A people without national identity is dung,

where other peoples grow

(Peter Arkadievich Stolypin)

Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin is a prominent politician of tsarist Russia of the XX century. His political activity deserved close attention of his descendants. Few statesmen remain in the memory of the people, but Pyotr Arkadyevich remained. This is a truly outstanding person, a convinced, family man, an honest and deeply religious person who strove to do things for the good of his great one.

He came from a noble family, born on April 5, 1862. For him, from an early age, the word "honor" was not an empty phrase. When his older brother died in a duel, he fought with his killer. The duel ended with Stolypin being wounded in his right arm, which was later almost paralyzed.

Pyotr Stolypin was well educated. In 1884, he successfully graduated from St. Petersburg University. One of the examiners was Mendeleev, who gave Peter an excellent mark for his subject and was delighted with his erudition and great intelligence.

In 1899, Petr Arkadievich was appointed the provincial marshal of the nobility in Kovno (present-day Kaunas). Three years later, at the age of 39, he became the youngest governor. First he worked in Grodno, then in Saratov.

He actively displayed his position during the revolution. He fought the revolutionary infection with decisive measures. More than once he asked for help from the troops to restore order in the province and suppress anti-monarchist sentiments. Stolypin in Saratov, feared and respected. Most of all, his figure inspired respect.

There is one famous historical episode when, during the unrest, Pyotr Arkadyevich came out to a heated crowd of ten thousand, eloquently and confidently urged the rioters to disperse, and then suddenly a young revolutionary began to approach him. Stolypin, without a grain of doubt, with confidence and lightness, getting excited, threw him his greatcoat, imperiously saying - "hold it." It all ended with the guy standing with his greatcoat until the end of Stolypin's speech, without uttering a word. This episode clearly shows his courage and charisma.

In April 1906, Stolypin was appointed Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire. This post was the most important one. He was the youngest cabinet minister and distinguished himself with great energy compared to his other colleagues. The ministers were lost in the Duma, where the parliamentary order reigned - booing, interruption at half a word, noise ... Stolypin, however, felt quite confident in such an environment.

Already in August 1906, there was a complete attempt on his life. It happened on the Aptekarsky Island. Pyotr Arkadyevich was receiving visitors at his dacha, when suddenly the gendarmes drove up to the house. These were revolutionaries dressed in officer's uniform. In their hands were large briefcases with bombs. The explosion on Aptekarsky Island claimed the lives of 22 people, about 30 were injured. The minister himself was not injured in the explosion, but his children were seriously injured. After the assassination attempt, Stolypin, at the invitation, moved with his family to the Winter Palace.

In July 1906, Petr Arkadyevich became the chairman of the cabinet of ministers of the Russian Empire, but at the same time he retained the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. Stolypin outlined the immediate tasks as follows: "First, calming - then reforms." Soon the first revolution ended and it was time for reforms. The minister strove to rid the country of poverty, ignorance and lawlessness. Petr Arkadievich carried out many reforms, but his most famous reform is the Land.

It was a very interesting project, although it had opponents even among the monarchists. Stolypin's death did not allow the reform to be completed, but its results at the initial stage were impressive. Russia received so much wheat that it could provide it not only for itself, but for almost all of Europe. He said that Russia needs 20 years of internal and external peace and, then, the country will become completely different. Unfortunately, the country has not been given rest for 20 years. Stolypin did a lot to suppress internal anxiety - revolutionary activity. In foreign policy, he also protected Russia from wars on more than one occasion.

They were progressive, but did not find support from any political force. They did not like him, although the Black Hundreds and other champions of Russian originality were more likely to envy him. For revolutionaries, he was generally enemy number 1. Someone of the influential leaders of the revolution once said that if his land reform is implemented, then there will be no one to make the revolution. Therefore, naturally, the radicals sentenced Pyotr Arkadievich to death.

The assassination of the minister took place on September 1, 1911 in Kiev, during the opening of the monument to Alexander II. Stolypin was killed by Dmitry Bogrov, an agent of the secret police and a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary military organization. A year later, monuments were erected to Peter Arkadyevich in Grodno, Samara and Kiev. Stolypin was a great historical figure, an excellent politician and a great man, who was not allowed to fully realize his talent and bring great benefit to the Russian state by coincidence of circumstances, lies and betrayal.

(2 (14) April 1862, Dresden - 5 (18 September) 1911, Kiev) - the great Russian reformer, selfless patriot, according to A. I. Solzhenitsyn, is the most outstanding figure in Russian history of the XX century. PA Stolypin came to the fore in Russian politics during the years of the revolution of 1905-1907. and managed to keep the country on the very edge of the abyss, averting the Troubles of 1917 for ten years. freed the Russian peasantry from communal shackles and became the completion of the great liberation of 1861. During Stolypin's premiership, Russia experienced an unheard-of material upsurge. Thanks to his encouraging measures, the broadest developed: the same number of people moved there as in the previous 300 years, from Yermak. In his last years, the brilliant politician planned with the goal of not social, but administrative transformation, but died in Kiev from the bullet of the Jewish terrorist Bogrov.

From the very childhood in Serednikov near Moscow, the main thing in life began for Pyotr Stolypin: how best to arrange a Russian peasant on Russian soil. Although by origin he seemed to be far from the people: the son of the adjutant general, the great-grandson of the senator, in kinship with Lermontov. All his life Stolypin clearly understood: there is no Russia outside the land.

Russian community

But with a sudden counter-blow to the First Duma, an unknown Stolypin came forward, indecently young for a Russian minister, dignified, prominent, thick-voiced, in eloquence not inferior to the best orators of the opposition. Deputy roar: "resign!" - he stood with defiant calmness. Stolypin called on the Duma members to patiently work for their homeland, but they were going to shout only - to rebellion! The revolt was already weakening in the cities, but the Duma now hoped to inflate it in the countryside: to awaken the peasantry by calling for the seizure of the landlords' lands. Stolypin opposed the deputy agitation with his plan for the reform of the community. The fate of the revolution now depended on whether or not this transformation succeeded.

Stolypin insisted before the First Duma that Russia would not get rich from any redistribution, but only the best farms would be destroyed. He expounded statistics previously unknown to the peasants, not explained to them by any of the liberals: the state land in the country is 140 million dessiatines, but this is mostly tundra and desert. Peasant land - 160 million dessiatines, and noble land - 53, three times less, and even under the forests a large part, so, and stripped all to a shred - the peasants cannot be enriched. The land must be missed from each other, and we must plow our own land differently: learn to take from the tithe not 35 poods, but 80 and 100, as in the best farms. Stolypin said:

It is necessary to give an opportunity to a capable hardworking peasant, the salt of the Russian land, to free himself from the current clutches, to free him from the bondage of the dying communal system, to give him power over the land ...

... The peasants' lack of their own land undermines their respect for any other people's property.

And the socialists and with them the cadets from their own species defended the community. At the end of June 1906, the government addressed the population, explaining its line. At the beginning of July, the First Duma decided in response: to appeal directly to the population, past the government, that the Duma members will never deviate from the principle of forced rejection of private lands! It was a direct appeal: men, take away the land, kill the owners, start the black redistribution!

Confusion reigned in the close circle of the Tsar. They were terribly afraid of the dissolution of the Duma. "Representatives of the people" demand the seizure of land from the landlords - but maybe this should be done? Negotiations were conducted with the leaders of the Duma Cadets - and they willingly agreed to take power, but on condition that their program was fully implemented. Head of the government, Goremykin, because of his old age, he wanted to transfer his post to another - and pointed out Stolypin as the best candidate. Stolypin's program of drastic measures clashed with the fine-minded program of another candidate for prime minister Dmitry Shipov... Honored Zemstvo, the purest moral person, he was sure that the people are kind, only we do not know how to let their fate flourish. Shipov objected to the dispersal of the Duma. Not liking the Cadets, he nevertheless believed that with their majority in the House, they should be given power. Let the Duma make mistakes! The sooner the population will realize them and will correct the Duma composition at the next elections. Stolypin objected: even before such a realization, the whole country would collapse. Shipov blamed him for the lack of a moral outlook. At the very beginning of July 1906, the Tsar held consultations in Peterhof on these issues. Stolypin's arguments outweighed, and he was named the new prime minister, just two months after becoming minister.

Manifesto of October 17 and its impact on Russian statehood

Prior to that, in the fall of 1905, Stolypin was amazed at the suddenness of the published Manifesto of October 17, to the complete confusion of the authorities and to the delight of the intelligentsia. With one oblique blow, he turned the entire historical course of the thousand-year-old ship. The Manifesto did not contain a single ready-made law, but only a heap of promises, first of all - freedom of speech, assembly, unions, the expansion of suffrage and the introduction of legislative ("Bulygin") representation instead of the previously planned legislative ("To establish firmly so that no law could perceive force without the approval of the State Duma "). The rules for elections to this representation came only two months later than the Manifesto - and again poorly thought out, confused: neither universal suffrage, nor estate, nor qualification, but even fawned upon the workers, giving them guaranteed seats in the Duma. As if a brightly independent Russia could not have discovered anything more suitable for itself than developed by several close European countries with a completely different history!

In the villages, elections were almost universal, but for the sake of apparent simplicity, district electoral meetings were not envisaged, from where the electors, having met, would send to the province well-known locally persons. Instead, the electors from the uyezd curia went straight to the provincial assembly, drowned there in an unfamiliar crowd, and educated, well-versed, educated cadets easily escorted their henchmen instead of the peasants. Thus, Russia found itself represented in parliament not by its true representatives. In the Duma of the peasants there were not 82%, as in the country itself. However, the authorities were also afraid of the dominance of the peasants in parliament: they considered them a dark mass.

The Manifesto of October 17, then incorporated into the frame of the constitution of April 23, 1906 (called the "Fundamental Laws" so as not to tease the Tsar's ear), only opened the gates of the revolution more strongly. But canceling it was risky, and Stolypin now had to learn to rule Russia without deviating from constitutional principles. Enemies were gathering against him on two wings at once: the extreme right, who wanted to tear up the Manifesto and return to uncontrolled governance, and the Russian-style immoderate liberals. Both those and others wanted not to move the ship, but to overwhelm it on its side and crush the opponents. Instead of the former "land and freedom" the slogan of the revolution has now become: " all earth and all will", Insisting that the Manifesto threw only scraps from the will, and the land will be taken away decisively the whole without leaving a scrap to anyone.

Stolypin and the revolution

An unbridled press openly published revolutionary proclamations and materials from illegal conferences. The intellectuals sheltered the Soviet of Workers' Deputies in private apartments and published its destructive appeals. Weapons, anti-government printing houses, bureaus of revolutionary organizations were buried in educational institutions, and attempts to search them not only by students, but also by professors were branded as a blatant encroachment on freedom. In the courts, serious criminal-revolutionary murderers were acquitted or strangely mild sentences were passed on them. Local authorities were frightened by terror, some of their representatives joined the revolution. The police, too, were seized by terror - after all, it was the easiest thing to attempt to assassinate the policemen. Agitators roused peasants to plunder neighboring factories and estates. With the immensity of Russia, it was almost impossible to deal with the multitude of riots taking place at the same time. When many civilian commanders received troops at their disposal, the first thing they did was to provide them with personal protection for themselves - even with artillery!

