Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin, being the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, developed and began to carry out unique reforms in the country that could bring the state to a leading position in the global economy.
In the textbooks of the Soviet era, P.A. Stolypin and his reforms were allocated one paragraph. Dry formulations of facts, strictly filtered by censorship and filed from the point of view of communist ideology, provoked a rather negative reaction. It was impossible to appreciate the scale of genius and insight of this great reformer.
In the troubled revolutionary years, Peter Stolypin Arkadyevich accepted the proposal of the last monarch of Russia, and in April 1906 he became Minister of the Interior. And after the dissolution of the first State Duma, he was immediately appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire.
Stolypin "took" the country in a terrible situation. The war with Japan, disgraceful for Russia, had just ended, there was a collapse and chaos all around: the estates of the nobles and landowners were burned and destroyed; crime of grand proportions led to the annual killing of nearly twenty thousand innocent citizens; the duration of an urban office (like their life) was an average of 35 days; the revolutionary movement was gaining dangerous force; there was a bloody uprising in Moscow and strikes in many cities of the country; the budget was empty.
Trying to put things in order, the king issues a decree on the military field courts, according to which during the day it was possible to conduct both an investigation and the execution of a sentence. Calm in the country then achieved with the help of the so-called "ties" - criminals simply hung. More than once Pyotr Arkadyevich was blamed for precisely these “ties, ” but rarely did anyone recall that it was he who got the amendment to the decree ratifying him every six months. And if a little over a thousand criminals had not been executed, there would have been no opportunity to start reforms. And they were truly grandiose.
The main activity of the chairman of the Council of Ministers was the reform of local government. For the first time, citizens of any class who did not even possess material wealth, but who had a profession, management abilities, and those who were able to convince people, were able to get into power.
Education reform was especially relevant for the dark peasantry. Schools everywhere began to build, and libraries opened.
For the development of agriculture, a reform of economic freedoms was launched, when the peasant, and this was the most massive part of the Russian population - more than 2/3 - became available exit from the community. Its essence was the development of capitalism in the countryside and the creation of a new class - a strong master (fist). The death of the peasant community was not understandable and profitable for everyone, therefore there were many excesses and opposition on the ground.
Peasants from low-land areas were invited to move to the vast expanses of Siberia and to develop agriculture in the Tyumen, Tomsk, Novosibirsk regions, and Altai. In this case, enormous benefits are provided. In addition to loans and local assistance, a separate car was allocated for moving the family with all its property, the necessary tools, and livestock. (The famous "Stolypin" wagons were intended precisely for this, and not for transporting criminals). In these same cars, settlers could live until they acquired their own housing and buildings.
The issue of interaction with small nationalities was not missed. Muslims exercised their right to self-determination and began to build mosques. Stolypin invited the emperor to abolish the "Pale of Settlement" for the Jewish population.
If Stolypin had at his disposal those 20 years that he had talked about more than once, he would be able to bring Russia to an unattainable high level of development. Even with his short ministry, reforms were very effective. Judge for yourself: 1.5 million hardworking and strong Russian peasants became masters in their own land; by 1914, 93% of agricultural products were produced by them; The Russian Empire sold more grain for export than the United States, Argentina, and Canada combined; the share of the country's agricultural products in the entire world turnover was 1/4; due to the saturation of foodstuffs in cities, industry began to develop rapidly, the growth spurt was more than 50%.
