ABSTRACT
When the First Duma was dissolved in 1906, the tsar appointed Peter Stolypin prime minister. Stolypin's relations with the Dumas were less successful than his land program. The "demi-semi-constitutional monarchy," as Richard Charques terms it, provided a political arena very different from the heady atmosphere of 1905 to 1907. During Stolypin's ministry the tsarist government made its last best effort. In 1911 a crisis was precipitated when Stolypin introduced a bill to establish zemstvos in six western provinces in which the predominance of the Belorussian and Ukrainian peasantry was secured over the Polish gentry. Until Stolypin's death Rasputin had little influence on government, but afterward his recommendations came to matter, even though popular ideas about his importance were unwarranted. The reactionary deputy, Purishkevich, now attacked Rasputin openly in the Duma. Schemes for a palace coup were being bruited around the court with little effort at secrecy.
