More than 100 years ago, the First State Duma of the Russian Empire began its work in the historical hall of the Tauride Palace. This event caused various responses and reactions in Russia at that time - from enthusiastic-optimistic to alarming-pessimistic.
The manifesto of October 17, 1905 proclaimed the convening of the State Duma. Its task was to initiate cases to repeal, change existing or issue new laws, with the exception of basic state laws. Unlike many countries in the world, where parliamentary traditions have developed over centuries, in Russia the first representative institution was convened only in 1906. It was named the State Duma and existed for about 12 years, until the fall of the autocracy. There were four convocations of the State Duma in total.
Some believed that the formation of the State Duma was the beginning of Russia’s entry into European life. Others were sure that this was the end of Russian statehood, based on the principle of autocracy. In general, the elections to the State Duma and the very fact of the beginning of its work caused a crisis in Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century. new expectations and hopes for positive changes in the country. Meeting room of the State Duma in the Tauride Palace, St. Petersburg
Meeting room of the State Duma in the Tauride Palace, St. Petersburg
Having just experienced the revolution of 1905, the country was expecting a profound reform of the entire state system of the Russian Empire.
Although in Russia for a long time there was no parliament and the principle of separation of powers, this does not mean that there were no representative institutions - they were in the form of the Veche in Ancient Rus', city dumas and zemstvos in subsequent eras. But all of them were legislative in relation to the supreme power, but now not a single law could be adopted unless it was approved by the State Duma.
In all four convocations of the State Duma, the predominant position among the deputies was occupied by representatives of three social strata - the local nobility, the urban intelligentsia and the peasantry.
The Duma was elected for five years. Duma deputies were not accountable to voters, their removal could be carried out by the Senate, and the Duma could be dissolved early by decision of the emperor. With a legislative initiative, the Duma could include ministers, commissions of deputies and the State Council.
First State Duma
Elections to the First State Duma were held in February-March 1906, when the revolutionary situation in the country was already beginning to be controlled by the authorities, although instability continued to persist in some outlying areas, and elections could not be held there.
478 deputies were elected to the First Duma: Cadets - 176, Octobrists - 16, non-party members - 105, peasant labor workers - 97, Social Democrats (Mensheviks) - 18, and the rest were members of regional-national parties and associations, in large part adjacent to the liberal wing.
The elections were not universal, equal and direct: women, young people under 25, military personnel, and a number of national minorities were excluded;
- there was one elector per 2 thousand voters in the landowning curia, and per 4 thousand in the city curia;
- voters, in the peasant sector - by 30 thousand, in the labor sector - by 90 thousand;
— a three- and four-degree election system was established for workers and peasants.
Before the convening of the First State Duma, Nicholas II approved a set of “Basic State Laws”. The articles of the code confirmed the sacredness and inviolability of the tsar’s person, established that he exercised legislative power in unity with the State Council and the Duma, supreme management of foreign relations, army, navy, finance, and so on. One of the articles consolidated the power of the State Duma and the State Council: “No new law can be enacted without the approval of the State Duma and the State Council and take force without the approval of the sovereign emperor.”
The opening of the Duma was a major public event; All the newspapers described it in detail.
Cadet S.A. Muromtsev, a professor at Moscow University, was elected chairman. Prince P. D. Dolgorukov and N. A. Gredeskul (both cadets) became the chairman’s comrades. Secretary - Prince D.I. Shakhovskoy (cadet).
The main issue in the work of the First State Duma was the land issue. On May 7, the cadet faction, signed by 42 deputies, put forward a bill that provided for additional allocation of land to peasants at the expense of state, monastic, church, appanage and cabinet lands, as well as partial forced purchase of landowners' lands.
During the entire period of work, deputies approved 2 bills - on the abolition of the death penalty (initiated by deputies in violation of the procedure) and on the allocation of 15 million rubles to help victims of crop failure, introduced by the government.
On July 6, 1906, instead of the unpopular I. L. Goremykin, the decisive P. A. Stolypin was appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers (who also retained the post of Minister of Internal Affairs). The government, seeing signs of “illegality” in the actions of the Duma, dissolved the Duma on July 8. The First Duma lasted only 72 days.
