English portfolio
dissolved and a new election law came into force that was favourable for the government. The
Russian political situation had nevertheless undergone an essential change: the Tsar accepted
the assembling of the first parliament in 1906. In the empire's parliament -- the Russian
Duma (which was regularly assembled from 1906 to 1917) -- Estonia was represented by 20
deputies. Of these, 13 were Estonians who formed a bloc with the Russian Constitutional
Democrats' Party (cadets). Although the Duma was unable to solve the acute Baltic problems,
it was nevertheless a means of making the Russian public and the world aware of them.
The reaction brought along another wave of Russification which reached the Baltic countries
in 1907. Encouraged by the new Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, the government
officials devised grand-scale plans to strengthen the central government and force the
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