Death rates, standards of living, famines before the two revolutions?

[Kingpin]

I hardly hear anything about the death rates, famine deaths, or standards of living under Tsarist Russia or China before the revolution.


I was wondering if you Reds had any sources where one can find this information.



I know a few of you are hiding under my bed waiting for me to go to sleep so you can nationalize all of my property..please let me keep my blockbuster card, thank you.

[ComradeOm]

I hardly hear anything about the death rates, famine deaths, or standards of living under Tsarist Russia or China before the revolutionThat's generally because broadcasting how shit life under the Tsardom was generally undermines the thesis that the Russian Revolution was a disaster for Russia. There is plenty of information out there if you look though - Waldron's The End of Imperial Russia is not filled with statistics but is a good introduction to the late Imperial period. Davies' The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union is more concerned with economics but is satisfactorily crammed with figures and tables. Figes' A Peoples' Tragedy also deals extensively with the Tsarist years and particularly the devastating famine of 1891