These delivered in the October Manifesto, which promised free speech and an elected assembly called the Duma, whose agreement would be needed before any laws could be passed. Although Nicholas II initially promised greater liberties and said the Duma would have the power to act to ensure these liberties were upheld, he did not allow the Duma to elect its own ministers, and he claimed the right to discharge the council whenever he wanted. Reaction to the October manifesto was divided. Many of the rebels felt that their voices had been heard, and that the landowner would have to accept their demands. However, minority of extreme revolutionaries, including the Bolsheviks felt that the Manifesto did not go far enough in addressing the grievances of the Russian people. There was some armed resistance, but the tsar’s soldiers suppressed this, and its seemed for a time that stability would return to …show more content…
He proved unwilling to enforce the reforms that he had promised and issued the Fundamental Laws, which asserted his full autocratic powers. The police and the army continued to harass real or imagined critics of the tsarist regime, it is estimated that 15,000 people were killed and 70, 000 arrested within a year. The first statement of the fundamental laws was that supreme autocratic power belongs to the tsar. This denied the hopes of those who saw the Duma as a means of bringing more representative government to Russia. The tsar could introduce laws and could veto those passed by the Duma. Minister were still appointed by the tsar, who controlled military and foreign