Was life the same for the russians under Stalin and Nicholas II?
Big differences: while Nicholas had a secret police they weren’t efficient and most people weren’t under surveillance. Under Stalin, the NKVD and KGB were pervasive and children were encouraged to monitor and inform on their parents. all the factors of production were taken to be owned by the state under Stalin and there was no longer a nobility that was rich because it owned land. rapid industrialization occurred under Stalin whereas under Nicholas Russia was still primarily agricultural. Nicholas was a benign autocrat by comparison with Stalin who order the murder of 20 million Kulaks ( by starvation ) who were independent peasants who owned their own farms. Under Nicholas, the state religion was Russian Orthodoxy and under Stalin it was Communism.
