High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! State Duma of the Russian Empire was a legislative assembly in the late Russian Empire. It was convened four times. Under the pressure of the Russian Revolution of 1905, on August 6, 1905, Sergei Witte, appointed by Nicholas II to manage peace negotiations with Japan, issued a manifesto about the convocation of the Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. In the subsequent October Manifesto, the Tsar pledged to introduce further civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. The State Duma was the lower house of a parliament, and the State Council of Imperial Russia was the upper house.