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Bloody Sunday (1905)
22 January 1905, when troops fired on an unarmed crowd led by Father Georgy Gapon marching peacefully to the Winter Palace to petition Nicholas II. Hundreds were killed or wounded, destroying the popular myth of the tsar as a caring father figure and triggering the 1905 Revolution.
Mir (peasant commune)
The traditional Russian village commune that collectively owned and periodically redistributed farming land among peasant households and was jointly responsible for their redemption payments and taxes after the 1861 emancipation.
Narodniks (Populists)
Russian revolutionaries of the 1860s to 1880s who believed the peasant commune, or mir, could form the basis of a uniquely Russian socialism, bypassing capitalism. Their 1874 campaign to agitate peasants directly, known as going to the people, largely failed, pushing some toward terrorism.
October Manifesto (1905)
A declaration issued by Nicholas II on 17 October 1905, drafted by Sergei Witte, promising civil liberties and an elected Duma with legislative power. It split the opposition and ended the general strike that had paralysed the country.