OF EMPIRE: OF RUSSIA, 1860-1917
THE ECONOMICS THE INDUSTRIALISATION Maureen
Perrie
been Russia has late industrialisation Discussion of the tsarist always of the causes of the inseparable from broader historical questions concerning development, by-product Was of economic a revolution 1917. of revolution its including the industrialisation political, origins primarily process or were in but domestic Russian in the based not only also the situation development Russian Had in led international to war 1914? system that between in the of war outbreak and the the revolution 1905 years stabilised itself the of overthrow of cause the the that principal war was in 1914, so late in tsarism so profound tsarism 1917 or were the structural problems of highly that renewed revolutionary probably even without war? unrest was This essay, while focussing on Russian industrialisation, will attempt to place it in the context of these broader debates. The literature that I shall review few last in but British historiography; American the comprises mainly and in Russia, in issues have been discussed the these where, years also widely from the transition context of current state socialism towards a market industrial economy, the question of the viability of capitalism under tsarism has acquired a new topicality and relevance. late The starting point for any discussion of the industrialisation tsarist of Russia has to be the work of Alexander Gerschenkron, the American have in historian the set the economic ig6os, whose studies, published led ' has for More however, agenda recent research, all subsequent analyses. I Here to some modifications and revisions of Gerschenkron's propose views. firstly to summarise Gerschenkron's interpretation, indicate the then to and in been his have According to to areas subject criticism. which views Gerschenkron, institution barrier to the the chief of serfdom constituted industrialisation in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. Defeat in the Crimean War highlighted Russia's economic backwardness in general, and I A. Gerschenkron. `Problems and Patterns of Russian Economic Development' in C. E. Black (cd), The Transformation of Russian Society: Aspects of Social Change since 1861 (Cambridge, Mass., cg6o), pp. 42-72. This important article has been reprinted in M. Cherniavsky (ed), The Structureof Russian History: InterpretiveEssays(New York, 1970), pp. 282308 (page references in the present article are to this collection). A version entitled `Russia: Patterns of Ecor "nic Development, 1861- i 958' appears in A. Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardnessin Historical Perspective:a Book of Essays (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 119-51. See also A. Gerschenkron, `Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, Russia 1861-1917' in The CambridgeEconomicHistory of Europe,Vol. VI, Part II (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 7o6-8oo.
11