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Tsarist Russia was an empire of great internal
contradictions. It was a colossus, which had expanded over
one sixth of the earth’s landmass, and yet was ever
vulnerable to foreign invasion. It had one of the world’s
largest populations, yet the majority lived in poverty and
discontent. It commanded the world’s richest natural
resources, yet its productive forces were severely
constricted by the remnants of feudalism. It strove to
cement its multiethnic population by systematic
Russification, which only stimulated nationalist movements.
It tried to portray its political system as ‘people’s
autocracy’ at a time when the regime was becoming
increasingly ‘detached’ from its people. The gigantic empire
of the tsars was becoming ever more fragile and vulnerable
until it was shattered to pieces in the turmoil of war and
revolution. This concluding part brings together the main
lines of argument and draws conclusions in the form of
paradoxes which are, to paraphrase Shakespeare, such stuff
as Russian history is made on. |
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In early Russia, in contrast to Western Europe, where flourishing towns
and trade links became the cementing force which bound the edifice of
national states, the unification of the Russian principalities around
Moscow proceeded mainly under the pressure of external political
factors. The constant threat of military invasion put heavy demands on
the Russian people which had to strain its limited economic and human
resources, scattered over a vast territory, to maintain its sovereignty.
National security interests required from this poor, sparsely populated
agrarian country the ability to mobilize all available resources at
times of military emergency. |
The solution
of how to maintain its military security was found in the creation
of a special warrior-class bound by the obligations of military
service to the state. As a reward for their service and to provide
them with an income, the State granted to members of the military
class land and peasants to work it. A system thus took shape which
featured a ruler with sweeping powers, a nobility based on service
to the State, and a peasantry, increasingly tied to land owned by
the nobility.
As the
tsarist empire grew, so did the state’s expenses. Seeking to secure
their income, the state and the ruling military class tightened the
grip over the peasants, and eventually a considerable part of
Russian peasantry became bonded to their squires or the state. The
Russian peasants were fully and completely enserfed by the articles
of the new legal code of Tsar Alexis, father of Peter the Great, in
1649, the very year in which a ‘bourgeois’ revolution occurred in
England bringing about the overthrow of the king. In contrast to the
West, where social progress was achieved through the natural
development of economic relations, the Russian state drew its
strength and vitality from the use of non-economic methods. Force,
repression, coercion and further enserfment of the mass of the
population became the chief means by which Russia developed her
productive forces. The clearest illustration of this is Peter the
Great’s era. Under him Russia built up her industry, expanded her
military might and established herself as one of the great powers of
Europe. At the same time the mass of Russia’s peasants found itself
increasingly bound by the restrictions of serfdom. The population
was treated by the despotic state merely as building material for
the establishment of a grand empire.
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Tsarist Russia |
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