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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