State Duma

• 1. Introduction

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  The State Duma sits just a few steps from Manege Square in central Moscow, and its history stretches back far further than its current address. Russia's lower house of parliament traces a line through centuries of political struggle, from the boyar councils of Kievan Rus' to the constitutional crisis of 1993. What kind of institution is it, really? Is it a genuine legislature, a forum for competing interests, or something closer to a rubber stamp? To understand the Duma, you have to start not in 1993 but in 1905, when Tsar Nicholas II was forced to create Russia's first elected parliament under the pressure of revolution.

• 2. Born in Revolution

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  Tsar Nicholas II, who lived from 1868 to 1918, created the State Duma of the Russian Empire in 1905 following the violence of the Russian Revolution of that year. His first two attempts to make it work failed. Each of those early parliaments was dissolved after only a few months. The third Duma, however, was the sole one to survive until the end of its full five-year term.

  The third Duma came into being after an electoral reform in 1907. Elected in November of that year, it drew its membership overwhelmingly from the upper classes. Radical voices had been almost entirely pushed out of the chamber. The intent was a more pliable body, and in many ways that is what was delivered.

  Yet the Duma proved more consequential than its architects expected. By existing at all, it had introduced a new kind of political space into Imperial Russia. Historians point to its role as one of the contributing factors in the February Revolution of 1917, the first of two revolutions that year. That uprising abolished the Tsarist autocracy and brought down the Tsardom itself. A body created to contain political energy had, in part, helped channel it toward the system's undoing.

• 3. Yeltsin's New Constitution

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  Boris Yeltsin introduced a new constitution in the aftermath of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, and Russian voters approved it in a nationwide referendum. That constitution formally established the State Duma as the lower house of the Federal Assembly, paired with the Federation Council as the upper chamber. The Soviet system of government was dissolved and replaced with a federal semi-presidential republic.

  The December 1993 elections produced a fragmented Duma. Pro-Yeltsin parties took 175 seats, while the left bloc won 125. The balance of power rested with the sixty-four deputies of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Eight parties cleared the five-percent threshold required for party-list seats. A pool of thirty-five deputies was permitted to form a registered group to represent regional or sectoral interests.

  Running the new chamber required a practical architecture. A steering body called the Duma Council managed daily business, drawing one representative from each party or group. The most politically charged task was dividing up the chair positions across the Duma's twenty-three committees. That distribution was handled through a power-sharing arrangement known as a "package" deal.

  The first Duma was elected for a two-year term, even though the Constitution stipulated four years. That decision set a precedent of flexibility in the rules that would not be the last of its kind.

• 4. The 1990s Forum

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  The 1995 election sharply reshaped the Duma's character. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation surged, winning 157 seats and becoming the leading party in the chamber. A Communist, Gennady Seleznyov, was elected Speaker. The "presidential party" Our Home - Russia managed only 55 seats by comparison.

  Through the second half of the decade, the Duma functioned as a significant lobbying venue. Regional leaders and businessmen seeking tax breaks or legislative favors looked to the chamber's leading committees. The defense committee, the foreign affairs committee, and the budget committee all drew sustained media attention and heavy lobbying activity. The Duma was not yet what it would become under subsequent administrations. For a period, the competition of interests within it was genuine.

• 5. United Russia's Dominance

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  After the 2003 elections, the newly formed United Russia party established a dominant-party system in the Duma. In every election that followed, United Russia won an absolute majority, meaning more than 226 seats. During Vladimir Putin's presidency, the Duma began to be widely described as a rubber stamp. Observers characterized the period as a shift toward electoral authoritarianism.

  The 2007 elections produced a four-party Duma, with United Russia, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and A Just Russia as the only forces present. Other parties failed to reach the threshold. That configuration held until the 2016 elections, when two smaller parties, Rodina and the Civic Platform, each managed to win a single seat.

  In 2008, a constitutional amendment extended the Duma's term from four years to five. That change, combined with the party-list system introduced in 2003, concentrated power further. The 7-percent electoral threshold used in the 2007 and 2011 elections was later repealed and a mixed parallel voting system was restored in February 2014, with the threshold reduced to 5 percent.

• 6. Plagiarism and Renovation

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  A 2016 investigation by Dissernet found that one in nine members of the State Duma had obtained academic degrees with theses that were substantially plagiarized and likely ghostwritten. The finding gave a concrete shape to wider questions about the quality of Russia's political class.

  Two years later, it became known that the Duma's main building would undergo reconstruction. Repair work began in May 2019 and concluded in September 2020. During that period, the legislature temporarily relocated to the House of Unions. Plans for the refurbished building included a new conference room designed as an amphitheatre.

  The 2021 elections added a fifth party to the chamber for the first time since 1999. The New People party joined the four established forces, producing a configuration not seen in over two decades. Vyacheslav Volodin, who has served as Chairman since 2016, continued in that role into the chamber's eighth convocation.

• 7. What the Duma Can Do

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  The Constitution of Russia gives the State Duma a specific set of enumerated powers. It must consent to the appointment of the Prime Minister. It can decide the question of confidence in the government. It appoints and dismisses the Chairman of the Central Bank, and appoints and dismisses the Chairman and half of the auditors of the Accounts Chamber.

  The Duma also appoints and dismisses the Commissioner for Human Rights, announces amnesties, and hears annual reports from the government. Any bill it passes moves next to the Federation Council for further debate and approval or rejection. On impeachment, the Duma can bring charges against the President, but a two-thirds majority is required.

  Membership rules set clear boundaries. Any Russian citizen aged 21 or older who holds the right to vote may stand for election as a deputy. A deputy cannot simultaneously serve in the Federation Council, cannot hold other representative offices, and cannot work in the civil service. The position is full-time and professional. The only permitted outside income is from teaching, research, or creative work. How consistently those rules have been honored is a separate question, one the Dissernet findings of 2016 brought into sharp relief.