The demonstration of workers in St. Petersburg on January 9 (22), 1905 is still described by some historians as the shooting of a peaceful procession (or even a religious procession!) to Tsar Nicholas II. At the same time, pointing to the peaceful nature of the demonstration, it is argued that the petitions that the demonstrators carried to present to the Emperor contained only economic demands. However, it is reliably known that in the last paragraph it was proposed to introduce political freedoms and convene a Constituent Assembly, which was supposed to resolve issues government system. In essence, this point was a call for the abolition of autocracy.
In fairness, it must be said that for the majority of workers the demands of this point were vague, vague, and they did not see in them a threat to the tsarist power, which they did not even intend to oppose. The main thing for them were, in general, quite reasonable economic demands.
However, at the same time that the workers were preparing for the demonstration, another petition was drawn up on their behalf. More radical, containing extremist demands for nationwide reforms, the convening of a Constituent Assembly, and a political change in the state system. All points known to the workers and actually supported by them become, as it were, an addition to political demands. This was in its purest form a political provocation of revolutionaries who tried, on behalf of the people in difficult military conditions, to present demands to the Russian government they did not like.
Of course, the organizers of the demonstration knew that the demands made in their petition were obviously impossible to fulfill and did not even meet the demands of the workers. The main thing that the revolutionaries wanted to achieve was to discredit Tsar Nicholas II in the eyes of the people, to morally humiliate him in the eyes of their subjects. The organizers wanted to humiliate him by the fact that on behalf of the people they presented an ultimatum to God’s Anointed One, who, according to the provisions of the Laws of the Russian Empire, must be guided “Only by the will of God, and not by the multi-rebellious will of the people.”
Much later than the events of January 9, when one of the organizers of the demonstration, priest Gapon, was asked: “Well, what do you think, Fr. George, what would have happened if the Emperor had come out to meet the people?” He replied: “They would kill you in half a minute, half a second!”
However, with what cynicism the same Gapon sent a provocative letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs Svyatopolk-Mirsky on January 8: “Your Excellency,” it says, “workers and residents of St. Petersburg of different classes wish and must see the Tsar on this January 9, Sunday, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Palace Square in order to express to him directly his needs and the needs of the entire Russian people. The king has nothing to fear. I, as a representative of the “Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg”, my fellow workers, comrades, even all the so-called revolutionary groups different directions We guarantee the inviolability of his personality.”
In essence, it was a challenge to the Tsar, an insult to his personal dignity and a humiliation of his power. Just think, the priest leads “revolutionary groups of different directions” and, as if patting the Russian Autocrat on the shoulder, says: “Don’t be afraid, I guarantee you immunity!”, while he himself holds “a stone in his bosom.” This is what provocateur Gapon said on the eve of the “peaceful march”: “If... they don’t let us through, then we will break through by force. If the troops shoot at us, we will defend ourselves. Some of the troops will come over to our side, and then we will start a revolution. We will set up barricades, destroy gun stores, break up a prison, take over the telegraph and telephone. The Social Revolutionaries promised bombs... and ours will take it.”
When Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II got acquainted with the workers’ petition, he decided to tactfully leave for Tsarskoe Selo, making it clear that he did not intend to speak in the language of demands and ultimatums. He hoped that, having learned about his absence, the workers would not demonstrate.
However, the organizers of the procession, knowing that there would be no meeting with the Emperor, did not convey this to the workers, deceived them and led them to the Winter Palace to arrange a clash with the forces of law and order. The carefully planned action was a success. Approximately 300 thousand people took part in the demonstration. The St. Petersburg authorities, realizing that it was no longer possible to stop the workers, decided to at least prevent their accumulation in the city center. As historian O.A. Platonov writes in the book History of the Russian People in the 20th Century: “The main task was not even to protect the Tsar (he was not in the city), but to prevent unrest, the inevitable crush and death of people as a result of the flow of huge masses from four sides in the narrow space of Nevsky Prospekt and Palace Square among embankments and canals. The tsarist ministers remembered the Khodynka tragedy, when, as a result of the criminal negligence of the Moscow authorities, 1,389 people died in a stampede and about 1,300 were injured. Therefore, troops, Cossacks, were gathered in the center with orders not to let people through, to use weapons if absolutely necessary.”
When the demonstrators moved towards the Winter Palace, in addition to banners, red banners and banners with the slogans “Down with autocracy”, “Long live the revolution”, “To arms, comrades” appeared above the crowds. We moved from calls to action. Pogroms of weapons stores began and barricades were erected. The revolutionaries began to attack policemen and beat them, provoking clashes with the forces of law and order and the army. They were forced to defend themselves and use weapons. No one planned to specifically shoot demonstrators. Moreover, TSAR NICHOLAS II, WHICH WAS IN TSARKOYE SELO, DID NOT GIVE SUCH ORDER.
The demonstrators were not driven into a dead end. They had a choice: having met law enforcement officers and army units on their way, turn back and disperse. They didn't do this. Despite verbal warnings and warning shots, the demonstrators followed the chain of soldiers, who were forced to open fire. 130 people were killed and several hundred were wounded. Reports of “thousands of victims” disseminated by the liberal press are propaganda fiction.
Both then and today, the question arises whether the decision to use weapons was wrong. Maybe the government should have made concessions to the workers?
S.S. Oldenburg answers this question quite comprehensively: “Since the authorities did not consider it possible to capitulate and agree to the Constituent Assembly under pressure from the crowd led by revolutionary agitators, there was no other way out.
Compliance with the advancing crowd either leads to the collapse of power or to even worse bloodshed.”
Today it is known that the so-called “peaceful demonstration” was not only of an internal political nature. It, and the revolutionary uprisings that followed it, were the result of the work of Japanese agents and were organized at the very height of the Russo-Japanese War.
These days, a message came to Russia from Paris from the Latin-Slavic agency of General Cherep-Spiridovich that the Japanese were openly proud of the unrest caused by their money.
The English journalist Dillon testified in his book “The Decline of Russia”: “The Japanese distributed money to Russian revolutionaries..., huge sums were spent. I must say that this is an indisputable fact."
And here is how O.A. Platonov assesses the tragedy of January 9 and the subsequent strikes and revolutionary uprisings: “If we give a legal assessment of the activities of citizens of the Russian Empire, who, under martial law, are preparing its defeat with foreign money, then according to the laws of any state it can be considered only as high treason worthy of capital punishment. The treacherous activities of a handful of revolutionaries, as a result of the shutdown of defense enterprises and interruptions in the supply of the army, led to the death of thousands of soldiers at the front, the deterioration of economic situation in the country".
On January 19, in an address to the workers, Tsar Nicholas II quite rightly noted: “The regrettable events, with the sad but inevitable consequences of unrest, occurred because you allowed yourself to be drawn into error and deception by traitors and enemies of our country.
