How important was Stolypin to the Tsar staying in power after 1905? (10)
The 1905 revolution in Russia caused deep unrest throughout Russian cities, posing a great threat to the Tsarist regime.
However, due to the legislative reforms imposed by Peter Stolypin and other contributory factors, Tsar Nicholas II
managed to stay in power.
Firstly, the Tsar remained in power through Stolypin’s campaign against terrorism, resulting in the execution of over two
thousand dissidents and giving rise to the nickname ‘Stolypin’s necktie’. However other groups of the army such as the
Okhrana and the Cossacks, aided by loyal militaristic groups such as the ‘Black hundreds’, also imposed terror,
breaking the revolution and silencing protesters. Additionally, the Tsar was aided by the powerful role and influence of
the Orthodox Church, whose propaganda portrayed the Tsar as the Russian people’s ‘little father’.
Secondly, Stolypin’s agrarian reforms ended countryside protests. As stated by Stolypin to the Duma in 1907 “You,
gentlemen, are in need of great upheavals; we are in need of Great Russia”, Stolypin focused on gaining the support of
the lower classes. By providing peasants an opportunity to leave their ‘mir’ communes and acquire private ownership of
lands and setting up a peasant’s bank to provide loans, created an enterprising new class of prosperous, land-owning
peasants, the Kulaks, who boosted agricultural industry by a third and increased land ownership by thirty percent. On
the other hand, Stolypin’s agrarian reforms led to more displaced peasants and a greater unrest in lower peasantry and
one of the causes the 1917 revolution. Stolypin’s industrial reforms increased production by hundred percent, with
heavy industries making iron and steel increasing by fifty percent. While employee insurance schemes and safety
inspectors improved working conditions, by 1912 protests like the Lena Goldfield Strike showed discontent.
Thirdly, while Stolypin’s reforms helped greatly, the publishing of the October Manifesto by Tsar Nicholas II appeased the
liberal bourgeoisie and established the Duma, dividing revolutionaries. This allowed However, under Stolypin’s
suggestion, the Duma’s electorate system was altered, removing the democratic threat the first and second Duma posed
to the Tsarist regime. Following an edict from the Tsar, the Fundamental Laws were passed, putting the Duma in the
Tsar’s support and giving the Tsar supreme power over the electoral system, the council and the branches of the military.
In conclusion, the Tsar staying in power was largely due to Stolypin’s agrarian, counter terrorism, legislative reforms and
his strict oppression of dissidents, but was also aided my militaristic loyalty, the church’s influence, the October
Manifesto and the fundamental laws. Nevertheless, the Tsar was still forced to abdicate in 1917.