AQA-Style Question 3a

Explain why Nicholas issued the October Manifesto in 1905

Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto as a way of reasserting control of the country in the aftermath of defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and growing unrest against his rule.

Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, a war that Nicholas had embarked on partly as an attempt to shore up his position through a decisive military victory against the ‘inferior’ Japanese, had served instead to both further highlight Russia’s backwardness and the incompetence of Nicholas himself. Just as in the Crimean War half a century before, the Russian army found itself under-equipped with long supply lines. It also found itself out-fought by the Japanese army - the much vaunted Baltic Fleet being destroyed within 24 hours of entering battle after a seven-month journey to the front. While the terms of surrender were not as harsh as they could have been, they nevertheless undermined Nicholas’s regime and increased calls for reform at home.

These calls for reform, again, can be traced back to the 1850s. The calls to bring in a constitution and universal suffrage, limit the powers of autocracy, remove censorship and repression, and improve the working conditions for peasants and the urban workers had been a dominant theme of Russian life for decades and had reached a head by this time. Opposition to Nicholas’ rule was growing among the Intelligentsia, nationalists, and the radical Social Revolutionaries. The power vacuum of Nicholas’ rule - described by one historian as ‘autocracy without the autocrat - also served to exacerbate the calls for reform.

The October Manifesto, then, can be seen as a response to these long-term trends that had been exacerbated by defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Basic rights, freedom of Speech and assembly had been granted and then quickly retracted by Alexander II, before being further curtailed by Alexander III and Nicholas. Equally, the participation in the Duma and an extension of the franchise may be seen as a response to calls made by liberal reformers since the formation of Zemstvas over half a century before. More particularly, the notion that the Tsar would govern in conjunction and in consultation with representatives of the people can again be traced back to the concerns of the Intelligentsia over this period.