Pyotr Stolypin

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Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin (Russian: Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин) (April 14 [O.S. April 2] 1862—September 18 [O.S. September 5] 1911) served as Nicholas II's Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) from 1906 to 1911. He became known for his heavy-handed attempts to battle revolutionary groups and for instituting the agrarian reform.

Stolypin was a high-born member of the Russian aristocracy, related on his father's side to the poet Mikhail Lermontov. His father was Arkady Dmitrievich Stolypin (1821-1899); his mother was Natalia Mikhailovna Stolypina (née Gorchakova; 1827-1889). He received a good education in St. Petersburg University and began his service in government. In 1902 Stolypin was appointed the youngest ever governor first in Grodno, then in Saratov, where he became known for harsh suppression of peasants' unrests in 1905^{[citation needed]}. His successes led to him first being appointed interior minister under Ivan Goremykin. A few months later, Nicholas appointed Stolypin to replace Goremykin as Prime Minister.

Russia in 1906 was plagued by revolutionary unrest and wide discontent amongst 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 system of military tribunals that held quick trials of any accused offenders. If the accused was sentenced to death, as often happened, the sentence would be carried out within a day. Thousands of Russian radicals were killed under Stolypin's system. The gallows hence acquired the nickname 'Stolypin's necktie'.

He dissolved the First Duma on July 22 [O.S. July 9] 1906, after the reluctance of some of its more radical members to co-operate with the government and calls for land reform^{[citation needed]}. 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.

Opinions about Stolypin's work were divided. In the unruly atmosphere after the Russian Revolution of 1905 he had 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.

In June of 1907, Stolypin altered the voting system of the Duma, which resulted in his election as Prime Minister^{[citation needed]}. He aimed to create a moderately wealthy class of peasants, who would be supporters of societal order. (See article "Stolypin's Reform").

In the spring of 1911, Stolypin proposed a bill, which was not passed promoting his resignation. He proposed spreading the system of zemstva to the southwestern provinces of Russia. It was originally slated to pass with a narrow majority, but Stolypin's partisan foes had it defeated. In his anger^{[citation needed]}, 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^{[citation needed]}.

On the other hand, the Tsar did not 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^{[citation needed]}.

Stolypin's reforms did not survive the turmoil of World War I, the October Revolution nor the Russian Civil War.

Stolypin changed the nature of the Duma to attempt to make it more willing to pass legislation proposed by the government^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}. This affected the elections to the Third Duma, which returned much more conservative members, more willing to co-operate with the government^{[citation needed]}.

On September 14 [O.S. September 1] 1911, while he was attending a performance at the Kiev Opera House in the presence of the Tsar and his family, Stolypin was shot by Dmitri Bogrov, who was both a leftist radical and agent of Okhranka. Stolypin died four days later. Bogrov was hanged 10 days after the assassination, and the judicial investigation was halted by order of 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^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

• (Russian) The ancestors Pyotr Stolypin

Preceded by Petr Nikolayevich Durnovo	Minister of Interior July 1904 – February 1905	Succeeded by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Makarov
Preceded by Ivan Goremykin	Prime Minister of Russia July 21, 1906—September 18, 1911	Succeeded by Vladimir Kokovtsov

Prime Ministers of Russia, 1905-1917
Russian Empire: Sergei Witte • Ivan Goremykin • Pyotr Stolypin • Vladimir Kokovtsov • Ivan Goremykin • Boris Stürmer • Alexander Trepov • Nikolai Golitsyn Russian Provisional Government: Georgy L'vov • Alexander Kerensky