(i) Serfdom was abolished in 1861, but the peasants continued to live in misery.
The land they received was not enough to meet their needs and the money they had to pay was exorbitant. Their condition was worsened by a series of famines and bad harvests. Land hunger and poverty of the peasants was a major factor.
(ii) The conditions of the industrial workers was no better. They lived and worked under appalling conditions, with no political rights and no means of gaining even minor reforms. They did not even have the right to form Trade Unions.
(iii) The state exchanger was bankrupt due to the spendthrift ways of the Tsar, expensive wars, burden of maintaining a large bureaucracy and army and due to lopsided methods of taxation.