Fulfilling the Promise of the October 17 Manifesto

One of the major tasks of my government was to carry out the promise of the October 17 Manifesto to extend the right to vote in the election of deputies to the State Duma as far as possible, “leaving the further development of the principle of universal suffrage to the new legislative order.” ¹ This meant preparing a revised version of the Bulygin electoral law of August 6, 1905, that extended the suffrage to various groups not enfranchised by the Bulygin law. In carrying out the task, I had to deal with two proposals.