Background: Tsarist Russia

By 1914 Russia was the largest country in the world but in many ways the most backward of the European great powers. The Tsar Nicholas II ruled as an autocrat. The Russian Orthodox Church was a pillar of the regime. The vast majority of Russians were peasants, many still affected by the legacy of serfdom (formally abolished only in 1861). Russian industrialization, while real, was concentrated in a few cities and produced harsh factory conditions without political voice.