Stolypin's reforms, 1906-14

Question 1

Why weren’t Stolypin’s reforms wholly repressive?

Answer 1

He understood that making more peasants landowners would strengthen the government.

Question 2

How would peasant landowners strengthen the government?

Answer 2

1) They would prevent the peasants supporting revolutionary groups in order to protect their property
2) Limited land reform would help make Russian agriculture more productive, and in doing so increase the nation’s wealth

Question 3

What were Stolypin’s land reforms designed to do?

Answer 3

Create a class of conservative landowning peasants - he hoped that as peasants began to own land, they would want to protect their property and make a profit - therefore, they would abandon revolutionary radicalism and support the government.

Question 4

What were Stolypin’s 1906 economic reforms?

Answer 4

1) Made it easier for peasants to break away from communes and establish independent farms
2) Encouraged the Peasant Land Bank to give more loans to peasants, in order to buy land and modern farming equipment
- He also provided incentives and government loans for peasants to move to land that had not been farmed in areas such as Siberia

Question 5

Why was the emigration to Siberia, despite conditions being extremely difficult?

Answer 5

• It was rich in minerals and in the south-west there was a large amount of potential farmland

Question 6

What incentives did Stolypin introduce to encourage peasants to migrate to Siberia and farm the land?

Answer 6

• Cheap land
• Interest-free loans
• Cheap rail travel to Siberia
• He also initiated a publicity campaign to encourage peasants to set up home in Siberia

Question 7

What were the failures of Stolypin’s reforms?

Answer 7

• The majority of peasants who accepted Stolypin’s incentives were located in the more prosperous areas of Russia, such as southern Russia and the Ukraine
• His land reforms had a limited impact in the cities

Question 8

What were the successes of Stolypin’s reforms?

Answer 8

• In 1905, 20% of peasants owned land. By 1915 this had increased to 50%
• Agricultural production increased from 45.9 million tonnes in 1906 to 61.7 million tones in 1913
• Between 1906 and 1914, 25% of peasants had left mirs
• Between 1906 and 1913, 3.5 million peasants set up home in Siberia
• 80% of migrants to Siberia settled
• The use of fertilisers, machines, tools and crop rotation increased crop production across the Empire

Question 9

What the main aims of Stolypin’s reforms?

Answer 9

1. Social engineering
2. Pacifying the peasantry in the long-term
3. Agricultural efficiencies
4. Economic modernisation