Inviting you to go submit a petition to Me for your needs, they incited you to revolt against Me and My government, forcibly tearing you away from honest work at a time when all truly Russian people must work together and tirelessly to defeat our stubborn external enemy.” .
Of course, the Emperor also noticed the criminal lack of foresight and inability to prevent unrest on the part of the heads of law enforcement agencies.
They received a worthy punishment. By order of the Sovereign, all officials directly responsible for failing to prevent the demonstration were dismissed from their positions. In addition, the Minister of Internal Affairs Svyatopolk-Mirsky and the St. Petersburg mayor Fullon lost their posts.
In relation to the families of the dead demonstrators, the Emperor showed truly Christian mercy. By his decree, 50 thousand rubles were allocated for each family of the deceased or injured. At that time this amounted to an impressive amount. History does not know another similar case where, during a difficult war, funds were allocated for charitable assistance to the families of injured participants in an anti-state demonstration.
Somehow it was quickly forgotten that the impetus that became the main cause of the first Russian revolution of 1905 was the execution on January 9, 1905 in St. Petersburg imperial troops a peaceful demonstration of workers led by , later called Bloody Sunday. In this action, by order of the “democratic” authorities, 96 unarmed demonstrators were shot and 333 were wounded, of whom another 34 then died. The figures are taken from the report of the Director of the Police Department A. A. Lopukhin to the Minister of Internal Affairs A. G. Bulygin about the events of that day.
When the shooting of a peaceful demonstration of workers took place, I was in exile, the Social Democrats had no influence at all on either the course or the result of what happened. Subsequently, communist history declared Georgy Gapon a provocateur and a villain, although the memoirs of contemporaries and the documents of Priest Gapon himself indicate that there was no treacherous or provocative intent in his actions. Apparently, life was not so sweet and rich in Rus', even if priests began to lead revolutionary circles and movements.
In addition, Father George himself, driven at first by good feelings, later became proud and imagined himself to be some kind of messiah, dreaming of becoming a peasant king.
The conflict, as often happens, began with a banality. In December 1904, 4 workers, members of Gaponov’s “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers,” were fired from the Putilov plant. At the same time, the foreman told those fired: “Go to your “Assembly”, it will support and feed you.” The workers followed the offensive “advice” of the master and turned to Gapon. An investigation carried out on behalf of Father Georgy showed that three of the four were fired unfairly and illegally, and the master himself was biased towards members of Gapon’s organization.
Gapon quite rightly saw in the master’s action a challenge posed to the Assembly by the plant administration. And if the organization does not protect its members, it will thereby lose credibility among members of the assembly and other workers.
On January 3, a strike began at the Putilov plant, which gradually spread to other enterprises in St. Petersburg. Participants in the strike were:
- From the pipe factory of the Military Department on Vasilyevsky Island - 6 thousand workers;
- From the Nevsky Mechanical and Shipbuilding Plants - also 6 thousand workers;
- From the Franco-Russian plant, the Nevskaya thread factory, and the Nevskaya paper spinning manufactory, 2 thousand workers each left their jobs;
In total, more than 120 enterprises took part in the strike total number about 88 thousand people. Mass strikes, for their part, also served as the reason for such a disloyal attitude towards the workers’ march.
On January 5, Gapon made a proposal to turn to the Tsar for help. In the following days, he drafted the text of the appeal, which included economic and several political demands, the main one being the involvement of people's representatives in the constituent assembly. A religious procession to the Tsar was scheduled for Sunday, January 9.
The Bolsheviks tried to take advantage of the current situation and involve the workers in revolutionary movement. Students and agitators came to the departments of Gapon’s Assembly, scattered leaflets, tried to give speeches, but the working masses followed Gapon and did not want to listen to the Social Democrats. According to one of the Bolsheviks, D.D. Gimmera Gapon checkmate the Social Democrats.
Communist history has been silent for many years about one event, incidental, but which influenced the subsequent outcome of Sunday. Perhaps they considered it insignificant or, most likely, the hushing up of this fact made it possible to expose the tsarist government as bloodthirsty monsters. On January 6th the Epiphany water blessing took place on the Neva. Nicholas 2 himself took part in the event. One of the artillery pieces fired towards the royal tent. This gun, intended for training shooting ranges, turned out to be a loaded live shell that exploded almost next to the tent. It produced a number of other damages. Four windows in the palace were broken and a policeman, coincidentally the emperor's namesake, was wounded.
Then, during the investigation, it turned out that this shot was accidental, fired due to someone’s negligence and oversight. However, he seriously frightened the tsar, and he hastily left for Tsarskoye Selo. Everyone was convinced that a terrorist attack had been attempted.
Father George assumed the possibility of clashes between demonstrators and the police, and, wanting to avoid them, wrote 2 letters: to the Tsar and to the Minister of Internal Affairs P. D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky.
In a letter to His Imperial Majesty, Father George wrote:
The priest called on Nicholas 2 to come out to the people “with a courageous heart,” and announced that the workers would guarantee their safety “at the cost of their own lives.”
In his book, Gapon recalled how difficult it was for him to convince the workers' leaders to give the emperor this guarantee: the workers believed that if something happened to the king, they would be obliged to give up their lives. The letter was delivered to the Winter Palace, but it is not known whether it was handed over to the Tsar. In a letter to Svyatopolk-Mirsky, composed in approximately the same words, the priest asked the minister to immediately inform the tsar about the upcoming event and familiarize him with the workers’ petition. It is known that the minister received the letter and on the evening of January 8 took it along with the petition to Tsarskoe Selo. However, no response was received from the king and his minister.
Addressing the workers, Gapon said: “Let’s go, brothers, let’s see if the Russian Tsar really loves his people, as they say. If he gives him all freedom, it means he loves, and if not, then it’s a lie, and then we can do with him as our conscience dictates...”
On the morning of January 9, workers in festive clothes gathered on the outskirts to move in columns to the palace square. The people were peaceful and came out with icons, portraits of the Tsar and banners. There were women in the columns. 140 thousand people took part in the procession.
Not only the workers were preparing for the religious procession, but also the tsarist government. Troops and police units were deployed to St. Petersburg. The city was divided into 8 parts. 40 thousand military and police were involved in suppressing popular unrest. Bloody Sunday has begun.
Results of the day
On this difficult day, gun salvos thundered on the Shlisselburgsky tract, at the Narva Gate, on the 4th line and Maly Prospekt of Vasilievsky Island, next to the Trinity Bridge and in other parts of the city. According to military and police reports, shooting was used where workers refused to disperse. The military first fired a warning salvo into the air, and when the crowd approached closer than a specified distance, they opened fire to kill. On this day, 2 policemen died, not a single one from the military. Gapon was taken from the square by the Socialist Revolutionary Ruttenberg (the one who would later be held responsible for Gapon’s death) to the apartment of Maxim Gorky.
