunity to better understand the causes of its current successes and problems. Pre-revolutionary Russia in the minds of modern man is largely surrounded by myths, which often have no factual basis. Therefore, in order to better understand what Russia was like before the era of socialism, it is necessary to draw up a certain general historical picture of this period in your mind.
The Russian empire existed for about two centuries, and during this time it underwent significant changes both politically and economically and culturally. Therefore, when describing pre-revolutionary Russia, it is best to limit ourselves to the most recent period of its history - from the abolition of serfdom in 1861 to the February Revolution itself.
In terms of political structure, the Russian empire for most of its history was an absolute monarchy. But the ideas about the need for parliamentarism and the constitution occupied the minds of people throughout the 19th century. Alexander II instructed his advisers to create a draft of deliberative bodies of state administration, which were to become the prototype of the parliament with limited powers, but this process was interrupted after the assassination of the king. His son Alexander III held much more conservative views, and did not continue the work of his father.
Subsequently, the problem of sharing power with the people had to be solved already by Nicholas II. Due to the unrest that began in 1905, on October 17, the government was forced to issue a manifesto, which guaranteed the creation of a new elected legislative body - the State Duma. Thus, the Russian Empire actually and legally turned into a limited monarchy, which remained until the emperor’s abdication of the throne and revolution.
The structure of the economy of pre-revolutionary Russia was very different from the current situation in the country. Until 1861, the country's development was hindered by the remaining serfdom. It did not give the opportunity to develop not only agriculture, but also industry - the influx of people into the cities was limited due to the will of the landowners. After the abolition of personal dependence, a sufficient basis appeared in the country for the development of the economy along the path of industrialization. However, the agricultural sector retained its leading position in the economy until the revolution.
The abolition of serfdom, having solved some problems, created others. Of course, and for free, the peasant received only personal freedom, but he had to buy the land. A significant mass of the population was dissatisfied with the size of payments and the area of allotments. The situation was aggravated by population growth in the second half of the 19th century. By the 20th century, the problem of landlessness of peasants was very acute. One of the ways to solve it was the Stolypin reform. It was aimed at the destruction of the peasant community and the creation of independent farms, on the principle of organizing similar to modern farming. Also, people got the opportunity to move to empty lands in Siberia, and the state organized transport and material support for them. Stolypin’s actions were able to mitigate the severity of the problem, but the land issue was never resolved.
Transport was actively developing, as the problem was interregional communication. A major step forward was the development of the railway network. In about 20 years, the Trans-Siberian Railway was built, which connected the west and east of the empire. This gave an impetus to the economic development of remote Russian regions.
In the cultural sphere, it is necessary to take into account the significant role of the religious component. Orthodoxy was the official religion, but the interests of other faiths were also taken into account. In general, compared with neighboring countries, the Russian Empire was a fairly tolerant state. On its territory, Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists coexisted. Some aggravation in the national-religious question arose at the beginning of the 20th century, with the spread of Jewish pogroms. In a certain sense, these tendencies corresponded to the global ones - during the collapse of empires into national states, nationalism also intensified.
