3rd Duma of the Russian Empire. IV State Duma

Second Duma

Elections to the second Duma gave an even greater advantage to left-wing parties than in the first Duma. In February 1907, the Duma began its work, and attempts to cooperate with the government were outlined (even the Socialist Revolutionaries announced that they would stop their terrorist activities during the Duma’s activities).

Prime Minister P.A. Stolypin reported on the measures taken during the breaks between the first and second Dumas. In accordance with Article 87 of the Basic Laws, the government passed: The Law on Military Courts - 1906. (it was not submitted for approval by the Duma, and its effect ceased in the spring of 1907, but on its basis about 700 people were executed); Decree on the equal rights of peasants with other classes of October 5, 1906, Decree on the right of peasants to secure their plots of land dated November 9, 1906, to turn them into their personal property.

Stolypin tried to establish cooperation with the Duma by proposing a broad program of liberal legislation and the exclusion of the most conservative ministers from the government. The prime minister said that the government had prepared a number of bills ensuring freedom of conscience and religious tolerance, guaranteeing personal integrity (arrest, searches and censorship were to be carried out only on the basis of a court decision); the preliminary investigation in political cases was supposed to be transferred to judicial investigators, seized from the gendarmes.

The Duma opposition was critical of the government's program. Bills on the state budget and recruiting were passed with difficulty. The resolution of right-wing deputies to encourage revolutionary terror was rejected.

The implementation of the agrarian law by the government encountered stiff opposition. To overcome this resistance and create a new procedure for the formation of the State Duma (according to the current law, the composition of the State Duma could constantly remain radical and oppositional to the government), the government took a step that was assessed as a coup d'etat. 4

The Duma was dissolved after existing for 102 days. The reason for the dissolution was the controversial case of the rapprochement of the Duma faction of Social Democrats with the “military organization of the RSDLP,” which was preparing an armed uprising among the troops (June 3, 1907). 5

Third and fourth Duma

In June 1912, laws on social insurance of workers were issued: in case of loss of ability to work due to accidents, pensions were fully paid by the owners of enterprises; To pay sickness benefits, “health insurance funds” were established, contributions to which were made by workers and entrepreneurs.

At the initiative of the government, the Duma adopted laws on the introduction of zemstvo self-government in the southern and western provinces. However, their activities encountered opposition from the conservative State Council, which rejected the project in the spring of 1911. At the insistence of Stolypin, the project was brought into line with Article 87 of the Basic Laws. The State Council rejected projects on the administration of zemstvos in Siberia, the Far East, the Arkhangelsk province, as well as a project on the introduction of volost zemstvos.

In June 1912, the State Duma and the State Council approved the bill "On the transformation of courts in rural areas." Judicial power from the zemstvo authorities was again transferred to the hands of justices of the peace, elected by the district zemstvo assemblies.

Blocked by right-wing deputies of the Duma, the government in 1910 passed the Law “On the procedure for issuing laws and regulations of national importance concerning Finland,” which opened up wide opportunities for interference in Finnish internal affairs. Stolypin’s Regulation on the introduction of zemstvos in the western provinces, which also had a nationalist overtones, also had a negative impact.

In September 1911, P.A. Stolypin was killed by an anarchist, and in the fall of 1912, the term of office of the third “Stolypin” Duma expired. That same fall, elections were held to the State Duma of the fourth convocation, where M.V. Rodzianko was elected chairman. in August 1915, a Progressive bloc was formed in the Duma, which included three-quarters of its deputies. The bloc's program required the creation of a Ministry of Public Trust, a number of reforms and a political amnesty.

The political bloc included parties that were occasionally blocked in the Second Duma: the Cadets, “progressives” and Octobrists. Through mutual concessions, they managed to create a strong connection, which significantly influenced the policy of the state and the political climate in the country.

In January 1916, Chairman of the Council of Ministers I.L. Goremykin was replaced by B.V. Sturmer, in November Sturmer was replaced by A.F. Trepov, and Trepova - N.D. Golitsyn. The opposition demanded that this government also resign.

On February 25, 1917, the emperor issued a decree dissolving the State Duma. On February 27, its deputies created a temporary committee of the State Duma, on the basis of which the Provisional Government will soon be created.

