
THE STOLYPIN AGRARIAN
REFORM
Ukaz of 9 November 1906
On Peasants Leaving the
Land Commune (obshchina)
By Our Manifesto of 3 November 1905, the levying
on the peasantry of redemption (vykup) payments for allotment land
(nadel'naia zemlia) is abolished from 1 January 1907. From this
time such lands are exempted from the restrictions placed on them as a
result of the redemption debt and peasants receive the right freely to
exit the Land Commune and to acquire as individual householders (domokhoziain)
the rights of personal ownership of holdings from the Land Commune's allocation.
We command...that the following rules be established:
- 1. Each householder who has allotment land in
communal ownership (obshchinnoe vladenie) can at any time ask for
his portion of such land to be confirmed as his individual property (lichnaia
sobstvennost').
- 2. In Land Communes where there has been no redivision
(peredel) of the land in the 24 years preceding the application
by individual householders to change from communal to individual ownership,
each such householder shall have confirmed as his individual property not
only the kitchen garden (usadebnyi uchastok), but also all the holdings
of communal land in his permanent possession apart from those which he
rents....
- 6. Demands to have areas of communal land registered
as individual property (art. 1) are made through its elder (starosta)
to the Land Commune which is obliged, within a month of receiving the application
and by a simple majority vote, to indicate those portions of communal land
which are the individual property of the householder...If the Land Commune
does not within this period enact such a decision, then on the request
of the householder making such an application, all the steps required will
be taken on the spot by the Land Captain (zemskii nachal'nik) who
resolves all quarrels arising from it and his decision on the subject is
final....
- 12. Each householder who receives portions of
communal land...under the present rules has the right at any time to demand
that the Land Commune allocate him, in place of these portions, a corresponding
portion, if possible in one place.
The progress of the reform
| Year |
Numbers applying to leave the Land Commune |
Numbers leaving the Land Commune |
| 1907 |
211,922 |
48,271 |
| 1908 |
840,059 |
508,344 |
| 1909 |
649,921 |
579,409 |
| 1910 |
341,884 |
342,245 |
| 1911 |
242,328 |
145,567 |
| 1912 |
152,397 |
122,314 |
| 1913 |
160.304 |
134,554 |
| 1914 |
120,321 |
97,877 |
| 1915 |
36,497 |
29,851 |
| 1907-1915 |
2,755,633 |
2,008,432 |
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