The number of killed and wounded varies in different reports and documents.
Not all relatives found the bodies of their loved ones in hospitals, which gave rise to rumors that the police were underreporting the victims who were buried secretly in mass graves.
It can be assumed that if Nicholas II had been in the palace and had come out to the people, or had sent (at worst) a confidant, if he had listened to the delegates from the people, then there might not have been any revolution at all. But the tsar and his ministers chose to stay away from the people, deploying heavily armed gendarmes and soldiers against them. Thus, Nicholas 2 turned the people against himself and provided carte blanche to the Bolsheviks. The events of Bloody Sunday are considered to be the beginning of the revolution.
Here is an entry from the emperor's diary:
Gapon had a hard time surviving the execution of the workers. According to the recollections of one of the eyewitnesses, he for a long time sat, looking at one point, nervously clenched his fist and repeated “I swear... I swear...”. Having recovered a little from the shock, he took the paper and wrote a message to the workers.
It’s somehow hard to believe that if the priest were in the same basement with Nicholas 2, and if he had a weapon in his hands, he would begin to read sermons about Christian love and forgiveness, after everything that happened on that fateful day. He would have picked up this weapon and shot the king.
On this day, Gorky also addressed the people and intelligentsia. The end result of this Bloody Sunday was the beginning of the first Russian revolution.
The strike movement was gaining momentum, not only factories and factories were on strike, but also the army and navy. The Bolsheviks could not stay away, and Lenin returned to Russia illegally in November 1905, using a false passport.
After what happened on Bloody Sunday on January 9, Svyatopolk-Mirsky was removed from his post and Bulygin was appointed to the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. The position of Governor General of St. Petersburg appeared, to which the Tsar appointed D.F. Trepov.
On February 29, Nicholas II created a commission that was designed to establish the reasons for the discontent of the St. Petersburg workers. It was declared that political demands were unacceptable. However, the commission’s activities turned out to be unproductive, since the workers put forward demands that were political in nature:
- Openness of commission meetings,
- Release of those arrested;
- Freedom of the press;
- Restoration of 11 closed Gapon groups.
A wave of strikes swept across Russia and affected the national outskirts.
April 6th, 2013
I suggest you familiarize yourself with this version of events:
At the first sprouts of the labor movement in Russia, F.M. Dostoevsky keenly noticed the scenario according to which it would develop. In his novel “Demons,” the Shpigulinskys “revolt,” that is, the workers of a local factory, “pushed to the extreme” by their owners; they crowded together and waited for “the authorities to sort it out.” But behind their backs lurk the demonic shadows of “well-wishers.” And they know that they are guaranteed to win no matter the outcome. If the authorities meet the working people halfway, they will show weakness, which means they will lose their authority. “We won’t give them a break, comrades! Let’s not stop there, tighten the requirements!” Will the authorities take a tough position and begin to restore order - “Higher is the banner of holy hatred! Shame and curse on the executioners!”
By the beginning of the 20th century. The rapid growth of capitalism made the labor movement one of the most important factors in domestic life in Russia. The economic struggle of workers and the state development of factory legislation led a joint attack on the arbitrariness of employers. By controlling this process, the state tried to contain the process of radicalization of the growing labor movement, which was dangerous for the country. But in the fight against the revolution for the people, it suffered a crushing defeat. And the decisive role here belongs to an event that will forever remain in history as “ Bloody Sunday».
Troops on Palace Square.
In January 1904, the war between Russia and Japan began. At first, this war, going on on the distant periphery of the Empire, did not affect the internal situation of Russia in any way, especially since the economy maintained its usual stability. But as soon as Russia began to suffer setbacks, society showed a lively interest in the war. They eagerly awaited new defeats and sent congratulatory telegrams to the Japanese emperor. It was joyful to hate Russia together with “progressive humanity”! Hatred of the Fatherland became so widespread that Japan began to regard Russian liberals and revolutionaries as its “fifth column.” A “Japanese trace” appeared in the sources of their financing. By shaking the state, haters of Russia tried to cause a revolutionary situation. The terrorist Socialist-Revolutionaries undertook ever more daring and bloody deeds; by the end of 1904, a strike movement began in the capital.
Priest Georgy Gapon and mayor I. A. Fullon at the opening of the Kolomna department of the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg
At the same time, revolutionaries in the capital were preparing an action that was destined to become “Bloody Sunday.” The action was conceived only on the basis that there was a person in the capital capable of organizing and leading it - priest Georgy Gapon, and it must be admitted that this circumstance was used brilliantly. Who could lead a hitherto unprecedented crowd of St. Petersburg workers, most of them yesterday's peasants, if not their beloved priest? Both women and old people were ready to follow the “father,” multiplying the mass of the people’s procession.
Priest Georgy Gapon headed the legal labor organization"Meeting of Russian factory workers." In the “Meeting”, organized on the initiative of Colonel Zubatov, the leadership was actually captured by the revolutionaries, which the ordinary participants in the “Meeting” did not know about. Gapon was forced to maneuver between opposing forces, trying to “stand above the fray.” The workers surrounded him with love and trust, his authority grew, and the number of the “Assembly” grew, but, drawn into provocations and political games, the priest committed betrayal of his pastoral ministry.
At the end of 1904, the liberal intelligentsia became more active, demanding decisive liberal reforms from the authorities, and at the beginning of January 1905, a strike engulfed St. Petersburg. At the same time, Gapon’s radical circle “threw” into the working masses the idea of submitting a petition to the Tsar about the people’s needs. The presentation of this petition to the Sovereign will be organized as a mass procession to the Winter Palace, which will be led by the priest George, beloved by the people. At first glance, the petition may seem like a strange document; it seems to have been written by different authors: the humbly loyal tone of the address to the Sovereign is combined with the utmost radicalism of the demands - right up to the convening of a constituent assembly. In other words, the legitimate authorities were demanded to abolish themselves. The text of the petition was not distributed among the people.
Sovereign!
We, workers and residents of the city of St. Petersburg of different classes, our wives, and children, and helpless old parents, came to you, sir, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, burdened with backbreaking labor, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure our bitter fate and remain silent. We have endured, but we are being pushed further and further into the pool of poverty, lawlessness and ignorance, we are being strangled by despotism and tyranny, and we are suffocating. There is no more strength, sir. The limit of patience has come. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than death. continuation of unbearable torment (...)
Look carefully at our requests without anger, they are directed not towards evil, but towards good, both for us and for you, sir! It is not insolence that speaks in us, but the consciousness of the need to get out of a situation that is unbearable for everyone. Russia is too large, its needs are too diverse and numerous for officials alone to govern it. Popular representation is necessary, it is necessary for the people themselves to help themselves and govern themselves. After all, he alone knows his true needs. Do not push away his help, they commanded immediately, now to call upon representatives of the Russian land from all classes, from all estates, representatives and from workers. Let there be a capitalist, a worker, an official, a priest, a doctor, and a teacher - let everyone, no matter who they are, elect their representatives. Let everyone be equal and free in the right to vote - and for this they ordered that elections to the Constituent Assembly take place under the condition of universal, secret and equal voting. This is our most important request...
