Why was Russia so hard to govern in the 19th century?

Question 1

Give some statistics to illustrate the state of the Russian population in the 18th century.

Answer 1

• Only 1/3rd of the population could read according to the 1897 census.
• Ethnic Russians only made up about 44% of the empire
• In the 1880s, 80% of Russians lived in the countryside
• The population was growing rapidly: It grew by 125 million between 1815-1914.

Question 2

Why was communication poor?

Answer 2

Infrastructure was poor which hindered communication. In 1866, there were only 5,000km of railroad in Russia.

Question 3

How big was the Russian empire?

Answer 3

At it’s height, it covered a 1/6th of the globe.