Editing Pyotr Stolypin (section)

==Interior minister and prime minister==
{{see also|Pyotr Stolypin's Cabinet}}
Stolypin's successes as provincial governor led to his appointment as interior minister under [[Ivan Goremykin]] in April 1906. He advocated for a new track of the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]] along the Russian side of the [[Amur]] river.

The absent-minded Goremykin had been described by his predecessor [[Sergei Witte]] as a bureaucratic nonentity. After two months, [[Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov]] suggested Goremykin step down and conducted secret negotiations with [[Pavel Milyukov]], who proposed a cabinet of only [[Kadet]]s, which Trepov believed would fall afoul of Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]. Trepov opposed Stolypin, who promoted a [[coalition cabinet]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/recollectionsofa008591mbp|title=Recollections of a Foreign Minister|last=Charles Louis Seeger|date=1921|publisher=Doubleday Page & Co.|access-date=12 March 2017|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> [[Georgy Lvov]] and [[Alexander Guchkov]] tried to convince the Tsar to accept liberals in the new government.

When Goremykin resigned on {{OldStyleDate|21 July|1906|8 July}}, Nicholas II appointed Stolypin as Prime Minister, while remaining as Minister of the Interior. He dissolved the [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|Duma]], despite the reluctance of some of its more radical members, to clear the field for cooperation with the new government. In response, 120 Kadet and 80 [[Trudoviks|Trudovik]] and [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Social Democrat]] deputies went to [[Vyborg]] (then under the autonomous [[Grand Duchy of Finland]], beyond the reach of Russian police) and responded with the [[Vyborg Manifesto]] (or the "Vyborg Appeal"), written by Pavel Milyukov. Stolypin allowed the signers to return to the capital unmolested.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

[[File:Stolypin's villa after the attempted assassination.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Stolypin's wooden villa after the attempted assassination. One third was blown to pieces.]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R04510, Russland, Attentat auf Stolypin.jpg|thumb|upright=1|The aftermath of the August 1906 attempted assassination of Stolypin.]]

On 25 August 1906, three assassins from the [[Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries Maximalists]], wearing military uniforms, bombed a public reception Stolypin was holding at his [[dacha]] on [[Aptekarsky Island]]. Stolypin was only slightly injured by flying splinters, but 28 others were killed. Stolypin's 15-year-old daughter lost both legs and later succumbed to her injuries at the hospital, and his 3-year-old son Arkady broke a leg, as the two stood on a balcony.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/08/26/101714707.pdf|title=Bomb kills 28 – Hurts Stolypin|date=26 August 1906|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Stolypin moved into the [[Winter Palace]]. In October 1906, at the request of the tsar, [[Grigori Rasputin]] paid a visit to the wounded child.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljZhTg79ZocC&q=Rasputin+Stolypin+august+1906&pg=PA41|title=Rasputin: The Untold Story|first=Joseph T.|last=Fuhrmann|date= 2012|publisher=Wiley|isbn=9781118226933}}</ref> On 9 November an imperial decree made far-reaching changes in land tenure law, disrupting in one sweep the communal and the household (family) property systems.<ref>Lazar Volin (1970) ''A century of Russian agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev'', pp. 103–104. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Stolypin changed the rules of the First Duma to attempt to make it more amenable to government proposals.<ref>Orlando Figes, ''A People's Tragedy. The Russian Revolution 1891–1924'', p. 225 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name=Oxley>{{cite book |last= Oxley |first= Peter|title= Russia, 1855–1991: from tsars to commissars |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]] |year= 2001 |isbn= 0-19-913418-9}}</ref> On 8 June 1907, Stolypin [[Coup of June 1907|dissolved the Second Duma]], and 15 Kadets who had associated with terrorists were arrested; he also changed the weight of votes in favor of the nobility and wealthy, reducing the value of lower-class votes.<ref name=Oxley/> The leading Kadets were ineligible. This affected the elections to the Third Duma, which returned much more conservative members eager to cooperate with the government.<ref>Lazar Volin (1970) A century of Russian agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev, p. 101. Harvard University Press</ref> This changed Georgy Lvov from a moderate liberal into a radical.<ref>O. Figes (1996) ''A People's Tragedy. The Russian Revolution 1891–1924,'' p. 220</ref>

[[File:Distribution of newly formed farms in Grodno governorate.jpeg|thumb|upright=1|Distribution of newly formed farms in Grodno Governorate (1909)]]

