1. Fundamental laws
1.1. Reasserting his autocratic power and stating in Article 4, 'It is ordained by God himself that the Tsar's authority should be submitted to, not only out of fear but out of a genuine sense of duty.'
1.2. The Tsar also claimed the right to veto legislation, to rule by decree in an emergency or when the Dumas was not in session, to appoint and dismiss government ministers, to dissolve the Duma as he wished, to command Russia's land and sea forces, to declare war, conclude peace and negotiate treaties with foreign states and control all foreign relations, to control military and household expenditure, to overturn verdicts and sentences given in a court of law and to control the Orthodox Church
2. Dumas
2.1. The First Duma - Duma of National Hopes
2.1.1. May - July 1906
2.1.2. The First Duma was boycotted by the Bolsheviks, SRs and the extreme right wing Union of the Russian People. It was therefore overwhelmingly radical-liberal in composition with a third of the new deputies coming from the peasantry. It was strongly critical of the Tsar and his ministers and this brought about Witte's resignation. He was replaced by Ivan Goremykin, an old-fashioned conservative
2.1.3. The Duma passed an ‘address to the throne’ in which it requested a political amnesty, the abolition of the State Council, the transfer of ministerial responsibility to the Duma,the compulsory seizure of the lands of the gentry without compensation, universal and direct male suffrage, the abandonment of the emergency laws, the abolition of the death penalty, and a reform of the civil service. Nicholas ordered Goremykin to inform the Duma that their demands were‘totally inadmissible, whereupon, the Duma passed a vote of ‘no confidence’in the government and demanded the resignation of the Tsar’s ministers. Ten weeks later, the Duma was dissolved and Goremykin was replaced as Prime Minister by Pyotr Stolypin, who had an even stronger ‘hard line’ reputation.
2.1.4. Two hundred delegates travelled to the Finnish town of Vyborg and issued an appeal to citizens to refuse to pay taxes or do military service in protest against the heavy-handed action. However, the authorities stepped in, imprisoned the leaders and disenfranchised those who signed the appeal.
2.2. The Second Duma - Duma of National Anger
2.2.1. February - June 1907
2.2.2. Stolypin’s government tried to influence the elections to the next Duma but the number of the more extreme left wing increased enormously because the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and SRs decided to participate. The Second Duma was therefore even more oppositional than its predecessor. Stolypin struggled to find any support for the agrarian reform programme he had drawn up and resorted to passing legislation under the Tsar's emergency powers while the Duma was not in session. When the Duma refused to ratify these, he spread a story about a plot to assassinate the Tsar and dissolved the Duma,arresting and exiling the more radical delegates. He introduced an (illegal) emergency law to alter the franchise. The weight of the peasants, workers and national minorities was drastically reduced and the representation of the gentry increased.
2.3. The Third Duma - Duma of Lords and Lackeys
2.3.1. November 1907 - June 1912
2.3.2. This produced a more submissive Duma which agreed 2200 of approximately 2500 government proposals. However,it is a sign of how unpopular the tsarist regime had become that even this Duma proved confrontational. ‘There were disputes over naval staff, Stolypin’s proposals to extend primary education, and his local government reform. In 1911, the Duma had to be suspended twice, while the government forced through legislation under emergency provisions. Although the Duma ran its course, by 1912 it was clear that the Duma system was not working.
2.4. The Fourth Duma
2.4.1. 1912-17
2.4.2. This was a relatively docile body and the new Prime Minister, Count Viadimir Nikolaevich Kokovtsov, who replaced Stolypin after his assassination in 1911 and remained in this post until 1914, proclaimed, “Thank God we still have no parliament" He simply ignored the Duma and its influence declined.It was too divided to fight back, and in any case, the workers again seized the initiative with a revival of direct action and strike activity in the years before the outbreak of war.
