The processes that took place in the Russian Empire at the turn of the century were extremely contradictory. Economic success was combined with a backward system of public administration and restrictions on freedom of enterprise; the growth of grain exports - with a deep crisis for a huge part of peasant farms, budget growth was largely based on the wine monopoly and other indirect taxes, the understanding of the need for reforms collided with a conservative-protective course. Foreign policy ambitions exceeded the capabilities of the army and navy. All this taken together brought the country closer to the bourgeois revolution.
Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. was an agrarian-industrial country . Of the 130 million people, about 75% of the population lived in rural areas. The country had the second longest railway network in the world, 40% of which was built in the 90s. The process of early capitalist development increasingly involved vast territories of Siberia, the Far East, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The contradictory socio-economic situation was due to the multinational nature of the country, on whose territory more than a hundred nationalities lived. They differed in the type of civilization, historical memory, spiritual traditions, professed religions, and level of education. Their entry into the empire had various reasons: voluntary accession to forced subjugation. In an environment of economic development, the desire of regions, increasingly inclined to the idea of autonomy (“regionalism” in Siberia, the theory of the Cossacks as an ethnic group, etc.), to weaken their petty dependence on the central government, became natural. In national areas, naturally, this appeared in the shell of national movements, aware of and formulating their interests and demands.
Tsarism responded to this most complex problem by strengthening the great-power domestic policy, the so-called. "Russification":
The desire to end the autonomy of Finland,
The prohibition of teaching in Polish, Ukrainian, and the Baltic languages - a legislative restriction of the rights of the Jewish population (the Pale of Settlement, which meant the right to reside in only 15 western provinces, the “percentage norm” in educational institutions, etc.).
In turn, radical opposition to tsarism among these national groups intensified.
In Russian society, the official division into classes was maintained.
The ruling class remained the nobility . Its economic position was weakening; about 40% of the nobles were landowners, but more than half of them belonged to small estates. Some nobles turned into minor officials, simple farmers and even proletarians. This largely predetermined the involvement of nobles in various political movements.
Another privileged class was clergy . By the beginning of the century it numbered about 600 thousand people (three times less than the nobility). The Orthodox Church occupied a privileged position in relation to other faiths. She herself was part of the state apparatus and was controlled by the chief prosecutor of the Synod. This led to a gradual loss of authority of the official Church and at the same time to the emergence of a liberal-renovationist movement among its ministers.
About 600 thousand people belonged to Tomerchants, etc. honorary citizens. This class was the basis of the Russian bourgeoisie. Their dissatisfaction was caused by the lack of normal opportunities for legal influence on the process of making political and economic decisions.
A special category was Cossacks, divided into 11 Cossack troops. They included about 3 million people. The Cossacks, who had an average land plot 10 times larger than the peasant economy of European Russia, were turned by the government into part of the military repressive apparatus. The situation in these areas was aggravated by the appearance of so-called "non-residents". This was the name given to people from peasants and other categories of the non-Cossack population who, after 1861, settled on the territory of the Cossack troops. These people bought or rented land, worked as farm laborers, without having the right to vote in the affairs of Cossack self-government.
Peasants were the largest class (about 77% of the population) , having both common features and significant differences. They were the main tax-paying and most powerless class. Before the agrarian reform of 1906-1910. they could not freely dispose of their plots and paid ransom payments, were subjected to corporal punishment (until 1905), and were not subject to trial by jury. Under the influence of the capitalist evolution of agriculture, the social stratification of peasants accelerated: 3% turned into the rural bourgeoisie (they were called kulaks), about 15% became wealthy. They not only engaged in rural labor, but also grew rich through usury and petty trade in the village. The rest of the masses led a semi-patriarchal subsistence economy and served as a source of hired labor in the countryside and cities. Despite the difference in the position of the wealthy and the poor, all peasants fought against landlordism. The agrarian-peasant issue remained the most acute in the political life of the country.
