Committee of Ministers (Russia)

The Russian Council of Ministers is an executive governmental council that brings together the principal officers of the Executive Branch of the Russian government. This includes the chairman of the government and ministers of federal government departments.

The Ministries and the Committee of Ministers (Комитет Министров) were created in the early 19th century as part of the Government reform of Alexander I. The Committee was an advisory board for the Emperor but could only consider matters referred to it by the monarch or when details for implementation of policy were brought to it by ministers. However, the Committee had little collective power and did not make decisions, just recommendations. When the monarch presided personally over Committee meetings it was referred to as a council as the monarch had decision/policy making authority that the committee did not possess.

After Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto of 1905 granting civil liberties and a national legislature (Duma and a reformed State Council), the Committee was replaced with a Council of Ministers. Unlike the Committee of Ministers, this council was presided over by a Chairman (Совет министров) besides the Emperor, and functioned as a policy making cabinet with its Chairman acting as Prime Minister (head) of the government. As a result, from 1905-1917 the Council of Ministers collectively decided the government's policy, tactical direction, and served as a buffer between the Emperor and the national legislature.

The meetings of the Council were in two parts, "official and secret". The first followed a printed agenda; the second was devoted to the discussion of confidential questions, basic issues of policy and so forth.

Nicholas's hostility to parliamentarism emerged at the very beginning of his reign in 1894; to him, it would cause Russia to disintegrate. According to S. Kulikov: "Nicholas was pursuing the entirely specific idea of gradually replacing absolutism with dualism, rather than with parliamentarism." On July 1, 1914, the Tsar suggested that the Duma - half of the deputees were nobles - should be reduced to merely a consultative body. On 24 August 1915 the Progressive Bloc, including the entire membership of the Duma, except the extreme right and the extreme left, was formed. It had the support of the press, the public opinion and, to a considerable extent, most of the Council of Ministers as well. The deputies tried to bring the Council "uninterested in reform" under control of the Duma, but their demands for a "ministry of confidence" were not received by the Tsar."

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