Nicholas and the Dumas

Delegate - Someone who has been elected to vote for and or make decisions for a certain group, A representative.

Veto - The right to reject a decision made by parliament.

Dissolve - When a parliament is dissolved it means the parliament has ended and a new one has to be elected. 

• Although tsarism was a crisis in October 1905, by April 1906 the tsar and his government had gained back control of Russia
• However even if the tsar was back in control, he had made some promises back in 1905 that he needed to fulfill, one of those being Nicholas' promise to share his power with an elected parliament.

• The Fundamenta laws established Russias state Duma.
• Russias first parliament had about 500 delegates 
• The duma had a real role in making new laws for Russia. However, the powers of the duma were limited:
  • The Dumas powers were matched by an upper house of parliament, the imperial state council. The state could block anything passed by the Duma. Half the state council were chosen directly by the tsar and would always vote whichever way he wanted.
  • The Tsar himself had very important powers. He alone had the authority over the armed services. He chose all his government minorities. He had the right to veto any duma legislation. He had the power to dissolve the duma at any time. When the Duma wasn't in operation, he had the right to pass any laws he thought were necessary.

• The reasons for all these limitations was that neither Nicholas nor his ministers trusted the idea of allowing the Russian people to have a say in how Russia and its empire should be governed 
• Nicholas hated the idea of limiting his sacred autocratic powers in any way.
• At the same time, Nicholas and the government did treat the Duman as important by inviting all delegates to Nicholas' Winter palace where Nicholas delivered a speech