Parliamentary activity of deputies with the repeated parliamentary status in late imperial Russia: case study of the State duma of the 4th convocation, 1912-1917

In late imperial Russia, the composition of political elite was complicated due to the inclusion of the State Duma deputies and elected members of the State Council. A working hypothesis of the research conducted is formulated as follows: within the parliamentary elite of late imperial Russia the deputies with the repeated parliamentary status, who constituted a distinct sub-elite group, played a special role. The study bases on the resources of the web portal «Parliamentary History of Late Imperial Russia». In order to establish a correlation between the repeated status, indicators of parliamentary activity, and socio-cultural characteristics of the deputies of the 4th convocation, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was calculated. The paper focuses on the status positions of deputies in the Duma hierarchy, various types of legislative activity, forms of parliamentary activity aimed at influencing the decision-making process. The research confirmed the hypothesis about a special role of the deputies with the repeated parliamentary status in the everyday life of the Duma. In addition, the article revealed a relationship between some forms of parliamentary activity and particular socio-cultural characteristics of deputies, first of all the Orthodox or Catholic confessions, higher education, professions associated with intellectual work.