06.11.2019
Mark the border of the Russian Empire in 1914. Tsarist Russia - the whole truth. Territory and location of settlements
What was Russia like in 1914, on the eve of the First World War, which dramatically changed the vector of its development? According to most objective indicators, it occupied a not entirely honorable place in Europe next to the then Spain or slightly ahead of it.
Judge for yourself: by 1914, 86% of the country’s population lived in rural areas, agriculture produced 58% of production National economy, i.e., contrary to the myth spread by Govorukhin about food abundance in Tsarist Russia, one peasant could hardly feed himself and plus another 0.2 city dwellers. In this situation, the export of agricultural products was carried out according to the cynical principle formulated back in the early 90s of the 19th century. Finance Minister Vyshegradsky: “We won’t finish it, but we’ll take it out.” ( the indicators of Russian agriculture in 1913 will be shown below)
The famous agronomist and publicist wrote in 1880 about what the export of grain meant for the Russian peasantry. Alexander Nikolaevich Engelhardt:
____ “When last year everyone was rejoicing, rejoicing that there was a bad harvest abroad, that there was a great demand for grain, that prices were rising, that exports were increasing, only the men were not happy, they looked askance at the sending of grain to the Germans, and at the fact that the masses had better the bread is burned into wine. The men kept hoping that the export of grain to the Germans would be prohibited, that the burning of bread for wine would be prohibited. “What kind of order is this,” people explained, “the whole peasantry buys bread, and the grain is taken past us to the Germans. The price of bread is expensive, it’s impossible to beat, that the best bread is burned into wine, and all evil comes from wine
[...]
We send wheat, good clean rye abroad, to the Germans, who will not eat any rubbish. We burn the best, clean rye for wine, but the worst rye, with fluff, fire, calico and all sorts of waste obtained from cleaning rye for distilleries - this is what a man eats. But not only does the man eat the worst bread, he is also malnourished. If there is enough bread in the villages, they eat three times; there has become a derogation in the bread, the bread is short - they eat it twice, they lean more on the spring, potatoes, and hemp seed are added to the bread. Of course, the stomach is full, but from bad food people lose weight, get sick, the guys grow tighter, just like what happens with poorly kept cattle...”
____
Do the children of a Russian farmer have the food they need? No, no and NO. Children eat worse than calves from an owner who has good livestock.”
In no developed capitalist country in the world at that time was the gap between the distribution of income of different segments of the population as deep as in Russia. 17% of the population belonging to the exploitative classes of the city and countryside had a total income equal to the income of the rest 83% residents of the country. In the village 30 thousand landowners had as much land as 10 million peasant families.
Russia in 1901-1914 was an arena for the investment of foreign capital, and its domestic market was an object of division among international financial monopolies. As a result, by the beginning of the First World War were in the hands of foreign capital major industries such as: metallurgical, coal, oil, electric power.
Russia was connected with the West by a chain of enslaving loans. Foreign financial capital almost completely controlled its banking system. Of the fixed capital of the 18 largest banks in Russia, 43% was made up of the capital of French, English and Belgian banks. Russia's external debt doubled over 20 years by 1914 and amounted to 4 billion rubles. or half of the state budget. In the 33 years preceding the First World War, 2 times more money went abroad from Russia in the form of interest on loans and dividends to foreign shareholders than the value of fixed assets of the entire Russian industry.
Foreign economic dependence inevitably led to foreign policy dependence on creditor countries. The external result of a sharp increase in such dependence by the beginning of the 20th century. a whole series of unequal economic and political treaties began: 1904 with Germany, 1905 with France and 1907 with England. According to the agreements with France and England, Russia had to pay its debts not only with money, but also with “cannon fodder”, adjusting its military-strategic plans to please them (instead of delivering the main blow in the upcoming war to the weaker Austria-Hungary, which would be more advantageous for Russia , she had to apply it to Germany in order to ease the situation for France). The French and English governments, taking advantage of “alliance treaties” with Russia, forced the tsarist government to place its foreign military orders only at their enterprises.
