An appeal to historical experience about the role of a new state body - parliament - in the field of protection of historical and cultural heritage is relevant not only in the academic sense. The purpose of the article is to consider parliamentary legislative initiatives and requests to the government on issues of historical and cultural heritage. The source of the article is the legislative materials of the Russian parliament. The article is based on a systematic approach, the principles of objectivity, historicism, and concreteness. Special methods were also applied: historical explanation, historical-legal, comparative-historical. It was revealed that changes in state cultural policy, including in the field of cultural heritage protection, are associated with the transition of Russia to a constitutional monarchy, which also meant limiting the legislative power of the emperor. Despite the undemocratic electoral law to the State Duma, society was given the opportunity to participate in legislation on the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The subject of the research was parliamentary legislative initiatives and requests to the government. Deputy inquiries made it possible to exercise parliamentary control over the Council of Ministers, which was formed by the king and was responsible only to him. A substantive analysis of five legislative initiatives, three requests and appeals is given. The legislative proposals were aimed at perpetuating memorable events and preserving individual monuments, for which significant financial allocations were required. On this issue, there was more mutual understanding between the deputies of various party factions and the government, although the cultural sphere was still financed on a leftover basis. Disagreements were much more serious when considering parliamentary inquiries related to intangible cultural heritage, in particular, attitude to the national language.