The revolutionary ferment spread to the military units. Agitators came directly to the barracks and handed out newspapers where it was openly written that Russia was ruled by a gang of robbers. The army command showed no less powerlessness than the civilian command, was afraid to interfere with soldiers' gatherings, where, under the influence of newcomer propagandists, they declared: "This is not an improvement in the contentment if half a pound of meat was added a day!"

The front legs of the horses of the Russian chariot were already floating over the abyss. On the very days of the Peterhof consultations, terrorists killed one admiral in Sevastopol and one general in Peterhof itself (confused with Dmitry Trepov).

And under the influence of Stolypin, the tsar on July 8, 1906 issued a manifesto on the dissolution of the First Duma. Even Trepov was afraid of him, but Stolypin showed composure. The text of the manifesto said:

May peace be restored in the Russian land and may the Almighty help us to realize the most important from Our royal labors - raising the welfare of the peasantry... A Russian plowman, without prejudice to someone else's possession, will receive, where there is land tightness, a legal and fair way to expand his land tenure.

In the St. Petersburg province, Stolypin introduced a state of emergency protection. But instead of the expected call for revolution, air escaped from a punctured ball - powerless Vyborg appeal... Although, in addition to him, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social Democrats published in St. Petersburg on July 12 a Manifesto to the army and navy, where they falsely assured: the government entered into negotiations with the Austrian and German emperors in order to suppress the revolution with their help. The socialists accused the authorities of treason and called the soldiers and sailors "to fight for land and freedom."

Socialist messengers rushed between Sevastopol, Kronstadt and Sveaborg (the main sea fortress on the islands near Helsingfors itself). Their plan was: after harvesting the grain, ignite rural uprisings, the troops would rush there, and the advanced fortresses would rise up here. They thought to make Finland the center of the military rebellion, where Russian laws almost did not work. Head-captain Zion called the deputies of the dissolved Duma to gather "under the protection of the guns of Sveaborg." In Helsingfors, there were continuous meetings, and armed revolutionary detachments marched openly through the streets. The legal Social Democratic "Barracks Bulletin" called for an uprising against the "All-Russian executioner."

It is not known why Alexander I annexed Finland to Russia... The tsars recognized its constitution 100 years earlier than the Russian one; gave it parliament 60 years earlier than ours; exempted from military service; gave the Finns generous privileges on the territory of the Empire; so arranged the monetary system that the Finns lived at the expense of Russia. Two weakened borders - Finnish-Swedish and Finnish-Russian - opened an easy passage from Europe for revolutionaries. Finland became a more reliable refuge for Russian revolutionaries than neighboring European states: from there, according to agreements with Russia, they could be extradited, the Finnish police did not follow them, and the Russian could not have agents in Finland. Finland became a revolutionary hive 25 versts from the capital of Russia, here terror was being prepared for St. Petersburg. With the beginning of the revolution, the Finnish Red Guard was allowed under the guise of a peaceful class organization. She openly conducted military exercises throughout Finland, attacked the gendarmes.

July 17, 1906 broke out wild Sveaborg revolt... All three days he passed in a carnage between the rebel artillerymen and the unrebellious infantry. The revolutionaries were forced to join the riot under the threat of death, the officers were arrested or killed. In the mutual cannonade and in the explosion of powder magazines, which could not be controlled without officers, several hundred Russian soldiers died. On the last night, the leader of the uprising, Zion, fled, leaving those deceived by him for reprisal. And in all of Finland, the Russian authorities did not find troops to suppress, this was done only - with a new shelling - by the arriving fleet. On the third day, Kronstadt also mutinied, but after 6 hours it was pacified. The Finnish Red Guard, which blew up the bridges between Helsingfors and St. Petersburg, knocked down telegraph poles and was taken with weapons on the territory of the rebellious fortress, could not be brought to trial under local laws! And only Russians were tried.

It was against this violence that Stolypin intended to give a courageous battle. The revolutionaries took over the printing houses by force, printed calls for a general uprising and mass murder, and proclaimed local regional republics. Pyotr Arkadyevich was going to act against them harshly, but within the framework of strict legality.

However, the king hesitated. The adoption of decisive measures hastened only the assassination attempt on Stolypin - the famous explosion on August 12, 1906 on Aptekarsky Island, where the state dacha of the head of the government was located. The victims of this explosion were 32 seriously wounded and 27 killed! (Most were outsiders; the petitioner with the baby was also killed. The corpses lay in twisted positions, without heads, arms, legs.) Half the house was blown apart. Stolypin's three-year-old only son and one of his daughters were thrown from the balcony over the fence far to the embankment. The boy's leg was broken, the girl was run over by horses. The revolutionaries themselves were torn to shreds. But Stolypin's office turned out to be the only room that did not suffer at all. In it, a large inkwell just flew into the air, filling the premier with ink. The Stolypin family was transported by boat to the Winter Palace. The boat sailed under the bridges, where the revolutionaries with red flags marched. Stolypin's eight-year-old daughter began to hide from them under the bench, while her father told her and the others: "When they shoot at us, children, you can't hide."

Dacha of the Prime Minister after the explosion on Aptekarsky Island

Following this, the law on courts martial, which was then in effect for 8 months, was adopted. They were used only in cases especially grave robberies, murders and attacks on the police, authorities and citizens, and should have brought the case and sentence closer to the time and place of the crime. Criminal liability was established for praising terror and anti-government propaganda in the army.

Although the death penalty, by law, was applied only to bombers, and could not even be applied to convicted bomb makers, the "society" raised a whole storm against the naval vessels. Lev Tolstoy also protested against them. Hounded the leader Octobrists Alexandra Guchkova who dared to support those courts. And the terror immediately weakened after their introduction.

During these months, Prime Minister Stolypin had to live under strict guard in the Winter Palace, only the palace roof remained for walking. And the emperor also secretly hid for the second year in a small estate in Peterhof, not daring to appear publicly anywhere. It looked like Russia was in the hands of the revolutionaries.

For some reason, reforms in Russia have meant the weakening and even death of the government, and the harsh measures of order mean the rejection of reforms. But Stolypin clearly saw the combination of both! He was now well aware: the Duma talkers, almost legendary, if you look from the provinces, are in fact not strength and not reason, they can be fully resisted. The only tragic thing was the Tsar's lack of firm will. Stolypin did not accept Bismarck's path - to freely violate the will of the monarch in the interests of the monarchy. But Nicholas II needed a strength that would do everything for him, and this could be used. Stolypin never departed from outwardly respectful treatment of the Tsar and so often inspired him with useful thoughts, which the Tsar then began to take for his own.

Stolypin loved solitary walks and suffocated without them in the palace. The guards began to plan with strict secrecy: through which door to take him out, which route and to which outskirts to follow, so that the prime minister could walk a little. Stolypin also went to reports to the tsar. But the revolutionaries did not stop trying to assassinate him. At first, through the acquaintances of the eldest daughter, the students were framed into the family by the teacher of the youngest daughters of the terrorist, but he was exposed. Then they brought the terrorist into the guard of the Winter Palace. Once he was on guard just at the entrance through which Stolypin came out, but out of surprise he slowed down to shoot, and was later revealed. There were other assassination attempts. During the year, assassinations were suppressed: groups of Dobrzhinsky, the "flying squad" of Rosa Rabinovich and Lea Lapina, the "flying squad" of Trauberg, the Strogalshchikov group, the group of Feiga Elkina and the group of Leiba Lieberman. Every day, leaving the house, Pyotr Arkadyevich mentally said goodbye to his family.

Stolypin land reform

No healthy development of Russia could be decided otherwise than through the countryside. Stolypin's main idea was: you cannot create a legal state without first having an independent citizen, and such a citizen in Russia is a peasant. “Citizen first - then citizenship,” said Pyotr Arkadyevich. The abstract right to freedom without true freedom of the peasantry is a "blush on a corpse." (AND Witte believed that any constitution should be preceded by the emancipation of the peasants, but Witte himself, with a nervous twitch, introduced a constitution for the time being - and Stolypin now got to free the peasants after it).

On the day of the explosion on Aptekarsky Island, despite the friendly family resistance of the Grand Dukes, the tsar signed a decree proposed by Stolypin on the gratuitous concession to the peasants of part of the state, appanage, cabinet lands (9 million dessiatines immediately). The sale of reserved and pre-owned lands has become easier. The conditions for peasant credit have improved. But the main of Stolypin's agrarian reforms was the law on the freedom to leave the community. “It is unbearable for the owner to voluntarily apply his best aptitudes to temporary land. Constant redistributions give rise to carelessness and indifference in the farmer. Equalized fields are ruined fields. With equalizing land use, the level of the entire country goes down, ”said Pyotr Arkadyevich.

The right half of the Duma protested noisily. Rodichev was almost thrown off the podium, he barely managed to retreat into the Catherine Hall. Stolypin left the ministerial box in anger. Rodichev in Yekaterininsky received a challenge from the prime minister to a duel. Stolypin said that he did not want to stay with his children with the nickname of a hanger. The prime minister, a 45-year-old father of six, hasn't hesitated to put his life on the line. The 53-year-old Tver deputy was not ready for such a turn. The dented Rodichev had to trudge into the ministerial pavilion of the Duma during the same break to ask Stolypin for an apology. Stolypin scoffed at Rodichev: "I forgive you," and did not give his hand. The Duma gave the premier a standing ovation when he returned to the hall, and Rodichev had to take his words back from the rostrum, ask Stolypin for an apology - and be expelled for fifteen sessions. (Nevertheless, the expression "Stolypin's tie" has long come into use.)

The Stolypin family again spent that winter in the Winter Palace. Terrorists were preparing more and more assassination attempts. There was even an attempt to assassinate the prime minister right in the Duma: an SR was supposed to shoot from a journalistic box with the passport of an Italian correspondent. Sensing danger from all sides, Stolypin bequeathed to bury him where he would be killed.

The calmer Third Duma gave hope for a reconciliation between the authorities and the moderate public. Stolypin was supported in it by Guchkov and his party of Octobrists, who prevailed here over the Cadets and the Rights. But this support was not unconditional, and the Octobrists often criticized the government. Only Russian nationalists were invariably on the side of Stolypin. At the beginning of 1908, the question of building four battleships was raised in the chamber. After Tsushima Russia did not have a fleet, but scattered ships. It was necessary to start rebuilding the naval forces. But Guchkov and his supporters demanded first to transform the naval department responsible for the defeat of the Japanese campaign. After the war of 1904-1905, the necessary investigation was never carried out in this department. The mediocre Admiral Alekseev received an honorary appointment as a member of the State Council. The Octobrist majority in the Third Duma refused loans before the naval command was cleared.

Take a deep look, the Duma members were right. But it would take a lot of time to fight against the court circles that hindered the reforms of the fleet, and Russia's external enemies did not wait. And Stolypin came out against the Octobrists on this issue. He made speeches at three sessions - the Duma commission, the Duma, the State Council - each time against the hostile approval of the majority's credits. He persuaded that “if a high school student was cut off during an exam, he should not be punished by taking away his textbooks,” but in vain. And soon the Duma also refused him in appropriations for the construction of the Amur railway, considering such a waste unbearable for a weakened country.

