Manifesto of October 17, 1905 in the assessments of monarchists
Igor V. Omelyanchuk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
Moscow City University, Moscow, Russia, Omeliyanchuk@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7535-2612
Abstract
This article examines the reaction of representatives of the right camp to the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. Most monarchists took it negatively, believing that the manifesto was obtained from the tsar by deception and revolutionary pressure, which should have been resisted. In addition, the majority of the right considered this legislative act an attack on the cornerstone of the Russian state — autocracy, although there were those who believed that the October Manifesto would make it possible to destroy the bureaucratic “mediastinum” between the tsar and the people. The monarchists were also dissatisfied with the vague wording of the manifesto, which gave the opposition an opportunity to interpret it as a constitutional act. However, these same formulations allowed the monarchists to declare that the autocracy remained unshakable even after October 17, and the State Duma was intended only to facilitate the tsar’s legislative work, but not to replace him. This interpretation of the manifesto received the approval of the tsar, who expressed it to numerous deputations of monarchists who visited the monarch in late 1905 — early 1906.
Keywords
Manifesto of October 17, 1905; monarchist parties, autocracy, constitution, Nicholas II, The State Duma.
For citation:
Omelyanchuk I. V. Manifesto of October 17, 1905 in the assessments of monarchists. Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2024, no. 4 (52), pp. 169—187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2024.52.12.
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