Dumas

Question 1

How was the Duma structured (by name not explanation)

Answer 1

Lower Chamber (the State Duma)
Upper Chamber (the State Council)
These 2 chambers had equal power.
All laws had to receive approval from the Tsar.
Either of the chambers or the Tsar could veto legislation

Question 2

Lower Chamber

Answer 2

This was the State Duma.
Voted members for 5 year terms by a system of indirect voting (this was heavily weighted in favour of the nobility and the peasantry who were the natural allies of the Crown)

Question 3

Upper Chamber

Answer 3

This was the State Council.

Half elected by the zemstva and half appointed by the Tsar, who had suddenly announced the creation of this chamber.

Question 4

What other council was also created?

Answer 4

The Council of Ministers.

Appointed exclusively by the Tsar and responsible to the Crown, not the Duma.

Question 5

What were the Fundamental Laws

Answer 5

This was issued by the Tsar days before the 1st Duma met.
Article 4 stated, “It is ordained by God himself that the Tsar’s authority should be submitted to”
By these laws the Tsar could rule by decree in an emergency or when the Duma was not in session.
He could dissolve the Duma is he wished,
He could appoint and dismiss government ministers.

Question 6

1st Duma dates

Answer 6

May-July 1906

Question 7

1st Duma

Answer 7

Boycotted by the Bolsheviks, SRs and Right Wing Union of Russian People.

The main parties were the Kadets and Trudoviks (loose group, peasant-based which wanted agrarian reform).
The Kadets quickly showed they were not willing to compromise.

The Duma passed an ‘address to the throne’

• a request for a political amnesty,
• abolition of the state council,
• government ministers should be responsible to the Duma,
• compulsory seizure of land from the gentry (without compensation),
• universal and direct male suffrage,
• abandonment of the emergency laws.

Question 8

Who was blamed for the 1st Duma hostility

Answer 8

Witte.

He resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Goremykin.

Question 9

How did the Tsar respond to the 1st Duma’s demands

Answer 9

Tsar told Duma their demands were unacceptable.
The Duma passed a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the government and demanded resignation of the Tsar’s ministers.
The Duma was dissolved and Stolypin became Prime Minister

Question 10

Where did the members of the 1st Duma go?

Answer 10

200 dissolved Duma members went to Finland and issued the Vyborg Manifesto.
- An appeal to the people to not pay taxes or do military service as a protest against the way they had been treated.
The regime arrested the leader and refused to allow those who had signed the manifesto the right to vote, or stand, in future elections.

Question 11

2nd Duma dates

Answer 11

February - June 1907

Question 12

2nd Duma

Answer 12

Despite attempts by Stolypin to influence the elections, the Mensheviks and SRs decided to participate.
Thus the more extreme left wing increased, making this Duma more confrontational.

Stolypin was unable to get his agrarian reform programme passed (due to the Duma members anger over how Stolypin had suppressed peasant disturbances, 1906-7).
So Stolypin had to use the Tsar’s emergency powers when the Duma was not in session
The Duma then refused to ratify this legislation so Stolypic spread a story about a plot to assassinate the Tsar, dissolved the Duma and arrested the more radical delegates.
Stolypin also introduced an emergency law (this was illegal) to alter the franchise, drastically reducing representatives from the peasants, workers and national minorities and increasing the representation of the gentry.

Question 13

3rd Duma dates

Answer 13

1907-1912

Question 14

3rd Duma

Answer 14

A more submissive Duma, agreeing 2,200 of about 2,500 proposals

However even this Duma was confrontational, showing how unpopular the regime was.
Disuptes over naval staff, Stolypin’s proposals to be extended, primary education (Education law 1908, to provide universal education for 8-11 year olds), replacing the hated Land Captains with the now restored JPs and Stolypin’s aim of introducing the zemstva into the western provinces (rejected in past due to fear of disloyalty of Polish and Jewish subjects)

The Duma was suspended twice so the government could force legislation through under emergency provision.

Two leading members of the Duma (both Octoberists), Rodzianko (landowner) and Guchkov (factory owner)

Question 15

4th Duma dates

Answer 15

1912-1917

Question 16

4th Duma

Answer 16

Stolypin assassinated 1911= new Prime Minister= Kokovtsov.

This Duma was ignored and its influence was declined.

Kokovtsov in 1914 said, “Thank God we still have no parliament”

Pre 1914, workers seized the initiative with a revival of strike action, showing they felt this was the way forward if better conditions to be achieved.

This Duma was critical of the government’s handling of the Lena Goldfield Massacre.

Question 17

Stolypin’s agrarian reforms

Answer 17

Said he needed 20 years of peace.

Aim of reforms was to modernise agriculture in order for Russia to become a stable and prosperous power.

1906= more state and crown lands available to buy
=Peasants to receive government subsidies to settle in Siberia
=Peasants given full civil rights
= free to leave commune
= Collective ownership of land abolished
= Peasants able to consolidate their strips into one compact farm
= a new peasants’ land bank set up

1907 redemption payments. officially abolished

BUT
= poorer peasants encouraged to sell to richer peasants who had taken out loans.
= Landowners reluctant to give up land
= Less than 1% of peasants achieve Kulak status
= poorer peasants became migrant workers
= 1914- 90% of peasant holdings still in traditional steps and the 3 field system and wooden plough still in use
= Only a small minority lived on Khutor farms when (Stolypin had hoped vast numbers would choose to live on these western cottage farms)