Today, January 22 (9), 2016, marks the 111th anniversary of the bloodiest 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, the 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. But his uncle, Grand Duke Alexei 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 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 up a wide line of credit in politics and economics for the Japanese, 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. Blood was required on the hands of 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 as an Orthodox priest he 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 is most interesting is that the Orthodox Church responded most quickly and competently to the tragedy of “Bloody Sunday”. “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 the timely dispatch of naval and ground forces to the Far East, to complicate the supply of the active army... and thereby bring untold disasters on Russia,” wrote the message of the Holy Synod. But, unfortunately, no one listened to official propaganda anymore. The first Russian revolution was flaring up."
January 9 (January 22 according to the new style) 1905 is an important historical event in the modern history of Russia. On this day, with the tacit consent of Emperor Nicholas II, a 150,000-strong procession of workers who were going to present the Tsar with a petition signed by tens of thousands of St. Petersburg residents asking for reforms was shot.
The reason for organizing the procession to the Winter Palace was the dismissal of four workers of the largest Putilov plant in St. Petersburg (now the Kirov plant). On January 3, a strike of 13 thousand factory workers began, demanding the return of those fired, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, and the abolition of overtime work.
The strikers created an elected commission from workers to jointly with the administration examine the workers' grievances. Demands were developed: to introduce an 8-hour working day, to abolish compulsory overtime, to establish a minimum wage, not to punish strike participants, etc. On January 5, the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDLP) issued a leaflet calling on the Putilovites to extend the strike, and workers of other factories should join it.
The Putilovites were supported by the Obukhovsky, Nevsky shipbuilding, cartridge and other factories, and by January 7 the strike became general (according to incomplete official data, over 106 thousand people took part in it).
Nicholas II transferred power in the capital to the military command, which decided to crush the labor movement until it resulted in revolution. The main role in suppressing the unrest was assigned to the guard; it was reinforced by other military units of the St. Petersburg district. 20 infantry battalions and over 20 cavalry squadrons were concentrated at predetermined points.
On the evening of January 8, a group of writers and scientists, with the participation of Maxim Gorky, appealed to the ministers with a demand to prevent the execution of workers, but they did not want to listen to her.
A peaceful procession to the Winter Palace was scheduled for January 9. The procession was prepared by the legal organization "Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg" led by priest Georgy Gapon. Gapon spoke at meetings, calling for a peaceful march to the tsar, who alone could stand up for the workers. Gapon insisted that the tsar should go out to the workers and accept their appeal.
On the eve of the procession, the Bolsheviks issued a proclamation “To all St. Petersburg workers,” in which they explained the futility and danger of the procession planned by Gapon.
On January 9, about 150 thousand workers took to the streets of St. Petersburg. The columns led by Gapon headed towards the Winter Palace.
The workers came with their families, carried portraits of the Tsar, icons, crosses, and sang prayers. Throughout the city, the procession met armed soldiers, but no one wanted to believe that they could shoot. Emperor Nicholas II was in Tsarskoye Selo that day. When one of the columns approached the Winter Palace, shots were suddenly heard. The units stationed at the Winter Palace fired three volleys at the participants of the procession (in the Alexander Garden, at the Palace Bridge and at the General Staff building). The cavalry and mounted gendarmes chopped down the workers with sabers and finished off the wounded.
According to official data, 96 people were killed and 330 wounded, according to unofficial data - more than a thousand killed and two thousand wounded.
According to journalists from St. Petersburg newspapers, the number of killed and wounded was about 4.9 thousand people.
The police buried those killed secretly at night in Preobrazhenskoye, Mitrofanyevskoye, Uspenskoye and Smolenskoye cemeteries.
The Bolsheviks of Vasilyevsky Island distributed a leaflet in which they called on workers to seize weapons and begin an armed struggle against the autocracy. Workers seized weapons stores and warehouses and disarmed the police. The first barricades were erected on Vasilyevsky Island.
The harbinger of Red Sunday was the so-called Putilov incident, when workers at the Putilov plant opposed the actions of master Tetyavkin, who unfairly fired people. This small conflict led to colossal consequences: on January 3, a strike began at the Putilov plant, which was joined by workers of other enterprises.
One of the members of the labor movement writes: “When the demand for the return of them [the workers] was not satisfied, the plant immediately became very friendly. The strike was of a completely sustained nature: the workers dispatched several people to protect cars and other property from any possible damage by the less conscientious. Then they sent a deputation to other factories with a message of their demands and an offer to join.”
