Russia up to 1914

Up until this period, the Russian Empire was a European superpower.

It was the largest country in the world stretching from the Black Sea in the west to the Bering Sea in the extreme east of the Asian continent. It also had a huge population that included, alongside Russians, large numbers of Germans, Poles, Slavs and Asians. Among this diverse population, just about every major religious faith was represented.

Unlike Western Europe, however, the Russian Empire was politically, economically and socially backwards. There was little industry and the vast majority of the population were peasant farmers working in an agricultural system that had changed little since the middle-ages.

Furthermore, most of the population were illiterate and many still existed as serfs - effectively slaves under the control of wealthy landowners.

Autocratic government

This vast, diverse Empire was ruled by a series of Tsars. The Tsars were autocrats. This meant that the Tsar, and only the Tsar, governed Russia. There were no legal or constitutional methods by which Tsarist power could be challenged. The Empire did not have a parliament or elected assembly and there were no elections.

To help him run the vast Russian Empire, the Tsar had a number of ministers who were appointed by him and responsible only to him. In fact, the only way in which Tsarist autocracy could be challenged was by acts of violent rebellion.

Freedom of speech was strictly censored and the Tsar's will was enforced by a large police system that would report suspicious behaviour and destroy subversive groups.

The only genuine limit to the power and influence of the Tsar was the sheer vastness of the Empire and the scale of corruption and incompetence on the part of his ministers and state officials. The far-flung corners of the Empire, some many thousands of miles away from Moscow, would often prove ungovernable, even for the Tsar.