By the time of the revolution Siberia was an agricultural region of Russia, with weak entrepreneur and industrial classes. The intelligentsia had vague political ideas. Only 13%Shilovsky M. V. The Political Processes in Siberia in the Period of Social Cataclysms of 1917–1920s . — Novosibirsk, "Sova" publishing house, 2003. </ref> of the region's population lived in the cities and possessed some political knowledge. The lack of strong social differences and scarcity of urban population and intellectuals led to the uniting of formally different political parties under ideas of regionalism.