by Riazanovsky
in the male line replaced Peter the Great's provision of free selection by the reigning monarch. Russia finally acquired a strictly legal and stable system of succession to the throne.
The emperor's views and attitudes found reflection in his treatment of the crucial problem of serfdom and the gentry. On the one hand Paul continued Catherine the Great's support and promotion of serfdom by spreading it to extreme southern Russia, so-called New Russia, in 1797, and by distributing state lands and peasants to his favorites at an even faster rate than had his mother. Also, he harshly suppressed all peasant disturbances and tolerated no disobedience or protest on the part of the lower classes. Yet, on the other hand, Paul did not share his mother's confidence in and liking for the gentry. For this reason he tried for the first time to regulate and limit the obligations of the serfs to their masters by proclaiming in 1797 that they should work three days a week for their landlords and three days for themselves, with Sunday sanctified as a day of rest. Although Paul's new law was not, and possibly could not be, enforced, it did represent a turning point in the attitude of the Russian government toward serfdom. From that time on limitation and, eventually, abolition of serfdom became real issues of state policy. The emperor gave further expression to his displeasure with the gentry through such measures as the restoration of corporal punishment for members of that class as well as for the townspeople, and through increased reliance on the bureaucracy in preference to the gentry in local self-government and in general administration.
It was in the field of foreign policy and especially of war that Paul's reign left its most lasting memory. Just before her death, Catherine the Great had come close to joining an anti-French coalition. Paul began with a declaration of the Russian desire for peace, but before long he too, provoked by French victories and certain mistakes of tact on the part of France, turned to the enemies of the revolutionary government. Russia entered the war against France as a member of the so-called Second Coalition, organized in large measure by Paul and composed of Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Naples, Portugal, and Turkey. In the campaigns that followed, a Russian fleet under the command of Theodore Ushakov sailed through the Straits, seized the Ionian Islands from the French, and established there a Russian-controlled republic under the protectorate of Turkey. Russian influence extended even further west in the Mediterranean, for Paul had accepted his election as the grand master of the Knights of Malta and thus ruler of that strategic island.
The main theater of operations, however, remained on land. Russian troops joined allied armies in the Low Countries and in Switzerland, but their most effective intervention took place in northern Italy. There a force
of 18,000 Russians and 44,000 Austrians led by Suvorov drove out the French in the course of five months in 1798-99, winning three major battles and about a dozen lesser engagements and capturing some 25 fortresses and approximately 80,000 prisoners. Suvorov wanted to invade France. Instead, because of defeats on other fronts and the change of plans in the allied high command, he had to retreat in 1799-1800 to southern Germany through the Swiss Alps held by a French force. His successfully managing the retreat has been considered one of the great feats of military history. On the whole, Suvorov, who died very shortly after the Swiss campaign at the age of seventy, is regarded as the ablest military commander Russia ever produced - and this is a high honor. The qualities of this eccentric and unpredictable general included heavy reliance on speed and thrust and remarkable psychological rapport with his soldiers.
Disgusted with Austria and also with Great Britain, which failed to support Russian troops adequately in the Netherlands, Paul abandoned the coalition. In fact, in 1800 he switched sides and joined France, considering the rise of Napoleon to be a guarantee of stability and the end of the revolution. The new alignment pitted Russia against Great Britain. Having lost Malta to the British, Paul, in a fantastic move, sent the Don cossacks to invade distant India over unmapped territory. The emperor's death interfered at this point, and Alexander I promptly recalled the cossacks.
Paul was killed in a palace revolution in March 1801. His rudeness, violent temperament, and unpredictable behavior helped the conspiracy to grow even among the emperor's most trusted associates and indeed within his family. His preference for the troops trained at his own estate of Gatchina antagonized, and seemed to threaten, the guards. The emperor's turning against Great Britain produced new enemies. Count Peter Pahlen, the military governor of St. Petersburg, took an active part in the plot, whereas Grand Duke Alexander, Paul's son and heir, apparently assented to it. It remains uncertain whether murder entered into the plans of the conspirators - Alexander, it seems, had not expected it - or whether it occurred by accident.
XXIII
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Serfdom in its fullness lasted longer in Russia than in Western countries because its economic disadvantages did not earlier outweigh its advantages; because the increase of population did not cause sufficiently acute land shortage among the peasantry until the first half of the nineteenth century; because the middle classes were weak in comparison with the serf-owners; because humanitarian and other ideas of the value of the individual spirit were little developed; because the reaction against the ideas of the French Revolution strengthened the vis inertiae inherent in any long-established institution; lastly, because serfdom was not merely the economic basis of the serf-owners but also a main basis of the Russian state in its immense task of somehow governing so many raw millions.
SUMNER
It is significant that none of the contemporary western European authors who have written on Russian economics in the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth speaks of Russia as an economically backward country. In fact, during some part of the eighteenth century, Russian industry, at least in some branches, was ahead not only of all the other Continental countries but of England as well. This was particularly true of the metal industries. In the middle of the eighteenth century Russia was the world's largest producer of both iron and copper, and it was not until the 1770's in the case of copper, and the very end of the century in the case of iron, that English production became equal to that of Russia.
