Essay on Was Russia on the way to peaceful and s

Submitted By traplord123
Words: 588
Pages: 3

Was Russia on the way to peaceful and successful reform before world war one

There are two sides to this argument, three main reason for Russia being on its way to becoming peaceful and successful and three against. The reasons for are, the peasants were content, the middle class were content and the workers were content, the arguments against were that none of these groups were content.
Firstly the peasants were content due to the land reforms; Stolypin introduced the land bank system which meant there were funds provided for the peasants to buy land. Secondly the peasants were allowed farmland all together and not in strips, lastly Stolypin abolished heavy mortgage payments. This all meant that the peasants were happier as they had an easier life, therefore they were more likely to support the Tsar and make peaceful and successful reform a reality. Stolypin had appeased the peasants and de-revolutionised them. As a result Russia was on its way to peaceful and successful reform before World War One. However the peasants might not of been content because lots of grain was stolen and not even that many peasant households signed up for independent farms, the maximum amount was in 1909 where 579,409 opted for independent farms but it was out of 10-12 million households so the number really is small, this means the peasants may not of been content and therefore perhaps showing Russia wasn’t on the way to peaceful and successful reform.
Secondly the middle class were content due to the four Dumas which were put into place. The middle class wanted Dumas to control the Tsar, the last two were partly successful. The third duma resulted in committees achieving good work in social reform and the last one the social reform continued. This meant the middle class were starting to get a say and the Tsar was starting to get criticised so this was leading to successful and peaceful reform before World War One. However nothing really happened from the first two dumas as they were short lived and dissolved this most likely was due to the dumas being corrupt. This then could show Russia wasn’t on the way to peaceful and successful reform because it took them two dumas just for some work in social reform.
Thirdly the workers were content