Creation of the legislative State Duma. The First State Duma of the Russian Empire began its work

The concept of the State Duma first refers to the period of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907.

The revolutionary events of early 1905 forced the autocracy to make concessions to the demands of society. On February 18, 1905, the tsar's manifesto was published, announcing the intention to create a legislative advisory State Duma, and on August 6, 1905, another manifesto was published, proclaiming the establishment of this body, as well as the regulations on elections. This project was called the “Bulygin Duma” (after the name of the Minister of Internal Affairs). Elections according to this project were supposed to be multi-stage, i.e. unequal for different classes, and indirect. The principle of elections by curiae, tested in zemstvos - groups of voters distinguished according to class and property characteristics - was preserved. There were three curias - landowning, urban and peasant. Women, military personnel, students, and workers were excluded from the ranks of voters. However, elections to the “Bulygin Duma” did not take place. A few weeks later, events took such a dramatic turn that the authorities had to go much further along the path of concessions.

The All-Russian October strike and the consolidation of opposition forces forced Nicholas II to issue a Manifesto on October 17, 1905. This document was the largest step along the path of constitutional evolution of the Russian state. The status of the State Duma changed - from a legislative advisory body it turned into a legislative body. The circle of voters has also expanded. The issue of introducing general, direct, equal and secret elections (the so-called four-tailed system) was even discussed. However, in the end it was decided to settle on a more “cautious” version of the electoral system, which was approved by the Decree of December 11, 1905.

According to it, elections of the State Duma remained unequal, not universal, indirect and in many cases not secret.

Only men over 25 years of age were allowed to participate in elections. Students and military personnel did not receive voting rights. According to the Decree of December 11, 1905, factory workers allocated to the new, fourth curia received the right to vote.

All curiae were placed in different conditions. The first two curiae were elected mainly according to a two-stage system (voters - city or provincial congresses of electors - Duma deputies), the third, peasant, - according to a four-stage system, and workers - according to a three-stage system.

As a result, in the landowning curia one elector represented 2,000 voters, in the urban curia - 4,000, in the peasant curia - 30 thousand, and in the workers' curia - 90 thousand. Of course, the curial principle gave obvious advantages to the wealthy segments of the population. But in the absence of developed political parties, this order ensured parliamentary representation of the main groups of the population and at the same time did not allow the numerical predominance of the lower social classes.

The activities of the new all-Russian representative institution were determined by documents approved by the emperor on February 20, 1906. The highest representative and legislative body of Russia now consisted of two chambers. The State Council (created under Alexander I on the initiative of M. Speransky) from a legislative body under the monarch turned into the upper house of parliament, and the principles of its formation also changed: half of its members (98) were appointed by the emperor, half were elected by the Synod, zemstvos, and the Academy of Sciences etc. He received the right to veto decisions of the State Duma.

Both chambers were convened and dissolved by decree of the emperor. The term of office of deputies of the State Duma was 5 years (although the Duma could be dissolved by the emperor before this term), members of the State Council - 9 years, and every three years the representation of each group was renewed by a third. The same person could not be a member of the State Council and a deputy of the Duma. Officials holding government positions and elected to the Duma were required to leave the service. Deputies of the Duma were entitled to a monthly government allowance (since 1908, its amount was 350 rubles), members of the State Council - a daily allowance (in the amount of 25 rubles).

The State Duma had the right to adopt laws, repeal and amend them, with the exception of the Basic State Laws. The right to revise the latter belonged only to the emperor. Draft laws approved by the Duma were submitted for approval to the State Council.

Laws adopted by both chambers were sent for approval by the emperor.

The first Russian parliament lasted only 11 years:

· III State Duma: November 1, 1907 - June 9, 1912 (the only convocation that lasted the entire five-year term).

· IV State Duma: November 15, 1912 -- March 12, 1917 (Both the III and IV Dumas consisted of 442 deputies each).

The I and II State Dumas were elected in accordance with the legislation described above, and did not last long due to sharp disagreements with the government. The representation of left and liberal parties was significant in them: for example, in the First State Duma there were 153 cadets and 107 members of the peasant group (trudoviks).

Attempts to discuss agrarian reform, which included the alienation of landowners' lands, caused a sharp reaction from the government and the dissolution of the Duma. The Second Duma turned out to be even more left-wing (there were about a hundred Cadets and more than two hundred representatives of the “left bloc”, which included Trudoviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social Democrats). The agrarian question again came into focus.

To get a “manageable” Duma, the emperor used the right to dissolve the State Duma for the second time and, moreover, changed the procedure for Duma elections, effectively committing a coup from above. He motivated this decision by the slowness of the Duma in considering the budget and government bills aimed at suppressing revolutionary unrest, as well as by the anti-state activities of some left-wing deputies. On June 3, 1907, by the sole decision of the tsar (which contradicted Articles 86 and 87 of the Code of Basic State Laws), a new electoral law was introduced.

According to this law, the number of deputies of the State Duma was reduced, as well as the representation of the lower classes and outskirts. Now in the first curia one elector was elected from 230 people. The second curia was divided into two: for the first time (wealthy citizens) one elector was elected from 1000 voters, in the other - from 15 thousand. The peasant curia sent one elector from 60 thousand, and the workers - from 125 thousand. Residents of a number of outlying regions (Akmola , Semipalatinsk, Yakutsk, etc.) lost representation; all of Asian Russia sent only 15 deputies to the Duma, the Caucasus - 10 (instead of 29), the Kingdom of Poland - 14 (instead of the previous 37). Only 15% of the empire's population could exercise the right to vote. It is no coincidence that even in the government camp this law was called “shameless.”

The Dumas elected under this law were distinguished by much greater controllability, loyalty to the monarchy and conservatism. The III State Duma lasted the entire term allotted to it. The leading factions in it were the Octobrists (155), the Cadets (108) and the Right (146). Leftist representation was reduced to a minimum. The IV State Duma also served most of its term of office. Only as failures on the German front increased, the leaders of a number of Duma factions (primarily the Cadets) began to show increasing opposition. The State Duma played a significant role in February revolution: with the active participation of Duma leaders, on March 2, 1917, the tsar was forced to abdicate; a little earlier (February 27), the Duma created the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, which then transformed into the Provisional Government, which became one of the centers of power in the country after the revolution. After this, the Duma as an institution left the political stage, although it was legally formalized only on October 6, 1917.

Despite the short period of its existence and the obvious shortcomings of the Russian pre-revolutionary electoral legislation, elections to the State Duma and its activities contributed to the involvement of broad sections of the population in the elections and the development of the political culture of Russian society.

State Duma of the Russian Empire of the 1st convocation
Parliament:	State Duma of the Russian Empire
	Russian empire
Next convocation:
Membership:	499 deputies the election of 11 deputies was annulled 1 resigned 1 died 6 didn't have time to arrive
Chairman of the State Duma:	S. A. Muromtsev
Dominant party:	Constitutional Democratic Party (176 deputies)

State Duma of the Russian Empire of the 1st convocation- the first representative legislative body elected by the population in Russia. It was the result of an attempt to transform Russia from an autocratic into a parliamentary monarchy, caused by the desire to stabilize the political situation in the face of numerous unrest and revolutionary uprisings. The Duma of the first convocation held one session and lasted 72 days, from April 27 (Old Style) 1906 to July 8, 1906, after which it was dissolved by the emperor.

Elections

The law on elections to the State Duma was published on December 11, 1905. The elections were indirect and had to be held according to the curial system: a total of 4 curiae were created - landowning, urban, peasant and workers, which were given the opportunity to choose a certain number of electors. The following quotas were established: one elector per 2 thousand population in the landowning curia, per 4 thousand in the urban curia, per 30 thousand in the peasant curia, and 90 thousand in the workers’ curia.

Not all residents of the empire had the right to vote. In order to have the right to vote, you must meet the following criteria at least one year before the election:

• according to the landowner curia - to be the owner of from 100 to 650 acres of land, depending on the area, to have real estate worth at least 15 thousand rubles.
• according to the city curia - to be the owner of city real estate and commercial and industrial establishments, a tenant or an employee.
• according to the peasant curia - to have home ownership;
• according to the workers' curia - to be a worker in an enterprise with at least 50 male workers.

In addition, there were categories of the population generally deprived of voting rights. These included foreign nationals, persons under 25 years of age, women, students, military personnel on active service, wandering foreigners found guilty of crimes, removed from office by court (within 3 years after removal), under trial and investigation, bankrupts (until the cause is determined - all except the unfortunate), those under guardianship (in addition to minors, under guardianship were the deaf-mute, the mentally ill and those recognized as wasteful), defrocked for vices, excluded from class societies by their sentences, as well as governors, vice-governors, mayors and their assistants (in the territories entrusted to them) and police officers (working in the constituency).

