The Disintegration of Social Classes in Russia

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MORE than six years have elapsed since the downfall of the autocratic régime in Russia. Many changes have since taken place in Russian life, not only external changes in constitution and legislation, but also internal ones in the class and social structure of the Russian community.

Under the autocracy the dominant and directing rôle belonged to three basic social strata: the nobility, the wealthy bourgeoisie, and the bureaucracy.

The nobility counted as the ranking class, and the tsars liked to say: "I myself am the first nobleman of the Russian Empire." Through the process of history this class had come into possession of enormous wealth in land--about one-third of the whole area under cultivation. But the nobility were not an entirely homogeneous group, either from an economic or from a politicocultural point of view. This was the case because alongside of the noble aristocracy, who were for the most part titled and in possession of large estates, there was a nobility of owners of medium sized and small estates running down to the freeholders (owners of a single farm) who could hardly be distinguished from the ordinary peasants. There was also another kind of stratification representing the modern spirit. For some time there had been an increasing group of the nobility who were trying to modernize their agricultural methods by introducing improved machinery, rotation of crops, fertilizers, industrial farming, cattle and horse breeding, etc. This section of the nobility had progressive, liberal and at times even democratic and populistic tendencies. And this was by no means solely because they were better educated and more cultured than the old-style gentry--the "buffaloes," as they were nicknamed later when, having organized and come out into the political arena, they surprised everybody by their antediluvian views...