Industrialisation in Russia | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Background and Early Challenges in Russia's Development

• By 1815, Russia had established itself as the largest and most populous nation in Europe and a significant global power. Explorers had expanded the Russian frontier eastward across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean since the 1600s. Peter the Great and Catherine the Great had added territories along the Baltic and Black Seas, while 19th-century Tsars expanded into Central Asia. This expansion resulted in a vast multinational empire, part European and part Asian, rich in natural resources and global influence due to its size. However, Western Europeans viewed Russia’s autocratic government with suspicion and were wary of its expansionist ambitions. Despite efforts by Peter and Catherine to Westernize Russia, the country remained economically underdeveloped. By the 1800s, Tsars recognized the need for modernization but resisted reforms that could undermine their absolute authority.
• In the early 19th century, Russia developed trade relations with other European countries, exporting large quantities of grain. However, most of the export revenue benefited aristocrats and powerful landowners rather than being reinvested into developing an industrial economy. Proposals for industrial projects and incentives were often rejected as they threatened the financial interests of conservative landowners. While there were some heavy industries such as mining, steel production, and oil, they were minimal compared to Russia’s imperial rivals like Britain, France, and Germany. It took a defeat in the Crimean War (1853-56) to highlight the empire’s developmental shortcomings and the urgent need for industrialization.

Russia’s Social Structure:

• A significant barrier to progress was Russia’s rigid social structure. Landowning nobles held dominion over society, resisting any changes that might jeopardize their privileges. 
• The middle class was too small to exert much influence. The majority of Russians were serfs, laborers tied to the land and subject to the control of their masters. Most serfs were peasants, but some were servants, artisans, or soldiers conscripted into the tsar’s army. As industry grew, some masters sent serfs to work in factories, taking much of their earnings. 
• Many enlightened Russians recognized that serfdom was inefficient. As long as most people were bound to serve their masters, Russia’s economy would lag behind. However, landowning nobles had little incentive to improve agriculture and showed little interest in industrial development.

Ruling with Absolute Power:

• For centuries, tsars ruled with absolute power, imposing their will on the populace. Occasionally, they made limited attempts at liberal reform, such as easing censorship or implementing legal and economic changes to improve the lives of serfs. 
• However, whenever the tsars feared losing the support of the nobles, they retreated from these reforms. In essence, the liberal and nationalist changes brought about by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution had minimal impact on Russian autocracy.

Alexander II and the Crimean War:

• Alexander II ascended to the throne in 1855 during the Crimean War, which exemplified the pattern of reform and repression seen in the reigns of his predecessors, Alexander I and Nicholas I. 
• The war erupted after Russia attempted to seize Ottoman territories along the Danube River, prompting Britain and France to support the Ottoman Turks by invading the Crimean peninsula. Russia’s defeat in the war exposed the country’s backwardness, revealing a dire need for reform.
• The Crimean War highlighted Russia's industrial inadequacies. The country had a minimal railroad network, and its military bureaucracy was highly inefficient. Russian factories struggled to produce enough weapons, munitions, and machinery. There was a lack of technical innovation, and the railway system was poorly developed, with insufficient rail lines and rolling stock to transport troops and equipment effectively. The defeat in the war galvanized the need for dramatic changes within the empire.

Freeing the Serfs:

• In response to the widespread dissatisfaction following the war, liberals called for reforms, and students protested for change. Under pressure, Alexander II agreed to reforms. In 1861, he issued a decree mandating the emancipation of serfs. These reforms were aimed at stimulating transitions within the Russian economy.
• Emancipating the serfs was not just a social reform; it was intended to free them from land and the control of conservative landowners. Alexander and his advisors hoped that many freed serfs would become a mobile labor force, capable of relocating to areas where industrial workers were needed. They also believed that with greater freedom, peasants would develop more efficient and productive farming methods.
• However, freedom brought its own set of challenges. Former serfs were required to purchase the land they had worked, but many lacked the financial means to do so. Additionally, the land allocated to peasants was often insufficient for efficient farming or supporting a family. Despite the emancipation, peasants remained impoverished, and discontent persisted. Although the emancipation had significant social implications, it did not substantially contribute to Russia’s economic development.
• Nevertheless, emancipation marked a pivotal moment. Many peasants migrated to cities, taking jobs in factories and contributing to the growth of Russian industries. Equally important, freeing the serfs intensified the push for further reforms. One anticipated outcome of the 1861 reforms was the emergence of a successful peasant class known as the kulak.

The kulak was envisioned as a proto-capitalist figure, owning larger tracts of land and more livestock or machinery, hiring landless peasants as laborers, employing more efficient farming techniques, and selling surplus grain for profit. However, despite the release of millions of peasants from their land, the strong presence of peasant communes hindered the widespread development of a kulak class.

