Representative of the 3rd State Duma. Four State Dumas (briefly)

The government introduced changes to the electoral law, and since these changes were made without the participation of Duma deputies, Russian society they were regarded as a coup d'etat. The new electoral law changed the ratio of electors in favor of the landowners and the big bourgeoisie (3% of the top of society elected two-thirds of all deputies), and the representation of the national outskirts was reduced. The total number of deputies decreased from 534 to 442.

Thus, the outcome of the vote in III State The Duma was completely dependent on the Octobrists. Depending on the task at hand, they entered into an alliance with the Black Hundreds and organized a center-right majority; in an alliance with the Cadets, an Octobrist-Cadet majority was formed. The Duma was an obedient instrument in the hands of the government headed by Stolypin. With the support of the right, he blocked all initiatives of the Cadets; the basis of his policy was the slogan: “First calm, then reforms.”

The main issues facing the III State Duma: agrarian, labor, national.

The Stolypin version of the agrarian reform was adopted (based on the decree of January 9, 1906). On the labor issue, a law on state insurance against accidents and illness was adopted; on the national issue, zemstvos were formed in 9 Ukrainian and Belarusian provinces; Finland was deprived of autonomy .

Elections to the IV State Duma took place in the fall of 1912. The number of deputies was 442, and the Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko presided for the entire term. Composition: Black Hundreds - 184, Octobrists - 99, Cadets - 58, Trudoviks - 10, Social Democrats - 14, Progressives - 47, non-party members and others - 5.

The balance of power remained the same as the previous Duma, the Octobrists still performed the functions of the “center”, however more weight progressives began to have.

However, the Duma of the 4th convocation began to play a lesser role in the life of the country, since the government passed through it only minor laws, reserving the solution of the main legislative tasks.

In the IV Duma, as in the III, two majorities were possible: the right-Octobrist - 283 deputies and the Octobrist-Kadet - 225 deputies (it became predominant in the work of the IV State Duma). Deputies increasingly came up with legislative initiatives and slowed down the passage of state laws. However, the overwhelming majority of draft laws objectionable to the government were blocked by the State Council.

The unsuccessful course of military operations caused sharp criticism of the government from the Duma. The majority of factions demanded the creation of a cabinet of ministers and the transfer of power into its hands. Not only the Duma majority, but also representatives of the State Council united around this idea. In August 1915, a “Progressive Bloc” was created in parliament, consisting of 236 deputies, which included representatives of the Octobrists, Progressives, Cadets, and a representative of the State Council. The Mensheviks and Trudoviks did not support the bloc. Thus, a parliamentary bloc opposed to the government emerged.

On February 27, 1917, having gathered at an extraordinary meeting, a group of deputies organized the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, which on the night of February 28 decided to take power into its own hands and create a government. On March 2, 1917, the Provisional Government was created, which, by its decision of October 6, dissolved the IV Duma.

When comparing the new Election Regulations with the old ones, it is striking that the new Regulations are much more specific. If the law of 1905 included 62 articles (divided into chapters), then the June Third law already consisted of 147 articles (five chapters). The increase in the number of articles was aimed primarily at reducing the electorate and restructuring it in a direction favorable to the authorities. The State Duma now numbered 442 deputies, while previously there were 524. The decrease was mainly due to the fact that representation from the national outskirts was reduced.

First of all, the norms of representation from various classes of the population were significantly changed in order to provide the overwhelming majority of seats in the State Duma to the propertied classes. The number of electors from the landowners was increased to 51%, the peasantry could elect only 22% of the electors and send 53 of their deputies to the Duma (one from each province of the European part of Russia), the working class was granted voting rights in only 42 out of 53 provinces, but the election Deputies for the workers' curia were provided only in 6 provinces (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav). According to the new Regulations, one elector was now elected by landowners from 230 voters (previously - from 2 thousand), by the big bourgeoisie - from 1 thousand voters (previously - from 4 thousand), by the petty bourgeoisie, bureaucrats, intelligentsia - from 15 thousand, peasants - from 60 thousand (previously – from 30 thousand) and workers – from 125 thousand (previously – from 90 thousand). The voting rights of the national outskirts were significantly curtailed. In those territories (Central Asia, Transcaucasia, Poland) where, according to Nicholas II, “the population has not achieved sufficient development of citizenship,” elections to the Duma were temporarily suspended, or the number of mandates was significantly (by two-thirds) reduced. For example, only 12 deputies could be elected from Poland instead of 29, and 10 deputies from the Caucasus instead of 29.

