Editing Russian Empire (1721–1917)

{{Infobox country|name=Russian Empire|native_name=Россійская Имперія|year_start=1721|year_end=1917|population_census=125,640,021|population_census_year=1897|capital=Saint Petersburg|largest_city=Saint Petersburg|image_map=Russian Empire.png|map_width=290|official_languages=Russian|mode_of_production=[[Feudalism]] (1721–1861)<br>Semi-feudal [[capitalism]] (1861–1917)|government_type=Absolute [[monarchy]]|area_km2=22,800,000|image_flag=Flag of Russia.svg|leader_title1=First emperor|leader_name1=Pyotr Alexeyevich|leader_title2=Last emperor|leader_name2=Nikolai Aleksandrovich|image_flag2=Russian Imperial flag.png|flag_caption=Left: 1883–1917<br>Right: 1858–1883}}
The '''Russian Empire''' was a monarchy that was founded by [[Peter Alexeyevich Romanov|Peter Alexeyevich]] in 1721 and overthrown in the [[February Revolution]] of 1917. Throughout its entire existence, it was ruled by the Romanov dynasty. The Russian Empire included the area of modern-day [[Russian Federation|Russia]], the other [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] republics, [[Republic of Finland|Finland]], [[State of Alaska|Alaska]], and [[Republic of Poland|Poland]]. Most of the empire's territory later became part of the USSR, but Finland and Poland became independent after the revolution and Alaska was sold to the [[United States of America|United States of America]] in 1867.

== History ==

=== Expansion ===
In 1721, [[Swedish Empire (1611–1721)|Sweden]] ceded [[Estonia]] and northern [[Latvia]] to Russia after being defeated in the [[Great Northern War]]. [[Catherine the Great]] annexed southern Latvia and [[Lithuania]] in the 1790s after defeating [[Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1569–1795)|Poland]]. Russia defeated the [[Kingdom of Sweden (1772–1809)|Swedish]] again in 1809 and took [[Finland]] from Swedish control.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=W. P., Zelda K. Coates|year=1940|title=Russia, Finland and the Baltic|chapter=Russia, Finland and the Baltic States|pdf=https://ia600104.us.archive.org/2/items/RussiaFinlandBalticsCoates/Russia%20Finland%20Baltics%20Coates.pdf|city=London, [[England]]|publisher=Lawrence & Wishart Ltd.|page=14–16}}</ref>

The Russian Empire killed over a million civilians in the [[Caucasus]] during the Circassian genocide.<ref>{{Citation|author=Austin Murphy|year=2000|title=The Triumph of Evil|chapter=Introduction|page=51|quote=Czarist Russia slaughtered over a million people in a purge of Circassians from its Caucasus provinces.|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf|city=Fucecchio, [[Italy]]|publisher=European Academic Publishing Press|isbn=8883980026}}</ref>

=== Decembrist uprising ===
The gentry, led by [[Pavel Pestel]], tried to overthrow the monarchy and abolish [[serfdom]] in the early 19th century.<ref name=":03">{{Citation|author=Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R|year=1954|title=Political Economy|chapter=The Feudal Mode of Production|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/pe/pe-ch03.htm|section=|page=|pdf=https://revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/PoliticalEconomy.pdf|city=London|publisher=Lawrence & Wishart|mia=https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/pe/index.htm}}</ref>

=== Abolition of serfdom ===
Tsar [[Alexander Nikolayevich Romanov|Alexander Nikolayevich]] abolished serfdom in 1861 following Russia's defeat in the [[Crimean War]] and [[Peasantry|peasant]] revolts. [[Landlord|Landlords]] enclosed peasant land and continued to exploit the peasants, demanding half of their harvests and charging them high rent.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=[[Joseph Stalin]]|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Struggle for the Creation of a Social-Democratic Labour Party in Russia|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch01.htm|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/index.htm}}</ref>

=== Russo-Japanese War ===
Russia participated in the [[Colonialism|colonization]] of [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]] during the 19th century and took over the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur. In 1900, Russia, [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japan]], [[German Empire (1871–1918)|Germany]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922)|Britain]], and [[French Republic (1870–1940)|France]] crushed an anti-imperialist uprising in China.