Along with the Manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma, a new regulation on elections was published. The change in electoral legislation was carried out in obvious violation of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, which emphasized that “no new laws can be adopted without the approval of the State Duma.”

FOURTH STATE DUMA

The FOURTH STATE DUMA is a Russian representative legislative body that operated from November 15, 1912 to February 25, 1917. Officially the Fourth State Duma (cm. STATE DUMA of the Russian Empire) was dissolved on October 6 (19), 1917. Formally, five sessions of the Fourth State Duma were held. The activities of the Fourth State Duma took place under the conditions of the First World War (1914-1918) and the revolutionary crisis that ended with the overthrow of tsarism.
Elections to the Fourth State Duma took place in September-October 1912. In the Fourth State Duma, the right-wing Octobrist and Octobrist-Kadet majorities, which set the tone in the previous Duma, were preserved (cm. THIRD STATE DUMA). Among the 442 deputies, there were 120 nationalists and moderate rightists, 98 Octobrists, 65 rightists, 59 Cadets, 48 progressives, three national groups (Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian group, Polish Kolo, Muslim group) numbered 21 deputies, socialist democrats - 14 (Bolsheviks - 6, Mensheviks - 7, one deputy, who was not a full member of the faction, joined the Mensheviks), Trudoviks - 10, non-party people - 7. The Chairman of the State Duma was the Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko. The Octobrists played the role of “center” in the State Duma, forming, depending on the situation, a right-wing Octobrist (283 votes) or an Octobrist-Kadet (226 votes) majority. Characteristic of the Fourth State Duma was the growth of the “progressive” faction intermediate between the Octobrists and Cadets.
The government overwhelmed the State Duma with many minor bills. During the first and second sessions (1912-1914), over two thousand small bills were introduced; at the same time, extra-Duma legislation was widely practiced. The Octobrist-Cadet majority, which prevailed in the State Duma, showed itself in a number of votes in opposition to the government, in attempts to show legislative initiative. However, the legislative initiatives of the Octobrists and Cadets were stuck in Duma commissions or failed by the State Council.
With the outbreak of the First World War (cm. FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-18) meetings of the State Duma were held irregularly, legislation was carried out by the government outside the Duma. On July 26, 1914, a one-day emergency session of the State Duma took place, at which Duma members voted for war loans. The Social Democratic faction opposed the provision of war loans. The next third session of the Fourth State Duma was convened on January 27, 1915 to adopt the budget. The defeat of Russian troops in the spring and summer of 1915, a crisis of state power, caused an increase in opposition sentiments in the State Duma. On July 19, 1915, the fourth session of the Fourth State Duma opened. Only the far right deputies fully supported the government. Most factions of the State Duma and part of the factions of the State Council criticized the government and demanded the creation of a government cabinet that would enjoy the “confidence of the country.” Negotiations between Duma factions led to the signing on August 22 of a formal agreement on the creation of a Progressive Bloc (236 deputies). Right-wingers and nationalists remained outside the bloc. The Trudoviks and Mensheviks, although they were not part of the bloc, actually supported it. The creation of the Progressive Bloc meant the emergence of a majority in the State Duma in opposition to the government. The program of the Progressive Bloc provided for the creation of a “government of trust”, a partial amnesty for political and religious crimes, the abolition of some restrictions on the rights of national minorities, and the restoration of the activities of trade unions. The creation of a “government of trust,” the composition of which actually had to be coordinated with the State Duma, meant limiting the powers of Emperor Nicholas II, which was unacceptable to him. On September 3, 1915, the State Duma was dissolved for vacation and resumed its meetings on February 9, 1916.
The fifth session of the Fourth State Duma, which opened on November 1, 1916, began its work with a discussion of the general situation in the country. Progressive block (cm. PROGRESSIVE BLOCK) demanded the resignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers B.V. Stürmer, who was accused of Germanophilism. On November 10, Stürmer resigned. The new head of government A.F. Trepov proposed that the State Duma consider several private bills. In response, the State Duma expressed no confidence in the government. The State Council joined it. This indicated the political isolation of the tsar and his government. On December 16, 1916, the State Duma was dissolved. On the day of the resumption of its meetings, February 14, 1917, representatives of the Duma parties organized demonstrations to the Tauride Palace under the slogan of confidence in the State Duma. Demonstrations and strikes destabilized the situation in Petrograd and took on a revolutionary character. By decree of February 25, 1917, meetings of the State Duma were interrupted. The State Duma did not meet again, but formally continued to exist and influence the development of events. On February 27 (March 12), at the height of the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma was created, which on March 2 (15), after negotiations with the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council, formed the Provisional Government. In the subsequent period, the activities of the State Duma took place under the guise of “private meetings” of its deputies. In general, Duma members opposed the power of the Soviets. On October 6 (19), 1917, the Provisional Government officially dissolved the State Duma due to the start of elections to the Constituent Assembly. On December 18 (31), 1917, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the offices of the State Duma and its Provisional Committee were abolished.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