Second State Duma
Elections to the Second State Duma took place at the beginning of 1907, and its first session opened on February 20, 1907. A total of 518 deputies were elected: 98 Cadets, 104 Trudoviks, 68 Social Democrats, 37 Socialist Revolutionaries, and 37 non-party members. 50, Octobrists – 44.
One of the leaders of the cadets, Fyodor Aleksandrovich Golovin, was elected Chairman of the Duma .
The agrarian question again came into focus, but now there was already a government program for the restructuring of land ownership and land use, which became the object of fierce attacks.
Right-wing deputies and Octobrists supported the decree of November 9, 1906 on the beginning of the Stolypin agrarian reform. The Cadets tried to find a compromise on the land issue with the Trudoviks and autonomists, minimizing demands for the forced alienation of landowners' lands. Trudoviks defended a radical program of alienation of landowners and privately owned lands that exceeded the “labor norm” and the introduction of equal land use according to the “labor norm”. The Social Revolutionaries introduced a project for the socialization of the land, the Social Democratic faction - a project for the municipalization of the land. The Bolsheviks defended the program of nationalization of all land.
Most of the meetings of the Second State Duma, like its predecessor, were devoted to procedural issues. This became a form of struggle to expand the competence of Duma deputies. The government, responsible only to the Tsar, did not want to reckon with the Duma, and the Duma, which considered itself as the people's chosen one, did not want to recognize the narrow scope of its powers. This state of affairs became one of the reasons for the dissolution of the State Duma.
The Duma was dissolved after existing for 102 days. The reason for the dissolution of the Duma was the controversial case of rapprochement between the Duma faction of Social Democrats and the “military organization of the RSDLP,” which was preparing an armed uprising among the troops on June 3, 1907. Along with the Manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma, a new Regulation on Elections was published. The change in the electoral law was carried out in clear violation of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, which emphasized that “no new laws can be adopted without the approval of the State Duma.”
Third State Duma
In the III State Duma, 51 rightists were elected, 136 Octobrists, 28 progressives, 53 cadets, 90 nationalists, 13 Trudoviks, 19 social democrats. The chairmen of the State Duma of the third convocation were: N.A. Khomyakov, A.I. Guchkov, M.V. Rodzianko.
As one would expect, the majority of right-wingers and Octobrists formed in the Third State Duma. It continued its work from November 1, 1907 to June 9, 1912 and held 611 meetings during this period, considered 2,572 bills, of which 205 were put forward by the Duma itself.
The main place was still occupied by the agrarian question related to the Stolypin reform, labor and national. The Duma approved 2,197 bills, most of which related to estimates of various departments and departments, and the state budget was approved annually in the State Duma. In 1909, the government, once again violating the fundamental law, removed military legislation from the jurisdiction of the Duma.
Over the five years of its existence, the Third State Duma adopted a number of important bills in the field of public education, strengthening the army, and local self-government. The Third Duma, the only one of the four, served the entire five-year term required by the law on elections to the Duma - from November 1907 to June 1912. Five sessions took place.
Fourth State Duma
In June 1912, the powers of the deputies of the III State Duma expired, and in the fall elections to the IV State Duma took place. The Duma of the IV convocation began its work on November 15, 1912 and continued until February 25, 1917. The chairman all this time was the Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko. The composition of the State Duma of the fourth convocation: rightists and nationalists - 157 seats, Octobrists - 98, progressives - 48, Cadets - 59, Trudoviks - 10 and Social Democrats - 14.
The situation did not allow the Fourth Duma to concentrate on large-scale work. Moreover, with the outbreak of the World War in August 1914, after major failures of the Russian army at the front, the Duma entered into an acute conflict with the executive branch.
On September 3, 1915, after the Duma accepted the war loans allocated by the government, it was dissolved for vacation. The Duma met again only in February 1916.
But the Duma did not last long. On December 16, 1916 it was dissolved again. It resumed its activities on February 14, 1917, on the eve of the February abdication of Nicholas II. On February 25 it was dissolved again. There were no more official plans. But formally and actually it existed.
