Editing Stolypin reform (section)

==Agrarian reforms==
{{See also|Russian peasants' uprising of 1905–06}}
The reforms aimed to transform the traditional ''[[obshchina]]'' form of Russian [[agriculture]], which bore some similarities to the [[open-field system]] of Britain. Serfs who had been liberated by the [[emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia|emancipation reform of 1861]] lacked the financial ability to leave their new lands, as they owed money to the state for periods of up to 49 years.<ref>{{cite book|title= A History of Russia |edition= 6|author= Riasanovsky, Nicholas V.|date= 2000|page= 373}}</ref> Perceived drawbacks of the ''obshchina'' system included collective ownership, scattered land allotments based on family size, and a significant level of control by the family elder. Stolypin, as a staunch conservative, also sought to eliminate the commune system — known as the ''[[mir (commune)|mir]]'' — and to reduce radicalism among the peasants, thus preventing further political unrest such as that which occurred during the [[Revolution of 1905]]. Stolypin believed that tying the peasants to their own private land-holdings would produce profit-minded and politically conservative farmers like those living in parts of western Europe.<ref>{{cite book|author= Thompson, John M.|title= A Vision Unfulfilled: Russia and the Soviet Union in the Twentieth Century|url= https://archive.org/details/visionunfulfille00thom|url-access= registration|publisher= Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company|date= 1996|pages= [https://archive.org/details/visionunfulfille00thom/page/83 83–85]|isbn= 9780669282917}}</ref> Stolypin referred to his own programs as a "wager on the strong and sober".<ref>{{cite book|title= A History of Russia|author= Riasanovsky, Nicholas V.|date= 2000|page= 414|edition= sixth}}</ref>

The reforms began with and introduced the unconditional right of individual landownership ([[Ukase]] of November 9, 1906). Stolypin's reforms abolished the ''obshchina'' system and replaced it with a capitalist-oriented form highlighting private ownership and consolidated modern farmsteads designed to make peasants conservative instead of radical.

The multifaceted reforms introduced the following:
* development of large-scale individual farming (''[[khutor]]s'')
* introduction of [[agricultural cooperative]]s
* development of agricultural education
* dissemination of new methods of [[land improvement]]
* affordable lines of [[credit (finance)|credit]] for peasants i.e the [[Peasants' Land Bank]] to help peasants purchase their own farms

The state implemented the Stolypin agrarian reforms in a comprehensive campaign from 1906 through 1914. This system was not a [[command economy]] like that found in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, but rather a continuation of the modified [[state capitalism]] program begun under [[Sergei Witte]]. Stolypin's program differed from Witte's reforms not in the rapid push — which was a characteristic also found in the Witte reforms — but in the fact that Stolypin's reforms were to the agricultural sector, including improvements to the rights of individuals on a broad level and had the backing of the police. These reforms laid the groundwork for a market-based agricultural system for Russian peasants.

The principal ministers involved in the implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reforms included Stolypin himself as Interior Minister and Prime Minister, [[Alexander Krivoshein]] as [[Ministry of State Property|Agriculture and State Property Minister]], and [[Vladimir Kokovtsov]] as Finance Minister and Stolypin's successor as Prime Minister.

The Soviet agrarian program in the 1920s reversed the Stolypin reforms. The state took over land owned by peasants and moved them to collective farms.<ref>Roger Bartlett, ''Land commune and peasant community in Russia: communal forms in imperial and early Soviet society'' ( Springer, 1990).</ref>