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Imperial Manifesto of June 3, 1907
The Second State Duma, which convened in March 1907 proved to be just as unwieldy and intransigent from the standpoint of the state as its predecessor, which had been dissolved the previous year. Frustrated by the deputies' refusal to consider his proposals, Prime Minister Petr Stolypin prevailed upon Tsar Nicholas II to dissolve the Second Duma as well. Drawing on the authority of Article 87 of the Fundamental Laws, which allowed the government to legislate by decree in the absence of a Duma, Stolypin then orchestrated a comprehensive revision of the electoral law in order to insure a conservative majority in the next Duma. The following manifesto, issued by Nicholas II, justifies the government's actions. Since
the time of the dissolution of the first State Duma, the government has, in accord with
Our orders and instructions, undertaken a consistent series of measures to bring peace to
the country and establish a proper course for affairs of state. The
Second State Duma, which we convened, was called upon to facilitate, in accord with Our
Sovereign will, the restoration of peace to Russia: first of all, by legislative work,
without which it is impossible for the state to live or for its structure to be perfected;
also, by reviewing the budget of revenues and expenditures, to ensure that the economic
activities of the state are being conducted correctly; and finally, by rationally
exercising the right of interrogating government officials, with a view to strengthening
truth and justice everywhere. These
obligations, which We entrusted to elected deputies from the population, laid upon them a
weighty responsibility and a holy duty to make use of their rights reasonably, working for
the benefit and enhancement of the Russian state. Such was Our thought and will in granting the population new foundations for the life of the state. To Our dismay, a substantial part of the membership of the Second State Duma did not justify our expectations. Many of those sent by the population did not undertake their work with a pure heart and with a desire to strengthen Russia and improve its institutions, but rather with a flagrant intention of increasing turmoil and encouraging the disintegration of the state. The
activity of these persons in the State Duma either did not under take any review at all of
the sweeping measures Our government had developed, or it delayed discussing them or else
it rejected them, not even hesitating to turn down laws which would punish the overt
celebration of criminality or severely punish those who sow disorder in the armed forces. By refusing to discuss murders and violence, the
State Duma failed to render moral support to the government in the matter of restoring
order, and Russia, to her shame, continued to experience criminal sedition. The
State Duma's dilatory review of the state budget caused difficulty in the timely
satisfaction of many pressing needs of the common people.
A
significant part of the Duma perverted the right of interrogating the government into a
means of struggle with the government and of arousing mistrust for it among wide segments
of the population. Finally
there was accomplished a deed unheard of in the annals of history. The judicial authorities discovered that a whole
section of the State Duma was involved in a conspiracy against the state and the authority
of the tsar. When Our government demanded
that the fifty-five members of the Duma who were accused of this crime be suspended,
pending the outcome of the trial, and that the most seriously implicated of them be
confined under custody, the State Duma did not immediately carry out this lawful demand of
the authorities, which did not admit of any delay. All
of this moved Us to dissolve the Second State Duma by an ukaz to the Senate of June 3; the new Duma is to be
convened on November 1 of this year. But,
trusting in Our people's love for the motherland and in its statesmanlike wisdom (gosudarstvennyi razum), We see the cause of the
twofold failure in practice of the State Duma in the fact that this legislative
institution was full of members who did not truly express the needs and desires of the
people, and this was due to the novelty of the situation and to defects in the electoral
law. Hence,
leaving in force all the rights given to Our subjects by the Manifesto of October 17,
1905, and by the fundamental laws, We have made a decision to change only the means by
which the people's elected representatives are summoned to the State Duma, so that every
part of the people can have its own chosen men in the Duma. Since
it was created to strengthen the Russian state, the State Duma should also be Russian in
spirit. The other nationalities of which the
population of Our realm is composed should have their spokesmen in the State Duma, but
they should not and will not be there in such number as to give them the possibility of
decisive influence on purely Russian questions. In
those border areas of the state where the population has not attained an adequate level of
citizenship, elections to the State duma must temporarily be brought to an end. All
these changes in the election system cannot be enacted through the ordinary legislative
route, that is, through the very State Duma whose composition We have pronounced
unsatisfactory. Only the authority that
granted the first electoral law, the historical authority of the Russian tsar, is adequate
to abolish that law and replace it with a new one. The
Lord God had entrusted Us with monarchical authority over Our people. It is before His throne that We shall give account
for the fate of the Russian realm. From this
realization We derive a firm resolve to carry through to the end the transformation of
Russia which we have undertaken, and so grant to her a new electoral law, which We have
ordered the Senate to promulgate. We
expect our faithful subjects to follow the path We have indicated and render unanimous and
ardent service to the motherland, whose sons have in all times been a solid support to her
strength, grandeur and glory. Given
at Peterhof on the 3rd day of June in the 1907th year since the birth of Christ and in the
thirteenth year of our reign. NICHOLAS
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