duma

duma , Russian name for a representative body, particularly applied to the Imperial Duma established as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The parliamentary organization of 1906, largely the work of Count Witte , provided for a state council (an upper house, with some members appointed by the czar and others elected by the nobility, the zemstvos , the clergy, trade and industry, and the university faculties) and for the Duma (a lower house elected by a system of suffrage that was neither equal nor direct); no law was to be passed without the consent of the Duma. When Czar Nicholas II found that a majority of opposition candidates had been elected in 1906, he dissolved the Duma after 10 weeks. The second Duma (1907), even more hostile to the government, was also dissolved. The third Duma (1907-12) was the product of an electoral change that made it the tool of the government. It did, however, extend the peasants' rights and enact some labor laws. The fourth Duma (1912-17) had a conservative majority; called at rare and brief intervals, it was in constant conflict with the czar. It was dissolved by Nicholas in Mar., 1917 (Feb., O. S.), but refused to disband. Revolution (see Russian Revolution ) broke out, and the Duma, after electing a provisional committee, disintegrated. The committee and the Petrograd soviet appointed the provisional government. The current State Duma (est. 1993) is the popularly elected lower house of the Russia Federation's legislature.

Bibliography: See V. A. Maklakov, The First State Duma (tr. 1964); A. Levin, The Second Duma (2d ed. 1966).

Duma A Russian council or assembly. In 1906, Tsar Nicholas II became one of Europe's last autocratic rulers to concede a popular assembly, in an attempt to pacify popular opinion after the Russian Revolution of 1905. The first (10 May–22 July 1906) and the second (5 March–17 May 1907) State Dumas were quickly dissolved. A new restrictive franchise produced a more conservative majority, so that the third Duma lasted for five years (1907–12), being involved in judicial, educational, and administrative reforms. The fourth Duma, which sat until the Russian Revolutions of 1917, was less effective, particularly after the outbreak of World War I, for most of which time it was suspended. The Duma's ability to legislate much-needed reforms was constrained by a second chamber, the State Council, which was a much more conservative body.

The term was adopted for the popularly elected Russian assembly created by Yeltsin's federal Constitution of 1993. Again, it was also circumscribed by a second chamber, the Federal Council consisting of representatives of the country's component republics. The State Duma was no stronger than its predecessor, since it was constrained by the fragmentation of parties and the consequent difficulty of finding stable majorities. Moreover, its authority was strictly limited by a leader with almost authoritarian control. Under Putin, the Duma was able to reclaim some of its importance. After the elections of 1999, the majority of its MPs supported the President, and provided his policies with greater legitimacy.

Duma An elective legislative assembly introduced in Russia by NICHOLAS II in 1906 in response to popular unrest. Boycotted by the socialist parties, its efforts to introduce taxation and agrarian reforms were nullified by the reactionary groups at court which persuaded the emperor to dissolve three successive Dumas. The fourth Duma (1912–17) refused an imperial decree in February 1917 ordering its dissolution and established a provisional government. Three days later it accepted the emperor's abdication, but soon began to disintegrate.