Why The 1905 Revolution And How Did It Happened To The Tsarist Regime?

The 1905 revolution, highlighted the evident threat towards the Tsarist regime, though only started due to poor working conditions, the violent suppressing of the Russian people on ‘Bloody Sunday’ brought forth a wave of protest that argued for better leadership and civil rights for the people, and yet it wasn’t until 1906 that there became a decline in power in the Romanov rule, and so how did the Tsarist regime last until then, and what was the main reason?

Immediately after the revolution there was a lack of official responses from Nicholas II, as he failed to listen to the problems of the Russian people and situations that were happening within his own country, and it was only after some serious persuasion from his ministers that he finally understood the
seriousness of the situation.
This led to the drawing up of the first of two Manifestos’: the August Manifesto. Written up by Alexander Bulygin, the Manifesto presented three important points, firstly, the new elected assembly was to be called the Duma, secondly, the Duma’s purpose was only to give advice to the Tsar and could discuss proposed new laws, but essentially they had no power and could not enforce anything in terms of laws and changes for the Russian people. There was also to a difficult electoral process favoring peasants and landowner. However, urban workers, the national minorities, Jews and much of the intelligentsia were excluded from this and not given suffrage. The liberals were unimpressed by the concessions made by the Tsar as it was far from the parliament and constitution they wanted. Though some ultra-moderate liberals thought that the Manifesto gave a foundation for further discussions, yet nearly everybody else on the opposing side disregarded it as it was complete inadequate. The August Manifesto was entirely superficial and left the priorities of Tsarism intact. Although it could be argued that the concessions introduced in the August Manifesto were
the reason for the survival of the Tsarist regime it is obvious that little to no concessions were even made and furthermore those that were made held no power to actually change the lives of the Russian people. Moreover, the Tsarist regime, after the August Manifesto, still faced heavy opposition that threatened the Tsarist regime. Overall it is clear that the concessions made in the August Manifesto were not the main reason for the survival of the Tsarist regime.
After the failure of the August manifest, many strikes happened to gain the attention of Tsar Nicholas II, one of these strikes took places in October and placed Russia in a state of paralysis and so in the midst of desperation the Tsar only had two options to give serious concessions or military suppression, Tsar Nicholas II chose the Manifesto, and so another Manifesto was written: the October Manifesto. The October Manifesto also agreed on three main points, firstly, it assured the basic freedoms, including; freedom of speech, assembly and association. This meant that trade unions and political parties were now legal, which also meant it, was legal to oppose the Tsar’s government. Secondly, a Duma with actual power would be created, where new laws could only be enforced with the Dumas consent. Finally, the right to vote in Duma elections was extended to all classes of the population. The October Manifesto was widely received positively, people gathered to celebrate what appeared to be tremendous changes to the rights of the Russian people, the next general strike was cancelled and leader of opposition were left to discuss their next step. On first glance it seemed that all opposition had been quelled by the Manifesto however radical liberals declined the October Manifesto, as it was not extreme enough, they wanted an elected assembly to draw up a constitution for democratic Russia. Another group who strongly rejected the October Manifesto was socialists. The concessions made in the October Manifesto were able to sate the Russian people for a period of time, as the offered the Russian people what they truly wanted, civil rights, and yet the Tsarist regime was still at risk. The Tsarist regime was able to survive the latter of 1905 not because of the October Manifesto and the concession made but because of something else, as after the October Manifesto there were still strikes and uprisings, therefore there is a more important reason for the survival of the Tsarist regime as it survived for the 9 months after to the revolution before making any serious concessions and still 2 more months after this.
The survival of the Tsarist regime during these volatile months relied on one main thing: violent suppression. Much like the January revolution any uprisings and active opposition were met with violent suppression from the Tsarist regime. By the end of 1905, the government believed itself to have enough power to suppress the growingly hostile St Petersburg Soviet. The St Petersburg Soviet was a council of elected representatives of industrial workers, it began life as a strike committee, its purpose was to arrange and lead the October general strike in the capital. It rapidly led to imitators and within weeks of its formation 50 other cities and towns in Russia had their own soviets. After the general strike the St Petersburg soviet not only remained but also expanded. It published a newspaper, Izvestia and created their own armed militia to protect the city against counter-revolutionaries and also participated in political campaigning. All of this led to the St Petersburg soviet being on the radar of the Russian government. Whilst, the capitals Soviet willingly surrendered, its counterpart in Moscow did not. In the beginning of December, encouraged by its militant Bolshevik members, the Moscow soviet called for the general strike to depose what it called ‘the criminal Tsarist government’. It then gave out weapons to the city workers. The government’s response was the epitome of violent. Army units cleared the barricades that had been placed on Moscow’s streets and used artillery fire to reclaim control of its working-class districts. When the street conflicts were over, the army began retaliation: mass arrests, beatings and executions without trial. More than over 1,000 people died in the Moscow Uprising. The violent suppression of the Russian people ensured the survival of the Tsarist regime during 1905. The government used the army to eliminate those who opposed the Tsarist regime, but the more violence used by the government the more opposition that resurfaced, this led to a repetitive cycle of mass killings and arrests to ensure the survival of the Tsarist regime.
To conclude, though the concessions made by the Tsar were considerable and improved the lives of the Russian people, in comparison to the rights of those in the powerful western world countries, these concessions were little to nothing which meant there was still opposition against Tsar Nicholas II’s regime and to quell this, him and his government used his army and other violent tactics to ensure the survival of the Tsarist regime.