To the question of resettlement policy at the first stage of Stolypin agrarian reform (1906-1910)

In the study the evolution of views of the government to the colonization of Siberia and the role in this process of pursued resettlement policy is traced. The author considers the influence of a number of internal and ex-ternal factors on the resettlement policy of the government pursued in the country during different periods. Thus the author comes to the conclusion that at the initial stage it was directed first of all on sharpness mitigation shortage of land in the European provinces of the Russian Empire, and also fixing of Siberia to Russia before the threat of neighboring unfriendly coun-tries. As the component of economic reform carried out by P.A. Stolypin in agrarian sector of economy, resettlement policy was finally created during 1906-1910. During this period legal base was developed, the mechanism of realization of agrarian transformations in Siberia was started in practice. The main attention in the study is paid to the problems, difficulties and con-tradictions in carrying out resettlement of peasants, to their arrangement on new residences. All above-mentioned negative manifestations in reset-tlement policy, according to the author, were the consequences of weak or-ganizational preparation and insufficient competence of heads of resettle-ment managements both in the center and locally. Already at the stage of planning scales of possible spontaneous resettlement testifying about weak knowledge of peasantry psychology was insufficiently considered. When moving immigrants all "ulcers" of the Trans-Siberian Railway under con-struction which could not help reflecting in the condition of moving were found: weak capacity, shortage of vehicles, backwardness of station farms, etc. The main problem in immigrants’ placement was lag in work on the preparation of resettlement areas and allocated land plots for immigrants. All these, taken together, led to considerable migration of peasants in the opposite direction and even abroad.