“They need great upheavals, we need Great Russia”
On May 10 (23), 1907, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, speaking in the State Duma with a speech on the agrarian question, uttered his famous phrase: “They need great upheavals, we need Great Russia”:
“…After spending about 10 years in the business of land management, I came to the deep conviction that this business requires hard work, long-term menial work. This issue cannot be resolved, it must be resolved. In Western countries, this took decades. We offer you a modest but true path. Opponents of statehood would like to choose the path of radicalism, the path of liberation from Russia’s historical past, liberation from cultural traditions. They need great upheavals, we need Great Russia.”
The Russian Prime Minister’s speech was published in full in the supplement to the newspapers Rech andReform“May 11 (24), 1907.
Option in modern spelling available in Wikisource.
This expression quickly became a catchphrase – it was often used by journalists and politicians.
On September 5 (18), 1911, Pyotr Stolypin was killed in Kyiv. Contemporaries, who had different attitudes to the prime minister’s policies, were united after his death on one thing – the scale of the personality of this outstanding statesman and his role in the history of Russia.
Two years later, a monument to Stolypin was inaugurated on Duma Square in Kyiv (now Maidan Nezalezhnosti):
“…On a tetrahedral pedestal made of light gray granite there is a figure of P.A. Stolypin. His head is slightly turned to the left. The left hand is lowered along the side of the coat, the right is slightly bent, apparently holding the manuscript. The minister is dressed in a civilian frock coat. He is depicted, obviously, at the moment of delivering a speech in the State Duma.
On the left side of the monument, at the foot, there is a figure of a woman in national costume, personifying grief. The woman’s face is turned with deep sadness; her head is bowed on her left hand. In her right hand, lowered down, she holds a crown of thorns.
On the right side of the monument there is a figure of an epic hero, his head is covered with a helmet, his chest is covered with chain mail. The hero, personifying power, rested his left hand on his knee, his right hand with a six-feather hanging on it was pressed to his chest. The following inscriptions are placed on the pedestal of the monument:
On the front side – “Russian people to Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin”; on the back side – “Born on April 2, 1862 in Moscow, devoted his life to serving the Motherland, fell at the hands of an assassin on September 1-5, 1911 in Kyiv.” Above the figure of the knight is inscribed: “You need great upheavals, we need Great Russia…”
(“Kievlyanin”, September 7(20), 1913)
In March 1917, the monument was dismantled.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