Proletariat, grew rapidly as a result of industrialization, by 1913 it amounted to about 19% of the population . It was formed by people from the poorest strata of different classes (mainly bourgeois and peasants). The working and living conditions of workers differed significantly from Western European ones and were extremely difficult: the lowest wages (21-37 rubles), the longest working day (11-14 hours), poor living conditions. The situation of workers was affected by the lack of political freedoms. In fact, no one defended the economic interests of the workers, since before 1906 there were no trade unions, and political parties only used the labor movement for their own purposes. The cadre proletariat of Russia waged a stubborn struggle against capitalist exploitation and the autocratic system. The labor issue, which included improving the economic and social position of the proletariat, occupied an important place in the political life of the country.
In the conditions of modernization of the country, the number of intelligentsia(scientists, writers, lawyers, doctors, artists, performers, etc.). It was replenished from all classes and did not have common economic and political interests. Representatives of the intelligentsia most often were ideologists of other social groups, forming political movements and opposition parties
autocratic system.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. the world has entered a new phase of its development. In the advanced countries of the West, capitalism has reached the imperialist stage. Russia belonged to the “second echelon” of countries that had embarked on the path of capitalist development.
Over the post-reform forty years, Russia has achieved significant success in the economy, primarily in the development of industry. It has traveled a path that took Western countries centuries to achieve. This was facilitated by a number of factors and, above all, the use of experience and assistance from developed capitalist countries, as well as the government’s economic policy of accelerated development of leading industries and railway construction. As a result, Russian capitalism entered the imperialist stage almost simultaneously with the advanced countries of the West. It was characterized by all the main features characteristic of this stage, although it also had its own characteristics.
After the industrial boom of the 1890s, Russia experienced a severe economic crisis of 1900-1903, then a period of long depression of 1904-1908. In 1909-1913. The country's economy made a new sharp leap. The volume of industrial production increased 1.5 times. These same years saw a number of unusually fruitful years, which gave the country's economic development a solid basis. The process of monopolization of the Russian economy received a new impetus. The crisis of the beginning of the century accelerated the process of concentration of industrial production. The corporatization of enterprises proceeded at a rapid pace. As a result, the temporary business associations of the 1880-1890s were replaced by powerful monopolies - mainly cartels and syndicates that united enterprises for joint sales of products (Prodmed, Produgol, Prodvagon, Prodparovoz, etc.).
At the same time, banks were strengthened and banking groups were formed (Russian-Asian, St. Petersburg International, Azov-Don Banks). Their ties with industry were strengthened, as a result of which new monopolistic associations such as trusts and concerns emerged. The export of capital from Russia did not gain much momentum, which was explained both by a lack of financial resources and by the need to develop the vast colonial regions of the empire. The participation of Russian entrepreneurs in international unions was also insignificant. Russia became involved in the redistribution of spheres of influence in the world, but at the same time, along with the interests of the Russian bourgeoisie, the military-feudal aspirations of tsarism played a significant role.
Despite the high rates of economic development, Russia still failed to catch up with the leading Western countries. At the beginning of the 20th century. it was a moderately developed agrarian-industrial country with a clearly diverse economy. Along with the highly developed capitalist industry, a large share in the Russian economy belonged to various early capitalist and semi-feudal forms of economy, from manufacturing, small-scale commodities to patriarchal-natural ones.
The Russian village remained the concentration of remnants of the feudal era. The most important of them were, on the one hand, latifundial landownership, large landowner estates, and widely practiced labor (a direct relic of corvee). On the other hand, peasant land shortage, medieval allotment land tenure, the community with its redistributions, striping, which were a brake on the modernization of the peasant economy. Although certain changes took place here, expressed in the expansion of sown areas, an increase in gross yields of agricultural crops, and an increase in productivity, in general the agricultural sector lagged strikingly behind the industrial sector, and this lag increasingly took the form of an acute contradiction between the needs of the bourgeois modernization of the country and the inhibitory influence of feudal remnants.
The social class structure of a country reflected the nature and level of its economic development. Along with the emerging classes of bourgeois society (bourgeoisie, proletariat), class division continued to exist in it - as a legacy of the feudal era: nobility, merchants, peasantry, philistinism.
