To what extents can the events of 1905 in Russia be considered a revolution.
To what extents can the events of 1905 in Russia be considered a Revolution
The Russo-Japanese War accelerated the rise of political movements among all classes and the major nationalities, including propertied Russians. By early 1904, Russian liberals active in zemstvos, assemblies of nobles, and the professions had formed an organization called the Union of Liberation. In the same year, they joined with Finns, Poles, Georgians, Armenians, and with Russian members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party to form an antiautocratic alliance. They later promoted the broad, professional Union of Unions. In early 1905, Father Georgii Gapon, a Russian Orthodox priest who headed a police-sponsored workers' association, led a huge, peaceful march in St. Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar. Nervous troops responded with gunfire, killing several hundred people, and thus the Revolution of 1905 began. Called "Bloody Sunday," this event, along with the failures incurred in the war with Japan, prompted opposition groups to instigate more strikes, agrarian disorders, army mutinies, and terrorist acts and to form a workers' council, or soviet, in St. Petersburg. Armed uprisings occurred in Moscow, the Urals, Latvia, and parts of Poland. Activists from the zemstvos and the Union of Unions formed the Constitutional Democratic Party, whose members were known as Kadets.
Some upper-class and propertied activists were fearful of these disorders and were willing to compromise. In late 1905, Nicholas, under pressure from Witte, issued the so-called October Manifesto, giving Russia a constitution and proclaiming basic civil liberties for all citizens. The constitution envisioned a ministerial government responsible to the tsar, not to the proposed national Duma--a state assembly to be elected on a broad, but not wholly equitable, franchise. Those who accepted this arrangement formed a center-right political party, the Octobrists. The Kadets held out for a ministerial government and equal, universal suffrage. Because of their political principles and continued armed uprisings, Russia's leftist parties were in a quandary over whether or not to participate in the Duma elections. At the same time, rightists, who had been perpetrating anti-Jewish pogroms, actively opposed the reforms. Several monarchist and protofascist groups wishing to subvert the new order also arose. Nevertheless, the regime continued to function, eventually restoring order in the cities, the countryside, and the army. In the process, several thousand officials were murdered by terrorists, and an equal number of terrorists were executed by the government. Because the government was successful in restoring order and in securing a loan from France before the Duma met, Nicholas was in a strong position and therefore able to dismiss Witte, who had been serving as Russia's chief minister.
The First Duma, which was elected in 1906, was dominated by the Kadets and their allies, with the mainly nonparty radical leftists slightly weaker than the Octobrists and the nonparty centerrightists combined. The Kadets and the government were deadlocked over the adoption of a constitution and peasant reform, leading to the dissolution of the Duma and the scheduling of new elections. In spite of an upsurge of leftist terror, radical leftist parties participated in the election and, together with the nonparty left, gained a plurality of seats, followed by a loose coalition of Kadets and of Poles and other nationalities in the political center. The impasse continued, however, when the Second Duma met in 1907.
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1905
Introduction
Causes of 1905 Revolution
Course of 1905 Revolution
Results of 1905 Revolution
INTRODUCTION
Up to the end of the 19th century, Russia was an autocratic country. It was ruled by an autocratic Czar. He ruled as he liked. His will was the sole source of law, of taxation and justice. He controlled the army and all the officials. Through his special position on the Holy Synod, he controlled even religious affairs. His autocratic rule was supported by the privileged nobles, who possessed land and serfs, and held all the chief offices in the Czar's administration.
The mass of people were serfs. Serfs were 'slaves'. They worked on the estates of the nobles. They could be punished in any form by the nobles. They could even be sold as chattels by the nobles. Besides the serfs, there was a very small middle class in the towns. They were discontented with the backwardness of Russia.
The main theme of the Russian history in the 19th century is that the non-noble classes asked for an improvement in their wretched and poor conditions of life. When the Czarist government failed to do so, they revolted for the first time in 1905 and then for the second time in 1917, by which Czardom was finally overthrown.
CAUSES OF THE 1905 REVOLUTION
Reign of Alexander II
Reign of Alexander III
Reign of Nicholas II
Immediate cause of revolution
The causes of the 1905 Revolution went far back into Russian history. It was the product of more than a century of discontent and the discontent grew more rapidly after 1861.
