Fact Sheet on Imperial Russia in 1914 :: Russian History

Landformsthe European stance is close toly flat plainsthe Ural Mountain and some(prenominal) large rivers (Volga, Ob, Yenisey, Lena) run in a south-north directionmuch of the Asian side (west of the Ural) is in the tundra geographical zonehigh mountain ranges along the Mongolian border and in the farther east of the commonwealthClimatethe largest country in the world.extreme equable conditions temperatures below freezing for several months, although it can get very fervid in the summermost of the ports freeze in wintertime, living the country with exclusively limited year-round access to important sea routesResources racy soil and grazing land in most places in the European sidecoal and weightlift accessible in the European bulgehuge mineral wealth in the Asian part (gold, diamond, oil, iron and heavy metals, etc.) hard to accessPeople world is about 174 million, the abet largest in the world after China, with a 50% population repeal between 1860 and 1914about four fif th of the population lived in the European part, about 80% of them peasants, had been owning small pieces of land since 1861the Tsar, Nicholas the II, was an autocratic ruler most of the population lived in poverty.most of the land was owned by the church and a few noble families, the nobility accounting for 1% of the population owned 25% of the landpoor education system, only a selected few could read and writedisease and starvation was commononly 40% of the people are Russian-speakingComment Russia, the worlds largest country, covered one sixth of the planets total land mass (Warnes, 1999), excluding Antarctica. The country had a huge wealth of resources, most located in hardly accessible or completely inaccessible parts of Siberia. The European coal and iron mines supported and increasingly powerful iron industry. The Trans-Siberian railway completed in 1904 did non make mining of these resources much easier. The roadstead in Siberia were muddy and impassable for most of the s ummer season. The flooding rivers make east-west travels and transportation very difficult. Most routes were open only in the winter, when the irate conditions made movement of people and goods tough. As a result, the country could not enjoy the benefits of the available mineral resources.Although home to the worlds number largest population, the 174 million people were not united. Only 40% belonged to the motherland, the easing was made up almost 20 different other nationalities and several other smaller groups. Most people lived below the standards of other European nations.