The beginning of the twentieth century in Russia, especially the years around 1905, was a period of deep, severe economical and political crisis. It was heightened by the lost war against Japan in 1904-1905 and the violent social disturbances of 1904-1907. It was also a period of great social, political and ideological upheaval. Efforts were made to save and preserve the economical, social and political system, to reform it, to change it profoundly as well as to overthrow it through revolution. Those years can be described as a turning point in Russia's history, an era of struggle about the future direction of Russian society. / One of the attempted solutions to the most important Russian problems of that time was the set of measures and reforms proposed in 1906-1911 during the prime-ministership of Peter Arkad'evich Stolypin. His policies and his efforts to implement them have been the subject of heated discussion and controversy among politicians, political thinkers and historians, as well as among those they affected. / This thesis is devoted to an examination of Stolypin's reforms and their effect on the economic, social and political development of the Russian Empire. Their relevance today is suggested by the renewed attempts of the successor states of the Soviet Union to privatize land ownership and at last solve the agrarian problems which Stolypin's assassination and the coming of the First World War cut short. It is this that makes a fresh appraisal of Stolypin timely.

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