In other cases, Stolypin succeeded in convincing the Third Duma, in these he did not. But he used the Duma breaks and spent his time under Article 87, and the Duma then did not dare to stop the construction of battleships and the Amur road that had begun. Under the same article, Petr Arkadyevich passed laws on Old Believer communities and on the transition from one religion to another. The Duma was necessary for Stolypin himself: without it he would not have overcome the court circles. But his relationship with the chamber turned out to be far from cloudless. Stolypin had to defend for a long time before the Third Duma restrictive measures against the press, this "mother of revolution", and exceptional measures against terror (Guchkov and the Octobrists first supported them, but then demanded an end).

Stolypin showed brilliant talent for parliamentary speeches. He aptly answered the remarks given from the audience, firmly substantiating his opinions with examples from European state law, which he was able to perfectly study with his knowledge of three foreign languages. His witty comparisons gushed like a fountain. This unprecedented tsarist minister exhausted the opposition with his speeches, as clear as his handwriting. He was not silent even where it was convenient to silently evade.

Stolypin's speech on the Azef case

This was the case in February 1909, when the opposition made a request for Azefe... Having experienced a failure with Azev, the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries invented the fantasy of his demonic duplicity: the government, allegedly, creates provocateurs and even kills its own dignitaries, just to disintegrate the revolution. Russian public without checking, she willingly took up this advantageous accusation. Stolypin was not obliged to respond to the Duma's request on this matter in person in the chamber: he could answer in absentia, in writing, in a month. But he rushed to the meeting. The opposition did not cite a single fact in favor of the biting hypothesis of duality. Stolypin, on the other hand, vividly proved in his speech that the left-wing leaders are presenting a fable in order to save their banners.

It is interesting that the former head of police Lopukhin, who issued Azef's information to the revolutionaries and helped Burtsev to compose the Azefian myth, was Stolypin's friend in the gymnasium. He tried to save his career: major murders - Plehve and the grand duke Sergei Alexandrovich- were unimpeded under Lopukhin, who did not heed Azef's warnings, and now tried to blame him and did not disdain to meet with the murderer Savinkov to slander Azef and the government together. Lopukhin sent a protest to Stolypin against the attempt to stop his trip to London to the terrorists, and sent a copy of this letter to the foreign Socialist-Revolutionaries for publication in the Western press.

However, Stolypin told the Duma certain dates and facts. Azef since 1892 and until recently was voluntary a police officer, double he never played a role. Until 1906 (before the arrest of Savinkov) Azef did not participate in the terrorist activities of the Social Revolutionaries, but all private information about it, obtained through acquaintances in the party, was reported to the police. He gave information about Gershuni as the central figure of terror, prevented an attempt on Pobedonostsev, one attempt on Plehve, reported data on preparations against Trepov, Durnovo, and again on Plehve, who was killed in July 1904, and even pointed out precisely to Egor Sazonova... Azef did not participate in the murder of Plehve and the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich: in both cases he was abroad, while in the practice of the Social Revolutionaries, the directors were always present on the spot so that the performer would cheer up and he would see his eyes. And since 1906, when Azev gained access to the actions of the central Socialist-Revolutionary Combat Organization, absolutely all of its acts were skillfully upset and not committed. Only amateur revolutionary groups, acting on their own initiative, succeeded in terrorist attacks.

Stolypin explained: the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries invented the legend of Azef's "provocation" in order to cover up their own monstrous failure (they did not recognize the police agent in their top leadership) - and to save the authority, tarnished by this failure, in the eyes of ideological supporters. Declaring that "the government does not tolerate criminal provocation and will never tolerate it," Stolypin stepped down from the rostrum to the applause of the entire audience. In his same speech about Azef, a genuine prophecy broke through:

We build scaffolding for construction, opponents point to them as an ugly building, and violently chop down their foundation. And these forests will inevitably collapse and maybe crush us under their ruins - but let it happen when the building of the renewed free Russia will already appear in the main outlines! ...

However, it was not Stolypin's truth that dried up for a century, but a deceitful detective story about Azef's "double", composed by Burtsev and Chernov.

The fate of Stolypin's peasant reform in the Duma

Even the Third Duma was in no hurry to adopt the main Stolypin - peasant - law, issued in the interval between the First and Second according to Article 87. The Cadets, in contradiction to their own "liberalism," stood up like a wall to defend the collectivist community. The rightists defended the same community out of fear of a sharp break with an already ingrained tradition. The debate on the Stolypin land law lasted two and a half years. Unable to reject the law completely, they tried to change it. Lawyers and professors came up with an amendment to him: the head of a peasant family, even if he was freed from the community, cannot be the sole disposing of your plot, but for each property step you must obtain consent family members- their women and children. Any of these wealthy townspeople and landowners would have felt such an outrage in their own family. But declared by them holy worker They considered the peasant to be such an irrevocable drunkard that they believed: if he got a plot of land in his own confluence, he would immediately drink it, letting his family go around the world. If the power of the landowner fell over him, the power of the community fell away, even the power of the family should have remained over the holy worker.

On this occasion, Stolypin said his famous phrase: “When we write a law for the whole country, we must keep in mind the reasonable and the strong, and not the drunk and the weak. The majority of such strong people in Russia". The "public", laying a new stigma on Stolypin, immediately dropped the final sentence of the "majority" from this phrase and began to quote only the first everywhere, accusing the prime minister of wanting to rely on the strong to the detriment of the weak.

And part of the clergy opposed the reform, believing that resettlement on farms would weaken the Orthodox faith among the people.

Over these two and a half years, a million peasant applications have already flocked to the farm, land management commissions were already working everywhere, and the Duma barely passed the law by a majority of several votes. And a year later, with trepidation and hesitation, the law passed through the State Council. Then the law waited for months for the last signature of the Tsar, whom the rightists strongly instilled: the collapse of the community would give the peasants to the power of Jewish buyers, although the law clearly stipulated that allotment land could not be alienated to a person of another class, could not be sold for personal money and could not be pledged otherwise than in the Peasant Bank.

Intrigues of the court spheres against Stolypin

The court spheres surrounding Nicholas II hated Stolypin. For them, he was a dangerous upstart who, with his swift promotion, threatened to undermine the special privileges of the dignitaries. Stolypin seemed to all of them a useful, necessary person, while he saved them from revolution, from arson and pogroms. Until the fall of 1908, the spheres, although they showed hostility towards Pyotr Arkadyevich, did not openly oppose him, but let him fight the revolution. When this struggle of his ended with amazing success, the court decided to push Stolypin into the shadows. Most of all, the dignitaries did not like his desire to preserve the Manifesto of October 17 and the legal order, and not get rid of them immediately after the pacification of the revolutionary turmoil.

The court camarilla, retired bureaucrats, unsuccessful rulers rallied in the right wing of the State Council, the bison part of the nobility and Union of the Russian People Stolypin stood like a bone in his throat. He promoted reforms that would inevitably destroy a motionless enjoyable existence spheres... Those already began to feel the stormy streak of senatorial revisions above them.

Stolypin did not look for friends or allies among the courtiers. He was not their brother-bureaucrat, and they did not smell his own wax coating on him. Petr Arkadyevich thought about police reform, but from the beginning of 1909 spheres contrived to put him (through the royal favor and personal will of the queen) as the first deputy in the Ministry of Internal Affairs - a greedy ferret Kurlova... Perhaps this was already a preparation for Stolypin's resignation. Its own police department began to eavesdrop on the telephone of its minister. The Empress began to show constant hostility to Stolypin, and the Sovereign showed sudden changes in mood at every step and, approving the reform orders of the Prime Minister, often immediately issued orders of the opposite meaning from himself. He received Stolypin only after 10 pm, as he got up late. There were no receptions on weekends: the tsar spent these days with his family. Always ready for sudden changes in the highest will, Stolypin, going to the tsar, carried in his portfolio a written request for resignation, signed by today's date, and sometimes submitted it.

Spring 1909 spheres they began to put pressure on Stolypin, and his resignation was close. When Stolypin passed through the Duma the confirmation of the states of the naval general staff, Witte hastened to point out to the State Council that a precedent for limiting the imperial prerogative in military matters was being created here. Just at that moment, Stolypin fell ill with pneumonia. The sovereign suggested that he take a vacation and rest in Livadia. Such leave has often been interpreted as preparation for retirement. All Petersburg has already said that Stolypin will soon be replaced by the Minister of Finance Kokovtsov, and at the Ministry of Internal Affairs - Kurlov. But at the end of April, another rescript followed, openly approving Stolypin for the public. (However, he had to leave the full management of military issues to the Tsar - and so he began to lose the support of the Octobrists and Guchkov.)

Stolypin and the Tsar

In spite of everything, having closely recognized the tsar, Stolypin became convinced that he was Christianly kind, was truly a Christian on the throne, and loved his people with all his heart (although he did not forget the offense for a long time). Nicholas II avoided only strong tension - because of his weak character. And the duty of the monarchist was: to be able to work with this Emperor. The king was sincerely convinced that he always strives for the good of the homeland, but he listened to the palace gossip. He refused to host the Third Duma in its entirety, and much in this Duma could have gone differently if the reception had taken place. Nicholas valued Stolypin as an excellent minister who leads the people to prosperity, so long as he does not bother his Emperor too much and does not force him to do something unpleasant to some wonderful person from the courtiers. Stolypin fell in love with this kind, honest man, albeit with stately important shortcomings. “I love the Little One,” Pyotr Arkadyevich said to his wife. Stolypin did not miss the opportunity to put the Tsar in the center of the national celebrations, to attribute to him the merit of his own reforms. Even alone with the Guchkov, who is unfriendly to the royal couple, Peter Arkadyevich never allowed himself to express disapproval of the Tsar. Stolypin clearly saw how much he, a strong minister, was necessary for this weak tsar, who sincerely did not understand into what abyss Russia had almost been overthrown in the Nine hundred and fifth and sixth, and believed: there would be no riots at all if all local administrators were alike against the harsh Yalta mayor Dumbadze.

In the summer of 1908, on a yacht cruise through the Finnish skerries, Stolypin visited Germany incognito, where for the first time in several years he freely walked the streets, not hiding from murderers. I learned about his arrival emperor wilhelm and wanted to meet. Stolypin dodged, slipped away. Wilhelm chased him with several ships, but did not overtake him. Their conversation took place a year later when the emperors met. Wilhelm obscenely neglected the tsar and his wife, all went into a conversation with Stolypin, from whom he admired, and after another 20 years he repeated that he was more far-sighted and taller than Bismarck.

