Once more Russia had spoken for democracy in no uncertain voice. And once
more Czarism committed the incredible folly of attempting to stem the tide
of democracy by erecting further measures of autocracy as a dam. Shortly
before the time came for the assembling of the newly elected Duma, the
Czar's government announced new fundamental laws which limited the powers
of the Duma and practically reduced it to a farce. In the first place, the
Imperial Council was to be reconstituted and set over the Duma as an upper
chamber, or Senate, having equal rights with the Duma. Half of the members
of the Imperial Council were to be appointed by the Czar and the other half
elected from universities, zemstvos, bourses, and by the clergy and the
nobility. In other words, over the Duma was to be set a body which could
always be so manipulated as to insure the defeat of any measure displeasing
to the old régime. And the Czar reserved to himself the power to summon or
dissolve the Duma at will, as well as the power to declare war and to make
peace and to enter into treaties with other nations. What a farce was this
considered as a fulfilment of the solemn assurances given in October, 1905!

But the reactionary madness went even farther; believing the revolutionary
movement to have been crushed to such a degree that it might act with
impunity, autocracy took other measures. Three days before the assembling
of the Duma the Czar replaced his old Ministry by one still more
reactionary. At the head of the Cabinet, as Prime Minister, he appointed
the notorious reactionary bureaucrat, Goremykin. With full regard for the
bloody traditions of the office, the infamous Stolypin, former Governor of
Saratov, was made Minister of the Interior. At the head of the Department
of Agriculture, which was charged with responsibility for dealing with
agrarian problems, was placed Stishinsky, a large landowner, bitterly
hostile to, and hated by, the peasants. The composition of the new Ministry
was a defiance of the popular will and sentiment, and was so interpreted.