Russian industrialists and bankers, being closely associated with foreign capital, very often slipped into outright treason. Thus, in 1907, in the agreement of the famous Russian private enterprise, the military-industrial complex of the association Putilov factories with a similar German company Krupp, among other things, it was envisaged to familiarize German partners with the conditions and requirements of the Russian War Ministry for the weapons produced.
However, even the ordinary business activities of Russian capitalists often caused damage to Russia. Thus, in 1907, the manager of the largest coal monopoly in Russia, Produgol, noted with regret in his next annual report that “periods of coal famine occur very rarely, and with them a period of high prices”. Unlike the coal industry, other Russian monopolies managed to hold off the hunger for their products for much longer. Thus, in 1910, the metallurgical monopoly “Prodamet” organized a “metallurgical famine” that lasted until the outbreak of the First World War. In 1912, the oil monopolies Mazut and Nobel carried out a similar operation.
As a result, in 1910-1914. metal prices rose by 38%, exceeding 2 times world prices, coal prices by 54%, and oil prices by 200%.
The tsarist government did not even try to limit this robbery of the country by domestic and foreign monopolies, which the Council of Ministers directly stated in 1914, adopting the decision “On the inadmissibility of influencing industry in order to adapt it to demand.”
The reasons for such patronage of the “knights of profit” were very simple. During this period, there was an intensive merging of the ruling semi-feudal elite with domestic and foreign capital. For example, the governor of the Caucasus, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, was the owner of a large block of shares oil companies. The Grand Dukes were shareholders of the Vladikavkaz Railway, the director of the Volga-Kama Bank Bark became the Minister of Finance in 1914, etc.
The Russian bourgeois parties of that time zealously defended the interests of large monopolies and, of course, not only because of ideological considerations. For example, the Azov-Don Bank financed the “Cadet” party, 52 trading companies in Moscow - the “Union of October 17” (“Octobrists”).
“Kowtowling” to the West and a disdainful attitude toward the specific achievements of Russian scientists and inventors flourished. In this regard, it is enough to recall the adventures of a number of international scientific adventurers in what was then Russia. One of them, a certain Marconi, who contested the championship abroad using various fraudulent methods A.S. Popova in the invention of radio.
He was not alone in his claims. In 1908, a certain del Proposto, using the drawings of a submarine designed by the Russian engineer Dzhevetsky who happened to be in his hands, tried to obtain profitable contract for its production.
While favorably treating various kinds of international adventurers, tsarist officials greeted domestic inventors with icy indifference. Michurin in 1908 Mr. noted bitterly: “In Russia, we treat with disdain and distrust everything Russian, all the original works of a Russian person.” I had to face the same attitude in 1912. Tsiolkovsky, who contacted the General Staff with a project for an airship and received a response that he could work on it "without any expenses from the treasury."
And if in this way the ruling elite treated the thinking elite of society, then one can imagine the level of its attitude towards the common people, which was expressed in social legislation. Adopted in the late 90s of the XIX century. legislative limitation of the working day to 11.5 hours continued to operate until the February Revolution of 1917, while in the USA, Germany, England, France the working day at the beginning of the 20th century. averaged 9 hours and did not exceed 10. Wage During this period, there were 20 times fewer Russian workers than American workers, although labor productivity in various branches of production was 5-10 times less.
The Workers' Insurance Act of 1912 covered only a sixth of the working class. Benefits for injuries received were meager, and they also had to prove that they were received through no fault of their own. The benefits were paid for 12 weeks, and then live as you wish. The life and health of a worker in Tsarist Russia were valued cheaply. At the state Obukhov arms factory in the workshops there was hung "Table for assessing damage to the worker's body". The prices for one-time benefits for injuries received were as follows: for loss of vision in one eye - 35 rubles, both eyes - 100 rubles, complete loss of hearing - 50 rubles, loss of speech - 40 rubles.
The peasant question was even more acute in Russia at that time, which he tried to solve Stolypin, based on his ideas about the relationship between the Russian peasantry and agriculture, which further aggravated relations between peasants and authorities.
