Das russische Verfassungsexperiment 1906–1918: Zum Verhältnis von Tradition und Modernität

Abstract

The Russian Constitutional Experiment, 1906–1918: On the Relationship between Tradition and Modernity

The revolution of 1905 turned the virtually unlimited autocracy of the Russian Empire into a constitutional monarchy. However, this experiment survived the fall of the Tsar in 1917 by only a few months and was obliged to give way to the Bolshevik dictatorship. This article investigates how far the failure of constitutionalism in Russia was due to the special circumstances surrounding the crisis of 1917, or whether it is better explained by the ill-conceived application of a notion imported from Western Europe that could not be grafted onto indigenous Russian traditions. The article discusses the competing concepts of Western-style parliamentarianism on the one hand and a ‹Russian› ideal of direct popular representation on the other (i.e. the ‹Zemskij Sobor› dating from the era before Peter the Great). It investigates the constraints within which the State Duma worked, and the social and political practice of Russian constitutionalism between 1906 and 1918, in order to analyse how deeply rooted constitutional concepts were in late Tsarist society. Special attention is paid to the following themes: the capacity of the Duma to address practical problems; the changing character of political culture; new forms of the public sphere and the growth of civil society; the relationship between parliament and the peasantry; the activities of both supporters of a parliamentary order and their right- and left-wing opponents; and finally the importance of ‹Russian›-style counter-proposals to ‹Western›-style constitutionalism during the crisis years of 1917/18.