By the beginning of the 20th century. The leading positions in the country's economy were occupied by the bourgeoisie. However, until the mid-90s, it actually did not play any independent role in the socio-political life of the country. Being dependent on the autocracy, it remained an apolitical and conservative force for a long time. The nobility, while remaining the ruling class-estate, retained significant economic power. Despite the loss of almost 40% of all its lands, by 1905 it concentrated over 60% of all private land ownership and was the most important social support of the regime, although socially the nobility was losing its homogeneity, moving closer to the classes and strata of bourgeois society. The peasantry, constituting almost 3/4 of the country's population, was also deeply affected by the process of social stratification (20% - kulaks, 30% - middle peasants, 50% - poor people). Contradictions were brewing between its polar layers.
The class of hired workers, which numbered by the end of the 19th century. about 18.8 million people, was also very heterogeneous. A significant part of the workers, especially those who had recently come from the villages, still retained connections with the land and the economy. The core of the class was the factory proletariat, numbering about 3 million people by this time, and over 80% of it was concentrated in large enterprises.
The political system of Russia was an absolute monarchy. Made in the 60-70s of the XIX century. a step towards becoming a bourgeois monarchy, tsarism legally and actually retained all the attributes of absolutism. The law still proclaimed: “The Russian Emperor is an autocratic and unlimited monarch.” Nicholas II, who ascended the throne in 1894, firmly grasped the idea of the divine origin of royal power and believed that autocracy was the only form of government acceptable for Russia. With stubborn constancy he rejected all attempts to limit his power.
The highest government bodies in the country until 1905 were: the State Council, whose decisions were advisory to the tsar; The Senate is the highest court and interpreter of laws.
Executive power was exercised by 11 ministers, whose activities were partly coordinated by a committee of ministers. But the latter did not have the character of a Cabinet of Ministers, since each minister was responsible only to the Tsar and carried out his instructions. Nicholas II was extremely jealous of any major personality among his ministers. Thus, S.Yu. Witte, who acquired great power and influence in the ruling spheres as a result of successful reforms, was removed from his post in 1903 and appointed to the honorary but insignificant position of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers.
The unlimited power of the tsar locally was manifested in the omnipotence of officials and the police, the flip side of which was the civil and political lack of rights of the masses. Social oppression and the lack of basic civil liberties were complemented in many regions of Russia by national oppression.
The Russian Empire was a multinational state in which 57% of the population were non-Russian peoples who were subjected to one form or another of national oppression. National oppression manifested itself in different ways, depending on the level of socio-economic, political and cultural development of a particular region. It is important to note that the standard of living of the Russian people was not higher, but often even lower, than that of other peoples. In developed areas (Finland, Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine), oppression manifested itself in the desire to unify local conditions and their specifics with the all-Russian structure. In the remaining outskirts, where the national question was intertwined with the colonial one, semi-feudal methods of exploitation occupied a significant place, and administrative arbitrariness flourished. Tsarism not only infringed on the rights of non-Russian peoples, but also sowed discord, mistrust, and enmity among them. All this could not but give rise to national protest. However, the split in Russian society occurred mainly not along national, but along social lines.
The difficult economic situation, civil and political lawlessness, repression and persecution were the reason for the constantly growing emigration from Russia. Peasants flocked in droves to work in the border states, and then to the USA, Canada, Brazil and even Australia. In an effort to avoid oppression on ethnic grounds, a considerable number of Russian citizens emigrated. And, finally, an increasingly noticeable part of the emigration was made up of people who made the fight against the autocracy the goal of their lives.
1. Economic development of the country. Reforms of S. Witte. Foreign capital in Russia. Agrarian policy.
2. Social structure of Russian society.
3. Political system of Russia. Autocracy and its institutions. Nicholas II.
The nature and level of development of Russia at the turn of the century give rise to various assessments and conclusions: from the assertion that capitalism almost did not exist in Russia, to its complete identification with the countries of Western Europe. This polarity of views is explained by the fact that this problem is most directly related to the question of the extent of the material prerequisites for the socialist revolution.
