Pyotr Stolypin: “We Need Great Russia!”

April 14, 2020 marks the 158th anniversary of the birth of Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin (1862–1911), an outstanding statesman of the Russian Empire, a reformer aimed at accelerating the country's economic and socio-political development while maintaining the course towards stabilizing the existing state system. The Presidential Library’s portal features an extensive electronic collection dedicated to Stolypin. In particular, it includes digital copies of various documentary materials: correspondence, texts of speeches, as well as essays and studies. The latter include rare books such as the Brochure with a Biography of P. A. Stolypin (1911) and Pyotr Stolypin: Essay of Life and Career  (1912); video lectures Life, career of Pyotr Stolypin and his era and “Activities of Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin as chairman of the Council of Ministers”. The collection also contains digitized notes by Stolypin, bills, certificates and other materials relating to the activities of the State Duma, the Finnish question, the fight against student unrest, relations between Russia and Japan, and much more.

What problems did the 44-year-old prime minister inherit as a governor in Grodno and in Saratov? The state of the period of the first Russian revolution accumulated great difficulties in the agricultural and legislative sectors, and the intensified revolutionary agitation in the workers 'and soldiers' collectives did not stop. The authorities were unable to withstand the challenges of the current time. And suddenly in the newspapers they wrote that in Saratov the governor Stolypin had upgraded the management system and infrastructure, he personally traveled around the province with Cossack patrols, exhorting the rebellious peasants. A document dated October 20, 1905 Announcement of the Saratov Governor is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. To suppress the peasant movement in the Samara province, Stolypin ordered the Cossacks to be sent, for which he received personal highest gratitude from Nicholas II. On April 26, 1906, the emperor appointed Stolypin as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and on July 8 of the same year as head of government.

First of all, the new leader faced the task of developing a mechanism of state support for peasant farms. It was not easy, writes lawyer, teacher and publicist Alexander Solomonovich Izgoyev in the study Pyotr Stolypin: Essay of Life and Career, because “the policy of planting small peasant land ownership, selling plots to peasants through a bank greatly confused large landowners and nobles. They understood that as their land ownership melts, their social and political power will weaken”.

Further, the author of the aforementioned publication lists the measures that the prime minister had put into practice: “Specific lands were transferred to the Peasant Bank for sale to small-land peasants. This was followed by a decree on the transfer to the bank for sale to the peasants of state lands. The peasants were compared with persons of other classes in the rights of passport. ”

But not all the plans of the new prime minister were implemented. Thus, Stolypin proposed relocation of low-land peasants to state lands in the remote regions of the Urals and Siberia turned into the return of most of them to their native lands, and farming in undeveloped territories turned out to be impossible for many reasons.

Stolypin also developed a new Military Charter, drawing on the lessons of the Russo-Japanese War. It clearly formulated the principle of draft in the army, the regulations of draft commissions, and the benefits of draftees. Strategic railway construction has unfolded.

The reform of the judicial process resulted in the establishment of military courts. According to the study Pyotr Stolypin: Essay of Life and Career a government that was guided by existing legislation could not cope with the rampant killings, robberies, and revolutionary terrorist attacks. The “Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the military field courts” allowed for the trial of violations of laws in an expedited manner. Decrees were issued to strengthen the criminal liability of military personnel for state crimes. Stolypin tried to protect the emerging Duma from the provocative influence of the eager for revolution leaders of the new formation.

Immediately after his historic speech to the deputies on March 6, 1907, Stolypin won the sympathy of the Duma majority, which provoked the indignation of the Cadets and Bolsheviks. It was in their address that he uttered a phrase that became winged: “They need great shocks, we need Great Russia!”

Starting from the time of his governorship in Saratov, 11 attempts were committed on Stolypin, the last in Kiev. A fatal wound was inflicted by Dmitry Bogrov. On September 1 (September 14), 1911, he twice shot point blank at the head of government during an intermission in the Kiev Opera House. This and other cases are detailed by the electronic collection materials collected in the section Attempts and Murder.