Pyotr Stolypin’s Agrarian Reform in Late Imperial Russia: Background, Realization and Results (1906~1914)

• Main Authors: Sih-Han Chen, 陳思涵
• Other Authors: Alexander Pisarev
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5xfq8b

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 歐洲研究所碩士班 === 102 === The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia did not meet the peasants’ expectation: they were required to pay their landowners huge redemption payments allocation of land. This resulted in many revolutionary upsprings from 1905 to 1907, which had forced the Tsar to reexamine the land reform program and support the agrarian reform initiated by the Prime-minister Pyotr Stolypin. Pyotr Stolypin’s Agarian Reform was aimed to remove the obstacles to Russian modernization. The fundamental part of it was to abandon rural communities with the allotment land and promote the ownership of private land, which enabled the peasants to establish single and individual farms and the independent farmsteads. By migration policy, the government hoped to transform the society and to consolidate the Tsar’s regime through the land reforms. Pyotr. Stolypin’s Agarian Reform played an important role in Russian history. At face value, the reform seemed to have achieved its aim to modernization, but it proved to be problematic. Indeed, the reform had facilitated the private landownership, and gave rise to an increase in peasants’ productivity. The agricultural economy at that time had surpassed that of the rural community with the allotment land. Somehow, the authorities could not initiate a reform without repressive measures. This caused the conflicts between the rich peasants and the poor peasants. Neither did the reform eliminate the problems of peasants. Nor did it save the Tsar’s regime from collapsing. In sum, the modernization was incomplete. While tradition values still dominated in the society, social and economic structure of the society had gone through a transformation. When the social reform failed to improve people’s life, they stood up and overthrew the Tsar.