Rusia

Russia industrialised very late on - there was an initial phase in the 1880s with the
establishments of great factories producing textiles (for uniforms), steel - for railways andarmaments and coal mines to power it all. Then there was another burst of activity after the
start of WWI - again producing mostly for the government - arms, textiles and steel.
The industrialisationprocess was particularly harsh in Russia, cities struggled to cope with the
new influx of people, so dormitories were set up for workers, and the hours were very long, the
pay poor and there was nofallback if you got injured or sick - you simply starved.
Some serfs (serfdom was not fully eradicated by the Emancipation Edict of 1861) were factory
serfs, they worked for nothing. The workers in thefactories, both free workers and factory serfs
wanted reform because they saw that their hard work was enriching the factory owners and the
upper tiers of the management structures, whilst theywere living in abject poverty. They were
ripe for the radical parties - the Socialist Revolutionaries, the narodniks and the Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party.

The serfs wanted reform becausethey were tied to their lords - they
had to provide a certain amount of labour, or payment, to their lords in return they were allotted land to farm. They wanted reform for the
same reason that theworkers wanted reform - they saw their landlords
living in great manor houses - palaces in many cases - living on the back
of the labour that they had to give for free. They also wanted to own
theland which they had worked for generations - they had to pay their
landlords rent on their homes and farms.

Some of the nobles wanted reform because the economic reforms of
the 1880s coupled withthe collapse of the price of grain in the 1890s
had seen their wealth also collapse. They wanted political reforms so
that they could better protect their interests.
For an example of how the...