P. A. Stolypin - a hard way to progress

The reform of November 9, 1906 has been conducted by the then Prime-Minister of Russian government P.A. Stolypin. According to its terms peasants became juridically equal with other classes of society. The peasants who managed to get out of poverty and become creditworthy were supposed to be the basis of the forthcoming reform. The government declared that peasants owning some property would be looked upon as the future foundation of the Monarchy. Private property has been mostly introduced into the life of peasantry by means of administrative compulsion. The reformer was murdered on September 11, 1911 not having finished the initiated changes in the village. The vast majority of poor peasants still remained the members of the community. Its poorest part did not become more wealthy and continued to hate the reform. The present article considers the positive and negative sides of the reform.