The failures of the basis of Stolypin's political line - reforms in the agrarian sector - by 1911 became obvious to everyone. All the main components of this reform, namely, the liquidation of the community and the massive resettlement of peasants beyond the Urals to free lands, suffered a clear collapse. In 1910, 80% of the peasants still remained part of the communities, although after everything that had happened they were pretty ruined and angry. Of those sent in 1906-1910. for the Urals 2 million 700 thousand. displaced people over 800 thousand returned completely ruined to their previous place of residence, 700 thousand begged in Siberia, 100 thousand died of hunger and disease, and only 1 million 100 thousand. somehow found a foothold in the new place.
Thus, the socio-political tension in the Russian village, which Stolypin’s reforms were supposedly aimed at removing, not only did not disappear, but increased even more. Tsarism could not find reliable political support in the villages, which it so strived for. This is, in fact, what Stolypin paid for with his life.
After his reforms, indicators by grain production per capita in 1913 year were these:
in Russia - 30.3 pounds
in the USA - 64.3 pounds,
in Argentina - 87.4 pounds,
in Canada - 121 poods.
About the notorious grain exports to satisfy half of Europe:
- in 1913 foreign Europe consumed 8336.8 million poods five main grain crops, of which own harvest amounted to 6755.2 million poods (81%), and net grain imports amounted to 1581.6 million poods (19%), including 6.3% — Russia’s share. In other words, Russian exports satisfied only approximately 1/16
needs of foreign Europe for bread.
Continuing to consider the situation in Russia in 1914, one inevitably comes to the problem of Russia’s participation in the First World War, which began on August 1, 1914.
From all of the above, it clearly follows that Russia could not have any independent role in this major event in world history. She and her people were destined to be cannon fodder. And this role was determined not only by the lack of political independence of Russia on the eve of the First World War, but by the meager economic potential with which Russia entered the war. The huge Russian Empire with a population of 170 million people, or the same in all other countries Western Europe taken together, entered the war with an annual production of 4 million tons of steel, 9 million tons of oil, 29 million tons of coal, 22 million tons of marketable grain, 740 thousand tons of cotton.
In global production in 1913, the share of Russia was 1.72%, the share of the USA - 20%, England - 18%, Germany - 9%, France - 7.2% (these are all countries with a population 2-3 times smaller than Russia).
The consequences of such scarcity were felt very quickly. On the eve of the war, the Russian military industry produced 380 thousand pounds of gunpowder per year, and already in 1916 the Russian army needed 700 thousand pounds of gunpowder, but not per year, but per month. Already in the spring of 1915, the Russian army began to feel a catastrophic shortage of ammunition and, above all, shells, the pre-war reserves of which were destroyed in the first 4 months of the war, and current production did not make up for their shortage. This was precisely the main reason for the defeat of the Russian army along the entire front line during the spring-summer campaign of 1915.
Military industry Tsarist Russia could not cope with the supply of not only ammunition to the front, but also light small arms, first of all, rifles, of which before the war there were 4 million pieces in warehouses, and 525 thousand were produced annually by all the weapons factories of the empire. It was assumed that this entire quantity would be enough until the end of the war. However, reality overturned all calculations. By the end of the first year of the war, the annual need for rifles was 8 million, and by the end of 1916 - 17 million. The shortage of rifles could not be filled even with the help of imports until the very end of the war. ___
Materials used by K.V. Kolontaeva, I. Pykhalova, A. Aidunbekova, M. Sorkina ___ _
As the famous emigrant writer, a staunch monarchist said, Ivan Solonevich:
“Thus, the old emigrant songs about Russia as a country in which rivers of champagne flowed on banks of pressed caviar are an artisanal fake: yes, there was champagne and caviar, but for less than one percent of the country’s population. The bulk of this population lived at a miserable level.”
Along with the collapse Russian Empire the majority of the population chose to create independent nation states. Many of them were never destined to remain sovereign, and they became part of the USSR. Others were included Soviet state later. What was the Russian Empire like at the beginning? XXcentury?