A. THE REIGN OF CZAR ALEXANDER II ( 1855-1881 ) AND WIDESPREAD DISCONTENT AMONG THE RUSSIANS
Czar Alexander II began his reign in 1855 when Russia was defeated by Britain, France and Piedmont in the Crimean War. He thought that the chief reason for Russian defeat was her backward economic and social system -- most of the labour force were serfs who were ignorant and superstitious. In order to strengthen the dynasty, he decided to carry out a number of reforms to modernize the archaic institutions of Russia.
( 1 ) The Reforms of Alexander II
(i) Emancipation of the serfs (1861):
According to the Emancipation Edict of March 3,1861, the serfs were not only freed but granted a certain portion of the noble's estates. The nobles who lost their estates were to be compensated by the government. To the government, the peasants were to pay an annual sum for 49 years, at the end of which time the land was to be their property. In the meantime, the land was not the private property of the peasants, but was to be kept by the village communities. The village communities would allot a share of the village land to each peasant; in return, each peasant was compelled to repay the annual sum to the government.
These arrangements proved very unsatisfactory to the peasants. Firstly, their share of the village land was often insufficient to keep them above the level of grinding poverty. (It has been estimated that only 1/3 of the total area of agricultural land was given to the village communities; while more than 1/3 was kept by the state and the Imperial family, and 1/4 was till kept by the nobles.) Secondly, their annual sums to the government were often heavier than the dues (or rents) they had formerly paid to the nobles. Thirdly, the land of the village communities was ...
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These arrangements proved very unsatisfactory to the peasants. Firstly, their share of the village land was often insufficient to keep them above the level of grinding poverty. (It has been estimated that only 1/3 of the total area of agricultural land was given to the village communities; while more than 1/3 was kept by the state and the Imperial family, and 1/4 was till kept by the nobles.) Secondly, their annual sums to the government were often heavier than the dues (or rents) they had formerly paid to the nobles. Thirdly, the land of the village communities was often infertile because the nobles were allowed to give up the poorest parts of their estates to the peasants and kept the best parts for themselves. Fourthly, the village communities kept the village land as collective property. As the population of the village continued to increase, at each re-allotment of land the share of land granted to each peasant would become smaller and smaller. After the emancipation, peasant discontent increased and peasant riots continued up to 1917.
(ii) The creation of the Zemstva (1864) and the Town Councils (1870):
Before the reform, the administration of countryside was dominated by the nobles. The reform of 1864 created district and provincial assemblies (zemstva). The members of the district assemblies were elected by the inhabitants of each rural district, peasants and nobles alike. Members of the district assemblies then elected delegates of the provincial assemblies. This system of election tended to cut down the power of the nobles and gave more political right to the non-noble classes.
The assemblies were responsible for the administration local education and public health, the upkeep of roads and bridges, the encouragement of industry and agriculture and the election of the Justices of Peace. This was the first experiment in self-government in Russia and encouraged the Russians to demand for more political power in the future. Some zemstva members even thought of creating a constitutional monarchy to replace Czardom.
Like the zemstva in the countryside, there were also the town councils in the towns. They were elected by property owners and taxpayers. The town councils were responsible for the general welfare of the towns. Thus town councils served the same function as the zemstva in providing valuable lessons in self-government for the Russians and became the hotbeds of liberalism, challenging the rule of the Czar.
(iii) Other reforms:
The Czar also attempted to modernize Russian legal system by providing for open trial, the use of jury and the appointment of trained judges who were to be freed from government control. Other reforms included the introduction of a national conscription system, abolition of military colonies, a relaxation of the censorship of books and periodicals and an attempt to re-establish university autonomy and widen the basis of entry to secondary schools. The government also tried to stimulate economic development by building more railways and by giving financial subsidies to industry.
The intellectual classes thought that the reforms were too piecemeal and not radical enough. The emancipation of the serfs did not solve the land problem of the peasants. The creation of the zemstva system did not lead to the formation of a national parliament in Russia. As a result of their disappointment with the reforms, the intellectual classes formed secret revolutionary societies, aiming to overthrow Czardom.
(2) The Revolutionary Societies
(i) Nihilism:
Nihilism comes from the Latin word Nihil. Literally, the word, Nihil, means nothing. The Nihilists believed that the whole of the old regime including the Czar and the Orthodox Church, must be destroyed before a new society could be created. In the 1860's, most of the young educated intellectuals were Nihilists. They took to methods of terrorism and propaganda to overthrow Czardom and his society. They made many attempts on the Czar's life. They also wrote many articles in the newspapers to discredit Czardom.
