The Rightists in Duma Election Campaigns and in the State Duma (1906—1917)
Igor V. Omelyanchuk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
Moscow City University, Moscow, Russia; Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Moscow, Russia, Omeliyanchuk@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7535-2612
Abstract
The article examines the participation of the rightists (monarchists, Black Hundreds, conservatives) and moderate right-wingers (Russian nationalists) in the Duma election campaigns, as well as their work in the State Duma. Initially opposed to the introduction of a representative institution with legislative status into the political system, the rightists nevertheless responded to the sovereign’s call to send “the best people” to the State Duma and took part in the elections. The electoral results of the monarchists improved from election to election. If their participation in the work of the First Duma went unnoticed, later they managed to form their own faction, and in the III and IV they received about a third of the seats. The lack of funds, the absence of “intellectual forces” and authoritative leaders in their ranks, as well as the uncompetitiveness of the conservative press, which prevented the rightists from achieving results in the first election campaigns, remained typical of this movement for a long time. They also failed to reap the benefits that they could have, that is a fairly broad support across all the social classes. However, the end of the first Russian revolution, the active intervention of the administration in the elections and the new electoral law changed the situation radically. The emergence of the moderately right-wing All-Russia National Union in the right camp, which did not cause such a sharp rejection of the moderate strata of society, also played a role. The rightists never managed to obtain a parliamentary majority, but in the III and IV Dumas they managed to influence the work of the people’s representation. But during the First World War, the positions of the Duma rightists weakened along with the weakening of power and the decline in the influence of monarchist ideology, and led them to their inevitable collapse even before the fall of the autocracy.
Keywords
Russian Empire, State Duma, the rightists, monarchists, nationalists, elections, electoral law.
For citation:
Omelyanchuk I. V. The Rightists in Duma Election Campaigns and in the State Duma (1906—1917). Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2025, no. 2 (54), pp. 209—232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2025.54.10.
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