The elections took place in several stages:

• For the city curia there are two stages: in Moscow, St. Petersburg and 24 large cities specified in the electoral law, voters elected electors to the city assembly, which then elected members of the Duma.
• For the landowning curia (in counties and all other cities) there were two or three stages: persons whose property was equal to or greater than the qualification established for the area at the county congress of landowners elected delegates to the provincial assembly, which then elected members of the Duma. The owners of 1/10 qualifications and clergy at preliminary district congresses elected commissioners, who then, at district congresses, together with large landowners, elected electors for the provincial electoral assembly.
• For the workers' curia there are three stages: 1) election of one authorized representative from workers from an enterprise with 50-1000 workers or 1 authorized representative from every thousand workers in large enterprises, 2) election of electors at provincial meetings of authorized representatives, 3) election of Duma members at provincial elections meeting;
• For the peasantry, there are four stages: 1) election of electors from 10 households, 2) election of representatives from the volost at a volost assembly, 3) election of electors at the county congress of commissioners, 4) election of Duma members at the provincial or regional electoral congress).

Thus, these curiae (in 26 urban districts, only the city and workers' curiae elected electors) elected electors to the assembly of district voters, which then, at the electoral congress, elected as many deputies as were required by law to be elected from a given district.

The estate-curial system was recognized as more preferable than general, direct, equal and secret elections, since both the emperor and the chairman of the government S. Yu. Witte feared that “in a peasant country where the majority of the population is not experienced in political art, free and direct elections will lead to the victory of irresponsible demagogues and the legislature will be dominated by lawyers.”

135 electoral districts were created, including 26 city (elected 34 deputies), 33 territorial-class, confessional, territorial-confessional and ethnic districts (40 deputies). From 2 to 15 deputies were elected from the province, from 1 to 6 from the city. European Russia elected 412 deputies (79%), Poland - 37 deputies (7%), the Caucasus - 29 (6%), Siberia and the Far East - 25 (4%), Central Asia and Kazakhstan - 21 (4%).

Elections were held mainly in February-March 1906, and in national regions and outskirts later, so that by the beginning of work, out of 524 deputies, about 480 were elected, so the composition of the first Duma was gradually supplemented by elected deputies arriving. In many regions of Siberia, for example, elections were held in May-June 1906, in addition, the authorities were working out the mechanism for holding elections under martial law, so martial law was introduced in all counties adjacent to the Siberian Railway line.

The elections were boycotted by representatives of the left and extreme right parties, the left believed that the Duma did not have any real power, and the extreme right was generally negative towards the very idea of ​​parliamentarism, advocating the inviolability of the Autocracy. Despite this, the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries participated in the elections as independent candidates. V.I. Lenin was subsequently forced to admit that the boycott of the elections to the First State Duma “was a mistake.”

Authority

The beginning of determining the powers of the State Duma and its place in the system of government bodies was laid by the Manifesto of Emperor Nicholas II “On the Establishment of the State Duma” and the “Regulations on Elections to the State Duma” of August 6, 1905. According to these documents, developed mainly by the Minister of Internal Affairs A.G. Bulygin, the State Duma was assigned the role not of a legislative, but of a legislative advisory institution with very limited rights, elected by limited categories of people: large owners of real estate, large payers of industrial and housing taxes and, on on special grounds, by peasants (the so-called “Bulygin Duma”). However, dissatisfaction with these proposals resulted in numerous protests, strikes and strikes throughout the country, which resulted in the development of new principles for the formation and work of the State Duma.

The adjustment of the powers of the Duma and the endowment of legislative functions was carried out by the Manifesto “On the Improvement public order"from October 17, 1905:

The powers of the Duma were finally determined by the law of February 20, 1906, regulating the functioning of the Duma, and by the “Basic State Laws” of April 23, 1906. These documents significantly reduced the powers of the Duma. The Duma was elected for 5 years, and the Emperor had the right to dissolve it. The Duma could adopt laws proposed to it by the government, as well as approve the state budget. In the period between sessions, the emperor could single-handedly pass laws, which were then subject to approval by the Duma during the sessions. The State Duma was the lower house of parliament. The role of the upper house was performed by the State Council, which was supposed to approve or reject laws adopted by the Duma.

All executive power remained in the hands of the monarch, he also personally led Armed forces, determined foreign policy, resolved issues of declaring war and peace, introducing a state of emergency or martial law in any territory of the Empire.

Compound

A total of 499 deputies were elected (of which the election of 11 deputies was annulled, 1 resigned, 1 died, 6 did not have time to arrive). The deputies were distributed as follows:

• by age: up to 30 years - 7%; from 30 to 40 years - 40%; from 40 to 50 years; over 50 - 15%;
• by level of education: from higher education 42%, middle - 14%, lower - 25%, home - 19%, illiterate - 2 people;
• by profession: 121 farmers, 10 artisans, 17 factory workers, 14 traders, 5 manufacturers and factory managers, 46 landowners and estate managers, 73 zemstvo, city and noble employees, 16 priests, 14 officials, 39 lawyers, 16 doctors, 7 engineers , 16 professors and private assistant professors, 3 gymnasium teachers, 14 rural teachers, 11 journalists and 9 persons of unknown occupation.

Based on party affiliation, the majority of seats were occupied by constitutional democrats - 176 people. Also elected were 102 representatives of the Labor Union, 23 socialist-revolutionaries, 2 members of the Freethinkers Party, 33 members of the Polish Kolo, 26 peaceful renovationists, 18 social democrats (Mensheviks), 14 non-party autonomists, 12 progressives, 6 members of the Democratic Reform Party, 100 non-partisans .

279 deputies of Russian nationality were elected.

Factions were formed: cadets - 176 people, Octobrists - 16, Trudoviks (members of the Labor Union) - 96, Social Democrats (Mensheviks) - 18 (at first the Mensheviks joined the Trudovik faction and only in June by decision of the 4th Congress of the RSDLP formed their own faction); autonomists - 70 people (representatives of the national outskirts, advocating the autonomy of these territories and their supporters), progressives - 12 (the faction was formed by non-party candidates with liberal views close to the Cadets). There were 100 independent candidates, this number included the Socialist Revolutionaries, who did not officially form a faction due to their party’s boycott of the elections.

Cadet S.A. Muromtsev, a professor at Moscow University, was elected chairman. Prince P. D. Dolgorukov and N. A. Gredeskul (both cadets) became the chairman’s comrades. Secretary - Prince D.I. Shakhovskoy (cadet).

Activity

The first meeting of the State Duma took place on April 27, 1906 at the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg (after a reception with Nicholas II in the Winter Palace).

From the very beginning of its work, the majority of the State Duma was determined to sharply fight the government of I. L. Goremykin. In 72 days, the Duma accepted 391 requests for illegal government actions.

With the start of their work, the Cadets raised the issue of amnesty for all political prisoners, the abolition of the death penalty, the abolition of the State Council, and the establishment of responsibility of the Council of Ministers before the Duma. The majority of deputies supported these demands, and on May 5, 1906, they were sent to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, I. L. Goremykin, who on May 13 refused all the demands of the Duma.

The main issue in the work of the First State Duma was the land issue. On May 7, the cadet faction, signed by 42 deputies, put forward a bill that provided for additional allocation of land to peasants at the expense of state, monastic, church, appanage and cabinet lands, as well as partial forced purchase of landowners' lands.

On May 23, the Trudovik faction (104 people) proposed its own bill, which provided for the formation of a “public land fund”, from which it was supposed to allocate land for the use of landless and land-poor peasants, as well as the confiscation of land from landowners in excess of the “labor norm” with payment to the latter of the established remuneration. It was proposed to implement the project through elected local land committees.

On June 6, 33 deputies submitted a bill developed by the Social Revolutionaries on the immediate nationalization of all natural resources and the abolition of private ownership of land. By a majority vote, the Duma refused to consider such a radical project. Also on June 8, the Council of Ministers decided to dissolve the State Duma if the situation around the agrarian issue continues to escalate, since its widespread discussion in the Duma caused an increase in public controversy and the strengthening of the revolutionary movement.

The Cadets faction also introduced a bill on the immunity of Duma deputies, which provided that criminal prosecution of a deputy during a session is possible only with the consent of the Duma (except for detention during the commission of a crime or immediately after it, however, even in this case the Duma could cancel the detention), and if the case initiated between sessions, then all procedural actions and detentions were suspended until the opening of the session and the decision of this issue by the Duma. Parliament, however, refused to consider this bill.

