Stolypin: repression and reform Flashcards
What was Stolypin’s first national job, from 5 May 1906?
Minister of the Interior (control of the regular and secret police)
What position did Stolypin take up on 21 July 1906, whilst remaining Minister of the Interior?
Prime Minister
How many government officials were killed or wounded between November 1905 and October 1906?
3,611 officials
What did Stolypin pass under Article 87 on 19 August 1906, one week after his suburban villa was bombed?
Field courts-martial
What did Stolypin’s field courts-martial allow governor-generals to do?
Revolutionaries would be brought before military courts that could issue summary sentences (without a trial), including death sentences
How many people were executed by field courts-martial between 1906 and 1909? Why was this significant?
2,700. More than the number of executions for political crimes in the entire nineteenth century
What happened to 22,000 people convicted of political crimes between 1906 and 1909?
Sent into administrative exile
What nickname was given to the quick trials and executions under Stolypin, and why?
Stolypin’s neckties - named after the noose used in the hangings
How did Stolypin aim to make peasants more supportive of the Tsar?
He would build and strengthen a class of prosperous peasants to work independently of the mir
How did Stolypin use the Peasant Land Bank to achieve his aims?
Peasants could buy unused or poorly utilised land from the Peasant Land Bank, withdraw themselves from the mir and become more independent
How did Stolypin aim to replace the strip system of farming with a fenced field system?
Richer peasants would buy strips of land from their neighbours, and consolidate them into larger, more efficient holdings
How did Stolypin attempt to utilise the more remote areas of the Empire, like Siberia?
Resettlement schemes: between 1906 and 1913, 3 million peasants moved to Siberia and Central Asia to work on land that the government had made available.
What happened to agricultural production between 1900 and 1913?
Increased by 79.5% - record harvests by 1913
What happened to the total area of land under cultivation between 1900 and 1913, and why?
Increased by 14% - as a result of the fenced field system, less land lay fallow
What percentage of households owned their own land in European Russia by 1916?
24%
What proportion of peasants had left the mir by 1914?
Over one third
Why did the peasants resist Stolypin’s land reforms?
They would not be parted with the same strips they had farmed for many years, and they distrusted the government land surveyors
What happened to meadows, woods and rivers under Stolypin’s land reforms? Was this popular?
They would no longer be “common land” but be given to individual peasants based on the areas they owned. Very unpopular
What % of peasants had consolidated their land into a larger farm by 1914?
10%
What % of land had been consolidated by 1914?
16%
What happened to the poorer peasants under Stolypin’s land reforms? Was this a success?
They drifted into cities for work or became discontented farm labourers. No - they lacked wealth and stability, and could be easily radicalised
What happened to economic growth in Russia between 1908 and 1914?
Increased by 8.5%
What happened to the number of banks in Russia between 1908 and 1914?
Increased from 1,146 to 2,393
What happened to real wages between 1908 and 1914?
They fell - wages rose by 7% but inflation rose by 40%
How did Russia’s railway density compare to Germany’s by 1914?
30 times smaller
Where did Russia rank globally for industrial output by 1914 - and which countries were ahead?
5th: behind USA, Germany, Britain and France
How many laws did Stolypin pass using Article 87 between the First and Second Dumas?
59 laws
Give one example of a law affecting cities that Stolypin passed using Article 87
Purification of water and a new sewage system for St Petersburg
Who opposed Stolypin’s zemstvo reforms and why?
The nobility - it would give peasants equal representation in the zemstva to the nobles
What happened to Stolypin on 1 September 1911? What was Nicholas’s reaction?
He was assassinated by a Left SR. Nicholas remarked, “Now there will be no more talk about reform.”