Stolypin's foreign policy

Stolypin, as much as he could, avoided foreign policy, spared his strength on it: in comparison with the internal policy, it seemed to him extremely easy to solve. He was convinced that a ruler with the most mediocre mind could stop an external war at any time. The Russian government at that time was still far from completely united. cabinet... The Minister of Foreign Affairs was not obliged to make reports to the Prime Minister and was appointed apart from him. And so the young ambitious Izvolsky got into the Stolypin government for foreign affairs. In search of a spectacular diplomatic move and free hands in relation to Turkey, Izvolsky fell into the trap of his Austro-Hungarian colleague and at the end of 1908 allowed him to accompany seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina the announcement that it was committed with the consent of Russia. It was a blatant exploitation of our post-Japanese weakness. The Germans demanded from Russia not even silence, not neutrality, but a humiliating public consent to the occupation: to renounce all Slavic-Balkan politics. Society and the Duma were in full swing. But, knowing well the state of our army, Stolypin was convinced: we cannot yet fight. The temporary damage to self-esteem was nothing in front of the enormity of the internal building program. Stolypin never burned with the Pan-Slavic mission. He dissuaded the sovereign, who had already decided to mobilize against Austria, that this would also drag on a war with Germany. And he said to those close to him that day: "Today I saved Russia!" In October 1910 in Potsdam at a meeting with Wilhelm Stolypin and the tsar pledged not to participate in any British intrigues against Germany, for which Germany pledged not to support the Austro-Hungarian aggression in the Balkans. The cadets were very eager for the war (not with their own bodies only) and for a long time noisily angry after the Potsdam meeting of the emperors in 1910: why did Russia abandon its offensive position? Stolypin believed: France and England are bad allies, they will turn their backs on Russia if misfortune befalls her. When appointed after Izvolsky as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sazonov, Stolypin asked him: to avoid international complications - that is the whole policy. Russia needs 10-20 years of external and internal peace, and after reforms - the country will not be recognized, and no external enemies will be afraid of us anymore.

Stolypin's resettlement policy

In three or four years of Stolypin's premiership, the country was transformed. The revolution is finally a thing of the past. Stolypin, alien to trifles and personal gain, confidently stood above all parties. To justify his last name, he was really pillar the state. He became the center of national life, like none of the kings - and unlike many of them persistently led Russian well. Stolypin was an ardent adherent of Orthodoxy, but not a blind admirer of the existing clergy. “I deeply feel our synodal and ecclesiastical devastation,” he said to the tsar, and tried to find a chief prosecutor of a strong spirit and will.

Already two million farmers have applied for a farm. Anticipating an abundance of grain, Stolypin created a wide network of elevators throughout Russia and launched extensive measures to support the resettlement of peasants beyond the Urals - to Siberia and Semirechye.

The Russian people have long sought such a resettlement to free, rich lands. But from the greatest reform of 1861, the government hindered this under the mercenary insistence of the landowners, who were afraid that the prices for workers on their estates would rise. From European Russia, where there were 31 inhabitants per square mile, to Siberia, where less than one person lived per mile, the peasants were not allowed until the very famine 1891, then relaxed, even started to build Siberian railway- and all the same waited for the glow of 1905.

Stolypin took up resettlement policy as broadly as he could. Under him, the settlers received the broadest benefits: state-owned transportation of monitors, preliminary arrangement of plots, loans, assistance for moving by families, with household belongings and live cattle (special carriages were even built for this). For resettlement, the cabinet (own royal) lands of Altai - five-fold Belgium were also given. Already in 1906, 130 thousand people resettled, and then half a million or more a year. By the war of 1914 there were already more than 4 million settlers, the same number as 300 years from Yermak. They got the land for nothing- and in property, and not in use, 50 dessiatines per family, and 60 poods were removed from each. We irrigated the Hungry Steppe, dug public canals. In August and September 1910, Stolypin and his closest assistant for peasant affairs, the minister Krivoshein traveled around Siberia and marveled at the successes that were achieved here in just three or four years. If in 4 initial years the annual grain harvest in Russia has already been raised to 4 billion poods, what can be done in 20 years?

Boldly marching into the wilderness and far away, immigrants, indefatigably mobile, vigorous growth of the Russian people, were fed up with their labor, free, far from revolutionary turbidity, declared loyalty to the tsar and Orthodoxy without coercion, demanded churches and schools. Former peasant revolutionaries, having settled on their own farm in Siberia, became passionate adherents of order.

Enemies of Stolypin

The revolutionary parties during these years were filled with disbelief, fatigue and apostasy. Triumphant " Stolypin reaction" was reaction healthy part of the people to unhealthy: do not interfere with work and live! Terrorists have ceased to meet with enthusiasm and gratitude even in many intellectuals' houses. And the assassination attempts on Stolypin almost stopped. In the winter of 1909-1910, he already lived in a house on the Fontanka, did not hide in any way, and for the summer he could go to his favorite Coven estate.

Once, when Stolypin was examining the aircraft, the pilot Matsievich was introduced to him, warning that he was an SR. Flashing a look of challenge, Matsievich with a smile suggested to Stolypin - to fly together. Although he was holding the entire Russian fate in his hands, Stolypin did not shy away from the challenge. And they made two circles at a considerable height. At any moment, the pilot could smash both or try to smash one passenger.

Stolypin was too nationalist for Octobrists, and too Octobrist for nationalists; reactionary for all the left and almost a cadet for the extreme right. He had few true friends, but after undeniable achievements, the number of enemies also decreased. The hostility towards him did not weaken only in the upper court layer, where they watched with envy every new successful step of this unprecedented lucky, stranger, not a Petersburger, with whom you could not establish a mutual account of services. For this layer, Stolypin took off early, beyond his years. He boldly considered himself not owed to anyone and decided all matters not out of acquaintance and patronage, but out of state necessity. This stratum blamed Pyotr Arkadyevich for each of his successful reforms. He was to blame for freeing the peasants for cutting; the fault was the yakshan with the zemstvos, to whom he had already begun to transfer part of the state administration; it was his fault, having increased from the pockets of the landowners zemstvo taxes in favor of the peasants; it was to blame for preparing insurance for the workers at the expense of the factory owners and state taxes; to blame was the protection of the Old Believers and sectarians.

The royal family, all and sundry, reported: Stolypin is growing in popularity due to the popularity of the Tsar. The entire court environment trembled with suspicion, condemnation, indignation: it is indecent for one person to occupy such a high place for so long.

The bureaucracy did not dare to openly resist the government - and hostile resistance to Stolypin suddenly broke through the church, and - in the Saratov diocese, where he was not so long ago governor. The right-wing bishop Hermogenes, and with him Hieromonk Iliodor, a fanatical monk with mad eyes, began to preach against the authorities as heretics and traitors to the Emperor. At times they both found themselves in friendship and alliance with Rasputin who were under the influence of the Court (later, however, they quarreled with him). The sovereign ordered to stop the persecution initiated by the authorities against Iliodor, returned him to church services in Tsaritsyn, preferred to dismiss the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, a member of the Stolypin government. Some, like Guchkov, persuaded Stolypin to give open battle to the dark forces, but he considered it untimely.

Trying not to multiply his enemies, Stolypin avoided a sharp collision with Rasputin for a long time. It was not possible to send him to the village in 1908. (The Tsar once explained: “Better one Rasputin than ten empress hysterics.”) But sticky threads stretched from Rasputin everywhere, determining the appointments of metropolitans, senators, governors, generals, members of the State Council. And in his own Ministry of Internal Affairs, Stolypin found himself entangled by his own first deputy Kurlov - a stranger, unpleasant, chosen not by him, but by the august will - and suddenly found himself at the head of both the Police Department and the Gendarme Corps. Kurlov turned out to be a good friend of both Iliodor and Rasputin. At the beginning of 1911, Stolypin still decided to send "Elder Gregory" to his homeland, but he soon managed to return and fly even higher. (Krivoshein warned: "You can do a lot, but do not fight Rasputin and his friends, you will break on this." And indeed, for this reason, Stolypin lost the empress's last disposition.)

Stolypin and the question of the western zemstvo

The properties of tense conflicts are to break out suddenly and even on tertiary reasons, you don't know where you will stumble. This is what happened to Stolypin on the question of the Western Zemstvo.

In 9 western provinces, from Kovno to Kiev, Alexander II at one time did not dare to extend elective like inside Russia, the zemstvo - and there it remained appointed... Stolypin decided to make the zemstvo elected in the Western Territory as well. However, the rules of the zemstvo elections gave an advantage to the wealthy landowning class, and in these nine provinces it was predominantly Polish, although Poles made up only 4% of the total population there. In the State Council, all 9 deputies of the Western Region were Poles. And the elective zemstvo threatened to fall under Polish influence, which would crush the rest of the people.

There was only one way out: to establish in the western provinces a different order from the all-Russian procedure for zemstvo elections. Stolypin intended to produce them there separately according to national curiae, to allow the clergy (all non-Polish) to participate in the elections and to lower the property qualification so that low-income non-Poles would elect more vowels than wealthy Poles (however, even that remained 16%, four times in comparison with the number). It was especially required that the chairmen of the zemstvo council and the school council were Russians (or Ukrainians, or Belarusians - in those years it was almost indistinguishable).

The Duma grimaced at the nationalist spirit of this Stolypin bill (the left voted against), but adopted it, approving a reduction in the qualification, even half that proposed by the prime minister. However, the rightists got worried: lest this decline spill over to Russia itself. The law now had to be approved in the second chamber - the State Council. Of the 150 people, about half there were elected members, about half were appointed by the Emperor. There were also elders, who were already so decrepit, even deaf, that they did not have time to grasp the meaning of what was being discussed at the meetings. There was a sump of all dismissed and retired leaders - vain losers. The snake of the State Council at this time was Witte, a personal hater of Stolypin. He was tormented by melancholy envy - how Stolypin managed to calm and pull Russia out where, under Witt, she fell into hysteria and was mired. (And then the Odessa City Council decided to rename "Witte Street" in its city, but Stolypin did not intervene.) Witte became the leader of resistance to the law on Western Zemstvo in the State Council.

But even in the commission of the Council, most of the points of the law were adopted. However, before the plenary discussion, sensing the growing hostile wall, Stolypin took from the Emperor a letter to the chairman of the Council, directing the law to adoption. Then one of his decisive opponents, V. Trepov, at an audience with the Tsar, asked whether to understand the letter as an order or you can vote conscientiously? The sovereign urged to vote according to conscience and - hid this episode from Stolypin. In the same first months of 1911, major crises occurred with Iliodor and Rasputin, where Stolypin acted against the royal heart and was defeated.

On March 4, 1911, the State Council voted down the bill, and on the 5th, Stolypin submitted a letter of resignation. He stumbled as if on a side issue. Caution often falls from a long series of victories, replaced by fervent impatience.

Russian laws did not require the government to leave with a vote of no confidence in one of the chambers: the ministry was responsible only to the monarch. But Stolypin believed that the tsar could have prevented such a result of the vote in the State Council, and since he did not do this, it means that he himself was leading the matter to resignation.

For four days there was no answer to Stolypin from the tsar. Petersburg has already called Kokovtsov prime minister. Then Pyotr Arkadyevich was summoned by the sovereign's mother, from whom he had constant support. Maria Feodorovna persuaded Stolypin to remain in office: "I conveyed to my son my deep conviction that you alone have the strength to save Russia." At two o'clock in the morning, the courier brought Stolypin a letter from the Emperor, where he asked to take his resignation back.

Here Stolypin showed uncharacteristic toughness (clearing the path of reforms?): He insisted on dismissing the leaders of the opposition, V. Trepov and P. Durnovo, from the State Council. And the Council itself ( together with the Duma, otherwise the law did not allow) to dissolve for three days - and in these three days, demonstratively, to issue a law on the Western Zemstvo under Article 87. This was done on March 11. Constitutionally, that was an unjustified step: Article 87 allowed the publication of laws by the Sovereign in absence legislative institutions and subject to a state of emergency, and not - artificially dissolve them for that.