Introducing Other Reforms

Alongside the emancipation of serfs, Alexander II established a system of local government. Elected assemblies were tasked with responsibilities such as road maintenance, education, and agriculture. Alexander also encouraged industrial growth in Russia, which still heavily relied on agriculture. In the 1870s, the government initiated several large infrastructure projects, particularly in railway construction.

Revolutionary Currents:

• Despite Alexander’s reforms, many Russians remained unsatisfied. Peasants had gained freedom but lacked sufficient land. Liberals sought a constitution and an elected legislature, while radicals influenced by socialist ideas from the West demanded even more revolutionary changes. The tsar gradually shifted away from reform towards repression.
• In the 1870s, some socialists attempted to live and work among peasants, advocating for reform and rebellion, but they faced little success. The peasants were often indifferent to their messages and sometimes turned them over to the authorities. The failure of this movement, coupled with renewed government repression, fueled anger among radicals. Some resorted to terrorism, culminating in the assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
• In response to his father’s assassination, Alexander III adopted the harsh methods of Nicholas I and initiated a program of Russification aimed at suppressing the cultures of non-Russian peoples within the empire.

The Drive to Industrialization

• Russia's industrial revolution came later than in many other countries because its agricultural methods had not evolved since the medieval era. In the mid-nineteenth century, farmers still left a third of their land fallow to replenish nitrogen levels, which hindered the agricultural foundation necessary for industrialization.
• However, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, modern agricultural techniques began to take hold. Farmers started planting legumes on previously fallow land, which replenished nitrogen more quickly. This shift also allowed for the keeping of more cattle, leading to an increase in meat, cheese, milk, butter, and natural fertilizer for more robust crops.
• Russia finally entered the industrial age under the reign of Alexander III and his son Nicholas II. In the 1890s, Nicholas II's government prioritized economic development, focusing on building railroads to connect iron and coal mines with factories and facilitating the transport of goods across Russia. The government also secured foreign capital for investment in industry and transportation systems, exemplified by the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which linked European Russia to the Pacific Ocean.

Contribution of Sergei Witte:

• During the 1880s, Sergei Witte, a skilled mathematician with a track record of success in the tsarist bureaucracy and private sector, emerged as a key figure in Russia's industrialization efforts. In 1889, Witte was appointed to oversee the Russian railway system, where he played a crucial role in planning and constructing the Trans-Siberian Railway. By 1892, he had advanced to the position of minister for transport, communication, and finance.
• Recognizing the need for capital investment, Witte facilitated foreign investment in Russian industrial ventures by removing existing barriers and offering incentives to foreign individuals and companies. This led to a boom in industries such as coal, oil, iron, and textiles, particularly with the influx of German and French investment.
• Witte also implemented currency reform, moving the Russian rouble to the gold standard in 1897, which strengthened and stabilized the currency and improved foreign exchange. He financed public works and infrastructure programs, including the construction of new railways, telegraph lines, and electrical plants.
• By the late 1890s, Witte's reforms had a significant impact on the Russian economy. Large amounts of foreign capital, primarily from France and Britain, funded new plants and factories in cities such as St Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev. By 1900, approximately half of Russia's heavy industries were foreign-owned, but the Russian Empire had become the world's fourth-largest producer of steel and the second-largest source of petroleum.
• New railways enabled transportation into remote parts of the empire, facilitating the construction and operation of factories, mines, dams, and other projects. Russia's industrial economy advanced more in one decade than it had in the previous century, a period later dubbed "the great spurt" by historians.

Problems of Industrialization in Russia and the Revolution

Despite its advancements, the economic transformation of Russia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought about unforeseen consequences, some of which proved problematic for the regime.

Political and Social Challenges:

• Political and social problems increased as a result of industrialization. Government officials and business leaders praised economic growth, while nobles and peasants opposed it, fearing the changes it brought.
• Industrialization led to new social issues as peasants migrated to cities for factory work. Instead of finding a better life, they encountered long hours, low pay, and hazardous conditions.
• The establishment of new factories attracted thousands of landless peasants to cities in search of employment, eventually forming a rising social class: the industrial proletariat.
• Russia's cities were ill-prepared for the rapid urban growth that accompanied industrialization.

Urban Growth and Living Conditions:

• In the early 1800s,only two Russian cities(St. Petersburg and Moscow) had more than 100,000 residents; by 1910, there were twelve cities of this size.
• Between 1890 and 1900,St. Petersburg grew by approximately 250,000 people.
• This growth was not matched by the construction of new housing, leading industrial employers to house workers in makeshift dormitories and tenements.
• Most workers lived in unhygienic and often freezing conditions, subsisting on meals of stale bread and buckwheat gruel in overcrowded meal houses.
• Conditions in the factories were even worse, with long hours, monotonous tasks, and dangerous environments.

