1850–1910
○ Heart failure
The Roman law scholar and Kadet leader who chaired Russia's first constitutional parliament
On 27 April 1906, opening the First Duma: "I bow to the State Duma. A great deed is being accomplished; the will of the people receives its expression in a legislative body founded on immutable laws."
Sergei Muromtsev, a Roman law scholar and founding leader of the Kadet Party, was the face of Russian constitutionalism. As a Moscow University professor, he pioneered the sociological study of law and chaired the Moscow Juridical Society. In 1906 he was elected chairman of the First State Duma (426 of 436 votes), leading Russia's first constitutional representative body; after its dissolution he was jailed for signing the Vyborg Appeal. His 1910 funeral became the largest opposition demonstration since 1905, enshrining him as a legend of Russia's constitutional history.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1875Docent in Roman law, Moscow University
- 1877Doctorate in law; professor at Moscow University
- 1880–1892Co-editor, Juridical Vestnik; chairman, Moscow Juridical Society
- 1905.10Co-founder, Central Committee member, Kadet Party
- 1906.4–7Chairman of the First State Duma
- 1908Three-month imprisonment for the Vyborg Appeal
- 1910Death; funeral became a mass opposition demonstration
Chairing the First Duma and the Vyborg Appeal
Elected from Moscow to the First State Duma in April 1906, Muromtsev became its chairman on 10 May. The new assembly lacked established parliamentary procedure and precedents for its presiding officers. He sought to curb personal insults among deputies and sharp attacks on ministers while defending the representative body's authority and liberal reform. A later account says that, to act above party, he left the Kadet Central Committee and stopped attending party meetings. After Nicholas II dissolved the Duma, Muromtsev argued that the elected assembly should continue its work and chaired a meeting of deputies in Vyborg, Finland, protesting the dissolution. The appeal adopted there by Kadet, Trudovik and Social Democratic deputies called on the public to resist the dissolution. For signing it, Muromtsev and the other signatories lost eligibility for election to the Duma and local self-government bodies, and he served a three-month prison sentence in Moscow in 1908.