Stolypin was overheated - but he was so sickened with spheres... The case was not worth the resignation, the breaking of the Council, or the application of Article 87. The famous Duma member Vasily Maklakov, years later, pointed out that Stolypin only had to endure until the summer break in classes, in the summer it was carried out under the same Article 87, no longer offensive, and the Duma would have no reason to repeal the law, approved by itself, and he would did not get a second time in the State Council. With a three-day daring dissolution of the legislative chambers, Stolypin turned the whole of St. Petersburg society against himself: the left and the center by neglecting the constitution, the right by the dismissal of their leaders.

Guchkov, Stolypin's uneven ally, in a fury (or reveling in a socially advantageous pose) resigned his Duma chairmanship and left for Mongolia, although the Octobrist party sympathized with the law on the Western Zemstvo. Stolypin was very surprised at Guchkov's resignation.

Half a month later, the State Council again discussed this Stolypin law. The prime minister was accused of vengeful malice, maneuvers to preserve his personal position, autocracy, inculcation of bureaucratic servility - and even that he "issued the Vyborg proclamation inside out." Stolypin responded cheerfully, quoting abundantly from Western scholars of state law, pointing out examples of such dissolution, even of the British parliament by the famous liberal Gladstone. We, he said, do not yet have a political culture. With a young people's representation in legislative institutions, a dead knot can be tied, which sometimes has to be cut artificially.

Debate in the Duma on the Western Zemstvo

By the end of April, when the last weeks of the bill approached and it was still doomed to be canceled, even more destructive speeches were heard against Stolypin in the Duma. And he himself mistakenly hoped that if she was dissatisfied, then only outwardly, but in her soul she would begin to rejoice, because the prime minister fought against the State Council for the law approved by the Duma.

Speaking before the Duma members, Stolypin said that by his dissolution he defended the decision of the Duma:

Does the government also have the right to pursue a bright policy and join the struggle for its political ideals? Is it worthy of him to continue turning the government wheel correctly and mechanically? .. Here, as in every question, there were two outcomes: evasion or assuming all responsibility, all blows, just to save the object of our faith ... For those in power, no sin greater than cowardly evasion of responsibility. Responsibility is the greatest happiness in my life.

But already the first deputy's answer promised little good. An orator from the Octobrist faction hotly condemned Stolypin for his "disrespect for the idea of ​​law." The next to speak was the always brilliantly eloquent cadet Vasily Maklakov... A lawyer by training, he began by admitting that Stolypin had not formally violated state laws. But he argued: Stolypin did not have a conscientious and loyal application of them. Maklakov insisted that the prime minister was suffering from megalomania, his morality was Hottentot in comparison with European Christian morality (the cadet suddenly remembered about Christianity). Maklakov said that Russia had turned into Stolypin patrimony, but for the State Duma to be or not to be a zemstvo in the provinces of the West is a trifle compared to the question of whether Russia should be a rule-of-law state. The speaker said that the four years of Stolypin's reign were shameful and even that "instead of genuine pacification, he incited himself to make himself indispensable." In the end, this prominent constitutionalist cadet with an unexpected twist suddenly declared himself "a monarchist no less than the chairman of the council of ministers," who allegedly "intervened the name of the Tsar in his conflict with the State Council." (These words were clearly calculated for the tsar to hear them - and even more distant from Stolypin.) “For state people of this type, - Maklakov finished his speech, - the Russian language knows a characteristic word - temporary worker... He had time - and that time has passed. He may still remain in power, but, gentlemen, this is agony. "

For the first time in the Duma debate, Stolypin found himself in a weak position. Five years ago, at the height of the revolution, the Duma members would have been left with their talking shop - they would have all perished. But having brought them out of death with a firm hand, Pyotr Arkadyevich was now forced to experience humiliation. As if he was not walking over the bombs, but a careerist who deftly reached the post. You will not answer: only your children were not touched, but mine were mutilated.

Following Maklakov, the hysterical right-wing Purishkevich... He said that Stolypin cowardly hid behind the sacred name of the Tsar, undermined the authority of the Russian autocrat, "flirted with the revolution" and "lacks intelligence and will." Stolypin, allegedly, is not a Russian nationalist, his nationalism is the most harmful trend that has ever been in Russia: he revives hopes for self-determination in the hearts of small nations. The Western Territory did not ask for an elective zemstvo, the Duma came up with it.

Not everyone, even once in their life, gets such a day of slow public execution. The attack was equally fierce from two opposite sides. The thirsty speakers kept changing, there are not ten or fifteen of them, the Third Duma has seized upon to recoup the losses of all three. The socialist who spoke said that Stolypin drowned the Russian people in his own blood, that even the worst enemy could not do so much harm to the Russian autocracy, and the law on the Western Zemstvo is the pinnacle of the "pyramid of reprisals." Then the cadet pointed out that the prime minister did not have major merits like the victories of Sadovaya and Sedan. The right-wing speaker advised Stolypin to go and repent before the tsar, whom he had failed. The Duma members were just waiting for an opportunity to take revenge for having overpowered them for so many years.

Spoke and per but few. The meaning inspired by the speeches was that the entire Stolypin five-year period was one continuous failure. Only at night did two peasants from the Western Territory break through to the podium, for whom the chairman Rodzianko all day he refused to speak, although the argument should have begun with them. They said: “You have clamped our mouths. We are very glad that our zemstvo is being implemented as well. Whether there is Article 87 or what, but if from you wait, your reforms, we will never wait ”.

The voting result was: 200 - with condemnation, 80 - in defense. The law on the Western Zemstvo drowned - and only after Stolypin's death was it easily adopted. And the western zemstvo helped a lot in the close years First World War.

Stolypin's big state program

Spheres were overjoyed that the Tsar had grown cold and even hostile to Stolypin. It seems that they were looking for only a decent form of his resignation to a non-influential post - for example, to the newly invented East Siberian governorship. And it was possible for Stolypin to succumb, obediently leave - and this, most likely, saved his life, but that was not his character. The time after the April defeats in the State Council and the Duma, Petr Arkadyevich used to draw up and dictate an extensive program of the second stage of state reforms. Treatment of the peasantry - perfect, now it's time cure bureaucracy.

Last year, Stolypin had already had a "Council for Local Economy", where bills were prepared jointly by officials of ministries, governors, leaders of the nobility, mayors and zemstvo people. This council, by rumor called "Forethought", had the goal that the laws were not the creation of officials, but were tested by the people of life.

Under Stolypin's new program, local government affairs were allocated to a separate ministry, which took over all local state institutions from the Ministry of the Interior (freeing the police from functions unusual for it). Zemstvos' rights were expanded using the experience of staff management in the United States. For lending to zemstvos and cities, for other local needs, a special government bank was created. Higher educational institutions entered the provincial zemstvos, secondary schools - to the district, primary schools - to the volost (which the Duma has not yet allowed to create). The zemstvo electoral qualification was reduced 10 times so that the owners of farms and workers with small real estate could be elected.

Stolypin's program proposed to create: a new ministry of labor with the task of preparing laws that would improve the position of the working class - to make a participant in state building out of the baseless proletariat. Ministry of Social Security. Ministry of Nationalities (on the principle of their equality). Ministry of Confessions. The synod turned into a council under the ministry, and the restoration of the patriarchate had to be worked out. A significant expansion of the network of religious educational institutions was envisaged. The seminary in it was to become an intermediate step, and all the priests were to graduate from academies. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry for the Use and Inspection of Subsoil was created.

Stolypin was aware that the activities of all these bodies required a strong budget. The budget of insanely wealthy Russia was wrongly built: poorer Western states gave us loans! with such an abundance of raw materials, such a lag in the metallurgical and machine-building industries. In Russia, property was taxed below its actual value and profitability, and foreign entrepreneurs easily took capital away from us. By correcting this, increasing the excise tax on vodka and wine, and introducing a progressive income tax (while keeping the indirect ones low), the budget more than tripled.

According to Stolypin's program, the network of highways and railways in the European part of Russia was supposed to be expanded so that by 1927-1932 it would not be inferior to the network of the central powers. At first, it was supposed to use foreign and private loans for this, but gradually block all operations by the State Bank.

Stolypin's program also provided for an increase in the salaries of all officials, police, teachers, priesthood, railway and postal employees. (This made it possible to attract the educated everywhere.) Free primary education had already begun widely in 1908 and was to become universal by 1922. The number of secondary educational institutions was brought to 5,000, higher education - up to 1,500. - increase by 20 times. A two-three-year Academy was created to prepare for senior government positions with specialized faculties. After the implementation of Stolypin's program, the state apparatus of Russia was supposed to shine with experts and specialists. It would be impossible for a person who is incapable, under patronage, to get to higher positions. The Ministry of Nationalities was to be headed by a public figure with authority in non-Russian circles.

The legality of the Social Democrats was also being prepared; terrorists.

In foreign policy, Stolypin's program proceeded from the fact that Russia does not need to expand its territory, but: to master what is. Therefore, Russia is interested in long-term international peace. By developing Nikolay's initiativeII on the Hague Peace Tribunal, Stolypin was building a plan to create a prototype of the UN - the International Parliament from all countries, with a stay in one of the small European states. Under him, Pyotr Arkadyevich proposed creating an international statistical bureau, which would annually publish information on all states. According to these data, the Parliament could come to the aid of countries in difficult situations, monitor outbreaks of overproduction or shortage, overpopulation. The International Bank from state deposits - would lend in difficult cases.

An International Parliament could set a limit on weapons for each state and prohibit such means that would suffer the masses of the non-military population. Powerful powers could not agree to this system, but this would damage their authority, and even without their participation the International Parliament could do something. Stolypin especially emphasized relations with the United States. At that time they did not encounter Russia anywhere. Only by intensified Jewish propaganda there was created an aversion to the Russian state, the idea that everyone in Russia is oppressed and there is no freedom for anyone.

Stolypin's program could have been hindered by his resignation - but he hoped for the support of the tsar's mother Maria Feodorovna, and even if he was dismissed, he would later be called up again. The Duma and the State Council, which lacked the heights of state consciousness, would also oppose the Stolypin program.

This extensive program of modernizing the reorganization of Russia by 1927-1932, perhaps, surpassed in importance the reforms of Alexander II.

After the assassination of Stolypin, this program was removed from his Coven estate by a government commission. Since then the project disappeared, was not announced anywhere, discussed, - only the testimony of the assistant-compiler has survived. Perhaps it was found and partly used by the communists, whose first five-year plan, ironically, as if it fell on the last five years of Stolypin.

The death of P. A. Stolypin

That summer of 1911, Stolypin was tormented by grievous forebodings of his own death and the catastrophe of Russia. Complaining to Minister Timashev about his powerlessness in the fight against the court, he said: "For a few more years they will live on my reserves, like camels live on accumulated fat, and after that everything will collapse ..." In August, he last went to St. Petersburg, chaired the council ministers in the Elagin Palace, last met with Guchkov.

The tsar invited Stolypin to his trip to Kiev in late August - early September 1911, although the prime minister had more serious business to do. Pyotr Arkadyevich said to his relatives that leaving had never been so unpleasant to him. But, on the other hand, Kiev was the main city of the Western Territory, where it was necessary to reinforce the zemstvo of the western provinces. And it was in Kiev in those years that the light of the Russian national consciousness flared up.