By the end of the 19th century, the territory of the Russian Empire was 22.4 million km 2. According to the 1897 census, the population was 128.2 million, including the population European Russia- 93.4 million people; Kingdom of Poland - 9.5 million, - 2.6 million, Caucasus Territory - 9.3 million, Siberia - 5.8 million, Central Asia- 7.7 million people. Over 100 peoples lived; 57% of the population were non-Russian peoples. The territory of the Russian Empire in 1914 was divided into 81 provinces and 20 regions; there were 931 cities. Some provinces and regions were united into governorates-general (Warsaw, Irkutsk, Kiev, Moscow, Amur, Stepnoe, Turkestan and Finland).
By 1914, the length of the territory of the Russian Empire was 4383.2 versts (4675.9 km) from north to south and 10,060 versts (10,732.3 km) from east to west. The total length of the land and sea borders is 64,909.5 versts (69,245 km), of which the land borders accounted for 18,639.5 versts (19,941.5 km), and the sea borders accounted for about 46,270 versts (49,360 .4 km).
The entire population was considered subjects of the Russian Empire, the male population (from 20 years old) swore allegiance to the emperor. The subjects of the Russian Empire were divided into four estates (“states”): nobility, clergy, urban and rural inhabitants. The local population of Kazakhstan, Siberia and a number of other regions were distinguished into an independent “state” (foreigners). The coat of arms of the Russian Empire was a double-headed eagle with royal regalia; national flag- cloth with white, blue and red horizontal stripes; national anthem- “God save the king.” Official language- Russian.
Administratively, the Russian Empire by 1914 was divided into 78 provinces, 21 regions and 2 independent districts. The provinces and regions were divided into 777 counties and districts and in Finland - into 51 parishes. Counties, districts and parishes, in turn, were divided into camps, departments and sections (2523 in total), as well as 274 landmanships in Finland.
Territories that were important in military-political terms (metropolitan and border) were united into viceroyalties and general governorships. Some cities were allocated into special administrative units - city governments.
Even before the transformation of the Grand Duchy of Moscow into the Russian Kingdom in 1547, at the beginning of the 16th century, Russian expansion began to expand beyond its ethnic territory and began to absorb the following territories (the table does not include lands lost before the beginning of the 19th century):
|
Territory |
Date (year) of accession to the Russian Empire |
Data |
|
Western Armenia (Asia Minor) |
The territory was ceded in 1917-1918 |
|
|
Eastern Galicia, Bukovina (Eastern Europe) |
ceded in 1915, partially recaptured in 1916, lost in 1917 |
|
|
Uriankhai region (Southern Siberia) |
Currently part of the Republic of Tuva |
|
|
Franz Josef Land, Emperor Nicholas II Land, New Siberian Islands (Arctic) |
Archipelagos of the North Arctic Ocean, secured as Russian territory by a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
|
|
Northern Iran (Middle East) |
Lost as a result of revolutionary events and the Russian Civil War. Currently owned by the State of Iran |
|
|
Concession in Tianjin |
Lost in 1920. Currently a city directly under the People's Republic of China |
|
|
Kwantung Peninsula (Far East) |
Lost as a result of defeat in Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Currently Liaoning Province, China |
|
|
Badakhshan (Central Asia) |
Currently, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug of Tajikistan |
|
|
Concession in Hankou (Wuhan, East Asia) |
Currently Hubei Province, China |
|
|
Transcaspian region (Central Asia) |
Currently belongs to Turkmenistan |
|
|
Adjarian and Kars-Childyr sanjaks (Transcaucasia) |
In 1921 they were ceded to Turkey. Currently Adjara Autonomous Okrug of Georgia; silts of Kars and Ardahan in Turkey |
|
|
Bayazit (Dogubayazit) sanjak (Transcaucasia) |
In the same year, 1878, it was ceded to Turkey following the results of the Berlin Congress. |
|
|
Principality of Bulgaria, Eastern Rumelia, Adrianople Sanjak (Balkans) |
Abolished following the results of the Berlin Congress in 1879. Currently Bulgaria, Marmara region of Turkey |
|
|
Khanate of Kokand (Central Asia) |
Currently Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan |
|
|
Khiva (Khorezm) Khanate (Central Asia) |
Currently Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan |
|
|
including Åland Islands |
