Stolypin was born in Dresden, Saxony, on 14 April 1862. His family was prominent in the Russian aristocracy, and Stolypin was related on his father's side to the poet Mikhail Lermontov. His father was Arkady Dmitrievich Stolypin (1821-1899), a Russian landowner, descendant of a great noble family, a general in the Russian artillery and later Commandant of the Kremlin Palace. His mother was Natalia Mikhailovna Stolypina (née Gorchakova; 1827-1889), the daughter of a Russian foreign minister Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov. He received a good education at St. Petersburg University and began his service in government upon graduation in 1885, when he joined the Ministry of State Domains. Four years later Stolypin was appointed marshal of Kovno province.^[3]

In 1884, Stolypin married Olga Borisovna Neidhardt, the daughter of a prominent Muscovite family, with whom he had five daughters and a son.^[4]

[edit] Governor and Interior Minister

In 1902 Stolypin was appointed governor in Grodno, where he was the youngest person ever appointed to this position. He next became governor of Saratov, where he became known for the suppression of peasant unrest in 1905, gaining a reputation as the only governor who was able to keep a firm hold on his province in this period of widespread revolt. Stolypin was the first governor to use effective police methods against those who might be suspected of causing trouble, and some sources suggest that he had a police record on every adult male in his province.^[5] His successes as provincial governor led to Stolypin being appointed interior minister under Ivan Goremykin.

[edit] Prime Minister

A few months later, Nicholas II appointed Stolypin to replace Goremykin as Prime Minister. Russia in 1906 was plagued by revolutionary unrest and wide discontent among the population. Leftist organisations were waging campaigns against the autocracy, and had wide support; throughout Russia, police officials and bureaucrats were being assassinated. To respond to these attacks, Stolypin introduced a new court system that allowed for the arrest and speedy trial of accused offenders. Over 3,000 suspects were convicted and executed by these special courts between 1906-09.^[3] The gallows hence acquired the nickname 'Stolypin's necktie'.

He dissolved the First Duma on July 22 [O.S. July 9] 1906, after the reluctance of some of its more radical members to co-operate with the government and calls for land reform.^[2] To help quell dissent, Stolypin also hoped to remove some of the causes of grievance amongst the peasantry. Thus, he introduced important land reforms. Stolypin also tried to improve the lives of urban laborers and worked towards increasing the power of local governments.

In July 1906 he was elected as Prime Minister. He aimed to create a moderately wealthy class of peasants, who would be supporters of societal order. (See article "Stolypin's Reform").^[6]

Stolypin changed the nature of the Duma to attempt to make it more willing to pass legislation proposed by the government^{[citation needed][7]}. After Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000164 EndHTML:0000002987 StartFragment:0000002761 EndFragment:0000002951 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/mytymouse1/Desktop/names

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In the spring of 1911, Stolypin proposed a bill, which was not passed - prompting his resignation. He proposed spreading the system of zemstvo to the southwestern provinces of Russia. It was originally slated to pass with a narrow majority, but Stolypin's partisan  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  foes had it defeated. Afterwards he resigned as Prime Minister of the Third Duma.

Lenin was afraid Stolypin might succeed in helping Russia avoid a violent revolution. Many German political leaders feared that a successful economic transformation of Russia would undermine Germany's dominating position in Europe within a generation. Some historians believe that German leaders in 1914 chose to provoke a war with Tsarist Russia, in order to defeat it before it Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  would grow too strong^{[citation needed]}.

On the other hand, the Tsar did not give Stolypin unreserved backing. In fact, it was believed that his position at Court was already seriously undermined by the time he was assassinated in 1911^{[citation needed]}. Stolypin's reforms did not survive the turmoil of World War I, the October Revolution nor the Russian Civil War.