The Stolypin reforms in agriculture were a set of measures designed to improve the situation of peasants in the Russian Empire and, on the whole, optimize the country's agrarian life. Reforms were carried out on the initiative of the tsarist government, as well as Peter Stolypin Arkadyevich.
Stolypin reforms in agriculture: prerequisites
By the beginning of the 20th century, Russia had become a peasant archaic country. The lagging behind the West European states and the USA in the fields of industry, economy, and social development became more and more obvious. Even the effectiveness of agriculture has remained at the level of several past centuries. The thesis of Pyotr Valuev of the middle of the 19th century: "Shine from above, rot from below," was gaining more and more, by this time literally flagrant relevance. Thus, the Stolypin reforms became an obvious need to reform all spheres of reactionary Russian statehood, including agriculture. Otherwise, the country could have been awaited by the unenviable fate of Iran or Turkey: these states that once inspired fear throughout Europe by the beginning of the 20th century turned into semi-dependent colonies of the English crown.
Agrarian Stolypin reform: briefly about the goals and implementation
Peter Stolypin became the head of government at the very height of the revolution, in the turbulent year of 1906. It was then that the tsarist autocracy began to stagger for the first time, and therefore the need for large-scale transformations appeared with all its obviousness. Stolypin reforms were aimed at different spheres of public life, but the main one was in the agricultural sector. The main goal of these transformations was to create a new layer of prosperous peasantry that would be independent in their activities - in the manner of North American farming. The main problem of the then peasants was that, after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, they never got rid of communal farming. The reform was aimed at creating private competitive farm holdings that would work on
market demand. It was believed that this would give an incentive to their development and revitalize the agrarian and economic life of the country. For these purposes, a
state credit
bank issued debts to a large number of enterprising peasants for the purchase of land at a fairly low percentage. Non-repayment of debt was punishable by selection of the purchased land.
The second reform program was the development of territories in Siberia. In this region, land was completely distributed free of charge for peasant use, and the state itself in every possible way contributed to the creation of infrastructure there. For the transportation of families to the east, special and fairly well-known “Stolypin cars” were created today. Reform really began to produce results in the form of a revitalization of the economy before the First World War. However, it was never completed, interrupted by the death of Pyotr Arkadyevich in 1911, and then the outbreak of the continental conflict.
Results of the Stolypin reform
As a result of government actions, just over 10% of the peasant population stood out from the community, starting independent economic activity. Modern historians note the positive importance of reforms: qualitative dynamics in the agricultural sector and economic life, the partial development of Siberia, the emergence of a number of competitive peasant estates, and so on.