Protesting workers at the gates of the Putilov plant
“We decided to extend the strike to the Franco-Russian shipbuilding and Semyannikovsky factories, where there were 14 thousand workers. I chose these factories because I knew that just at that time they were fulfilling very serious orders for the needs of the war,” the leader of the workers’ uprising, Georgy Gapon, would later say.
The protesters drew up a working petition outlining their demands. They intended to hand it over to the king “with the whole world.” The main demands of the petition were the creation of popular representation in the form of a Constituent Assembly, freedom of the press and equality of all before the law.
“It must be said that neither Gapon nor the leadership group had faith that the tsar would accept the workers and that even they would be allowed to reach the square. Everyone knew well that the workers would be shot, and therefore, perhaps, we took a great sin upon our souls,” recalled one of the leaders of the Russian labor movement, Alexei Karelin.
Soldiers at the Narva Gate on the morning of December 9
“Today there is some kind of heavy mood, it feels like we are on the eve of terrible events. According to stories, the workers’ goal at this moment is to ruin the water supply and electricity, leave the city without water and electricity and start arson,” the general’s wife, Alexandra Bogdanovich, wrote in her diary on January 8.
The head of the St. Petersburg security department, Alexander Gerasimov, recalled: “Until late in the evening, those surrounded by the Sovereign did not know what to do. I was told that the Emperor wanted to go out to the workers, but this was resolutely opposed by his relatives, led by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. At their insistence, the Tsar did not go to St. Petersburg from Tsarskoe Selo, leaving the decision to Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, who was then the commander of the troops of the St. Petersburg Military District. It was Vladimir Alexandrovich who led the troops’ actions on Red Sunday.”
In the early morning of January 9, at 6:30, workers from the Izhora plant set off from Kolpin towards St. Petersburg, who had the longest journey ahead of them. They were gradually joined by teams from other enterprises. According to some estimates, the crowd reached 50 thousand people. In the hands of the protesting workers were banners, icons and royal portraits. The military blocked the path of the demonstrators at the Narva Gate. It was there that the first skirmish began, which escalated into battles throughout the city.
Palace Square January 9, 1905
In his book “Notes on the Past,” an eyewitness to the events of “Bloody Sunday,” Colonel E. A. Nikolsky says: “Groups of people - men and women - began to appear on Nevsky Prospect and on both sides of the Moika River. After waiting for more of them to gather, Colonel Riman, standing in the center of the company, without giving any warning, as established by the regulations, commanded: “Fire in volleys straight into the crowds!” Volleys were heard, which were repeated several times. Random, rapid fire began, and many who managed to run three hundred to four hundred steps fell under the shots. I came closer to Riemann and began to look at him for a long time, carefully - his face and the look of his eyes seemed to me like that of a madman. His face kept twitching in a nervous spasm, for a moment he seemed to be laughing, for a moment he was crying. The eyes looked in front of them, and it was clear that they did not see anything.”
“The last days have come. Brother rose up against brother... The Tsar gave the order to shoot at the icons,” wrote the poet Maximilian Voloshin.
A correspondent for the English newspaper Daily Telegrph, Dillon, describes in his material a conversation with one of the courtiers that took place on the day of “Bloody Sunday.” The Englishman asked why the troops were killing unarmed workers and students. The courtier replied: “Because civil laws have been abolished and military laws are in effect. Last night His Majesty decided to remove the civil power and entrust the care of maintaining public order to the Grand Duke Vladimir, who is very well read in the history of the French Revolution and will not allow any crazy indulgences. He will not fall into the same mistakes that many close to Louis XVI were guilty of; he will not reveal weakness. He believes that the surest way to cure the people of constitutional undertakings is to hang hundreds of dissatisfied people in the presence of their comrades. Whatever happens, he will tame the rebellious spirit of the crowd. even if he had to send all the troops at his disposal against the population to do this.”
Shooting at the General Staff. Still from the film
Nicholas II, according to his own diary, was absent from the capital and learned about the tragedy only later. However, the next day he immediately took action, dismissing the mayor Ivan Fullon and the Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Svyatopolk-Mirsky.
“We accuse the Minister of Internal Affairs Svyatopolk-Mirsky of the premeditated, unprovoked and senseless murder of many Russian citizens,” Maxim Gorky said in a statement that the police seized from him.
