Thousands of workers joined an armed rebellion against the imperial government fighting for better societal conditions.

[1] The Moscow revolutionaries gained experience during the uprising that helped them succeed years later in the October Revolution of 1917.

[2] Most left-wing revolutionaries viewed the October Manifesto as an attempt by Tsar Nicholas II to separate the middle and upper classes from the workers and peasants, whose social and political demands remained unanswered.

Nicholas II's government knew an uprising was brewing and allowed it to come to fruition as a justification to crush the revolutionaries.

The governor of Moscow, Vice Admiral Fyodor Dubasov, tried to arrest the ringleaders, which provoked a citywide uprising.

[citation needed] The Joint Council of Volunteer Fighting Squads armed the workers with 800 stockpiled weapons.

On 10 December, the Socialist Revolutionaries bombed the Moscow headquarters for the Okhrana, the police force of the Russian Empire, at night.

The military wing of the Moscow Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party sent out a pamphlet to its members during the uprising: "Comrades, our top-priority task is to hand power in the city over to the people.

The Semyonovsky Regiment of the Imperial Guard arrived in Moscow by rail from Saint Petersburg to reinforce the local garrison.

December 18: General Min, commander of the Semyonovsky Regiment, ordered the last assault: "Act without mercy.

[citation needed] Presnensky commander Litvin-Sedoy, issued a last announcement: "We are ending our struggle… we are alone in this world.

"[citation needed] Following the proclamation of the October Manifesto and the end of the Russo-Japanese War there was limited hope for a socialist revolution, but the rebels in Moscow could have taken the Kremlin.