In January 1904, Japan attacked and defeated Russia at Port Arthur. It then seized [[Korea]] and the southern half of [[Sakhalin]].<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=[[Joseph Stalin]]|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Russo-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/index.htm}}</ref>

=== 1905 revolution ===
{{Main article|Russian revolution of 1905}}

=== Collapse ===
{{Main article|February Revolution}}

== Education ==
The male literacy rate was 1–12% for rural areas and 20–25% for urban areas.<ref>{{Citation|author=Boris N. Mironov|year=1991|title=The Development of Literacy in Russia and the USSR from the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries|chapter=|section=|page=234|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=History of Education Quarterly|isbn=|doi=10.2307/368437|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The literacy rate for women was even lower and girls could not go to school.<ref>{{Citation|author=Nicholas V. Riasanovsky|year=2005|title=Russian Identities: A Historical Survey|chapter=|section=|page=112–18|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

== Living standards ==

=== Health ===
The first hospitals in Russia were established by Peter Alexeyevich in Moscow in 1706 and Saint Petersburg in 1715 and were staffed by foreign doctors. Russia began training its own doctors in 1724 at the Academy of Science. Healthcare was not initially available to serfs and industrial workers.

In 1884, with the introduction of the [[zemstvo]] system, health care became available in rural areas, but much of the population still received no medical care. In some areas, there was only one doctor per 40,000 people.<ref>{{News citation|author=Carlos Rule|newspaper=[[Stalin Society]]|title=Health in the USSR|date=2017-01-18|url=https://stalinsocietygb.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/health-in-the-ussr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216095354/https://stalinsocietygb.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/health-in-the-ussr/|archive-date=2022-02-16|retrieved=2022-06-27}}</ref>

=== Housing ===
In Saint Petersburg in 1908, 60% of textile workers did not have their own rooms and slept in crowded barracks. The average proletarian family had only three square meters of floor space. In 1913, 58% of workers lived in company-owned accommodations with bunk beds.

In 1912, there were 24,500 small apartments in Moscow that housed a total of 325,000 people, or more than 13 people per apartment. The nobility and bourgeoisie lived in large mansions and villas, often with hundreds of square meters of space per resident.

Only 3% of houses were connected to sewage systems and only 5% of urban homes had electricity.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=[[Stalin Society]]|title=Housing in the USSR|date=2017-01-13|url=https://stalinsocietygb.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/housing-in-the-ussr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330020740/https://stalinsocietygb.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/housing-in-the-ussr/|archive-date=2022-03-30|retrieved=2022-05-20}}</ref>

=== Working conditions ===
The average work day in the 1880s was over 12 hours and up to 15 hours in the textile industry. Women and children worked the same hours as men but were paid less. Many workers died or were injured in factory accidents. In 1897, following a strike of 30,000 textile workers, the Tsar limited the work day to 11.5 hours.<ref name=":1" />

== Antisemitism ==
Russia confined [[Judaism|Jews]] to [[Poland]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], and the [[Baltics|Baltic states]] (the Pale). The monarchy frequently blamed them for economic and political problems and sponsored violent pogroms, leading many to flee to the [[United States of America|USA]] before the revolution.<ref name=":032">{{Citation|author=Albert Szymanski|year=1984|title=Human Rights in the Soviet Union|chapter=The European Nationalities in the USSR|page=88|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceazdmtb2y3qq27fve5ib3gk7uv2unt6ae2xss74xmfpur7k5uhl5m?filename=Albert%20Szymanski%20-%20Human%20Rights%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union_%20Including%20Comparisons%20with%20the%20U.S.A.-Zed%20Books%20Ltd.%20%281984%29.pdf|city=London|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|isbn=0862320186|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=C597B1232D9EA6B0F3DCB438D7E15A81}}</ref>

== Further reading ==

* ''[[Library:A History of the U.S.S.R.#Part Two (1700–1900)|A History of the U.S.S.R.]]'' (Part Two)

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Former states]]
[[Category:Medieval history]]