[3] It had powerful supporters in the Tsar's court, the State Council and the Civil Service, and led a campaign against the liberal reform proposals of the Duma.
Those who remained, the majority, there was a 'hardening resolution to defend their property rights', and these landowners started loud calls for a restoration of law and order in the provinces and countryside.
[1] This coincided with a change in the nature of the zemstvos, who previously had been liberal organisations, and now became 'pillars of conservatism', and from being focused on the improvement of the peasantry's condition, they now became preoccupied with the most narrow concerns of the gentry.
The largest estates and landowners joined the United Nobility, led by Count Aleksei Bobrinsky, and now established to defend the property rights of the gentry, and their domination in local politics.
[6] One third of the members of the State Council, a consultative assembly of nobles, belonged to the United Nobility, and helped to bar any passing of liberal reforms from the Duma.