Miliukov and encompassing liberals of different kinds, both constitutional monarchists and republicans.
The radicals formed two important parties around the turn of the cen-
tury: the Social Democratic, or 'SD,' and the Socialist Revolutionary, or 'SR.' The Social Democrats were Marxists, and the creation of their party represented a landmark in the development of Marxism in Russia. Propounded by George Plekhanov and other able intellectuals, Marxism became prominent in the empire of the tsars in the 1880's and especially in the 1890's. Its close association with the labor movement dated at least from 1883, when Plekhanov organized the Emancipation of Labor Group; but a Marxist political party, the Social Democratic, appeared only in 1898. In fact, the convention of 1898 - although commemorated in the U.S.S.R. as the first and founding congress - proved abortive, and most of its few participants were shortly arrested. The party became a reality only after the second convention held in Brussels and London in 1903. At that time the Social Democrats also split into the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ulianov, better known as Lenin, who wanted a tightly knit organization of professional revolutionaries, and the Mensheviks, who preferred a somewhat broader and looser association. In time the ramifications of that relatively slight initial difference acquired great importance. The Socialist Revolutionaries, who engaged in a running debate with the Marxists concerning the nature of Russian society and its future, represented essentially the older populist tradition of Russian radicalism, even though they too were influenced by Marxism. They formed their party in 1901 and had Victor Chernov as their most noted leader.
As the twentieth century opened, Russia was in turmoil. Strikes spread throughout the country. Student protests and disturbances became more frequent, constituting an almost continuous series from 1898 on. Sporadic peasant disturbances kept the tension high in rural areas and offered increased opportunities to the Socialist Revolutionaries, just as the growth of the labor movement encouraged the Social Democrats. In 1902, 1903, and early 1904, committees dealing with the national economy, conferences of teachers and doctors, and other public bodies all demanded reforms. Moreover, the Socialist Revolutionaries resumed the terrorist tactics of their predecessors such as the 'Will of the People.' Their 'Battle Organization' assassinated a number of important officials, including the two especially reactionary ministers of the interior, Sipiagin in 1902 and Plehve in 1904, and early in 1905 Grand Duke Serge, commanding officer of the Moscow military region and Nicholas II's second cousin and brother-in-law. The war against Japan and resulting defeats added fuel to the fire. In November 1904, a zemstvo congress, meeting in St. Petersburg, demanded a representative assembly and civil liberties. The same demands were made with increasing frequency by numerous other public bodies. In particular, professional organizations, such as unions of doctors and teachers, and other associations spread rapidly throughout Russia and made their voices heard. Several months after the zemstvo congress fourteen professional unions
united to form a huge Union of Unions led by the Cadets. The government tried both repression and some conciliation, appealing for confidence, but its generally ineffectual efforts only helped to swell the tide of opposition.
January 22, 1905, came to be known in Russian history as 'Bloody Sunday.' On that day the police of the capital fired at a huge demonstration of workers led by an adventurer and priest named George Gapon, killing, according to the official estimate, one hundred and thirty persons and wounding several hundred. Ironically, Gapon's union had been essentially a 'police union,' part of policeman Serge Zubatov's plan to infiltrate the labor movement and direct it into officially desirable channels. Ironically too, the workers were converging on the Winter Palace - ignorant of the fact that Nicholas II was not there - with icons and the tsar's portraits, as faithful subjects, nay, children, of their sovereign, begging him for redress and help. The entire ghastly episode thus testified to official incompetence in more ways than one. The massacre led to a great outburst of indignation in the country and gave another boost to the revolutionary movement. In particular, as many authorities assert, it meant a decisive break between the tsar and those numerous workers who had until that 'Bloody Sunday' remained loyal to him.
Under ever-increasing pressure, Nicholas II declared early in March his intention to convoke a 'consultative' assembly; in further efforts toward pacification, he proclaimed religious tolerance and repealed some legislation against ethnic minorities; nevertheless, the revolutionary tide kept rising. The summer of 1905 witnessed new strikes, mass peasant uprisings in many provinces, active opposition and revolutionary movements among national minorities, and even occasional rebellions in the armed forces, notably in the celebrated instance of the battleship
the Russians, announced a Duma with the true legislative function of passing or rejecting all proposed laws, and promised a further expansion of the new order in Russia. In short, the October Manifesto made the empire of the Romanovs a constitutional monarchy.
Also, it split the opposition. The liberals and moderates of all sorts felt fundamentally satisfied. The radicals, such as the Social Democrats, on the contrary, considered the tsar's concession entirely inadequate and wanted in any case a constituent assembly, not handouts from above. Thus divided, the opposition lost a great deal of its former power. In the middle of December the government arrested the members of the St. Petersburg Soviet. The Soviet's appeal for revolution found effective response only in Moscow where workers and some other radicals fought bitterly against the police and the soldiers, including a guards' regiment, from the twenty-second of December until the first of January.
The year 1905 thus ended in Russia in bloody fighting. However, the revolution had spent itself with that last effort. In the course of the winter, punitive expeditions and summary courts-martial restored order in many troubled areas. The extreme Right joined the army and the police; Rightist active squads, known as the 'Black Hundreds,' beat and even killed Jews, liberals, and other intellectuals. Proto-fascist in nature, this newly awakened Right throve on ethnic and religious hatreds and appealed especially to wealthy peasants and to members of the lower middle class in towns. More important, the great bulk of the people was tired of revolution and longed for peace. It might be added that Witte further strengthened the hand of the government by obtaining a large loan from France.
On May 6, 1906, virtually on the eve of the meeting of the First Duma, the government promulgated the Fundamental Laws. These laws provided the framework of the new Russian political system; the October Manifesto had merely indicated some of its guiding lines. According to the Fundamental Laws, the emperor retained huge powers. He continued in complete control of the executive, the armed forces, foreign policy - specifically making war and peace - succession to the throne, the imperial court, imperial domains, and so forth. He maintained unchanged his unique dominating position in relation to the Russian Church. And he even retained the title of autocrat. He was to call together the annual sessions of the Duma and to disband the Duma, in which case, however, he had to indicate the time of the election and of the meeting of the new Duma. He had the power of veto over legislation. Moreover, in case of emergency when the Duma was not in session, he could issue
though they had to be submitted for approval to the next session of the Duma no later than two months after its opening.
The Duma, to be sure, received important legislative and budgetary rights and functions by the Fundamental Laws, but these rights were greatly circumscribed. Notably, almost 40 per cent of the state budget, encompassing such items as the army, the navy, the imperial court, and state loans, stayed outside the purview of the Duma, while the remainder, if not passed by the Duma, was re-enacted in the amounts of the preceding year. Ministers and the entire executive branch remained responsible only to the emperor, although the Laws did contain