The procedure for electing deputies to the Duma was also changed. Elections were held not in the corresponding curiae, but at provincial election meetings, where the landowners set the tone. This made it possible to appoint the most “reliable” peasants to the Duma in the peasant curia.

In addition, the law of June 3 gave the Minister of Internal Affairs the right to change the boundaries of electoral districts and divide electoral assemblies at all stages of elections into departments that received the right to independently elect electors on the most arbitrary grounds: property, class, nationality. This gave the government the opportunity to send only deputies it liked to the Duma.

The III State Duma in its composition turned out to be significantly more to the right than the previous two, for example, “242 deputies (about 60% of its composition) were landowners and only 16 deputies were from artisans and workers. According to the party composition, the deputies were distributed as follows: extreme right - 50 deputies, moderate right and nationalists - 97, Octobrists and those affiliated with them - 154, progressives - 28, Cadets - 54, Muslim group - 8, Lithuanian group - 7, Polish group - 11, Trudoviks – 13, Social Democrats – 19.”

So the distribution political forces was as follows: “32% - “right-wing deputies” - supporting the government, 33% - Octobrists - supporting entrepreneurs (large industrialists, financial bourgeoisie, liberal landowners, wealthy intelligentsia). They formed the center. 12% are Cadets, 3% Trudoviks, 4.2% Social Democrats and 6% from national parties, they took the “left” flank.” The voting results depended on where the “center” would swing. If to the right, then a “right-Octobrist” majority (300 votes) supporting the government was formed. If to the left, then a “Cadet-Octobrist” majority was created (approximately 260 votes), ready for liberal-democratic reforms. This is how a parliamentary pendulum developed, allowing the Stolypin government to pursue the line it wanted, maneuvering between the “right” and the Cadets, now intensifying repression, now carrying out reforms.

The presence of these two majorities determined the nature of the activities of the Third Duma, ensuring its “workability.” During the five years of its work (until June 9, 1912), it held 611 meetings, considered 2,572 bills, of which
of which the vast majority were introduced by the government (deputies introduced a total of 205 bills). The Duma rejected 76 draft laws (in addition, some draft laws were withdrawn by ministers). Of the bills adopted by the Duma, 31 were rejected by the State Council. In addition to legislation, the Duma also dealt with requests, most of which were put forward by left factions and, as a rule, ended in nothing.

The Octobrist N.A. Khomyakov was elected Chairman of the Third Duma, who was replaced in March 1910 by the large merchant and industrialist Octobrist A.I. Guchkov, and in 1911 by M.V. Rodzianko. The III State Duma began its work on November 1, 1907 and operated until June 9, 1912, that is, almost the entire term of its powers. In relation to this period, we can talk about a relatively stable and orderly mechanism for the functioning of the legislative chamber.

Interesting experience was accumulated in the Duma during the discussion of various bills.

In total, there were about 30 commissions in the Duma, eight of which were permanent: budgetary, financial, execution public policy in the field of income and expenses, editorial, inquiries, library, personnel, administrative. Large commissions, such as the budget commission, consisted of several dozen people.

Elections of commission members were carried out at a general meeting of the Duma with the preliminary approval of candidates in the factions. In most commissions, all factions had their representatives.

All bills submitted to the Duma were first of all considered by the Duma meeting, consisting of the Chairman of the Duma, his comrades, the Secretary of the Duma and his comrade. The meeting drew up a preliminary conclusion on sending the bill to one of the commissions, which was then approved by the Duma.

According to the accepted procedure, each project was considered by the Duma in three readings. In the first, which began with a speech by the speaker, there was a general discussion of the bill. At the end of the debate, the chairman made a proposal to move to article-by-article reading. After the second reading, the chairman and secretary of the Duma made a summary of all the resolutions adopted on the bill. At the same time, but no later than a certain period, it was allowed to propose new amendments. The third reading was essentially a second article-by-article reading. Its purpose was to neutralize those amendments that could pass in the second reading with the help of a random majority and did not suit influential factions. At the end of the third reading, the presiding officer put the bill as a whole with the adopted amendments to a vote.

