Early Industrialization
nA move to industrialization was part of the process of change.
•State support was vital since Russia lacked a middle class and capital.
•A railway system was created in the 1870s; it reached the Pacific in the 1880s.
•The railways stimulated the iron and coal sectors as well as the export of grain to the West.
•They also opened Siberia to development and increased Russian involvement in Asia.
•Factories appeared in Russian and Polish cities by the 1880s and the government quickly acted to protect them from foreign competition.
