"P. A. Stolypin: the Last Reformer of the Russian Empire". This is the title of a new book put out by the publishing house of Samara State University. The author of the monograph, Dr. Pyotr Kabytov, has delved into reams of archival documents,many of which are promulgated for the first time. He has perused numerous literary sources and eyewitness accounts about Pyotr Stolypin, an eminent Russian statesman, who, at the dawn of the 20th century, shouldered the burden of pulling this country out of crisis and turmoil on toward reform and progress. стр. 89 Pyotr Stolypin has elicited attention from several generations of scholars and journalists since 1906 as he, quite unexpectedly at that, was appointed Russia's Minister for Internal Affairs. A most controversial figure even in our day and age exciting contradictory emotions and judgements, some of them poles apart - from the bathos of scathing criticism to the high pitch of superlatives. Dr. Kabytov, the author of the new study on Pyotr Stolypin, is quite objective and dispassionate in his inquiry and forthright, too. Data on the origins of the Stolypin kin vary. Judging by the genealogical tree published in 2002 by the P. A. Stolypin Heritage Fund and the A. S. Pushkin Museum, the first mention of the Stolypin family name dates back to 1425. According to other sources, such evidence goes back to the late 16th century. We are more in the know about Pyotr Stolypin's ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries-men of the service class (the gentry, clerks and other persons bound by obligations of service, esp. military service, to the Russian state), many of whom made a brilliant career and climbed up to the upper crust of the nobility thanks to their connections, high cultural backgrounds and sound family traditions. By the maternal line of descent the Stolypins were related with the offspring of the famous Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov (1730 - 1800), the great poet Mikhail Lermontov (1814 - 18 ... Read more