Coming under pressure from the
Russian Revolution of 1905, on August 6, 1905 (O.S.),
Sergei Witte (appointed by
Nicholas II to manage peace negotiations with
Japan after the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905) issued a manifesto about the convocation of the Duma, initially thought to be a purely advisory body, the so-called
Bulygin-Duma. In the subsequent
October Manifesto, the emperor promised to introduce further
civil liberties, provide for broad participation in a new "State Duma", and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. The State Duma was to be the
lower house of a parliament, and the
State Council of Imperial Russia the
upper house. However, Nicholas II was determined to retain his autocratic power (in which he succeeded). On 23 April 1906 (
O.S.), he issued the
Fundamental Laws, which gave him the title of "supreme autocrat". Although no law could be made without the Duma's assent, neither could the Duma pass laws without the approval of the noble-dominated State Council (half of which was to be appointed directly by the emperor), and the emperor himself retained a veto. The laws stipulated that
ministers could not be appointed by, and were not responsible to, the Duma, thus denying
responsible government at the executive level. Furthermore, Nicholas II had the power to dismiss the Duma and announce new elections whenever he wished; article 87 allowed him to pass temporary (emergency) laws by decrees. All these powers and prerogatives assured that, in practice, the Government of Russia continued to be a non-official
absolute monarchy. It was in this context that the first Duma opened four days later, on 27 April 1906.
First Duma The first Duma was established with around 500 deputies; most radical left parties, such as the
Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries and the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party had boycotted the election, leaving the moderate
Constitutional Democrats (Kadets) with the most deputies (around 184). Second came an alliance of slightly more radical leftists, the
Trudoviks (Laborites) with around 100 deputies. To the right of both were a number of smaller parties, including the
Octobrists. Together, they had around 45 deputies. Other deputies, mainly from peasant groups, were unaffiliated. The Duma ran for 73 days until 8 July 1906, with little success. The emperor and his loyal prime minister
Ivan Goremykin were keen to keep it in check, and reluctant to share power; the Duma, on the other hand, wanted continuing reform, including electoral reform, and, most prominently, land reform.
Lev Urusov held a famous speech. Scared by this liberalism, emperor dissolved the parliament, reportedly saying "Curse the Duma. It is all Witte's doing". The same day,
Pyotr Stolypin was named as the new prime minister In frustration,
Pavel Milyukov, who regarded the
Russian Constitution of 1906 as a mock-constitution, and approximately 200 deputies mostly from the liberal
Kadets party decamped to
Vyborg, then part of
Russian Finland, to discuss the way forward. From there, they issued the
Vyborg Appeal, which called for civil disobedience and a revolution. Largely ignored, it ended in their arrest and the closure of Kadet Party offices. This, among other things, helped pave the way for an alternative makeup for the second Duma. The tsar was unwilling to be rid of the State Duma, despite these problems. Instead, using emergency powers, Stolypin and the tsar changed the electoral law and gave greater electoral value to the votes of
landowners and owners of city properties, and less value to the votes of the peasantry, whom he accused of being "misled", and, in the process, breaking his own Fundamental Laws. The system facilitated better, if hardly ideal, cooperation between the Government and the Duma; consequently, the Duma lasted a full five-year term, and succeeded in 200 pieces of legislation and voting on some 2,500 bills. Due to its more noble, and
Great Russian composition, the third Duma, like the first, was also given a nickname, "The Duma of the Lords and Lackeys" or "The Master's Duma". The Octobrist party were the largest, with around one-third of all the deputies. This Duma, less radical and more conservative, left clear that the new electoral system would always generate a landowners-controlled Duma in which the tsar would have vast amounts of influence over, which in turn would be under complete submission to the Tsar, unlike the first two Dumas. Stolypin was assassinated in September 1911 and replaced by his finance minister
Vladimir Kokovtsov. The leading party of the Octobrists divided itself into three different sections. The Duma "met on 8 August for three hours to pass emergency war credits, [and] it was not asked to remain in session because it would only be in the way." The Duma volunteered its own dissolution until 14 February 1915. A serious conflict arose in January as the government kept information on the battlefield (in April at
Gorlice) secret to the Duma. In May Guchkov initiated the War Industries Committees in order to unite industrialists who were supplying the army with ammunition and military equipment, to mobilize industry for war needs and prolonged military action, to put political pressure on the tsarist government. On 17 July 1915 the Duma reconvened for six weeks. Its former members became increasingly displeased with Tsarist control of military and governmental affairs and demanded its own reinstatement. When the tsar refused its call for the replacement of his cabinet on 21 August with a "Ministry of National Confidence", roughly half of the deputies formed a "Progressive Bloc", which in 1917 became a focal point of political resistance. On 3 September 1915 the Duma prorogued. The war made the political parties more cooperative and practically formed into one party. When the tsar announced he would leave for the front at
Mogilev, the
Progressive Bloc was formed, fearing Rasputin's influence over Tsarina
Alexandra would increase. The Duma gathered on 9 February 1916 after the 76-year-old
Ivan Goremykin had been replaced by
Boris Stürmer as prime minister and on the condition not to mention Rasputin. The deputies were disappointed when Stürmer held his speech. Because of the war, he said, it was not the time for constitutional reforms. For the first time in his life, the tsar made a visit to the
Tauride Palace, which made it practically impossible to hiss at the new prime minister. On 1 November 1916 (
Old Style), the Duma reconvened and the government under Boris Stürmer was attacked by
Pavel Milyukov in the State Duma, not assembled since February. In his speech he spoke of "Dark Forces", and highlighted numerous governmental failures with the famous question "Is this stupidity or treason?"
