RUSSIA'S PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1917, Page 7

RUSSIA'S PARLIAMENT.

THE BIRTH OP THE DUMA.. I Russia's defeat by Japan was sealed .by treaty in J903. 'Possibly that-peace would not have been made had Russia not been deeply troubled by internal disorder. The old liberal movement and terrorist, organisations which bad been suppressed by the Czar Alexander lu were being resuscitated, and the revolutionary leaders, taking advantage of theunpopularity of the war, agitated for a constituent Assembly, io replace- the bureaucratic regime. The-Czar reluctantly promised to establish a consultative Chamber of Deputies, but this stimulated rather than calmed the demand, and a general strike in Petrograd and a complete stoppage of all Russian railways was brought about. In October, l!) 03, the Government, temporarily panicstricken, made vague promises of all kinds of reforms. When the inordinate expectations created by the Government's manifesto were not realised at once, preparations were made for an, armed insurrection to overthrow the existing regime. The violence of the movel ment was not, however, very great. The ■Czar kept his promise of convoking a Legislative Assembly, and on May 10, 1900,' the first Duma was opened by him in person. But it was so systematically and violently hostile to the Government, and so determined to obtain executive as well as legislative functions, that it was dissolved on July 23, without any legislative work being accomplished. The second Duma met in May, 1.007, and while it avoided some of the mistakes of the first, it was equally incompetent as a legislative body, and a large section of the members were implicated in a plot to spread sedition to the army. It was dissolved in June, 1007, and the third Duma met in the following November. By 1010 the Russian revolution had entered on a path of orderly and conservative development,