The Last Tsar - Chapter Nine Peter Stolypin

Chapter Nine
Peter Stolypin

With the exception of Serge Witte, Imperial Russia had never had a good prime minister as Stolypin was. He ruthlessly crushed the last outbursts of the 1905 Revolution, but Stolypin was a practical man. He knew that the monarchy could be saved if the government moved with the times. Direct, outspoken, his deep love for his country, with his extraordinary physical strength and vitality, Stolypin grappled with the fundamental causes of Russia's trouble. Accordingly he reconstructed the system of peasant land ownership and began the transformation of an autocracy into a form of government, more responsive to the popular will. He rebuked revolutionaries by his comment - 'You want great upheavals but we want great Russia'. He meant to attack the root problems, such as the peasant's long suppressed thirst for land of their own. To the revolutionaries the Stolypin era was a time of fading hope.

His agricultural policy was so successful that it produced remarkably good results, even after the Revolution in 1917. He requisitioned all crown lands and distributed them. The peasants, for the first time, achieved enough land to produce enough food. The peasants were given enormous sizes of land, instead of having strips of land scattered here and there.

On the political side, he achieved great success by working in co-operation with Duma (Parliament), but his days were numbered. In 1911 Stolypin ordered an investigation of Rasputin's matter, because of the violent outbursts of the members of Duma. He incurred the displeasure of the Tsarina and Tsar. The Tsar wanted to get rid of him, but he did not have to dismiss him. In September, 1911 he went to Kiev to unveil the statue of Tsar Alexander III, where in the theatre hall in front of the Tsar, he was shot. He was removed to a nursing home where he stayed alive for three days. Imperial Russia never recovered from the blow caused by Stolypin's death.

His successor, Vladimir Kokovstove wrote - 'Stolypin was a man of courage and vision'. 'His honesty won the heart of everybody'.

The next prime minister was Vladimir Kokovstove. Two years after his appointment he also toppled from power. Once again it was Rasputin who poisoned this political career.