The Dumas

Question 1

October reforms

Answer 1

• unions and political parties legalized 4 March 1906
• electoral laws 11 Dec. 1905
  ineligible = 60% of urban workers, factory workers in 200 hectares
  eligible to vote indirectly = peasants (3 stages), all men over 25
• censorship abolished 24 November 1905
• No control of Ministry of Interior, police
• govt cont. funding rightist orgs that incited pogroms and tried to assasinate the duma leaders

Question 2

Witte resignation

Answer 2

22 April 1906

• replaced by Ivan Goremkin (old-fashioned reactionary, viewed Duma as obstacle to govt)
• negotiated 2.25 billion franc loan from France

Question 3

Undermining of duma - state council

Answer 3

• State Council of Imperial Russia upgraded to work in conjunction with Duma
• formed an upper house of 198 reps (half appointed by tsar, half elected by church, nobles and zemstvo)
• ‘graveyard of Duma hopes’
• 1/3rd = United Nobility

Question 4

Undermining of duma - Fundamental Laws

Answer 4

• 23 April 1906
• all law’s require Tsar’s approval
• “God himself commands obedience to (the Tsar’s) authority”
• Article 87 = Tsar legislates if Duma not in session/under extreme circ
• Tsar has control of armed forces, declaring war, making peace

Question 5

Undermining of duma - Stolypin voting reform

Answer 5

• 3 June 1907
• 1 in 6 males vote
• 1% of population elects 300/441 deputies
• voting suspended in districts where pop hasn’t reached a ‘sufficient level of civic development’
• “infringement on the October Man, liveral denounced it as a coup d’etat”
• Octobrists (profited) felt uncomfortable and aimed to atone for illegal gains by trying to defend and expand the Duma’s powers

Question 6

1st Duma make-up

Answer 6

• opened 27 April 1906
• Kadets (37%) + peasants (38%) = coalition
• 136 Trudovik deputies
• SR, SD boycott

Question 7

1st Duma actions

Answer 7

‘Adress to the Throne’

• freedom to strike
• abolition of state council
• ministerial responsibility to Duma
• Nick saw them as anti-govt; dissolved July 8

Question 8

Vyborg appeal

Answer 8

• 120 Kadets, 80 Trudoviks + SDs
• called for civil disobedience, witholding taxes, draft avoidance
• pop responded with sporadic violence
• Kadets banned from next Duma
• over 100 leaders brought to trial, then pursued a more conservative line
• “Liberalism and the people went their seperate ways”
• “Never again would the Kadets place their trust in the support of ‘the people’” Figes

Question 9

2nd Duma make-up

Answer 9

• February 1907
• 200/450 members = left wing
• rightists = 63 (15 in previous)
• 37 SRs (none previous), 47 Mensheviks (18 previous)
• unworkable

Question 10

2nd Duma Actions

Answer 10

• dissolved June 3 1907
• ‘irresponsible and obstructive behaviour’
• refused to support Stolypin reforms, deputies wanted to nationalize land
• little public reaction

Question 11

3rd Duma make-up

Answer 11

• November 1907
• right wing dominated, 67% = Octobrists and Rightists
• conservative and largely compliant

Question 12

3rd Duma actions

Answer 12

Legislation
- Russification
- power of land captains reduced
- supported Stolypin, some social welfare
- 2500 bill votes
- 200 pieces of legislation
Naval General Staff Bill
- threatened to refuse Navy credits unless its strategic planning agency, the Naval general staff, came under the control of the Ministry rather than court
- 10 May, Tsar vetoed, saw it as attempt to wrestle military command from crown

Question 13

4th Duma make-up

Answer 13

• November 1912
• 154 rightists/448, 98 Octobrists = 55%
  Kerensky

Question 14

4th duma actions < rev

Answer 14

• dissolved in August 1914 for duration of war
• ‘We shall only get in your way,’ Rodzianko, the Duma President, informed the ministers in the Tauride Palace. ‘It is therefore better to dismiss us altogether until the end of hostilities