Стр. 28 - V

Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Authors: Svyatoslav Rybas, writer and historian, member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Culture of
the Russian Federation
Ekaterina Rybas, writer and journalist
WHAT WAS THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE in the early
twentieth century? As a great power it was a rival of
other powers - Germany, the UK, France, the North
American United States (the USA), and Austria-Hun-
gary. It was not the most developed country industrially
and financially; its population was not well educated and
was not rich; its elite were no longer close-knit. Its po-
tential, however, was huge; development rates were fast,
military might colossal, domestic market vast, cultural and scientific achievements unrivalled, the
business circles passionary, and the intelligentsia unselfish, politically active and opposed to the
crown.
On the whole, Russia was a country with the huge territory, where the center was loosely con-
nected with the regions; it was a country of a cold climate to which people had to adjust, of
poor soils and inadequate yields, of overstrained population and super-centralization; huge sums
of money were poured into defense. The industrial revolution created an educated class that
served the country's industrial development and, after a while, became a rival of the system of
power. In the political and philosophical sense, it fought for democratic freedoms.
On the eve of World War I, the economic reforms in Russia (carried out by Sergey Witte and
Pyotr Stolypin) were still uncompleted. The country was facing a momentous alternative: either
to continue modernization to catch up with the West while remaining its raw-material appendage
or perform a breakthrough to outstrip its own historical time.
Stolypin did not idealize the peasants. The economic situation demanded a wider domestic market
for Russia's developing industry that required an involvement of popular masses into economic
activities without seeking their agreement.
The agrarian sector paid for the country's industrialization: the taxes imposed on it were 3-3.5
times higher than those paid by the industrial sector, while further development was impossible
because of the rapidly contracting domestic market.
This practice of pumping money into industry ("parasitic capitalism," according to Marx) was
destroying the archaic mass culture.
Military spending speeded up inflation making people poorer and irritated. Manikovsky wrote
that the owners of private factories "grew disgustingly rich during the blackest period in Russia's
history." The stock exchange promptly responded to the enrichment of private business.
The Russian Empire was built by nobles and destroyed by nobles. Throughout nearly 200 years
- from Peter the Great who made them "the servants of the autocrat" (wounds or death being
the only escape) to Peter III who liberated them from the obligatory service to the Great Reforms
Notes on the February Revolution