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