ABSTRACT
Before 1917 the Russian Empire was a huge multi-national empire. It contained over 100 non-Russian peoples, including: Ukrainians and Belorussians who were closely akin to the Great Russians themselves; Poles, Finns and Balts; Azeris, Armenians and Georgians in the Transcaucasus; and the various Muslim peoples of Central Asia. By the end of the nineteenth century the Great Russians themselves had become a minority, totalling about 44 per cent of the population. The following table, based upon the 1897 census (the only comprehensive one before the Revolution), lists the major nationalities of the Empire, to which must be added the two and a half million Finns populating the Grand Duchy of Finland, then an autonomous part of the Empire.