A number of liberal members of the Council of Ministers proposed introducing representatives of the Cadets into the government. This proposal did not receive the support of the majority of ministers. The State Duma expressed no confidence in the government, after which a number of ministers began to boycott the Duma and its meetings. As a sign of his contempt for the Duma, the first government bill was introduced there to allocate 40,000 rubles for the construction of a palm greenhouse and the construction of a laundry at Yuryev University. During the entire period of work, deputies approved 2 bills - on the abolition of the death penalty (initiated by deputies in violation of the procedure) and on the allocation of 15 million rubles to help victims of crop failure, introduced by the government.

Dissolution

On July 6 (19), 1906, instead of the unpopular I. L. Goremykin, the decisive P. A. Stolypin was appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers (who also retained the post of Minister of Internal Affairs). On July 8, a decree on the dissolution of the State Duma followed; this step was explained in the manifesto of July 9 as follows:

Those elected from the population, instead of working on legislative construction, deviated into an area that did not belong to them and turned to investigating the actions of local authorities appointed by Us, to pointing out to Us the imperfections of the Fundamental Laws, changes to which can only be undertaken by Our Monarch’s will, and to actions that are clearly illegal, as an appeal on behalf of the Duma to the population. Confused by such disorders, the peasantry, not expecting a legal improvement in their situation, moved in a number of provinces to open robbery, theft of other people's property, disobedience to the law and legitimate authorities. But let our subjects remember that only with complete order and tranquility is a lasting improvement in the people’s life possible. Let it be known that We will not allow any self-will or lawlessness and with all the might of the state we will bring those who disobey the law to submission to Our Royal will. We call on all right-thinking Russian people to unite to maintain legitimate power and restore peace in Our dear Fatherland.

The manifesto also announced the holding of new elections according to the same rules as for the First State Duma.

On July 9, deputies who came to the meeting found the doors to the Tauride Palace locked and a manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma nailed to a pole nearby. Some of them - 180 people - mainly cadets, Trudoviks and Social Democrats, having gathered in Vyborg (as the city of the Principality of Finland closest to St. Petersburg), adopted the appeal “To the people from the people’s representatives” (Vyborg Appeal). It said that the government has no right, without the consent of the people's representatives, to collect taxes from the people, or to call the people to military service. The Vyborg Appeal therefore called for civil disobedience - refusal to pay taxes and enlist in the army. The publication of the appeal did not lead to disobedience to the authorities, and all those who signed it were sentenced to three months in prison and deprived of voting rights, that is, they could not become deputies of the State Duma in the future.

Famous MPs

The most famous deputies of the First State Duma include S. A. Muromtsev, M. M. Kovalevsky, V. D. Kuzmin-Karavaev, T. V. Lokot, G. E. Lvov, A. A. Mukhanov, V. D. Nabokov, P. I. Novgorodtsev, V. P. Obninsky, V. A. Kharlamov, D. I. Shakhovsky, M. Ya. Herzenstein, F. I. Rodichev, P. D. Dolgorukov, F. F. Kokoshkina, I.P. Lapteva, I.V. Galetsky, Demyanovich, Anton Kaetanovich.

The First State Duma met in April 1906, when estates were burning almost all over Russia and peasant unrest was not subsiding. As Prime Minister Sergei Witte noted, “The most serious part of the Russian Revolution of 1905, of course, was not the factory strikes, but the peasant slogan: “Give us the land, it must be ours, for we are its workers.” Two powerful forces came into conflict - landowners and cultivators, the nobility and the peasantry. Now the Duma had to try to resolve the land question - the most burning issue of the first Russian revolution.

The procedure for elections to the First Duma was determined in the election law issued in December 1905. According to it, four electoral curiae were established: landowner, city, peasant and workers. According to the workers' curia, only those workers who were employed in enterprises with at least 50 employees were allowed to vote. As a result, 2 million male workers were immediately deprived of the right to vote. Women, young people under 25, military personnel, and a number of national minorities did not take part in the elections. The elections were multi-stage electors - deputies were elected by electors from voters - two-stage, and for workers and peasants three- and four-stage. In the landowning curia there was one elector per 2 thousand voters, in the urban curia - per 4 thousand, in the peasant curia - per 30, in the workers' curia - per 90 thousand. The total number of elected Duma deputies at different times ranged from 480 to 525 people. On April 23, 1906, Nicholas II approved the Code of Basic State Laws, which the Duma could only change on the initiative of the Tsar himself. According to the Code, all laws adopted by the Duma were subject to approval by the tsar, and all executive power in the country also continued to be subordinate to the tsar. The Tsar appointed ministers and personally led foreign policy countries, the armed forces were subordinate to him, he declared war, made peace, and could introduce a state of war or a state of emergency in any area. Moreover, a special paragraph 87 was introduced into the Code of Basic State Laws, which allowed the tsar, during breaks between sessions of the Duma, to issue new laws only in his own name.

In the elections to the First State Duma, the Cadets (170 deputies) won a convincing victory; in addition to them, the Duma included 100 representatives of the peasantry (Trudoviks), 15 Social Democrats (Mensheviks), 70 autonomists (representatives of the national outskirts), 30 moderates and rightists and 100 non-party deputies. The Bolsheviks boycotted the elections to the Duma, considering the revolutionary path to be the only correct direction of development. Therefore, the Bolsheviks could not have made any compromises with the first parliament in Russian history. The grand opening of the Duma meeting took place on April 27 in the Throne Hall of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

One of the leaders of the cadets, professor at Moscow University, lawyer S. A. Muromtsev, was elected Chairman of the Duma.

S. A. Muromtsev

If in the villages the manifestations of the war were the burning of estates and mass floggings of peasants, then in the Duma verbal battles were in full swing. Peasant deputies ardently demanded the transfer of land into the hands of farmers. They were equally passionately opposed by representatives of the nobility, who defended the inviolability of property.

A deputy from the Kadet Party, Prince Vladimir Obolensky, said: “The land problem was the focus of the First Duma.”

The Cadets who predominated in the Duma tried to find a “middle path” and reconcile the warring parties. The Cadets offered to transfer part of the land to the peasants - but not for free, but for a ransom. We were talking not only about landowners, but also about state, church and other lands. At the same time, the Cadets emphasized that it was necessary to preserve “cultured landowner farms.”

The cadets' proposals were harshly criticized on both sides. Right-wing deputies saw them as an attack on property rights. The left believed that the land should be transferred to the peasants without ransom - for nothing. The government also categorically rejected the cadet project. By the summer of 1906, the struggle had reached its utmost intensity. The authorities decided to push the situation to a resolution. On June 20, the government announced that it would not allow any violation of the rights of landowners. This caused an explosion of indignation among the majority of deputies. On July 6, the Duma issued a declaration confirming its intention to transfer part of the landowners' lands to the peasants. The authorities' response to this was the dissolution of the Duma. The highest decree on dissolution followed three days later, on July 9, 1906.

The beginning of land reform was announced by a government decree of November 9, 1906, adopted as an emergency, bypassing the State Duma. According to this decree, peasants received the right to leave the community with their land. They might as well sell it. P. Stolypin believed that this measure would soon destroy the community. He said that the decree “laid the foundation of a new peasant system.”

In February 1907, the Second State Duma was convened. In it, as in the First Duma, the land issue remained the center of attention. The majority of deputies in the Second Duma, even more firmly than in the First Duma, were in favor of transferring part of the noble lands to the peasants. P. Stolypin resolutely rejected such projects: “Doesn’t this remind you of the story of Trishkin’s caftan: “cut off the floors in order to sew sleeves from them?” Of course, the Second Duma showed no desire to approve Stolypin’s decree of November 9. In this regard, there were persistent rumors among the peasants that it was impossible to leave the community - those who left would not get the landowner's land.

In March 1907, Emperor Nicholas II, in a letter to his mother, noted: “Everything would be fine if what is happening in the Duma remained within its walls. The fact is that every word said there appears the next day in all the newspapers, which people read greedily. In many places they are already talking about land again and are waiting for what the Duma will say on this issue... We need to let it reach an agreement to the point of stupidity or disgustingness and then clap.”

Unlike many countries in the world, where parliamentary traditions have developed over centuries, in Russia the first representative institution (in the modern sense of the term) was convened only in 1906. It was named the State Duma and existed for about 12 years, until the fall of the autocracy, having four convocations. In all four convocations of the State Duma, the predominant position among the deputies was occupied by representatives of three social strata - the local nobility, the urban intelligentsia and the peasantry.

It was they who brought the skills of public debate to the Duma. The nobility had, for example, almost half a century of experience working in the zemstvo.

The intelligentsia used skills acquired in university classrooms and court debates. The peasants carried with them to the Duma many democratic traditions of communal self-government.

FORMATION

Officially, the people's representation in Russia was established by the Manifesto of August 6, 1905.

The intention to take into account the public need for a representative body of government was stated in the manifesto.