KARPOVICH
As we have already had occasion to observe, the reign of Peter the Great marked an important divide in the economic and social development of Russia as well as in the political history of the country. One of the most significant and least explained changes occurred in the nature of the population curve, which, it might be added, paralleled the curves in other European countries: whereas the population of Russia apparently remained largely stationary for a century and longer prior to the time of Peter the Great, and whereas it might have decreased during the reformer's hard reign, it rose rapidly from then on. Within the Russian boundaries of 1725 there lived some thirteen million people in that year, nineteen million in 1762, and twenty-nine million in 1796. Counting approximately seven million new subjects acquired as a result of Catherine the Great's suc-
cessful foreign policy, the Russian Empire had by the end of the eighteenth century over thirty-six million inhabitants.
In addition to the immediate increase in population, the expansion of Russia in the eighteenth century produced a number of other results important for the economic life of the country. Peter the Great's victory in the Great Northern War gave his state access to the Baltic; and citizens of such ports as Riga, who were more proficient in navigation and commerce than the Russians, were then brought into the empire. "A window into Europe" referred as much to economic affairs as to culture or politics. Catherine the Great's huge gains from the partitions of Poland also brought Russia closer to other European countries and included towns and areas with a relatively more developed economy. Both the German landlords of the Baltic region and the Polish or Polonized gentry of what came to be known as the western provinces were in certain respects more advanced than their Russian counterparts. The acquisitions to the
south proved similarly significant. Catherine the Great's success in the two Turkish wars opened vast fertile lands of southern Russia - a further extension of what had been obtained in the preceding decades and centuries - for colonization and development, and established the empire firmly on the Black Sea. Although serfdom restricted mobility, population in the south grew rapidly by means of voluntary migration and the transfer of serfs and state peasants. In the words of one historian concerned with the density of population:
Prior to the eighteenth century a comparatively dense and settled population in the Russian Empire was to be found only in the center of the plains of European Russia: the region of Moscow with the immediately adjoining provinces, and the upper valley of the Volga. Somewhat less densely settled were the northern part of the Ukraine, and the ancient Smolensk and Novgorod regions, to the west and northwest of Moscow respectively. Finally, starting from central Russia, a narrow strip of fairly dense settlement stretched out toward Archangel, along the river Dvina; and another strip was to be found along the middle course of the Volga and farther east, in the direction of Siberia. To this limited area of comparatively dense settlement now was added a vast territory in the south and the southeast of European Russia.
Agriculture and Other Occupations
Differentiation accompanied expansion. The fertile, mostly "black-earth," agricultural areas of the south became more and more distinct from the more barren regions of the center and north. The system of barshchina, that is, of work for one's master, prevailed in the south, that of obrok, or payments to the landlord in kind or money, in the north. On the rich black
earth of the south the serfs tilled their masters' fields as well as their own plots, and they also performed other tasks for the master such as cutting firewood or mowing hay. In addition to the increase in grain and other agricultural products, cattle-raising developed on a large scale. The landlords generally sold the products of their economy on the domestic market, but toward the end of the century export increased.
In the provinces of the center and north, where the earth was not so fertile, the obrok, or quitrent, practice grew. There only modest harvests of rye and other grains suitable to the rigorous climate could be obtained from the soil, so that the peasant population had to find different means to support itself and to discharge its obligations to the landlord and the state. Special crafts developed in various localities. In some places peasants produced iron implements, such as locks, knives, and forks; in others they made wooden utensils, spoons, cups, plates, toys, and the like, or leather goods. Where no such subsidiary local occupations emerged, many peasants left their homes periodically, especially for the winter, to find work elsewhere. Often groups of peasants sought employment together in associations known as arteli - singular artel - and became carpenters, house-painters, or construction workers. Others earned money in industrial production, transportation, or petty trade. These varied earnings, together with their meager agriculture, made it possible for a large number of peasants to pay their quitrent to the landlord, meet their obligations, and support themselves and their families - although at a very low standard of living. It has been estimated that about one quarter of the peasant population of the less fertile provinces left their villages for winter employment elsewhere.
The great extent and the continuing expansion of agriculture in Russia did not mean that it was modern in technique or very productive. Russian agriculture remained rather primitive, and, because of the backward technique of cultivation, even excellent land gave relatively low yields. Serfdom contributed heavily to the inefficient use of labor and to rural overpopulation. In agriculture Westernization came very slowly indeed. By the end of the century, in spite of the efforts of the Free Economic Society established in 1765 and a few other groups as well as certain individuals, no substantial modernization had occurred. As Marxist historians have repeatedly emphasized, serfdom with its abundant unskilled labor still could effectively satisfy the needs of the rather sluggish and parochial Russian rural economy in the eighteenth century.
