to what extent was russia stable between 1906 and 1914?

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To What Extent was Russia Stable between 1906 and 1914?

Russia was stable to a certain extent during the period between 1906 and 1914; however in essence it wasn't entirely so. The Prime Minister Stolypin was a key individual in the stability of Russia; foremost in social engineering. He tried in many ways to break the backwardness, although the success of his ideas can be questioned. Moreover, Russia's financial state at the beginning of the period was poor due to the war. This therefore meant any schemes had to be low cost creating difficulty in change.

Social engineering was a key area in which Stolypin aimed many of his initiatives around. At the beginning of the period, Russia was hugely overpopulated with peasants putting huge strains upon the country. Fundamentally, Stolypin aimed to create a new class of richer peasants who would run as 'independent farmers.' This would have subsequent affects on the economical and political systems. This was particularly important in terms of Russia's stability seeing as it gained active rather the passive support from Russian citizens. An example of one of Stolypins reforms was the 'Annulment of redemption dues' in 1906. As well as this, and very importantly the army remained loyal. Without the support of the army, Russia would have been in a lot of trouble, particularly in aborting such riots within the country. This showed Stability in Russia.
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The reforms Stolypin introduced did have an immediate impact. 15% of the peasantry took on new opportunities. In fact by 1914 10% had consolidated their holdings and 25% had left the communes However after their initial rush, the significance and success decreased quite considerably. Moreover black earth regions were still very backward. As well, it made the Marxist unhappy. Making the Peasant content meant no revolution. Subsequently there was only a certain extent that Russia could be stable to.

Economically, Russia was in a lot of danger. Thus they took out a loan from France. In ...

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