the position of peasantry

Question 1

like the landed elites

Answer 1

the peasantry was also divided

Question 2

who were at the top?

Answer 2

the kulaks, who bought up land perhaps with the aid of loans from the peasants land bank
-when their clients could not afford repayments, kulaks sometimes accepted land instead

Question 3

in contrast, what happened to the poorest peasants?

Answer 3

poorest peasants found life getting harder as they turned into landless labourers, dependent on others

Question 4

According to zemstvo survey in the 1880s, how many of the former serfs in the Tambov region were unable to feed the household without falling into debt?

Answer 4

two out of every three former serfs

Question 5

why did living standards vary throughout the country?

Answer 5

areas of former state peasants tended to be better off than those of the emancipated privately owned serfs, because they were granted more land

Question 6

despite improvements in health care, provided through the Zemstva

Answer 6

• a large proportion of the peasantry were turned down as unfit for military service and mortality rates were higher than those in any other European country

Question 7

average life expectancy in Russia compared to England

Answer 7

• 27 years for males
  -29 years for women
  compared to England average age of death=45

Question 8

economic change impact on peasantry

Answer 8

-economic change failed to improve the lot of the peasantry