FIRST STATE DUMA

• According to election law 1905 years, four electoral curiae were established: landowning, urban, peasant and workers. According to the workers' curia, only those proletarians who were employed in enterprises that employed at least fifty people were allowed to vote, which deprived two million workers of the right to vote.

The elections themselves were not universal, equal and direct (women, youth under 25, military personnel, and a number of national minorities were excluded; in the landowning curia there was one elector per 2 thousand voters, in the urban curia - per 4 thousand voters, in the peasant curia - per 30 thousand, in the working class - for 90 thousand; a three- and four-degree election system was established for workers and peasants.)

I State Duma.

The first “popularly” elected Duma lasted from April to July 1906.

Only one session took place. Party representation: Cadets, Trudoviks - 97, Octobrists, Social Democrats. The Chairman of the first State Duma was cadet Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev, a professor at Moscow University.

From the very beginning of its activity, the Duma demonstrated that a representative institution of the people of Russia, even elected on the basis of an undemocratic electoral law, will not tolerate the arbitrariness and authoritarianism of the executive branch. The Duma demanded an amnesty for political prisoners, the real implementation of political freedoms, universal equality, the liquidation of state, appanage and monastic lands, etc.

Then the Chairman of the Council of Ministers decisively rejected all the demands of the Duma, which in turn passed a resolution of complete no confidence in the government and demanded its resignation. The ministers declared a boycott on the Duma and exchanged demands on each other.

In general, during the 72 days of its existence, the first Duma accepted 391 requests for illegal government actions and was dissolved by the tsar.

II State Duma.

It existed from February to June 1907. One session also took place. In terms of the composition of the deputies, it was significantly to the left of the first, although according to the plan of the courtiers it should have been more to the right.

Fedor Alekseevich Golovin, a zemstvo leader, one of the founders of the Cadet Party and a member of its Central Committee, was elected Chairman of the Second State Duma.

For the first time, the recording of government revenues and expenditures was discussed.

It is interesting that most of the meetings of the first Duma and the second Duma were devoted to procedural problems.

This became a form of struggle between deputies and the government during the discussion of bills that, according to the government, the Duma had no right to discuss. The government, subordinate only to the tsar, did not want to reckon with the Duma, and the Duma, as the “people's chosen one,” did not want to submit to this state of affairs and sought to achieve its goals in one way or another.

Ultimately, the Duma-Government confrontation was one of the reasons that on June 3, 1907, the autocracy carried out a coup d'etat, changing the election law and dissolving the Second Duma.

As a result of the introduction of a new electoral law, a third Duma was created, already more obedient to the tsar. The number of deputies opposed to the autocracy has sharply decreased, but the number of loyal elected representatives and far-right extremists has increased.

III State Duma.

the only one of the four who served the entire five-year term prescribed by the law on elections to the Duma - from November 1907 to June 1912.

Five sessions took place.

The Octobrist Alexander Nikolaevich Khomyakov was elected Chairman of the Duma, who was replaced in March 1910 by a major merchant and industrialist Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov, a man of desperate courage who fought in the Anglo-Boer War.

The Octobrists - a party of large landowners and industrialists - controlled the work of the entire Duma.

Moreover, their main method was blocking on various issues with different factions. Despite its longevity, the Third Duma did not emerge from crises from the very first months of its formation. Acute conflicts arose on various occasions: on issues of reforming the army, on the peasant issue, on the issue of attitude towards the “national outskirts”, as well as because of personal ambitions that tore apart the deputy corps. But even in these extremely difficult conditions, opposition-minded deputies found ways to express their opinions and criticize the autocratic system in the face of all of Russia.

IV State Duma

The Duma arose in a pre-crisis period for the country and the whole world - the eve of world war.

The composition of the Fourth Duma differed little from the Third. Except that there has been a significant increase in clergy in the ranks of deputies.

The Chairman of the Fourth Duma for the entire period of its work was a large Ekaterinoslav landowner, a man with a large-scale state mind, the Octobrist Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko.

The deputies recognized the need to prevent revolution through reforms, and also advocated a return to Stolypin’s program in one form or another.

During the First World War, the State Duma without hesitation approved loans and adopted bills related to the conduct of the war.

The situation did not allow the Fourth Duma to concentrate on large-scale work.

She was constantly feverish. There were endless, personal “showdowns” between the leaders of the factions, within the factions themselves. Moreover, with the outbreak of the World War in August 1914, after major failures of the Russian army at the front, the Duma entered into an acute conflict with the executive branch.

Historical significance: Despite all sorts of obstacles and the dominance of reactionaries, the first representative institutions in Russia had a serious impact on the executive branch and forced even the most notorious governments to reckon with themselves.

It is not surprising that the State Duma did not fit well into the system of autocratic power and that is why Nicholas II constantly sought to get rid of it.

• formation of democratic traditions;
• development of publicity;
• the formation of right-wing consciousness, political education of the people;
• the elimination of the slave psychology that has dominated Russia for centuries, the intensification of the political activity of the Russian people;
• gaining experience in democratic decision-making on the most important government issues, improving parliamentary activities, forming a layer of professional politicians.

The State Duma became the center of legal political struggle; it provided the possibility of the existence of official opposition to the autocracy.

The positive experience of the Duma deserves to be used in the activities of modern parliamentary structures in Russia

Introduction - 3

1. Third State Duma (1907–1912): general characteristics and features of activity - 5

2. State Duma of the third convocation in the estimates of deputies - 10

Conclusion - 17

List of used literature - 20

Introduction

The experience of the first two legislative assemblies was assessed by the tsar and his entourage as unsuccessful.

In this situation, the June 3 manifesto was published, in which dissatisfaction with the work of the Duma was attributed to the imperfection of the election legislation:

All these changes in the election procedure cannot be carried out in the usual legislative way through the State Duma, the composition of which We have recognized as unsatisfactory, due to the imperfection of the very method of electing its Members.

Only the Authority that granted the first electoral law, the historical Authority of the Russian Tsar, has the right to repeal it and replace it with a new one.

The electoral law of June 3, 1907 may have seemed to those around the Tsar a good find, but the State Duma, formed in accordance with it, reflected the balance of power in the country so one-sidedly that it could not even adequately outline the range of problems that the solution could prevent the country's slide towards disaster. As a result, replacing the first Duma with the second, the tsarist government wanted the best, but it turned out as always.

The First Duma was a Duma of hope for a peaceful evolutionary process in a country tired of revolution. The Second Duma turned out to be the Duma the most intense struggle deputies among themselves (even to the point of fights) and irreconcilable struggle, including in an offensive form, between the left part of the deputies and the authorities.

Having the experience of dispersing the previous Duma, the most prepared for parliamentary activities, the most intellectual faction of the Cadets tried to bring both the right and left parties into at least some framework of decency.

But the intrinsic value of the sprouts of parliamentarism in autocratic Russia was of little interest to the right, and the left did not care at all about the evolutionary development of democracy in Russia. On the night of June 3, 1907, members of the Social Democratic faction were arrested. At the same time, the government announced the dissolution of the Duma. A new, incomparably more stringent restrictive electoral law was issued.

State Dumas in Russia (1906 – 1917)

Thus, tsarism deeply violated one of the main provisions of the manifesto of October 17, 1905: no law can be adopted without the approval of the Duma.

Further course political life demonstrated with terrifying clarity the fallacy and ineffectiveness of forceful palliatives in solving fundamental problems of the relationship between various branches of government. But before Nicholas II and his family and millions of innocent people who fell into the millstones of the revolution and civil war, there were the third and fourth Dumas.

As a result of the third of June 1907

After the Black Hundred coup d'etat, the electoral law of December 11, 1905 was replaced by a new one, which in the Cadet-liberal environment was called nothing less than “shameless”: so openly and crudely did it ensure the strengthening of the far-right monarchist-nationalist wing in the Third Duma.

Only 15% of the subjects of the Russian Empire received the right to participate in elections.

The peoples of Central Asia were completely deprived of voting rights, and representation from other national regions was limited. The new law almost doubled the number of peasant electors. The formerly single city curia was divided into two: the first included only owners of large property, who received significant advantages over the petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, who made up the bulk of the voters of the second city curia, i.e.

the main voters of the Cadets-liberals. The workers could actually appoint their deputies only in six provinces, where separate workers' curiae remained. As a result, the landed gentry and big bourgeoisie accounted for 75% of the total number of electors. At the same time, tsarism showed itself to be a consistent supporter of the conservation of the feudal-landowner status quo, and not of accelerating the development of bourgeois-capitalist relations in general, not to mention bourgeois-democratic tendencies.

The rate of representation from landowners was more than four times higher than the rate of representation from the big bourgeoisie. The Third State Duma, unlike the first two, lasted for a set period (01.11.1907-09.06.1912).