But one measure still cannot heal our wounds. Others are also needed:
I. Measures against ignorance and lawlessness of the Russian people.
1) Immediate release and return of all victims for political and religious beliefs, strikes and peasant riots.
2) Immediate announcement of freedom and inviolability of the person, freedom of speech, press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience in matters of religion.
3) General and compulsory public education at the state expense.
4) Responsibility of ministers to the people and guarantees of the legality of government.
5) Equality before the law for everyone without exception.
6) Separation of church and state.
II. Measures against people's poverty.
1) Abolition of indirect taxes and replacing them with a direct progressive income tax.
2) Cancellation of redemption payments, cheap credit and transfer of land to the people.
3) Orders from the military and naval departments must be executed in Russia, not abroad.
4) Ending the war by the will of the people.
III. Measures against the oppression of capital over labor.
1) Abolition of the institution of factory inspectors.
2) The establishment of permanent commissions of elected workers at factories and factories, which, together with the administration, would examine all the claims of individual workers. The dismissal of a worker cannot take place except with a decision of this commission.
3) Freedom of consumer-production and trade unions - immediately.
4) 8-hour working day and normalization of overtime work.
5) Freedom of struggle between labor and capital - immediately.
6) Normal work pay - immediately.
7) The indispensable participation of representatives of the working classes in the development of a bill on state insurance for workers - immediately.
Here, sir, are our main needs with which we came to you. Only if they are satisfied is it possible for our homeland to be liberated from slavery and poverty, for it to flourish, and for workers to organize to protect their interests from the exploitation of capitalists and the bureaucratic government that robs and strangles the people.
Command and swear to fulfill them, and you will make Russia both happy and glorious, and your name You will imprint it in the hearts of ours and our descendants for eternity. If you don’t believe us, don’t respond to our prayer, we will die here, on this square, in front of your palace. We have nowhere to go further and there is no need to. We have only two paths: either to freedom and happiness, or to the grave... Let our lives be a sacrifice for suffering Russia. We do not regret this sacrifice, we willingly make it!”
http://www.hrono.ru/dokum/190_dok/19050109petic.phpGapon knew for what purpose his “friends” were raising a mass procession to the palace; he rushed about, realizing what he was involved in, but did not find a way out and, continuing to portray himself as the people's leader, until the last moment he assured the people (and himself) that there would be no bloodshed. On the eve of the procession, the tsar left the capital, but no one tried to stop the disturbed popular element. Things were coming to a head. The people strove for Zimny, and the authorities were determined, realizing that the “capture of Zimny” would be a serious bid for victory by the enemies of the Tsar and the Russian state.
Until January 8, the authorities did not yet know that another petition with extremist demands had been prepared behind the workers’ backs. And when they found out, they were horrified. The order is given to arrest Gapon, but it is too late, he has disappeared. But it is no longer possible to stop the huge avalanche - the revolutionary provocateurs have done a great job.
On January 9, hundreds of thousands of people are ready to meet the Tsar. It cannot be canceled: newspapers were not published (In St. Petersburg, strikes paralyzed the activities of almost all printing houses - A.E.). And until late in the evening on the eve of January 9, hundreds of agitators walked through working-class areas, exciting people, inviting them to a meeting with the Tsar, declaring again and again that this meeting was being hindered by exploiters and officials. The workers fell asleep with the thought of tomorrow's meeting with Father the Tsar.
The St. Petersburg authorities, who gathered on the evening of January 8 for a meeting, realizing that it was no longer possible to stop the workers, decided not to allow them into the very center of the city (it was already clear that an assault on the Winter Palace was actually planned). The main task was not even to protect the Tsar (he was not in the city, he was in Tsarskoe Selo and had no intention of coming), but to prevent riots, the inevitable crush and death of people as a result of the flow of huge masses from four sides on narrow space Nevsky Prospect and Palace Square, among the embankments and canals. The tsarist ministers remembered the Khodynka tragedy, when, as a result of the criminal negligence of local Moscow authorities, 1,389 people died in a stampede and about 1,300 were injured. Therefore, troops and Cossacks were gathered in the center with orders not to let people through and to use weapons if absolutely necessary.
In an effort to prevent a tragedy, authorities issued an announcement banning the January 9 march and warning of the danger. But due to the fact that there was only one printing house, the circulation of the advertisement was small, and it was posted too late.
January 9, 1905. Cavalrymen at the Pevchesky Bridge delay the movement of the procession to the Winter Palace.
Representatives of all parties were distributed among separate columns of workers (there should be eleven of them, according to the number of branches of Gapon’s organization). Socialist Revolutionary militants were preparing weapons. The Bolsheviks put together detachments, each of which consisted of a standard bearer, an agitator and a core that defended them (i.e. the same militants).
All members of the RSDLP are required to be at the collection points by six o'clock in the morning.
They prepared banners and banners: “Down with Autocracy!”, “Long live the revolution!”, “To arms, comrades!”
Before the start of the procession, a prayer service for the health of the Tsar was served in the chapel of the Putilov plant. The procession had all the features of a religious procession. In the first rows they carried icons, banners and royal portraits (it is interesting that some of the icons and banners were simply captured during the looting of two churches and a chapel along the route of the columns).
But from the very beginning, long before the first shots were fired, at the other end of the city, on Vasilyevsky Island and in some other places, groups of workers led by revolutionary provocateurs built barricades from telegraph poles and wire, and hoisted red flags.
Bloody Sunday participants
At first, the workers did not turn to the barricades special attention, noticing, they were indignant. Exclamations were heard from the work columns moving towards the center: “These are not ours anymore, we don’t need this, these are students playing around.”
The total number of participants in the procession to Palace Square is estimated at approximately 300 thousand people. Individual columns numbered several tens of thousands of people. This huge mass fatally moved towards the center and, the closer it came to it, the more it was subjected to the agitation of revolutionary provocateurs. There were no shots yet, and some people were spreading the most incredible rumors about mass shootings. Attempts by the authorities to bring the procession within the framework of order were rebuffed by specially organized groups (pre-agreed routes for the columns were violated, two cordons were broken and scattered).
The head of the Police Department, Lopukhin, who, by the way, sympathized with the socialists, wrote about these events: “Electrified by agitation, crowds of workers, not succumbing to the usual general police measures and even cavalry attacks, persistently strove for the Winter Palace, and then, irritated by the resistance, began to attack to military units. This state of affairs led to the need to take emergency measures to restore order, and military units had to act against huge crowds of workers with firearms.
