Before 1917, the working population in Russia was poorer, more rural, more harshly treated, and politically more repressed than workers in most other European countries.

Quick Scoop: Key Differences

  • Far more peasants, far fewer industrial workers
  • Much harsher living and working conditions
  • Stronger peasant hostility to nobles and landlords
  • Weaker legal rights and political freedoms
  • Industrialisation came later and was more uneven

1. Rural vs industrial: who did the work?

  • In Russia, around four‑fifths of the population lived by agriculture , as peasants on large estates or village land; in countries like Germany and France, only about 40–50% were dependent on agriculture, with many more people in towns working in industry.
  • Russia’s urban working class was small and new , concentrated in a few big cities like St Petersburg and Moscow, while Western Europe had older, more established industrial centres with larger, more experienced working classes.
  • Industrialisation in Russia came late and in fewer sectors , so a typical Russian “worker” was still a peasant with a small plot, not a fully urbanised factory worker like in Britain or Germany.

2. Peasants and nobles: a very different relationship

  • Russian peasants had a bitter, hostile attitude to landlords and nobles; they wanted the nobles’ land to be taken and redistributed, and sometimes refused to pay rent or even attacked landlords.
  • In many Western European societies, peasants might still be poor, but they often accepted or respected the nobility’s social position and, historically, had fought for them, rather than dreaming of seizing their estates.
  • Large estates in Russia were still owned by the nobility, the Tsar’s crown lands, and the Orthodox Church , which kept peasants in deep dependence and fed a stronger revolutionary mood than in most of Europe.

3. Working conditions: longer hours, fewer rights

  • Russian factory workers often worked 12–15 hours a day , with extremely low wages, very poor housing, and little safety; this was harsher than the already tough conditions in many Western European factories, where by the early 1900s hours had begun to be reduced by law.
  • In Russia, there were no strong legal protections for workers: they could not freely form trade unions or political parties to present demands, and strikes or protests could be brutally suppressed.
  • In Western Europe, by contrast, workers in countries like Britain, Germany, or France had already formed trade unions, socialist parties, and labour movements , which had won some rights such as limited working hours, accident insurance, or minimum standards in some sectors.

4. Social division and late industrialisation

  • Russian workers were often divided by social background : many were first‑generation peasants in the cities, still tied to villages and land, which made sustained, organised labour movements harder at first.
  • Industrialisation had been pushed from above by the Tsarist state and private industrialists, so big factories existed, but without the parallel growth of political reforms that Western Europe had gradually experienced.
  • Women made up a sizeable share of the industrial labour force (roughly a third in some sectors), yet they were paid less than men and had no effective means to challenge this inequality.

5. Political rights and revolutionary mood

  • Under the Tsar, Russia was an autocracy : workers and peasants had almost no real political rights, no parliament with real power for most of this period, and no legal way to influence government policy.
  • In Western European countries, even if democracy was limited, parliaments, elections, and parties gave workers at least some avenues to push for reforms.
  • Because of this combination of extreme poverty, harsh work, land hunger, and political repression , the Russian working population was more likely to support radical, revolutionary solutions than many of their European counterparts.

Mini recap (for quick revision)

  • Mostly peasants, not town workers, unlike more industrial Europe.
  • Peasants deeply hostile to nobles and wanting land redistribution.
  • Factory workers faced longer hours, lower wages, and almost no rights.
  • Industrialisation was late and uneven, without matching political reforms.
  • Autocratic rule left workers and peasants with no peaceful way to seek change, helping make revolution in 1917 far more likely in Russia than elsewhere.

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Explains in what ways the working population in Russia was different from other countries in Europe before 1917, focusing on peasants, industrial workers, working conditions, and political rights. Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.