Cavalrymen delay the procession
The head of the police department, Lopukhin, reported after the incident: “Crowds of workers, electrified by agitation, 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 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.”
10 days after Bloody Sunday, Nicholas II received a deputation of workers. He told them: “You allowed yourself to be led into error and deception by traitors and enemies of our homeland. 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.” .
On January 9, 1905, in the city of St. Petersburg, tsarist troops shot a peaceful procession of workers. They went to the king to present him with a petition with their demands. This event happened on a Sunday, so it went down in history as Bloody Sunday. It served as the impetus for the start of the revolution of 1905-1907.
Background
The mass procession of people did not just happen. It was preceded by a series of events in which the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire played an important role. On the initiative of the police department in 1903, it was created Meeting of Russian factory workers. The organization was legal, and its main task was to weaken the influence of various revolutionary movements on the working class.
At the head of the workers' organization, a special department of the Police Department placed the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, Georgy Apollonovich Gapon (1870-1906). This man was extremely proud. Very soon he imagined himself as a historical figure and leader of the working class. This was facilitated by the representatives of the authorities themselves, as they withdrew themselves from control, placing the workers' affairs under the full control of Gapon.
The nimble priest immediately took advantage of this and began to pursue his policy, which he considered the only true and correct one. According to the authorities, the organization they created was supposed to deal with issues of education, education, and mutual assistance. And the newly minted leader founded a secret committee. Its members began to become acquainted with illegal literature, studied the history of revolutionary movements and actively discussed plans to fight for the political and economic interests of workers.
Georgy Apollonovich enlisted the support of the Karelin spouses. They came from a social democratic environment and had great authority among the workers. With their direct assistance, the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers significantly increased its numbers. In the spring of 1904, the organization already numbered several thousand people.
In March 1904, a secret program, the so-called “program of five,” was adopted. It contained clear economic and political demands. They formed the basis of the petition with which the workers went to the Tsar on January 9, 1905.
Very soon the Karelin spouses took a leading position in the Assembly. They had many of their own people, and they organized a kind of opposition. She began to play a much more important role than the leader of the organization. That is, Gapon turned into a convenient cover, which his leaders from the Police Department did not even realize.
However, Georgy Apollonovich himself was an energetic and purposeful person, so he cannot be considered as a puppet in the hands of the Karelins. He lacked experience in revolutionary struggle and authority among the working masses, but he quickly learned and acquired the necessary skills.
At the end of November 1904, he put forward a proposal to contact the authorities with a labor petition. This proposal was supported by a majority of votes. Accordingly, the authority of Georgy Apollonovich grew, and the number of members of the organization began to grow even faster. In January 1905 it already numbered 20 thousand people.
At the same time, the clergyman’s initiative gave rise to serious disagreements among like-minded people. The Karelin spouses and their supporters insisted on the immediate submission of a petition, and Gapon believed that first it was necessary to organize an uprising, show the strength of the masses, and only after that demand economic and political freedoms. Otherwise, the Assembly will be closed and the leaders will be arrested.
All this extremely strained the relationship between the Karelins and Georgy Apollonovich. The couple began to actively campaign for the overthrow of the leader. It is not known how all this would have ended, but circumstances intervened.
Incident at the Putilov plant
In early December 1904, 4 workers were fired at the Putilov plant. These are Fedorov, Ukolov, Sergunin and Subbotin. All of them were members of the Assembly. They were fired by master Tetyavkin for production violations. But rumors quickly spread among the workers that people were expelled from the plant because they belonged to the Assembly.
All this reached Gapon, and he stated that this dismissal was a challenge to him personally. The assembly is obliged to protect its members, otherwise it is worthless. It was decided to send 3 delegations. The first one is to Smirnov, the director of the plant. The second to Chizhov, the inspector supervising the plant. And the third to Fullon, the mayor.
A resolution with demands was approved. This is the reinstatement of those fired and the dismissal of master Tetyavkin. In case of refusal, it was planned to start a mass strike.
Deputations came to Smirnov and Chizhov on December 28 and received a categorical refusal. The third deputation was met the next day by Mayor Fullon. He was polite, helpful and promised to provide all possible assistance.
Fullon spoke personally with Witte about the unrest at the Putilov plant. But he decided not to make concessions to the working class. On January 2, 1905, Gapon and his like-minded people decided to start a strike, and on January 3, the Putilov plant stopped. At the same time, leaflets with a list of economic demands to the authorities began to be distributed at other factories.
