Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/40

 democratic majority, a socialistic and revolutionary Duma was returned with no majority at all for the Government. If you will look at these figures which show the composition of the first and second Duma, you will see the difference exactly. In the first Duma

the so-called Cadets or constitutional democrats numbered 187, and in the second Duma the representatives of socialism, in both its forms of agrarian and urban socialism, formed the majority of 180. This Duma knew its weakness very well, and tried to keep clear of any direct conflict with the Government. But it was useless : this chamber, too, was dissolved, after 103 days of existence.

It was a dramatic struggle, that struggle which was carried on by those two Dumas, and it was observed with keen sympathy and followed with the closest attention by the whole civilised world. The Duma was dead again. But—"Long live the Duma!" The memorable greeting of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, while it acknowledged the crisis through which the young Russian representative institutions were