The Middle Class

• In 1855, the middle class in Russia was a very small group with little power or influence.
• Industrialisation and urbanisation led to an increase in the size and importance of the middle class.
• There were far more professional people such as managers, bankers, administrators, doctors and teachers.
• There were also entrepreneurs who built factories.
• The introduction of the zemstva and the dumas (its urban equivalent) gave the growing middle classes the opportunity to play more of a role in local government.
• Compared to the advanced countries of Western Europe, the size of Russia's middle class was still very small.

  
  

  It reached about half a million people in 1897 which was a fairly insignificant number in the context of the size of Russia.
• Russia often looked for foreign experts to fulfill middle class roles.
• The middle class had little impact on the traditional divisions between the nobles and the peasants.
• The middle class had no voice in central government at all and was almost non-existent outside towns and cities.