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

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.

The content of this video covers events, people or concepts via a lecture-style presentation that is educational and historical in nature. Every video is original content by House of History. The events relating to conflict in this video are portrayed in their historical context without either value judgment or an ideological message attached to it. There is no intent to shock, upset or disgust. The goal of my channel is to make interesting lecture-style videos, no more, no less.

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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

#HouseofHistory #History #Russianhistory

[HoH]

This is the last (political) history video about Russia for a while. I am very excited about the series I have planned from next week onward! It is definitely the largest project I have worked on for this channel so far and is about a country that has a history just as rich, captivating and tragic (at times) as Russia. If that sounds interesting make sure you subscribe and check back next week!

[IpernickTheGreat]

Your work is just amazing, I wish I had more time to binge-watch everything like there´s no tomorrow.
You just became one of the reasons for why i wanna end my exams as fast as possible

[RalphBrooker-gniv]

Thank you for this. I’ve often struggled to appraise the Dumas one way of the other. Although dealing with unusually condensed time frames, Solzhenitsyn’s *Red* *Wheel* in particular *March* *1917* paints the Duma and the last Duma respectively in a very negative almost comical light. He also claims, referring to the fourth, that it had no legislative power either in principle or in practice.

[RobinDavey-gevn]

That quote from Kokovtsov “thank god we still do not have a parliament” is really interesting, do you have a source for it? I can’t find in anywhere

[allie]

I'm on lockdown from Corona virus currently and my professor has not been able to upload video lectures. Your videos have been very helpful to me during this hard time, thank you

[Artur_M.]

This is like a finale of a great 4-episodes mini-series about the crisis of the Russian Empire, that in many ways was a prelude for the future Revolution.

[ThisisBarris]

As usual, incredible work, but not as incredible as the fucking beard (mustache?) of the man what a profile picture! Facial hair was wild back then.


Sad that you're done with Russia for the moment but I look forward to learning about other topics, too.

[GeorgeHancox]

Great video, could you perhaps make one on the War of the Roses

[Snidel]

The content is great but please fix the camera focus...

[brendenoneill]

You should do a video about Alexander Kerensky the leader of Russia Provisional Government 1917. he was a leader that tried to make Russia more democratic between the two 1917 Revolutions.

[lukasmiller]

“I have seen my share of war and politics and learned to detest Republics; nothing is free from this many headed monster’s grasp. It has no affection for its subjects; it devours your property and happiness. A king may act wrongly because he has been ill-advised but a knot of villains support each other and together they will do what no single man would dare to do on his own.” ___Lord Admiral Horario Nelson.

[eleanorkett]

Eventually Russia would have a constitutional order without WWI.

[billrich]

Your bauble-heading is making me motion sick.

Nice information, though.