The First State Duma of the Russian Empire

Russia as a country with a traditional patriarchal way of life for quite a long time managed without a legislative body - the Parliament. The first State Duma was convened only in 1906, under the decree of Nicholas II. Such a decision was necessary, but rather tardy, especially if we take into account the years when its analogues appeared in other states. In England, for example, Parliament appeared in the late Middle Ages, in France - at the same time. The United States, which was formed in 1776, created such a body of power almost immediately.

And what about Russia? In our country always adhered to the position of the strong centralized power of the tsar-father, who had to think over all the laws proposed by the ministers. Thanks to this, the First State Duma did not appear after the Troubles, under Peter I, or even under Catherine II, which planned the convening of an organ similar to the functions performed by the Parliament. Only the colleges were organized.

Throughout the XIX century, the supporters of the constitutional monarchy (and in Russia such were the pond prudi) spoke out for the parliamentary system. According to her, the emperor or ministers had to draft bills, the Duma would discuss them, make corrections and send the documents it had accepted for signature to the tsar.

However, due to the policy of some sovereigns, in particular, Nicholas I, 1 the State Duma did not appear in Russia in the nineteenth century. From the point of view of the ruling elite, this was a good sign, because you could not worry at all about self-will in the adoption of laws - all the threads were held by the king.

And only the growth of protest moods in society forced Emperor Nicholas II to sign a manifesto on the establishment of the Duma.

The First State Duma was opened in April 1906 and became an excellent portrait of the political situation in Russia in that historical period. Deputies from peasants, landowners, merchants, and workers got into it. According to the national composition, the Duma was also heterogeneous. There were Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Russians, Georgians, Poles, Jews and representatives of other ethnic groups. In general, it was the First State Duma of 1906 that became a true standard of political correctness, which could be envied even today in the United States.

Sad, however, is the fact that the First Duma proved to be completely incompetent political monster. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the Duma of the first convocation became not a legislative body, but a kind of political victim of the epoch. The second reason is the boycott of the Duma from the left.

Because of these two factors, the First State Duma already "jumped" in July of the same year before dissolution. Many people were dissatisfied with this, there were rumors in the field of science fiction about the final abolition of the Duma, which, incidentally, were not confirmed. Soon the Second Duma was convened, which turned out to be somewhat more productive than the First, but this is already in another article.

The Duma of the first convocation became a kind of reference point for democratic transformations for Russian history. Although it was organized late, the First Duma played its role in the development of parliamentarism.