The middle class

• With urban and industrial expansion and an increase in educational opportunities Russia's middle class began to grow.
• Bankers doctors teachers and administrators were in great demand although their numbers added up to no more than half a million in the 1897 census.
• Government contracts to build railways and state loans to set up factories provided tremendous opportunities for those who were enterprising.
• At the lower end of the scale there were more opportunities to take up management positions or set up as workshop owners and traders.