The train, having moved from the station, for some reason stopped and could not move for half an hour. Stolypin did not take with him an officer of the gendarme guard, but only a staff officer for special assignments, Esaulov, to help his secretary.

The security of the Kiev celebrations, which served as the scene of Stolypin's death, was organized in an unusual way: it was not the local authorities who were in charge of it, but a general who had specially adhered to it. Kurlov... This so angered the Governor-General of Kiev, Fyodor Trepov, that he even asked for resignation, and Stolypin persuaded him to take the resignation back. From the hands of a local person who knows everyone and everything on the spot, the guard passed into the hands of a visitor. Kurlov obeyed only the palace commandant Dedyulin, communicating with him through the assigned colonel Spiridovich.

Kurlov was, as it were, a subordinate, Stolypin's deputy - but now he already owned the entire police and gendarmes of the Empire, independently of him. But Pyotr Arkadyevich was even better this way: his head was not occupied with police concerns. Although Kurlov was unpleasant to Stolypin, for in every decision he was looking for more than anything: what will this give him personally? Kurlov looked like a sharp-faced evil hog - he also rested his legs and feather, and beat with acceleration. He had connections everywhere, with all of Stolypin's enemies. And this was not a type of silent wax bureaucrat - but to live greedily, with restaurant binges. That is why, in addition to the service, Kurlov conducted muddy commercial speculations, drowned in bills. But he was not smart: he fell for the trap of the Socialist-Revolutionary Voskresensky, freed him from prison for duality and - almost exploded with him on Astrakhan Street. But Stolypin did not yet have time to get rid of Kurlov, he put it off until later.

The palace commandant Dedyulin, the master of ceremonies, was one of the main links spheres, a hater of Stolypin. Now he was in a hurry with his own eyes, to rudely show everyone how much the tsar had cooled towards the prime minister. Stolypin was in Kiev humiliatingly, demonstratively ousted from the court programs, and did not receive personal protection - not only worthy, but a private. He was assigned rooms in the accessible lower floor of the governor-general's house, with windows overlooking a poorly guarded garden. Kurlov refused Esaulov to set up a gendarme post in the garden: an unnecessary measure. A lot of people came to Stolypin's reception, and the entrance to the hallway was free for everyone, not a single police officer on duty, especially an officer. He was not guarded on trips either.

August 26 (old style) Stolypin's murderer, Jew Bogrov, told the Security Department false information that an attempt was being prepared on the Prime Minister's life and a special group of terrorists had allegedly arrived in the city for this. With the help of a deceptive promise of help in the capture of this group, Bogrov hoped to get a ticket to the central places of the Kiev celebrations - and there he would kill the prime minister himself. At first, no one informed Stolypin about either Bogrov or his version. Neither Kurlov, nor Spiridovich, nor the head of the secret agents of the Kiev security department Kulyabko(Kurlov's son-in-law) did not check whether Stolypin was being guarded at all.

Dmitry Grigorievich (Mordko Gershevich) Bogrov, the killer of P. A. Stolypin

And in Kiev it has already become widely known that it is not guarded. Patriots began to offer voluntary protection and submitted lists of applicants, 2000 people. The lists were delayed for approval, then returned with deletions - it's too late. With difficulty Esaulov achieved the gendarme post in Stolypin's hallway.

On August 29, without knowing anything, Pyotr Arkadyevich went to the station to participate in a meeting of the highest persons. He was not given a palace carriage, and the police department did not find money for a car (but they were on the Kurlov spree). Stolypin was forced to take a cab, rode in an open carriage without any protection, with Esaulov. The carriage was more than once detained by police officers, not recognizing the prime minister and not allowing him to approach the palace cortege. The mayor of Dyakov, having learned about Stolypin's position, sent him his own twin crew for the next days.

Professor Rein begged Stolypin to put on Chemerzin's armor under his uniform. Stolypin refused: the bomb will not help. For some reason, he always imagined his death not as a revolver, but as a bomb.

Meanwhile, Bogrov deftly twisted the police around his finger and received from Kulyabka a ticket to those festive places where the dignitaries and the tsar were. Stolypin, however, did not know anything about Bogrov, or about the blatant blunder of the police, which agreed to allow a suspicious person with an obviously ridiculous version of the alleged "revolutionaries" in the proximity of the top officials of the state and the monarch himself. Already on August 30 and 31, Bogrov could have fired at Stolypin many times, but he simply did not accidentally meet him.

Only on September 1, on the very day of the assassination attempt, in the morning Stolypin received a warning note from Trepov. Next came Kurlov - actually, not on this matter, but to sign numerous awards. He only casually announced Bogrov's appearance and his version of the preparation of the assassination attempt, but did not indicate that the police, in spite of the existing categorical ban, were going to admit this informant "for the purpose of protection" to today's evening theatrical performance of "The Tales of Tsar Saltan" both Stolypin and the tsar were present.

And the persons accompanying Stolypin did not have tickets to the theater until the last moment. Esaulov was not given a seat next to the prime minister. Stolypin could transfer to Trepov's box, but he refused, considering unnecessary precautions to be cowardly. Having met Kurlov at the theater, Pyotr Arkadyevich asked him about the news with the intruders. He replied that he did not know anything new, he would clarify in the intermission. But in the first intermission, Kurlov did not recognize or did not recognize anything.

In the second intermission, Stolypin, dressed in a lightweight white frock coat, stood at the orchestra's barrier. Few people remained in the hall, and a narrow, long man walked along the free passage towards the premier.

Stolypin stood talking with the chamberlain Fredericks. They both guessed the killer at the same time in his last steps! He was a long-faced and young Jew with a sharp and mocking expression on his face.

The chamberlain rushed to the side, saving himself. Stolypin rushed forward to intercept the terrorist himself, as he intercepted others before! But Bogrov was already holding a black Browning and fired twice. Stolypin was stitched by bullets to the barrier.

The murder of Stolypin. Artist Diana Nesypova

The terrorist ran. And Pyotr Arkadyevich immediately understood: death! Professor Raine rushed to him. On the right, a large bloody stain was spreading over the premier's white frock coat.

Stolypin raised his eyes to the right and higher, to the royal box. Nicholas II stood at its barrier and looked here with surprise.

What will happen to Russia now?

Pyotr Arkadyevich wanted to cross the Emperor, but his right hand refused to rise. Then Stolypin raised his left hand and baptized the tsar with it, earnestly, without haste. Already and - not worth it.

The tsar - not at that moment, nor later - did not go down to the wounded man.

And these bullets have already killed the dynasty. These were the first bullets from Yekaterinburg.

Silver coin of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the 150th anniversary of the birth of P.A. Stolypin

“They need great shocks, we need Great Russia” (PA Stolypin).

Pyotr Arkadievich Stolypin - an outstanding statesman of the Russian Empire.

He held the posts of the district marshal of the nobility in Kovno, the governor of the Grodno and Saratov provinces, the minister of internal affairs, and the prime minister.

As prime minister, he passed a number of bills that went down in history as Stolypin agrarian reform... The main content of the reform was the introduction of private peasant land ownership.

On the initiative of Stolypin, martial law that toughened the punishment for committing serious crimes.

Under him was introduced Zemstvo Law in the Western Provinces, which limited the Poles, on his initiative the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland was also limited, the electoral legislation was changed and the dissolution of the Second Duma was carried out, which put an end to the revolution of 1905-1907.

Petr Arkadievich Stolypin

Biography of P.A. Stolypin

Childhood and youth

Pyotr Arkadievich Stolypin was born on April 2, 1862 in Dresden, where his mother was visiting, and he was baptized there in the Orthodox Church. He spent his childhood first in the Serednikovo estate in the Moscow province, and then in the Kolnoberzhe estate in the Kovno province. Stolypin was the second cousin of M.Yu. Lermontov.

Family coat of arms of the Stolypins

Stolypin studied at Vilenskaya, and then together with his brother at the Oryol gymnasium, after which he entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg Imperial University. During Stolypin's studies, one of the university teachers was the famous Russian scientist D.I.Mendeleev.

After graduating from university, a young official in the Department of Agriculture made a brilliant career, but soon moved to the service of the Ministry of the Interior. In 1889 he was appointed Chief of the Nobility in the Kovno District and Chairman of the Kovno Court of Peace Mediators.

In Kovno

Nowadays it is the city of Kaunas. Stolypin spent about 13 years in the service in Kovno - from 1889 to 1902. This time was the quietest in his life. Here he was engaged in the Agricultural Society, under whose tutelage was the entire local economic life: educating the peasants and increasing the productivity of their farms, the introduction of advanced farming methods and new varieties of grain crops. He became closely acquainted with local needs, gained administrative experience.

For diligence in the service, he was marked with new ranks and awards: he was appointed an honorary magistrate, titular counselor, and then promoted to collegiate assessors, awarded the first Order of St. Anna, in 1895 he was promoted to court councilor, in 1896 he received the title of chamberlain, promoted to collegiate, and in 1901 to state councilor.

During his life in Kovno, Stolypin had four daughters - Natalia, Elena, Olga and Alexandra.

In mid-May 1902, when Stolypin and his family were on vacation in Germany, he was urgently summoned to St. Petersburg. The reason was his appointment as governor of Grodno.

In Grodno

P.A. Stolypin - Governor of Grodno

In June 1902 Stolypin took up the duties of the governor of Grodno. It was a small city, the ethnic composition of which (like the provinces) was heterogeneous (Jews predominated in large cities; the aristocracy was represented mainly by Poles, and the peasantry by Belarusians). On Stolypin's initiative, a Jewish two-year public school, a vocational school, and a special type of parish school for women were opened in Grodno, in which, in addition to general subjects, drawing, drawing and needlework were taught.

On the second day of work, he closed the Polish Club, which was dominated by "insurrectionary sentiments."

Having mastered the position of governor, Stolypin began to carry out reforms that included:

• resettlement of peasants to farms (a separate peasant estate with a separate farm)
• elimination of striped land (the location of land plots of one farm in strips alternating with other people's plots. The striped strip appeared in Russia with regular redistribution of communal land)
• introduction of artificial fertilizers, improved agricultural implements, multi-field crop rotations, land reclamation
• development of cooperation (joint participation in labor processes)
• agricultural education of the peasants.

These innovations drew criticism from large landowners. But Stolypin insisted on the need for knowledge for the people.

In Saratov

But soon the Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve offered him the governor's post in Saratov. Despite Stolypin's reluctance to move to Saratov, Plehve insisted. At that time, the Saratov province was considered prosperous and wealthy. Saratov had 150 thousand inhabitants, the city had 150 factories and factories, 11 banks, 16 thousand houses, almost 3 thousand shops and shops. The Saratov province included the large cities of Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) and Kamyshin.

After the defeat in the war with Japan, the Russian Empire was swept by a wave of revolution. Stolypin showed rare courage and fearlessness - he, unarmed and without any protection, entered the center of the raging crowds. This had such an effect on the people that the passions subsided by themselves. Nicholas II twice expressed his personal gratitude to him for his diligence, and in April 1906 he summoned Stolypin to Tsarskoe Selo and said that he closely followed his actions in Saratov and, considering them extremely outstanding, appoints him Minister of Internal Affairs. Stolypin tried to refuse the appointment (by that time he had already survived four assassination attempts), but the emperor insisted.

