FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF 1906

The Fundamental Laws, a 203-article compilation of existing laws on supreme rule, were first published in the Set of Laws of the Russian Empire (Svod zakonov Rossyskoi impery ) in 1832. Unchanged since the edition published in 1892, they had to be revised in order to carry out the principles set forth in the October Manifesto of 1905. The revision was based on the principles established by the Manifesto of 1906, which made the State Council a second legislative chamber with the right to veto acts by the State Duma, thereby establishing that the Duma did not have the right to change the Fundamental Laws. The new revision of the Fundamental Laws was hurriedly accepted before the upcoming election of the Duma. Count Sergei Witte, one of the initiators of the October Manifesto and of the introduction of national representatives into Russian politics, warned that if the revision was issued before the election, the Duma would become the Constitutional Assembly, and this would lead to violence and the end of the new order.

There were three drafts of the Fundamental Laws: one liberal, one conservative, and one "moderate" (in fact closer to liberal). The latter, created at the State Chancellery by the deputy state secretary, Peter Kharitonov, was adopted as basis for the future document. The Japanese, Prussian, and Austro-Hungarian constitutions were studied in the process of creating and compiling the laws, as was a draft prepared by the Union of Liberation and published abroad. The draft prepared by the State Chancellery was discussed at five meetings of the Council of Ministers in March of 1906 under the chairmanship of Witte and was completed in a spirit of fortifying conservative principles. Such articles as "the restriction to punish in ways other than the court's ruling" and "the respected secrecy of private correspondence" were removed, and the tsar's prerogatives were strengthened. The project and its revisions were discussed at meetings on April 1906 in Tsarskoye Selo under the chairmanship of Tsar Nicholas II. After he approved the new edition of the Fundamental Laws, it was published on May 10 (April 27 O.S.), 1906, the day the State Duma opened. The new edition, containing 223 articles, transformed Russia into a constitutional monarchy.

Whereas the first article of the earlier version of the Fundamental Laws stated that "The Russian emperor is an autocratic monarch with unlimited power," article 4 now gave the tsar supreme autocratic power. The term "unlimited" was removed, and "autocratic" (samoderzhavnyi ) was defined as declaring the independence of the country and the monarch. A special note by the historian Sergei Knazkov proved that the word "autocracy" had been used in this sense during the seventeenth century and had only assumed the meaning of unlimited power during the eighteenth. The new article proclaimed the unity and indivisibility of the Russian Empire. It noted that Finland was an "in-separable part" of Russia, but "was governed by special institutions on the basis of being a special legislative authority." Russian was declared the official language of the empire, and its use was required in the army, navy, and all state and civil institutions.

From then on, no law could be passed without the approval of the State Council and the State Duma. Members of the Duma were elected for five years. The State Council and the Duma could legislate on matters not covered by the Fundamental Laws. The chief innovation was the inclusion into the Fundamental Laws of articles that guaranteed identity rights and civil freedoms, specifically the protection of identity and residence, freedom of residence, activity, movement, protection of possessions, freedom of speech, press, unions, assembly, and religion. The declared rights and freedoms did not include Jews, for whom residential restrictions (the Jewish Pale of Settlement) and restrictions on civil service positions still existed.

These concessions notwithstanding, the tsar retained an enormous amount of power. He had the right of the legislative initiative, including the exclusive right to initiate revisions of the Fundamental Laws. Without his approval, laws approved by the legislative chambers could not be passed. Moreover, in emergency situations the tsar could promulgate laws when the Duma was not in session (article 87). These would be nullified, however, unless ratified by the Duma within two months. The tsar had supreme control of the country, including control over foreign policy, the power to declare war and peace, supreme command of the armed forces, the right to mint coins, the appointment and dissolution of the government, and the unlimited right to declare a state of war or emergency. The tsar had power over the Council of Ministers and could hold them accountable.

The State Council and the Duma were to be convened annually. The tsar determined the time span of their yearly activities and the duration of the "holidays" for legislative institutions. He appointed half of the members of the State Council and had the right to dissolve the Duma before the five-year mark. If he did so, he had to announce a date for new elections to the Duma. Nicholas II used this right twice, dissolving the first and second Dumas. In the second case, on June 3 (16), 1907, the electoral law was changed. This was a violation of the Fundamental Laws, because the new electoral law was not presented to the legislative institutions.

Under the second revision of the Fundamental Laws, Russia became a dualistic monarchy (Duma monarchy).

See also: duma; nicholas ii; october manifesto; state council; witte, sergei yulievich

bibliography

Ascher, Abraham. (1992). The Revolution of 1905: Authority Restored. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Harcave, Sidney, tr. and ed. (1990). The Memoirs of Count Witte. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

Mehlinger, Howard D., and Tompson, John M. (1972). Count Witte and the Tsarist Government in the 1905 Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Szeftel, Marc. (1976). The Russian Constitution of April 23, 1906: Political Institutions of the Duma Monarchy. Brussels: Editions de la Librarie encyclopédique.

Oleg Budnitskii