Defunct Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin (Russian: Пётр Аркадьевич Столыпин, IPA: [pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn]; 14 April [O.S.

Born in Dresden, in the Kingdom of Saxony, to a prominent Russian aristocratic family, Stolypin became involved in government from his early 20s.

His tenure was also marked by increased revolutionary unrest, to which he responded with a new system of martial law that allowed for the arrest, speedy trial, and execution of accused offenders.

After numerous previous assassination attempts, Stolypin was fatally shot in September 1911 by revolutionary Dmitrii Bogrov in Kiev.

His successes and failures have been the subject of heated controversy among scholars, who agree he was one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia with cogent and forceful public reform policies.

[1] Stolypin was born at Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony, on 14 April 1862, and was baptized on 24 May in the Russian Orthodox Church in that city.

Stolypin's family was prominent in the Russian aristocracy, his forebears having served the tsars since the 16th century, and as a reward for their service had accumulated huge estates in several provinces.

His second wife, Natalia Mikhailovna Stolypina (née Gorchakova; 1827–89), was the daughter of Prince Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov, the Commanding general of the Russian infantry during the Crimean War and later the viceroy of Congress Poland.

[citation needed] Pyotr grew up on the family estate Serednikovo (Russian: Середниково) in Solnechnogorsky District, once inhabited by Mikhail Lermontov, near Moscow Governorate.

Stolypin and his brother Aleksandr studied at the Oryol Boys College where he was described by his teacher, B. Fedorova, as 'standing out among his peers for his rationalism and character.

From 1869, Stolypin spent his childhood years in Kalnaberžė manor (now Kėdainiai district of Lithuania), built by his father, a place that remained his favorite residence for the rest of life.

[8] His thinking was influenced by the single-family farmstead system of the Northwestern Krai, and he later sought to introduce the land reform based on private ownership throughout the Russian Empire.

The roots of unrest lay partly in the Emancipation Reform of 1861, which had given land to the Obshchina, instead of individually to the newly freed serfs.

[citation needed] On 25 August 1906, three assassins from the Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries Maximalists, wearing military uniforms, bombed a public reception Stolypin was holding at his dacha on Aptekarsky Island.

[15] On 9 November an imperial decree made far-reaching changes in land tenure law, disrupting in one sweep the communal and the household (family) property systems.

The chief obstacle appeared to be the Mir (commune), so its dissolution and the individualization of peasant land ownership became the leading objectives of his agrarian policy.

[22] Stolypin's reforms aimed to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of market-oriented smallholders who would support the social order.

"[27] Stolypin was a rabid antisemite who distinguished himself with his vehement hatred towards Jews and the many harsh and punitive edicts that were unrelentingly aimed at limiting Jewish rights and freedoms within the Russian Empire.

On 14 June 1910, Stolypin's land reforms came before the Duma as a formal law,[29] including a proposal to spread the zemstvo system to the southwestern provinces of Asian Russia.

[30] Tsar Nicholas II decided to look for a successor to Stolypin and considered Sergei Witte, Vladimir Kokovtsov and Alexei Khvostov.

[citation needed] The Moscow Times has summarized his career: Pyotr Stolypin's reforms produced astounding results within a few years.

[32] According to Alexander Spiridovich, after the second act "Stolypin was standing in front of the ramp separating the parterre from the orchestra, his back to the stage.

With broad support, leftist organizations waged a violent campaign against the autocracy; throughout Russia, many police officials and bureaucrats were assassinated.

"[34] To respond to these attacks, Stolypin introduced a new court system of martial law, that allowed for the arrest and speedy trial of accused offenders.

[citation needed] In a Duma session on 17 November 1907, Kadet party member Fedor Rodichev [ru] referred to the gallows as "Stolypin's efficient black Monday necktie".

[citation needed] There remains doubt whether, even without the disruption of Stolypin's murder and the First World War, his agricultural policy could have succeeded.

"[37] In "Name of Russia", a 2008 television poll to select "the greatest Russian", Stolypin placed second, behind Alexander Nevsky and followed by Joseph Stalin.