3. Significant changes
3.1. Peasants (votes being reduced)
3.2. Influence decreased
3.3. Had little power
3.4. Ignored by Prime minister
3.5. Divided
4. Causes of change
4.1. Tsar
4.1.1. Maintain autocracy
4.1.2. Fundamental laws
4.1.3. Arrests
4.2. Prime ministers
4.3. War
5. Key political parties
5.1. Nationalist and religious groupings
5.1.1. Ukrainians, Polish, Georgians, Muslims - all seeking rights and greater independence
5.2. Rightists - including the Union of the Russian People
5.2.1. Leaders included Vladimir Purishkevich (1870-1920). The Union of Russian People was extremely right wing,favouring monarchism, chauvanism, Orthodoxy, Pan-Slavism and anti-semitism. Promoted violent attacks on the left wing and pogroms through its street-fighting gangs, the ‘Black Hundreds’. Other rightists shared conservative views but were less extreme.
5.3. Octobrists (Union of 17 October)
5.3.1. Leaders included Aleksandr Guchkov (1862-1936). A moderate conservative party that accepted the October Manifesto and opposed further concessions to workers or peasants. Supported by wealthy landowners and industrialists.
5.4. Kadets (Constitutional Democrats)
5.4.1. Led by Pavel Milyukov [1859-1943], a central liberal party which favoured a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary government; full civil rights; compulsory redistribution of large private estates with compensation and legal settlement of workers’disputes.
5.5. Social Democratic Workers' Party (SD) - divided between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
5.5.1. Founded in 1898. Committed to Marxism. Split in 1903.
5.5.1.1. Bolsheviks: Led by Vladimir Lenin. Believed in discipline, centralisation, organisation, and the role of the proletariat under party guidance. From 1905 favoured a peasant / proletariat alliance.
5.5.1.2. Mensheviks: Led by Julius Martov. Believed in cooperation with bourgeoisie/liberals rather than peasantry and the use of legal channels of opposition
5.6. Socialist Revolutionaries (SR)
5.6.1. Founded in 1901; led by Viktor Chernov. Favoured populist ideas of redistribution of land and nationalisation. Left of party favoured terrorism to achieve aims.
5.7. Trudoviks (Labour group)
5.7.1. Non-revolutionary breakaway from SR party of moderate liberal views but with no formal programme. Favoured nationalisation of non-peasant land, democratic representation, a minimum wage and an eight-hour working day. Supported by peasants and intelligentsia.
5.8. Progressives
5.8.1. A loose grouping of businessmen who favoured moderate reform
6. Change in political party votes
6.1. SD (Mensheviks) - 1st Duma = 18 - 2nd Duma = 47
6.1.1. Went up but then got 0
6.2. SD (Bolsheviks) - 3rd Duma = 19 - 4th Duma = 15
6.2.1. Steadily decreased
6.3. SR - 2nd Duma = 37
6.3.1. Only got seats in one Duma
6.4. Trudoviks - 1st Duma = 136 - 2nd Duma = 104 - 3rd Duma = 13 - 4th Duma = 10
6.4.1. Steadily decreased from 1st to 2nd and lost a lot of seats in both 3rd and 4th
6.5. Kadets - 1st Duma = 182 - 2nd Duma = 91 - 3rd Duma = 54 - 4th Duma = 53
6.5.1. Decreased a lot over the four Dumas
6.6. Octobrists 1st Duma = 17 - 2nd Duma = 42 - 3rd Duma = 154 - 4th Duma = 95
6.6.1. Increased until 4th Duma
6.7. Progressives 1st Duma = 27 - 2nd Duma = 28 - 3rd Duma = 28 - 4th Duma = 41
6.7.1. Increased slowly over the four Dumas
6.8. Rightists 1st Duma = 8 - 2nd Duma = 10 - 3rd Duma = 147 - 4th Duma = 154
6.8.1. Increased dramatically over the last two Dumas
6.9. National and religious groupings 1st Duma = 60- 2nd Duma = 93 - 3rd Duma = 26 - 4th Duma = 22
6.9.1. Increased over first two Dumas but decreased over last two
6.10. Others - 2nd Duma = 50 - 4th Duma = 42
6.10.1. Decreased over time