The impact of the vyborg manifesto on the fortunes of the kadet party

Contrary to the prevailing view among historians, the Kadet Party did not disengage itself from the Vyborg Manifesto immediately after its publication: only after some three months and many heated debates did the Fourth Party Congress decide by majority vote for ‘practical reasons’ to withdraw Kadet support for implementation of the Manifesto’s recommendations. In theory, however, the party remained committed to passive resistance. The Kadets paid a heavy price for their continuing commitment to the Manifesto, including the loss of political rights by all the signatories; the party was never legalized and members were treated by the authorities as closet revolutionaries. Their refusal to condemn revolutionary terror also made it easier for the government to persecute them, but the authorities deprived themselves thereby of the possibility of winning the support of the only Russian party that enjoyed a mass following and was dedicated to peaceful transition to a constitutional order. It was a missed opportunity, for which Russia paid dearly.