A non-partisan candidate: count I.I. Tolstoy and the election to the State Duma in 1907

After the June 3rd coup, the question arose about the future of parliamentarism in the Russian Empire. The answer to it depended on the possibility of cooperation between the 3rd Imperial Duma, part of the legislative assembly in the late Russian Empire, and the top government. This issue was at the center of pre-election discussions in the fall of 1907, in which Count I.I. Tolstoy, a well-known public and statesman. His political program turned out to be too liberal for the Russian society. Tolstoy set out his «political platform» in interviews, articles, letters and diaries. The Manuscript Division of the Russian National Library also holds an unfinished essay «Russia on the eve of the 3rd Imperial Duma». These materials make it possible to expand the idea of the limit of concessions that society was willing to make in dialogue with the authorities.

Imperial Duma, elections, russian empire, revolution, parliamentarism, autocracy, society