Economic development and the land issue

• This video is looking at economic developments in Tsarist Russia between 1855 and 1894
• The video is part of a series covering Tsarist and Communist Russia from 1855 to 1964
• Emancipation was supposed to be the spark that would bring about economic change in Russia
• Emancipation was intended to allow former serfs to leave the village and work in industry, stimulate the domestic market, and lead to the emergence of a middle class
• However, redemption payments, high taxes, and restrictions on the former serfs' movements and practices damaged the chances of economic growth
• The average peasant received about 4 hectares of land after emancipation, which was barely enough to survive as a subsistence farmer
• The nobility kept the best land for themselves, further limiting the economic potential of the peasantry
• The Mir (village commune) system and population growth led to the division of land into smaller and smaller allocations, making economic development even less likely
• Farming methods remained backward, and the Mir elders resisted change
• In 1878, only 50% of peasants could produce a surplus
• Kulaks


  Successful peasants who grew the land they had and started to expand
• 26 million hectares of land was bought by peasants between 1877 and 1905 with the help of land banks
• Grain yields in Russia were three times lower than in the UK and Germany
• The Great Famine of 1891-92 was partly man-made due to the finance minister's policy of grain requisition for export
• The famine resulted in 350,000 deaths from starvation and disease
• Finance Minister Vitte


  Saw economic modernization as essential to stop revolutionary activity
• Vitte's policies included protective tariffs, heavy taxation, and forced grain exports, which made people's lives worse
• Vitte encouraged massive foreign investment and brought in managers and engineers from Western Europe to develop industries like railways, oil, and metalworking
• Russia's annual economic growth rate was 8% from 1894-1904, and it became the 4th largest industrial economy in the world
• However, the Russian people did not see the benefits of this economic progress