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OCR
EASTERN PEOPLE ON WESTERN PRAIRIES... the census grouped together and listed as "true Russians," made up about two thirds of the total population in the pre-revolution Russian Empire. The remaining third was composed of no less than nineteen ethnic groups — this number was probably higher however, as ethnicity was determined by language spoken in the census, and multiple ethnic groups sometimes shared one language." Most of these ethnic groups had a lower social status than true ethnic Russians, and thus already had a structure of living in small villages of the same shared ethnicity. In Bessarabia (now part of Ukraine) for example, groups of German, Russian, and Ukrainian speakers lived separately, and only rarely, if at all, needed to communicate with each other. This established culture of living in small culturally similar groups and communicating only within those groups — or other groups of the same nature when there were shared kinship ties — was transported to Alberta. The Russian Revolution of 1905 was an attempt to create mass political and societal change within Russia. Though the revolution failed to install new governments, it led to the creation of the State Duma, a multi-party system, and a constitution in 1906. These changes however were made mostly disingenuously, and did not markedly change daily or political life for most Russian citizens. This was especially true for peasants and minority ethnic groups, who often lacked the education to actively partake in political life. Though of course there were many causes of this first failed revolution, as with any revolution, there are two particularly relevant here. The first was the dissatisfaction with agrarian reforms that had been enacted following the abolishment of serfdom. Peasants could technically now own land, but only as a village, and a peasant could neither mortgage nor sell their own land, effectively tying them as permanently to the land as they had been as serfs.” Strangely, under the provisions of the Emancipation Act that had liberated peasants from serfdom, peasants actually had access to less land than they had worked when they were serfs despite laws allowing peasants to purchase land from nobles, drastically decreasing agricultural output and rendering growing enough food even for their own family difficult.'* They also had the added burden of paying communally into the village coffers for village mortgages, even if they could not make use of said land or had not approved of the village purchase. In addition, wages were often too low to make these required payments and purchase food, farming equipment, and supplies, causing extreme unrest amongst rural peasant groups.” This unrest translated into riots, protests, and reduced agricultural output as peasants chose to seek work rather than farm, in order to 4 Tbid. Sidney Harcave, The Russian Revolution, London, Collier Books, 1970, 19. Maureen Perrie, The Russian Peasant Movement of 1905-1907: Its Social Composition and Revolutionary Significance, Past & Present, Vol. 57 (Nov. 1972), 123. Harcave, The Russian Revolution, 20. +43 +
