The first Russian revolution aborted and the period of reactions started. The 3rd of June 1907 the State revolution was accomplished, the government came to the active attacks against the democratic conquest of the revolution. The installation of the 3rd May system was due to the activities of the last great minister of Russia during the tsar's period Peter Arkadievich Stolypin (1892-1911).
P.A.Stolypin had noble origins; in 1884 he graduated the Petersburg's university and started working in the ministry of internal affairs. And in 1903 he was nominated governor of the province of Saratov, which was in the center of the peasants petitions and social revolutioners terror. The activity of the governor of Saratov brought him a great celebrity, and in April of 1906 he was already at the head of the Ministry of internal affairs; in July 1906 he was at the head of the Council of ministers, commutatively with the post of minister of internal affairs.
He became the absolute leader of those who were fighting against the revolution movement, from the Octobers to the Extreme rights. The prestige of Stolypin grew up after the attempt of the S.R-maximalists on the 12th of August 1906 in his villa situated on the Aptecarsky Island (27 people died and 32 were injured, including his son and daughter).
The 24th of August 1906 was published the state program realizing the idea of Stolypin. 'First the peace, and then reforms'. Military courts in charge of the terror and armed thefts were created to simplify the work of the justice. These cases were judged in 2 days in opened doors and the sentence was executed immediately (in 24 hours). In many regions was introduced the state of emergency, the number of arrests without judgment increased. In 1907 and 1909 almost 26 000 people were condemned to death for their revolutionary activities. In 1906-1911 almost 500 syndicates were closed, and the rest of them reduced their numbers up to 13 000. 978 journals and newspapers were forbidden.
At the same moment was proclaimed the reform program, in which they tried to consolidate the peasants as the foundation of the power, without abolishing their rights to buy or sell lands, changing the agricultural policy of the government. The reforms were preceding the manifest of the 3rd of November 1905 concerning the dissolution of the payments from the 1st of January 1906 in half, an entirely (at the point of view of reforms), in 1861. From that moment the land became the property of farmers). The 9th of November 1863, without waiting for the decision of the Parliament Stolypin signed a decree concerning the abolition of the immunity of the community.
The decree said that the farmers got the right to go out of the community with the consolidation of the personal property coming from the communal land. To encourage the coming out of the community, he promised many advantages: the surplus over the norm was sold at the initial price of 1861 if in that society transformations were not happening every 24 years, or free. The farmer got the right to demand theseparation of the all the possessions in one place as farm or butt. To get out of the community they needed the acceptation of the rural tailings; if in 30 days the tailing didn't give his acceptation, then separation the land's chief did the share of the lot.
The realization of the decree was introduced in especial committees of land constructions in the provinces. The decree of the 9th of November 1906 had two aims: the creation of solid houses in their own lands, which could become the support against the tsar's policy, and the development of the rural agriculture. That decree was discussed in the 3rd parliament and was approved by the majority of the Octobrists, and became a law in June1910.
In 1906-1907 by the decree of the tsar a part of the State lands was given to the Peasants' bank for sale in order to weaken the need in land. Also the peasants bank recovered lands from the landlords and sold it to farmers, encouraging the creation of the farms and rural houses through advantages (credits in the period of 55 years and little percentage).
The massive immigration of the peasants to the eastern part of the country was one of the components of the new agricultural policy. The law of the 6th of July 1904 gave to the peasants the opportunity to immigrate. The 9th of March 1906 Nicolay II confirmed the situation of the Council of ministries 'the application of the law of 1904', authorizing the liberty of immigration.
The agricultural reforms were supposed to last 20 years, 'give the government 20 years of internal and external peace", said P.A.Stolypin "and you will no more recognize Russia."
In 1905, the European part of Russia had 12,3 millions of farmers houses and 130 000 country houses. Almost 43% of the peasants became free owners.
By the end of the year 1916 the people having country-houses lost almost 10 millions ha of land which went to the hands of prosperous farmers.
After 1906 the number of immigrants increased, and most of them were the poorest ones. The number of farmers who emigrated in 1906-1914 from the central regions of the country after the Ural was 3,1 million people; 0,5 million of them came back. The new comers controlled in the Siberia and Turkestan over 30 millions ha of land, almost ¼ of those immigrants could not have private lots. Generally because of the immigration they couldn't solve the land's problem in the central parts of the country. In Siberia 300 000 immigrants stayed every year, and the augmentation of the population of farmers in the European part of Russia was almost 2 million people per year.
The reform of Stolypin allowed the continuation of the specialization of the agriculture and the role of the intensification; it showed the augmentation of the demand of cars and weapons (3,4 time in the period from 1906 to 1909); we also notice the increasing of the marketability of the rural production.
However the tension in the villages still existed. Many farmers, principally the poorest were ruined. Because of the bad organization of the immigration, many immigrants came back to their original places. Being at home they could not get back their former lands. Apart of it farmers were thinking that the reform was justified because it didn't touch the question of possession of the land.Surely, the attempt of solving the agricultural problem the same way all over the country, as noticed S.I.Vitte couldn't get a big success. |
History 