The First Russian Parliament and Constitution | The Duma (1906-1917)

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It’s always interesting to delve a little bit in the democratic history of a country. In autocratic Russia, it was very short-lived. Following the Russian-revolution of 1905 a “constitution” and “parliament” were established… and yes, those quotation marks definitely belong there. The quote of parliament’s chairman seems fitting, as he once exclaimed: Thank God we still do not have a parliament.

Between 1906 and 1917, Russia had its first, and only, democratic experiment until after the fall of the Soviet Union, over 7 decades later. It wasn’t a widespread, large scale experiment, though. The First State Duma elections dominated the first couple of months of 1906. All men above the age of 25 could cast their vote, and there were 478 seats to be divided, but only landlords of whom the lands exceeded 160 hectares, could vote directly. The other categories of electorate, peasants and inhabitants of cities, for example, could only elect through an electoral college. The result was that a relatively small class of landlords owned 31 percent of the vote, while peasants had 42 percent and the population of cities had 27 percent. A complete disproportionate way to divide the votes.

In March the general elections took place. These were boycotted by revolutionary parties on the far left: the Bolsheviks among others, and the right-wing Union of Russian Peoples. The liberals, on the other hand, held an intensive campaign, lead by the Constitutional Democratic Party, the so-called Kadets, under Pavel Milyukov.

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Time Codes:

0:35 Tsar Nicholas II gives in
1:39 The October Manifesto
3:49 The Democratic Experiment
6:31 The First Duma
8:18 Pyotr Stolypin in Power
11:17 Epilogue

Sources:

Bushkovitch, P. (2011). A concise history of Russia. Cambridge University Press.
Daly, J. W. (2009). Government, Press, and Subversion in Russia, 1906-1917. Journal of The Historical Society, 9(1), 23-65.
Hosking, G. A. (2001). Russia and the Russians: A history. Harvard University Press.
Mckean, R. B. (1999). The Constitutional Monarchy in Russia, 1906–17. Palgrave Macmillan, London.


Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons


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