The attitude of Nicholas to the first four Dumas (5)

The fundamental laws, April 1906

Established Russia's state duma, the first parliament of around 500 elected delegates. The Duma had a real role in making new laws for Russia

How the powers of the Duma were limited:

The Dumas powers were matched by an upper House of Parliament, the Imperial State Council. The State Council could block anything passed by the Duma. Half the State Council's members were chosen directly by the tsar and would always vote in the way the Tsar wanted them to.

The taser kept hold of very important powers. He alone had authority over the armed services and foreign policy. He chose all his government ministers. He had the right to veto any Duma legislation. He had the power to dissolve the duma at any time. When the duma was not in operation, the tsar had the right to pass any new laws he thought necessary, under Article 87 of the Fundamental Laws.

Only the tsar was able to make changed to the Fundamental Laws of Russia.

Nicholas' attitude to the duma

Neither Nicholas nor his ministers trusted the idea of allowing the Russian people to have a say in how Russia and its empire should be governed. Nicholas hated the idea of limiting his sacred autocratic powers in any way, and believed deeply that the majority of the Russian people wanted him to remain as their absolute ruler. An elected duma could only be acceptable to the tsar if the duma could be counted on to support the tsar and his government.

At the same time, Nicholas and the government did treat the duma as important. The government encouraged people to celebrate the opening of the First Duma by decorating their homes and businesses with flags. After the opening ceremony, duma deputies went to the tsar's Winter Palace , where the tsar made a speech to them.

The first duma , 27 April - 8 July 1906

The left- wing revolutionary parties did not take part in the elections for the First Duma, but even without them the duma was strongly anti-government. It was dominated by deputies from the Kadets and the Trudoviks. The Socialist Revolutionary Party had refused to take part in the first Duma. The Trudoviks were SR's who disagreed about this and had split to form a new peasant party. Their main demand was land reform : taking more land from the landlords. The Kadets supported land reform, but also wanted the State Council to be abolished and for the government to answer directly to the duma.

These demands were far too radical for the tsarist government, but the duma deputies were not interested in any sort of compromise. So the tsar dissolved the First Duma after just 10 weeks. Liberals were extremely disappointed by this speedy return to autocracy. There was a strong increase in liberal opposition to the government.

Second Duma Feb - June 1907

The socialist revolutionary party and the social Democratic Party took part in the elections. 222 socialists were elected. The new prime minister Stolypin, soon realised that the Second Duma was even more of a threat to tsarism than the First Duma, and it was dissolved in June 1907. For the revolutionary parties, it became clear that they would not achieve their aims through elections.

The third and fourth Dumas, November 1907 - February 1917

3 June 1907 Stolypin organised a change in the election rules so that more conservative deputies, rather than reformers, were elected to the Third Duma. Conservative deputies could usually be relied on to support the government. Stolypin's change meant that the Octoberists and other conservative deputies controlled 287 of the 443 duma seats. The liberals were very shocked that the government would act in such a dishonest way in order to control a duma. They now realised that the tsar and his government would never willingly give up autocratic power. Although opposition parties continued to make speeches in the duma criticising government actions, the conservatives always made sure government policies got duma support.

The third duma lays its full 5-year term; the government did not need to close it down because it could be relied on to support the tsar's regime. The Fourth Duma, dominated also by conservatives, was similar to the third except this time the right-wing, nationalist parties were even stronger. Again, opposition to the government was too weak to make an impact on laws or policies. The fourth duma lashed until February 1917.