Russia under the Old regime

CHAPTER 8

That the Russian middle class was small and inconsequential is one of the commonplaces of historical literature. Russia's inability to produce a large and vigorous bourgeoisie is usually seen as a major cause of its deviation from the political patterns of western Europe, and of the failure of liberal ideas significantly to influence its political institutions and practices. The stress on this element is understandable if one considers the historic function performed by the western bourgeoisie. In its methods the western bourgeoisie was not always consistent. In France, for example, it initially allied itself with the monarchy to help reduce the power of the landed aristocracy, then reversed itself, and headed the struggle against the monarchy which ended with the latter's destruction. In England, it sided with the aristocracy against the crown and together with it, whittled down its prerogatives. In the Netherlands, having expelled a foreign power ruling the country, it took over. In Spain, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire, where it failed to remake national governments to its liking, at least it managed to extract from the monarchy and the feudal aristocracies corporate rights which it used here and there to establish capitalist enclaves in the form of sovereign city-states. But whatever the strategy employed, the spirit and the aim of the western middle class was everywhere the same. It stood for its business interests, and since these required the rule of law and the safeguarding of personal rights, it fought for a public order consonant with what later came to be articulated as liberal ideals. This being the case, it is reasonable to assume a more than casual connection between the notorious underdevelopment in Russia of legality and personal freedom and the impotence or apathy of its middle class.

What accounts for the insignificance of the Russian middle class? The first answer which suggests itself has to do with the country's economy. The bourgeoisie is by definition the moneyed class, and, as is well known, Russia never had much money in circulation. It was situated too far from the principal routes of international trade to earn bullion from commerce; nor did it have its own precious metals because it began