Chairman of the State Duma Chairman of the State Duma The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (), also called "Speaker" (), is the presiding officer of the lower house of the Russian parliament. His responsibilities include overseeing the day-to-day business of the State Duma presiding and maintaining order at the regular sessions of the parliament. The Speaker also chairs the Council of the Duma which includes representatives from all the parliamentary parties and determines the legislative agenda. The Speaker of the Duma may intervene and express his views but is supposed to be unbiased in his activities
State Duma (Russian Empire) the army; the war could be won. For the Octobrists and the Kadets, who were the liberals in the parliament, Rasputin, and his support of autocracy and absolute monarchy, was one of their main obstacles. The politicians tried to bring the government under control of the Duma. "To the Okhrana it was obvious by the end of 1916 that the liberal Duma project was superfluous, and that the only two options left were repression or a social revolution." On 19 November Vladimir Purishkevich, one of the founders of the Black Hundreds, gave a speech in the Duma. He declared the