Editing Russian Revolution (section)

===Economic and social changes===
[[File:Броневик и юнкера на Дворцовой площади 1917.jpg|thumb|[[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]]'s volunteer soldiers secure Petrograd's [[Palace Square]] with the [[Austin Armoured Car]], summer 1917.]]

An elementary theory of [[property]], believed by many peasants, was that land should belong to those who work on it. At the same time, peasant life and culture was changing constantly. Change was facilitated by the physical movement of growing numbers of peasant villagers who migrated to and from industrial and urban environments, but also by the introduction of city culture into the village through material goods, the press, and word of mouth.<ref group="nb">For recent research on peasants, see {{Cite book |author-link= Christine Worobec |first= Christine |last= Worobec |title=Peasant Russia: Family and Community in the Post Emancipation Period |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=1955}}; {{Cite book |editor-last=Frank |editor-first=Stephen P. |editor-last2=Steinberg |editor-first2=Mark D. |title=Cultures in Flux |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=1994}}; {{Cite book |author-link= Barbara Engel (historian) |first= Barbara Alpern |last= Engel |title=Between the Fields and the City: Women, Work, and Family in Russia, 1861–1914 |publisher=Cambridge |date=1994}}; {{Cite book |first=Jeffrey |last=Burds |title=Peasant Dreams and Market Politics |publisher=Pittsburgh |date=1998}}; {{Cite book |first=Stephen |last=Frank |title=Crime, Cultural Conflict and Justice in Rural Russia, 1856–1914 |publisher=University of California at Berkeley Press |date=1999}}.</ref>

Workers also had good reasons for discontent: overcrowded housing with often deplorable sanitary conditions, long hours at work (on the eve of the war, a 10-hour workday six days a week was the average and many were working 11–12 hours a day by 1916), constant risk of injury and death from poor safety and sanitary conditions, harsh discipline (not only rules and fines, but foremen's fists), and inadequate wages (made worse after 1914 by steep wartime increases in the cost of living). At the same time, urban industrial life had its benefits, though these could be just as dangerous (in terms of social and political stability) as the hardships. There were many encouragements to expect more from life. Acquiring new skills gave many workers a sense of self-respect and confidence, heightening expectations and desires. Living in cities, workers encountered material goods they had never seen in villages. Most importantly, workers living in cities were exposed to new ideas about the social and political order.<ref group="nb">For research on Russian workers, see especially {{Cite book |first= Reginald |last=Zelnik |title=Labor and Society in Tsarist Russia: The Factory Workers of St. Petersburg, 1855–1870 |publisher=Stanford University Press |date=1971}}; {{Cite book |first=Victoria |last=Bonnell |title=Roots of Rebellion: Workers' Politics and Organizations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1900–1914 |publisher=University of California at Berkeley Press |date=1983}}</ref>

The social causes of the Russian Revolution can be derived from centuries of oppression of the lower classes by the Tsarist regime and Nicholas's failures in World War I. While rural agrarian peasants had been [[Emancipation reform of 1861|emancipated]] from [[serfdom]] in 1861, they still resented paying redemption payments to the state, and demanded communal tender of the land they worked. The problem was further compounded by the failure of [[Sergei Witte]]'s land reforms of the early 20th century. Increasing peasant disturbances and sometimes actual revolts occurred, with the goal of securing ownership of the land they worked. Russia consisted mainly of poor farming peasants and substantial inequality of land ownership, with 1.5% of the population owning 25% of the land.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Russian Revolution {{!}} Boundless World History |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-russian-revolution |access-date=3 March 2021 |website=courses.lumenlearning.com}}</ref>

The [[Industrialization in the Russian Empire|rapid industrialization of Russia]] also resulted in urban [[overcrowding]] and poor conditions for urban industrial workers (as mentioned above). Between 1890 and 1910, the population of the capital, Saint Petersburg, nearly doubled from 1,033,600 to 1,905,600, with Moscow experiencing similar growth. This created a new 'proletariat' which, due to being crowded together in the cities, was much more likely to protest and go on strike than the peasantry had been in previous times. One 1904 survey found that an average of 16 people shared each apartment in Saint Petersburg, with six people per room. There was also no running water, and piles of human waste were a threat to the health of the workers. The poor conditions only aggravated the situation, with the number of strikes and incidents of public disorder rapidly increasing in the years shortly before World War I. Because of late industrialization, Russia's workers were highly concentrated. By 1914, 40% of Russian workers were employed in factories of 1,000+ workers (32% in 1901). 42% worked in 100–1,000 worker enterprises, 18% in 1–100 worker businesses (in the US, 1914, the figures were 18%, 47% and 35% respectively).<ref>{{Cite book |first=Joel |last=Carmichael |author-link=Joel Carmichael |title=A short history of the Russian Revolution |pages=23–24}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Years !! Average annual strikes<ref>{{Cite book |first=Abraham |last=Ascher |title=The Revolution of 1905: A Short History |page=6}}</ref>
|-
| 1862–69 || 6
|-
| 1870–84 || 20
|-
| 1885–94 || 33
|-
| 1895–1905 || 176
|}

World War I added to the chaos. [[Conscription in the Russian Empire|Conscription]] across Russia resulted in unwilling citizens being sent off to war. The vast demand for factory production of war supplies and workers resulted in many more labor riots and strikes. Conscription stripped skilled workers from the cities, who had to be replaced with unskilled peasants. When famine began to hit due to the [[Russian Railways|poor railway system]], workers abandoned the cities in droves seeking food. Finally, the soldiers themselves, who suffered from a lack of equipment and protection from the elements, began to turn against the Tsar. This was mainly because, as the war progressed, many of the officers who were loyal to the Tsar were killed, being replaced by discontented conscripts from the major cities who had little loyalty to the Tsar.