Ethnocultural Image of the Russian Empire

A mosaic of peoples: the 1897 census

The first full census of the empire, in 1897, counted about 126 million people. Russians (they were then called "Great Russians") were about 44 in 100. Next came Ukrainians (called "Little Russians" then) about 18, Poles about 6, Belarusians about 5, Jews about 4, then Kazakhs (called "Kirghiz" then), Tatars, Germans and many others such as Finns, Latvians, Estonians, Georgians, Armenians and the peoples of Siberia and Central Asia. The numbers here are rounded.

Most people spoke their own mother language at home. Russian was the language of the state, but only the largest group used it at home.

Faiths and the state church

Roughly 70 in 100 were Orthodox Christians, and the Orthodox Church had a special place with the state. About 11 were Muslims (Tatars, Kazakhs, peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia), about 9 Catholics (many Poles and Lithuanians), about 5 Protestants (Lutherans among Germans, Latvians, Estonians, Finns), about 4 Jews, plus Buddhists and others. Other faiths could pray, but could not convert Orthodox believers, and some groups, like Old Believers, had limits placed on them.

State policy: Russification and special rules

In the 1880s-1890s the government wanted a stronger, more uniform state. Russification means pushing Russian language, schools and the Orthodox Church. For example, Russian was made the school language in Poland and the Baltic provinces, and Ukrainian printing was limited.

• Steppe and Siberian peoples: ruled under special regulations; they were counted in a separate legal group.
• Jews: mostly had to live in a set of western provinces (the Pale of Settlement); the "May Laws" (1882) added limits and there were quotas for schools.
• Central Asia: governed by a military-style governor-general, with local courts for Muslim law.

The idea behind the policy was unity. Its result was often anger, because people felt their language and faith were treated as lesser.

Local cultures stay alive

Policies could not remove living culture. Examples:

• Tatars: the reformer Ismail Gasprinski started a bilingual newspaper (1883) and "new method" schools.
• Ukrainians, Poles, Finns, Georgians, Armenians, Jews: kept their own songs, stories, and (often private) schools; scholars wrote dictionaries and folk-song books.
• Cities and trade: merchants from many peoples met at big fairs, and markets mixed foods, clothes and music.

This is the "ethnocultural image": not one people, but a patchwork, with pressure from above and pride from below.

Results and Try it

Pressure from the state and pride of the peoples met in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, when many peoples asked for rights. Remember that this lesson is only about the image of the empire; no borders are drawn, because borders changed often.

1. In 3D: in the last step, pick each people and write its share of 100.
2. Class survey: count how many languages your class speaks at home. How is it like or unlike the empire?
3. Maths: if the empire had 126 million people, how many were about 4 in 100? (about 5 million)

Key formulas and definitions

• Census of 1897: about 126 million people; about 44 in 100 Russians
• Faiths: about 70 Orthodox, 11 Muslim, 9 Catholic, 5 Protestant, 4 Jewish (per 100)
• Russification: pushing Russian language, schools and Orthodoxy
• Pale of Settlement: set of western provinces where most Jews had to live
• Ethnocultural image: many peoples, languages and faiths in one empire

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Thinking most people in the empire were Russian. Less than half were.
• Mixing up language groups with faiths. A person can be Polish and Catholic, or Tatar and Muslim; these are two different labels.
• Saying the rules were the same for everybody. Different groups had different rules.
• Treating the census figures as exact. They are rounded and the old names were different.