The Duma's own legislative initiative was limited by the requirement that each proposal come from at least 30 deputies.

The main content of the activities of the Third State Duma continued to be the agrarian question. Having achieved social support in the person of this collegial body, the government finally began its
use in the legislative process. On June 14, 1910 it was published
approved by the Duma and the State Council and approved by the Emperor
agrarian law, which was based on the Stolypin decree of 9
November 1906 with changes and additions introduced by the right-wing Octobrist majority in the Duma. In fact, this law was the first fact of participation of the State Duma in the legislative process in the entire history of its existence. Budgetary issues occupied a large place in the activities of the Third Duma. However, the Duma’s attempt to intervene in the process of considering the budget ended in failure - on August 24, 1909, Nicholas II adopted the rules “On the procedure for applying Article 96 of the Basic State Laws,” according to which the issue of military and naval states was generally removed from the competence of the Duma.

Blocking with the right-wing deputies of the Duma, the government passed in June 1910 the law “On the procedure for issuing laws and regulations of national importance concerning Finland,” which opens up wide opportunities for interference in Finnish internal affairs. In 1912, the Duma passed a law separating the new Kholm province from Poland (in which, along with the Polish population, the majority of Russians lived), which also increased Russian interference in Polish affairs. A negative attitude was caused by Stolypin’s provision on the introduction of zemstvos in the western provinces, which also had a strong national overtones.

On the nature of legislative activity of the III State Duma
can be judged by the list of laws it adopted: “On strengthening credit for
prison construction needs”, “On the release of funds for the provision of benefits to the ranks of the general police and the gendarme corps”, “On the distribution between the treasury and Cossack troops expenses for the prison part in the Kuban and Tver regions”, “On the procedure for heating and lighting places of detention and the release of necessary materials for these needs”, “On police supervision in the Belagach steppe”, “On the approval of prisons in the cities of Merv and Krasnoyarsk, the Trans-Caspian region and Aktyubinsk, Turgai region”, “On the approval of a women’s prison in the city of St. Petersburg”, etc. The content of the listed regulations is evidence not only of the reactionary nature of the Duma, but also of the often secondary importance of the issues it considers, although strikes continue in the country and dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs is growing . However, it should be noted that the Government largely resisted the adoption of certain laws expected by society. For example, the State Council did not support another, no less important bill on the introduction of universal primary education in the empire. The bill was presented to the Duma already during the first session, on January 8, 1908, the bill was adopted by the State Duma on March 19, 1911. However, the State Council did not agree with the above estimate, and the issue of financing parochial schools also caused fundamental disagreement. The created conciliation commission did not come to a consensus, and the Duma did not accept the changes of the State Council, and the latter, in retaliation, rejected the entire bill on June 5, 1912.

Meanwhile, the State Duma was faced with another important social problem- development and adoption of laws that improve the situation of the working class.

Back in 1906, a Special Meeting was created under the chairmanship of the Minister of Trade and Industry D.A. Filosofov, designed to develop bills to resolve the “work issue.” The meeting proposed ten bills: “1) health insurance, 2) accident insurance, 3) disability insurance, 4) provision savings banks, 5) rules on hiring workers, 6) work time, 7) medical assistance, 8) measures to encourage the construction of healthy and cheap housing, 9) industrial courts, 10) factory inspection and factory presence." The laws were intended to be submitted to the Second State Duma, but due to the events described earlier, this was postponed. Only in In June 1908, insurance bills were submitted to the Third Duma, the working commission began to consider them a year later, and only in April 1910 did they appear on the Duma agenda. A heated debate ensued in the Duma. Social Democrats sharply criticized the bills being discussed But the majority of deputies, naturally, did not listen to the arguments of the Social Democrats and adopted bills according to which: 1) insurance covered only accidents and illnesses; 2) the amount of remuneration for complete injury was only ⅔ of earnings; 3) insurance covered only a sixth of of the total number of workers (entire regions, for example, Siberia and the Caucasus, and entire categories of workers, for example, agricultural, construction, railway, postal and telegraph workers, were left out of insurance). These bills could not please the working class and relieve tension in society. On June 23, 1912, the bills approved by the Tsar came into force.

The III State Duma worked for its required five years and was dissolved by imperial decree of June 8, 1912.

