History · AS: The Russian Revolution, 1894-1921. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.
Nicholas II ruled Russia as an autocrat: no parliament, censorship and a secret police, the Okhrana. Fast industrial growth under Witte created crowded, badly paid workers in the cities, while peasants were short of land. Liberals wanted a constitution.
Defeat by Japan in 1904 to 1905 damaged the Tsar's prestige. After Bloody Sunday there were strikes, peasant risings and mutinies. The Tsar survived because the army stayed mostly loyal and the October Manifesto split his opponents.
He then took back much of what he had given. The Dumas had little power, and Stolypin mixed repression with land reform. By 1914 the opposition was weak and divided, though strikes were rising again.
Do not write that the October Manifesto made Russia a parliamentary democracy. The Fundamental Laws of 1906 kept the Tsar's power almost complete, and he could dissolve the Duma.
Answer: The opposition was divided by the October Manifesto and the army remained loyal to the Tsar.
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