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Abstract on the history of Russia

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. Workers, at the call of the RSDLP and Socialist Revolutionaries, mostly 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 operated for 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. The coup d'état of June 3, 1907 meant the end of the revolution.

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

Activities of the III Duma:

06/03/1907 - 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. 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 on 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.

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

The Third State Duma of the Russian Empire served 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. Demin V.A. State Duma of Russia: history and mechanism of functioning. M.: ROSSNEP, 1996.-P.12

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, moderate right and nationalists - 97. Groups appeared: Muslim - 8 deputies, Lithuanian-Belarusian - 7, Polish - 11. The Third Duma, the only one of the four, worked all the time required by the law on elections to the Duma five-year term, five sessions 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 arose the Progressive Party (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 activity.

Number of factions in the Third State Duma (1907-1912) Demin V.A. State Duma of Russia: history and mechanism of functioning. M.: ROSSNEP, 1996.-P.14

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.

Over the five years of its existence (until June 9, 1912), the Duma held 611 meetings, at which 2,572 bills were considered, of which 205 were put forward by the Duma itself. The main place in the Duma debates was occupied by the agrarian question related to the reform, labor and national. Among the adopted bills are laws on private ownership of land by peasants (1910), on insurance of workers against accidents and illness, on the introduction of local self-government in the western provinces, and others. In general, of the 2,197 bills approved by the Duma, the majority were laws on estimates of various departments and departments; the state budget was approved annually in the Duma. In 1909, the government, contrary to basic state laws, removed military legislation from the jurisdiction of the Duma. There were failures in the functioning mechanism of the Duma (during the constitutional crisis of 1911, the Duma and the State Council were dissolved for 3 days). Throughout the entire period of its activity, the Third Duma experienced constant crises, in particular, conflicts arose on issues of reforming the army, agrarian reform, on the issue of attitude towards the “national outskirts,” as well as due to the personal ambitions of parliamentary leaders.

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 prepared 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.

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 essentially 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.

In the Third Duma, which lasted the longest, there were about 30 commissions. Large commissions, such as the budget commission, consisted of several dozen people. 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.

During 1907-1912, three chairmen of the State Duma were replaced: Nikolai Alekseevich Khomyakov (November 1, 1907 - March 1910), Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov (March 1910 - 1911), Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko (1911-1912). The chairman’s comrades were Prince Vladimir Mikhailovich Volkonsky (substituting comrade chairman for the Chairman of the State Duma) and Mikhail Yakovlevich Kapustin. Ivan Petrovich Sozonovich was elected Secretary of the State Duma, Nikolai Ivanovich Miklyaev (senior comrade of the Secretary), Nikolai Ivanovich Antonov, Georgiy Georgievich Zamyslovsky, Mikhail Andreevich Iskritsky, Vasily Semenovich Sokolov Demin V.A. State Duma of Russia: history and mechanism of functioning. M.: ROSSNEP, 1996.-P.15.

