Boyar Duma

A duma (дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term comes from the Russian verb думать (dumat’) meaning "to think" or "to consider". The first formally constituted duma was the State Duma introduced into the Russian Empire by Tsar Nicholas II in 1906. It was dissolved in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. Since 1993, the State Duma is the lower legislative house of the Russian Federation.

The term Boyar Duma is used by historians to denote the class of boyars and junior boyars (okol'nichii) collectively within the Russian Tsardom. In 1721, Peter the Great transferred its functions to the Governing Senate. In contemporary sources it is always called simply "the boyars" or "the duma", but never the "boyar duma". Originally there were ten to twelve boyars and five or six okol'nichii. By 1613 it had increased to twenty boyars and eight okol'nichii. Lesser nobles, "duma gentlemen" (dumnye dvoriane) and secretaries, were added to the duma and the number of okol'nichii rose in the latter half of the 17th century. In 1676 the number of boyars was increased to 50 and was by then constituted only a third of the duma.

Under the reign of Alexander II, several reforms were enacted during the 1860s and 1870s. These included the creation of local political bodies known as zemstvoes. All owners of houses, tax-paying merchants and workmen are enrolled on lists in a descending order according to their assessed wealth. The total valuation is then divided into three equal parts, representing three groups of electors very unequal in number, each of which elects an equal number of delegates to the municipal duma. The executive is in the hands of an elective mayor and an uprava, which consists of several members elected by the duma. Under Alexander III, however, by laws promulgated in 1892 and 1894, the municipal dumas were subordinated to the governors in the same way as the zemstvos. In 1894 municipal institutions, with still more restricted powers, were granted to several towns in Siberia, and in 1895 to some in Caucasia.

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