Minister of Internal Affairs

He remained in this post until the end of his life (when he was appointed prime minister, he combined two posts).

The Minister of the Interior was in charge of:

• post and telegraph administration
• state police
• prisons, exile
• provincial and district administrations
• interaction with zemstvos
• food business (providing the population with food in case of poor harvest)
• fire Department
• insurance
• medicine
• veterinary
• local courts, etc.

The beginning of his work in the new post coincided with the beginning of the work of the First State Duma, which was mainly represented by the left, which from the very beginning of its work took a course towards confrontation with the authorities. There was a strong opposition between the executive and the legislature. After the dissolution of the First State Duma, Stolypin became the new prime minister (read more about the history of the State Duma on our website :). He also replaced I. L. Goremykin as chairman of the Council of Ministers. As prime minister, Stolypin acted very energetically. He was also a brilliant speaker who knew how to convince and change his mind.

Stolypin's relations with the Second State Duma were tense. The Duma included more than a hundred representatives of parties that directly advocated the overthrow of the existing system - the RSDLP (later divided into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) and the Socialist Revolutionaries, who repeatedly staged assassinations and assassinations of senior officials of the Russian Empire. Polish deputies advocated the separation of Poland from the Russian Empire into a separate state. The two most numerous factions of the Cadets and Trudoviks stood up for the compulsory alienation of land from the landlords with the subsequent transfer to the peasants. Stolypin was the head of the police, so in 1907 he published in the Duma the "Government report on the conspiracy" discovered in the capital and aimed at committing terrorist acts against the emperor, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and against himself. The government issued an ultimatum to the Duma, demanding that parliamentary immunity be lifted from the alleged participants in the conspiracy, giving the Duma the shortest possible time for a response. The Duma did not immediately agree to the terms of the government and went over to the procedure for discussing the requirements, and then the tsar, without waiting for a final answer, dissolved the Duma on June 3. The act of June 3 formally violated the "Manifesto of October 17", in connection with which it was called the "June third coup."

The new electoral system, which was used in the elections to the State Dumas of the III and IV convocations, increased the representation in the Duma of landowners and wealthy citizens, as well as the Russian population in relation to national minorities, which led to the formation of a pro-government majority in the III and IV Duma. The "Octobrists" in the center ensured the adoption of bills by Stolypin, entering into a coalition on various issues with either right-wing or left-wing members of parliament. At the same time, the smaller party, the All-Russian National Union, was distinguished by close personal ties with Stolypin.

The Third Duma was the "creation of Stolypin". Stolypin's relationship with the Third Duma was a complex mutual compromise. The general political situation in the Duma turned out to be such that the government was afraid to submit to the Duma all laws related to civil and religious equality (especially with the legal status of Jews), since a heated discussion of such topics could force the government to dissolve the Duma. Stolypin could not reach an understanding with the Duma on the fundamentally important issue of reforming local government, the entire package of government bills on this topic was stuck in parliament forever. At the same time, government budget projects have always found support from the Duma.

Courts-martial law

The creation of this law was dictated by the conditions of revolutionary terror in the Russian Empire. Over the past few years, there have been many (tens of thousands) terrorist attacks with a total death toll of 9 thousand people. Among them were both high-ranking officials of the state and ordinary policemen. Often random people became victims. Several terrorist attacks were prevented against Stolypin and his family members personally, the revolutionaries sentenced to death by poisoning even Stolypin's only son, who was only 2 years old. V. Pleve was killed by terrorists ...

Stolypin's dacha on Aptekarsky Island after the explosion

During the assassination attempt on Stolypin on August 12, 1906, two of Stolypin's children, Natalya (14 years old) and Arkady (3 years old), also suffered. At the time of the explosion, they, together with the nanny, were on the balcony and were thrown by the blast wave onto the pavement. Natalia's leg bones were crushed, she could not walk for several years, Arkady's injuries were not severe, but the children's nanny died. This assassination attempt on Aptekarsky Island was carried out by the St. Petersburg organization of the Union of Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalists, which was formed in early 1906. The organizer was Mikhail Sokolov. August 12, Saturday, was Stolypin's reception day at a state-owned dacha on Aptekarsky Island in St. Petersburg. The reception began at 14.00. About half past three a carriage drove up to the dacha, from which two men in gendarmerie uniforms with briefcases in their hands emerged. In the first reception, the terrorists threw their briefcases to the next door and rushed away. There was an explosion of great force, more than 100 people were injured: 27 people died on the spot, 33 were seriously injured, many later died.

The prime minister himself and the visitors in his office received bruises (the door was torn off its hinges).

19 August were introduced martial law to expedite the processing of terrorist cases. The trial took place within 24 hours after the crime was committed. The examination of the case could last no more than two days, the sentence was carried out in 24 hours. The introduction of military courts was caused by the fact that the military courts, in the opinion of the government, were excessively lenient and delayed the consideration of cases. While in military courts cases were tried with the accused, who could use the services of defense lawyers and represent their witnesses, in the military courts the accused were deprived of all rights.

In his speech of March 13, 1907, before the deputies of the Second Duma, Stolypin substantiated the need for this law to operate as follows: “ The state can, the state is obliged, when it is in danger, to adopt the strictest, most exclusive laws in order to protect itself from disintegration. "

Artist O. Leonov "Stolypin"

During the six years of the law (from 1906 to 1911), from 683 to 6 thousand people were executed by court-martial courts, and 66 thousand were sentenced to hard labor. Basically, executions were carried out by hanging.

Subsequently, Stolypin was sharply condemned for such harsh measures. The death penalty was rejected by many, and its use was directly linked to the policies pursued by Stolypin. ... The terms "rapid-fire justice" and "Stolypin reaction" came into use. During his speech, the cadet F.I. The prime minister challenged him to a duel. Rodichev publicly apologized, which was accepted. Despite this, the expression "Stolypin's tie" became winged. These words meant the noose of the gallows.

Many prominent people of that time spoke out against the field courts: Lev Tolstoy, Leonid Andreev, Alexander Blok, Ilya Repin. The law on courts martial was not submitted by the government for approval to the III Duma and automatically lost force on April 20, 1907. But as a result of the measures taken, the revolutionary terror was suppressed. The state order in the country was preserved.

I. Repin "Portrait of Stolypin"

Russification of Finland

During Stolypin's premiership, the Grand Duchy of Finland was a special region of the Russian Empire. He pointed out the unacceptability of some of the peculiarities of power in Finland (many revolutionaries and terrorists were hiding from justice there). In 1908, he made sure that Finnish matters affecting Russian interests were considered by the Council of Ministers.

Jewish question

In the Russian Empire during Stolypin's time, the Jewish question was a problem of state importance. There were a number of restrictions for Jews. In particular, outside the so-called Pale of Settlement, they were prohibited from permanent residence. Such inequality regarding a part of the empire's population on religious grounds led to the fact that many young people, disadvantaged in their rights, went to revolutionary parties. But the solution to this issue was progressing with difficulty. Stolypin believed that e Frequently have the legal right to seek full equality.

Attempts on Stolypin's life

From 1905 to 1911, 11 attempts were made on Stolypin, the last of which achieved its goal. The assassination attempts in the Saratov province were spontaneous, and then they became more organized. The bloodiest one is the attempt on the Aptekarsky Island, which we have already talked about. Some of the assassination attempts were uncovered in the course of their preparation. At the end of August 1911, Emperor Nicholas II with his family and those close to him, including Stolypin, were in Kiev on the occasion of the opening of the monument to Alexander II. On September 14, 1911, the emperor and Stolypin attended the play "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" at the Kiev city theater. The head of the Kiev security department had information that terrorists had arrived in the city with a specific purpose. The information was received from Dmitry Bogrov, a secret informant. It turned out that it was he who had planned the assassination attempt. With a pass, he went to the city opera house, during the second intermission he went up to Stolypin and fired twice: the first bullet hit the arm, the second - in the stomach, hitting the liver. After being wounded, Stolypin baptized the Tsar, sat down heavily in a chair and said: "Happy to die for the Tsar." Four days later, Stolypin's condition deteriorated sharply, and the next day he died. It is believed that shortly before his death, Stolypin said: "They'll kill me, and the members of the guard will kill me."

In the first lines of Stolypin's opened will it was written: "I want to be buried where they kill me." Stolypin's instructions were fulfilled: Stolypin was buried in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

Conclusion

Assessment of Stolypin's activities is controversial and ambiguous. Some highlight only negative aspects in it, others consider him a "genius political figure", a man who could save Russia from the coming wars, defeats and revolutions. We would like to cite lines from the book by S. Rybas "Stolypin", which very accurately characterize the attitude of people towards historical figures: “... from this figure emanates the eternal tragedy of a Russian educated active person: in an extreme situation, when traditional methods of state administration cease to work, he comes to the fore, when the situation stabilizes, he begins to irritate, and he is removed from the political arena. And then, in fact, no one is interested in the person, the symbol remains ”.

Among the people who were ready to shoulder an overwhelming burden on their shoulders was Pyotr Arkadievich Stolypin, "the great reformer" and "enemy of the revolution." Anyone who wanted to see Russia as a great power.

Born April 2, 1862 in Dresden. At the age of 12, he was first enrolled in a gymnasium in Vilna (now Vilnius), and then continued his studies in Orel, where his father, lieutenant general, was transferred. In 1881 he was admitted to the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated brilliantly, with a Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics, and his training in chemistry was praised by Professor Dmitry Mendeleev. He entered the civil service at the age of 22 and four years later was awarded the first court rank. Before getting the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, and then heading the entire cabinet, he managed to lead several provinces: Kovno (with the center in the city of Kovno, now Kaunas), Grodno and Saratov. Carried out agrarian and social reforms. He was a supporter of tough government measures and stifled the revolutionary spirit of the masses at the root. He survived ten assassination attempts, during the eleventh he was mortally wounded by a terrorist. He died in Kiev on September 18, 1911.

Career of Pyotr Stolypin

In most cases, Aries are tough and hardworking. And if you give them a handful of good genes, there will be no price for Aries. Stolypin's performance and genes were excellent. In not so distant relatives, he was visited by talented people and not the last in the state: all the leaders of the nobility, generals, heroes who stood for Russia to death, Chancellor Alexander Gorchakov and even Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov himself, Stolypin's second cousin. The father of the future reformer gave his son an upbringing in the best traditions of the Russian nobility and bequeathed to serve his country with all his might. As soon as his son was elected the marshal of the nobility, he immediately began to rally the peasants into communities, build people's houses with a library, cinema and theater. And to reflect on how a free peasantry can raise the country to unprecedented economic heights.

While Stolypin was looking closely at the European economy, Nicholas II was no less attentive to Stolypin himself. As a result, the energetic Pyotr Arkadyevich, an official with an impeccable personal reputation, was sent to raise the provinces larger, tighter, where, moreover, insurrectionary sentiments seethed and seethed. He did not want to wander around the cities and villages, but they did not stand on ceremony with him: they made it clear that no one was interested in his desires. If the Fatherland said "must", then the official is obliged to answer "is" without further ado. I must say that the Socialist-Revolutionaries did not sit in Sydney at that time either - they blew up governors and other officials like firecrackers. Only scraps flew. So the service was going to be difficult, and it smelled of great turmoil and blood.