An event of enormous historical importance not only in this country, but throughout the civilized world was the opening in St. Petersburg on April 27, 1906. I State Duma. It took place in the largest Throne Hall of the Winter Palace in the capital and was furnished very solemnly. A huge number of guests, journalists and diplomatic representatives from many countries arrived. They were waiting for the king, and he arrived. However, the “throne” speech of Nicholas II, generally dull and colorless, devoid of deep content, disappointed those present 11

Outside the walls of the palace, and even more so far beyond the borders of Russia, the outbreak of clashes between deputies and the government in the Duma was not known. The emergence of the first legislative representative institution in Russia, for which the best representatives of Russian society had been fighting for decades, caused a real flurry of greetings from groups of Russians, academic councils of universities, city dumas and zemstvos. The new parliament was welcomed by the parliaments of other countries. So, on June 30, 1906, a telegram from members of the oldest parliament, the London one, was read out in the First Duma. A delegation from the Russian Duma was even chosen to be sent to London, but it did not have time to leave there, since the First Duma was dissolved by the Tsar.

On July 6, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, the sluggish and lacking initiative Goremykin, was replaced by the energetic Stolypin (Stolypin retained the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, which he had previously held). This was done in order to soften the “bitter pill” and demoralize the opposition in order to implement the manifesto on the dissolution of the First Duma. July 9, 1906 Deputies came to the Tauride Palace for the next meeting and came across closed doors; next to it on a pole hung a manifesto signed by the tsar about the termination of the work of the First Duma, since it, designed to “bring calm” to society, only “incites unrest.”14

The First State Duma existed in Russia for only 72 days. All this time she was under fire from reactionary forces, and above all from the court clique. In the Government Gazette, from issue to issue, fairly similar “loyal letters” were printed, signed by groups of people, in which the Duma was called a “foreign invention”, an “alien invention” that was not destined to “take root on truly Russian soil”, it was proved that it will always be a harmful institution. At the same time, it was proposed to disperse the Duma “before it’s too late.” The Duma even made a special request on what basis anti-Duma propaganda is being conducted in an official government body. However, the then Minister of Internal Affairs P.A. Stolypin answered quite unequivocally: the monarch’s subjects have the right to print their letters anywhere.

The Duma was dissolved, but the stunned deputies did not give up without a fight. About 200 deputies, including Cadets, Trudoviks and Social Democrats, gathered in Vyborg, where, after heated complaints and discussions, they adopted an appeal - “To the people from the people’s representatives.” It said that the government was resisting the allocation of land to the peasants, that it did not have the right to collect taxes and conscript soldiers for military service or make loans without popular representation. The appeal called for resistance through such actions as refusal to give money to the treasury and sabotage of conscription into the army. But the people did not respond to these actions, becoming disillusioned with the Duma as an empty “talking shop”15

The activities of the First State Duma as a whole contributed to the destruction of the “constitutional illusions” of the democratic intelligentsia and did not justify the hopes of the peasantry for a solution to the agrarian question.

Nevertheless, the tsar and the government were powerless to say goodbye to the State Duma. The manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma stated that the law establishing the State Duma “has been preserved without changes.” On this basis, preparations began for a new campaign, this time for elections to the Second State Duma.

The revolution was still ongoing, “agrarian riots” in July 1906 covered 32 provinces of Russia, and in August 1906 peasant unrest covered 50% of the counties of European Russia

In this situation, elections to the Second State Duma were held. Through all sorts of tricks and direct repressions, the government sought to ensure an acceptable composition of the Duma. Peasants who were not householders were excluded from elections; workers could not be elected in the city curia, even if they had the housing qualification required by law, etc.16

The government rightly believed that the reason for the conflict with the State Duma was its composition. There was only one way to change the composition of the Duma - by revising the electoral law. This question was twice initiated by P.A. Stolypin was discussed in the Council of Ministers (July 8 and September 7, 1906), but members of the government came to the conclusion that such a step was inappropriate, since it was associated with a violation of the Basic Laws and could lead to an aggravation of the revolutionary struggle.

A total of 518 deputies were elected to the Second Duma. The Cadets lost 55 seats compared to the first elections. Populist parties received 157 seats (Trudovik - 104, Essers - 37, People's Socialists - 16). The Social Democrats had 65 seats. In total, the left had 222 seats, or 43% of the votes in the Duma. The right wing of the Duma strengthened significantly: it included the Black Hundreds, who, together with the Octobrists, had 54 mandates (10%) 17

The opening of the Second State Duma took place on February 20, 1907. The right-wing cadet F.A. became the Chairman of the Duma. Golovin. The II Duma turned out to be even more radical than its predecessor. The deputies changed their tactics, deciding to act within the framework of the law and, if possible, avoid conflicts. Guided by the norms of Art. Art. 5 and 6 of the Regulations on the approval of the State Duma, approved by the highest decree on February 20, 1906, deputies formed departments and commissions for the preliminary preparation of cases to be considered in the Duma.18

The created commissions began to develop numerous bills. The main issue remained the agrarian issue, on which each faction presented its own project. In addition, the Second Duma actively considered the food issue, discussed the State Budget for 1907, the issue of conscripting recruits, the abolition of courts-martial, etc.