Currently Finland, the Republic of Karelia, Murmansk, Leningrad regions |
|
|
Tarnopol District of Austria (Eastern Europe) |
Currently, Ternopil region of Ukraine |
|
|
Bialystok District of Prussia (Eastern Europe) |
Currently Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland |
|
|
Ganja (1804), Karabakh (1805), Sheki (1805), Shirvan (1805), Baku (1806), Kuba (1806), Derbent (1806), northern part of the Talysh (1809) Khanate (Transcaucasia) |
Vassal khanates of Persia, capture and voluntary entry. Secured in 1813 by a treaty with Persia following the war. Limited autonomy until the 1840s. Currently Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
|
|
Imeretian kingdom (1810), Megrelian (1803) and Gurian (1804) principalities (Transcaucasia) |
Kingdom and principalities of Western Georgia (independent from Turkey since 1774). Protectorates and voluntary entries. Secured in 1812 by a treaty with Turkey and in 1813 by a treaty with Persia. Self-government until the end of the 1860s. Currently Georgia, Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti, Guria, Imereti, Samtskhe-Javakheti |
|
|
Minsk, Kiev, Bratslav, eastern parts of Vilna, Novogrudok, Berestey, Volyn and Podolsk voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Eastern Europe) |
Currently, Vitebsk, Minsk, Gomel regions of Belarus; Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa, Kiev, Cherkassy, Kirovograd regions of Ukraine |
|
|
Crimea, Edisan, Dzhambayluk, Yedishkul, Little Nogai Horde (Kuban, Taman) (Northern Black Sea region) |
Khanate (independent from Turkey since 1772) and nomadic Nogai tribal unions. Annexation, secured in 1792 by treaty as a result of the war. Currently Rostov region, Krasnodar region, Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol; Zaporozhye, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa regions of Ukraine |
|
|
Kuril Islands (Far East) |
Tribal unions of the Ainu, bringing into Russian citizenship, finally by 1782. According to the treaty of 1855, the Southern Kuril Islands are in Japan, according to the treaty of 1875 - all the islands. Currently, the North Kuril, Kuril and South Kuril urban districts of the Sakhalin region |
|
|
Chukotka (Far East) |
Currently Chukotka Autonomous Okrug |
|
|
Tarkov Shamkhaldom (North Caucasus) |
Currently the Republic of Dagestan |
|
|
Ossetia (Caucasus) |
Currently the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania, the Republic of South Ossetia |
|
|
Big and Small Kabarda |
Principalities. In 1552-1570, a military alliance with the Russian state, later vassals of Turkey. In 1739-1774, according to the agreement, it became a buffer principality. Since 1774 in Russian citizenship. Currently Stavropol Territory, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Chechen Republic |
|
|
Inflyantskoe, Mstislavskoe, large parts of Polotsk, Vitebsk voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Eastern Europe) |
Currently, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel regions of Belarus, Daugavpils region of Latvia, Pskov, Smolensk regions of Russia |
|
|
Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn (Northern Black Sea region) |
Fortresses, from the Crimean Khanate by agreement. Recognized by Turkey in 1774 by treaty as a result of war. The Crimean Khanate gained independence from the Ottoman Empire under the patronage of Russia. Currently, the urban district of Kerch of the Republic of Crimea of Russia, Ochakovsky district of the Nikolaev region of Ukraine |
|
|
Ingushetia (North Caucasus) |
Currently the Republic of Ingushetia |
|
|
Altai (Southern Siberia) |
Currently Altai region, Altai Republic, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Tomsk region Russia, East Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan |
|
|
Kymenygard and Neyshlot fiefs - Neyshlot, Vilmanstrand and Friedrichsgam (Baltics) |
Flax, from Sweden by treaty as a result of the war. Since 1809 in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. Currently Leningrad region Russia, Finland (South Karelia region) |
|
|
Junior Zhuz (Central Asia) |
Currently, the West Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan |
|
|
(Kyrgyz land, etc.) (Southern Siberia) |
Currently the Republic of Khakassia |
|
|
Novaya Zemlya, Taimyr, Kamchatka, Commander Islands (Arctic, Far East) |
Currently Arkhangelsk region, Kamchatka, Krasnoyarsk territories |
IN Lately a game called « like this They screwed up the country!» It’s paradoxical, but true: as a rule, two countries mourn - Russian Empire and the USSR.
