Pyotr Stolypin

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Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin (Russian: Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин) (April 14 (April 2 Old Style) 1862 - September 18 (September 5 Old Style) 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. Aristocratic traditions in the family were kept to such an extent, that after Stolypin's elder brother was killed in a duel, Stolypin also challenged the murderer to a duel and was wounded in the right arm, which after that was almost paralyzed. He had a good education in St. Petersburg University and served in the government bureaucracy. In 1902 Stolypin was appointed the youngest ever governor first in Grodno, then in Saratov, where he became known for harsh supression of peasants' unrests in 1905. 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 rebels. 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 (July 9, Old Style) 1906, 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 the urban workers and worked to increase the power of local governments.

Opinions about Stolypin's work are very 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, 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. He aimed to create a moderately wealthy class of peasants (the Kulak), who would be supporters of societal order. (See article "Stolypin's Reform").

In the spring of 1911, Stolypin proposed a bill whose failure to pass led to 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, 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 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.

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. 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.

On September 14 (September 1 Old Style) 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.

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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The ancestors Pyotr Stolypin (in the Russian languages)

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