This image depicts the short-lived Second Duma, the representative legislative body of the Russian Empire elected in early 1907, in the person of its chairman Fedor Golovin (1867-1937). The poem accompanying this image tells us that the smaller, black hand represents the Duma’s diminished right wing, while the left hand represents the growing strength of the left wing. This suggests the increasing influence of the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks--factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The Second Duma was dissolved after only three and a half months, and new rules were implemented for subsequent elections.

Image: The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia