ABSTRACT
Most Russians were just trying to survive. In the second half of the nineteenth century, five-sixths of the Russian people were peasants. The problem with the emancipation was its narrow scope; it freed the serfs from the authority of the landlords without addressing the gap between the peasantry and the rest of Russian society. Post-emancipation peasants at best were second-class citizens. They were subject to the authority of special courts and to corporal punishment. The emancipation was a major step forward; it ended personal bondage in Russia, gave the peasants more opportunities to earn a living, and removed serious roadblocks to economic development in the country as a whole. Westerners and certain Westernized Russians who wanted Russia to follow the European capitalist and parliamentary path of development pinned their hopes on Russia’s middle class. The workers who suffered in Russia’s factories did have one advantage over their rural compatriots.