As governor in Saratov, Stolypin had become convinced that the [[open field system]] had to be abolished; communal [[land tenure]] had to go. The chief obstacle appeared to be the [[Mir (commune)]], so its dissolution and the individualization of peasant land ownership became the leading objectives of his agrarian policy.<ref>Lazar Volin (1970) A century of Russian agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev, p. 102.</ref> He introduced Denmark-style land reforms to allay peasant grievances and soothe dissent. Stolypin proposed his own landlord-sided reform in opposition to the previous democratic proposals which led to the dissolution of the first two Russian parliaments.<ref>Lazar Volin (1970) ''A century of Russian agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev'', p. 106</ref> [[Stolypin Reform|Stolypin's reforms]] aimed to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of market-oriented [[smallholding|smallholders]] who would support the social order.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0846802.html|title=Stolypin, Piotr Arkadevich|access-date=12 March 2017}}</ref> He was assisted by [[Alexander Krivoshein]], who in 1908 became Minister of Agriculture. In June 1908 Stolypin lived in a wing of the [[Yelagin Palace]]<ref>[https://archive.org/details/kinohistoryofrus0000leyd/page/32 <!-- quote=yelagin palace stolypin. --> Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film, With a New Postscript by Jay Leyda, p. 32]</ref> where the [[council of Ministers of Russia|Council of Ministers]] convened.<ref>{{cite book|author=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|author-link=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title=August 1914: A Novel: The Red Wheel I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT3RAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP21|year=2014|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-0-374-71212-9|page=601}}</ref>

Supported by the [[Peasants' Land Bank]], [[credit cooperative]]s proliferated from 1908, and Russian industry was booming.<ref>Lazar Volin (1970) ''A century of Russian agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev'', pp. 112–114.</ref> Stolypin tried to improve the lives of urban laborers and worked towards increasing the power of [[zemstvos|local governments]], but the zemstvos adopted an attitude hostile to the government.

[[Leo Tolstoy]] was particularly indignant, writing to Stolypin: "Stop your horrible activity! Enough of looking up to Europe, it is high time Russia knew its own mind!" Tolstoy had argued similarly to [[Dostoyevsky]], who was in favor of private ownership of land and wrote: "If you want to transform humanity for the better, to turn almost beasts into humans, give them land and you will reach your goal."<ref name="Angelfire2">{{cite web |title=ROYAL RUSSIA NEWS. THE ROMANOV DYNASTY & THEIR LEGACY, MONARCHY, HISTORY OF IMPERIAL & HOLY RUSSIA |url=http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog?topic_id=1069120 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716072043/http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog?topic_id=1069120 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 July 2011 |access-date=12 March 2017}}</ref><!-- [[File:Памятник Петру Столыпину (Москва, октябрь 2013).jpg|thumb|Monument for Памятник Петру Столыпину in Moscow (2013)]] -->

In his handling of the “Jewish Question”, Stolypin set a fine example for his fellow statesmen, petitioning the Tsar to dissolve the Pale of Settlement, visiting synagogues and inviting Jewish musicians to his home to play for his family. 

In 1910, Stolypin's brother-in-law [[Sergey Sazonov]] became [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire|Minister of Foreign Affairs]], replacing Count [[Alexander Izvolsky]]. Around 1910 the press started a campaign against Rasputin, accusing him of improper sexual relations. Stolypin wanted to ban Rasputin from the capital and threatened to prosecute him as a sectarian.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} Rasputin decamped to Jerusalem, returning to St. Petersburg only after Stolypin's death.

On 14 June 1910, Stolypin's land reforms came before the Duma as a formal law,<ref>Lazar Volin (1970) ''A century of Russian agriculture. From Alexander II to Khrushchev'', p. 103.</ref> including a proposal to spread the [[zemstvo]] system to the southwestern provinces of [[Asian Russia]]. Though the law seemed likely to pass, Stolypin's political opponents narrowly defeated it. In March 1911 Stolypin resigned from the fractious and chaotic Duma after the failure of his land-reform bill.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://souloftheeast.org/2011/09/07/solzhenitsyn-stolypins-murder/|title=Solzhenitsyn: Stolypin's Murder|first=Mark|last=Hackard|date=7 September 2011|access-date=12 March 2017}}</ref> Tsar Nicholas II decided to look for a successor to Stolypin and considered [[Sergei Witte]], [[Vladimir Kokovtsov]] and [[Alexei Khvostov]].{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} [[The Moscow Times]] has summarized his career:

{{quote|Pyotr Stolypin's reforms produced astounding results within a few years. Between 1906 and 1915, thanks to the efforts of Stolypin's farmers, the productivity of crops nationwide grew by 14 percent, in Siberia by 25 percent. In 1912, Russia's grain exports exceeded by 30 percent those of Argentina, the United States and Canada combined.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://old.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/tmt/334012.html|title=Pioneering Land Reform - News|access-date=12 March 2017}}</ref>}}