Impact of Witte’s Reforms:

• Witte’s economic reforms had met and exceeded national goals but also gave rise to a new working class that was exploited and poorly treated.
• This class was clustered in large numbers, making them susceptible to revolutionary ideas.
• In the slums surrounding the factories,poverty, disease, and discontent grew.
• Radicals sought supporters among the new industrial workers, with Socialists distributing pamphlets preaching the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx.

Russo-Japanese War and Economic Strain:

• Russia, always in search of a warm water port, found a suitable location at the end of the Trans-Siberian railroad, with Vladivostok as the planned endpoint.
• By going through Manchuria as per the Russian-Chinese Friendship treaty of 1895, Russia gained Darien and Port Arthur, two warm water ports that would have boosted industrial productivity and overall economic health.
• However, Russian control of Manchuria led to the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, just before the railroad's completion.
• The war effort strained the economy, with industry forced to operate wartime efforts without sufficient resources and workers.
• The Russo-Japanese War turned disastrous, leading to civil unrest, with overworked and underpaid workers starving in cities because peasants in the countryside had no means to transport crops to urban areas.
• Frustrated workers began to strike, crippling Moscow in January 1905.

Stagnation and World War I:

• From 1905 to 1917, industry remained in a latent state. While not completely crippled, it did not generate equal or sufficient wealth for all involved. When World War I occurred, Russia was unprepared, and the lack of necessary resources halted economic growth.
• Workers were pulled from factories and conscripted into the army. A major reason for Russia’s difficulties during World War I was the lack of efficient transportation and sufficient ammunition.
• Soldiers went to war with entire regiments lacking weapons and ammunition. Many soldiers deserted the army to return home, kill landowners, and claim land for themselves.
• Without proper supplies, Russian forces were unmotivated to fight.
• The loss of Poland in 1915 nearly halted Russian industrialization, as Poland was a key transportation and industrial base. Without Poland, the war effort became nearly impossible.
• The subsequent Russian Revolution of 1917, in which Nicholas II abdicated, further impeded industry by slowing the process of economic and industrial growth in Russia, as strikes spread and opposition to the Czar intensified.

Thus, the reign of Nicholas II witnessed both the rise and regression of industry in Russia.

Collectivization and Industrialization Under Stalin

In November 1927, Joseph Stalin initiated his “revolution from above” by establishing two ambitious goals for Soviet domestic policy:

• Rapid industrialization
• Collectivization of agriculture

Stalin aimed to eliminate all remnants of capitalism introduced during Lenin’s New Economic Policy of 1921 and to transform the Soviet Union as swiftly as possible into an industrialized and entirely socialist state, regardless of the cost.

Stalin's First Five-Year Plan

• Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan, adopted by the party in 1928, called for rapid industrialization with a focus on heavy industry. The plan set unrealistic goals, aiming for a 250 percent increase in overall industrial development and a 330 percent expansion in heavy industry alone.
• All industries and services were nationalized, with managers given predetermined output quotas by central planners, and trade unions transformed into tools for enhancing worker productivity.
• Numerous new industrial centers were established, particularly in the Ural Mountains, and thousands of new plants were constructed across the country. However, due to Stalin's insistence on unrealistic production targets, serious issues emerged, notably shortages of consumer goods due to the heavy focus on heavy industry.

• Collectivization of Agriculture

• The First Five-Year Plan also aimed to transform Soviet agriculture from predominantly individual farms to large state collective farms. The Communist regime believed that collectivization would enhance agricultural productivity, producing sufficient grain reserves to feed the growing urban labor force and finance industrialization.
• Collectivization was also expected to free many peasants for industrial work in cities and extend the party’s political control over the peasantry. Stalin particularly targeted wealthier peasants, or kulaks, with about one million kulak households being deported.
• Forced collectivization met with strong resistance, leading to a significant disruption in agricultural productivity and a devastating famine in 1932-33. Although the plan initially called for collectivizing only twenty percent of peasant households, by 1940 approximately ninety-seven percent of all peasant households had been collectivized, and private property ownership was nearly eliminated.
• Forced collectivization achieved Stalin’s goal of rapid industrialization, but the human costs were immense.

Conclusion

The Russian Revolution can be divided into two phases: during the Czar and during Communist rule. The main features include:

• Late industrialization compared to Western Europe
• Involvement of foreign capital
• State-led industrialization
• Focus on defense and heavy machinery
• Contribution of railways