The main subject of debate in the Duma in the spring of 1907 was the question of taking emergency measures against the revolutionaries. The government, introducing to the Duma a draft law on the use of emergency measures against revolutionaries, pursued a dual goal: to hide its initiative to wage terror against revolutionaries behind the decision of a collegial government body and to discredit the Duma in the eyes of the population. However, to its credit, the Duma voted against the “illegal actions” of the police on May 17, 1907.19

The government was not happy with such disobedience. The staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared a draft of a new electoral law in secret from the Duma. A false accusation was made up about the participation of 55 deputies in a conspiracy against the royal family. On June 1, 1907, Stolypin demanded their removal from participation in Duma meetings and deprivation of 16 of them parliamentary immunity, accusing them of preparing for the “overthrow of the state system”20.

On the basis of this far-fetched reason, Nicholas II announced the dissolution of the Second Duma on June 3, 1907. The deputies took this calmly and went home. As Stolypin expected, no revolutionary outbreak followed. In general, the population reacted indifferently to the dissolution of the Duma: there was love without joy, farewell without sadness. Moreover, it is generally accepted that the act of June 3 put an end to the Russian revolution.21

Following the decree on the dissolution of the Second Duma, there was a decree approving the new Regulations on elections to the State Duma.

The publication of a new electoral law was a gross violation of the manifesto of October 17, 1905 and the Basic State Laws of 1906, according to which the tsar had no right, without the approval of the Duma and the State Council, to make changes either to the Basic State Laws or to the resolution on elections to the Council or to the Duma.

This act made significant changes to the suffrage of subjects of the Russian Empire. The mechanism of the elections was such that as a result of the elections, the monstrous inequality between the representation of the haves and the have-nots increased: one vote of the landowner was equal to 260 votes of peasants and 543 votes of workers. In total, only 15% of the population of the Russian Empire enjoyed active voting rights22

The State Duma now numbered 442 deputies, while previously there were 524. The decrease was mainly due to the fact that representation from the national outskirts was reduced.

In addition, the law of June 3 gave the Minister of Internal Affairs the right to change the boundaries of electoral districts and divide electoral assemblies at all stages of elections into departments that received the right to independently elect electors on the most arbitrary grounds: property, class, nationality. This gave the government the opportunity to send only deputies it liked to the Duma.

The following were elected to the III Duma: rightists - 144, Octobrists - 148, progressives - 28, cadets - 54, nationalists - 26, Trudoviks - 16, social democrats - 19. The chairmen of the III Duma were Octobrists N.A. Khomyakov (1907), A.I. Guchkov (1910), M.V. Rodzianko (1911)

The main content of the activities of the Third State Duma continued to be the agrarian question. Having achieved social support in the form of this collegial body, the government finally began to use it in the legislative process. On June 14, 1910, an agrarian law approved by the Duma and the State Council and approved by the Emperor was issued, which was based on the Stolypin decree of November 9, 1906 with amendments and additions made by the right-wing Octobrist majority of the Duma.25

In fact, this law was the first fact of participation of the State Duma in the legislative process in the entire history of its existence. The Emperor and the State Council accepted the Duma's amendments to the legislative proposal not because the law would not have allowed them to do otherwise, but because the amendments met the aspirations of those social strata that were the political support of the autocracy, and because the amendments did not encroach on the positions of the autocracy in this issue.

