For a very long time, Russia was an autocratic country. At the helm of the kingdom was a tsar who ruled as he wished. His will was the sole source of law, justice, governance and even taxation. He also had absolute control over the army and all the officials. This system of governance continued until the end of the 19th century.
Russia accounted for one sixth of the total land surface of the Earth. Most of the Russians were either peasants or serfs who lived in village communities known as mir. A serf is an agricultural labourer who worked for his/her landlord. A landlord could sell his serfs along with his land. The rest of the population was made up of the privileged nobility, priests, and a small but rapidly growing industrial working class.
By the 1900s, most of the peasants were discontented with the terms of the 1861 Emancipation Edict which abolished all personal serfdom. Though the proclamation freed then from serfdom, it granted them only half the land which they believed was theirs by right. This caused unrest among the peasants.
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