The new State Duma resumed its work only in 1993.
Let's sum it up
During the existence of the State Duma, progressive laws for those times were adopted on education and on labor protection at work; Thanks to the consistent line of Duma members, significant budgetary allocations were allocated for the rearmament of the army and navy, which were seriously damaged during the Russo-Japanese War.
But the pre-revolutionary Dumas were unable to resolve many pressing issues of their time, in particular the land issue.
In Russia it was the first representative institution of parliamentary type.
The shooting of a peaceful march on January 9, 1905 () and the revolutionary events that followed led to the realization in the highest echelons of power of the need to carry out reforms of the Russian political system.
The first reaction of the government was a rescript issued by the tsar addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A.G. Bulganin, which spoke about the intentions of preliminary development of changes to legislation and the involvement of people's representatives in this work.
On August 6, the “Establishment of the State Duma” and “Regulations on elections to the State Duma” were published. However, in 1905 the Duma was not convened in connection with the revolutionary events. On December 11, 1905, a decree was promulgated to expand the voting rights of citizens.
In February 1906, the State Council was elected. From an advisory body, it was transformed into the upper house of parliament and equalized with the Duma in legislative rights. Elections to the Duma took place in February-March 1906.
On April 27, 1906, the 1st State Duma of Russia began its work in the Tauride Palace in the presence of the emperor. A representative of the cadets, professor of civil law S.A., was elected chairman. Muromtsev. Of the 448 deputy seats in the Duma, 153 belonged to the Cadets, 105 to non-party delegates, and 107 to Trudoviks. The Octobrists, with 13 deputies, became the most extreme right-wing party in the Duma, since the Black Hundreds did not receive a single vote.
The 1st State Duma lasted only one session - 72 days. Numerous projects were discussed in various commissions of the Duma: on the abolition of the death penalty, personal inviolability, etc. The main issue was the agrarian one. The Cadets put forward a project for the forced alienation of part of the landowners' lands in favor of the peasantry (the 42 Cadets project). The project of 104 Trudovik deputies demanded the alienation of all private lands and the introduction of equal land use.
Some deputies demanded the abolition of private ownership of land and its transformation into public property. On June 4, the Duma decided to appeal to citizens with an explanation on the agrarian issue. However, the government has declared the inviolability of private lands.
Elections to the 2nd State Duma took place at the beginning of 1907 without the participation of workers and small landowners. It began work on February 20, 1907 under the chairmanship of cadet F.A. Golovin. Of the 518 deputies, the largest number of mandates (104) were received by the Trudoviks, the Cadets - 98, the Socialists - 65, the Socialist Revolutionaries - 37 seats.
From the first meeting, the question of long-term work and relationships with the government was raised. It was necessary to build tactics in such a way as not to be dispersed by the government like the 1st Duma. The Cadets, having entered into a single bloc with the Trudoviks and national groups, created a majority. They removed questions about amnesty, abolition of the death penalty, etc.
The agrarian question remained the main one; the provisions of the Stolypin reform were discussed. The right and the Octobrists supported the reform. The Cadets advocated a softened version of it, minimizing the amount of land alienated from landowners. The left wing of the Duma refused to approve its project. On March 24, 1907, the agrarian commission of the Duma noted the need for the alienation of landowners' lands in favor of the peasants.
Thus, the 2nd Duma turned out to be even further to the left than the 1st. The government, dissatisfied with the progress of its work, began to look for reasons to disperse the Duma. On trumped-up charges, on the night of June 3, 1907, members of the Social Democratic faction were arrested, and in the afternoon a decree was published dissolving the 2nd Duma.
The government accused the Duma of ineffective work, delaying the consideration and adoption of laws, and the involvement of some of its deputies in preparing a coup.
