Glossary: Duma (In full, Gosudarstvennaya duma--State Assembly)
DEFINITION:
Lower chamber of the legislature of Russia, established by Nicholas II after the Revolution of 1905, and functioning until 1917. Unlike advisory bodies such as the boyar (q.v.) dumy of the Kievan Rus’ period and city dumy of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Duma originally was to be a national representative body with the power to approve legislation. The first two Dumy (1905-07) were quickly dissolved because they opposed tsarist policies; the next two (1907-17) were more conservative and served full five-year terms.