categories of society, separately: 56 seats from Zemstvo (1 from each guberniya), 18 seats from Assemblies of Nobility, 6 seats from the Russian Orthodox Church: 3 of them from white clergy, and 3 from black clergy, 12 seats from stock exchange committees, chambers of commerce and business associations, 6 seats from the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2 seats from the Parliament of Finland, which refused to send delegates. The State Council was the upper house of the parliament, while the State Duma of the Russian Empire was the lower house. Compared to the contemporary British House of Lords and Prussian Herrenhaus, the Russian upper chamber was more democratically constituted, as half of its members were democratically elected from different sections of society, while the Herrenhaus consisted of hereditary peers, and the House of Lords consisted of hereditary peers and clergy from privileged dioceses. The State Council ceased to exist after the February Revolution of 1917. The Soviet Union did not replace this council until 1991 when the State Council of the Soviet Union was created amid its imminent breakup. The latter council would be short lived and dissolved by year end. See also List of Chairmen of the State Council of Imperial Russia State Council of the Soviet Union State Council (Russia) References Sources Out of My Past: Memoirs of Count Kokovtsov; Hoover War Library Publications Number 6, Stanford University Press, 1935 Lieven Dominic. The Russian ruling elite under Nicholas II [Career patterns]. In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique, vol. 25, n°4, Octobre-Décembre 1984. pp. 429–454. DOI : 10.3406/cmr.1984.2022 1810 establishments in the Russian Empire 1917 disestablishments in Russia Defunct upper houses Government of the Russian Empire