After 1866, the Czar adopted repressive methods to deal with the Nihilists. Editors who did not disclose the names of the anti-government contributors were dismissed and imprisoned. Nihilists were expelled from the universities. Soon Nihilism lost its influence in Russia. Before it died out, Nihilism as a philosophical and literary movement emancipated many of the educated young men from any allegiance to the established order.
(ii) Populism:
Nihilism was individual rather than social in character. At best it achieved personal emancipation but it lacked a positive programme to reform society. Gradually in the 1860's and 1870's Nihilism was in part replaced and in part combined with Populism which possessed a political, social and economic programme.
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Populism was inspired by the European socialist movement (e.g. the Paris Commune of 1870 as well as the ideas of the First Socialist International) but it was essentially Russian in character. The essence of Populism was that the Russian peasantry would make a socialist revolution. Alter the revolution, the land of the nobles, the Czar and the church would be confiscated and given to the peasant communities. In the peasant communities, the peasants would share land equally.
The early Populist movement was in the main controlled by Lavrov. Lavrov's methods were educational and propagandist. He thought that the peasants would make the revolution if the Populist intellectuals taught and educated them in the creed of socialism. In 1873-1874, large numbers of educated young men and women in the towns threw aside their jobs, careers and privileged past, and went to the villages to become rural teachers, doctors, veterinarians and nurses in order to teach the peasants socialist creeds. They failed. The peasants lacked the point of contact with these young people. The ignorant peasants still believed that the Czar as the great father of his people would bring them reforms. On all occasions, the peasants were afraid of the police and even handed over these young people to the police. The police arrested these young people in large numbers. Mass trials marked the end of the 'going to the people'.
After the failure of peaceful, propagandist and educational approach to rouse the masses to make the socialist revolution, the Populists were split into two groups in 1879. One group was called the 'Black Partition' which continued to emphasize on propaganda and gradualism. The other group, influenced by Bakunin, Nechayev, was the 'Will of the People'. They mounted an all-out terrorist offensive against the Czarist government. They thought that as Russia was a centralized state, if the Czar and the important bureaucrats were killed the masses could be led by a revolutionary party to seize power. On March 13, 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by the members of the 'Will of the People'.
(3) An Appraisal of Alexander lI's reign
Alexander II was known to be the liberal Czar because he had carried out many reforms in Russia. Instead of removing the discontent of the Russians and strengthening the dynasty, the reforms had undermined the traditional base of support for Czarist rule (e.g. the nobles lost much of their economic and political power) (The nobles lost much of their land after the emancipation of the serfs. The zemstva system allowed the non-noble classes to take part in local administration and reduced the political power of the nobles in the zemstva.) and brought in new classes (e.g. the liberals in the zemstva, the peasants) highly critical of Czardom. The economic discontent of the peasants was expressed in the series of peasant riots from 1862 to 1917. The middle-class liberals in the zemstva advocated a Duma or Parliament. Some of the radical intellectuals became revolutionaries the Nihilists and the Populists. The assassination of the Czar in 1881 showed the deep gulf of antagonism which separated the Czar from the educated people in Russia.
B. THE REIGN OF CZAR ALEXANDER III (1881--1894) AND MORE POLITICAL DISCONTENT
Alexander II was succeeded by his son, Alexander III. Alexander III was an even more autocratic Czar. He concluded that any reforms to save the monarchy were useless as the last Czar was assassinated by the revolutionaries. He was determined to cancel the past reforms and suppress the revolutionaries. More than that, he even attempted to restore Russia to the pre-1861 situation, with the nobles sharing the power with the Czar. He still held high the banner of 'Orthodoxy--Autocracy--Nationality'.
( 1 ) His Counter-Reforms
(i) Autocracy:
From 1881 to 1894, the Czar took repressive measures to uphold his autocratic rule. Immediately upon ascending the throne, the Czar passed the Temporary Regulations to deal with the 'Will of the People'. Any people threatening public order were arrested by the police, imprisoned, exiled and court-martialled. The 'Will of the People' and terrorism died down as a result. Only a few revolutionaries remained.
