The events, which took place during 1905, showed clearly the inability of the tsar to react appropriately and soon enough to all the different forms of protest against the government and the existing political.
It became clear, that the old, traditional connections between the tsar and his (former) supporters, the peasants, which was characteristic for the rule of the tsar as “caring father” of all Russians, were totally destroyed.
In 1905, the absolute monarchy was forced to make mayor political concessions to restore the peace in the country. For the first time the masses supported the “revolution” whereas before the demand for political change had always come from the elite of the country, e.g. the students and the intelligentsia.

Everything that happened during 1905 can be traced back to the incident on January 9, 1905, the “ Bloody Sunday”. The “Bloody Sunday” developed within a general atmosphere of disturbances that started around 1903 and went on until 1907.
The furious beginning of the year, 1905, spread the ideas of revolution all over the country. In January the sporadic strikes in St. Petersburg began to spread rapidly. Strangely enough the police union sponsored these strikes. An Orthodox priest, Father Gapon, led one of them: the Assembly of Russian Workmen. When these strikers tried to march to the imperial palace to petition the tsar, the tsar sent out the Cossacks to cut them down. Famous "Bloody Sunday" (January 1905) was the result. The petitioners actually only wanted to protest minor abuses but between 200 and 5000 demonstrators were shot.
One interesting fact on these unions is that Sergei Zubatov originally designed them with the support of the government, in order to keep the workers away from more radical organisations. (In 1905 it was not clear to say whether Father Gapon was used by the police, or whether Father Gapon used the police’ support to achieve his goals, especially because he was the most known leader of the opposition to the masses).

Bloody Sunday created a wave of strikes and demonstrations all over the country, in which the strike movement turned into a more radical revolutionary movement. At this point the unorganised demonstrations became more organised, because the parties who wanted a political change had to catch up with the uprisings to set themselves ahead of the movement.
It was the first time that revolutionary pressure on the government came from the masses. More than 400 000 workers went on strike in January, but one of the most cruel reactions toward the demonstrators happened during June, 1905, in Odessa, where more than 2000 people who had joined the mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin were killed.

There was no way for the government to avoid making political concessions, but the documents that were signed by Nicholas II on the 18th of February could not calm the masses. The concessions he offered were not acceptable. It was surely not enough to offer a powerless duma, elected only by few people, while the opposition wanted a real parliament.
At the 2nd congress of the Zemsty in Moscow (April 1905) the majority of the delegates demanded a Constitutional Assembly.

One of the things the tsar offered was the idea of submitting suggestions on political subjects to him. All over the country hundreds of meetings took place to draw petitions, finally over 60 000 petitions were submitted (but only a few were read). During this “Petition-Campaign” the Liberals where able to create a “Union of Unions” not only to speak for the workers rights, but to involve them in the Campaign for political freedom. As a Leader they elected Paul Miliukov who turned out to play a major role in the 1905 Revolution.

The government tried to oppress the strikers but also started a war with Japan (1904/1905) in order to unite the country. Nevertheless that war was not successful. It was started with the idea that a small, victorious war would bind the nation together and would strengthen the rule of the government and. The complete destroying of the Baltic-Fleet and especially the loss of Port Arthur showed that the Japanese Military had not only better equipment, but also superior intelligence. The event in the street of Tsushima then ended the hope of a glorious victory for the Russians.
After this disaster the demands for a political change were made much more radically.

The decisions of municipal council in the St. Petersburg municipal council in Moscow to demand political reforms showed how serious the revolution had become: Usually the Councils were conservative, and stayed away from the liberal movement.
But even the congress of the marshals of the nobility spoke for a change in the government to preserve Russia from anarchy.
As the tsar finally reacted, and the “Bulygin Constitution” was released, it became clear that the opposition could no longer accept this offer. It was what the liberals had dreamed of in the 19th century, but in 1905 demands had gone much further.
On August 27 the Government issued rules to allow students to hold assemblies in the universities. The idea behind this was “to let off steam”, but soon the universities changed into political clubs where workers and oppositional leaders could speak freely.
The strike movement did not stop, but changed into a strike that paralysed the whole country. It started with the walkout of the Moscow printers on December 17, by October 13 all the traffic in Russia stopped and thousands of workers and employees were on strike. The Strike-Headquarters were located in universities, where the Union-Leaders could be sure to be save from police intervention
Prime Minister Witte suggested to Nicholas that there were only two possibilities: either mayor political concessions, or a military dictatorship. But the only real possibility was major political concessions because it was clear that Nicholas would not be able to control such a big country with the help of the Army. The war against Japan had ended in September and the Army still suffered from the defeats.

