Duma Duma A duma (дума) was a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term comes from the Russian verb думать ("dumat’") meaning "to think" or "to consider". The first formally constituted duma was the State Duma introduced into the Russian Empire by Tsar Nicholas II in 1905. The Tsar dismissed the first duma within 75 days and re-elected second duma within three months. It was dissolved in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. Since 1993, the State Duma is the lower legislative house of the Russian Federation. Historians use the term "Boyar Duma" to denote the council of boyars and
Duma (epic) from Poltava, no melodies are played with the voice during the performance of the duma. Melodic instrumental playing is confined to preludes, interludes and postludes. No transcriptions or recordings of authentic duma performance by members of the Chernihiv tradition have come down to us. Discussion regarding other traditions of duma recitations have shown a significant amount of contamination in the 20th century from non-traditional sources which has rendered many of their recordings atypical and unauthentic according to the traditional style in which the kobzari performed dumy. Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 7 (1965): 247-251. Slavic Review 50 (1991): 566-575. Duma (epic)