The Presidential Library's materials reveal the activities of Pyotr Stolypin and his love for Motherland

"Russia met a statesman who loudly and sincerely declared his deep, resolute love for Motherland, honest belief in its creative power and historical vitality. He dared to challenge the unity of all Russian people..." - states the Brochure with Biography of Pyotr Stolypin released on the Presidential Library's portal.

April 14, 2021, marks the 159th anniversary of Pyotr Stolypin (1862-1911), a prominent reformer of Russian economic and socio-political life. For example, the Presidential Library's electronic collection devoted to Stolypin features digital copies of various documentary materials: correspondence, texts of speeches, essays, studies and video lectures. Specific attention is paid to Stolypin's records, bills, certificates and other materials about the activities of the State Duma, the Finnish question, the fight against student resistance, relations between Russia and Japan, etc.

The first Russian revolution showed that the country faced big problems, in particular, in the agrarian and legislative sectors. It was the time when Pyotr Stolypin, a forceful and decisive prime minister, appeared on the political scene.

Graduated from St. Petersburg University, he devoted himself to public service. He used to be the governor of Grodno, then - Saratov Province, which was considered the hotbed of peasants' and workers' unrest. Stolypin personally travelled around the province with Cossack patrols, easing the peasants' anxiety. On April 26, 1906, Nicholas II appointed 44-year-old Stolypin Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and on July 8 - Head of Government.

"Then only he could take the first place", says the Brochure with Biography of Pyotr Stolypin - "The situation was too unattractive and terrible... The main problem was that this difficult job took away any hope of success. In this business, Pyotr Arkadyevich had private convictions, which were absent in others". First of all, such a prop was the character of upbringing in a noble family, which "was overfilled with the fashionable "French enlightenment"..." - is written in the study Pyotr Stolypin: An Essay on Life and Career. Pyotr Stolypin possessed not only the broadest range of vision but also an undoubted oratorical gift.

As the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers, reminding about the Grodno and Saratov experience of interaction with the peasants, Stolypin immediately launched the improvement of legislation in this area. He issued a revolutionary decree On Improving Certain Resolutions of the Current Law Concerning Peasant Land Tenure and Land Use on November 9, 1906.

"So, our main task is to encourage the lower classes", quotes the author of the publication Pyotr Stolypin: An Essay on Life and Career. - They are all the general country's forces! There are more than one hundred million of them! <...> Give the state twenty years of peace, internal and external, and you will not recognize today's Russia!".

The historian Yevgeny Leonov in his author's abstract Realization of the Agrarian Reform by Pyotr Stolypin in Vladimir and Kostroma Provinces in 1906-1914 describes the concept of the Stolypin's reform: "The most remarkable part of Stolypin's plan was to enable the peasant to leave the community and obtain his part of the land... <...> The other side of Stolypin's reform is the resettlement of peasants to vacant land beyond the Urals".

"He had a stable representation of the geopolitical role of this region", states the foreword to the bibliographic index Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin and Siberia. "In March 1908, speaking in the Third State Duma, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers stressed: "Gentlemen, do not forget that the Russian people always remember that they settled and grew stronger in the middle of two parts of the world. [...] This awareness is in the desire for resettlement, and folk legends, it is also in state emblems. Our eagle, the legacy of Byzantium, is two-headed".

The efforts of Stolypin and the government brought extraordinary results. Millions of peasants began a new life beyond the Urals, in Kazakhstan and the Far East.

At the same time, the Prime Minister tried to save Motherland from the impending revolutionary wave. He provided severe laws, in particular, the introduction of military courts. To the opponents, the Prime Minister replied: "Gentlemen! The state has fatal moments in its life, when... it is necessary to choose between the loyalty to theories and the loyalty to Motherland", - quotes the Brochure with Stolypin's Speeches in the State Duma in 1907.

The Stolypin implemented his reforms with an iron fist. His activities were not supported by part of the population of the Russian Empire, and, first of all, the Social Democrats. In six years, there were ten attempts to assassinate the prime minister. A fatal wound was inflicted on September 1 (13), 1911, by Dmitry Bogrov. During the performance in the Kiev Opera, he shot twice at the Head of Government. Pyotr Stolypin died on 5 (18) September.