ABSTRACT
After the October Manifesto, Miliukov expressed the Kadets' conception of revolution. An assembly called by the old regime, preserving a semblance of authority, would serve as the means of transfer of power to the people. The long-standing quarrel inside the liberal camp between the advocates of "reform" and "revolution" had been shelved temporarily due to the prudent silence of the Minority of the zemstvo congresses in the summer of 1905. The Kadets shared with the rest of the opposition the task of defining their attitude toward the Duma. Expropriation of land was mentioned in the Answer, but compensation, in deference to the extremist viewpoint, was not. In Miliukov's view, "peaceful agreement" did not imply retreat by the Kadets, but rather by the Tsardom. The seventeenth of October had been an example of such "peaceful agreement"; frightened by popular discontent, the Tsar had been forced to yield.
