Russian Revolution

Bloody Sunday -

January 9, 1905; peaceful marchers in St. Petersburg carried a petition to Tsar Nicholas II asking for higher wages, a shorter work day, better working conditions, a legislative assembly, and universal manhood suffrage, hoping reform would come from above. In reaction, Nicholas II hastily ordered his guard to fire into the unarmed crowd; when news of one hundred dead and hundreds more wounded escaped, public opinion almost universally turned against the old regime.

Russo-Japanese War -

1904-1905; result of increasingly expansionist Russian foreign policy in the East; intended as a way to increase the prestige of the autocracy at home and abroad, but resulted in a humiliating defeat for Russia. This war marked the first time any Asian power had defeated a European power in a real war. With the defeat, Japan emerged as a major threat to Russian interests in the east and, in Russia, even moderates lost confidence in the old regime.

October Manifesto -

Issued October 1905 by Tsar Nicholas II in response to the unrest and violence of the previous months in 1905. The Manifesto pledged to create a legislative assembly elected by universal manhood suffrage, though unequally distributed, and promised to offer new political and civil liberties along with the right to organize unions and political parties. Nicholas II intended the Manifesto as a means of dividing the opposition.

October Revolution -

October 24, 1917; the Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd; after riots lasting a number of days, the Bolshevik forces seized essential centers of power--namely, communications, transportation, arsenals, et cetera and set up their own provisional committee to run Russia.