(map of the Russian Empire within the borders of 1914)
(map of the USSR within 1980 borders)
Regrets about the USSR seem more or less logical. The memories of the older generation about the country that was the first to launch man into space and where there was no sex are still fresh in their memory. But ideas about the Russian Empire seem to me to be mostly based on meager scraps of knowledge from school textbooks on history and myths.
I noticed that The media are actively creating an idealized image of the Russian Empire in the public consciousness. Here is a typical picture of Tsarist Russia (in the spirit of the clips of the White Eagle group): fields with ears of corn, hardworking and meek peasants with slanting fathoms in their shoulders and enlightened smiles, noble officers, a strict but merciful monarch with wise eyes and, of course, crunch French bread.
The myth, of course, was not created out of nowhere. It is supported by facts. As a rule, 1913 is taken as the starting point. It is believed that this year the Russian Empire reached the peak of its economic and political development. And it would have flourished further, and would have taken over the whole world, but the Bolsheviks prevented it. As is known, it began in 1914 Civil War, And great empire collapsed.
Let's start straight through the list. Earing fat fields, i.e. economy. Demography and life expectancy are considered one of the main indicators of a country’s economic development. Adherents of the myth of the Golden Age of Russia point out that during the reign of Nicholas II a demographic explosion occurred. The country's population grew by 50 million people and reached 180 million. However, these 180 million lived very briefly. At best, they lived to be 30 years old on pennies. And children died more often than calves. Approximately the same situation, by the way, is observed in Africa. Despite the extreme low level life and high mortality, Africa's population is steadily increasing. I am in no way comparing Russia with Africa. I am simply arguing that population growth is not a true indicator of economic prosperity.
Further. There was rapid industrial growth in Russia. The number of workers has increased by more than one and a half times over 16 years. Production in metallurgy, mechanical engineering, and coal mining has tripled. length railways almost doubled. It was then that the grandiose Trans-Siberian Railway was built - an achievement that even the Bolsheviks and the BAM could not surpass. And in oil production, Russia has taken first place in the world.
However, researchers for some reason forget to indicate the corresponding indicators for other countries. I won't bore you with numbers. Let me just say that labor productivity in Russia was 10 times lower than in America. The per capita national income in Russia in 1913 was 11.5% of the American one.
Another strong argument. Russia actively exported bread and fed all of Europe. However, famine occurred regularly in the country. Under Nicholas II, 5 million people died from hunger.
However, Russia was one of the five most economically developed countries. The state was huge and ranked second after the British Empire.
In 1908, a bill introducing free universal primary education was introduced into the Duma. The authorities really dealt with the problem of eliminating illiteracy. In 1895, Nicholas II ordered the allocation of significant sums to assist scientists, writers and publicists. It was under the tsarist regime that human icons of Russian culture appeared - Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and others. However, according to the census results, barely 20% of the literate population in Russia was counted.
