October Manifesto

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Document issued by Tsar Nicholas II in October 1905. In response to the unrest caused by the Russian Revolution of 1905 and on the advice of his minister Sergey Witte, Nicholas promised to guarantee civil liberties and establish a popularly elected Duma. The manifesto satisfied the moderate revolutionaries, and further unrest was crushed. In 1906 the Fundamental Laws were established to serve as a constitution and to create the Duma. The Duma was in fact given only a limited voice in the government, and the civil rights actually granted were far less substantial than those promised by the manifesto.

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The October Manifesto was published at the peak of Revolution of 1905, following the general strike of October of 1905 in which 2 million people took to the streets and railroads were blocked. The government considered two possible solutions to the crisis: a military dictatorship and liberal reforms to win popular support. Those who supported reforms were led by Sergei Witte, who wrote a report urging Tsar Nicholas II to grant a constitution, a representative assembly, and civil freedoms. On October 27 (October 14 O.S.) Nicholas ordered that the main points of the report were to be listed in the form of a manifesto. The draft was written overnight by Prince Alexei Obolensky. Nicholas signed it on October 30 (October 17 O.S.), and the next day it was published in the newspaper Pravitelstvennyi Vestnik (Governmental Courier).

The October Manifesto gave the ruling body permission to use every means to end disorders, disobedience, and abuse, and gave the "highest government" the responsibility to act, in accordance with the tsar's "unbendable" will, to "Grant the population the undisputable foundation for civil freedom on the basis of protection of identity, freedom of conscience, speech, assemblies and unions." Voting rights were promised, "to some extent, to those classes of the population that, at present, do not have the right to vote," and it was proclaimed as an "undisputable rule that no law can be passed without the approval of the Duma and for the possibility of supervision of the lawfulness of the actions of the administration to be given to the national representatives." The manifesto concluded by calling upon "all true sons of Russia to end the unimaginable revolt" and, along with the emperor, "to concentrate all forces on restoring peace and quiet on the homeland."

The October Manifesto was highly controversial. There were mass meetings and demonstrations welcoming its promise of freedom in the regional capitals and many other cities. Similarly, there were mass meetings and demonstrations, often violent, calling for an autocracy of "patriots" and condemning the manifesto as perpetrated by revolutionaries and Jews. In the three weeks after the manifesto was issued, there were outbreaks of violence in 108 cities, 70 small towns, and 108 villages, leaving at least 1,622 dead, and 3,544 crippled and wounded.

The liberal reaction to the manifesto was mixed. Right-wing liberals saw it as a realization of their political hopes and united as the Union of October 17. Left-wing liberals, joining together to organize the Constitutional Democratic Party, believed that further reforms were needed, and their leader, Paul Milyukov, stated that nothing changed and the struggle would continue. Left-wing parties and leaders saw the manifesto as a sign of the government's weakness; its capitulation under revolutionary pressure showed that the pressure on the government had to be intensified.

The political program embodied in the manifesto began to take effect on October 19, 1905, with the appointment of a government headed by Witte. Between October 1905 and March 1906 the government published a series of orders regarding political amnesties, censorship, modification of the State Council, and other matters. All of these were incorporated in the second edition of the Fundamental Laws, passed on April 23, 1906.

The most important outcome of the October Manifesto was the creation of a bicameral representative institution and the legalization of political parties, trade unions and other social organizations, and a legal oppositionist press.

Bibliography

Ascher, Abraham. (1988, 1992). The Revolution of 1905. Vol.1: Russia in Disarray; Vol. 2: Authority Restored. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Harcave, Sidney. (1970). First Blood: The Russian Revolution of 1905. New York: Macmillan.

Harcave, Sidney, trans. and ed. (1990). The Memoirs of Count Witte. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

Mehlinger, Howard D., and Tompson, John M. (1972). Count Witte and the Tsarist Government in the 1905 Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Szeftel, Marc. (1976). The Russian Constitution of April 23, 1906: Political Institutions of the Duma Monarchy. Brussels: Editions de la Libraire encyclopédique.

—OLEG BUDNITSKII

This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (January 2008)

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.

The manifesto and the constitution resulted in insignificant democratization as the Tsar continued to exercise veto power over the Duma, which he dissolved and reformed several times.

Opposition

The October Manifesto divided opposition to Tsar Nicholas II. 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. Nicholas II demonstrated his hold on power by dismissing the first and second Duma.

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article: October Manifesto (in English)

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

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