There were also failures in the functioning mechanism of the Duma (during the constitutional crisis of 1911, the Duma and the State Council were dissolved for 3 days). If we characterize the Third Duma “personally”, without connection with subsequent events, and in connection with them, then it can be called “insufficient sufficiency”. This definition is appropriate because it most fully reflects the role and significance of the Third Duma in Russian history. It was “sufficient” in the sense that its composition and activities were sufficient to “serve”, unlike all other Dumas, its entire term of office. At first glance, the Third Duma is the most prosperous of all four Dumas: if the first two suddenly “died” by order of the tsar, then the Third Duma acted “from bell to bell” - all the five years allotted to it by law and caused not only critical statements from contemporaries addressed to you, but also words of approval. And yet, fate did not spoil this Duma: the peaceful evolutionary development of the country was no less problematic at the end of its activity than at the beginning. “Continuation of the course of the Third Duma in subsequent Dumas with external and inner peace Russia, removed revolution from the “agenda”. Not only Stolypin and his supporters, but also their opponents and many modern publicists judged this quite sensibly.” But still, this total “sufficiency” turned out to be insufficient for the Third Duma to extinguish the revolutionary opposition movement, which in extreme conditions could get out of control, which is what happened during the IV Duma.

Abstract on the history of Russia

In April 1906 it opened The State Duma- the first assembly of people's representatives in the history of the country with legislative rights.

I State Duma(April-July 1906) – lasted 72 days. The Duma is predominantly cadet. The first meeting opened on April 27, 1906. Distribution of seats in the Duma: Octobrists - 16, Cadets 179, Trudoviks 97, non-party 105, representatives of the national outskirts 63, Social Democrats 18. The workers, at the call of the RSDLP and the Socialist Revolutionaries, mostly boycotted the elections to the Duma. 57% of the agrarian commission were cadets. They introduced an agrarian bill into the Duma, which dealt with the forced alienation, for a fair remuneration, of that part of the landowners' lands that were cultivated on the basis of a semi-serf labor system or were leased to peasants in bondage. In addition, state, office and monastic lands were alienated. All land will be transferred to the state land fund, from which peasants will be allocated it as private property. As a result of the discussion, the commission recognized the principle of forced alienation of land.

In May 1906, the head of government, Goremykin, issued a declaration in which he denied the Duma the right to resolve the agrarian question in a similar way, as well as the expansion of voting rights, a ministry responsible to the Duma, the abolition of the State Council, and political amnesty. The Duma expressed no confidence in the government, but the latter could not resign (since it was responsible to the tsar). A Duma crisis arose in the country. Some ministers spoke in favor of the Cadets joining the government.

Miliukov raised the question of a purely Cadet government, a general political amnesty, the abolition death penalty, liquidation of the State Council, universal suffrage, forced alienation of landowners' lands. Goremykin signed a decree dissolving the Duma. In response, about 200 deputies signed an appeal to the people in Vyborg, where they called on them to passive resistance.

II State Duma(February-June 1907) - opened on February 20, 1907 and operated for 103 days. 65 Social Democrats, 104 Trudoviks, 37 Socialist Revolutionaries entered the Duma. There were 222 people in total. The peasant question remained central.

Trudoviks proposed 3 bills, the essence of which was to develop free farm on free land. On June 1, 1907, Stolypin, using a fake, decided to get rid of the strong left wing and accused 55 Social Democrats of conspiring to establish a republic.

The Duma created a commission to investigate the circumstances. The commission came to the conclusion that the accusation was a complete forgery. On June 3, 1907, the Tsar signed a manifesto dissolving the Duma and changing the electoral law. Coup d'etat June 3, 1907 meant the end of the revolution.

III State Duma(1907-1912) - 442 deputies.

Activities of the III Duma:

06/03/1907 - change in the electoral law.

The majority in the Duma was made up of the right-wing Octobrist and Octobrist-Cadet bloc.

Party composition: Octobrists, Black Hundreds, Cadets, Progressives, Peaceful Renovationists, Social Democrats, Trudoviks, non-party members, Muslim group, deputies from Poland.

The Octobrist party had the largest number of deputies (125 people).

Over 5 years of work, 2197 bills were approved

Main questions:

1) worker: 4 bills were considered by the commission min. Finnish Kokovtsev (on insurance, on conflict commissions, on reducing the working day, on the elimination of the law punishing participation in strikes). They were adopted in 1912 in a limited form.