1. In this work you will have to explore this problem in the context of the newest concept, according to which world capitalism has developed in unique echelons. The first echelon includes countries with a high level of development of capitalism - England, France, and the USA. Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe are usually classified as the second echelon, the catching-up type of development. The third echelon is the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa, where the transition to capitalism began in the mid-20th century. The main criterion for this conditional division is the identification of typical features characteristic of each echelon of countries.
When examining the features and main trends of capitalist evolution in Russia, first of all point out the compressed historical time frame for the development of industrial capitalism and its high pace. As a formation, capitalism has been established in our country since 1861. In the post-reform years, its development proceeded with such speed that in a few decades transformations took place that took entire centuries in the countries of Western Europe.
One of the most important features of Russia's economic development was state intervention in economic life. Explain what exactly it was and how successful it was. Emphasize that it became most active in the 90s. As you know, these were the years of industrial growth associated with the activities of S. Yu. Witte. Tell us about the reforms he carried out, especially focusing on the creation of government conditions for attracting foreign capital. Give a general assessment of Witte’s reform activities, show what successes were achieved in the field of industry and railway construction.
Show the impact of the global economic crisis of 1900-1903. on the development of industry and the banking system, trace the process of monopolization in these areas, emphasize that at the turn of the century Russia entered the stage of imperialism simultaneously with the leading countries of the world, analyze the features of Russian imperialism. Dwell in more detail on such a factor as the huge, ever-increasing gap between the socio-economic development of the village and the rapidly developing industry. Explain what remnants of serfdom remained in the agricultural sector, why tsarism mothballed the rural community. Emphasize that noble land ownership and the focus on the community were an obstacle to the development of capitalism; the incompleteness of the reforms of 1861 made the agrarian question key in subsequent bourgeois-democratic revolutions. Note the multi-structured nature of the Russian economy as a factor negatively affecting its development. And in conclusion, draw a conclusion about Russia’s place in the world economic system of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
2. The peculiarities of the country’s economic development affected the social structure of Russian society. Here we must keep in mind the following: as before, its basis was made up of estates, closed groups of people endowed with certain rights and responsibilities transmitted by inheritance, at the same time a new social-class structure was being formed, including classes of the established formation, at the same time processes of stratification and erosion took place within the economic classes themselves; many people were in an intermediate state between different classes.
The ruling class remained the nobility, which according to the 1897 census constituted 1.5% of the total population of the country. Show the heterogeneity of its composition - the division into hereditary and personal nobles. Tell us about the changes taking place among landowners. Explain what circumstances allowed the nobility to maintain a decisive position in the political life of the empire.
The most numerous class of the Russian Empire was the peasantry (about 82% of the Russian population). Describe his situation, note his political lack of rights, economic dependence on the landowners and the community. Pay attention to the intensifying process of economic differentiation (stratification) of the village.
The rural classes also included single-painters and Cossacks, and the urban classes included burghers and merchants. Name their distinctive features.
The social structure of Russian society featured a fairly large army of officials (civil servants) of various ranks. Indicate what features of the economic and political system of Russia determined the specifics of the position of the bureaucracy, what it consisted of.
A special class was the clergy. Reveal the position of the church and its role in the state.
The new class, more and more confidently asserting itself, was the bourgeoisie. Show which layers stood out in her environment and how they differed. Explain why, in general, the Russian bourgeoisie as a class remained inert and conservative.
In addition to the bourgeoisie, an element of the new structure was the class of hired workers. Describe his situation and note the social heterogeneity. Explain why the working class of Russia, earlier than the bourgeoisie, began to act as an independent political force.
A special place in society was occupied by the intelligentsia, recruited from various segments of the population. Emphasize that she was distinguished by:
Sacrifice and asceticism;
Desire to serve your people;
Isolation from the people and from the authorities;
Socially active role - its representatives formed the main political parties and developed ideological doctrines.
In conclusion, answer the question why social changes led to increased social discontent.
