Direct speech of Peter Stolypin

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Actual heritage - this is how it is customary in the scientific world to call the statements of the greats that are put on the agenda of today after centuries. We offer quotes from the outstanding statesman Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, which sound no less poignant today.

Fall off, dry off, fall off

“Do not forget, gentlemen, that the Russian people have always realized that they have settled and grown strong on the verge of two parts of the world, that they have repelled the Mongol invasion and that the East is dear and dear to them; this consciousness of his was always expressed in the desire for resettlement, and in folk legends, it is also expressed in state emblems. Our eagle, the legacy of Byzantium, is a two-headed eagle. Of course, the one-headed eagles are also strong and powerful, but by cutting off our Russian eagle one head facing east, you will not turn it into a one-headed eagle, you will only make it bleed to death.

“When the center is strong, the outskirts will also be strong, but it’s impossible to heal our wounded homeland only in one place. If we do not have enough vital juices for the work of healing all the wounds inflicted on it, then the most distant, most torn parts of it, before the center gets stronger, can, like those struck by Anton's fire, painlessly and imperceptibly fall off, dry out, fall off. We will answer for the fact that, busy with our important internal affairs, busy with the reconstruction of the country, we may have overlooked more important world affairs, world events, we will answer for the fact that we lost heart, that we fell into inaction, that we fell into some kind of senile helplessness that we have lost faith in the Russian people, in its vitality, in its strength, not only economic, but also cultural.

Stranger will suck in

- Our remote, harsh outskirts, at the same time, are rich, rich in gold, rich in forests, rich in furs, rich in vast expanses of land suitable for culture. And under such circumstances, gentlemen, in the presence of a state, densely populated, neighboring to us, this outskirts will not remain deserted. A stranger will penetrate into it, if the Russian does not come there earlier, and this leakage, gentlemen, has already begun.

If we sleep in a lethargic sleep, then this land will be saturated with other people's juices and, when we wake up, maybe it will turn out to be Russian only in name. I'm not only talking about the Amur Region. The question must be posed more broadly, gentlemen. On our far outskirts, both in Kamchatka, and on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, some unkind process has already begun. A foreign body is already wedging into our state organism. In order to embrace this issue not only from a technical, from a strategic point of view, but from a broader, national, political point of view, it must be admitted how important it is for this outskirts to populate it.

- Given the vastness of our territory, it is indisputably important to be able to transfer the army from one corner of the country to another. No fortresses, gentlemen, will replace the means of communication for you. Fortresses are the fulcrum for the army; Consequently, the very presence of fortresses requires either the presence of an army in the province, or the ability to transport it there. Otherwise, under different circumstances, no matter what they say, the fortress eventually falls and becomes a fulcrum for foreign troops, for a foreign army. Communication routes are not only of strategic importance: the might of the state is based not only on the army; it is based on other foundations as well. Indeed, the remote, harsh, uninhabited outskirts are difficult to defend with imported soldiers alone. It is natural for a person to defend his homes, his fields, his loved ones with enthusiasm. And these fields, these houses provide shelter, provide food for the native army. Therefore, strategically, it is important for the army to have a stronghold in the local population. From a peaceful point of view, it is important, gentlemen, perhaps it is even more important to have that human stronghold of which I have just spoken.

East woke up

- It's time to abandon the belief that a migrant can live only where agriculture predominates; Chinese prospectors have already taken our gold to China. Much of our wealth lies in that area, it is only worth mentioning the timber trade. Only American (Oregon) timber is brought to China and Japan, and our Amur forest resources remain untouched, untouched because we do not know how to adapt to the needs of the buyer, because we do not know how to develop our forest materials. Even this data, it would seem, is enough to understand that leaving this region unattended would be a manifestation of enormous state wastefulness. This edge cannot be fenced off with a stone wall. The East has awakened, gentlemen, and if we do not use these riches, then they will take them, at least through peaceful penetration, others will take them.

