Everything about Pyotr Stolypin totally explained
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin (
Russian: Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин) (– ) served as
Nicholas II's Chairman of the Council of Ministers - the
Prime Minister of Russia from
1906 to
1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy
agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of market-oriented smallholding landowners. He is often cited as one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia with a clearly defined political programme and determination to undertake major reforms.
Family and background
Stolypin was born in
Dresden, Saxony, on 14 April 1862. His family was prominent in the
Russian
aristocracy, and Stolypin was related on his father's side to the poet
Mikhail Lermontov. His father was Arkady Dmitrievich Stolypin (1821-1899), a Russian landowner, descendant of a great noble family, a general in the Russian artillery and later Commandant of the Kremlin Palace. His mother was Natalia Mikhailovna Stolypina (
née Gorchakova; 1827-1889), the daughter of a Russian foreign minister
Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov. He received a good education in
St. Petersburg University and began his service in
government upon graduating in 1885 when he joined the Ministry of State Domains. Four years later Stolypin was appointed marshal of Kovno province.
In 1884, Stolypin married Olga Borisovna Neidhardt, the daughter of a prominent Muscovite family, with whom he'd five daughters and a son.
Governor and Interior Minister
In 1902 Stolypin was appointed governor in
Grodno, where he was the youngest person ever appointed to this position. He next became governor of
Saratov, where he became known for the suppression of peasant unrest in
1905, gaining a reputation as the only governor who was able to keep a firm hold on his province in this period of widespread revolt. Stolypin was the first governor to use effective police methods against those who might be suspected of causing trouble, and some sources suggest that he'd a police record on every adult male in his province. His successes as provincial governor led to Stolypin being appointed interior minister under
Ivan Goremykin.
Prime Minister
A few months later, Nicholas II appointed Stolypin to replace Goremykin as Prime Minister. Russia in
1906 was plagued by
revolutionary unrest and wide discontent among the population. Leftist organisations were waging campaigns against the autocracy, and had wide support; throughout Russia,
police officials and bureaucrats were being assassinated. To respond to these attacks, Stolypin introduced a new court system that allowed for the arrest and speedy trial of accused offenders. Over 3,000 suspects were convicted and executed by these special courts between 1906-09. The gallows hence acquired the nickname 'Stolypin's necktie'.
He dissolved the
First Duma on, after the reluctance of some of its more radical members to co-operate with the government and calls for land reform. To help quell dissent, Stolypin also hoped to remove some of the causes of grievance amongst the peasantry. Thus, he introduced important land reforms. Stolypin also tried to improve the lives of urban laborers and worked towards increasing the power of local governments.
In June of 1907, he was elected as Prime Minister. He aimed to create a moderately wealthy class of peasants, who would be supporters of societal order. (See article "
Stolypin's Reform").
Stolypin changed the nature of the
Duma to attempt to make it more willing to pass legislation proposed by the government. After dissolving the Second Duma in June
1907, he changed the weight of votes more in favour of the nobility and wealthy, reducing the value of lower class votes. This affected the elections to the Third Duma, which returned much more conservative members, more willing to co-operate with the government.
In the spring of 1911, Stolypin proposed a bill, which wasn't passed - prompting his resignation. He proposed spreading the system of
zemstvo to the southwestern provinces of Russia. It was originally slated to pass with a narrow majority, but Stolypin's partisan foes had it defeated. Afterwards he resigned as Prime Minister of the
Third Duma.
Lenin was afraid Stolypin might succeed in helping Russia avoid a violent revolution. Many German political leaders feared that a successful economic transformation of Russia would undermine
Germany's dominating position in Europe within a generation. Some historians believe that German leaders in 1914 chose to provoke a war with Tsarist Russia, in order to defeat it before it would grow too strong .
On the other hand, the Tsar didn't give Stolypin unreserved backing. In fact, it was believed that his position at
Court was already seriously undermined by the time he was assassinated in 1911 . Stolypin's reforms didn't survive the turmoil of
World War I, the
October Revolution nor the
Russian Civil War.
Assassination
In September 1911, Stolypin travelled to Kiev, despite prior police warnings that there was an assassination plot. He travelled without bodyguards and even refused to wear his bullet-proof vest.
On, while he was attending a performance at the
Kiev Opera House in the presence of the Tsar and his family, Stolypin was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the chest, by
Dmitri Bogrov, who was both a leftist radical and agent of
Okhrana. After being shot Stolypin was reported to have casually stood up from his chair, carefully removing his gloves and unbuttoning his jacket, and unveiled a blood-soaked waistcoast. He sunk into his chair and shouted 'I am happy to die for the Tsar' before motioning to the Tsar in his royal box to withdraw to safety. Tsar Nicholas remained in his position and in one last theatrical gesture Stolypin blessed him with a sign of the cross. Stolypin died four days later. The following morning a resentful Tsar kneeled at his hospital bedside and repeated the words 'Forgive me'. Bogrov was hanged 10 days after the assassination, and the judicial investigation was halted by order of
Tsar Nicholas II. This led to suggestions that the assassination was planned not by leftists, but by conservative monarchists who were afraid of Stolypin's reforms and his influence on the Tsar, though this has never been proved.
Legacy
Opinions about Stolypin's work were divided. In the unruly atmosphere after the
Russian Revolution of 1905 he'd to suppress violent revolt and anarchy. His agrarian reform held out much promise, however. Stolypin's phrase that it was a "wager on the strong" has often been maliciously misrepresented. Stolypin and his collaborators (most prominently his Minister of Agriculture
Alexander Krivoshein and the Danish-born agronomist
Andrei Andreievich Køfød) tried to give as many peasants as possible a chance to raise themselves out of poverty by promoting consolidation of scattered plots, introducing banking facilities for peasants and stimulating emigration from the overcrowded western areas to
virgin lands in
Kazakhstan and Southern
Siberia.
Miscellaneous
After Stolypin's elder brother was killed in a
duel, Stolypin challenged his brother’s duellist. As a result, Stolypin was wounded in the right arm, which became almost paralysed after the incident.
Stolypin's death was allegedly prophesied by
Grigori Rasputin, who is reported to have shouted, "Death is after him! Death is driving behind him!" as he ran after the Imperial couple in the crowd outside the opera house.
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