How Socialism Emerged in Russia

In the 19th century Czarist Russia was a multinational empire. Large contiguous territory extending from Europe across north Asia was dominated by Slavic population (Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians) but contained numerous national, ethnic, racial and religious minorities.

There were large empires in other parts of Europe as well. England, Germany, Austro-Hungarian empire, however they  were much more developed. Czarist Russia was really backward. In the time when capitalism was thriving in the USA and the rest of Europe, Russian economy was still mostly feudal. Serfdom existed until 1861. There was very little industry, most of the economy was based on agriculture. Population was mostly illiterate. The political system was oppressive. Czar had 'absolute' power, there was no parliament and no constitution.

At the end of the 19th century industrialization finally started. Rapid growth continued until the World War I. Due to its enormous size, Russia's national income reached level comparable to England and Germany and larger than France, Italy and Austria, but in the per capita terms Russia was still very far behind the leading economic powers. This can be seen in the following table and graphs.   (For additional information see chapter I of Alec Nove's An  Economic History of USSR)

The first attempt for revolution appeared in 1905. It failed but Czar allowed creation of parliament ('Duma'). The World War I aggravated the explosive situation further. The revolution in February 1917 forced the Czar out, and created the Provisional Government that started implementation of some progressive reforms. However this was not enough for the Bolshevik faction of Social Democratic Party of Russia led by Lenin. In November of the same year they seized power in the first successful socialist revolution in history.