Stolypin village reform project: development and correction (1905–1908)

The article is devoted to the development and correction of the village reform project, one of the least studied reforms of Pyotr A. Stolypin. Based on the documents of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the author reconstructs the process of creating a draft law of the village reform and making amendments to it during 1905–08. It is shown that this bill was part of the complex Stolypin reforms of local self-government and was developed in compliance with the legislative acts of the tsarist government of 1903 and 1904, taking into account the views of the local committees of the Special Meeting on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry. There are several versions of the draft law: the initial one, which was discussed at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Council of Ministers in 1905–06; the draft law for submission to the Second State Duma in 1907; the draft law revised in the Council for Local Economy Affairs which was submitted to the Third State Duma in 1908. The article considers the discussions in the executive bodies and at the congress of the United Nobility regarding the most important articles of the draft law on property qualification, women’s suffrage, and inclusion in the village regulatory body without elections.