Alexander Kerensky called the ministers "hired assassins" and "cowards" and said they were "guided by the contemptible Grishka Rasputin!" Stürmer and
Alexander Protopopov asked in vain for the dissolution of the Duma. Stürmer's resignation looked like a concession to the Duma.
Ivan Grigorovich and
Dmitry Shuvayev declared in the Duma that they had confidence in the Russian people, the
navy, and the
army; the war could be won. For the Octobrists and the Kadets, who were the liberals in the parliament, Rasputin, and his support of autocracy and absolute monarchy, was one of their main obstacles. The politicians tried to bring the government under control of the Duma. "To the
Okhrana it was obvious by the end of 1916 that the
liberal Duma project was superfluous, and that the only two options left were repression or a social revolution." On 19 November,
Vladimir Purishkevich, one of the founders of the
Black Hundreds, gave a speech in the Duma. He declared the monarchy had become discredited because of what he called the "ministerial leapfrog". On 2 December,
Alexander Trepov ascended the tribune in the Duma to read the government programme. The deputies shouted "down with the Ministers! Down with Protopopov!" The prime minister was not allowed to speak and had to leave the rostrum three times. Trepov threatened to shut the troublesome Duma completely in its attempt to control the tsar. The tsar, his cabinet, Alexandra, and Rasputin discussed when to open the Duma, on 12 or 19 January, 1 or 14 February, or never. Rasputin suggested to keep the Duma closed until February; Alexandra and Protopopov supported him. On Friday, 16 December Milyukov stated in the Duma: "maybe [we will be] dismissed to 9 January, maybe until February", but in the evening the Duma was closed until 12 January, by a decree prepared on the day before. A military guard had been on duty at the building. The tsar ordered
Sergey Semyonovich Khabalov, an inexperienced and extremely indecisive commander of the
Petrograd military district (and
Nikolay Iudovich Ivanov) to suppress the rioting by force. Mutinous soldiers of the fourth company of the
Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment refused to fall in on parade when commanded, shot two officers, and joined the protesters on the streets.
Nikolai Pokrovsky believed that "no one neither the Duma, nor the government cannot do anything one without the other one." The liberal
Vasily Maklakov and Bloc spokesman, expressed his opinion that the resignation of all members of the Council of Ministers was needed, "to make it clear that they want to go in a new way." On Monday soldiers of the
Volhynian Life Guards Regiment brought the
Lithuanian,
Preobrazhensky, and
Moscow Regiments out on the street to join the rebellion. On the 27th, the Duma delegates received an order from his Majesty that he had decided to prorogue the Duma until April, leaving it with no legal authority to act. The Duma refused to obey, and gathered in a private meeting. According to Buchanan: "It was an act of madness to prorogue the Duma at a moment like the present." "The delegates decided to form a
Provisional Committee of the State Duma. The Provisional Committee ordered the arrest of all the ex-ministers and senior officials." The Tauride Palace was occupied by the crowd and soldiers. "On the evening the
Council of Ministers held its last meeting in the
Marinsky Palace and formally submitted its resignation to the tsar when they were cut off from the telephone. Guchkov, along with
Vasily Shulgin, came to the army headquarters near
Pskov to persuade the tsar to abdicate. The committee sent commissars to take over ministries and other government institutions, dismissing Tsar-appointed ministers and formed the
Provisional Government under
Georgi Lvov. On 2 March 1917 the Provisional government decided that the Duma would not be reconvened. Following the
Kornilov affair and the proclamation of the
Russian Republic, the State Duma was dissolved on 6 October 1917 by the Provisional Government; a
Provisional Council of the Russian Republic was convened on 20th October 1917 as a provisional parliament, in preparation to the election of the
Russian Constituent Assembly. ==Seats held in Imperial Dumas==