Point two - hardworking peasants with slanting fathoms in their shoulders and enlightened smiles. Yes, the peasants, one might say, were the whale on which the Russian Empire rested. They made up the absolute majority of the population. Here is an expressive infographic from those times:
However, the Russian peasant was not the epic hero-philosopher. The Russian peasant was an ordinary person with all human weaknesses. As every schoolchild knows, the peasant was not free, i.e. was the property of the landowner. And not only the peasant. In Russia at that time there was no private property at all. Absolutely everything, including people, belonged to the king. And he mercifully allowed his subjects to live and use the land and the benefits that it generated. Since the peasant was not free, his hard work was, to put it mildly, forced. Nevertheless, despite all the horrors that Soviet textbooks described, the power of landowners over serfs was legally limited. For the deliberate murder of a serf, landowners were sent to hard labor. The men themselves had mustaches: many fled from bondage to the Don, to the Cossacks, and staged peasant riots, plundered landowners’ estates and killed former owners. And many were completely satisfied with the existing state of affairs. We got used to it after so many years.
Point three. Noble Officers. Those. army. By 1913, its number was more than 1,300,000 people. The fleet was one of the most formidable and powerful at that time. Proof of the strength of the Russian army are the impressive victories won in the First World War. At the same time, there was a catastrophic shortage of uniforms and ammunition. The soldiers and some officers hated the service, and many of them happily supported the February Revolution.
Point four: a wise, strict, but merciful monarch. Modern monarchists often point to the extreme modesty of Nicholas II in everyday life. Like, he even wore darned pants. Under Nicholas, the most advanced technology for those times was created in Russia. labor legislation: standardization of working hours, insurance of workers for disability and old age, etc. Russian tsar was the initiator of the first international conference for disarmament. Under the command of Nicholas, the Russian army won many glorious victories in the First World War. And the king’s spending on charity became the talk of the town. Nikolai's uncle complained that his nephew gave away a significant part of the Romanov inheritance to the poor. However, at the same time, the tsar received the nickname “rag” for the fact that in making decisions he listened more to his German wife than to the ministers. Let's not forget about Rasputin. And about Sunday 1905, for which the tsar received the second nickname "Bloody". In general, the king was not bad. But far from ideal, as modern monarchists paint it.
Proponents of the myth of Russia's golden age of 1913 usually cite this quote:
« If the affairs of European nations proceed from 1912 to 1950 in the same way as they did from 1900 to 1912, Russia by the middle of this century will dominate Europe both politically and economically and financially. and "(Edmond Teri, French economist).
And now a quote from opponents:
“The fact of Russia’s extreme economic backwardness compared to the rest of the cultural world is beyond any doubt. According to the figures of 1912, the national income per capita was: in the USA 720 rubles (in gold terms), in England - 500, in Germany - 300, in Italy - 230 and in Russia - 110. So, the average Russian - even before the First World War war, was almost seven times poorer than the average American and more than twice as poor as the average Italian. Even bread - our main wealth - was scarce. If England consumed 24 pounds per capita, Germany - 27 pounds, and the USA as much as 62 pounds, then Russian consumption was only 21.6 pounds, including livestock feed in all this. It is necessary to take into account that bread occupied a place in the Russian diet that it did not occupy anywhere else in other countries. In rich countries of the world, such as the USA, England, Germany and France, bread was replaced by meat and dairy products and fish, fresh and canned” (monarchist I. Solonevich)
My goal is not to prove that Tsarist Russia was a backward country that was on the verge of disaster and that the Bolsheviks saved. Or, on the contrary, a prosperous empire that was destined to take over the world and which Lenin destroyed. I want to say that Tsarist Russia was normal country . With your achievements and your problems. Undoubtedly great. A a photoshopped, advertising image of her is created in the public consciousness.
This ideal Russia is contrasted with modern — corrupt, ruined, having lost its former greatness and power . People then, of course, were different - noble, moral and highly spiritual. This myth is actively exploited in the new film “Admiral”. Director Andrei Kravchuk admits that the film contains many historical inaccuracies. But historical truth comes second here. The director wanted to show us what, in his opinion, is so missing in modern Russia: feelings of duty, dignity, honor, conscience.
The myth of Tsarist Russia (and the USSR) is imbued with nostalgia for a lost paradise. And it seems to me that there was no paradise. Heaven is basically impossible, at least on this planet.