The 1st State Duma opened at the end of April 1906 in the Winter Palace, of the 448 deputy seats in the Duma, 179 belonged to the Cadets, 105 were non-party deputies, 107 were “Trudoviks”; representatives of the Black Hundred parties did not get into the Duma. Extreme “left” parties (Bolsheviks) boycotted the Duma, but Lenin later recognized the boycott tactics as erroneous; cadet S.A. was elected representative of the Duma. Muromtsev. The First State Duma worked for 72 days. Two agrarian bills were considered - from the Cadet Party signed by 42 deputies and 104 deputies of the Duma labor group. Both proposed the creation of a “state land fund” to provide land to the landless and land-poor peasantry. The central issue in the discussions was occupied by two projects: the cadet project and the Trudovik project. The Cadets proposed to create a “state land fund” from state, monastery, and other lands; the landowners’ lands should generally not be touched, only part of them should be given to the peasants for ransom. The Trudoviks proposed to give all the land to the “national land fund” free of charge and from this fund to allocate land to the peasants according to an equal labor standard. Essentially, this meant the nationalization of land, the elimination of landownership. The landowners must receive compensation for the lost land. Heated debates in the Duma on the agrarian issue caused an everyday reaction from the peasants. The Duma received a mass of peasant orders demanding a radical solution to the peasant issue, including the confiscation of landowners' lands. Remarks began to be heard from the government, they say, the Duma was elected to calm the people, but it “incites unrest.”
The government rejected the Duma's agrarian projects. Government representative I.L. Goremykin also denied the Duma the right to expand the voting rights of Russian citizens, abolish the State Council, and conduct a political amnesty. And although Duma deputies were elected for a five-year term, the government only had enough patience for two months. Goremykin guaranteed that the country would calmly treat the elective institution.
On July 9, 1906, the State Duma was dissolved under the pretext that the deputies “deviated into an area that did not belong to them.” B.A. was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Stolypin. Stolypin energetically set about restoring order in August 1906 in response to the Socialist Revolutionary bombing of his dacha in
On Aptekarsky Island, military field loans were introduced, sending people to the gallows on the slightest suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Trade unions were closed and revolutionary parties were persecuted. But the tsar had not yet abandoned the Manifesto of October 17, so it was announced that the 2nd State Duma would be convened on the basis of the old electoral law.
On February 20, 1907, the 2nd State Duma began its work. She was to the left of the first. Although the Cadets continued to occupy a dominant position in the Duma, they lost 80 deputy seats. The Cadet government was reduced by 43-19%. The Octobrist managed to win over 42 of its deputies. The Social Democrats, who abandoned the boycott tactics, received 65 seats, and instead the left parties won 222 seats (43%). Black Hundreds were also elected to the Duma - 30 deputies.
At the beginning of March, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Stolypin addressed the Duma with a government declaration on carrying out liberal reforms. The declaration stated that the government had considered bills on personal privacy, non-punishment of participants in economic strikes, reforms in public education, etc.
As before, the agrarian question was central. The government project did not receive support from the Duma. The left demanded a radical solution: the complete and gratuitous confiscation of landowners' land and the transformation of the entire land fund of the country into public property. In the highest spheres it was decided to dissolve the Duma and change the electoral law. The Black Hundreds organized a massive campaign; on the orders of their Main Council, local departments began sending thousands of telegrams demanding the dissolution of the Duma. This created the appearance of a “popular voice.” Political provocation was used as a pretext for the dissolution of the Duma. 55 Social Democratic deputies were accused of preparing a coup.
The government demanded that they be removed from the meeting. The authorities did not want to wait for a response to their ultimatum. On June 3, 1907, the 2nd State Duma was dissolved ahead of schedule. On the same day, a new law was issued. Changed the election procedure. This act was a direct violation of the Manifesto of October 17, according to which not a single new law could be adopted without the sanction of the Duma. The events of June 3 were called the “June 3rd coup d’etat”
The results of the revolution are contradictory. It forced the government to carry out a number of urgent reforms: create a legislative representative body - the State Duma, guarantee fundamental political freedoms, revise the “Basic Laws of the Empire”, allow the legal activities of political parties, trade unions, the press, cancel redemption payments, reduce the working day, etc. The most complex issues remained unresolved (primarily agricultural). The authorities were forced to listen to the opinion of society, but continued to perceive it as a bothersome petitioner. Society, represented by the opposition parties, in turn, remained with its wary and dissatisfied attitude towards the authorities. Both of them were not ready for a dialogue that began in such dramatic circumstances.