During these turbulent days in St.Petersburg the first soviet was created. Similar soviets sprang up in over 50 other cities all over the country. From October 13 on in St.Petersburg there existed two authorities: on the one hand the soviet, and on the other hand the legal city government. During these days neither the legal government nor the soviet had the power to overcome the other. At this point the 1905 Revolution had failed. As the situation showed, the autocratic system was seriously weakened, but the opposition was not strong enough to complete the revolution by abolishing the monarchy. The soviet kept its supporters from storming the jails to release the imprisoned.

The Zemtsty wanted a declaration of human rights like that of the French Revolution, including freedoms of speech, press and assembly, the right to elect a duma which took part in legislation, and finally a control over the state budget.
On October 17 Nicholas finally agreed to the “October Manifesto” which fulfilled all the wishes of the opposition, excluding the control over the state budget. This reaction was a total surprise. Nobody had expected that the tsar would make such major concession and would give up so much of his power.
In the following days the strike ended, and thousands of people went out on the streets to celebrate this event.

All the concessions Nicholas made would have maybe calmed down the country completely, if they had been made earlier. But since a constitution still was out of sight, the concessions only brought the system some more years before its final collapse. It is very important to note that it was the liberal movement who led and succeeded in this revolution, and not the Bolsheviks, who played an auxiliary role. The Bolsheviks staged the Moscow Upraising in December 1905, but it ended in a total disaster. The government, especially Nicholas II, never felt that it had to follow all the promises it had made in the October manifesto, especially since it had given these promises under pressure.
As soon as the situation had calmed down -this was about in 1907- all the concessions that were made in 1905 were abolished, and Nicholas had returned to his role of an absolute monarch.
But as the revolution was a liberal one, the Socialists had learned a lot. It can be said, that without 1905 the Revolution of 1917 maybe never would have taken place. One of the factors that became very clear to the socialist was that to get a successful revolution, the support from the masses was deadly necessary.

As a result of the 1905 revolution, the Liberals accepted the October-Manifesto and showed that they wanted reforms, and not another system. That is the reason why they accepted the Manifesto, instead of going on fighting. They were certainly afraid of the growing influence of the Socialists, because once they lost the control over the masses to the Bolsheviks, their worst dreams would come true: the demolition of the monarchy. The Menshewiks thought that in order to reach their own socialist revolution the middle class had to be supported with their own “liberal“ revolution. At least that was their interpretation of Marx, and they did not believe in a socialist revolution within their lifetime. But the Bolsheviks turned out to become much more radical, since they wanted to bring down the existing system with an alliance between workers and peasants, and not with the bourgeois-class.

The socialist opposition leaders recognised that the government was already weakened, and they kept on fighting towards a socialist revolution.
Another result of the failed revolution was that the peasants lost their trust in the tsar, because the government fulfilled none of their goals, like “land-redistribution”. The opposition against the tsar grew, especially when a new election law was finally passed, that kept the majority of the population out of any form of political involvement.
In the years after 1905 the idea that the Bolsheviks had to react much more radically to achieve their goals became more and more popular. After the release of the October-Manifesto it became clear that the peasants had completely misunderstood the Manifesto, in interpreting it as an agreement of the tsar to allow them to take land from the landlords. This distrust increased as they got to know about pogroms going on in the cities against Jews, and the police failing to punish those responsible.
From 1905 on, the Bolsheviks fought to get full power, and they did not want any other party to share in that power. Before 1905 the Socialists only played a secondary role, but from then on they changed and became one of the most active and effective parties of the opposition.
It seems as if the reactions of the masses to Bloody Sunday surprised Nicholas. He saw himself confronted with the danger of a civil war if he did not react at once. It is very hard to understand why Nicholas reacted late, as the situation was nearly out of control and did not even react in the right way. The tsar was criticised not only from the opposition, but even from loyal, royal supporters on the right wing, as they saw Nicholas not strong enough to fight against the uprisings with a major police action. For them it seemed, that the tsar was outselling his position, and not strong enough to protect his role.
The “winners” of the 1905 revolution were the liberals and their organisations like the Union of Unions, the Zemstvo movement and the Union of Liberation; It had been their tactic and their strategy that finally made the tsar signing the October Manifesto.
But as the next years showed, the liberals were only a small fraction between the radical Bolsheviks on the left, and the conservative radicalism and the government’s secret police on the right. That is why the liberals became more and more unimportant in the followings years and totally vanished with the Communist upraising.

 Bibliography:

Pipes, Richard:  The Russian Revolution 1899 - 1919,
Fontana Press, London 1992
 

Ploetz, Karl:  Auszug aus der Geschichte,
27. Auflage, A.G. Ploetz Verlag, Wuerzburg 1968
 

Ulam, Adam B.:  Russia’s Failed Revolutions –
From the Decembrists to the Dissident,
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1981