Russia remained an agricuatal country. Even while the industrial Revloution was changing western Europe. 90% of all russians depended on farming for their lively hood. A few had large estates. Most of them where serfs or pesents. They worked for people who owned large estates.
The serfs had little property and land of there own. And there lives where controled by the czar. He had complete control over their lives and property. The czar was called an autocrat, ruler with unlimited power. One czar Alexander went twords the idea of freeing the serfs , but he dies in 1825. So it never happened. But Alexander the 2 did free the serfs. This new law left some of the farmable land to the nobles. The rest to the surfs. The newly free peasants did not own their land. The pesents still has many burdens. They where sent to death when found guilty to a cryme.
Chinese Stamp, 1950. Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong ...
Yalta summit in February 1945 with (from left to r...
Painter of the burial chamber of SennedjemThe unfairness led to riets. The peasants and the people who diden't like industrial workers. They made up the social Revoultions. They thought the pesants could overthrew the government. This led to a revolution. Many workers and their familys went to the czars palace. They where asking for better work conditions and freedom. They where unarmed but the soldgers got the order to shoot. About a thousand people where killed. This was called bloody Sunday.
The pesents where also treated badly by Stalin. Stalins agricultural revolution also based on centralized planning was brutal. There where 25 million small farms in 1928. That year the government announced that privately owned farms would be abolished. They where prelaced by cllective farms. They where run by large familyes. The pesents that owned land where resisted fiercely. Stalin showed no mercy. There where 5 million to 10 million...