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The reform targeted the peasants that were liberated by the emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia. However the majority of liberated peasants remained in the confines of obshchina. Moreover, a traditional unit of peasant land-ownership was family, in which several generations were under the control of the family elder. The reform introduced the unconditional right of individual landownership ( Ukase of November 9, 1906).

The reform was multifaceted and proposed to the following.

• Development of large-scale individual farming ( khutor s)
• Introduction of agricultural cooperation
• Development of agricultural education
• Dissemination of methods of land improvement
• Affordable lines of credit for peasants
• Creation of the agrarian party, to represent the interests of farmers

Stolypin reforms were executed with a significant interference of the state, which is, in a sense, a trait of the command economy. However they were an unfinished attempt to lay the groundwork for free capitalist enterprise in Russian agriculture.

1 Resettlement to Siberia

An element of implementation of the reform was subsidized resettlement of peasants to Siberia. During 1908-1913, cca 2.8 mln resettled, increasing the population of the region 2.5 times.

2 Cooperation

The following types of cooperation were developed: financial-credit cooperation, production cooperation, consumer cooperation. Many elements of Stolypin's cooperation are traced into the early forms of cooperation of the Soviet Union.

3 Reference

• Judith Pallot. Land Reform in Russia, 1906-1917: Peasant Responses to Stolypin's Project of Rural Transformation. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1999. xv + 255. BooksEnthsiast.com