Alexander III Society And The Church

Question 1

How did primitive methods change and what was the impact of cheap American grain?

Answer 1

• 1880s - 80%-90% still peasants using out of date farming methods
• farming remained small scale as most peasants were still tied to the Mir due to redemption payments
• could not afford to invest in new machines
• conditions had not changed much since emancipation
• another farming revolution was underway in USA where they began to produce lots of grain on a large level
• 1870s grain flooded into the world markets which made prices drop
• low grain prices meant that peasants income fell and less able than ever to repay redemption payments

Question 2

What were Peasants Land Banks?

Answer 2

• Nobles land bank set up in 1882 - help nobles with the legal costs involved in land transfer and improvement schemes
• Peasants land bank set up in 1885 - cheap loans to farmers to allow to buy more cheap land
• some ways they worked because over 26 million hectares of land was passed to peasants between 1877 and 1902 yet some saw this as piling up much more debt on top of redemption payments

Question 3

Population explosion, health and Famine

Answer 3

• increase was approximately 70 million in 1850 to 133 million in 1900
• individual peasants farmed typically 3-6 acres of land which grew smaller and smaller as families grew therefore holding back farming methods
• famine worsened life for many peasants
• local zemstva had helped but had to raise local taxes to pay for it - added financial burden
• regardless of famine, health was still poor - life expectancy for a woman was 29 and 27 for a man compared to England where it was 45

Question 4

How did the Kulaks help?

Answer 4

• The Peasants’ Land Banks did help a few enterprising peasants to grow wealthy
• small wealthy class of entrepreneurial peasants
• were able to buy up land and employ other peasants
• would buy grain from cash-strapped peasants in the autumn and then sell it back in the spring at a profit. This led to resentment
• often prospered - but by exploiting other peasants, they kept many more in poverty

Question 5

Issue of Land owners and the nobility?

Answer 5

• life for land owners got worse after 1881
• lost cheap source of labour after emancipation in 1861 and gradually lost more land after that, having to sell things to pay off debts
• cheap American grain and fall in market weakened wealth more with new methods beyond their reach
• lots of landowners started new lives as professionals such as 1882 - over 700 nobles owned businesses in Moscow whilst others worked in running transport and industry (2500) , roles in zemstva or government

Question 6

The emerging middle class

Answer 6

• urban and industrial expansions meant more education opportunities therefore bankers, doctors and teachers were in greater demand BUT they were only 500,000 by 1897 consensus
• opportunities in railway development, workshop owners and traders

Question 7

Urban working class

Answer 7

• no more than 2% of the population
• some moved to towns to work temporarily however some left entirely to become urban workers or join migrant workers groups
• life was tough - conditions were bad and pay was low however some reforms were brought in to limit this such as regulations on child labour and limited working hours
• those who moved to the cities were overtaxes and faced overcrowding
• 1886-1894 - 33 illegal strikes per year - shows disscontempt for how they are being treated and may be turned away from the autocracy

Question 8

What was the role of the church?

Answer 8

• Russification forces conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church - 70% of the population
• Priest were a way of communicating from Tsar to people
• education placed under role of church during Alexander II counter reforms and further strengthened in 1891
• church seemed to have less influence in cities than countryside
• Alexander III and Ivan Delyanov gave church power of primary education
• provision of churches and priest had not kept up with urbanisation
• priests became commonly criticised by 1880s and some liberal priest wanted reform but shot down by Pob
• more than 8500 Muslims and 50,000 pagans were converted to orthodoxy