The processes of positioning and interaction of political forces in the Third Duma of Tsarist Russia are strikingly reminiscent of what happens in 2000-2005 in the Duma of democratic Russia, when political expediency based on unprincipledness is put at the forefront.

The purpose of this work is to study the features of the third State Duma of the Russian Empire.

1.

Third State Duma (1907–1912): general characteristics and features of activities

The Third State Duma of the Russian Empire operated for a full term of office from November 1, 1907 to June 9, 1912 and turned out to be the most politically durable of the first four state dumas. She was elected according to Manifesto on the dissolution of the State Duma, on the time of convening a new Duma and on changing the procedure for elections to the State Duma And Regulations on elections to the State Duma dated June 3, 1907, which were published by Emperor Nicholas II simultaneously with the dissolution of the Second State Duma.

The new electoral law significantly limited the voting rights of peasants and workers.

The total number of electors for the peasant curia was reduced by 2 times. The peasant curia, therefore, had only 22% of the total number of electors (versus 41.4% under suffrage Regulations on elections to the State Duma 1905). The number of workers' electors accounted for 2.3% of the total number of electors.

Significant changes were made to the election procedure for the City Curia, which was divided into 2 categories: the first congress of urban voters (big bourgeoisie) received 15% of all electors and the second congress of urban voters (petty bourgeoisie) received only 11%. The First Curia (congress of farmers) received 49% of the electors (versus 34% in 1905). Workers of the majority of Russian provinces (with the exception of 6) could participate in elections only through the second city curia - as tenants or in accordance with the property qualification.

The law of June 3, 1907 gave the Minister of the Interior the right to change the boundaries of electoral districts and at all stages of elections to divide electoral assemblies into independent branches.

Representation from the national outskirts has sharply decreased. For example, previously 37 deputies were elected from Poland, but now there are 14, from the Caucasus there used to be 29, but now only 10. The Muslim population of Kazakhstan and Central Asia was generally deprived of representation.

The total number of Duma deputies was reduced from 524 to 442.

Only 3,500,000 people took part in the elections to the Third Duma.

44% of the deputies were noble landowners. The legal parties after 1906 remained: “Union of the Russian People”, “Union of October 17” and the Peaceful Renewal Party. They formed the backbone of the Third Duma. The opposition was weakened and did not prevent P. Stolypin from carrying out reforms. In the Third Duma, elected under the new electoral law, the number of opposition-minded deputies significantly decreased, and on the contrary, the number of deputies supporting the government and the tsarist administration increased.

In the Third Duma there were 50 far-right deputies, 97 moderate right-wing and nationalists.

Groups appeared: Muslim - 8 deputies, Lithuanian-Belarusian - 7, Polish - 11. The Third Duma, the only one of the four, worked for the entire five-year term prescribed by the law on elections to the Duma, five sessions were held.

An extreme right-wing deputy group arose led by V.M. Purishkevich. At Stolypin’s suggestion and with government money, a new faction, the “Union of Nationalists,” was created with its own club. She competed with the Black Hundred faction “Russian Assembly”.

These two groups constituted the “legislative center” of the Duma. Statements by their leaders were often overtly xenophobic and anti-Semitic.

At the very first meetings of the Third Duma , which opened its work on November 1, 1907, a right-wing Octobrist majority was formed, which amounted to almost 2/3, or 300 members. Since the Black Hundreds were against the Manifesto of October 17, differences arose between them and the Octobrists on a number of issues, and then the Octobrists found support from the progressives and the much improved Cadets.

This is how the second Duma majority was formed, the Octobrist-Cadet majority, which made up about 3/5 of the Duma (262 members).

The presence of this majority determined the nature of the activities of the Third Duma and ensured its efficiency. A special group of progressives was formed (initially 24 deputies, then the number of the group reached 36; later, on the basis of the group, the Progressive Party arose (1912–1917), which occupied an intermediate position between the Cadets and the Octobrists.

The leaders of the progressives were V.P. and P.P. Ryabushinsky. Radical factions - 14 Trudoviks and 15 Social Democrats - stood apart, but they could not seriously influence the course of Duma activities.

Number of factions in the Third State Duma (1907–1912)

The position of each of the three main groups - right, left and center - was determined at the very first meetings of the Third Duma.

The Black Hundreds, who did not approve of Stolypin’s reform plans, unconditionally supported all his measures to combat opponents of the existing system. Liberals tried to resist the reaction, but in some cases Stolypin could count on their relatively friendly attitude towards the reforms proposed by the government. At the same time, none of the groups could either fail or approve this or that bill when voting alone.

In such a situation, everything was decided by the position of the center - the Octobrists. Although it did not constitute a majority in the Duma, the outcome of the vote depended on it: if the Octobrists voted together with other right-wing factions, then a right-wing Octobrist majority (about 300 people) was created, if together with the Cadets, then an Octobrist-Cadet majority (about 250 people) . These two blocs in the Duma allowed the government to maneuver and carry out both conservative and liberal reforms.

Thus, the Octobrist faction played the role of a kind of “pendulum” in the Duma.

Question

Answers and solutions

Table “Activities of the State Duma from the first to fourth convocations”

conveningterms of workcompositionchairmenresults of activities

I Duma	from 04/27/1906 to 07/9/1906	497 deputies: 153 cadets, 63 autonomists (members of the Polish Kolo, Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, etc.	S.A. Muromtsev	bills were approved on the abolition of the death penalty and on assistance to victims of crop failure, discussion of the land issue
II Duma	from 02/20/1907 to 06/2/1907	518 deputies: 65 Social Democrats, 37 Socialist Revolutionaries, 16 People's Socialists, 104 Trudoviks, 98 Cadets, 54 Rightists and Octobrists, 76 Autonomists, 50 non-party members, 17 from the Cossack group	F.	activities bore the features of confrontation with the authorities, which led to the dissolution of the Duma
III Duma	from 1.11.1907 to 9.06.1912	441 deputies: 50 extreme rightists, 97 moderate rightists and nationalists, 154 Octobrists and those associated with them, 28 “progressives”, 54 cadets, 13 Trudoviks, 19 social democrats, 8 from the Muslim group, 7 from the Lithuanian-Belarusian group, 11 from the Polish group	ON THE. Khomyakov, A.I. THE STATE DUMA Guchkov, M.V. Rodzianko	the activities of the Duma were reduced to routine work without legislative initiative
IV Duma	from 11/15/1912 to 10/6/1917	442 deputies: 120 nationalists and moderate rightists, 98 Octobrists, 65 rightists, 59 Cadets, 48 ​​progressives, 21 from national groups, 14 social democrats (Bolsheviks - 6, Mensheviks - 8), 10 Trudoviks, 7 non-party members	M.V. Rodzianko	in the first period, the work of the Duma was routine in nature without legislative initiative

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In April 1906 it opened The State Duma- the first assembly of people's representatives in the history of the country with legislative rights.

I State Duma(April-July 1906) – lasted 72 days. The Duma is predominantly cadet. The first meeting opened on April 27, 1906. Distribution of seats in the Duma: Octobrists - 16, Cadets 179, Trudoviks 97, non-party 105, representatives of the national outskirts 63, Social Democrats 18.

The workers, at the call of the RSDLP and the Socialist Revolutionaries, basically boycotted the elections to the Duma. 57% of the agrarian commission were cadets. They introduced an agrarian bill into the Duma, which dealt with the forced alienation, for a fair remuneration, of that part of the landowners' lands that were cultivated on the basis of a semi-serf labor system or were leased to peasants in bondage.

In addition, state, office and monastic lands were alienated. All land will be transferred to the state land fund, from which peasants will be allocated it as private property.

As a result of the discussion, the commission recognized the principle of forced alienation of land.

In May 1906, the head of government, Goremykin, issued a declaration in which he denied the Duma the right to resolve the agrarian question in a similar way, as well as the expansion of voting rights, a ministry responsible to the Duma, the abolition of the State Council, and political amnesty. The Duma expressed no confidence in the government, but the latter could not resign (since it was responsible to the tsar).

A Duma crisis arose in the country. Some ministers spoke in favor of the Cadets joining the government.

Miliukov raised the question of a purely Cadet government, a general political amnesty, the abolition of the death penalty, the abolition of the State Council, universal suffrage, and the forced alienation of landowners' lands. Goremykin signed a decree dissolving the Duma.

In response, about 200 deputies signed an appeal to the people in Vyborg, where they called on them to passive resistance.

II State Duma(February-June 1907) - opened on February 20, 1907 and lasted 103 days. 65 Social Democrats, 104 Trudoviks, 37 Socialist Revolutionaries entered the Duma. There were 222 people in total. The peasant question remained central.

Trudoviks proposed 3 bills, the essence of which was the development of free farming on free land.