The next regulatory act adopted by the Duma was the law on state insurance of workers, which established a 12-hour working day, which allowed for the possibility of increasing its duration through overtime. The Duma's attempt to intervene in the budget consideration process ended in failure; the issue of military and naval states was generally removed from the competence of the Duma.26

The nature of the legislative activity of the Third State Duma can be judged by the list of laws it adopted: “On strengthening credit for prison construction needs”, “On the release of funds for the provision of benefits to the ranks of the general police and the gendarme corps”, “On the distribution of expenses between the treasury and the Cossack troops” on the prison part in the Kuban and Tver regions”, “On the procedure for heating and lighting places of detention and the release of necessary materials for these needs”, “On police supervision in the Belagach steppe”, “On the approval of prisons in the cities of Merv and Krasnoyarsk, the Trans-Caspian region and Aktyubinsk , Turgai region”, “On the approval of a women’s prison in the city of St. Petersburg”, etc.27 The content of the listed regulations is evidence not only of the reactionary nature of the Duma, but also of the secondary importance of the issues it considers.

Stolypin and the Third Duma did not succeed, they “failed” in the main thing - they did not calm the country, which was very close, came very close to revolution. It must be borne in mind that from the very beginning Stolypin did not consider the Third Duma as a means of finally eliminating the roots of the revolution - for this, in his opinion, much more time was needed than the 5 years allotted to the Duma.28 In a famous interview, he said about the need for Russia to have twenty years of peace so that it becomes, in fact, a different country. And the Third Duma, even during the period allotted to it, did a lot for this.

At first glance, the Third Duma is the most prosperous of all four Dumas: if the first two suddenly “died” by order of the tsar, then the Third Duma acted “from bell to bell” - all the five years allotted to it by law and was honored to cause not only critical peruns addressed to you, but also words of approval. And yet, fate did not spoil this Duma: the peaceful evolutionary development of the country was no less problematic at the end of its activity than at the beginning. But the tragedy of this was revealed several years after the completion of her work: only then did that small, at the time of the Third Duma, “cloud” turn into a revolutionary thunderstorm of the “seventeenth year”

The continuation of the course of the Third Duma in subsequent Dumas, with the external and internal peace of Russia, removed revolution from the “agenda”. Not only Stolypin and his supporters, but also their opponents and many modern publicists judged this quite sensibly. But still, this total “sufficiency” turned out to be insufficient for the Third Duma to extinguish the revolutionary opposition movement, which in extreme conditions could get out of control, which is what happened during the Fourth Duma.

In June 1912, the powers of the deputies of the Third Duma expired, and in the fall of that year elections were held to the Fourth State Duma. Despite government pressure, the elections reflected political revival: the social democrats gained points in the Second City Curia at the expense of the Cadets (in the workers' curia the Bolsheviks prevailed over the Mensheviks), the Octobrists were often defeated in their fiefdom, the First City Curia. But in general, the IV Duma did not differ too much from the III Duma in terms of party composition.

The meetings of the Duma opened on November 15, 1912. Its chairman for five years (until February 25, 1917) was the Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko.

The Progressists, who founded their party in November 1912, showed themselves to be very “nimble” in the Fourth Duma. It included prominent entrepreneurs (A.I. Konovalov, V.P. and P.P. Ryabushinsky, S.I. Chetvertikov, S.N. Tretyakov), zemstvo leaders (I.N. Efremov, D.N. Shipov, M.M. Kovalevsky, etc.). Progressives demanded the abolition of the provision on enhanced and emergency security, changes to the June 3 election law, expansion of the rights of the Duma and reform of the State Council, the abolition of class restrictions and privileges, the independence of zemstvo self-government from administrative guardianship and the expansion of its competence. If the Cadets (and especially the Octobrists) did not go “outside the framework” of constitutional Duma activity, sometimes only allowing themselves to “relax” in bold opposition speeches, then the progressives, and above all one of its influential leaders, deputy of the IV State Duma A.I. Konovalov (he found support from some left Octobrists and left Cadets), tried to unite revolutionary and opposition forces for joint actions. According to A.I. Konovalov, the government “has become insolent to the last degree, because it sees no resistance and is confident that the country has fallen into a death’s sleep.”30

The world war that began in 1914 simultaneously extinguished the flaring opposition movements in Russian society. At first, most parties (excluding the Social Democrats) spoke out for trust in the government and renunciation of opposition activities. On July 24, 1914, the Council of Ministers was granted emergency powers, i.e. he received the right to decide most cases on behalf of the emperor.

