The Russia of Uncle Vanya

During the 19th Century, Russia was ruled by Czar Nicholas II from 1894 until 1917 when he and his entire family were assassinated during the Russian Revolution. A Czar was the titular ruler in Russia, equivalent to royalty and exercised great power over the people. He would become the last Czar of the Russian Empire, a title that had existed roughly since 1547.   

 

Around 1899, the country became increasingly unstable as revolts by all classes began taking place. Peasants were uprising, intellectuals were meeting to discuss new political theories, and the rule of Nicholas II was being questioned by all classes. The people were tired of his tools of repression in the form of censorship, Siberian prison camps, changes to the voting laws and the secret police. 

 

Russia itself was mostly rural, with large estates owned by wealthy aristocrats and farmed by serfs. By the mid 19th century Russia had become the serf capital of the world. It had twenty three million slaves owned privately and the same number again working on state lands, totaling around 46 million enslaved serfs. By comparison the United States had four million slaves, the British Empire 770,000 and Brazil 750,000.  

 

In 1861 all of the twenty three million privately owned serfs were emancipated following the decree issued by Emperor Alexander II. This year also proved revolutionary in regards to the emancipation of the United States slaves, as South Carolina succeeded from the Union and formed the Union of Confederates States, thus starting the Civil War. This new independence for the serfs would allow them the rights given to all citizens including the right to marry without gaining consent from their employer, to own land and to own a business.  

 

However this new found freedom had a drawback. The serfs were forced into a crippling, ‘redemption tax’ to be paid to the former landowners. It was a large sum of money and many serfs had difficulty paying it, resulting in many of them having to give away all of their grain to pay the tax. This would leave them with no means of survival. Then in 1866, emancipation followed for the other twenty three million enslaved serfs, this group owned by the state. Unique from their privately owned counterparts, this group received larger plots of land to make a living from. 

 

The freeing of the serfs had mixed results. Some of them were able to leave the rural countryside and move to towns and make money. Industrial cities and areas included Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Baltic Cities. Some industries were booming there like coal, iron, steel, and oil production. By 1890 Russia had about 32,000 kilometers of railroads and 1.4 million factory workers, most of whom worked in the textile industry.  Railroad mileage almost doubled, giving Russia the most track of any nation other than the United States.  

 

Others were not quite as lucky. For many, the result of being freed meant a loss of security because their employers no longer had an invested interest in them. Though they were free, for most, conditions did not improve. Their combined anger would eventually result in the overthrow of the government in 1917. 

 

Besides the nobility and the serfs, another social class from this period was the ‘intelligentsia’ as showcased in Uncle Vanya by the character of the professor. The intellectuals held a revered status by all. In Russia, a professor held a status equivalent to that of an army general.  

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In the 19th century there was a great intellectual upheaval as they became more aware of the lack of advances made by their country and sought to change that.  

 

The social class that really began to emerge during this period was a middle class of businessmen.  This group of people understood that they had the power to become equivalent to higher class nobility, and while they were a small group, they tried desperately to advance themselves. While this group was essential in the advancements Western Europe was making, they would become one of the first casualties in the Russian Revolution along with the nobility.

Source: Farrington, Kate et al., Uncle Vanya Study Guide, pp. 6-8.