The State Duma of the Russian Empire and the National Issue

The article highlights the attempts of the State Duma of the Russian Empire and its largest factions to resolve the national issue, which aggravated in the second half of the 19th century. It is indicated that this issue was not considered in the Duma as a common, complex and separate problem. No committee for national affairs was established in any of the Duma convocations. The leftists (even the Cadets and the Progressists (with reservations)) considered national restrictions as part of the common problem of civil equality. National problems were assumed to be caused mainly by the authoritarian policies of the government. The rightists and the Russian nationalists tended to accuse the national minorities (primarily Jews) of various sins and to seek advantages for Russians and Orthodox Christians in all controversial cases. The Octobrists, who led Duma activities from 1907 to 1915–16, considered the Finnish, Polish, Jewish, Ukrainian and other national issues as independent and strove to follow a pragmatic position in their resolution. In some cases they wanted to protect the integrity of the empire and the rights of the Russian people; in other cases they were ready to accept the demands of the national outskirts’ representatives which they considered as fair. The article also analyzes two roll-call votes on national issues and shows that the Octobrists and the Progressists had no common opinion, while the Jewish issue was clearly “toxic” for both. The Duma was unable to develop or even outline the ways to solve national problems. As a result, without guidance, the Duma’s activities led to the aggravation of the national issue. The main demands of the national minorities were not fulfilled, and some measures to centralize the empire seemed clearly insufficient to national right-wing representatives thus contributing to the growing discontent of the latter. At the same time, the elections to the State Duma and its activities caused politicization and political mobilization of the population of the entire empire, especially some ethnic groups, in particular, the Turkic ones.

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