The procession from the Narva outpost was led by Gapon himself, who constantly shouted: “If we are refused, then we no longer have a Tsar.” The column approached the Obvodny Canal, where its path was blocked by rows of soldiers. The officers asked the increasingly pressing crowd to stop, but they did not obey. The first volleys followed, blanks. The crowd was ready to return, but Gapon and his assistants walked forward and carried the crowd along with them. Combat shots rang out.
Events developed in approximately the same way in other places - on the Vyborg side, on Vasilyevsky Island, on the Shlisselburg tract. Red banners and slogans appeared: “Down with Autocracy!”, “Long live the revolution!” The crowd, excited by trained militants, smashed weapons stores and erected barricades. On Vasilievsky Island a crowd led by the Bolshevik L.D. Davydov, seized Schaff's weapons workshop. “In Kirpichny Lane,” Lopukhin reported to the Tsar, “a crowd attacked two policemen, one of them was beaten.
On Morskaya Street Major General Elrich was beaten, on Gorokhovaya Street one captain was beaten and a courier was detained, and his engine was broken. The crowd pulled a cadet from the Nicholas Cavalry School who was passing by in a cab from his sleigh, broke the saber with which he defended himself, and inflicted beatings and wounds on him...
Gapon at the Narva Gate called on the people to clash with the troops: “Freedom or death!” and only by chance did he not die when the volleys rang out (the first two volleys were blank, the next volley of combat ones over the heads, the subsequent volleys into the crowd). The crowds going to “capture Winter” were scattered. About 120 people were killed, about 300 were injured. Immediately, a cry was raised throughout the whole world about the many thousands of victims of the “bloody tsarist regime”, calls were made for its immediate overthrow, and these calls were successful. The enemies of the Tsar and the Russian people, posing as his “well-wishers,” extracted the maximum propaganda effect from the tragedy of January 9. Subsequently, the communist government included this date in the calendar as a mandatory Day of Hate for the people.
Father Georgy Gapon believed in his mission, and, walking at the head of the people's procession, he could have died, but the Socialist-Revolutionary P. Rutenberg, who was assigned to him as a “commissar” from the revolutionaries, helped him escape alive from the shots. It is clear that Rutenberg and his friends knew about Gapon's connections with the Police Department. If his reputation had been impeccable, he would obviously have been shot dead under volleys in order to bring his image to the people in the aura of a hero and martyr. The possibility of destruction of this image by the authorities was the reason for Gapon’s salvation that day, but already in 1906 he was executed as a provocateur “in his circle” under the leadership of the same Rutenberg, who, as A.I. writes. Solzhenitsyn, “then left to recreate Palestine”...
In total, on January 9, 96 people were killed (including a police officer) and up to 333 people were wounded, of whom another 34 people died before January 27 (including one assistant police officer).” So, in total 130 people were killed and about 300 were wounded.
Thus ended the pre-planned action of the revolutionaries. On the same day, the most incredible rumors began to spread about thousands of people being executed and that the execution was specially organized by the sadistic Tsar, who wanted the blood of the workers.
Graves of victims of Bloody Sunday 1905
At the same time, some sources give a higher estimate of the number of victims - about a thousand killed and several thousand wounded. In particular, in an article by V.I. Lenin, published on January 18 (31), 1905 in the newspaper “Forward”, the figure of 4,600 killed and wounded, which subsequently became widely circulated in Soviet historiography, is given. According to the results of a study carried out by Doctor of Historical Sciences A. N. Zashikhin in 2008, there is no basis for recognizing this figure as reliable.
Other foreign agencies reported similar inflated figures. Thus, the British Laffan agency reported 2,000 killed and 5,000 wounded, the Daily Mail newspaper reported more than 2,000 killed and 5,000 wounded, and the Standard newspaper reported 2,000–3,000 killed and 7,000–8,000 wounded. Subsequently, all this information was not confirmed. The magazine "Liberation" reported that a certain "organizing committee of the Technological Institute" published "secret police information" that determined the number of killed at 1,216 people. No confirmation of this message was found.
Subsequently, the press hostile to the Russian government exaggerated the number of victims tens of times, without bothering with documentary evidence. Bolshevik V. Nevsky, already in Soviet time who studied the issue from documents, wrote that the number of deaths did not exceed 150-200 people (Red Chronicle, 1922. Petrograd. T.1. P. 55-57) This is the story of how revolutionary parties cynically used the sincere aspirations of the people for their own purposes, exposing them to the guaranteed bullets of the soldiers defending Winter.
From the diary of Nicholas II:
January 9th. Sunday. Hard day! Serious riots occurred in St. Petersburg as a result of the workers’ desire to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places in the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and difficult! ...
On January 16, the Holy Synod addressed latest events with a message to all Orthodox Christians:
«<…>The Holy Synod, in sorrow, begs the children of the church to obey the authorities, the shepherds to preach and teach, those in power to defend the oppressed, the rich to generously do good deeds, and the workers to work by the sweat of their brow and beware of false advisers - accomplices and mercenaries of the evil enemy.”
You allowed yourself to be drawn into delusion and deception by traitors and enemies of our homeland...Strikes and rebellious gatherings only excite the crowd to the kind of disorder that has always forced and will force the authorities to resort to military force, and this inevitably causes innocent victims. I know that the life of a worker is not easy. Much needs to be improved and streamlined... But for a rebellious crowd to tell me their demands is criminal.
Speaking about the hasty order of the frightened authorities who ordered the shooting, it should also be remembered that the atmosphere around the royal palace was very tense, because three days earlier an attempt had been made on the life of the Sovereign. January 6, during baptismal blessing of water on the Neva in Peter and Paul Fortress fired a salute, in which one of the cannons fired a live charge towards the Emperor. A shot of grapeshot pierced the banner of the Naval Corps, hit the windows of the Winter Palace and seriously wounded the gendarmerie police officer on duty. The officer commanding the fireworks immediately committed suicide, so the reason for the shot remained a mystery. Immediately after this, the Emperor and his family left for Tsarskoe Selo, where he remained until January 11. Thus, the Tsar did not know about what was happening in the capital, he was not in St. Petersburg that day, but revolutionaries and liberals attributed the blame for what happened to him, calling him “Nicholas the Bloody” from then on.
By order of the Sovereign, all victims and families of the victims were paid benefits in the amount of one and a half years' earnings of a skilled worker. On January 18, Minister Svyatopolk-Mirsky was dismissed. On January 19, the Tsar received a deputation of workers from large factories and plants of the capital, who already on January 14, in an address to the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, expressed complete repentance for what had happened: “Only in our darkness did we allow that some persons alien to us expressed political desires on our behalf” and asked convey this repentance to the Emperor.
sources
http://www.russdom.ru/oldsayte/2005/200501i/200501012.html Vladimir Sergeevich ZHIKIN
Remember how we found out, and also tried to expose
The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
Today, January 22 (9), 2016, marks the 111th anniversary of the most bloody provocation in the history of our country. It became the prologue of unrest and instability, which, after a break of 10 years, nevertheless destroyed the Russian Empire.
