Council of the United Nobility

(full name, Permanent Council of the United Societies of the Nobility), from 1906 to 1917, the executive organ of the reactionary organizations of the nobility in Russia. The Council of the United Nobility was founded in May 1906, with the support of the tsarist government, during the Revolution of 1905–07. Its purposes were to consolidate the class forces of extreme reaction in the struggle against the revolutionary movement, to preserve the autocracy, and to strengthen the political and economic position of the large landowners. The council expressed the interests of “big feudal land-ownership” (V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 15, p. 5). It was intimate with circles in the imperial court and closely linked with the League of the Russian People and other Black Hundreds organizations; it was the stronghold of feudal reaction in the country.

The “united nobility” held 12 congresses, the first in May 1906, the second in November 1906, and the rest every February or March thereafter. The first congress adopted the council’s charter. The Council of the United Nobility was elected for a term of three years and carrried on the work of the “united nobility” between congresses. Until 1912 its chairman was Count A. A. Bo-brinskii.

From early 1911 attempts were made to establish an economic organization of the nobility, the Union of Landowners. The demands of the “united nobility” encouraged the autocracy’s reactionary measures, such as the dissolution of the First State Duma, the dissolution of the Second State Duma and the electoral law of June 3, 1907, the introduction of field courts-martial, and Stoly-pin’s agrarian policy. During World War I some figures in the council supported the opposition bourgeoisie, the Progressive Bloc; however, others supported G. E. Rasputin and the court camarilla. After the February Revolution of 1917 the Council of the United Nobility officially ceased to exist.