Industry and Labor Force
In a sense, the Russians during that period made greater advances in industry. The number of factories grew from 200 or 250 at the time of
Peter the Great's death to 1,200 by the end of the century, to cite one opinion, or possibly even over 3,000, if the smallest manufacturing establishments are included. The total number of workers rose to a considerable figure which has been variously estimated between 100,000 and 225,000. Many factories employed hundreds of hands, with the highest known number in the neighborhood of 3,500. The vitally important mining and metal industries developed so spectacularly as to give Russia a leading position in Europe in this type of production. The Ural area produced at that time some 90 per cent of Russian copper and some 65 per cent of the pig iron. Lesser centers of metal industry existed in Olonets, which is in the north near the Finnish border, and in Tula, south of Moscow. The textile industry flourished in and around Moscow and in some neighboring provinces and, to a lesser extent, in the St. Petersburg area. A number of other industries also developed in eighteenth-century Russia.
However, in the context of Russian society, the acquisition of a suitable labor force often created special problems; Russian manufacturing establishments reflected and in turn affected the social structure of the empire. Thus, in addition to owning and operating some factories outright, the state established in areas of scarce labor supply numerous "possessional factories," which were operated by merchants and to which state peasants were attached as "possessional workers." They were, in fact, industrial serfs, but they belonged to a factory, not to an individual. These possessional factories acquired special prominence in heavy industry. Some landlords, in their turn, set up manorial factories, especially for light industry, where they utilized the bonded labor of their serfs. Nevertheless, free labor also played an increasingly important role in the industrial development of Russia in the eighteenth century. Even when it represented, as it often did, the labor of someone else's serfs out to earn their quitrent, it led to new, more "capitalistic," relationships in the factories. Soviet studies, for example those of Khromov and Poliansky, in contrast to some earlier Marxist works, such as Liashchenko's well-known writings, have emphasized the large scope and vital importance of this free labor and of so-called "merchant" or "capitalist" enterprises based on that labor. For instance, in the middle of the century merchants owned some 70 per cent of textile factories in Russia as well as virtually the entire industry of the Moscow and St. Petersburg regions.
In addition to government managers, merchants, and gentry entrepreneurs, businessmen of a different background, including peasants and even serfs, made their appearance. In a number of instances, peasant crafts were gradually industrialized and some former serfs became factory owners, as, for example, in the case of the textile industry in and around
Ivanovo-Voznesensk in central European Russia. Indeed, if we are to follow Poliansky's statistics, peasant participation in industry grew very rapidly and became widespread in the last quarter of the century.
In eighteenth-century Russia the state engaged directly in industrial development but also encouraged private enterprise. This encouragement was plainly evident in such measures as the abolition of various re-
strictions on entering business - notably making it possible for the gentry to take part in every phase of economic life - and the protective tariffs of 1782 and 1793.
Trade
Trade also grew in eighteenth-century Russia. Domestic commerce was stimulated by the repeal of internal tariffs that culminated in Empress Elizabeth's legislation in 1753, by the building of new canals following the example of Peter the Great, by territorial acquisitions, and especially by the quickened tempo and increasing diversity of economic life. In particular, the fertile south sent its agricultural surplus to the center and the north in exchange for products of industries and crafts, while the countryside as a whole supplied the cities and towns
with grain and other foods and raw materials. Moscow was the most important center of internal commerce as well as the main distribution and transit point for foreign trade. Other important domestic markets included St. Petersburg, Riga, Archangel, towns in the heart of the grain-producing area such as Penza, Tambov, and Kaluga, and Volga ports like Iaroslavl, Nizhnii Novgorod, Kazan, and Saratov. In distant Siberia, Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Irkutsk developed as significant commercial as well as administrative centers. Many large fairs and uncounted small ones assisted the trade cycle. The best known among them included the celebrated fair next to the Monastery of St. Macarius on the Volga in the province of Nizhnii Novgorod, the fair near the southern steppe town of Kursk, and the Irbit fair in the Ural area.
Foreign trade developed rapidly, especially in the second half of the century. The annual ruble value of both exports and imports more than tripled in the course of Catherine the Great's reign, an impressive achievement even after we make a certain discount for inflation. After the Russian victory in the Great Northern War, the Baltic ports such as St. Petersburg, Riga, and Libau became the main avenue of trade with Russia, and they maintained this dominant position into the nineteenth century. Russia exported to other European countries timber, hemp, flax, tallow, and some other raw materials, together with iron products and certain textiles, notably canvas for sails. Also, the century saw the beginning of the grain trade which was later to acquire great prominence. This trade became possible on a large scale after Catherine the Great's acquisition of southern Russia and the development of Russian agriculture there as well as the construction of the Black Sea ports, notably Odessa which was won from the Turks in 1792 and transformed into a port in 1794. Russian imports consisted of wine, fruits, coffee, sugar, and fine cloth, as well as manufactured goods. Throughout the eighteenth century exports greatly exceeded imports in value. Great Britain remained the best Russian customer, accounting for