Parliament parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land. It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma. Three categories of population, comparable to the Estates-General of France but with the numbering of the first two Estates reversed, participated in the assembly: Nobility and high bureaucracy, including the Boyar Duma The Holy Sobor of high Orthodox clergy Representatives of merchants and townspeople (third estate) The name of the parliament of nowadays Russian Federation is the Federal Assembly of Russia. The term for its lower house,
Duma junior boyars collectively within the Russian Tsardom. In 1721 Peter the Great transferred its functions to the Governing Senate. Contemporary sources always refer simply to "the boyars" or to "the duma", but never to the "boyar duma". Originally there were ten to twelve boyars and five or six "paddu". By 1613 the duma had increased to twenty boyars and eight "okol'nichii". Lesser nobles, "duma gentlemen" ("dumnye dvoriane") and secretaries, were added to the duma and the number of "okol'nichii" rose in the latter half of the 17th century. In 1676 the number of boyars increased to 50 - by then