2) national question : about zemstvos in the western provinces (the question of creating electoral curiae for nationality; the law was adopted in relation to 6 out of 9 provinces); Finnish question (an attempt by political forces to achieve independence from Russia, a law was passed on equalizing the rights of Russian citizens with Finnish ones, a law on the payment of 20 million marks by Finland in exchange for military service, a law on limiting the rights of the Finnish Sejm).

3) agrarian question: associated with the Stolypin reform.

Conclusion: The June Third system is the second step towards transforming the autocracy into a bourgeois monarchy.

Elections: multi-stage (occurred in 4 unequal curiae: landowner, urban, workers, peasants). Half of the population (women, students, military personnel) were deprived of the right to vote.

On November 1 (14), 1907, the Third State Duma began its work, the only one of the four in Russian Empire, who served the entire five-year term required by the law on elections to the Duma.

On June 3 (16), 1907, simultaneously with the decree on the dissolution of the Duma of the Second Convocation, a new Regulation on elections to the Duma (new electoral law) was published, according to which a new Duma was convened. The dissolution of the Second State Duma and the publication of a new electoral law went down in history under the name of the “June Third Coup”.

The new electoral law expanded the rights of landowners and the big bourgeoisie, who received two-thirds of the total number of electors; About a quarter of the electors were left to the workers and peasants. The representation of the peoples of some national borderlands was sharply reduced:the peoples of Central Asia, Yakutia and some other national regions were completely excluded from the elections.Workers and peasant electors were deprived of the right to elect deputies from among themselves. This right was transferred to the provincial electoral assembly as a whole, where in most cases the landowners and bourgeoisie prevailed. The city curia was divided into two: the first was made up of large property owners, the second - the petty bourgeoisie and the urban intelligentsia.

Elections to the Third State Duma took place in the fall of 1907. The total number of deputies was reduced from 518 to 442 people. The composition of the Third State Duma turned out to be much more to the right than the previous two: the majority were Octobrists - 154 deputies, the right and moderate right received 121 mandates, the Cadets - 54. The Octobrist N. A. Khomyakov was elected Chairman of the Duma, who was replaced by a prominent one in March 1910 Octobrist merchant and industrialistA. I. Guchkov ; in 1911, the position of Chairman of the Duma was taken by the leader of the Octobrists M.V. Rodzianko.

There were about 30 commissions in the Duma, eight of which were permanent: budgetary, financial, for the implementation of state policy in the field of income and expenditure, editorial, on requests, library, personnel, administrative. Elections of commission members were carried out at a general meeting of the Duma with the preliminary approval of candidates in the factions. In most commissions, all factions had their representatives.

During its work, the Duma held more than 600 meetings and considered about 2.5 thousand bills, the vast majority of which were introduced by the government. Among the main bills adopted by the Duma were laws on peasant private ownership of land, on insurance of workers, and on the introduction of local self-government in the western regions of the empire.

The Third State Duma held five parliamentary sessions and was dissolved by order of the emperor in June 1912.

Lit.: Avrekh A. Ya. Stolypin and the Third Duma. M., 1968; Elections to the I–IV State Dumas of the Russian Empire (Memoirs of contemporaries. Materials and documents). M., 2008; State Duma: III convocation - 3rd session. Directory 1910 St. Petersburg, 1910. Issue. 2;From the “Regulations on the elections to the State Duma of June 3, 1907” (Nameed highest decree to the government Senate of June 3, 1907) [Electronic resource] // Runiverse. B. d. URL: http://www .runivers .ru /doc /d 2.php ?SECTION _ID =6776&CENTER _ELEMENT _ID =147282&PORTAL _ID =7138 ; Kiryanov I.K., Lukyanov M.N. Parliament of autocratic Russia: State Duma and its deputies, 1906-1917. Perm, 1995.

The Fourth State Duma is a Russian representative legislative body that operated from November 15, 1912 to February 25, 1917. Officially, the Fourth State Duma was dissolved on October 6 (19), 1917. Formally, five sessions of the Fourth State Duma were held. The activities of the Fourth State Duma took place under the conditions of the First World War (1914-1918) and the revolutionary crisis that ended with the overthrow of tsarism.