In a new place, it went according to a well-established program: agrarian affairs - in a divine form, peasants - in cooperatives, culture - to the masses, rebels and terrorists - to prisons, reports - to St. Petersburg. They expressed the highest gratitude to Stolypin for pacifying the rebels, and the emperor, having stopped by on a visit to the Saratov governor, offered him the portfolio of the Minister of Internal Affairs. Pyotr Arkadyevich again became obstinate, and again the emperor knitted his eyebrows and let the metal in his voice. Russia was once again going through hard times and needed the Atlanteans. " I am the Minister of the Interior in a bloody, shabby country that is one sixth of the world, and this is in one of the most difficult historical moments, repeating itself once in a thousand years.", - wrote Stolypin to his wife.

The forty-three-year-old provincial in the capital did not have support, from all sides they either silently threw disapproving glances at him, or openly entered into confrontation. His subordinates, the capital's generals, grinned into their mustaches when he simply blurted out "here in Saratov." " Power cannot be considered a goal. Power is a means to preserve life, peace and order"- decided Stolypin and, not paying attention to the dissatisfaction of the dignitaries, undertook to restore order in huge, clumsy Russia.

The program was still the same, only the scale was different. Stolypin stood for the development of rural cooperatives, for the preservation of strong peasant communities, for the reform of local self-government, for the economic freedom of the peasants, believing that any worker would better take care of his own than about what was given to him for temporary use. His land law, introduced by an imperial decree without the approval of the Duma, increased the grain harvest several times, and Russia stopped buying grain abroad. On the contrary, it began to feed Europe with grain.

He advocated strict observance of the law by everyone, including State Duma deputies, for hard power, but against a military dictatorship, and for the constitutional implementation of reforms. He ruthlessly chased those who wanted to plunge Russia into turmoil. " Opponents of statehood would like to choose the path of radicalism, the path of liberation from the historical past of Russia, liberation from cultural traditions. They need great shocks, we need a great Russia!»

The character of Peter Arkadievich Stolypin

Stolypin did not like to joke. And if his business is in danger, it will not seem to anyone. Petr Arkadyevich was not only capable of self-sacrifice, but, if necessary, easily sent to the next world everyone who, in his opinion, stood on the way to a bright future for Russia. " The state can, the state is obliged, when it is in danger, to adopt the strictest, most exclusive laws to protect itself from disintegration.", - he said, when bombers and other neglected terrorists ran through the cities and blew up both government officials and ordinary people. The Stolypin military courts sentenced tens of thousands of people to hard labor and sent thousands to the gallows, having thrown a noose around their necks - the "Stolypin tie". The prime minister himself did not like analogies and once challenged one of those who allowed such a comparison to a duel. Ostroslov, of course, apologized, but they did not stop talking about "ties". However, while everyone was vividly discussing the prime minister's bloodthirstiness and protests, order was restored to the state.

Stolypin also had no problems with personal courage. He could single-handedly go out to the raging crowd, and to the disgruntled emperor. Nicholas II, in whom charm coexisted with donkey stubbornness, reacted very painfully to the successes and glory of his prime minister. As soon as a major German newspaper called Pyotr Arkadyevich "a hero-knight on whose shoulders the future of Russia rests," the sovereign got tired of giving the Prime Minister the highest attention and friendly disposition. There were even moments when Stolypin filed a letter of resignation and waited for the Tsar's decision on his future fate. Until the sovereign's mother set the brains of her indecisive son and forced him to return Stolypin to the service. He returned to return something, but with injections of pride he coped with difficulty - not a single reigning person would forgive subjects who go against and break forward.

Pyotr Arkadyevich did not retreat even when he was invited to take part in demonstration flights of the just nascent Russian aviation. Not only was it scary to fly on "whatnot", but also the pilot was a Socialist-Revolutionary and, according to intelligence, not only had a grudge against Stolypin, but was also preparing an assassination attempt.

And there were plenty of assassination attempts. The terrorists not only sentenced Stolypin's two-year-old son to death, wrote threats to his daughters, but also put their threats into action. They blew up his house, where people were sitting in the waiting room, killed and maimed more than a hundred people, including children, but even here he did not retreat. When Nicholas II offered him money for the treatment of his daughter, the Atlas refused. The prime minister did not want friendly relations with the emperor, did not expect compassion, did not flee from responsibility and did not exterminate his sense of duty. He was wounded in the assassination attempts, but he drove without security, with a sheet of metal in his briefcase to protect him from bullets. He could go to a terrorist in an open coat, one-on-one, offering him to shoot at point-blank range. He was often alone against everyone: the emperor, the liberal-revolutionary intelligentsia, who thirsted for a coup and did not want to hear about the strengthening of the state and tough measures. He stood alone against the landlords, who were offended by his agrarian transformations, and against his colleagues. It was said that once the Saratov City Duma deliberately commissioned a portrait of Governor Stolypin to Ilya Repin, whose brush was said to bring misfortune to the posing. Atlas was already holding on with his last strength, but he did not dump his load, because he considered himself responsible for the country. " For those in power, there is no greater sin than cowardly evasion of responsibility».

Stolypin's personal life

Stolypin's companion was Olga Borisovna Neidgardt, a girl from a family of long-Russianized Germans, the great-great-granddaughter of Suvorov and the maid of honor of the Empress. She was the bride of Stolypin's elder brother, but he was wounded in a duel, he could not reach the altar, and, as they said, on his deathbed, he blessed twenty-year-old Pyotr Arkadyevich to take care of the inconsolable girl. While Olga was on a two-year "quarantine" for this occasion, student Stolypin sent a petition to the rector to marry. The marriage was considered too early, the application was refused, but the purposeful young man, as usual, did not give up, left the university for a while and got married. A married student at that time was considered a great rarity. In addition, the newlywed was three years older than him, which did not fit into any gate at all, and, according to his own stories, all and sundry were pointing fingers at the future prime minister. However, Stolypin loved his wife, wrote to his "beloved darling" sweet letters, idle talk about her ambition, tactlessness and that she twisted her husband as she wanted, did not listen. Together with Olga Borisovna, they gave birth to five daughters, a son, Arkady, and considered their marriage to be happy. With financial problems, which were then often experienced by the leaders of the nobility, the Stolypins did not spare money for the health and education of their children, hiring foreign governesses.

They raised their offspring in love and a religious spirit, read aloud to them fairy tales and Turgenev, especially beloved by the father of the family, and sat with them over tasks. Stolypin, talking about family order, joked: “ We have an Old Believer house - no cards, no wine, no tobacco". They lived modestly, without pomp. For example, Masha Stolypina, the eldest daughter, received out of pocket expenses twelve rubles a month, and when dad became prime minister, they added eight more to her. The amount is slightly less than the average monthly salary of a worker, but more than that of a domestic worker. The family was with Pyotr Arkadyevich always - both in relatively quiet years in his Lithuanian estate Kalnaberzhe, which Stolypin's father received a long time ago in payment of a card debt, and in hard times when assassination attempts poured out of the bucket. Olga Borisovna survived her husband for three decades and died in exile. Stolypin's children, who were constantly in danger from a young age, went abroad, where four of them lived to a ripe old age.

Those born under the sign of Aries have developed intuition and a good instinct. But, even anticipating the storms of life, they still go towards fate with their heads held high. They said that Stolypin knew that death was wandering next to him, and sometimes had prophetic dreams. It seems that before leaving for Kiev, for the unveiling of the monument to Alexander II, he saw in a dream a friend who announced his death and asked to take care of his wife. The next day a telegram came with bad news. The Prime Minister had already been pushed away from the emperor, he was retired with one foot and did not build any illusions. Too many were dissatisfied with his policy: from the empress to the police generals, whose financial expenses Stolypin ordered to check. He was informed that terrorists were again hovering around, not only planning the assassination of the prime minister, but also aiming at the king himself. They said that after the terrorist Bogrov shot Stolypin twice, Pyotr Arkadyevich still managed to give a warning wave to the emperor and cross him. They also said that Nicholas II then knelt in front of the deceased, prayed and asked for forgiveness.

Stolypin, who for many years held the state on his shoulders, was buried in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. According to his will - to be buried where he will be killed. " Give the state twenty years of peace, internal and external, and you will not recognize today's Russia!"- this is what Pyotr Arkadyevich, a Russian nobleman, prime minister and a great reformer, said.

“Encyclopedia of Death. The Chronicles of Charon "

Part 2: Dictionary of Chosen Deaths

The ability to live well and die well are one and the same science.

Epicurus

STOLYPIN Petr Arkadevich

and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia in 1906-1911

Stolypin fought the first Russian revolution and its consequences so zealously that he earned the terrible nicknames of the executioner and hangman among the people, and the rope noose on the gallows was dubbed "the Stolypin tie." Here are the statistics of executions carried out during his premiership (according to Professor M.N. Gernet): 1900 - 574 people, 1907 - 1139 people, 1908 - 1340 people, 1909 - 717 people, 1910 - 129 people, 1911 - 73 people.

In his life, Stolypin himself often walked close to death. To begin with, he, having married the bride of his brother, who was killed in a duel, then shot himself with the murderer of his brother. When Stolypin was governor of Saratov, a man with a revolver attacked him. Stolypin coolly opened his coat and said: "Shoot!" The attacker, confused, released his weapon. On another occasion, the governor was not afraid to go to the station, where an ignorant crowd wanted to tear to pieces the zemstvo doctors in order to protect them. Stones were thrown from the crowd, and one of them seriously injured Stolypin's hand.

Stolypin's phrase about the terrorist actions of revolutionaries is widely known: "You will not intimidate!" Former Foreign Minister L. P. Izvolsky recalled: "It is curious to note that, meeting danger with amazing courage and even at times flaunting it, he always had a premonition that he would die a violent death. He told me about this several times with amazing calmness."

When Stolypin became chairman of the Council of Ministers, in August 1900, terrorist revolutionaries blew up his dacha. The explosion killed 27 people, injured the prime minister's son and daughter. Stolypin himself was thrown to the floor by the force of the explosion, but was not injured. A week after the explosion, the government issued a decree on courts-martial. During the eight months of this decree, 1,100 people were executed in Russia. However, these executions did not help either Russia or Stolypin.

On September 1, 1911, at the Kiev Opera House, in the presence of Tsar Nicholas II and his daughters, Dmitry Bogrov (a double agent who worked simultaneously for the Social Revolutionaries and for the police) shot Stolypin twice from a revolver. During the assassination attempt, Stolypin stood leaning against the ramp; he did not have any guards.

The wounded prime minister turned to the box in which the king was and crossed it with a trembling hand. Then, with leisurely movements, he put his cap and gloves on the orchestra barrier, unbuttoned his coat and collapsed into a chair. His white tunic quickly began to fill with blood.

When Stolypin was taken to one of the theater rooms and hastily bandaged, it turned out that the cross of St. Vladimir saved him from instant death, into which the first bullet hit. She shattered the cross and went away from the heart.

Nevertheless, this bullet pierced the chest, pleura, abdominal obstruction and liver. Another wound was not so dangerous - a bullet pierced the left hand.

Doctors ordered to place the wounded prime minister in the clinic of Dr. Makovsky. Stolypin's agony lasted four days. Towards the end, he began to have a terrible hiccup. Then he fell into oblivion, from which he never left. On September 5, doctors pronounced him dead.