3. By the form of government, Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century was an autocratic monarchy. Name the features of the Russian monarchy. Emphasize that the autocrat was the only legitimate source of laws. The right to make laws belonged only to him. Describe Nicholas II (1894-1917) as a statesman. Expand the role of the imperial family in the structure of monarchical rule.
Next, tell us about the activities of the highest authorities: the State Council, the Senate, the Cabinet of Ministers and line ministries. Emphasize that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Finance occupied a special place in the system of ministries. The first controlled the activities of the local organization, censorship, places of detention, communications, and was also in charge of issues of recruiting the army. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had police and gendarmerie staff, as well as numerous agents - provocateurs and informants. The leadership of this ministry adhered to a strict conservative position; the activities of V.K. were especially characteristic in this regard. Plehve. The second exercised control over the development of industry, trade, navigation, communications, public education, and in its hands were the main investment levers (including commercial and agricultural loans).
In addition, show how such institutions of state power as the court and the army were structured and functioned, and what the system of local self-government was. Emphasize that local power was concentrated in the hands of governors appointed by the king.
The church occupied an important place in the political system of Russia. Name the highest body of church government. Tell us how church life was organized, who was the legal head of the church.
List the public organizations and political parties that were formed at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries.
And in conclusion, answer the question to what extent did it exist at the beginning of the twentieth century? the form of government met the development of the country and the needs of the era.
Literature
Borodina O.I. Russia at the turn of two eras. M., 1992.
Dongarov A.G. Foreign capital in Russia and the USSR. 1856 - 1946. M., 199 O.
Zhukov V. Power and opposition. Russian political process of the twentieth century. M., 1994.
Korelin A.P., Stepanov S.A., S.Yu. Witte - financier, politician, diplomat. M., 1998.
Leontovich V.V. History of liberalism in Russia. 1762-1914. M., 1995.
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in Russia from its origins to the beginning of the twentieth century. M., 1997.
Pushkarev S.G. Russia 1801-1917: power and society. M., 2001.
Revolutionary radicalism in Russia. Century XIX. M., 1997.
Russian liberals. M., 2001.
Russian autocrats (18O1 - 1917). M., 1993.
Russian intelligentsia: History and fate. M., 1999.
Sekirinsky S., Filippova T. Liberalism in Russia. Essays on history (mid-18th – early 20th century). M., 1995.
Tvardovskaya V.A., Itenberg B.S. Russians and Karl Marx: choice or fate? M., 1999.
Tyan V.V. Russia at the turn of the century: the autocratic regime on the scales of systemic crises: The second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. M., 2002.
Note 1
At the turn of the $19th-20th centuries. The liberal opposition movement in Russia remained very heterogeneous. The liberal circles included landowners of various ranks and the bourgeois intelligentsia. Heterogeneity in the classes provided a deviation in the understanding of the socio-economic and political problems of Russian society. Not allowing Russia to become a democratic republic was the main idea of Russian liberalism of that period.
Liberal nobility
The noble opposition remained in the zemstvos, sending the sovereign various cautious petitions, petitions proposing pressing topics of Russian reality for discussion. Among the liberal nobility there was a representation of the aristocratic elite, united in separate circles. For example, since March 1899, such a circle was known "Conversation", consisting of landowners of provincial or district governments. According to the circle's charter, its action was legal, through zemstvo and noble meetings and through the press to awaken public opinion.
Famous public figure D. N. Shipov, Chairman of the Moscow Zemstvo Council in the winter of $1900, gathered a circle adjacent to the right, or Slavophile wing. The members of the circle were members of famous princely families, university professors and large landowners. The members of the circle hoped to create an advisory organization under the sovereign from representatives of zemstvos, as well as introduce some political freedoms. In essence, they tried to help the authorities in the upcoming crisis and avoid a revolutionary explosion.
Liberal bourgeois intelligentsia
At the turn of the century, the bourgeois intelligentsia, which included famous lawyers, doctors, professors, and engineers, became more active. They all came from different classes. But everyone achieved success with their work, and were not always satisfied with their new social position. Many of them, for example, N. A. Berdyaev, P. B. Struve in the $1890s. were interested in Marxism. The thesis about the progressiveness of capitalism became one of the main ones in the program of Russian bourgeois liberalism.
