Russia

Russia industrialized late and unevenly. Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861, freeing millions of peasants. Later tsars (especially Nicholas II under finance minister Sergei Witte) pursued state-led industrialization, building the Trans-Siberian Railway and attracting foreign investment. By 1914 Russia had significant industry concentrated in cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow but remained mostly agrarian. The contrast between modernizing cities and impoverished countryside, plus harsh factory conditions in autocratic Russia, would produce the Russian Revolution of 1917 (covered in Unit 10.5).