October Manifesto

Demonstration 17 October 1905 by Ilya Repin
(Russian Museum. St. Petersburg).

The October Manifesto (Russian: Октябрьский Манифест, Манифест 17 октября) was issued on October 17 1905 (October 30 in the Gregorian calendar) by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia under the influence of Count Sergei Witte as a response to the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The official name of the document is The Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order (Манифест об усовершенствовании государственного порядка). The Manifesto addressed the unrest in Russia and pledged to grant civil liberties to the people: including personal immunity, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association; a broad participation in the Duma; introduction of universal male suffrage; and a decree that no law should come into force without the consent of the state Duma.

The manifesto was a precursor of the first ever Russian Constitution.

In reality, the Manifesto and the Constitution didn't result in a significant increase in freedom or government representation for the Russian people, as the Tsar continued to exercise veto power over the Duma, and he dissolved and reformed it several times.

Opposition

The opposition to Tsar Nicholas II was divided by the October Manifesto. The Kadets were appeased by the idea of having freedom of speech and a truly representative government. However, the Marxists maintained that Nicholas had really only made a small concession. The Duma was only a shell of democracy, as it could not pass laws without the approval of the Tsar, and freedom of speech was heavily regulated. The dismissal of the first and second Duma also showed that Nicholas II maintained his absolute power.

References

• The Memoirs Of Count Witte New York & Toronto (1921), Armonk, New York (1990). ISBN 0-87332-571-0.