Russia in 19th Century
Why was Russia so difficult to rule in the nineteenth century?
Russia was considered as a difficult country to rule during the nineteenth century as there was such diversity in cultures for instance, only 40% of the population was made up of Russians. The rest of the population were other nationalities, this made it a problem as the Tsar insisted on russification which meant other cultures had to leave their traditions behind and speak and act like a Russian person. Not a lot of people were happy to go through russification without a fight which made it difficult for the Tsar to run alone. Not only the size of the population but also the size of the country made it difficult to rule as Russia was so huge, to keep under control and run a country that size alone was almost impossible. During the nineteenth century the population was the majority illiterate which meant that they couldn’t get jobs other than farming, this took a toll on the economy as most farmers only produced enough food for them and their family to eat meaning there was no surplus to sell or export. Ruling Russia during this time was also difficult because there were natural resources in the country that they couldn’t exploit as they didn’t have the technology or weren’t advanced enough to do so, proving difficult to find anything other than grain to export and earn capital. Although Russia needed modernising to help the economy the Tsar didn’t want peasants to be introduced to new reforms such as other western countries which had a democracy as he felt it would threaten his position; this led to Russia being backward for a long period of time and the population being ignorant and uneducated. This meant the population of the working class was only 4% and freedom of speech was censored proving difficult to keep under control. The fact that Russia was run by autocracy made it difficult to rule as it meant every decision had to be ran through him which could take a while and make people in Russia
Russia was considered as a difficult country to rule during the nineteenth century as there was such diversity in cultures for instance, only 40% of the population was made up of Russians. The rest of the population were other nationalities, this made it a problem as the Tsar insisted on russification which meant other cultures had to leave their traditions behind and speak and act like a Russian person. Not a lot of people were happy to go through russification without a fight which made it difficult for the Tsar to run alone. Not only the size of the population but also the size of the country made it difficult to rule as Russia was so huge, to keep under control and run a country that size alone was almost impossible. During the nineteenth century the population was the majority illiterate which meant that they couldn’t get jobs other than farming, this took a toll on the economy as most farmers only produced enough food for them and their family to eat meaning there was no surplus to sell or export. Ruling Russia during this time was also difficult because there were natural resources in the country that they couldn’t exploit as they didn’t have the technology or weren’t advanced enough to do so, proving difficult to find anything other than grain to export and earn capital. Although Russia needed modernising to help the economy the Tsar didn’t want peasants to be introduced to new reforms such as other western countries which had a democracy as he felt it would threaten his position; this led to Russia being backward for a long period of time and the population being ignorant and uneducated. This meant the population of the working class was only 4% and freedom of speech was censored proving difficult to keep under control. The fact that Russia was run by autocracy made it difficult to rule as it meant every decision had to be ran through him which could take a while and make people in Russia