On June 1, 1907, Stolypin, using a fake, decided to get rid of the strong left wing and accused 55 Social Democrats of conspiring to establish a republic.

The Duma created a commission to investigate the circumstances.

The commission came to the conclusion that the accusation was a complete forgery. On June 3, 1907, the Tsar signed a manifesto dissolving the Duma and changing the electoral law. Coup d'etat June 3, 1907 meant the end of the revolution.

III State Duma(1907-1912) - 442 deputies.

Activities of the III Duma:

06/3/1907 - change in the electoral law.

The majority in the Duma was made up of the right-wing Octobrist and Octobrist-Cadet bloc.

Party composition: Octobrists, Black Hundreds, Cadets, Progressives, Peaceful Renovationists, Social Democrats, Trudoviks, non-party members, Muslim group, deputies from Poland.

The Octobrist party had the largest number of deputies (125 people).

Over 5 years of work, 2197 bills were approved

Main questions:

1) worker: 4 bills were considered by the commission min.

STATE DUMA OF RUSSIA (1906-1917)

Finnish Kokovtsev (on insurance, on conflict commissions, on reducing the working day, on the elimination of the law punishing participation in strikes). They were adopted in 1912 in a limited form.

2) national question: on zemstvos in the western provinces (the issue of creating electoral curiae based on nationality; the law was adopted regarding 6 of 9 provinces); Finnish question (an attempt by political forces to achieve independence from Russia, a law was passed on equalizing the rights of Russian citizens with Finnish ones, a law on the payment of 20 million

marks by Finland in exchange for military service, a law limiting the rights of the Finnish Sejm).

3) agrarian question: associated with the Stolypin reform.

Conclusion: The June Third system is the second step towards transforming the autocracy into a bourgeois monarchy.

Elections: multi-stage (occurred in 4 unequal curiae: landowner, urban, workers, peasants).

Half of the population (women, students, military personnel) were deprived of the right to vote.

IV State Duma(1912-1917) - Chairman Rodzianko. The Duma was dissolved by the provisional government due to the start of elections in constituent Assembly.

Composition of deputies of the State Duma 1906-1907

Deputies of the State Duma of the 1st convocation

Left parties announced a boycott of the elections due to the fact that, in their opinion, the Duma could not have any real influence on the life of the state.

Far-right parties also boycotted the elections.

The elections lasted for several months, so that by the time the Duma began work, about 480 out of 524 deputies had been elected.

State Duma of the Russian Empire

In terms of its composition, the First State Duma turned out to be almost the most democratic parliament in the world. The main party in the First Duma was the party of constitutional democrats (cadets), representing the liberal spectrum of Russian society.

According to party affiliation, the deputies were distributed as follows: Cadets - 176, Octobrists (the official name of the party is “Union of October 17”; adhered to the center-right political views and supported the Manifesto of October 17) - 16, Trudoviks (the official name of the party is “ Labor group"; center-left) - 97, social democrats (Mensheviks) - 18.

Non-party rightists, close in political views to the Cadets, soon united into the Progressive Party, which included 12 people. The remaining parties were organized along national lines (Polish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian) and sometimes united into a union of autonomists (about 70 people).

There were about 100 non-party deputies in the First Duma. Among the non-party deputies were representatives of the extremely radical Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs). They did not unite into a separate faction, since the Socialist Revolutionaries officially took part in the boycott of the elections.

Cadet S.A. Muromtsev became the Chairman of the first State Duma.

In the very first hours of work, the Duma showed its extremely radical mood.

The government of S. Yu. Witte did not prepare major bills that the Duma was supposed to consider. It was assumed that the Duma itself would be involved in lawmaking and coordinate the bills under consideration with the government.

Seeing the radicalism of the Duma and its reluctance to work constructively, Minister of Internal Affairs P. A. Stolypin insisted on its dissolution. On July 9, 1906, the imperial manifesto on the dissolution of the First State Duma was published.

It also announced new elections.

180 deputies who did not recognize the dissolution of the Duma held a meeting in Vyborg, at which they developed an appeal to the people calling not to pay taxes and not to give recruits.

Deputies of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation

In January and February 1907, elections to the Second State Duma were held.

The election rules have not changed compared to the elections to the first Duma. Election campaigning was free only for right-wing parties. The executive branch hoped that new line-up The Duma will be ready for constructive cooperation. But, despite the decline in revolutionary sentiment in society, the second Duma turned out to be no less oppositional than the previous one.

Thus, the Second Duma was doomed even before work began.

Left parties abandoned boycott tactics and received a significant share of the votes in the new Duma. In particular, representatives of the radical party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) entered the Second Duma.

Far-right parties also entered the Duma. Representatives of the centrist party “Union of October 17” (Octobrists) entered the new Duma. The majority of seats in the Duma belonged to Trudoviks and Cadets.

518 deputies were elected.

The Cadets, having lost some mandates compared to the first Duma, retained a significant number of seats in the second. In the Second Duma, this faction consisted of 98 people.

A significant part of the mandates was received by left factions: Social Democrats - 65, Socialist Revolutionaries - 36, Party of People's Socialists - 16, Trudoviks - 104. Right-wing factions were also represented in the Second Duma: Octobrists - 32, moderate right faction - 22. In the Second Duma There were national factions: the Polish Kolo (representation of the Kingdom of Poland) - 46, the Muslim faction - 30.

The Cossack faction was represented, which included 17 deputies. There were 52 non-party deputies in the Second Duma.

The Second State Duma began work on February 20, 1907. Cadet F.A. Golovin was elected Chairman. On March 6, Chairman of the Council of Ministers P. A. Stolypin spoke at the State Duma.

He announced that the government intends to carry out large-scale reforms with the goal of turning Russia into a rule of law state. A number of bills were proposed for consideration by the Duma. In general, the Duma reacted negatively to the government's proposals. There was no constructive dialogue between the government and the Duma.

The reason for the dissolution of the Second State Duma was the accusation of some Social Democrats of collaborating with militant workers' squads.

On June 1, the government demanded immediate permission from the Duma to arrest them. A Duma commission was formed to consider this issue, but no decision was made, since on the night of June 3, an imperial manifesto was published announcing the dissolution of the Second State Duma. It said: “Not with a pure heart, not with a desire to strengthen Russia and improve its system, many of the people sent from the population began to work, but with a clear desire to increase unrest and contribute to the disintegration of the state.

The activities of these individuals in the State Duma served as an insurmountable obstacle to fruitful work. A spirit of hostility was introduced into the environment of the Duma itself, which prevented a sufficient number of its members who wanted to work for the benefit of their native land from uniting.”

The same manifesto announced changes to the law on elections to the State Duma.

Deputies of the State Duma of the 3rd convocation

According to the new election law, the size of the landowner curia significantly increased, and the size of the peasant and worker curia decreased. Thus, the landowning curia had 49% of the total number of electors, the peasant curia - 22%, the workers' curia - 3%, and the urban curia - 26%.

The city curia was divided into two categories: the first congress of city voters (big bourgeoisie), which had 15% of the total number of all electors, and the second congress of city voters (petty bourgeoisie), which had 11%.

The representation of the national outskirts of the empire was sharply reduced. For example, Poland could now elect 14 deputies against the 37 previously elected.

In total, the number of deputies in the State Duma was reduced from 524 to 442.

The Third State Duma was much more loyal to the government than its predecessors, which ensured its political longevity. The majority of seats in the third State Duma were won by the Octobrist party, which became the support of the government in parliament. Right-wing parties also won a significant number of seats. The representation of Cadets and Social Democrats has sharply decreased compared to previous Dumas.

A party of progressives was formed, which in its political views was between the Cadets and the Octobrists.

By factional affiliation, the deputies were distributed as follows: moderate right - 69, nationalists - 26, right - 49, Octobrists - 148, progressives - 25, Cadets - 53, Social Democrats - 19, Labor Party - 13, Muslim Party - 8, Polish Kolo - 11, Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian group - 7.

Depending on the proposed bill, either a right-wing Octobrist or a Cadet-Octobrist majority was formed in the Duma. and during the work of the third State Duma, three of its chairmen were replaced: N. A. Khomyakov (November 1, 1907 - March 1910), A.

I. Guchkov (March 1910-1911), M. V. Rodzianko (1911-1912).

The Third State Duma had less powers than its predecessors. Thus, in 1909, military legislation was removed from the jurisdiction of the Duma. The Third Duma devoted most of its time to agrarian and labor issues, as well as the issue of governance on the outskirts of the empire.

Among the main bills adopted by the Duma are laws on peasant private ownership of land, on insurance of workers, and on the introduction of local self-government in the western regions of the empire.

Deputies of the State Duma of the IV convocation

Elections to the Fourth State Duma took place in September-October 1912. The main issue discussed in election campaign, there was a question about the constitution.