For me Russian empire— USSR — Russia is one country, one history and one people. Therefore, “Bloody Sunday” must be studied carefully. It is still not clear how everything happened. It is clear that the king did not give the order to shoot. But there was shooting, and people died. The revolutionaries immediately began “dancing on blood” - the number of victims was multiplied by one hundred and an hour after the tragedy they distributed leaflets, which, of course, were printed BEFORE the incident...
I bring to your attention the material that I already posted a year ago...
The newspaper "Culture" published material about the tragedy of January 9, 1905.
On that day, a peaceful demonstration of workers was dispersed by troops using weapons. Why this happened is still not completely clear. A lot of questions remain. However, while disagreeing with the details of Nils Johansen’s material, it must be said that the essence of what happened was conveyed correctly. Provocateurs - shooters in the ranks of peacefully marching workers, shooting at the troops; immediately appearing leaflets with the number of victims many times higher than the real ones; the strange (treacherous?) actions of some figures in power who banned the demonstration, but did not properly notify the workers and did not take measures to ensure that it was impossible to hold. Pop Gapon, for some reason confident that nothing bad would happen. At the same time, inviting Socialist Revolutionary and Social Democratic militants to a peaceful demonstration, with a request to bring weapons and bombs, with a ban on shooting first, but with permission to shoot back.
Would the organizer of a peaceful march do this? And what about the seizures of church banners on the way to churches on his orders? The revolutionaries needed blood and they got it - in this sense, “Bloody Sunday” is a complete analogue of those killed by snipers on the Maidan. The dramaturgy of the tragedy varies. In particular, in 1905, police officers died not only from gunfire from militants, but also from gunfire... from troops, as law enforcement officers were guarding columns of workers and were caught in the fire along with them.
Nicholas II did not give any orders to shoot at people, however, as The head of state certainly bears responsibility for what happened.And the last thing I would like to note is that there were no purges in power.carried out, no one was punished, no one was removed from office. As a result, in FebruaryIn 1917, the authorities in Petrograd turned out to be completely helpless andweak-willed, the country collapsed and many millions died.
"Trap for the Emperor.
110 years ago, on January 9, 1905, factory workers in St. Petersburg went to the Tsar to seek justice. For many, this day was the last: in the ensuing shootout between the provocateurs and the troops, up to a hundred peaceful demonstrators were killed, and about three hundred more were wounded. The tragedy went down in history as “Bloody Sunday.”
In the interpretations of Soviet textbooks, everything looked extremely simple: Nicholas II did not want to go out to the people. Instead, he sent soldiers, who, on his orders, shot everyone. And if the first statement is partly true, then there was no order to open fire.
Wartime problems
Let us recall the situation of those days. At the beginning of 1905, the Russian Empire was at war with Japan. On December 20, 1904 (all dates are according to the old style), our troops surrendered Port Arthur, but the main battles were still ahead. There was a patriotic upsurge in the country, the sentiments of the common people were clear - the “Japs” needed to be broken. The sailors sang “Up, you, comrades, everyone is in place!” and dreamed of avenging the death of the Varyag.
Otherwise, the country lived as usual. Officials stole, capitalists received excess profits on military government orders, quartermasters carried everything that was in bad condition, workers increased the working day and tried not to pay overtime. Unpleasant, although nothing new or particularly critical.
The worst was at the top. Vladimir Ulyanov’s thesis about the “decomposition of the autocracy” was supported by quite convincing evidence. However, in those years Lenin was still little known. But the information shared by the soldiers returning from the front was not encouraging. And they talked about the indecisiveness (betrayal?) of military leaders, the disgusting state of affairs with the armament of the army and navy, and blatant embezzlement. Discontent was brewing, although, in the opinion of the common people, officials and military personnel were simply deceiving the Tsar-Father. Which, in fact, was not far from the truth. “It became clear to everyone that our weapons were outdated rubbish, that the supply of the army was paralyzed by the monstrous theft of officials. The corruption and greed of the elite subsequently brought Russia to the First World War, during which an unprecedented bacchanalia of embezzlement and fraud broke out,” sums up the writer and historian Vladimir Kucherenko.
Most of all, the Romanovs themselves stole. Not the king, of course, that would be strange. And here is his own uncle, Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich, Admiral General, head of the entire fleet, put the process on stream. His mistress, the French dancer Elisa Balletta, quickly became one of the richest women in Russia. Thus, the prince spent the funds intended for the purchase of new battleships in England on diamonds for the imported industrial network. After the Tsushima disaster, the audience booed both the Grand Duke and his passion in the theater. "Prince of Tsushima!" - they shouted to the courtier, “The blood of our sailors is on your diamonds!” - this is already addressed to the French woman. On June 2, 1905, Alexey Alexandrovich was forced to resign, he took the stolen capital and, together with Balletta, went for permanent residence in France. And Nicholas II? “It’s painful and difficult for him, the poor one,” the emperor wrote in his diary, indignant at the “bullying” of his uncle. But the kickbacks that the admiral general took often exceeded 100% of the transaction amount, and everyone knew it. Except Nikolai...
On two fronts
If Russia were at war with only Japan, this would not be a big problem. However, the Land of the Rising Sun was only an instrument of London during the next anti-Russian campaign, which was carried out with English loans, English weapons and with the involvement of English military experts and “consultants”. However, the Americans also showed up then - they also gave money. “I was extremely happy about the Japanese victory, because Japan is in our game,” said US President Theodore Roosevelt. Russia's official military ally, France, also took part, and they also gave a large loan to the Japanese. But the Germans, surprisingly, refused to participate in this vile anti-Russian conspiracy.
Tokyo received the latest designs weapons. Thus, the squadron battleship Mikasa, one of the most advanced in the world at that time, was built at the British Vickers shipyard. And the armored cruiser Asama, which was the flagship in the squadron that fought with the Varyag, is also “English”. 90 % of the Japanese fleet was built in the West. There was a continuous flow of weapons, equipment for the production of ammunition and raw materials to the islands - Japan had nothing of its own. The debts were supposed to be paid off with concessions for the development of mineral resources in the occupied territories.
“The British built the Japanese fleet and trained naval officers. The Union Treaty between Japan and Great Britain, which opened a wide line of credit for the Japanese in politics and economics, was signed in London back in January 1902,” recalls Nikolai Starikov.
However, despite the incredible saturation of the Japanese troops with the latest technology (primarily automatic weapons and artillery), the small country was unable to defeat huge Russia. It took a stab in the back for the giant to stagger and stumble. And the “fifth column” was launched into battle. According to historians, the Japanese spent more than $10 million on subversive activities in Russia in 1903–1905. The amount was colossal for those years. And the money, naturally, was not ours either.
