State Duma of the Russian Empire

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State Duma of the Russian Empire was a legislative assembly in the late Russian Empire. It was convened 4 times.

Under the pressure of the Russian Revolution of 1905, on August 6, 1905,Sergei Witte, appointed by Tsar Nicholas II to manage peace negotiations with Japan, issued a manifesto about the convocation of the Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. In the subsequent October Manifesto, the Tsar pledged to introduce basic civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. Though Russia was an autocracy, rather than a democracy, the State Duma is sometimes formally compared to the lower house of a parliament (the State Council of Imperial Russia being compared to the upper house).

However, Nicholas II was determined to retain his autocratic power. Just before the creation of the Duma in May 1906, the Tsar issued the Fundamental Laws that contradicted the October Manifesto in several important ways. It stated in part that Tsar's ministers could not be appointed by, and were not responsible to, the Duma, thus denying responsible government at the executive level. Furthermore, the Tsar had the power to dismiss the Duma and announce new elections whenever he wished. On the day that he dissolved the Duma, Nicholas II wrote in his diary only one sentence about the day's highlight news: Signed a decree dissolving the Duma.^{[citation needed]}

Election for the First Duma, which ran between April and June 1906, returned a significant bloc of moderate socialists and both liberal parties who demanded further reforms. For this reason, it is often called "the Duma of public anger". Sergei Muromtsev, Professor of Law at Moscow University, was elected President. Due to growing tensions between the Duma and Nicholas II's ministers (prominently Goremykin), the assembly was dissolved within ten weeks. In frustration members of the liberal 'Kadets' party then underwent the 'Vyborg Appeal', which ended in their arrest and exclusion from future Duma election. This paved the way for an alternative makeup for the second Duma.

Saint Petersburg City Duma.

The Second Duma (February 1907 to June 1907) was equally short-lived. The Social Democrats and Social Revolutionaries gained 188 deputies, along with members of the right-wing, which meant major conflict within the Duma and with the Tsar. Nicholas dissolved it after he heard members of the Duma harshly criticizing government administration of the army.

The Tsar was unwilling to be rid of the system of the State Duma, despite their problems, as he wished to portray the image of a 'democratic Russia' to foreign powers. Instead, using emergency power, Prime Minister Petr Stolypin changed the electoral law and gave greater electoral value to the votes of nobility and landowners. This ensured the Third Duma would be dominated by gentry, landowners and businessmen.

Between 1907 and 1912, the Octobrist-dominated Third Duma ran its course. Being more oriented towards conservative positions, it was able to last its full five-years term. Although the Bolsheviks later dismissed the later Dumas for being "rubber stamps of government policy", the Third Duma, through links with Stolypin and tentative movements, managed to instigate a succession of reforms (including a national insurance scheme for industrial workers). The assassination of Stolypin and increasingly reactionary policies of the Tsar and his State Council weakened the significance of the Third Duma.

The Fourth Duma of 1912–1914 and 1915-1917 was also of limited political influence. The inefficiency of Stolypin's various replacements and its conflict with Rasputin made operations difficult. In August 1914 the Duma volunteered its own dissolution for the duration of the war. However, its former members became increasingly displeased with Tsarist control of military and other affairs and so demanded its own reinstatement, which Nicholas conceeded to in August 1915. Its second run is considered even more ineffectual than its first though, and when the Tsar refused its call for the replacement of his cabinet with a 'Ministry of National Confidence' roughly half of the deputies formed a 'Progressive Bloc' which in 1917 became a focal point of poltiical resistance. The only role of real importance the Fourth Duma played was after its official dissoltuion during the 1917 February Revolution, where 12 members remained and formed the 'Provisional Committee', which later ruled Russia by default after tha abdication of the Romanovs , renaming itself the 'Provisional Government'.

[edit] Seats held in Imperial Dumas

Party	First Duma	Second Duma	Third Duma	Fourth Duma
Russian Social Democratic Party	-	65	14	14
Socialist-Revolutionary Party	-	34	-	-
Trudoviki	94	101	14	10
Progressives	-	-	39	47
Constitutional Democratic party	179	92	52	57
Non-Russian National Groups	121	-	26	21
Centre Party	-	-	-	33
Octobrist Party	17	32	120	99
Nationalists	-	-	76	88
Extreme Right	15	63	53	64