Tammerfors Manifesto

(or Red Manifesto), a programmatic document of the Finnish proletariat that was adopted on Nov. 1, 1905, at a meeting of 30,000 working people in the city of Tampere (Tammerfors) during a general strike.

The manifesto was drawn up on behalf of the strike committee by several leaders of the Finnish Social Democrats, including Y. Mäkelin and J. Salin. Among the demands made in the manifesto were the resignation of the Finnish Senate, the convocation of a national assembly, and the establishment of democratic freedoms. The document proclaimed the desire of the working people to preserve the union of Finland and Russia on a state level if power in Russia would be transferred to the “best elements of the nation.” The Tammerfors Manifesto defined, for the first time in the history of the Finnish proletariat, the relation of the Finnish proletariat to the Russian people.