This book is by Ariadna Tirkova-Williams, one of the most prominent women on the Russian political stage, an activist of the Cadet Party and a prominent figure in émigré politics. In her memoirs she reconstructs the history of Russian parliamentarianism from the convening of the First State Duma in April 1906 to the dissolution of the Fourth State Duma after the February Revolution of 1917. Many of the questions posed by the author a century ago have not lost their relevance today. Why was the first parliamentarism attempt in the history of Russia unsuccessful? How responsible are liberals for the failure of democratic reforms? Was the revolution inevitable? Among other merits, the book contains portraits of a brilliant pleiad of Russian liberals: V. Maklakov, S. Muromtsev, P. Struve, D. Shakhovsky, A. Shingarev, each of whom A. Tyrkova-Williams knew personally. This unique work has never been published in Russia before. The book is accompanied by a foreword by V. Sheinis, ‘Liberal Intelligentsia between Autocracy and Revolution’.