Kravets, I. A. On the Defi nition and Destiny of the Monarchic Bicameralism in Russia at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract: The article is devoted to the theoretical grounds and historical aspects of the Russian bicameralism at the beginning of the 20th century. The author describes the role of the State Duma and State Council in a two-chamber system of government and evaluation of bicameralism by Russian constitutionalists. In his research the author studies the principles of organization and interaction of the State Duma and State Council as the two chambers of the legislative system. The author takes into account historical and political conditions of reformation of the state structure in Russia that infl uenced the creation of the fi rst two-chamber system of the Russian government. The author also discusses opinions of state reformers expressed at the meeting in the Tsarskoye Selo held on February 14 and 16 in 1906 regarding the principle of equal rights of the chambers and the role and importance of bicameralism for the Russian state and institution of monarchy. Based on the comparative legal and particular historical methods of analysis the author describes the main methods of forming the parliament chambers (especially the upper chambers) in the constitutional states t the beginning of the 20th century and specifi cs of the Russian monarchic bicameralism. The author comes to the conclusions that the Russian monarchic bicameralism was infl uenced by the negative attitude of liberals and progressive community towards establishing the State Council as the upper chamber. Political views of Kadets on the upper chamber created the negative public opinion on the State Council in Russia. This is the reason why the representatives of the liberal and socialist parties saw the State Duma as the body of the representation of people and therefore refused to recognize the representative nature of the State Council. Political destiny of the monarchic bicameralism s the fi rst bicameralism in Russia was important both as the constitutional experience of interaction between legislative chambers at the overall national level but nevertheless failed to be demanded for improvement of the state structure.

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