Bloody Sunday

• Bloody Sunday began in St. Petersburg with 150,000 workers led in a peaceful demonstration by Father Georgy Gapon, a Russian Orthodox priest. When the protesters reached the Winter Palace, the official residence of the czar and his family, police opened fire, killing 130 and wounding 300 more. This massacre resulted in unifying the proletariat and the middle class in outrage against the establishment.
  
  

Slaughter

• Thousands of people throughout the Russian empire were caught and executed by the czar's forces. Thousands more were exiled to Siberian prison camps. Many leaders of the revolution, including Leon Trotsky, were among those imprisoned. The slaughter created sympathy among the public due to the martyrdom of the revolutionaries.
  
  

October Manifesto

• In the aftermath of the 1905 upheaval, Czar Nicholas II realized he would have to make some concessions to appease the public. The czar responded to the political and civil unrest with his October Manifesto. In this decree, the czar promised basic freedoms of assembly, association, conscience, speech and personal inviolability. The czar also established the Duma or Russian parliament.
  
  

Duma

• The Imperial Duma, officially known as the Gosudarstvennaya Duma or State Assembly, was the lower house of the Russian parliament guaranteed by the October Manifesto. This house was similar to the British House of Commons. For the first time in Russian history, non-aristocrats could represent the interests of the Russian populace and introduce laws. The Duma was meant to balance the power in the government as well as introduce representative democracy. Unfortunately, Nicholas proceeded to undercut the power of the Duma with the passage of his Fundamental Laws in 1906.
  
  

Preparation for 1917

• The Revolution of 1905 prepared the activists and leaders for the eventual overthrow of the Russian monarchy in 1917. The revolutionaries gained wider support from both the proletariat and the middle class. The leaders also used the lessons of the 1905 Revolution to become better organized, which resulted in the more successful conclusion of the 1917 Revolution. Overall, the aborted uprising served as a rehearsal for the Revolution of 1917.