Stolypin land reform was the last large-scope socioeconomic reform in the history of pre-revolutionary Russia. It was devised to expedite modernization of the national agriculture and stabilize the sociopolitical situation in the Russian countryside. Research into the implementation of the reform in Karelia is of great scientific interest since the conditions for it in the region differed significantly from those in the centre of European Russia. The factors hindering the reform in Karelia were determined – nearly total lack of manorial estates, the complex farming/fishing/hunting nature of the peasant economy, consumption-oriented agriculture, strong community traditions, and intricate communal land tenure. We characterize the implementation of Stolypin's legislation, the principal directions and features of the reforms. The remarkable role of land management in the progress of the reform in Karelia is disclosed and emphasized. Although history did not let the reform last long, it could have yielded much more tangible results in the land had the centre taken the regional factor into account.