So, in political life it is necessary, first of all, to note the main event - the creation of the legislative Duma in accordance with the Manifesto of October 17. Despite all the limitations of its rights and the class-based nature of its representation, this was the first experience of Russian parliamentarism in history, the possibility of a legal comparison of various political positions on the most important problems of the country's life. The work of the Duma took place under conditions of openness, the speeches of deputies were published in newspapers. Full verbatim reports of almost all meetings were published.
The most important result of the revolution is the elimination of the complete political lack of rights of the people. The Manifesto of October 17 granted personal immunity, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly, and unions. The proclamation of political freedoms opened up space for the formation of political parties.
Source - Wikipedia
State Duma of the Russian Empire of the 2nd convocation
Parliament State Duma of the Russian Empire
Term February 20 - June 3, 1907
Previous convocation I
Next convocation III
Membership 518 deputies
Chairman of the State Duma F. A. Golovin
Dominant party Labor Peasant Faction (104 deputies)
The State Duma of the Russian Empire of the 2nd convocation is the representative legislative body of the Russian Empire, convened after the early dissolution of the 1st State Duma. It was elected according to almost the same rules as the previous Duma and also entered into sharp confrontation with the Council of Ministers, and also held only one session, from February 20 to June 3, 1907, when it was dissolved (June Third Coup). After this, the electoral legislation was changed. The Second Duma worked for 102 days.
Elections
The Second State Duma of the Russian Empire existed from February 20 to June 2, 1907.
Elections to the Second Duma were held according to the same rules as to the First Duma (multi-stage elections by curiae). At the same time, the election campaign itself took place against the backdrop of a fading, but ongoing revolution: “agrarian riots” in July 1906 covered 32 provinces of Russia, and in August 1906, peasant unrest covered 50% of the counties of European Russia.
Within 8 months the revolution was suppressed. According to the Law of October 5, 1906, peasants were given equal rights with the rest of the country's population. The Second Land Law of November 9, 1906 allowed any peasant to demand his share of the communal land at any time. According to the “Senate clarifications” of the electoral law (January - February 1907), some workers and small landowners were excluded from the Duma elections.
The government tried in any way to ensure an acceptable composition of the Duma: peasants who were not householders were excluded from elections, workers could not be elected in the city curia, even if they had the housing qualification required by law, etc. On the initiative of P. A. Stolypin in The Council of Ministers twice discussed the issue of changing the electoral legislation (July 8 and September 7, 1906), but government members came to the conclusion that such a step was inappropriate, since it was associated with a violation of the Basic Laws and could lead to an aggravation of the revolutionary struggle.
This time, representatives of the entire party spectrum, including the far left, took part in the elections. In general, four currents fought: the right, standing for strengthening the autocracy; the Octobrists who accepted Stolypin's program; cadets; a left bloc that united Social Democrats, Socialist Revolutionaries and other socialist groups. Many noisy pre-election meetings were held with “debates” between the Cadets, Socialists and Octobrists. And yet the election campaign was of a different nature than in previous elections to the Duma. No one defended the government then. Now the struggle took place within society between electoral blocs of parties.
Compound
A total of 518 deputies were elected. The deputies were distributed as follows:
By age: under 30 years old - 72 people, under 40 years old - 195 people, under 50 years old - 145 people, under 60 years old - 39 people, over 60 years old - 8 people.
by level of education: 38% of deputies had higher education, 21% had secondary education, 32% had lower education, 8% had home education, 1% were illiterate.
by occupation: 169 peasants, 32 workers, 20 priests, 25 zemstvo city and noble employees, 10 small private employees, 1 poet, 24 officials (including 8 from the judicial department), 3 officers, 10 professors and private assistant professors, 28 other teachers, 19 journalists, 33 lawyers (bar), 17 businessmen, 57 landowners-nobles, 6 industrialists and factory directors.
Only 32 members of the Duma (6%) were deputies of the first Duma. Such a small percentage was explained by the fact that after the dissolution of the First Duma, 180 deputies signed the Vyborg Appeal, for which they were deprived of voting rights and could not participate in new elections.