Besides the suppression of the revolutionaries, the Czar took a number of steps aiming to restore Russia to the pre-1861 situation. In 1884, the Czar passed a new University Statue. This statue abolished university autonomy and banned students' political activities. The secondary schools were 'advised' to give more attention to the teaching of classical languages. Working class and peasant children were forbidden to study in secondary schools. Severe restrictions were placed on the press.
The most important attempt to restore autocratic rule was taken in 1889. In that year, a new post called the 'land captain' was created. Each district had several land captains. They were selected from the local nobility. They held wide authority over the peasant communities in each district. Even the functions of the Justices of the Peace were transferred to them. In fact, the land captains, like the nobles of the pre-reform era, exercised omnipotent administrative and judicial authority in the Russian countryside (the local officials feared the land captains because they could be dismissed by them).
The creation of the 'land captain' was followed by a drastic revision of the structure of the zemstva. The number of peasant delegates and westernized intellectuals was reduced. The representation of the nobles was markedly increased. The land captains were automatically members of the zemstva. Moreover, approval of the provincial governors was required for all zemstva employee --teachers, doctors, lawyers. Zemstva's decisions were subject to review by the provincial governors and the minister of the interior. In 1892, the municipal government also raised the property requirement in order to limit the right to vote of the radical intellectuals and the lower classes.
(ii) Orthodoxy:
Konstantin Pobedonostsev was appointed as the Procurator of the Holy Synod. Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Buddhists, Moslems and Jews were persecuted severely. Only the Russian Orthodox Church which sanctified Czardom was protected.
(iii) Russification (nationality):
The Russian language was enforced as the compulsory language in the Ukraine, White Russia, Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic provinces. Anti-semitism had been endemic in Russia but during the reign of Alexander III the 'pogroms' or massacres of the Jews became the policy of the government.
(2) Appraisal of Alexander III's Reign
On the surface, the autocratic Czar seemed to be successful in using repression to save autocracy. Yet the inadequacy of peasant landholdings remained to be a problem. The revolutionary movement was only driven underground. The revolutionaries were determined to make even greater efforts to overthrow Czardom. The first Russian Marxist group was formed in St. Petersburg in 1883. The attempt to overthrow Czardom was assisted by the proletariat which gradually built up as a result of the economic reforms in 1860's and continued to grow throughout Alexander III's reign. It seemed that the reign following Alexander III should experience the first revolution in Russia.
C. THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS II (1894 -- 1917) AND THE RAPID GROWTH OF ORGANISED POLITICAL MOVEMENTS
When Alexander III died in 1894, he was succeeded by his son, Nicholas II. He was the last Czar. He still believed that it was his sacred duty to uphold the principle of autocracy, but he was unsuited to be an autocrat. He was weak and indecisive in character. He easily succumbed to the influences of stronger personalities--the most important one was his wife, Princess Alexandra. She was most eager to preserve the full autocratic power for her husband, and later, for her son.
While the Czar clung steadfastly to the principle of autocracy, there was the emergence of more virulent discontented groups which presented a greater challenge to Czardom. The five discontented groups were: the proletariat class in the industrial towns, the Marxist-oriented revolutionary parties (Social Democrats and Social Revolutionaries), the middleclass political parties, the subversive groups among the national minorities and the peasants in the countryside. Thus a revolution was bound to take place in Russia. It took place when Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
( 1 ) The Rapid Growth of a Proletariat Class in the Industrial Towns
890 marked off the great breakthrough in Russian industrialization (which began in Alexander II's reign) as a result of French loans. (After signing the Dual Alliance with France in 1893, Russia was provided with huge French loans for industrial development.) The state took the leading role in building up, financing and managing nearly all the new industries. As a result, big industrial towns sprang up rapidly and the proletariat (the factory workers) became an important social class in Russian society. By 1914, their number probably reached about two and a quarter million. By 1917, Russia had about three million workers.
Although by 1914 Russia ranked fifth among the industrial nations of the world in terms of industrial production, the conditions of the workers were bad. Their wages were low just about 25 to 30 per cent of the British workers. Their working hours were long -- usually 15 hours a day. Their living conditions were intolerable--they were crowded together in barracks where there were no healthy and sanitary facilities. Conditions in the factories were also unsatisfactory there were no safety devices to protect the workers. Since 1882, the government had passed laws prohibiting employment of children under 12 and night work for women, laws creating a corp of factory inspectors and laws concerning labour contracts, but there was little improvement in the poor working conditions of the workers. (One reason might be that as the owners of the factories had to sell their manufactured goods to overseas markets, they had to reduce the wages of the workers and so to keep the price of their goods low -- the Russian goods were often of inferior quality. Another reason might be that workers had no collective bargaining power they had no right to strike and to form trade unions.)
