Petr Arkadievich Stolypin (1862-1911) - statesman of the Russian Empire, state secretary of His Imperial Majesty, actual state councilor, chamberlain. An outstanding reformer, who at various times was the governor of several cities, then became the Minister of the Interior, and at the end of his life served as the Prime Minister.
He is known as a statesman who played a significant role in suppressing the revolution of 1905-1907. He passed a number of bills that went down in history as the Stolypin agrarian reform, the main criterion of which was the introduction of private peasant land ownership.
Stolypin possessed enviable fearlessness and determination. 11 attempts were planned and committed against the politician, the last of which was fatal for him.
There are many interesting facts in Stolypin's biography, which we will talk about in this article.
So, before you is a short biography of Peter Stolypin.
Stolypin's biography
Pyotr Stolypin was born on April 2 (14), 1862 in the German city of Dresden. He grew up and was brought up in the family of General Arkady Stolypin and his wife Natalya Mikhailovna. Peter had one sister and 2 brothers - Mikhail and Alexander.
Childhood and youth
The Stolypins belonged to a well-known noble family that existed back in the 16th century. An interesting fact is that on the line of his father, Peter was a second cousin to the famous writer Mikhail Lermontov.
The mother of the future reformer was from the Gorchakov family, dating back to the Rurik dynasty.
In childhood, Peter was provided with everything necessary, since his parents were wealthy people. When he was 12 years old, he began to study at the Vilna gymnasium.
4 years later, Stolypin transferred to the Oryol men's gymnasium. At that time of his biography, he was especially distinguished by his prudence and strong character.
After graduating from the gymnasium, 19-year-old Peter went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Imperial University in the physics and mathematics department. It is curious that Dmitry Mendeleev himself was one of his teachers.
The activities of Peter Stolypin
Having become a certified agronomist, Pyotr Stolypin took the post of collegiate secretary. After just 3 years, he became a titular advisor.
Over time, Peter was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he was entrusted with the post of chairman of the Coven court of conciliators. Thus, he actually possessed general powers, being in the rank of captain. But then he was barely 26 years old.
During his many years of service in Kovno, as well as during his governorship in Grodno and Saratov, Stolypin paid great attention to the agricultural sector.
Petr Arkadievich deeply studied various technologies, trying to improve the quality and quantity of the crop. He experimented with new varieties of crops, observing their growth and other characteristics.
Stolypin opened vocational schools and special female gymnasiums. When his successes became obvious to the authorities, the politician was transferred to Saratov, where he continued his work. It was there that the Russo-Japanese War found him, followed by a riot (1905).
Pyotr Stolypin personally communicated with the angry crowd, managing to find an approach to people and calm them down. Thanks to his fearless actions, the unrest in the Saratov province gradually subsided.
Nicholas 2 twice expressed his gratitude to Peter, and then offered him the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. It is worth noting that Stolypin did not really want to occupy this post, since he demanded great responsibility from him. By the way, 2 previous ministers were brutally killed.
By that time, the biography of Pyotr Stolypin had already been made 4 attempts, but each time he managed to get out of the water,
The complexity of the new job for the man was that the majority of the State Duma deputies had revolutionary sentiments, being in opposition to the current government.
This led to the dissolution of the First State Duma, after which Stolypin began to combine his post with the post of prime minister. In public speeches, he demonstrated excellent oratorical skills, expressing many phrases that later became winged.
Pyotr Arkadievich fought against revolutionary movements, managing to pass many important bills.
Peter Stolypin's reforms
Stolypin's reforms affected many areas, including foreign policy, local government, medicine, justice and culture. However, the most ambitious reforms were carried out by him in the agricultural sector.
Pyotr Stolypin strove to induce the peasants to become full-fledged owners of the land. He made sure that the peasants could receive loans that were profitable for themselves.
In addition, the state promised in every way to support peasant associations.
The second important reform was the zemstvo - the introduction of local government bodies, which reduced the influence on the actions of wealthy landowners. This reform progressed very difficult especially in the western regions, where people are used to relying on the gentry.
Stolypin was the initiator of another important bill related to industry. The rules for hiring workers, the length of the working day have changed, insurance against illness and accidents has been introduced, etc.
Since the prime minister wanted to unite the peoples living in Russia, he created a ministry of nationalities. His goal was to find compromises on various issues among representatives of any nation, without humiliating their culture, language and religion.
Stolypin believed that such actions would help get rid of interethnic and religious confrontations.
Results of Stolypin's reforms
Stolypin's reforms cause mixed opinions among many experts. Some consider him the only person who in the future could prevent the October Revolution and save the country from prolonged wars and famine.
According to other biographers, Pyotr Stolypin used too harsh and radical methods to introduce his own ideas. The reforms carried out by him were scrupulously studied by scientists for many decades, as a result of which they were taken as the basis of Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika.
When it comes to Stolypin, many remember Grigory Rasputin, who was a close friend of the royal family. It should be noted that the prime minister was extremely negative about Rasputin, sending a lot of unflattering criticism to him.
It was at the request of Peter Arkadievich that Rasputin left the borders of the Russian Empire, deciding to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He will return back only after the death of the politician.
Personal life
Stolypin got married at the age of 22. Initially, his wife was the bride of his older brother Mikhail, who died in a duel with Prince Shakhovsky. While dying, Mikhail allegedly asked Peter to marry his bride.
Whether it was really difficult to say, but Stolypin did indeed have a wedding with Olga Neidgardt, one of the maids of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
An interesting fact is that Olga was the great-great-granddaughter of the legendary military leader Alexander Suvorov.
This union turned out to be happy. The Stolypin family had 5 girls and one boy. Later, the son of the reformer will leave Russia and become a successful publicist in France.
Death
As mentioned earlier, 10 unsuccessful attempts were made on Pyotr Stolypin. During one of the latest assassination attempts, the murderers wanted to deal with the Prime Minister on Aptekarsky Island with explosives.
As a result, Stolypin survived, while dozens of innocent people died on the spot. After this sad incident came into force a decree on "quick" courts, better known as the "Stolypin tie". This meant the immediate death penalty for the terrorists.
After that, the police were able to uncover several more conspiracies, but the officers did not manage to protect the politician from the fatal 11 assassination attempt.
When Stolypin and the royal family were in Kiev, on the occasion of the opening of the monument to Alexander 2, secret informant Dmitry Bogrov received a message that terrorists had arrived in the city to kill the emperor.
But in reality the attempt was conceived by Bogrov himself and not on Nikolai 2, but on the prime minister. And since the informant was trusted, he had a pass to the theater box, where only high-ranking officials were sitting.
Approaching Stolypin, Bogrov fired twice at his victim, who died of his wounds 4 days later. Petr Arkadievich Stolypin died on September 5 (18), 1911 at the age of 49.
Stolypin Photos
