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BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STATE COUNCIL |

[ INSTITUTIONS / The State Council / Brief history of the State Council ] |

The State Council, in its role as an advisory body within the system of state power, is not something new for Russia. The first State Council was formed as part of the liberal reforms undertaken by Tsar Alexander I.

On March 26, 1801, Alexander I abolished the council that had been set up at the imperial court by his grandmother, Catherine the Great, in 1768. A few days later, his decree of March 30, 1801, established a new advisory body, referred to in the decree as the Indispensable Council.

At the same time, Alexander I ordered Mikhail Speransky, a young but talented and experienced government official, to prepare a program of liberal reforms for the whole system of state power. Speransky called the State Council the “summit of the government system and its final link” in his progressive reform program. As Speransky saw it, the State Council was to be “a stratum in which all parts of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of power unite in their principal relations and, through it [the council], reach upward to sovereign power.”

Speransky wrote a memorandum on the formation of the State Council, pointing out that previously “considerations regarding the drafting of laws were a matter of personal trust, and in passing from one set of hands to another had neither unity nor due respect.” Alexander I drew heavily on Speransky’s memorandum in the speech he gave at the State Council’s opening ceremony.

The State Council’s birthday could be considered January 1, 1810, the date the manifesto on its establishment was published. From the moment it was created, the State Council became the highest advisory body on legislative matters in the Russian Empire. It kept this status for more than a century – right up until 1917.

The members of the State Council were appointed by the tsar. Initially, it had 35 members, including all the ministers and the most trusted officials appointed by the tsar. The tsar was the chairman of the State Council; in his absence, this post was held by a chairman whom the tsar appointed annually from among the council’s members. From 1812-1865, the chairman of the the State Council simultaneously served as chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Attached to the State Council were the Commission for Drafting Laws and the State Chancellery headed by the State Chancellor. The State Chancellery was responsible for all the State Council’s paperwork, but also carried out important work on future laws by editing the texts of draft legislation submitted to the council for discussion.

Draft legislation was first examined by various departments and then submitted to a general session of the State Council. For a law to come into force, it had to be approved by the tsar. When deciding whether or not to approve a law, the tsar could take into account the opinions expressed by the majority or minority of State Council members, or he could reject both views. This procedure underscored the State Council’s consultative nature.

In 1906, Tsar Nicholas II introduced a bicameral legislature. The State Duma was established as the lower house of this first Russian parliament, while the State Council became the upper house.

From this moment, the State Council became a semi-representative organ. The tsar appointed the council’s chairman, deputy chairman and half of its members, but the other half were elected from among the clergy, the nobility, the provincial zemstvo organizations (a form of local government), the Academy of Sciences, university professors and large industrialists’ and merchants’ associations.

The State Council examined legislation passed by the State Duma before it went to the tsar for approval. The two chambers had equal rights in the legislative process. Only legislation that had been approved by both houses of parliament went to the tsar.

The State Council ceased to exist after the February Revolution of 1917.

The Committee of State Council Department Chairmen was responsible for examining a project to reorganize the ministries. The council also examined the budgets and staff structure of state institutions and considered complaints regarding decisions by departments of the Senate and other state bodies. A commission for considering public petitions was also attached to the council.

The State Council played a major part in preparing and publishing the first Complete Collection of Laws and Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. By 1833, a total of 33 volumes of the Complete Collection of Laws and 15 volumes of the Code of Laws had been completed.

During the reign of Alexander II, the State Council played an active part in preparing the legislative base for the reforms of the 1860s-1870s.

The State Council was re-established only under Mikhail Gorbachev, the first president of the USSR, who decided to revive it in 1991.

As chairman of the State Council of the USSR, Gorbachev signed the minutes of the council’s meetings. This council, the second in the country’s history, lasted only a few months and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The current State Council was created by President Vladimir Putin on September 1, 2000.

As was the case in the past, the current State Council is an advisory body attached to the President.

More detailed information on the formation, structure and functions of the third State Council in Russian history follows.

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