Stolypin: repression and reform

Question 1

What was Stolypin’s first national job, from 5 May 1906?

Answer 1

Minister of the Interior (control of the regular and secret police)

Question 2

What position did Stolypin take up on 21 July 1906, whilst remaining Minister of the Interior?

Answer 2

Prime Minister

Question 3

How many government officials were killed or wounded between November 1905 and October 1906?

Answer 3

3,611 officials

Question 4

What did Stolypin pass under Article 87 on 19 August 1906, one week after his suburban villa was bombed?

Answer 4

Field courts-martial

Question 5

What did Stolypin’s field courts-martial allow governor-generals to do?

Answer 5

Revolutionaries would be brought before military courts that could issue summary sentences (without a trial), including death sentences

Question 6

How many people were executed by field courts-martial between 1906 and 1909? Why was this significant?

Answer 6

2,700. More than the number of executions for political crimes in the entire nineteenth century

Question 7

What happened to 22,000 people convicted of political crimes between 1906 and 1909?

Answer 7

Sent into administrative exile

Question 8

What nickname was given to the quick trials and executions under Stolypin, and why?

Answer 8

Stolypin’s neckties - named after the noose used in the hangings

Question 9

How did Stolypin aim to make peasants more supportive of the Tsar?

Answer 9

He would build and strengthen a class of prosperous peasants to work independently of the mir

Question 10

How did Stolypin use the Peasant Land Bank to achieve his aims?

Answer 10

Peasants could buy unused or poorly utilised land from the Peasant Land Bank, withdraw themselves from the mir and become more independent

Question 11

How did Stolypin aim to replace the strip system of farming with a fenced field system?

Answer 11

Richer peasants would buy strips of land from their neighbours, and consolidate them into larger, more efficient holdings

Question 12

How did Stolypin attempt to utilise the more remote areas of the Empire, like Siberia?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

What happened to agricultural production between 1900 and 1913?

Answer 13

Increased by 79.5% - record harvests by 1913

Question 14

What happened to the total area of land under cultivation between 1900 and 1913, and why?

Answer 14

Increased by 14% - as a result of the fenced field system, less land lay fallow

Question 15

What percentage of households owned their own land in European Russia by 1916?

Answer 15

24%

Question 16

What proportion of peasants had left the mir by 1914?

Answer 16

Over one third

Question 17

Why did the peasants resist Stolypin’s land reforms?

Answer 17

They would not be parted with the same strips they had farmed for many years, and they distrusted the government land surveyors

Question 18

What happened to meadows, woods and rivers under Stolypin’s land reforms? Was this popular?

Answer 18

They would no longer be “common land” but be given to individual peasants based on the areas they owned. Very unpopular

Question 19

What % of peasants had consolidated their land into a larger farm by 1914?

Answer 19

10%

Question 20

What % of land had been consolidated by 1914?

Answer 20

16%

Question 21

What happened to the poorer peasants under Stolypin’s land reforms? Was this a success?

Answer 21

They drifted into cities for work or became discontented farm labourers. No - they lacked wealth and stability, and could be easily radicalised

Question 22

What happened to economic growth in Russia between 1908 and 1914?

Answer 22

Increased by 8.5%

Question 23

What happened to the number of banks in Russia between 1908 and 1914?

Answer 23

Increased from 1,146 to 2,393

Question 24

What happened to real wages between 1908 and 1914?

Answer 24

They fell - wages rose by 7% but inflation rose by 40%

Question 25

How did Russia’s railway density compare to Germany’s by 1914?

Answer 25

30 times smaller

Question 26

Where did Russia rank globally for industrial output by 1914 - and which countries were ahead?

Answer 26

5th: behind USA, Germany, Britain and France

Question 27

How many laws did Stolypin pass using Article 87 between the First and Second Dumas?

Answer 27

59 laws

Question 28

Give one example of a law affecting cities that Stolypin passed using Article 87

Answer 28

Purification of water and a new sewage system for St Petersburg

Question 29

Who opposed Stolypin’s zemstvo reforms and why?

Answer 29

The nobility - it would give peasants equal representation in the zemstva to the nobles

Question 30

What happened to Stolypin on 1 September 1911? What was Nicholas’s reaction?

Answer 30

He was assassinated by a Left SR. Nicholas remarked, “Now there will be no more talk about reform.”