All parties, with the exception of the extreme right, supported the constitutional order.

The majority of seats in the Fourth State Duma were won by the Octobrist party and right-wing parties. They retained the influence of the Cadets and Progressives party. A small number of seats were won by the Trudovik and Social Democratic parties. The deputies were distributed by faction as follows: right - 64, Russian nationalists and moderate right - 88, Octobrists - 99, progressives - 47, Cadets - 57, Polish group - 9, Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian group - 6, Muslim group - 6, Trudoviks - 14, Social Democrats - 4.

The government, which after the assassination of P. A. Stolypin in September 1911 was headed by V. N. Kokovtsev, could only rely on right-wing parties, since the Octobrists in the Fourth Duma, as well as the Cadets, entered the legal opposition.

The Fourth State Duma began work on November 15, 1912. The Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko was elected Chairman.

The Fourth Duma demanded significant reforms, which the government did not agree to.

In 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, the opposition wave temporarily subsided. But soon, after a series of defeats at the front, the Duma again took on a sharply oppositional character. The confrontation between the Duma and the government led to a state crisis.

In August 1915, a progressive bloc was formed, which received a majority in the Duma (236 out of 422 seats).

It included Octobrists, progressives, cadets, and some nationalists. The formal leader of the bloc was the Octobrist S.I. Shchidlovsky, but in fact it was headed by the cadet P.N. Milyukov. The main goal of the bloc was the formation of a “government of people's trust,” which would include representatives of the main Duma factions and which would be responsible to the Duma, and not to the Tsar. The Progressive Bloc program was supported by many noble organizations and some members royal family, but Nicholas II himself refused to even consider it, considering it impossible to replace the government and carry out any reforms during the war.

The Fourth State Duma existed until the February Revolution and after February 25, 1917.

no longer formally planned. Many deputies joined the Provisional Government, and the Duma continued to meet privately and advise the government. On October 6, 1917, in connection with the upcoming elections to the Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Government decided to dissolve the Duma.

The First State Duma, with the dominant People's Freedom Party, sharply pointed out to the government the latter's mistakes in matters of public administration.

Taking into account that the second place in the Second Duma was occupied by the opposition, represented by the People's Freedom Party, whose deputies amounted to about 20%, it turns out that the Second Duma was also hostile to the government.

The Third Duma, thanks to the law of June 3, 1907, turned out differently. The predominant ones were the Octobrists, who became the government party and took a hostile position not only to the socialist parties, but also to the opposition ones, such as the People's Freedom Party and the Progressives.

Having united with the right and nationalists, the Octobrists formed a government-obedient center of 277 deputies, representing almost 63% of all Duma members, which contributed to the adoption of a number of bills. The Fourth Duma had clearly defined flanks (left and right) with a very moderate center (conservatives), a job that was complicated by internal political events.

Thus, having considered a number of significant factors that influenced the activities of the first parliament in the history of Russia, we should next turn to the legislative process carried out in the State Duma.

On July 9, 1906, Nicholas II dissolved the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the first convocation. This was the first attempt to create a representative legislative body in the country. Before the February Revolution of 1917, the State Duma was convened three more times. How was the first one different from the subsequent ones?

Grand opening. (wikipedia.org)

After the revolution of 1905, Nicholas II was faced with the task of transferring the monarchy from autocratic to parliamentary. This is how the State Duma appeared. It was assigned the role of a legislative advisory body. The first convocation was elected for five years and served for 72 days. During this time, the deputies managed to hold one session. Each subsequent convocation worked longer.

The procedure for holding elections in each of the four convocations assumed that not all residents of the country could vote: only owners of large real estate; taxpayers who contributed the most to the treasury; a small percentage of those who could participate in the elections were peasants.

The procedure was multi-stage: those who had the right to vote were divided into curiae, each of which elected electors to the assembly of district voters, which then elected as many deputies as were due from a given district. The government and the emperor abandoned the idea of ​​direct, equal and secret elections, fearing that in a peasant country where the majority of the population was not sophisticated in political art, they would lead to victory of irresponsible demagogues.

The first convocation was less representative in terms of political trends. Members of left-wing and far-right parties boycotted the elections under the pretext that the Duma did not have real power.

Meeting. (wikipedia.org)

The lower house of parliament was extremely opposed to the government and the emperor. This ultimately led to its dissolution. Subsequently, amendments were made to electoral legislation so that the composition of the State Duma is selected more loyal to the executive branch. As a result, the election procedure became more complicated, which provoked an increase in distrust in the Duma as an institution of power.

At the meetings of the first convocation, extremely pressing issues were raised. In the future, the deputies did not allow themselves such radical behavior. Questions about the amnesty of all political prisoners, the abolition of the death penalty, the abolition of the State Council, the establishment of responsibility of the Council of Ministers before the Duma, the distribution of land to peasants - the deputies whiled away the time at the meetings discussing these topics.

The government refused almost all of the Duma's proposals and demands. Moreover, in early June, the Council of Ministers, accusing the Duma of escalating the situation and unnerving the population, decided to dissolve it. A month later, a corresponding decree of Nicholas II followed.

Political cartoon. (wikipedia.org)

“Instead of the work of legislative construction, they deviated into an area that did not belong to them and turned to investigating the actions of local authorities appointed by Us, to pointing out to Us the imperfections of the Fundamental Laws, changes to which can only be undertaken by Our Monarch’s will, and to actions that are clearly illegal, as an appeal on behalf of Duma to the population. Confused by such disorders, the peasantry, not expecting a legal improvement in their situation, moved in a number of provinces to open robbery, theft of other people’s property, disobedience to the law and legitimate authorities,” said the manifesto on the dissolution of the State Duma.

The Duma of the first convocation was perhaps the least bureaucratic. Over time, the period for considering legislative initiatives became longer, and the procedure itself became more complex. Numerous committees for the preliminary examination of documents, an office and other departments appeared.

State Duma in 1906-1917. the highest, along with the State Council, legislative (lower house of the first Russian parliament), institution of the Russian Empire.

Background to the formation of the State Duma

The establishment of the State Duma was the consequence of a broad social movement of all segments of the Russian population, which manifested itself especially strongly after the failures Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, which revealed all the shortcomings of bureaucratic management.

In a rescript on February 18, 1905, Emperor Nicholas II expressed a promise “from now on to involve the most worthy people, endowed with the trust of the people, elected from the population, to participate in the preliminary development and discussion of legislative proposals.”

However, the regulations on the State Duma, developed by the commission chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs Bulygin and published on August 6, created not a legislative body, not a parliament in the European sense, but a legislative advisory institution with very limited rights, elected by limited categories of people: large owners of real estate, large payers of industrial and housing tax and on special grounds for peasants.

The law on the Duma of August 6 caused strong discontent throughout the country, which resulted in numerous protest rallies against the distortion of the expected radical reform political system and which ended in October 1905 with a grandiose strike of the entire railway network in European Russia and Siberia, factories and factories, industrial and commercial establishments, banks and other joint-stock enterprises, and even many employees in state, zemstvo and city institutions.

On October 17, 1905, the manifesto “On the Improvement of State Order” appeared, in which the foundations of a new constitutional form of government of Russia were outlined: 1) the population was given unshakable foundations civil liberty on the basis of actual personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and association; 2) it is established as an unshakable rule that no law can take effect without the approval of the State Duma; 3) it was promised to attract now, to the extent possible, those classes that were completely deprived of voting rights to participate in the elections to the State Duma.

As a follow-up to the principles of the October 17 manifesto, additional election rules were issued on December 11, 1905, lowering the property voting qualification and granting voting rights to officials and workers.

However, on February 20, 1906, the transformation of the State Council into the upper legislative chamber and the publication on March 8, 1906 of the Rules on the procedure for considering the state list of income and expenses (which narrowed the control of the State Duma over the budget) and the Basic Laws (April 23, 1906) reduced the range of issues that were under the jurisdiction of the State Duma.

Procedure for elections to the State Duma

The State Duma was elected for a 5-year term, before the expiration of which it could be dissolved by the emperor, who simultaneously appointed new elections and the time of convening. This right was used by Emperor Nicholas II to dissolve the State Duma of the 1st and 2nd convocations.

The electoral system was based on qualifications and partly on class principles.

Elections to the first and second Dumas were held on the basis of the “Regulations on elections to the State Duma” of August 6, 1905 and the personal highest decree of December 11, 1905 “On amending the Regulations on elections to the State Duma.”

The elections were multi-stage, held in four unequal curiae: 1) landowner, 2) agricultural, 3) urban and 4) workers.

