ation, 115 million Russians were still dependant upon the land as a means of providing their primary livelihood. Problems of “land allotments” and “redemption dues” arose at the turn of the 20th century. At the time of their emancipation from serfdom, the government had planned to make of them an economically stable, and hence politically conservative, landholding class . To further this ideal the government had provided that “allotment lands” could be purchased from the nobility by the peasant commune. These lands were to be paid for through “redemption dues” over a period of decades. This idealistic theory proved incompatible with reality. Individual peasants were arbitrarily assigned strips of land according to the open-field system. Ideally, this was intended to allow all peasants equal opportunity to provide for themselves. However, the result was that none of the peasants could provide for their needs through this system because there was not enough land available. As a result, peasants needed to purchase additional lands from the nobility or seek work in cities. Despite their efforts they were still unable to reconcile their small earnings with the cost of living and “by the tenth year of the reign of Nicholas II, their total arrears in payments of taxes and dues 118 million rubles.” This sum was greater than the amount due annually from them. These factors contributed to the abject poverty of the peasant class. The dire economic situation of the Russian peasant class was augmented by bad harvests and crop loss. In the best of years, those with favourable harvests, there were millions of peasants in rural Russia on the verge of starvation. This meant that in years of adversity such as the major famine in 1891 and a series crop failures in 1897, 1898 and 1901 peasants were unable to prevent themselves from destitution. This poverty led to a breakdown of the ...
