How Far Do You Agree That the Dumas Were Nothing More Than Rubber Stamp Assemblies?

The Dumas were a Russian elected parliament created by Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. Tsar Nicholas was a strong believer and upholder of the autocracy, after seeing his father and grandfather fall to the ways of attempted revolution, and their attempts to uphold the autocracy; he wanted to make sure the Autocracy was upheld.

During the time of the Imperial ruling in Russia, there were many economic and social changes; therefore resulting in more change wanted, and people starting to form opinions against the system. The "Age of the Dumas" lasted in Russia between the years of 1906-1914. The Duma was granted by Tsar Nicholas II as part of his "October Manifesto" in which concessions were granted in an attempt to stem the tide of revolution. These Dumas were part of a constitutional experiment in Russia in which the attempt of a parliament would come into play.

The State Duma was to be the lower house of a parliament, and the State Council of Imperial Russia the upper house. The Tsar pledged to introduce further civil liberties, provide for broad participation in a new "State Duma", and to endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers.

The first Duma opened on 27 April 1906 with roughly 500 deputies. Many radical left parties, such as the Socialist Revolutionary Party had boycotted the election, leaving the moderate Constitutional Democrats aka The Kadets with the most deputies. Second came an alliance of slightly more radical left wing parties, the Trudoviks, with around 100 deputies. To the right of both were a number of smaller parties, including the Octobrists. Together, they had around 45 deputies. Other deputies, mainly from peasant groups, were independent.

The Duma ran between April and June 1906, with limited success. The Tsar and Prime Minister Ivan Goremykin were eager to keep order however, and reluctant to share power. Meanwhile, the Duma on the other hand wanted continuing reform, including electoral reform and most prominently, land reform. The Tsar dissolved the Duma on July 8, the same day Pyotr Stolypin was named as the new Prime Minister, because of fears of this Liberal attitude.

Frustrated by this, Paul Miliukov and around 200 deputies mostly from the liberal Kadets party suddenly departed to Vyborg. Then part of Russian Finland, to discuss the way forward. As a result of this, they issued the Vyborg Appeal, in which called for civil disobedience. This was largely ignored and therefore resulted in the party's arrest and exclusion from future Duma elections. This reason as well as others, resulted in a plan for a makeup of a second Duma to amend things. As this Duma only lasted such a short time, it did not have much effect in any way, therefore could be classed as a "rubber stamp assembly".

The Second Duma went from February 1907 to June 1907, and was equally short-lived.