Working + Living Conditions in Rural Areas - 1894-1914

• Despite the efforts in bringing in reform by Stolypin, things remained mainly unchanged in the countryside.
• Strip farming was used on 90% of the land and most peasants remained very poor.

  • The kulaks were the exception as they made use of loans from the peasant banks and sometimes the misfortunes of their neighbours made them better off.
• There was migration of 3.5 million people to new farmland in Siberia but this was out of a 97 million population.
• Some areas were better off than others.

  • The Baltics and Western Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus modernised.
  • Central Russia remained backwards.
• Diets and medical care were poor and mortality rates were high.

  • Over half of the population was illiterate and many still lived in basic wooden huts with no luxuries.