1904, St Petersburg
What has happened to the powerful, almighty, motherland Russia? Since 1893, Finance (?) Minister Witte’s successful economic reforms to industrialise the nation encouraged my family and I to move to the city in the late 1890s; the promise of work and better standards of living too enticing for us to refuse as peasants. Upon arrival, the industrialisation of St Petersburg was obvious and astounding, the economic reforms that have strengthened Russia’s place as a country of power and supremacy evident in the city’s doubled size. While this stabilisation of Russia’s economy has been welcomed, it is not without problems, which my family and I have experienced firsthand.
Peasants have been encouraged to the cities to work in factories and become a part of the proletariat, however we quickly learned the city is not as welcoming as the Tsar has led us to believe. The jobs are not bountiful, but I was lucky enough to acquire a job in a factory supplying materials for the expansion of the Chinese Eastern Railway, an exciting venture which will promote trade and quicker supplies reaching the cities. Others however, have not been as lucky as I, particularly those who do not …show more content…
We work twelve hour days, often struggling through over 60 hours per week of labour. Constant food shortages mean we are lucky to get more than one meal a day, and we are forced to live in crowded apartments with several people sleeping in each room as our wages are well below what they should be and behind most industrialised countries in the world. The Russian weather is freezing, with many peasants lacking garments that will keep them warm in the icy cold. This standard of living is not sustainable, and the proletariat are beginning to unite under this common grievance and realise that perhaps, we deserve
What has happened to the powerful, almighty, motherland Russia? Since 1893, Finance (?) Minister Witte’s successful economic reforms to industrialise the nation encouraged my family and I to move to the city in the late 1890s; the promise of work and better standards of living too enticing for us to refuse as peasants. Upon arrival, the industrialisation of St Petersburg was obvious and astounding, the economic reforms that have strengthened Russia’s place as a country of power and supremacy evident in the city’s doubled size. While this stabilisation of Russia’s economy has been welcomed, it is not without problems, which my family and I have experienced firsthand.
Peasants have been encouraged to the cities to work in factories and become a part of the proletariat, however we quickly learned the city is not as welcoming as the Tsar has led us to believe. The jobs are not bountiful, but I was lucky enough to acquire a job in a factory supplying materials for the expansion of the Chinese Eastern Railway, an exciting venture which will promote trade and quicker supplies reaching the cities. Others however, have not been as lucky as I, particularly those who do not …show more content…
We work twelve hour days, often struggling through over 60 hours per week of labour. Constant food shortages mean we are lucky to get more than one meal a day, and we are forced to live in crowded apartments with several people sleeping in each room as our wages are well below what they should be and behind most industrialised countries in the world. The Russian weather is freezing, with many peasants lacking garments that will keep them warm in the icy cold. This standard of living is not sustainable, and the proletariat are beginning to unite under this common grievance and realise that perhaps, we deserve