The Russian Revolution: History in an Hour

by Rupert Colley

The second Duma, instituted March 1907, blocked Stolypin’s reforms but the prime minister was not to be denied. With the Tsar’s backing, he managed to have the Duma dissolved within three months. He got the backing of the Octobrists and changed the voting system, thereby ensuring a reduced peasant voice and a greater return of conservative and moderate members. He then managed to form a third Duma, November 1907, one that was decidedly tsarist. Stolypin may have pushed his reforms too far, thereby earning the disapproval of the Tsar. Indications were that the prime minister was about to be dismissed. On 14 September 1911, Stolypin was shot while attending the opera in Kiev with the Tsar and his two eldest daughters. As he fell, he yelled out, ‘I am happy to die for my Tsar’, and blessed the Tsar with a sign of the cross. Rumours persisted that the assassination had been officially sanctioned, and that Nicholas’ secret police had allowed Stolypin’s assassin, Dmitry Bogrov, easy access to the opera house. As he lay dying in hospital, the Tsar, kneeling at his bedside, begged Stolypin’s forgiveness. The prime minister died four days later on 18 September. Nicholas halted the investigation into the incident and Bogrov, who, it turned out, was an agent of the Okhrana and a revolutionary, was hastily hanged before being properly interviewed. With Stolypin’s assassination, Russia’s programme of reform came to an immediate and abrupt end.