Elections to the Fourth State Duma took place in September-October 1912. In the Fourth State Duma, the right-wing Octobrist and Octobrist-Kadet majorities, which set the tone in the previous Duma, were preserved. Among the 442 deputies, there were 120 nationalists and moderate rightists, 98 Octobrists, 65 rightists, 59 Cadets, 48 ​​progressives, three national groups (Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian group, Polish Kolo, Muslim group) numbered 21 deputies, socialist democrats - 14 (Bolsheviks - 6, Mensheviks - 7, one deputy, who was not a full member of the faction, joined the Mensheviks), Trudoviks - 10, non-party people - 7. The Chairman of the State Duma was the Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko. The Octobrists played the role of “center” in the State Duma, forming, depending on the situation, a right-wing Octobrist (283 votes) or an Octobrist-Kadet (226 votes) majority. Characteristic of the Fourth State Duma was the growth of the “progressive” faction intermediate between the Octobrists and Cadets.

The government overwhelmed the State Duma with many minor bills. During the first and second sessions (1912-1914), over two thousand small bills were introduced; at the same time, extra-Duma legislation was widely practiced. The Octobrist-Cadet majority, which prevailed in the State Duma, showed itself in a number of votes in opposition to the government, in attempts to show legislative initiative. However, the legislative initiatives of the Octobrists and Cadets were stuck in Duma commissions or failed by the State Council.

With the outbreak of the First World War, meetings of the State Duma were held irregularly, legislation was carried out by the government outside the Duma. On July 26, 1914, a one-day emergency session of the State Duma took place, at which Duma members voted for war loans. The Social Democratic faction opposed the provision of war loans. The next third session of the Fourth State Duma was convened on January 27, 1915 to adopt the budget. Defeats of Russian troops in the spring and summer of 1915, crisis state power, caused an increase in opposition sentiments in the State Duma. On July 19, 1915, the fourth session of the Fourth State Duma opened. Only the far right deputies fully supported the government. Most factions of the State Duma and part of the factions of the State Council criticized the government and demanded the creation of a government cabinet that would enjoy the “confidence of the country.” Negotiations between Duma factions led to the signing on August 22 of a formal agreement on the creation of a Progressive Bloc (236 deputies). Right-wingers and nationalists remained outside the bloc. The Trudoviks and Mensheviks, although they were not part of the bloc, actually supported it. The creation of the Progressive Bloc meant the emergence of a majority in the State Duma in opposition to the government. The program of the Progressive Bloc provided for the creation of a “government of trust”, a partial amnesty for political and religious crimes, the abolition of some restrictions on the rights of national minorities, and the restoration of the activities of trade unions. The creation of a “government of trust,” the composition of which actually had to be coordinated with the State Duma, meant limiting the powers of Emperor Nicholas II, which was unacceptable to him. On September 3, 1915, the State Duma was dissolved for vacation and resumed its meetings on February 9, 1916.

The fifth session of the Fourth State Duma, which opened on November 1, 1916, began its work with a discussion general position in the country. The progressive bloc demanded the resignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers B.V. Stürmer, who was accused of Germanophilism. On November 10, Stürmer resigned. The new head of government A.F. Trepov proposed that the State Duma consider several private bills. In response, the State Duma expressed no confidence in the government. The State Council joined it. This indicated the political isolation of the tsar and his government. On December 16, 1916, the State Duma was dissolved. On the day of the resumption of its meetings, February 14, 1917, representatives of the Duma parties organized demonstrations to the Tauride Palace under the slogan of confidence in the State Duma. Demonstrations and strikes destabilized the situation in Petrograd and took on a revolutionary character. By decree of February 25, 1917, meetings of the State Duma were interrupted. The State Duma did not meet again, but formally continued to exist and influence the development of events. February 27 (March 12) in full swing February Revolution In 1917, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma was created, which on March 2 (15), after negotiations with the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council, formed the Provisional Government. In the subsequent period, the activities of the State Duma took place under the guise of “private meetings” of its deputies. In general, Duma members opposed the power of the Soviets. On October 6 (19), 1917, the Provisional Government officially dissolved the State Duma due to the start of elections to the Constituent Assembly. December 18 (31), 1917 by decree of the Council people's commissars The offices of the State Duma and its Provisional Committee were abolished.