State Council (Russian Empire)
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The State Council (Russian: Госуда́рственный сове́т, IPA: [ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet]) was the supreme state advisory body to the tsar in the Russian Empire. From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under the Russian Constitution of 1906.
18th century
Early tsars' councils were small and dealt primarily with external politics.
1810–1906
The State Council was established by
There were four departments of the council: Legislative; Civil and Ecclesiastical Administration; State Economy; and Industry, Science and Commerce. Each department had its own presiding officer (State Secretary) and met separately to discuss matters assigned to their departments. There were also plenary sessions of the whole council presided over by the Chairman of the State Council.
The council as a whole examined projects of law proposed by the ministers who were ex-officio members. The majority of their sessions concerned the budget and state expenditures but they would examine anything submitted to them. They had no authority to propose changes to the law, to examine anything that was not submitted to them for examination or decision-making authority. The council only made recommendations to the monarch, who could support the majority, a minority, or disregard the council's recommendations altogether, as he saw fit. According to Dominic Lieven it "played no part in the formulation of foreign policy and its members' access to the emperor was very limited.[1]
1906–1917
During 1906–1917, the status of the State Council was defined by the Russian Constitution of 1906. Its chairman was appointed by the tsar. Half of its members were appointed by the tsar from persons distinguished at civil and military service, and half by elections from various categories of society, separately:
- 56 seats from guberniya),
- 18 seats from Assemblies of Nobility,
- 6 seats from the Russian Orthodox Church: 3 of them from white clergy, and 3 from black clergy,
- 12 seats from stock exchange committees, chambers of commerce and business associations,
- 6 seats from the Russian Academy of Sciences,
- 2 seats from the Diet of Finland, which refused to send delegates.
The State Council was the
The State Council ceased to exist after the
See also
- List of Chairmen of the State Council of Imperial Russia
- State Council of the Soviet Union
- State Council (Russia)
References
- ^ D.C.B. Lieven (1983) Russia and the Origins of the First World War, p. 76
Sources
- Out of My Past: Memoirs of Count Kokovtsov; Hoover War Library Publications Number 6, Stanford University Press, 1935
- Lieven Dominic. The Russian ruling elite under Nicholas II [Career patterns]. In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique, vol. 25, n°4, Octobre-Décembre 1984. pp. 429–454. DOI : 10.3406/cmr.1984.2022 [1]