The participation of a larger number of political forces in the elections led to a greater diversity of political forces compared to the previous Duma. They were distributed among party factions as follows: the labor peasant faction - 104 deputies, which consisted of Trudoviks themselves - members of the Labor Group (71 people), members of the All-Russian Peasant Union (14 people) and sympathizers (19), Cadets - 98, Social Democratic faction - 65, non-party members - 50, Polish colo - 46, Octobrist faction and moderate group - 44, Socialist Revolutionaries - 37, Muslim faction - 30, Cossack group - 17, People's Socialist faction - 16, right-wing monarchists - 10, to the party democratic reforms belonged to one deputy.
The right-wing cadet Fyodor Aleksandrovich Golovin, elected from the Moscow province, became the Chairman of the Duma. Comrades of the chairman - N.N. Poznansky (non-party leftist) and M.E. Berezin (trudovik). Secretary - M.V. Chelnokov (cadet).
Work of the Duma
The Duma continued to struggle for influence on the activities of the government, which led to numerous conflicts and became one of the reasons for the short period of its activity. In general, the Second Duma turned out to be even more radical than its predecessor. The deputies changed tactics, deciding to act within the framework of the law. Guided by the norms of Articles 5 and 6 of the Regulations on the approval of the State Duma of February 20, 1906, deputies formed departments and commissions for the preliminary preparation of cases to be considered in the Duma. The created commissions began to develop numerous bills. The main issue remained the agrarian issue, on which each faction presented its own project. In addition, the Second Duma actively considered the food issue, discussed the State Budget for 1907, the issue of conscripting recruits, the abolition of courts-martial, etc. During the consideration of issues, the Cadets showed compliance, calling to “protect the Duma” and not give the government a reason for its dissolution.
The main subject of debate in the Duma in the spring of 1907 was the question of taking emergency measures against the revolutionaries. The Duma on May 17, 1907 voted against the “illegal actions” of the police. The government was not happy with such disobedience. The staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared a draft of a new electoral law in secret from the Duma. On June 1, 1907, P. Stolypin demanded the removal of 55 Social Democrats from participation in Duma meetings and deprivation of 16 of them parliamentary immunity, accusing them of preparing for the “overthrow of the state system” and conspiracy against the royal family.
Based on this, on June 3, 1907, Nicholas II announced the dissolution of the Second Duma and changes to the electoral law. Deputies of the Second Duma went home. As P. Stolypin expected, no revolutionary outbreak followed. It is generally accepted that the act of June 3, 1907 (the Third June Revolution) meant the completion of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907.
Results
In general, the legislative activity of the second Duma for 102 days, as in the case of the first State Duma, bore traces of political confrontation with the authorities.
287 government bills were submitted to parliament (including the budget for 1907, a bill on the reform of the local court, the responsibility of officials, agrarian reform, etc.). The Duma approved only 20 bills. Of these, only 3 received the force of law (on the establishment of a contingent of recruits and two projects to help those affected by crop failure).
Interesting Facts
In 1907, V.I. Lenin was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2nd State Duma in St. Petersburg.
Deputy of the Second State Duma Alexei Kuznetsov subsequently became famous for being a gunner in a criminal group that committed a number of robberies, including the Stroganov Palace.
Links:
1. First All-Party Congress of the AKP
2. Dispersal of the Second State Duma (July 1906)
3.
D. The extreme left parties did not boycott these elections. Right-wing politicians also showed great activity. The Second State Duma, like the First State Duma, in composition turned out to be sharply opposed to the government. The Cadets again constituted a relative majority in it, but not so convincing; they were squeezed out both from the left and from the right.
