Within the Context of 1905-2005 to What Extent Had the Russian Governments Modernised the Economy

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Russia went through stages of dramatic change and continuity ,this may have been due to the vast array of varied policies that had been employed by the various leaders that were in the head of state during the course of the century .For an economy to be modernised it must fulfil three elements, it must have a stable economy, and to have this the economy needs to be industrialised, and to industrialise, is not to advanced technologically, but to bring about “profound economic , social and political change”^[1] . Furthermore, the society needs to adopt to the current methods and standards that other modern society’s use for example Britain during the 20th century did not farm their lands by hand, machinery was used. Russia did not employ machinery in their agricultural tasks until this means that at that time they were not modernised. Moreover, the social condition of the country needs to be to the standard of other modernised economies such as Britain.

When comparing the social, economic and political state of Russia in 1905 to the current state of Russia it is undeniable to state that there had been a great deal of change, as there are highly profound differences between Russia in 1905 and Russia in 2005.However, despite those differences, at the end, Russia still lacked the issues that Sergei Witte pointed out in 1903. These consisted of: Russia having insufficient capital, there was a lack of managerial and technical enterprise and insufficient manpower in the right places. On 15th march 1917, Tsar Nicholas II had signed his enforced abdication, this abdication was seen as the end of the inefficiency of Russia as it marked a new age, as communism was to be set in motion soon after the abdication. This marked the end of the Romanov dynasty. Lenin was the first to replace Nicholas as a result of the 1917 revolution, He had created a state that was radically different to the state Nicholas had created indicating change.

During the course of Nicholas’ regime the Russian economy had vastly developed, in fact, it can be said that this government had modernised the economy as Russia experienced rapid economic growth, in both, agriculture and industry. The policies that were implemented by Sergei Witte had revolutionised the economy as it made Russia become on of the most industrialised economies in the world. By building the Trans Siberian Railway in 1902, this gave Russia a vast amount of economic and trade benefits as this is proven in by the fact that Russia’s state revenue had doubled between 1908 and 1914 from 2 billion roubles to 4 billion, the number of banks had also almost doubled from 1146 banks to 2393 banks. Furthermore, industrial output of coal, pig iron, oil and grain had dramatically increased between 1900 and 1913. This shows that Russia was industrialising and thus, modernising. It became evident that Russia’s economy was succeeding and becoming in line with modern standards when the as Sally Waller stated that one of the reasons why the German generals urged the war against Russia in 1914 is because they feared that Russia’s industrialisation would reach a point whereby it would “outstrip the vast German economy”.