State Duma

Duma Building on Manege Square

The history of the duma dates back to the boyar dumas of Kievan Rus' and Muscovite Russia as well Tsarist Russia.[2][3][4] The State Duma of the Russian Empire was founded in 1905 after the violence and upheaval in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was Russia's first elected parliament. The first two attempts by Tsar Nicholas II (1868–1918) to make it active were ineffective. Subsequently, each of these Dumas was dissolved after only a few months. The third Duma was the only one to last until the end of its five-year term.

Nine members of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma in March 1917. From left to right:
Seated: V. N. Lvov, V. A. Rzhevsky, S. I. Shidlovsky, and M. V. Rodzianko (Chairman);
Standing: V. V. Shulgin, B. A. Engelhardt, A. F. Kerensky, and M. A. Karaulov.

After the 1907 electoral reform, the third Duma, elected in November 1907, was largely made up of members of the upper classes, as radical influences in the Duma had almost entirely been removed. The establishment of the Duma after the 1905 Revolution was to herald significant changes to the previous Russian Imperial autocratic system. Furthermore, the Duma was later to have an important effect on Russian history, as it was one of the contributing factors in the February Revolution of 1917, the first of two that year, which led to the abolition of the Tsarist autocracy in Russia and the overthrow of the Tsardom.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, the Soviet system of government was abolished and a new Constitution was introduced and approved by a referendum. The new Charter transformed the Russian Federation into a federal semi-presidential republic, with a bicameral parliament composed by the State Duma and the Federation Council.

In the December 1993 elections pro-Yeltsin parties won 175 seats in the Duma versus 125 seats for the left bloc. The balance of power lay with the sixty-four deputies of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Only parties that won more than five percent of the vote were given party-list seats: eight passed the threshold in 1993. In addition to those eight parties, a pool of thirty-five deputies was entitled to form a registered group to reflect regional or sectoral interests. Business was governed by a steering committee, the Duma Council, consisting of one person from each party or group. The most important task was dividing up the chair positions in the Duma's twenty-three committees, which was done as part of a power-sharing "package" deal.

Despite the fact that the Russian Constitution states that the State Duma is elected for four years, it was decided to elect the first State Duma for two years.[5] The 1995 election resulted in a strong boost for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which became the first political party of Russia and elected 157 seats: a Communist, Gennady Seleznyov, was elected as Speaker of the State Duma. The "presidential party" Our Home – Russia won 55 seats.

During the second half of the 1990s, the Duma became an important forum for lobbying by regional leaders and businessmen looking for tax breaks and legislative favors. The work of the leading committees, such as those for defense, foreign affairs, or budget, attracted a good deal of media attention and lobbying activity.

In the early 2000s, following the 1999 parliamentary elections, the pro-presidential Unity party and the Communist Party were the leading forces in the State Duma.

After the 2003 elections, a dominant-party system was established with the newly formed pro-presidential United Russia party dominating. In all subsequent elections, United Russia has always received an absolute majority of seats (more than 226). During the presidency of Vladimir Putin, the State Duma became increasingly referred to as a rubber stamp,[6] with there being a shift to electoral authoritarianism.[7]

After the 2007 elections, a four-party system was formed with a United Russia, Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia. Other parties could not get enough votes to go to the State Duma. Only in 2016 elections, two other parties, Rodina and the Civic Platform, were able to get one seat.

In 2008, after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution, the term of the State Duma was increased from four to five years.

A 2016 exposé by Dissernet showed that one in nine members of the State Duma had obtained academic degrees with theses that were substantially plagiarized and likely ghostwritten.[8]

In 2018, it became known that the State Duma building will be reconstructed. In March 2019 it became known that the repair will begin in May 2019 and will end in September 2020. During this period, the State Duma was temporarily housed in the House of Unions. In addition, a draft of a new conference room, which would be an amphitheatre, was presented.[9][10][11]

After the 2021 elections, in addition to the four main parties, the New People party was also elected to the State Duma. Thus, for the first time since 1999, a five-party State Duma was formed.[12]

According to the law adopted in 2014 the Russian territory is divided into constituencies which are used for elections of single candidates per constituency. However, a single "united" constituency is used for the distribution of party-list.[15]

Voting device

Bills of the State Duma are adopted by a majority of the total number of deputies of the State Duma, unless another procedure is envisaged by the Constitution. All bills are first approved by the State Duma and are further debated and approved (or rejected) by the Federation Council.

Relatively few roll call votes have been published that identify individual deputies' votes.[16] The votes of individuals are recorded only if the voting is open and the electronic method is used.[16] While not all votes are officially roll call votes, every time a deputy electronically votes a computer registers the individual deputy's vote.[17]

• Ivan Rybkin (1994–1996)
• Gennadiy Seleznyov (1996–2003)
• Boris Gryzlov (2003–2011)
• Sergey Naryshkin (2011–2016)
• Vyacheslav Volodin (since 2016)