After the start of the strike, Georgy Apollonovich, at the head of the delegation, came to the director of the plant, Smirnov. The economic demands were read out to him, but the director replied that he refused to fulfill them. Already on January 5, the strike began to cover other factories in the capital, and Gapon decided to address his demands directly to the emperor. He believed that only the king could resolve this issue.
On the eve of Bloody Sunday
The revolutionary priest believed that many thousands of workers should have come to the royal palace. In this case, the sovereign was simply obliged to consider the petition and somehow respond to it.
The text of the petition was read to all members of the Assembly. Everyone who heard her signed the appeal. By the end of the day on January 8 there were more than 40 thousand. Gapon himself claimed that he had collected at least 100 thousand signatures.
Familiarization with the petition was accompanied by speeches with which Georgy Apollonovich spoke to people. They were so bright and sincere that the listeners fell into ecstasy. People swore that they would come to Palace Square on Sunday. Gapon's popularity in these 3 days before the bloody events reached unimaginable heights. There was a rumor that he was the new messiah, sent by God to liberate the common people. At one word from him, plants and factories where thousands of people worked stopped.
At the same time, the leader called for people to go to the procession without any weapons, so as not to give the authorities a reason to use force. It was also forbidden to take alcohol with you and indulge in hooligan behavior. Nothing should have disturbed the peaceful procession to the sovereign. They also appointed people whose duty it was to guard the king from the moment he appeared before the people.
However, the organizers of the peaceful demonstration became increasingly convinced that the emperor would not appear before the workers. Most likely, he will send troops against them. This scenario was more likely. The use of weapons by troops was also allowed. But there was no turning back. On the eve of January 9, the city froze in anxious anticipation.
The Tsar and his family left St. Petersburg for Tsarskoe Selo on the evening of January 6. On the evening of January 8, the Minister of Internal Affairs convened an urgent meeting. It was decided not only not to allow workers into Palace Square, but also into the city center. It was decided to place military outposts along the route of the demonstration, and to use force in case of excesses. But no one had any thoughts of organizing a mass bloodbath. Officials believed that the mere sight of armed soldiers would frighten the workers, and they would be forced to go home. However, everything did not work out as planned in advance.
In the early morning of January 9, 1905, workers began to gather in their areas on the Vyborg, St. Petersburg side, behind the Nevskaya and Narvskaya outposts, in Kolpino, on Vasilyevsky Island. The total number of demonstrators numbered about 140 thousand people. This entire mass of people moved in several columns towards Palace Square. There the columns were supposed to unite by 2 o'clock in the afternoon and wait for the sovereign to come out to them.
The emperor had to accept the petition, and its delivery was entrusted to Gapon. At the same time, it was planned that the tsar would immediately sign 2 decrees: on the amnesty of political prisoners and on the convening of the Constituent Assembly. If Nicholas II had agreed to this demand, then the rebellious clergyman would have come out to the people and waved a white handkerchief. This would serve as a signal for nationwide celebration. In case of refusal, Gapon had to wave a red handkerchief, which would mean a signal for an uprising.
On the evening of January 8, troops from the St. Petersburg Military District began arriving in the capital of the empire. Already on the night of January 9, combat units took up combat positions. In total there were about 31 thousand cavalry and infantry. You can also add 10 thousand police officers here. Thus, the government turned more than 40 thousand people against the peaceful demonstration. All the bridges were blocked by military detachments, and cavalrymen rode along the streets. In a few hours the city turned into a huge military camp.
Chronology of events
Workers of the Izhora plant from Kolpino moved to Palace Square first, since they had to travel the greatest distance. At 9 o'clock in the morning they linked up with the workers of the Nevskaya Zastava. On the Shlisselburg tract, their road was blocked by the Cossacks of the Ataman regiment. There were about 16 thousand workers. There were two hundred Cossacks. They fired several volleys of blank cartridges. The crowd fled, broke the fence separating the street from the Neva, and moved further along the ice of the river.
On Vasilyevsky Island, workers set off at 12 noon. There were approximately 6 thousand of them. The Cossacks and infantry blocked their road. A mounted detachment of Cossacks wedged itself into the crowd. People were chopped down with sabers, lashed with whips, and trampled by horses. The human mass retreated and began to build barricades from fallen telegraph poles. Red flags appeared from somewhere.