We are nostalgic for a country that never existed. Which is created by our imagination. Photoshopped advertising Russia is slipped modern society as an example to follow, as a beacon to strive for. In other words, the past is offered as the future. Very strange, in my opinion. So Mizulina wants to include Orthodoxy in the Constitution as “the basis of the national and cultural identity of Russia.” Why not revive the main moral concept of the Russian Empire “Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality”?
The reason for crying over Tsarist Russia, IMHO, - dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality. And the need to find a standard to look up to, a guideline to strive for. Briefly speaking, find a way and an idea. Therefore, society looks back at the past, trying to find clues there. However, in these searches one should not idealize the past, no matter how great. Otherwise, the path forward may become the path back. You can learn from the past and learn from mistakes.
Royal Russia - a passed stage that must be taken into account, but cannot be returned.
Plan
Introduction
1 Territory and accommodation settlements
1.1 Territory of Russia and other states
2 Administrative division by 1914
2.1 Viceroyalty
2.2 General governments
2.3 Military governorship
2.4 City governments
3 Other divisions
Bibliography
Introduction
Map of the Russian Empire in 1912
By 1914, the length of the territory of the Russian Empire was 4383.2 versts (4675.9 km) from north to south and 10,060 versts (10,732.3 km) from east to west. The total length of the land and sea borders was 64,909.5 versts (69,245 km), of which the land borders accounted for 18,639.5 versts (19,941.5 km), and the sea borders accounted for about 46,270 versts (49 360.4 km).
These data, as well as figures for the total area of the country calculated from topographic maps in the late 80s of the XIX century General Staff Major General I.A. Strelbitsky, with some subsequent clarifications, were used in all pre-revolutionary publications in Russia. Supplemented by materials from the Central Statistical Committee (CSK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, these data provide a fairly complete picture of the territory, administrative division, and location of cities and towns of the Russian Empire.
Territory and location of settlements Territory of Russia and other states Administrative division by 1914
Administratively, the Russian Empire by 1914 was divided into 78 provinces, 21 regions and 2 independent districts. The provinces and regions were divided into 777 counties and districts and in Finland into 51 parishes. Counties, districts and parishes, in turn, were divided into camps, departments and sections numbering 2523 and 274 lansmanships in Finland.
Territories that were important in military-political terms (metropolitan and border) were united into viceroyalties and general governorships. Some cities were allocated into special administrative units - city governments.
2.1. Viceroyalty
1. Caucasian(Baku, Elisavetpol, Kutaisi, Tiflis, Black Sea and Erivan provinces, Batumi, Dagestan, Kars, Kuban and Terek regions, Zagatala and Sukhumi districts, Baku city government).
2.2. General Governments
1. Moskovskoe(Moscow and Moscow province)
2. Warsaw(9 Vistula provinces)
3. Kiev, Podolsk and Volyn(Kiev, Podolsk and Volyn provinces.)
4. Irkutsk(Irkutsk and Yenisei provinces, Transbaikal and Yakutsk regions)
5. Amur(Amur, Kamchatka, Primorsk and Sakhalin regions)
6. Stepnoe(Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions)
7. Turkestan(Transcaspian, Samarkand, Semirechensk, Syr-Darya and Fergana regions)
8. Finnish(8 Finnish provinces)
Military Governorate of Kronstadt City Government
1. St. Petersburg
2. Moskovskoe
3. Sevastopolskoe
4. Kerch-Yenikalskoe
5. Odesskoe
6. Nikolaevskoe
7. Rostov-on-Don
8. Baku
3. Other divisions
The Russian Empire was also divided into departmental districts, consisting of a different number of provinces and regions: 13 military, 14 judicial, 15 educational, 30 postal and telegraph districts, 9 customs districts and 9 districts of the Ministry of Railways.
Bibliography:
1. See: Strelbitsky I. A. Calculation of the surface of the Russian Empire in its general composition during the reign of Emperor Alexander III and the Asian states adjacent to Russia. SPb., 1889.
2. See: Anniversary collection of the Central Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. St. Petersburg, 1913.
