The present Douma is the outgrowth of well-nigh a century of agitation dating back to the secret societies which brought about the unsuccessful military insurrection of December 26, 1825.
There is an apocryphal story which has gained currency through the efforts of friendly English journalists, to the effect that Czar Alexander II was about to proclaim a constitution on the very day when the bomb of the terrorists blasted the hopes of the liberal portion of the nation. The story would make a fitting climax for “The mysteries of the court of St. Petersburg.” The pretended “constitution,” however, has since been published and appears to have been nothing but a scheme to create a number of special commissions, with a limited measure of popular representation and with the power to make recommendations to the Imperial Council.