What were the social, economic and political conditions in Russia before 1905?

Social condition

1. About 85 per cent of the Russian empire's population were agriculturists. This proportion was higher than in most European countries.
2. Workers were a divided social group. Some had strong links with the villages from which they came. Others had settled in cities permanently.
3. Workers were divided by skill. Divisions among workers showed themselves in dress and manners too.
4. The majority religion was Russian Orthodox Christianity but the empire also included Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Buddhists.
5. In the countryside, peasants cultivated most of the land but the nobility, the crown and the Orthodox Church owned large properties.
6. Peasants were also divided and they were also deeply religious. They had no respect for the nobility.
7. Nobles got their power and position through their services to the Tsar, not through local popularity.
8. Peasants wanted the land of the nobles to be given to them. Frequently, they refused to pay rent and even murdered landlords.

Economic conditions

1. Russia was a major exporter of grain. The cultivators produced for the market as well as for their own needs.
2. Industry was found in pockets. Prominent industrial areas were St Petersburg and Moscow.
3. Craftsmen undertook much of the production, but large factories existed alongside craft workshops.
4. Most industry was the private property of industrialists. Government supervised large factories to ensure minimum wages and limited hours of work.
5. Economically, Russia was facing challenges. Prices of essential goods were rising, while real wages decreased by 20%. Workers demanded better conditions and higher wages, leading to a series of events known as the 1905 Revolution.

Political condition

1. Russia was an autocracy. The Tsar was not subject to parliament.
2. Socialists were active in the countryside through the late nineteenth century.
3. Political parties were illegal before 1914. However, the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in 1898 by socialists who followed Marx's ideas.
4. This party was split into two groups — the Bolshevik group led by Lenin and the Mensheviks group.
5. This party struggled for peasants' rights and demanded that land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants.
6. Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries worked with peasants and workers to demand a constitution leading to the revolution of 1905.