[Counting of ballots cast in the election commission (St. Petersburg, elections to the second State Duma, 1907)]

The rate of representation was: one elector per 2 thousand population in the landowning curia, per 4 thousand in the urban curia, per 30 thousand in the peasant curia, per 90 thousand in the workers’ curia.

To participate in elections for the landowning curia, a land qualification was established - ownership of 100 to 650 acres of land, depending on the area, and a property qualification - the presence of real estate worth at least 15 thousand rubles.

Urban voters in the capitals and 24 large cities specified in the law constituted one category (electoral curia), enjoying the right of two-degree voting, that is, voters chose electors, and the latter in one assembly - members of the Duma.

Voters in counties and all other cities formed two categories: 1) large landowners and 2) owners of 1/10 qualifications and clergy; the former were elected by two-degree elections, and the latter by three-degree elections, that is, at preliminary congresses they elected commissioners who, at district congresses, together with large landowners, elected electors for the provincial electoral assembly.

A complex multi-stage election system was provided for peasants and workers. Rural and farmstead peasant assemblies elected ten-yard workers, those at volost assemblies elected commissioners, and the latter, at county assemblies, elected electors from the volosts.

For the workers' curia, each plant, factory, mining industry enterprise, railway workshop with the number of male workers from 50 to 1000 people elected one commissioner. The largest enterprises elected a representative from every thousand workers. Representatives from the entire province gathered at the provincial meeting of workers' representatives. It elected electors to participate in the provincial electoral assembly.

Electors of the province from all curiae (from counties, city voters and peasants) elected the number of members of the State Duma established by law at the provincial election meeting.

[New voting apparatus A.R. Sventsitsky (mechanism for receiving a ballot ball)]

Elections to the third and fourth State Dumas were held on the basis of the highest manifesto of June 3, 1907 “On the dissolution of the State Duma and on changing the procedure for elections to the State Duma,” as well as the new electoral law.

The number of electors was radically redistributed in favor of the landowners and big bourgeoisie.

At the same time, the city curia was divided into curia of the 1st category (big bourgeoisie) and 2nd category (petty bourgeoisie and urban intelligentsia).

Now in the curia of landowners there was one elector per 230 voters, in the 1st category of the urban curia - per 1000 voters, in the 2nd category - per 15 thousand, in the peasant curia - per 60 thousand, in the workers' curia - per 125 thousand.

Thus, the landowning curia and the big bourgeoisie elected 2/3 of all electors, and the peasants and workers accounted for about a quarter of the electors. Representation from the national outskirts was greatly reduced.

The Cossack population was given the right to separately elect their representatives and electors.

Military personnel on active service who are studying in educational institutions, persons under 25 years of age and women.

The number of members of the first and second State Duma in 50 provinces is 412, from 10 provinces. Kingdom of Poland - 36; from the Caucasus - 32, from Siberia - 20, from the Transcaspian regions - 19, from the Siberian Cossacks, nomadic Kalmyks and Kyrgyz and Kholmskaya Orthodox diocese- 5, total 524 (since 1907 - 442).

Scope of competence of the State Duma

According to the Fundamental Laws, issued on April 23, 1906, the Sovereign Emperor exercises legislative power in unity with the State Council and the State Duma: no new law can be enacted and take force without the approval of the State Duma and the State Council.

[Political cartoon (1906)]

Only in exceptional and extraordinary circumstances can any measure be adopted during the termination of the State Duma, requiring discussion of the Duma, but this measure cannot make changes either to the Basic Laws, or to the institutions of the State Duma or State Council, or to resolutions on elections to the Duma or the Council.

This measure is terminated if, within the first two months after the resumption of Duma sessions, a bill corresponding to the adopted measure is not submitted to the State Duma, or if it is rejected by the Duma or the State Council.

The State Duma was granted the right of legislative initiative - it had the right to raise proposals for the repeal or amendment of existing laws and the publication of new laws (with the exception of the Fundamental Laws).

The subject matter of the State Duma includes legislative proposals that required the publication of laws and states, their amendment, addition, suspension or repeal; consideration of the state list of income and expenses together with financial estimates of ministries and main departments (except for loans for expenses of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in amounts not exceeding the list for 1906, payments for state obligations and a number of other expenses), as well as a state control report on the execution of the list ; cases on the alienation of part of state income and property, on the construction of state-owned railways, on the establishment of companies on shares (when exceptions from the current legislation were requested); cases submitted to the State Duma for consideration by the Supreme Commands; estimates and distribution of zemstvo duties (in areas where zemstvo institutions have not been introduced) and on increasing zemstvo and city taxes.

[Speech by Chairman of the Council of Ministers P.A. Stolypin at a meeting of the State Duma in the Assembly of Nobility.]

The State Duma could make inquiries to the ministers (chief managers) regarding actions that it considered illegal, and also turn to them for clarifications, which the ministers could refuse if “these items are not subject to disclosure for reasons of public order.”

Ministers (chief managers) had to be heard in the State Duma every time they declared this.

Bills were introduced into the State Duma by ministers, State Duma commissions, or came from the State Council.

During the breaks between sessions of the State Duma, legislative functions were transferred to the emperor so that the action of the measure adopted by him would terminate with the beginning of the meetings of the State Duma (in case of failure to submit the law for its consideration) or if it was not accepted by the State Duma or the State Council (Article 87 of the Basic Laws ).

Status of State Duma deputy

Members of the State Duma enjoyed freedom of judgment and opinion on matters discussed in the State Duma and were not responsible to voters.

They could be subjected to deprivation or restriction of freedom only by order of the judicial authorities, and were not subject to detention for debts.

To deprive a member of the State Duma during its session, permission from the State Duma was required.

Members of the State Duma were removed from its composition by personal application, in the event of loss of Russian citizenship, qualification, entry into active military service, upon appointment to a highly paid civilian position (with the exception of the positions of ministers and chief executives), and also if a member of the State Duma did not attend a year of not a single meeting without a good reason.

Structure and regulations of the State Duma

For the legality of the composition of State Duma meetings, the presence of at least 1/3 of its members was required.

The general management of the activities of the State Duma was carried out by the chairman and his comrades; they were elected from among the members of the State Duma by closed voting for 1 year, after which they could be re-elected. The Chairman of the State Duma had the right to report to the emperor “On the activities of the State Duma.”

[Deputies in the Duma hall]

The State Duma elected the secretary and his comrades, who were entrusted with the management of the State Duma Chancellery.

For preliminary consideration of bills and issues of the current activities of the Duma, its general meeting elected standing commissions: budgetary, financial, for reviewing the state list of income and expenses, on requests, editorial, personnel, administrative, for military and naval affairs (until 1912 - for national defense).

Elections of commission members were carried out at a general meeting of the Duma with the preliminary approval of candidates in the factions. In most commissions, all factions had their representatives.

The State Duma also elected temporary commissions to prepare specific bills.

Bills coming to the Duma from ministries were first of all considered by the Duma meeting, consisting of the Chairman of the Duma, his comrades, the Secretary of the Duma and his comrade. The meeting made a preliminary conclusion on sending the bill to one of the commissions, which was then approved by the Duma.

Each project was considered by the Duma in three readings. In the first, which began with a speech by the speaker, there was a general discussion of the bill. At the end of the debate, the chairman made a proposal to move to article-by-article reading.

[Meeting room for left factions in the First State Duma (1906)]

After the second reading, the chairman and secretary of the Duma made a summary of all the resolutions adopted on the bill. At the same time, but no later than a certain period, it was allowed to propose new amendments.

The third reading was, in essence, a second article-by-article reading. Its purpose was to neutralize those amendments that could pass in the second reading with the help of a random majority and did not suit influential factions. At the end of the third reading, the presiding officer put the bill as a whole with the adopted amendments to a vote.

The Duma's own legislative initiative was limited by the requirement that each proposal come from at least 30 deputies.

The bills were considered by the general meeting of the State Duma. The adopted bill received the force of law after its approval by the State Council and approval by the emperor. If the bill was rejected by one of the chambers, a conciliation commission consisting of members of the State Duma and the State Council was created to finalize it.

Literature:

• Avrekh A.Ya., Grunt A.Ya. State Duma // Soviet Historical Encyclopedia: In volume: volume 4: G-D / Editorial Board: Zhukov E.M. (chief editor) and others. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, 1963. - P. 610-619;
• Vitenberg B.M. State Duma // Domestic history: encyclopedia: In 5 volumes: volume 1: A-D / Editorial board: V.L. Yanin (chief editor) and others. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1994. - P. 611-612;
• Malysheva O.G. State Duma // Encyclopedia of Public Administration in Russia: In 4 volumes / Under general. ed. VC. Egorova. Rep. ed. I.N. Bartsits / Volume I. A-E. Rep. ed. I.N. Bartsits. - M.: Publishing house RAGS, 2004. - P.209-211.