At an emergency meeting of the IV Duma on July 26, 1914, the leaders of the right and liberal-bourgeois factions made a call to rally around the “sovereign leader leading Russia into a sacred battle with the enemy of the Slavs,” putting aside “internal disputes” and “scores” with the government31 However, failures front, the growth of the strike movement, the inability of the government to ensure governance of the country stimulated the activity of political parties, their opposition, and the search for new tactical steps.

The growing political crisis brought to the fore the question of including representatives of the bourgeois opposition in the government and the dismissal of the most discredited ministers. In June 1915, Nicholas II was forced to dismiss first the Minister of Internal Affairs N.A. Maklakov, and then Minister of Justice I.G. Shcheglovitov and Minister of War V.A. Sukhomlinova. However, the 75-year-old I.L., appointed in January 1914, still remained at the head of the Council of Ministers. Goremykin.

On July 19, the session of the IV State Duma opened, at which the Octobrists and Trudoviks immediately raised the question of creating a government responsible to the Duma, and in early August the Cadet faction began active work to create an inter-party bloc.

In August 1915, at a meeting of members of the State Duma and the State Council, the Progressive Bloc was formed, which included Cadets, Octobrists, Progressives, some nationalists (236 and 422 Duma members) and three groups of the State Council. The chairman of the bureau of the Progressive Bloc became the Octobrist S.I. Shidlovsky, and the actual leader N.I. Miliukov. The bloc’s declaration, published in the newspaper Rech on August 26, 1915, was of a compromise nature and provided for the creation of a government of “public trust” (from tsarist dignitaries and members of the Duma)

However, the subsequent accession of Nicholas II to the supreme command meant the end of power fluctuations, the rejection of agreements with the parliamentary majority on the platform of the “Ministry of Trust”, the resignation of Goremykin and the removal of ministers who supported the Progressive Bloc, and finally, the dissolution of the State Duma after its consideration of military bills. On September 3, Duma Chairman Rodzianko received a decree dissolving the Duma until approximately November 1915.32

The First World War placed a heavy burden on Russia's shoulders. In 1915, 573 industrial enterprises stopped, in 1916 – 74 metallurgical plants. The country's economy could no longer support a multimillion-dollar army, into which 11% of the rural population and over 0.5 million regular workers were mobilized. The situation was aggravated by the huge losses of the Russian army, which exceeded 9 million people in 1917, including up to 1.7 million killed.

In February 1917, the situation in Petrograd sharply worsened, where a critical food situation developed (snow drifts did not allow wagons with flour to be brought to the capital in a timely manner). On February 23, International Women's Day, discontent grew into spontaneous rallies, demonstrations and strikes, involving 128 thousand workers. The Bolsheviks, Mezhrayontsy, Menshevik Internationalists and other social parties and groups launched revolutionary propaganda, linking food difficulties with the disintegration of the regime and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. On February 25, the protests grew into a general political strike, covering 305 thousand people and paralyzing Petrograd.

On the night of February 26, the authorities carried out mass arrests, and during the day a large demonstration was shot on Znamenskaya Square. Clashes with troops and police, resulting in casualties, occurred throughout the city.

Chairman of the IV State Duma M.V. On February 26, Rodzianko telegraphed Nicholas II about the need to “immediately entrust a person enjoying the country’s trust to form a new government,” and the next day he headed the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, on whose behalf he addressed an appeal to the population. The appeal stated that this new body of power takes into its own hands the restoration of state and public order and calls on the population and the army to help “in the difficult task of creating a new government”33

On the same day, February 26, 1917, the emperor issued a decree suspending the sessions of the State Duma and setting “the date for their resumption no later than April 1917, depending on emergency circumstances.”34 After this, the Duma no longer met in its entirety.

On February 27, a meeting of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma took place, which “found... forced to take into its own hands the restoration of statehood and public order” in Russia. However, already on March 2, the Provisional Committee announced the creation of a new government within its composition and actually ceased to exist.

Legally, the IV State Duma was dissolved by a resolution of the Provisional Government of October 6, 1917 in connection with the start of the election campaign for elections to the Constituent Assembly35

In practice, the State Duma had a brilliant chance to take state power into its own hands and become a real legislative body, but the reactionary majority of the Duma, which supported the autocracy, did not take advantage of it.