Summary

• Russian society was becoming more complex as economic changes got underway. However it was still strongly divided between the small noble class and the peasant majority
• The years 1894 to 1914 brought social changes in both the towns and the countryside. While it was not always obvious at the time, changes in the position of the middle classes, workers and peasantry in particular were to have political consequences during the war years
• Russia was a society of contrasts, but the ‘old ways’ were soon to be swept aside by the coming of the war