ABSTRACT
In the period between revolutions agriculture underwent some of the most dramatic changes in the whole Russian economy. In general Russian capitalism went on expanding rapidly, although the rate of growth seems to have leveled off somewhat. As in England, the Industrial Revolution in Russia owed much to the growth of cotton manufacturing, beginning in Ivanovo-Voznesensk and spreading into the Vladimir and Moscow provinces. Farm machinery, cotton and linen output increased, and sugar production mounted swiftly. Under the conditions of economic prosperity and greater political freedom in the final years of tsarism, labor unions made some progress, although not enough to produce a leadership capable of competing effectively with the revolutionaries. At the outbreak of the war, the economic structure of Russia presented a mixed picture of strength and weakness, rapid and slow development, foreign and domestic control, profit and loss, governmental fiat and private initiative.
