Reviving Rural Russia
A century ago, Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin understood the need for conditions that allow private farmers to develop. But today, the disparity between urban and rural life is being allowed to widen – with serious consequences.
https://prosyn.org/LlrVRcQ
MOSCOW – In 1906, Pyotr Stolypin, my great-grandfather, was appointed Prime Minister of Imperial Russia. Among his first undertakings was a series of agricultural reforms aimed at creating a new class of smallholding farmers. Five years later, the population had grown by 18.5 million, far exceeding the previous growth rate; Russia had become the largest exporter of grain to Europe; and roughly three million private farmers had joined the new rural middle class.