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Russian Inequality on the Eve of Revolution

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  • Steven Nafziger
  • Peter H. Lindert

Abstract

Just how unequal were the incomes of different classes of Russians on the eve of Revolution, relative to other countries, to Russia's earlier history, and to Russia's income distribution today? Careful weighing of an eclectic data set provides provisional answers. We provide detailed income estimates for economic and social classes in each of the 50 provinces of European Russia. In 1904, on the eve of military defeat and the 1905 Revolution, Russian income inequality was middling by the standards of that era, and less severe than inequality has become today in such countries as China, the United States, and Russia itself. We also note how the interplay of some distinctive fiscal and relative-price features of Imperial Russia might have shaped the now-revealed level of inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Nafziger & Peter H. Lindert, 2012. "Russian Inequality on the Eve of Revolution," NBER Working Papers 18383, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18383
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Soviet and Russian Inequality: Was the Soviet System Pro-Poor? by Mark Harrison
      by Mark Harrison in Mark Harrison's blog on 2017-10-13 13:44:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Filip Novokmet & Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "From Soviets to oligarchs: inequality and property in Russia 1905-2016," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 189-223, June.
    2. Ekaterina Zhuravskaya & Sergei Guriev & Andrei Markevich, 2022. "New Russian Economic History," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-03874282, HAL.
    3. Maria Gomez-Leon & Giacomo Gabbuti, 2021. "Wars, Depression, and Fascism: Income Inequality in Italy, 1900-1950," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 2104, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    4. Lindert, Peter H. & Nafziger, Steven, 2014. "Russian Inequality on the Eve of Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 767-798, September.
    5. Peter H. Lindert & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2017. "Inequality in the very long run: Malthus, Kuznets, and Ohlin," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 11(3), pages 289-295, September.
    6. Lychakov, Nikita, 2019. "From financial crisis to revolution: Russia 1899-1905," MPRA Paper 95166, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Milanovic, Branko, 2023. "How Rich Were the Rich? An Empirically-Based Taxonomy of Pre-Industrial Bases of Wealth," SocArXiv dvu74, Center for Open Science.
    8. Milanovic, Branko, 2013. "The inequality possibility frontier: the extensions and new applications," Comparative Institutional Analysis Working Paper Series 2013:1, Lund University, Comparative Institutional Analysis, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Branko Milanovic, 2018. "Towards an explanation of inequality in premodern societies: the role of colonies, urbanization, and high population density," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1029-1047, November.
    10. Matthew C. Rousu, 2018. "Using Show Tunes to Teach about Free (and Not-So-Free) Markets," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Winter 20), pages 111-128.
    11. Modalsli, Jørgen, 2018. "The regional dispersion of income inequality in nineteenth-century Norway," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 62-79.
    12. Popov, Vladimir & Konchakov, Roman & Didenko, Dmitry, 2023. "Factors of social tension in the provinces of the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries," MPRA Paper 118464, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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