[1] Assemblies could be summoned either by the tsar, the patriarch, or the boyar duma, to decide current agenda, controversial issues or enact major pieces of legislation.

[2] In the 16th century, Tsar Ivan the Terrible held the first Zemsky Sobor in 1549, holding several assemblies primarily as a rubber stamp but also to address initiatives taken by the lower nobility and townspeople.

The Time of Troubles saw the Zemsky Sobor elect Boris Godunov as Tsar in 1598 during the succession crisis after the end of the Rurik Dynasty.

The Zemsky Sobor of Amur region (Приамурский Земский Собор) of the Provisional Priamurye Government was convened in Vladivostok on July 23, 1922, by Mikhail Diterikhs during the Russian Civil War.

Diterikhs was a general of the White Army in the Russian Far East and convened the assembly four years after the execution of the Romanov family to proclaim a new monarchy, naming Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich as the Tsar of Russia, with Patriarch Tikhon as the honorary chairman of the Zemsky Sobor.