By December, the Russian Empire had become a land of ice and snow. The people of Saint Petersburg were having an especially hard time that winter—there was a shortage of coal, food, and daily necessities. In the end, it all came down to one thing: "not enough money"!
Because the capitalists were hoarding goods to drive up prices, ordinary people lacked sufficient heating supplies. Neighbors had no choice but to crowd together for warmth.
A tiny room of less than ten square meters often had to squeeze in more than a dozen people. There was no helping it—the price of coal was now far too high, and using it for heating was a luxury. Even for cooking, several families had to share together in order to cut expenses as much as possible.
And this was only December. The temperature had not yet fallen too low, so they could barely muddle through with such measures. Once the coldest month, January, arrived, who knew how many people would freeze to death alive that winter!
It was not only coal that had gone up in price. Other daily necessities and industrial goods had risen in price as well. Food prices had tripled, salt prices had risen 2.8 times, and meat products had increased by as much as fivefold.
Inflation was certainly one factor, but the core reason was still those unscrupulous capitalists hoarding goods and profiteering from them.
As for whether ordinary people lived or died, that clearly was not something they cared about. After all, the Russian Empire lacked everything except people!
Thus, everything was getting more expensive—except wages!
It was not only Saint Petersburg. Other cities across the Russian Empire also saw prices rise to varying degrees. Capitalists truly were all the same breed: while prices soared, the wages of ordinary