Note 2
In $1901-1902$. The growth of the moderate-liberal opposition began, which was facilitated by social democracy, intensifying their political development. The growth of the opposition was also influenced by the attitude of tsarism towards zemstvos when resolving the peasant issue - it was decided to equalize the rights of peasants with the nobility, abolish physical punishment, reform the courts, zemstvos, etc.
Zemstvo opposition and the "Zemtsev Union"
In winter $1903-1904$. The Novotorzh district zemstvo addressed the sovereign with a petition, which was perceived as a hint of a transition to a constitutional form of government.
The government responded with repression - it was announced that the Novotorzh district and Tver provincial government would be removed. The authorities took various roundabout maneuvers in order to create the appearance of mutual agreements.
But the socio-economic contradictions that had accumulated in Russia required their speedy resolution, which showed the further development of the movement among the masses. The division of the zemstvo opposition, which began in 1903, led to the creation of the First Moscow Congress of supporters of the constitutional monarchy, which was followed by "Union of Zemstvo Constitutionalists", where the leading position was occupied by liberal landowners.
"Union of Liberation"
An illegal magazine created by Struve in $1902 in Stuttgart "Liberation" played an important role in uniting Russian liberals into political organizations. Struve himself, who was the editor of the magazine by that time, had already switched to liberal positions. The new representatives of bourgeois liberalism planned to lead revolutionary democracy.
In Switzerland in 1903, at a congress brought together by Zemstvo members, former populists and “legal Marxists”, they discussed the creation of a non-political party "Union of Liberation". The official work of the organization began in 1904 in St. Petersburg, where its educational congress was held. The leading position in the Liberation Union was occupied by bourgeois intellectuals. The significance of the Union program was to create a freer development of capitalism in Russia.
Lesson topic: Russia at the borderXIX – XXcenturies
The purpose of the lesson: to form an idea of the features of the economic development of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, associated with the specifics of the Russian type of modernization.
Basic knowledge: territorial structure of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, characteristics of its population, main indicators of the level of industrialization of the country.
Plan:
Territory and population
Russian model of economic modernization
Bourgeoisie and workers
Government economic policy
Agriculture: development features
Territory and population.
While considering the question, students fill out the table:
Territory and population of the Russian Empire
| Features of territorial and geographical location | |
| National composition of the population | |
| Administration of the Russian Empire | |
| Religious composition of the population |
Question:
What was the political system of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century?
Name the classes that existed in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century?
Remember and show on the map which territories were included in the Russian Empire in the 19th century. What peoples inhabited these territories?
By the end of the 19th century, Russia ranked second in the world in terms of territory size, second only to Great Britain and its colonies.
Question: Describe the geographical location of the Russian Empire.
(Not very profitable. The area of European Russia was 1/3, and Asian Russia was 2/3. Most of it was in the zone of tundra and permafrost, dry steppes and impenetrable taiga, unfavorable for economic activity)
By the beginning of the twentieth century. In terms of population, Russia ranked third in the world. Most of the population lived in the European part of the country.
A characteristic feature of the Russian Empire was its national diversity (146 peoples).
Russians – 44.3%
Ukrainians – 17.8%
Poles – 6.3%
Belarusians – 4.7%
Jews - 4.2%
Kazakhs – 3%
Tatars – 1.7%
The administration of the Russian Empire was centralized. By 1914 it included 77 provinces and 21 regions.
Russian was the official language, and Orthodoxy was considered the state religion.
Russification- forcing the indigenous population of the lands that are part of the Russian Empire to use the Russian language in business and everyday communication, to convert to Orthodoxy.
Question: Describe the features of the territory and population of the Russian Empire? How did they influence the development of the country?
In Russia, the beginning of the twentieth century. The class system and absolute monarchy were preserved.
The only advisory body under the emperor was the State Council (its members were appointed by the Emperor).
Officials played a major role in management. Senior officials - nobles.
Bourgeois– city residents, hired workers, artisans.