On March 6, Chairman of the Council of Ministers P.A. made a government declaration before the State Duma. Stolypin. He expressed hope for close cooperation between the Duma and the government in legislative work. Stolypin outlined the range of topics on which the government intended to submit bills to the Duma, in particular on freedom of conscience and the legal status of the Orthodox Church and other faiths. He noted that “the centuries-old connection of the Russian state with the Christian Church obliges... to base all laws on freedom of conscience on the principles of the Christian state, in which the Orthodox Church, as the dominant one, enjoys special respect and special protection from the state... At the same time the rights and advantages of the Orthodox Church cannot and should not violate the rights of other confessions and beliefs. Therefore... the ministry is submitting to the State Duma and the Council a number of bills defining the transition from one religion to another, unhindered worship, the construction of prayer buildings, the formation of religious communities, and the abolition of restrictions associated exclusively with confession.” The majority of deputies greeted the government's declaration with cries of indignation and obstruction. On May 10, Mr. Stolypin, again speaking in the Duma, said that “opponents of statehood would like to choose the path of radicalism, the path of liberation from Russia’s historical past, liberation from cultural traditions. They need great upheavals, we need Great Russia."
The government presented several hundred bills to the Second State Duma, including 7 that were related to the legal status of religious communities:
- “On heterodox and heterodox societies”,
- “On permission to perform heterodox and heterodox worship services and the construction and arrangement, renewal and repair of heterodox and heterodox prayer buildings,”
- “On changes in the field of family rights caused by freedom of conscience”,
- “On changes in legal provisions relating to the transition from one confession to another”,
- "On Roman Catholic Monasteries"
- “On the changes brought about by the proclamation of the Supreme Manifesto on October 17, 1905 in the field of family rights” and
- “On the abolition of the restrictions contained in the current legislation, political and civil, depending on belonging to heterodox and heterodox confessions, including the Old Believers and sects that separated from Orthodoxy, as well as legal provisions allowing the intervention of civil authorities in the spiritual relations of private persons."
All these bills were considered in the Holy Synod, which proposed amendments aimed at preserving the Orthodox Church's dominant, privileged status. Most of these amendments were ignored by the government.
For the preliminary discussion of bills in the Duma, a Commission on Church Legislation (chaired by S.N. Bulgakov) and a Commission to consider bills aimed at implementing freedom of conscience (chaired by cadet N.V. Teslenko) were formed. The right, moderate right and Octobrists were ready for a constructive consideration of draft laws aimed at expanding the rights of heterodox and heterodox confessions while preserving the advantages of the Orthodox Church. Stolypin tried to rely on them, hoping also to attract moderate left factions, incl. cadets. But the Cadets and factions close to them used the Duma platform to promote the idea of complete equality of religious communities and the transformation of Russia into a non-confessional state. This position also dominated at the meetings of the commission on freedom of conscience (there were 13 in total). As the basis for the discussion, the commission adopted the provisions contained in the draft law “On Freedom of Conscience,” introduced by the Cadet faction into the agenda of the First State Duma. None of the government bills was submitted by the commission to the plenary discussion of the Duma. Right-wing publications expressed indignation; authors wrote about the humiliation of Orthodoxy. The Duma majority took an equally irreconcilable position on other government bills.
Bishop Evlogii (Georgievsky) participated in the activities of 3 Duma commissions: on church legislation, public education and agrarian commission. In the agrarian commission, he defended the interests of the Orthodox peasants of the Kholm region, oppressed by Polish Catholic landowners, which caused the disapproval of many right-wing deputies who defended the inviolability of noble land ownership. Bishop Evlogii raised the question of separating Kholm province from the Vistula region (Poland), since the majority of the population of the territory were Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians of the Orthodox or Uniate religion. This caused a sharply negative reaction from deputies from the Polish stake and from all leftists.
On June 1, Mr. Stolypin spoke before the State Duma with a demand to deprive 55 Duma members of the Social Democratic faction of parliamentary immunity. They were accused of plotting to overthrow the government. The State Duma did not agree to this, transferring the government's demand to a special commission.
On June 3, Emperor Nicholas II issued a manifesto “On the dissolution of the State Duma, on the time of convening a new Duma and on changing the procedure for elections to the State Duma.” In the new “Regulations on Elections to the State Duma,” also signed on June 3, compared with the previous order, the representation of deputies from the curiae of landowners and large urban owners increased, and the number of seats for deputies from peasants and workers, as well as from the national outskirts, was reduced. The signing of these documents and the dissolution of the Second State Duma was called "coup d'etat", because the emperor, according to the “Basic Laws” adopted on April 23.
