Timeline of the Russian Revolution of 1905

While Russia had a revolution in 1917 (in fact two), it nearly had one in 1905. There were the same marches and vast strikes, but in 1905 the revolution was crushed in a manner that affected how things unraveled in 1917 (including a great deal of fear things would repeat and a new revolution would fail). What was the difference? World War One had not acted as a magnifying glass for problems, and the military mostly stayed loyal. January †¢ January 3-8: 120,000 workers strike in St. Petersburg; government warns against any organized marches. †¢ January 9: Bloody Sunday. 150,000 striking workers and their families march through St. Petersburg to deliver a protest to the Tsar  but are shot and ridden down on multiple occasions by the army. †¢ Reaction to the massacre spreads across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experience spontaneous workers strikes. February †¢ February: The strike movement spreads down to the Caucasus. †¢ February 4: Grand-Duke Sergei Alexandrovich is killed by an SR assassin as protests grow. †¢ February 6: Notably large rural disorder, especially in Kursk. †¢ February 18: Reacting to the growing troubles, Nicholas II orders the creation of a consultative assembly to report on constitutional reform; the move is less than the revolutionaries want, but it gives them impetus. March †¢ The strike movement and unrest reaches Siberia and the Urals. April †¢ April 2: The second National Congress of Zemstvos again demands a constitutional assembly; the Union of Unions formed. May †¢ Embarrassment for the government as the Baltic Fleet is easily sunk, having spent 7 months sailing round to Japan. June †¢ June: Soldiers used against strikers in Lodz. †¢ June 18: Odessa is halted by a large strike. †¢ June 14-24: Sailors mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin. August †¢ August: Moscow holds the first Conference of the Peasants union; Nizhnii holds the First Congress of the Muslim Union, one of many groups pushing for regional - often national - autonomy. †¢ August 6: Tsar issues a manifesto on the creation of a state Duma; this plan, created by Bulygin and nicknamed the Bulygin Duma, is rejected by revolutionaries for being too weak and having a tiny electorate. †¢ August 23: Treaty of Portsmouth ends the Russo-Japanese war; Russia has been beaten by an opponent they were expected to easily defeat. September †¢ September 23: Printers strike in Moscow, the start of Russias first General Strike. October †¢ October 1905 - July 1906: The Peasant Union of the Volokolamsk District creates the independent Markovo Republic; it survives, 80 miles from Moscow, until the government crushes it in July 1906. †¢ October 6: Rail workers join the strike. †¢ October 9: As telegraph workers join the strike, Witte warns the Tsar that to save Russia he must make great reforms or impose a dictatorship. †¢ October 12: Strike action has developed into a General Strike. †¢ October 13: A council is formed to represent striking workers: the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers Deputies; it functions as an alternative government. The Mensheviks dominate it as the Bolsheviks boycott and similar soviets are soon created in other cities. †¢ October 17: Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, a liberal scheme proposed by Witte. It grants civil liberties, the need for Duma consent before passing laws and a widening of the Duma electorate to include all Russians; mass celebrations follow; political parties form and rebels return, but acceptance of the Manifesto pushes the liberals and socialists apart. The St. Petersburg soviet prints its first issue of the newssheet Izvestia; left and right groups clash in streetfights. †¢ October: Lvov joins the Constitutional Democrat (Kadet) party, which includes the more radical zemstvo menmen, nobles, and scholars; conservative liberals form the Octobrist Party. These are the people who have led the revolution so far. †¢ October 18: N. E. Bauman, a Bolshevik activist, is killed during a streetfight triggering a street war between the Tsar supporting right and the revolutionary left. †¢ October 19: The Council of Ministers is created, a government cabinet under Witte; leading Kadets are offered posts, but refuse. †¢ October 20: Baumans funeral is the focus of major demonstrations and violence. †¢ October 21: The General Strike is ended by the St. Petersburg Soviet. †¢ October 26-27: The Kronstadt mutiny. †¢ October 30-31: The Vladivostok Mutiny. November †¢ November 6-12: The Peasants Union holds a conference in Moscow, demanding a constituent assembly, land redistribution and political union between peasants and urban workers. †¢ November 8: The Union of Russian People is created by Dubrovin. This early fascist group aims to fight against the left and is funded by government officials. †¢ November 14: The Moscow branch of the Peasants Union is arrested by the government. †¢ November 16: Telephone/graph workers strike. †¢ November 24: Tsar introduces Provisional Rules, which at once abolish some aspects of censorship, but introduce harsher penalties for those praising criminal acts. †¢ November 26: Head of the St. Petersburg Soviet, Khrustalev-Nosar, arrested. †¢ November 27: The St. Petersburg Soviet appeals to the armed forces and elects a triumvirate to replace Nosar; it includes Trotsky. December †¢ December 3: The St. Petersburg Soviet is arrested en masse after Socialist Democrats (SD) hand out weapons. †¢ December 10-15: The Moscow Uprising, where rebels and militias try to take the city through armed struggle; it fails. No other major rebellions take place, but the Tsar and the right react: the police regime returns and the army sweeps across Russia crushing dissent. †¢ December 11: Russias urban population and workers are enfranchised by electoral changes. †¢ December: Nicholas II and his son given honorary membership of the Union of the Russian People; they accept.