The History of the Dumas from 1906 to 1914 Was a History of Lost Opportunities by the Tsar and His Ministers'. Assess the Validity of This Statement.

Ð''The History of the Dumas from 1906 to 1914 was a History of lost opportunities by the Tsar and his Ministers'. Assess the validity of this statement.

In the setting up of the first duma the tsar and his ministers had the opportunity to meet the demands of the people without having to lose any authority or change the system that was already in place too drastically, he also could have given the people representation that they so desperately wanted.

The events of Bloody Sunday made the Tsar and his governments sit up and listen to the public after the protests following Bloody Sunday. The creation of the first Duma from the October Manifesto was supposed to benefit the Tsar and most importantly the people.

However the Tsar didn't keep to his promises and he disregarded the duma that he had created after the October manifesto. To please the people and his opposition he should have kept his promises. However he wanted to keep power and not have to have the consent of the Duma to pass laws.

The people and the opposition thought that they were going to get a voice in government as the members of the Duma were elected by the people.

The loopholes and catches in the Duma set up by the Tsar and his government stated that some do have the vote but only property owners, so the property owners were happy with everyone else feeling betrayed. This also created rifts between revolutionary lists.

There were four dumas in total between 1906- and 1914 which in the main the Tsar refused to listen to. The Tsar could have used them to his advantage by listening to the opinions of the people. He could have compromised if not giving in.

The original Duma would have been the most influential. It would have shown the public that he was working with them and shown the revolutionaries that he was changing the autocracy state they wanted to get rid of. Instead he dissolved it as he thought it was too radical and was afraid to lose power and change the methods of rule too much. An opportunity to keep popularity squandered.

After dissolving the first duma another duma was voted in as of February 1907 however this only lasted until the June. This duma had a higher representation of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Once more he dissolved this body because he felt they were expressing anger against the army;