Evolution of petitions
Such a long introduction is absolutely necessary - without knowledge of the geopolitical and internal Russian situation of that time, it is impossible to understand the processes that led to “Bloody Sunday”. The enemies of Russia needed to disrupt the unity of the people and the authorities, namely, to undermine faith in the tsar. And this faith, despite all the twists and turns of the autocracy, remained very, very strong. It took blood on your hands Nicholas II. And they did not fail to organize it.
The reason was the economic conflict at the Putilov defense plant. The thieving management of the enterprise did not pay overtime on time and in full, did not enter into negotiations with the workers and in every possible way interfered with the activities of the trade union. By the way, it’s quite official. One of the leaders of the “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg” was priest Georgy Gapon. The trade union was led by Ivan Vasiliev, a St. Petersburg worker, a weaver by profession.
At the end of December 1904, when the director of Putilovsky fired four slackers, the trade union suddenly decided to act. Negotiations with management failed, and on January 3 the plant stopped working. A day later, other enterprises joined the strike, and soon more than one hundred thousand people were on strike in St. Petersburg.
An eight-hour working day, overtime pay, wage indexation - these were the initial demands set out in a document called the “Petition for Essential Needs.” But soon the document was radically rewritten. There was practically no economy left there, but demands appeared for the “fight against capital”, freedom of speech and... an end to the war. “There was no revolutionary sentiment in the country, and the workers gathered to the tsar with purely economic demands. But they were deceived - with foreign money they staged a bloody massacre,” says historian, professor Nikolai Simakov.
What is most interesting: there are a great many variants of the text of the petition, which of them are genuine and which are not is unknown. With one of the versions of the appeal, Georgy Gapon went to the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Nikolai Muravyov. But with which one?..
“Pop Gapon” is the most mysterious figure of “Bloody Sunday”. Little is known for certain about him. School textbooks say that a year later he was executed by hanging by certain “revolutionaries.” But were they actually executed? Immediately after January 9, the clergyman promptly fled abroad, from where he immediately began to broadcast about thousands of victims of the “bloody regime.” And when he allegedly returned to the country, only a certain “body of a man similar to Gapon” appeared in the police report. The priest is either registered as an agent of the secret police, or declared an honest defender of workers' rights. The facts clearly indicate that Georgy Gapon did not work for the autocracy at all. It was with his knowledge that the workers’ petition was transformed into an openly anti-Russian document, into a completely impossible political ultimatum. Did the simple workers who went out onto the streets know about this? Hardly.
The historical literature indicates that the petition was drawn up with the participation of the St. Petersburg branch of the Socialist Revolutionaries, and the “Mensheviks” also took part. The CPSU (b) is not mentioned anywhere.
“Georgy Apollonovich himself neither went to prison nor was surprisingly harmed during the riots. And only then, many years later, it became clear that he collaborated with certain revolutionary organizations, as well as with foreign intelligence services. That is, he was not at all the supposedly “independent” figure that he seemed to his contemporaries,” explains Nikolai Starikov.
The upper classes don't want it, the lower classes don't know
Initially, Nicholas II wanted to meet with the elected representatives of the workers and listen to their demands. However, the pro-English lobby at the top convinced him not to go to the people. To be sure, the assassination attempt was staged. On January 6, 1905, the signal cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress, which to this day fires a blank salvo every noon, fired a warhead - buckshot - towards Zimny. No harm done. After all, the martyr king, who died at the hands of villains, was of no use to anyone. A “bloody tyrant” was required.
On January 9, Nikolai left the capital. But no one knew about this. Moreover, the emperor’s personal standard flew above the building. The march to the city center was apparently banned, but this was not officially announced. Nobody blocked the streets, although it was easy to do. Strange, isn't it? The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prince Peter Svyatopolk-Mirsky, who became famous for his amazingly gentle attitude towards revolutionaries of all stripes, swore and swore that everything was under control and no unrest would happen. A very ambiguous personality: an Anglophile, a liberal of the times of Alexander II, it was he who was indirectly guilty of the death at the hands of the Socialist Revolutionaries of his predecessor and boss - the smart, decisive, tough and active Vyacheslav von Plehve.
Another indisputable accomplice is the mayor, Adjutant General Ivan Fullon. Also a liberal, he was friends with Georgy Gapon.
"Colored" arrows
The festively dressed workers went to the Tsar with icons and Orthodox banners, and about 300,000 people took to the streets. By the way, religious objects were seized on the way - Gapon ordered his henchmen to rob the church on the way and distribute its property to the demonstrators (which he admitted to in his book “The Story of My Life”). Such an extraordinary pop... Judging by the recollections of eyewitnesses, people were in high spirits, no one expected any dirty tricks. The soldiers and police standing in the cordon did not interfere with anyone, they only observed order.
But at some point the crowd started shooting at them. Moreover, apparently, the provocations were organized very competently, casualties among military personnel and police officers were recorded in different areas. "Hard day! Serious riots occurred in St. Petersburg as a result of the workers’ desire to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places in the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and difficult!” - Let us again quote the diary of the last autocrat.
“When all the exhortations did not lead to any results, a squadron of the Horse Grenadier Regiment was sent to force the workers to return back. At that moment, the assistant police officer of the Peterhof police station, Lieutenant Zholtkevich, was seriously wounded by a worker, and the police officer was killed. As the squadron approached, the crowd spread out in all directions, and then two shots were fired from a revolver from its side,” wrote the head of the Narvsko-Kolomensky district, Major General Rudakovsky, in a report. Soldiers of the 93rd Irkutsk Infantry Regiment opened fire on the revolvers. But the killers hid behind the backs of civilians and shot again.
In total, several dozen military and police officers died during the riots, and at least a hundred more were hospitalized with injuries. Ivan Vasiliev, who was clearly used in the dark, was also shot. According to the revolutionaries, they were soldiers. But who checked this? The trade union leader was no longer needed; moreover, he became dangerous.
“Immediately after January 9, priest Gapon called the tsar a “beast” and called for an armed struggle against the government, and how Orthodox priest blessed the Russian people for this. It was from his lips that the words came about the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of the Provisional Government,” says Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Ostrovsky.
Shooting at the crowd and at the soldiers standing in a cordon - as we are familiar with today. Ukrainian Maidan, “color revolutions”, the events of 1991 in the Baltics, where certain “snipers” also appeared. The recipe is the same. In order for unrest to begin, blood is needed, preferably of innocent people. On January 9, 1905, it spilled. And the revolutionary media and foreign press immediately turned several dozen dead workers into thousands of dead. What’s most interesting is that it responded most quickly and competently to the tragedy of “Bloody Sunday.” Orthodox Church. “What is most regrettable is that the unrest that took place was caused by bribery from the enemies of Russia and all public order. They sent significant funds in order to create civil strife among us, in order to distract workers from work to prevent timely delivery to Far East naval and ground forces, complicate the supply active army... and thereby bring untold disasters upon Russia,” the message wrote. Holy Synod. But, unfortunately, no one listened to official propaganda anymore. The first Russian revolution was flaring up."
