Was Russia a Backward power?

In the end of the 19th century, Russia was part of Europe´s five Great Powers, along with Britain, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary. It was a huge state that dominated Eastern Europe and had an important role in European International relations. Although it seemed as Russia was a prosperous country, many historians state that it was a backward power at this period of time, as the Tsarist state had many weaknesses, such as political problems, social debilities or economic difficulties.

To begin with, there was autocracy, which meant that one person, the Tsar, governed the whole state. He was regarded as the absolute ruler, by divine right.
There were three official bodies, which helped rule the Tsar: The Imperial council, The Cabinet of Ministers and The senate. Even though this might seem as advancement, all three bodies were chosen by the tsar, and unless the tsar approved it before, they were unable to take any action. This autocracy showed how Russia was politically behind compared to other European nations, as all major western-European countries had some sort of democratic aspects in their government.
An important fact in Russian politics at this time was that the few Russian tsars who had been reformers, modernised Russia in some ways, but did nothing about politics, as all of them believed in the convenience of autocracy. Some clear examples of Russia´s political backwardness were: It had no parliament, political parties had no right to exist, it was a criminal offence to oppose to the Tsar and Government censorship was imposed on public books and journals.
Anyone who had liberal ideas was not able to express them and would usually go underground. This lead to secret agents of the Okhrana infiltrating these groups, resulting in frequent raids, arrests, imprisonment and general harassment.

Another factor that