To express their grievances, the workers organized strikes, even though they were illegal. In the 1890's the first organized mass strikes took place. The main aim of the strikes was betterment of the livelihood of the workers. As the 19th century came to a close, the main aims of many of the strikes were not only economic improvement but political reforms of the Czarist government as well. (Mass strikes took place among the workers in 1890 especially in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In 1903, there was said to be more than 85,000--87,000 strikers.)
Some of the workers became the members of the secret and illegal revolutionary parties--for example the Social Democratic Party. But some of them were enticed into the 'pro-government trade unions'. (The Czarist government also formed trade unions in the factories. The purposes of these pro-government trade unions were to find out the political sentiments of the workers and to find out antigovernment revolutionary leaders in the factories. Father Gapon led one such trade union.)
(2) The Middle-class Political Parties
Professional men and many members of the zemstva were liberal reformers. They opposed the idea of a revolution to overthrow Czardom. Some of them (the rightwing Liberals) hoped to establish a consultative representative body in the central government so that the Czar could always consult the people's representatives. Some of them (the leftwing Liberals) were more radical. They wanted the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, with universal, secret and direct suffrage .
3) The Marxist-oriented Revolutionary Parties.
(i) The Social Democratic Labour Party:
Although the ideas of Marxism were known to the Russians as early as 1870's, the first Marxist group was formed by Plekhanov, the Father of Russian Marxism, as late as 1883. In 1898, Lenin formed another Marxist party, known as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In August 1903, the Social Democratic Party held a party congress in London. This congress was important not only because all Russian socialist groups attended but also because it marked the important split among the Social Democrats into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks agreed to overthrow Czardom, transform Russia into a democratic bourgeois republic and in turn overthrow it by a socialist revolution. But they had great differences on the means to achieve their goals. This revealed two opposing ideas concerning the personnel who would make the socialist revolution. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin (Lenin's view had more support at the Congress, so his group was called the Bolsheviks (Majority Men) and the opposing group the Mensheviks (Minority Men)), wanted a small party consisting of highly-disciplined and devoted professional revolutionaries. The Mensheviks wanted a mass party consisting of both active supporters and non-active sympathizers. This split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks was formalized in 1905 and deepened in 1912 when the Bolsheviks expelled the Mensheviks from the party.
(ii) The Social Revolutionary Party:
While the Social Democratic Party appealed to the workers for support, a new party arose, which appealed to the peasants for support. This was the Social Revolutionary Party. Like the Social Democratic Party, the Social Revolutionaries believed in an imminent bourgeois revolution and the subsequent overthrow of the bourgeois government by a socialist revolution. But the Social Revolutionaries differed from the Social Democrats in three ways: first they gave to the peasantry a greater and more independent role in the revolutionary process; secondly, they thought that all land should be the property of the State and the State should parcel out land to all peasants on the basis of their labour ownership (In other words, those peasants who had greater labour force would be giverl more land); thirdly, they concentrated on assassination and other terrorist methods to achieve their goals.
(4) The Subversive Groups among the National Minorities
The many national minorities in the outlying districts (the Poles, the Finns, the Germans, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians) hated the Russification policy of Alexander III and Nicholas II. They thought that socially, culturally and economically, they were unfairly treated by the Czar. They demanded local autonomy. Some of them formed subversive groups, spreading anti-Russian propaganda. Some of them joined the Social Democratic and the Social Revolutionary Parties.
(5) The Peasant Riots in the Countryside
In the countryside, peasant outbreaks increased due to increasing land shortage and frightful famines in 1891 92, 1897, 1898 and 1901.
D. THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE 1905 REVOLUTION: THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR (1904-1905)
The Czar, Nicholas II saw in the possibility of a successful war to divert the discontent of the Russians from his despotic rule. In February 1904, the Czar chose to fight with Japan.
