Peterhof Conferences of 1905

conferences at which A. G. Bulygin’s plan for a consultative assembly (the Bulygin Duma) was debated.

The conference was held at the tsar’s summer residence in Novyi Peterhof (near St. Petersburg) on July 19, 21, 23, 25, and 26; Tsar Nicholas II presided. The 43 participants included members of the Council of Ministers, a number of senators, members of the State Council, grand dukes, and persons especially invited. The extreme rightists at the conference—including A. A. Bobrinskii, A. P. Strukov, A. S. Stishinskii, and A. A. Naryshkin—criticized the plan for an electoral franchise based on both class and property qualifications; they demanded that elections be carried out along purely class lines. A majority at the Peterhof Conferences rejected this demand, relying on the peasantry, which was as yet inactive in the revolution and was therefore seen as a conservative force and a source of support for the monarchy. The secret protocols of the Peterhof Conferences were published by P. N. Miliukov in Berlin in 1910.