Bloody Sunday began as a peaceful protest by disgruntled steel workers in St. Petersburg. Angered by poor working conditions, economic decline and the ongoing war with Japan, thousands of workers marched to the Winter Palace to ask Nicholas II for reform. But the king was not in the palace that day, and the panicked soldiers, unable to find another solution, began mass execution of the striking people.
In any other period, such an incident could have frightened the people and discouraged them from going on strikes for a long time, but not then. The authority of the tsar fell, and dissatisfaction with the prevailing regime in the country increased. Subsequently, it was the events of Bloody Sunday that would serve as the impetus for the outbreak of general strikes, peasant unrest, murders and political mobilization, better known as the 1905 revolution.
Prerequisites
The economic boom of 1900 caused a surge in industrial growth, but had virtually no effect on labor legislation. By the beginning of the twentieth century, labor in Russia was valued cheaper than in all European countries (in fact, it was low wages that attracted foreign investors). The workers worked in terrible conditions: 10.5 hours, six days a week, but there were also cases of 15-hour shifts. There were no days off on holidays, sick leave or pensions.
Hygiene and safety levels also left much to be desired, accidents and injuries at work were common, and victims were not even paid compensation, simply dismissing incapacitated employees.
Factory owners often fined workers for being late, taking bathroom breaks, talking, and even singing during their shift! Most workers lived in overcrowded tenements or ramshackle sheds owned by their employers; This type of housing tended to be overcrowded, the houses themselves were old, and the amenities—heating and plumbing—were intermittent.
Dissatisfaction with this attitude towards work, as well as the fact that the overwhelming majority of production was located in cities, provoked the ferment of revolutionary ideas in the working environment. Workers' dissatisfaction with the conditions in which they worked grew steadily, but became especially acute in the last months of 1904. This was greatly facilitated by the difficult and bloody war with Japan and the economic crisis.
Foreign trade fell and government revenues shrank, forcing companies to lay off thousands of workers and further tighten working conditions for those who remained. The country plunged into hunger and poverty, in order to somehow equalize incomes, the entrepreneur increased food prices by 50%, but to raise wages workers were refused.
Georgy Gapon
Not surprisingly, such conditions gave rise to a wave of unrest and dissent in the country. Trying to somehow change the existing regime, the workers formed “work sections”, whose activities, at first limited to discussions, later developed into strike actions.
Some of these strike committees were headed by Georgy Gapon, a priest and native of Ukraine.
Gapon was an eloquent and persuasive speaker and an exemplary activist. Sergei Zubatov, the head of the special department of the police department, noticed Gapon’s outstanding oratorical abilities and offered him an unusual position. Zubatov was aware of the revolutionary movements, but opposed the policy of sending all those who disagreed to hard labor.
Instead, he invited Gapon to lead the revolutionary movement, thereby controlling the workers “from the inside.” But Zubatov’s hopes were not justified: Gapon, working closely with the impoverished and starving workers, ultimately took their side.
In December 1904, foreman A. Tetyavkin, for no apparent reason, fired four workers - members of Gapon's workers' section, provoking a wave of indignation at the plant.
At a meeting of workers, it was decided to “quietly and peacefully” suspend work until the management met the conditions - the dismissal of Tetyavkin and the reinstatement of workers who had lost their positions at the plant.
The director of the Putilov plant, convinced of the inconsistency of the charges brought against Tetyavkin, demanded to end the strike, otherwise threatening to fire all workers without exception.
On the evening of January 4, a delegation of 40 workers from different workshops, led by Gapon, went to the director with a list of demands, which included, among others, an 8-hour working day.
On the same day, workers of the Franco-Russian Mechanical Plant, workers of the Nevsky Thread, Nevsky Paper-Spinning and Ekateringof Manufactories, and many, many others, joined the Putilovites. Speaking to the workers, Gapon criticized capitalist officials who valued material wealth above the lives of ordinary workers and insisted on the need for political reforms.
The slogan “Down with bureaucratic government!” was first heard from Gapon. It is noteworthy that the idea of appealing to the tsar to voice the needs of the people was proposed by Gapon long before the events of January. Gapon himself, however, hoped to the last that the strike would be won and there would be no need for a petition. But the administration stood its ground, and the workers’ loss in this conflict became obvious.
"Bloody Sunday"
Gapon prepared a petition to the Tsar, in which he described all the demands aimed at improving living and working conditions. It was signed by over 150,000 workers, and on Sunday, January 9, a mass procession moved to Winter Palace, intending to convey these demands to the king. There was no one in the palace that day; it was in Tsarskoe Selo, 25 km from the capital.
Seeing a crowd of thousands of workers, the officers called in the palace security garrison to guard all entry points. As the workers approached, the soldiers began firing massively. It is not known for certain whether this was an order or the unauthorized actions of the soldiers. The number of victims according to various sources ranges from 96 to 200 people, and revolutionary groups insisted on an even larger number.
Reaction
The events of Bloody Sunday were covered all over the world. In newspapers in London, Paris and New York, Nicholas II was portrayed as a cruel tyrant, and in Russia, soon after the events, the tsar was dubbed “Bloody Nicholas.” Marxist Pyotr Struve called him “The People’s Executioner,” and Gapon himself, who miraculously escaped bullets in the events of January 9, said: “God no longer exists. There is no king!”
Bloody Sunday provoked mass strikes by workers. According to some sources, in January-February 1904, up to 440,000 people went on strike in St. Petersburg alone. In the shortest possible time, the St. Petersburg strike was supported by residents of other cities - Moscow, Odessa, Warsaw and cities in the Baltic countries.
Later protests of this kind became more concerted and were accompanied by clearly articulated and signed demands for political reform, but during 1905 the Tsarist regime was undoubtedly experiencing one of the most difficult periods in its three-century history. Briefly, the events of “Bloody Sunday” can be described as follows:
- Russian production workers worked in appalling conditions for meager wages and endured extremely disrespectful treatment from employers;
- The economic crisis of 1904-1905 worsened the already bad conditions life and work, making them unbearable, which led to the formation of workers' sections and the fermentation of revolutionary sentiments among the masses;
- In January 1905, workers, led by priest Gapon, signed a petition with demands for the Tsar;
- While trying to hand over the petition, the workers came under fire from soldiers guarding the Winter Palace;
- “Bloody Sunday” became, in fact, the first signal of the impossibility of putting up with the existing tsarist regime and the arbitrariness of the authorities and, as a consequence, the revolution of 1917 any longer.