Issue of a decree “On provisional regulations of societies and unions”

March 4 (17), 1906 Nicholas II issued a decree "On the provisional regulations of societies and unions". This paper developed the ideas of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905 and became the first in the history of the Russian Empire legislative act authorizing the activity of various political entities, including the opposition.

The first workers' organizations in Russia began to appear in the second half of 1870. In May 1875 in Odessa, there was the "Union of workers in South Russia" led by E.O. Zaslavsky, pursuing both economic and political objectives. In December 1878 in St. Petersburg formed the Northern Union of Russian Workers, headed by V.P. Obnorskii and S.N. Khalturin. The organization released a policy paper - an appeal "To the Russian workers", which indicated the need for political struggle, demanded political freedom, called the workers for unity and internationalism.

Workers' organizations of the 1870's contributed to the growth of activity and cohesion of the Russian proletariat, produced the rise of the labor movement in the 1880-s.
The Decree "On the provisional regulations of societies and unions" regulated the establishment, operation and termination of public organizations. It was based on two documents: the project of the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Industry, Ministry of Trade and Industry and the project "On trade unions” of interdepartmental committee, chaired by V. N. Kokovtsov formed in 1905 to accelerate the development of factory legislation.

The Regulations applied to all societies and unions as the organizations of wage-earners employed in commercial and industrial enterprises and to enterprises’ owners(all the organizations were called trade unions). The creation of organizations, "threatening public order”, and political societies, controlled from abroad, was forbidden.

Temporary regulations have turned the organization of societies and arrangement of assemblies from a potential to a legitimate right of the population. But they were not free from serious internal contradictions, which immediately caught the attention of the public. Freely, without application and approval of the authorities, only non-public meetings were allowed, while for public assembly, gathering "an indefinite number of persons, or even if a certain number of people, but personally unknown to the organizers of the meeting”, the former authorization-based procedure applied.

Administration and the police were authorized to close any meeting under the pretext of the threat "to public order and security", and violating the rules established by decree there was a fine or arrest.

A bill, to replace the Provisional Regulations, was prepared in 1910 (published in January 1914). It called for a ban on entry into society of workers under 17 years old, unemployed and those who had worked at a company less than a year; established the age limit for participation in voting (21 years) and election to the Board (25 years). Authorities were granted the right to request lists of all members of society (according to the Provisional Regulations — only of board members); were prohibited from opening offices of society in other cities. Since this bill had not been submitted to the State Duma, the Provisional Regulations were in effect until February 1917.

Lit.: Потолов С. И. Власть, предприниматели и профессиональные рабочие организации России в начале XX в. (Проблемы законодательства и административной практики) // Предприниматели и рабочие России в условиях трансформации общества и государства в XX столетии. Материалы международной научной конференции, посвященной памяти профессора Ю. И. Кирьянова. Кострома, 2003; То же [Электронный ресурс] // URL: http://www.hist.msu.ru/Labour/Article/Potolov/statya.htm; Программа реформ П. А. Столыпина. Документы и материалы. М., 2002; Сафонов А. А., Туманова А. С. Гражданские свободы в законотворческой деятельности Государственной Думы императорской России // Правоведение. 2006. № 3. С. 4-17.