- The Amur question is important in itself, this is a self-sufficient question, but I must strongly emphasize that the Amur railway must be built by Russian hands, it must be built by Russian pioneers … These Russian pioneers will build a road, they will settle around this road, they will move into the edge and at the same time, Russia has been pushed there.

(From the speech of P. A. Stolypin on the construction of the Amur railway, delivered in the State Duma on March 31, 1908.)

Forcing

- The principle of non-stop action, the principle of full state tension, must be applied to the construction of the Amur road. In common parlance, this is called - to force.

-… in the same way, the cheapest way of life would be not to eat, not dress, not read anything - but you cannot consider yourself great and courageous. A strong and powerful people cannot be an inactive people.

Listen to the people who live and run there

- Clause 1 of the government's statement firmly states that the road will run from Kuenga to Khabarovsk. The government cannot deviate from this principle.

- Listen to the people who live there and who govern these areas. After all, there is a time of year when you can fly from the Trans-Baikal region to the Amur region only in a hot air balloon. The peasant who is looking for a place for resettlement will, of course, prefer to go by rail to the Ussuriysk Territory, than to get to Sretensk and then walk hundreds of miles across the tundra on foot.

- Then they repeated my words in the State Duma that this region is now in such a dangerous position that you can soon fall off, dry out, painlessly fall off. But, gentlemen, I did not mean only one strategic danger, here the danger is different and very great. This danger is the danger of the peaceful conquest of the land by foreigners. Gentlemen, this danger cannot be neglected, since this land cannot be equated, as it was done here, with the coast of the Arctic Ocean, this is not a land that could be abandoned, but a land that we are obliged to do.

- Do not forget, gentlemen, that Russia has no other entrance to the sea in the east.

Work that already pays off

- The Amur road is undoubtedly a cultural enterprise, since it brings our valuable possessions closer to the core of the state. It seems to me that if it were possible to throw the iron arch from Sretensk to Khabarovsk and further to Vladivostok and build a railway along this arch, in completely safe conditions, then this railway would have to be put in more dangerous conditions, having lowered it to the ground, on the frozen tundra, since the Russian person must apply his labor to it, the labor that is already paying off, which the Russian person needs and will need more every year.

- But if at the present time we do not make a tremendous effort over ourselves, do not forget about personal well-being and take the path of state losses faintly, then, of course, we will deprive ourselves of the right to call the Russian people a great and strong people.

(From the speech of P. A. Stolypin on the construction of the Amur railway, delivered in the State Council on May 31, 1908.)

Dossier

"Give the state 20 years of rest, and you will not recognize Russia"

Pyotr Arkadievich Stolypin (April 2, 1862, Dresden, Saxony - September 5, 1911, Kiev) at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries held the posts of the district marshal of the nobility in Kovno, the governor of the Grodno and Saratov provinces, the minister of the interior, and the prime minister.

He entered Russian history as a reformer and statesman, who through his reforms played a significant role in overcoming the revolutionary crisis of 1905-1907. 11 attempts were made on Stolypin. During the latter, committed in Kiev by Dmitry Bogrov, Stolypin was mortally wounded. The main content of the Stolypin agrarian reform was the introduction of private peasant land ownership. The resettlement policy has become an integral part of it.

A system of benefits, incentives and measures of state support for migrants was developed: all arrears were forgiven them, they were transported by rail at reduced prices, providing food and medical assistance on the way, interest-free loans were issued on the spot, tax exempt for 5 years, assistance was received in the form of seeds, livestock, household inventory.

At the same time, the government was focused not so much on providing loans as on creating the infrastructure necessary for new landowners - railways and highways, reservoirs, and schools were built for their needs.

For 10 years, starting from 1906, 13 thousand versts of roads were built, 161 reservoirs were built, almost 14 thousand wells were dug, about 500 medical posts were opened. By 1914, about 3.1 million people had moved to the new lands of Siberia and the Far East.

24 million dessiatines of new lands were put into economic circulation. The annual flow of immigrants to the Far East increased from 4, 2 thousand people in 1901-1905 to 14 thousand in 1906-1910.