Intelligentsia– knowledge workers (doctors, teachers, scientists)
Merchant class- industrialists, entrepreneurs, bankers.
2) Russian model of economic modernization
Back in the 18th century, large-scale manufacturing production based on forced labor arose in Russia (mining and metallurgical enterprises of the Urals, distilling, cloth, linen and other industries)
At the same time, private entrepreneurship began to develop using hired labor - textile production.
Question: Remember main provisions of the reform of 1861
How did the reform of 1861 affect the development of Russia? What consequences did it have?
Capitalist relations are developing; old feudal relations are being preserved.
remnants
Class system
Landownership
Absolute power of the monarch
Feudal duties
Industrial revolution, i.e. The transition from manual labor to machine labor, from manufacturing production to factory production, began in Russia in the 1830s.
Initially, industries producing consumer goods (cotton), metallurgy, mechanical engineering, coal and oil production developed rapidly. (4th place in the world in cast iron production, 2nd place in railway construction, first place in oil production)
At the same time, the level of national income production per capita was low.
National income– the total cost of production of all sectors of the state’s economy, including agriculture, minus production costs.
The concentration of industrial production begins. Well-equipped large enterprises are being created in new industrial regions (Donbass, Baku Oil). At the same time there was a process corporatization of industrial enterprises, i.e. transition from private capitalist to joint stock ownership.
World economic crisis of 1899-1903. also affected Russia. The crisis gave impetus to the development of monopolies.
Monopoly - an association of industrialists that controls the production of certain products and is capable of dictating prices to the market.
The first monopolistic associations emerged in Russia in 1880–90 in the form of cartels.
Cartel - the primary form of association of entrepreneurs who agree on the volume of production, product prices and conditions for hiring labor.
At the beginning of the twentieth century. A new form of monopolistic associations emerged - syndicates.
Syndicate - a form of monopolistic association in which not only prices for manufactured products and purchased raw materials are agreed upon, but also their sales are carried out through a common office for the members of the syndicate.
Produgol controls 75% of coal production in Donbass
“Prodamet” sets prices for 60% metal. cont.
"Prodparovoz"
There is a concentration of banking capital and a merger of banking and industrial capital. Financial and industrial groups are emerging that control a significant share of the Russian economy.
Foreign investment played a significant role. By 1914, there were 230 foreign companies in Russia.
The Russian economy remained multi-layer. Along with large and medium-sized enterprises, manufacturing and craft enterprises played an important role.
Questions for generalization:
What are the features of the Russian economy at the beginning of the 20th century?
What were the negative and positive aspects of government intervention in the country's economy?
What are the reasons for the widespread attraction of foreign capital to Russia?
What role did foreign capital play in the country's economy?
What are the specifics of the emergence and functioning of the monopoly structure in the Russian economy7
3) Bourgeoisie and workers
Industrial economic growth led to the formation of new large classes of the population - bourgeoisie (private entrepreneurs) and workers (employees)
The bourgeoisie made up only 0.1% of the population, but it had enormous economic potential.
At the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, a layer of industrial, or factory workers, was formed in Russia. They were replenished by peasants - otkhodniks. By 1913, the number of wage earners amounted to 11% of the population.
At the beginning of the 20th century. In the struggle of the proletariat, political forms acquire special significance: demonstrations, May meetings. Significant events were the Obukhov defense (1901, St. Petersburg) and the general strike in the south of Russia (1903, Rostov, Ukraine, Transcaucasia).
Questions for consolidation:
Which of the following characterizes the position of the Russian proletariat at the beginning of the 20th century?
A) high concentration of workers in industrial enterprises;
B) low working hours;
C) a well-thought-out system of social benefits and guarantees;
D) draconian fine system?
2. Form logical pairs from the following provisions, interconnected as cause and effect:
A) lack of labor legislation;
B) high concentration of labor;
C) poor technical equipment of enterprises;
D) mass discontent among workers.
4) Economic policy
At the beginning of the twentieth century. 70% of railways, ¼ of large enterprises, 38% of land, 60% of forests belonged to the state.
