Stolypin's Land reforms Flashcards
1906-14, 15OCT24
Who is Petr Stolypin?
Chief minister in 1907 and seen as one of the few who could have saved the regime
What did Stolypin do?
Played an important role in restoring order and crushing oppositions after 1905
- Also introduced some reform measures and contributed to stability in the years leading up to ww1
What was Stolypin prepared to do in order to deal with oppositions in 1905?
He was prepared to use violence to deal w/ them
What did Stolypin face in 07
He faced radical violence
- 3k killed by terrorists
How did Stolypin respond to the murders?
He carried out 1k death sentences
What did Stolypin do to trade unions and newspapers
He put pressure on them and by 08 policies seemed to work w/ considerably less political assassinations
Agriculture reform
Reform was needed if tsardom was to be maintained
What did Stolypin think was the best way to strengthen support for regime?
To create a class of prosperous peasants
What were the key problems Stolypin needed to address
- negative effect of MIR on economic development
- Ineffective land usage in village that resulted in inefficient agriculture
- The ever - present “ land hunger” among peasants
Reform policies
- Redemption payments to MIR cancelled
- Cheap loans offered by peasant banks
Cancellation of Redemption payments to MIR
Gave peasants free ownership of their land and freedom to leave MIR
- By 1914 1/3 of peasants left MIR
Cheap loans offered by peasant banks
Allowed more capitalists peasants to strips of land and consolidate into larger and more efficient buildings
- “Kuvals” could effectively withdraw from village community
What were the benefits of peasants selling land?
Could either become wage labourers and move to new cities and take a government grant to populate uncultured Sibera
Successes of Russian reform policies under Nicholas the second
- Agriculture production increase
- Land owning
Increase in agriculture production
Lead to record harvest in 1913
- Some historians claimed it has more to do w/weather than reforms
Land owning
By 1916 24% of households in European Russia owned their land ( more were in the process of doing so)
Failures of Russian reforms under Nicholas the second
- Best land was still owned by the tsar and gently
- Reforms not addressing problems of overpopulation and “land hunger”
- Reforms generated a growing class of orientated poor peasants
What percent of peasants were able to consolidate their land?
Only 10% were able to consolidate their lands into larger farms by 1914
What were orientated peasants?
Dangerous group of people who lacked much in wealth and stability therefore, were susceptible to revolt and radicalism
- They drifted into cities to work and some became discontented farm labourers
What was the result of Stolypin attempting to construct a middle group of “enlightened conservatism”
Gave him enemies on both sides of the political spectrum, conservative and radical alike
Stolypin’s death
Killed in 1911 by a left wing radical w/ connections to the secret police
How long did Stolypin estimate Russia needed to stabilise?
20 years
How long did reforms actually take to stabilise Russia?
7 years of peace before ww1
What was the impact of ww1 and 1917 revolutions on Russian reforms?
It meant they were not given the chance to continue
What did optimist and marxists historians argue?
That the Stolypin era was one of hope and possibility
What did pessimistic historians argue?
Argued that real progress was made either politically or economically
