Russia was to have a _National Assembly_, a law-making body in which every class would have representation.
This Russian Parliament was to be composed of two bodies: an Upper and a Lower House.

The one to be called the "_Council of the Empire_," the other the "_Duma_." These were to be convoked and prorogued annually by Imperial Ukase.

The President, Vice-President, and one-half the members of the Council of the Empire (consisting of 178 members) were to be appointed by the Tsar; twenty-four more to be elected by the nobility and clergy, a very small number by some designated universities and commercial bodies; each _Zemstvo_ (of which there are fifty-one) being entitled to one representative.

The members composing the _Duma_, or Lower House, were to be elected by the Electoral Colleges, which had in turn been created by the votes of the people in the various provinces of the Empire for that purpose.
The two bodies were to have equal rights in initiating legislation.
But a bill must pass both Houses and then receive Imperial Sanction in order to become a law; and failing in this, cannot come up again during the same session.

Thus hedged about and thus constituted, it is obvious that a conservative majority was permanently secured and ways provided to block any anti-imperial or revolutionary legislation in the Duma.