f the Czar,
as expressed in the freedom manifesto, and the policy of the
administration, as shown in a long series of arbitrary and oppressive
acts of violence, he coolly said that while the freedom manifesto
"laid down the fundamental principles of civil liberty in a general
way," it had no real force, because it did not specifically repeal the
laws relating to the subject that were already on the statute-books.
He admitted that governors-general were still arresting without
warrant, exiling without trial, suppressing newspapers without a
hearing, and dispersing public meetings by an arbitrary exercise of
discretionary power; but he maintained that in so doing they were only
obeying imperial ukases which antedated the freedom manifesto and
which that document had not abrogated. In all provinces, he said,
where martial law had been declared, or where it might in future be
declared, governors and governors-general were not bound by the
academic statement of general principles in the October manifesto, but
were free to exercise discretionary power under the provisions of
certain earlier decrees relating to "reinforced and extraordinary
defense." These decrees, until repealed, were the law of the land, and
they authorized and sanctioned every administrative measure to which
the interpellations related, freedom manifestos to the contrary
notwithstanding.[30]

The Czar's abandonment of the principles set forth in the freedom
manifesto of October 30, 1905, put an end to what Mr. Milyukov has
called "the ascending phase" of the Russian liberal movement. Count
Witte, who had persuaded the Czar to sign the manifesto, was forced to
retire from the Cabinet, and the new government, taking courage from
the apparent loyalty of the army and the successful suppression of
sporadic revolutionary outbreaks in various parts of the empire,
returned gradually to the old policy of ruling by means of
"administrative process," under the sanction of "exceptional" or
"temporary" laws.

In July, 1906, when P. A. Stolypin was appointed Prime Minister, and
when the first Duma was dissolved in order to prevent it from issuing
an address to the people, the government abandoned even the pretense
of acting in conformity with the principles laid down in the freedom
manifesto, and boldly entered upon the policy of reaction and
repression that it has ever since pursued. It now finds itself
confronted by social and political problems of extraordinary
di