Online meeting at the Presidential Library to tell about the history of Russian parliamentarism

The Presidential Library invites everyone to learn about the materials on the "Archive Fund of the State Duma of the Russian Empire". They will be discussed at the first online meeting from the series "History of Russia: Facts and Documents", which will be available on the institution's YouTube channel on April 20, 2021 at 11:00 Moscow time.

The online meeting at the Presidential Library is timed to coincide with the 115th anniversary of the opening of the State Duma, the first in the history of Russia. Many publications published at that time are of a journalistic nature or have a pronounced party coloration, designed to show the activities of certain political forces. Archival files objectively reveal to us the daily life and work of the deputies and employees of the Duma.

In total, the Archive Fund of the State Duma of the Russian Empire (fund No. 1278 of the Russian State Historical Archive) contains over 13 thousand files, distributed over 10 inventories. Thanks to the cooperation of the Russian State Historical Archive and the Presidential Library, these documents have been digitized and are now available to all interested researchers. The materials of the fund are extremely diverse: drafts and edited minutes of meetings of commissions, cases on consideration of bills, verbatim reports and journals of meetings of the State Duma, correspondence of chairmen of Dumas of various convocations with heads of ministries and departments, cases on consideration of financial and budget issues, and much more.

From the first days of the Duma's activity, letters and telegrams came to its address from different parts of the country with stories about the needs and aspirations of the rural and urban population. Preserved in the archive fund, they show a vivid picture of the life of Russia and its inhabitants a little over a century ago. Also, for the study of regional history, the cases of the Commission on Local Self-Government and the Commission on City Affairs and a set of cases on elective proceedings in different provinces and regions may be of great interest.

A number of bills related to the military and naval ministries were considered in closed sessions and are classified as "Confidential". These documents will be of interest to those who study the history of the Russian army and navy and questions of the country's defense capability.

The materials of the archival fund of the State Duma of the Russian Empire may be of interest not only to specialists in the history of Russian parliamentarism, but also to the widest circle of users.