His Imperial Majesty calls attention to their having undertaken an
illegal act in an appeal to the nation. He asserts that an improvement
in the lot of the people is only possible under conditions of order and
tranquillity.
In dissolving the Douma he confirms his immutable intention of keeping
that institution and appoints March 5, 1907, as the date of the
convocation of a new Douma.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
extract from the “journal de st.
petersbourg.”
Imperial manifest. By the grace of God, we, Nicolas II, Emperor and
Autocrat of all the Russias, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland,
etc., to all our faithful subjects, we make known, by our will,
persons selected by the people have been called to the
legislature.
Trusting in the goodness of God, believing in the happy and grand
future of our people, we were expecting from their labors the
happiness and interest of the country.
Great reforms had been indicated by us in all that concerns the life
of the people, and our greatest care, which is to substitute
education for the ignorance of the people and to lessen the
difficulties of its life by improving the conditions under which it
cultivates the ground, was foremost. A painful ordeal was reserved
to our hopes. The elected of the nation, instead of turning their
attention to legislative labors, have entered a field that was
closed to them, and have begun to investigate the doings of
authorities established by us, to indicate to us the imperfections
of fundamental laws that can only be altered by our imperial will,
and to commit illegal acts, such, as the appeal addressed to the
people of the Douma.
The peasants, dazed by these disorders, without waiting for the legal
improvement to their position, gave themselves up, in a great number
of governments, to pillage and theft, refusing to submit to the law
or to legal authorities.
Let not our subjects forget that the improvement in the lives of the
people is only possible if order and peace are not disturbed. Let it
be well known that we shall not tolerate any license, any
illegality, and that with all the forces of the State we shall
subdue all those rebellious to our imperial will. We invite all
well-thinking Russians to unite themselves for the maintenance of
legal power and for the reestablishment of order in our dear
country. Let peace be again established on the Russian soil and let
the Almighty help us to accomplish the principal of our labors—the
uplifting of the welfare of the peasants. On this subject our will
is unalterable, and the Russian laborer shall receive the legal and
honest means of enlarging his land where it is lacking, without
trespassing on the property of others. Persons belonging to other
classes shall make, on our appeal to them, every effort to solve
this great problem, the definite solution of which through the
legislative channel shall belong to the members of the future
Douma.
By dissolving the actual Douma of the Empire we testify to our
unalterable intention of maintaining, in all their force, the laws
concerning the establishment of that institution, and, consequently,
we have fixed, by our ukase given to the ruling Senate on the 8th
July instant, the convocaion of the new Douma on the 20th of
February, 1907.
[Page 1267]
Having an unalterable faith in the mercy of God and in the
intelligence of the Russian people, we shall expect from the new
Douma of the Empire the realization of our projects and laws in
conformity with the needs of renovated Russia.
Faithful sons of Russia! The Czar addresses you, as a father to his
children, to induce you to unite with him for the work of the
rejuvenation of our holy country.
We believe there can be found men of thought and action, and that
their labors, full of abnegation, will restore the glory of
Russia!
Given at Peterhof
the 9th of July of
the year of grace 1906, and the twelfth of our
reign.
Nicolas.