The Russo-Japanese War was a disaster to the Czar. The Russian armies suffered a series of defeats in the battlefields because they were ill-equipped, badly-armed and poorly trained. The corruption and the inefficiency of the government were exposed in the conduct of the war. Transportation broke down, bread prices soared up. The Czarist government was totally discredited in the eyes of the Russian people. In July 1904, shortly after the Russian defeat at the Yalu, the unpopular Minister of the Interior, Plehve, was assassinated by the Social Revolutionary terrorists. As war continued, discontent multiplied.
COURSE OF THE 1905 REVOLUTION
A. THE FIRST STAGE: THE BLOODY SUNDAY (JANUARY 1905)
When Port Arthur fell (the most crushing of the series of defeats in the Far East which determined the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War), discontent reached almost the breaking point. There was much labour unrest in St. Petersburg due to a rise in prices of food and other daily necessities.
In such an atmosphere, on January 22, 1905, a priest, Father Gapon, who was one of the organizers of the pro-government trade unions, decided to lead a group of workers to present a petition to the Czar at the Winter Palace. The petition included political and economic demands. Political demands were the calling of an elected duma, freedom of speech and assembly, guarantee of fair trials and an amnesty for political prisoners. Economic demands were more labour legislation, the eight-hour day, a reduction in indirect taxes and the introduction of a graduated income tax. The petition also demanded to end the war immediately. The petition was signed by 135,000 persons.
Gapon hoped that the Czar would grant reforms to lessen the discontent of the workers. Gapon's group was followed by a vast (about 150,000) but peaceful and orderly crowd. The crowd carrying the portraits of the Czar and of the Orthodox saints assembled on the square in front of the Palace. At this moment, the crowd still thought that they were the children of the Czar who would redress their grievances. Suddenly the guards of the Winter Palace fired on the crowd, more than a hundred persons were killed, and several hundreds wounded. After this bloody slaughter, the Russians lost their age-old faith in the Czar as the great guardian of his people .
B. THE SECOND STAGE (JANUARY-AUGUST 1905)
In all social groups in all parts of the country revolt flared up. About three million workers went on strike. The liberals formed the Union of Unions and clamoured for a constituent assembly. One novel feature of the revolutionary movement was the emergence of the first nationwide peasant organization the All-Russian Peasant's Union.
In August 1905, the Czar made some concessions. A Duma with advisory power (but not legislative power) elected chiefly by the rich people and the peasants was promised. Only the rightwing liberals were contented. To the peasants, political concessions meant very little. They continued with violent peasant riots and seized land from the landlords. The workers were also discontented because they would not have any vote in the proposed Duma.
C. THE THIRD STAGE (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1905)
A wave of strikes by the workers developed into a general strike from September 20 to October 30, 1905. The swiftness of the strike surprised the revolutionaries. The strikers were organized by the discontented workers themselves and not by the revolutionaries. The workers and peasants had learnt some organizing abilities through their strikes and riots before 1905. Strikers set up soviets, or workers' councils to direct the strikes. Soviets were formed first in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow and other industrial centres. The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks attempted to control the workers' movement by competing. for the leadership of the soviets. The soviets fell mostly under Mensheviks' influence. This was the first, greatest, most thoroughly carried out and most successful strike in Russian history. The whole country was paralysed.
The advisers of the Czar saw that the situation was hopeless. Witte, a minister of the Czarist government, persuaded the Czar to grant a constitution on October 30, 1905. The Czar signed a Manifesto promising (a) certain fundamental civil liberties: freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of worship and freedom from arrest; (b) certain political liberties: a broad and general suffrage, calling of an elected Duma with legislative power -- no laws would be promulgated without the approval of the Duma. By a stroke of pen, Russia became a constitutional monarchy.
THE FOURTH STAGE (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1905)
Leon Trotsky, Chairman of St. Petersburg Soviet, distrusted the Czar and his advisers. (Leon Trotsky was an independent Socialist. He tried to reconcile the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.) He supported the Moscow Soviet to stage a new general strike. The strike was easily suppressed because most of the Russian people were satisfied with the October Manifesto. The Czar, with support from the army, arrested the leaders of the St. Petersburg Soviet and Moscow Soviet. (Trotsky was arrested. He was sentenced to a life exile in Siberia. He escaped before reaching his destination.) In November the entire Bureau of the Peasants' Union was arrested. By the end of 1905, the Revolution was over.
