Stolypin: The Tsar's Hail Mary Pass

The Revolution of 1905 came to a stand still with an attempted violent overthrow led by the Bolsheviks.  This overthrow was ultimately unsuccessful and the government assumed the offensive and responded to the possibility of future sedition with terror.  Although these methods were effective  they did not go back on the promises made in the October Manifesto.  The people responded by electing parties to the duma that would not be necessarily cooperative with the tsarist government.  Subsequently, The Fundamental Laws of 1906 ensured that the tsar could retain his own cabinet and veto legislative measures, along with other executive powers.  The relationship between the duma and the state quickly deteriorated and eventually resulted in the dissolving of the second duma.  A conservative by the name of Pyotr Stolypin was declared Prime Minister by Nicholas II.  Stolypin sought to give the peasant class a stake in society.  He believed that this most doable by eliminating the collectively owned mir and declare private land ownership among the peasants.  He felt that this would dissuade tensions within the peasant class, empower the monarch, and re-invigorate the economy.  His ambitious reform would prove to be largely ineffective with a lackluster amount of peasants abiding by the program and resulted in an only poorer outlook on the current government.  


https://prezi.com/mh0r_kd2fzfg/the-stolypin-agrarian-reform/
November 9, 1906, Stolypin speaks on land reform

Sources:

Ascher, Abraham. Russia: A Short History. (Oxford:One World). 147-150.