1. The radicalism of the first two Dumas Flashcards

1
Q

First meeting of the Duma

A
  • St George’s Hall in the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St Petersburg
  • Duma members met with royal family, courtiers and govt officials
  • Nicholas II - brief speech - expressing the view that Russia not only needed freedom but order based on obedience to the law
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2
Q

Timeline from the Oct Manifesto to the Second Duma, 1905-07

A

Oct 1905 - Oct Manifesto issued
Dec 1905 - Duma electoral law published
Feb-April 1906 - Duma elections held
23 April 1906 - Fundamental Laws published
27 April 1906 - First Duma met
May 1906 - Witte dismissed as Tsar’s chief minister
July 1906 - First Duma dissolved: ‘Vyborg Manifesto’ published
Feb 1907 - Second Duma met
June 1907 - Second Duma dissolved; Stolypin’s revised electoral law introduced

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3
Q

Relations between the govt and Duma after the opening ceremony?

A
  • Swiftly deteriorated - Duma was first on to the attack - passed a resolution
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4
Q

What did the resolution passed by the Duma after the opening ceremony call for?

Response of govt?

A
  • Full democratisation of Russia
  • Radical land reform involving the transfer of the nobility’s estates to the peasantry
  • An amnesty for all political detainees

Dismissed by govt

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5
Q

Why was the First Duma dissolved?

A

Aggression of Duma after govt dismissed their demands:

  • Duma responded by passing vote of censure on govt calling upon it to resign
  • Then began to debate a land reform measure that it knew was unacceptable to the Tsar and his ministers

Govt lost patience and dissolved the Duma

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6
Q

Reaction of the Duma to its dissolution

A
  • Not unexpected by the Kadets and Trudoviks - had made contingency plans for it
  • July 1906 - around 200 Duma members left St Petersburg for Finland (where they thought they would be safe from arrest) and issued an appeal to the nation
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7
Q

Vyborg Manifesto

A

July 1906 - Appeal to the nation
- Called upon fellow-citizens to refuse to pay taxes until the Duma was restored - were hoping for a tidal wave of protest against the regime that would sweep them into power

It fell flat - drained by struggles of 1905 - masses didn’t take to the streets

Signatories of the manifesto arrested for inciting disorder - given short prison terms and banned from taking part in further political activity

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8
Q

The aggressive and unyielding tactics of the Kadets…

A

ultimately backfired.

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9
Q

Elections to second Duma - how did they differ from the 1906 Duma elections?

A

Late 1906 and early 1907 - different in two ways:

  • In 1907 - revolutionary socialist parties (SRs, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks) participated rather than boycotting
  • In 1906 election campaign - govt had been passive - made little effort to influence outcome - 1907 it was interventionist and disrupted electioneering by opposition parties
  • Secretly financed extreme right-wing candidates’ campaigns
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10
Q

2nd Duma elections - results

A

Kadets lost half their seats - flanked on the left some 200 Socialists:

  • 104 Trudoviks
  • 37 SRs
  • 36 Mensheviks
  • 18 Bolsheviks

On the right:

  • 54 moderate liberal Octobrists
  • And a number of right-wing extremists

More polarised between left and right - but was no more amenable from the govt point of view
- Left wing members highly critical of methods used by govt to quell peasant disorder - refused to support land reform proposals of Stolypin

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11
Q

Second Duma - mid-1907

A
  • Stolypin frustrated with Duma - dissolved it on pretext that some Bolshevik members were involved in treasonable activity

Electoral law scrapped by Tsar
- Replaced w/ new 1 - designed to reduce representation in Duma of peasants, workers and national minorities

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12
Q

Result of the revised arrangements after the first 2 Dumas?

A
  • Nobility (under 1% of pop.) - elected more than 1/2 of the Duma
  • Peasantry (over 80% of pop.) elected only 1.5 of it
  • Guaranteed solid conservative majority in future Dumas

Was in violation of 1906 Fundamental Laws

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13
Q

What, essentially, did Stolypin carry out in 1907?

A

A coup d’état (a sudden, illegal seizure of power)

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