Stolypin's reforms in agriculture were a set of measures designed to improve the situation of peasants in the Russian Empire and, in general, optimize the country's agrarian life. The reforms were carried out on the initiative of the tsarist government, as well as Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin.
Stolypin's reforms in agriculture: background
Already by the beginning of the 20th century, Russia had become an archaic peasant country. The lagging behind the Western European states and the USA in the spheres of industry, economy, and social development became more and more obvious. Even the efficiency of agriculture remained at the level of several past centuries. By this time, Peter Valuev's thesis of the middle of the 19th century was becoming increasingly, by this time, literally blatantly relevant: "Glitter from above, rot from below." Thus, the Stolypin reforms became an obvious necessity to reform all spheres of the reactionary Russian statehood, including agriculture. Otherwise, the unenviable fate of Iran or Turkey could have awaited the country: by the beginning of the 20th century, these states, which once inspired fear in all of Europe, had turned into semi-dependent colonies of the English crown.
Stolypin's agrarian reform: briefly about the goals andholding
Pyotr Stolypin became the head of the government at the very height of the revolution, in the stormy year of 1906. It was then that the tsarist autocracy first staggered, and therefore the need for large-scale transformations appeared with all evidence. Stolypin's reforms were aimed at various spheres of public life, but the main one took place in the agricultural sector. The main goal of these transformations was to create a new layer of prosperous peasantry who 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 for market demand. It was expected that this would give an impetus to their development and revive the agrarian and economic life of the country. For these purposes, the credit state bank issued a large number of enterprising peasants debts for the purchase of land at a fairly low interest rate. Non-repayment of the debt was punished by the withdrawal of the purchased plot of land.
The second reform program was the development of territories in Siberia. In this region, the 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. To transport families to the east, special and fairly well-known today "Stolypin wagons" were created. The reform really began to give results in the form of a revival of the economy before the First World War. However, it was never completed, interrupted by the death of Pyotr Arkadyevich in 1911, and then by the outbreak of the continental conflict.
Results of the Stolypin reform
As a result of government actions, a little more than 10% of the peasant population separated from the community, starting independent economic activities. Modern historians note the positive significance of the reforms: qualitative dynamics in the agrarian sector and economic life, partial development of Siberia, the emergence of a certain number of competitive peasant estates, and so on.
