The Slow Changes of a Modernizing Empire

In the period immediately preceding the 1905 Russian Revolution, the demographic situation in Latvia and Estonia typified Eastern Europe and its modernization. The majority ethnic group was overwhelmingly rural, but beginning to filter into the cities, while the urban population was dominated by Russians, Jews, and others.

Records show that 94.9% of Latvians and 96.9% of Estonians were categorized as peasants (bauerliches Standes) in 1905. In contrast, 97.7% of Jews lived in cities or towns (kleinburgerstand). While 49% of Russians were characterized as bauern, or farmer/peasant, most of these rural dwellers were really soldiers stationed in rural areas. The position of the Germans, however, is of greatest interest here. Like Jews, the overwhelming majority of Baltic Germans were concentrated in the cities. Although 12.5% of the German population was categorized with an official peasant status in 1905, even the majority of these individuals were living in the cities at the time. More importantly, Germans, comprising just a tiny percentage of the population, owned 73.9% of the rural land in Estonia and 54.7% in Livland (the Russian Empire's district containing most of present day Latvia); Germans comprised 83% of pastors, a socially and politically influential group; Germans also possessed a disproportionate number of positions in the bureaucracy.

Underlying these striking numbers was the reality of day-to-day living. The language of state and business was not Latvian, but German or Russian.