The government's policy was contradictory: on the one hand, it influenced the development of industrial production, promoted railway construction, the creation of heavy industry, and the growth of banks. On the other hand, the government strengthened the system of state economic management, defended the interests of the nobility, limited freedom of enterprise, and preserved the archaic order in the countryside.
With the appointment of S.Yu. to the post of Minister of Finance. Witte, the state began to play a particularly active role in modernization.
Modernization - a transition carried out in a short time to a new way of economic life, accompanied by changes in the nature of social relations, the social structure of society and the way of life of people.
Main economic policy measures S.Yu. Witte (1892 – 1903)
Encouraging the development of heavy industry and railway transport
1895 Introduction of a state monopoly on the trade in alcoholic beverages
1897 Currency reform
1899 Liberation of imported capital from obstacles, which increased the influx of investment into industry
Protectionist customs policy.
Protectionism - a policy whose goal is to limit the import of certain types of goods from abroad by increasing duties on imported products.
Investments – long-term investment of capital in any sector of the economy.
S.Yu. Witte, with the help of state control levers, sought to carry out accelerated capitalist industrialization. The introduction of gold currency circulation and the free exchange of paper money for gold attracted foreign capital. Due to the low cost of labor and a rich raw material base, most foreign capital was poured into industrial development. This was also the second reason for industrial growth.
The reforms contributed to the increased activity of Russian industrialists due to lucrative government orders.
Solve the historical problem:
Accelerated industrialization led to the fact that the share of large factories in Russian industry was higher than in Europe: by 1913, 24.5% of workers were employed in enterprises with more than 1,000 employees and 9.5% in enterprises with more than 500 employees up to 1000 people.
Identify the possible consequences of this situation.
5) Agriculture: features of development.
The agricultural sector generated 54-56% of the country's national income. Russia produced over 25% of the world's grain harvest, 80% of flax, 17% of potatoes. Grain export occupied a leading position in Russian exports. Among other exported goods was timber - 323% of the world market.
After the abolition of serfdom, the development of the Russian village was determined by two types of farms - landowners and peasants.
Entrepreneurial landowner farming developed most intensively in the Baltic states, in the South, in the regions of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where opportunities for profitable export or sales of products on the domestic market opened up. Large landowner farms acquired the character of capitalist production. By the beginning of the 20th century. 30 thousand of the richest landowners were the owners of 70 million acres of land. 10.5 million peasants had almost the same amount of land (there were 7 dessiatines per household). Peasant farms accounted for 88% of the gross grain harvest.
A layer of wealthy peasants stands out. By 1905, they owned 2.2 million farms and almost half of all land. (they had approximately 29 acres of land). Their farms widely used the labor of hired seasonal workers - farm laborers.
The middle peasants represented an intermediate layer between wealthy peasants and the poor. (8-15 acres of land)
Middle and poor peasants used 85% of the harvest for their own consumption.
Zemstvo - elected bodies of local self-government in most provinces of Russia, in charge of economic issues and education.
Russia remained an agrarian country with 80% peasants. From 1/3 to ½ of the peasants were landless. The reason for the poverty of the village was the low level of labor productivity.
Until 1906, peasants paid redemption payments to the state for land (reforms of 1861).
The poverty of the peasantry hampered the development of the domestic market and hampered industrial growth.
Consolidation of the studied material.
Work in groups:
Group: Describe the features of the territory and population of the Russian Empire. How did they influence the development of the country?
Group: Analyze the “Rise of Industrial Production”: + and -
Group: Determine the main features of Russian state policy in the field of industry. Describe the reforms of S.Yu. Witte.
Characteristic features of socio-economic development
Strong government intervention in economic life
Completion of the Industrial Revolution
The formation of the capitalist structure in the economy
Formation of the bourgeoisie and proletariat
Emergence of new industries
Contradictory development: in industry - the emergence of monopolies, and in rural areas - feudal remnants
Preservation of feudal-serfdom remnants that hampered the socio-economic development of the country.
Homework: history textbook § 65.
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