The soldiers opened fire and captured one barricade, but by this time the workers had already built another. Before the end of the day, the proletarians erected several more barricades. But they were all captured by troops, and the rebels were shot at with live ammunition.
At the Narva outpost, Gapon came to the assembled workers. He put on the full vestments of a priest. A huge crowd of 50 thousand gathered in this place. People walked with icons and portraits of the king. Troops blocked their path at the Narva Gate. At first, the peaceful procession was attacked by grenadiers, but the horsemen did not frighten the huge mass of people. Then the infantry began to shoot. The soldiers fired five salvos and the crowd began to disperse. The dead and wounded were left lying in the snow. In this skirmish, one of the bullets wounded Gapon in the arm, but he was quickly taken away from the fire.
On the St. Petersburg side the crowd reached 20 thousand people. People walked in a dense mass, holding hands. The Pavlovsky regiment blocked their road. The soldiers started shooting. Three salvos were fired. The crowd wavered and flowed back. The dead and wounded were left lying in the snow. Cavalry was sent after the fleeing people. Those who were caught up were trampled by horses and chopped down with sabers.
But on the Vyborg side there were no casualties. Cavalry was sent to meet the procession. She dispersed the crowd. People, fleeing from the horses, crossed the Neva across the ice and continued their journey to the city center in small groups.
Despite the continuous military barriers, by noon a significant mass of people had gathered on Palace Square. They managed to penetrate into the city center in small groups. In addition to the workers, the crowd included many onlookers and passers-by. It was Sunday, and everyone came to see how the rebel people would present their petition to the king.
In the second hour of the day, mounted detachments tried to disperse the crowd. But people joined hands and insults were hurled towards the soldiers. The Preobrazhensky Regiment entered the square. The soldiers lined up and, on command, took their guns at the ready. The officer shouted to the crowd to disperse, but the crowd did not move. The soldiers fired 2 volleys at the people. Everyone started running. The dead and wounded were left lying in the square.
A huge crowd crowded on Nevsky Prospekt. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon the entire avenue was clogged with workers and onlookers. Cavalry detachments did not allow them to get to Palace Square. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, volleys were heard from the direction of Palace Square. This made people angry. Stones and pieces of ice were thrown at the cavalrymen. They, in turn, tried to cut the crowd into pieces, but the horsemen did not succeed well.
At 4 o'clock a company of the Semenovsky regiment appeared. She began to push back the demonstrators, but met fierce resistance. And then the order came to open fire. A total of 6 volleys were fired at people. Local clashes continued until late in the evening. The workers even built a barricade, blocking Nevsky. Only at 11 pm the demonstrators were dispersed and order was restored on the avenue.
Thus ended Bloody Sunday. As for losses, a total of 150 people were killed and several hundred were wounded. The exact numbers are still unknown, and data from different sources varies significantly.
The yellow press put the figure at more than 4 thousand killed. And the government reported 130 killed and 299 wounded. Some researchers are of the opinion that at least 200 people were killed and approximately 800 were injured.
Conclusion
After the bloody events, Georgy Gapon fled abroad. In March 1906, he was strangled by the Socialist Revolutionaries at one of the dachas near St. Petersburg. His body was discovered on April 30. The dacha was rented by the Socialist-Revolutionary Pyotr Rutenberg. Apparently, he lured the former labor leader to the dacha. The failed leader was buried in the capital's Assumption Cemetery.
On January 10, 1905, the sovereign dismissed the mayor Fullon and the Minister of Internal Affairs Svyatopolk-Mirsky. On January 20, the Tsar received a delegation of workers and expressed sincere regret about what happened. At the same time, he condemned the mass procession, saying that it was a crime for a rebellious crowd to go to it.
After Gapon disappeared, the workers lost enthusiasm. They went to work and the mass strike ended. But this was only a short respite. In the near future, new victims and political upheavals awaited the country.
The immediate beginning of the First Russian Revolution was Bloody Sunday, which occurred on January 9, 1905. To understand the nature of what happened, you need to understand its background. They directly relate to the “Assembly”, meaning the assembly of workers, a legal organization headed by priest Georgy Gapon.
But in general, historians believe that the reasons for Bloody Sunday should be sought in the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, as well as in the reluctance of Nicholas II to engage in government. On the one hand, people felt quite strong dissatisfaction. The working class, which was practically not protected in any way in the country, was especially oppressed. On the other hand, they had little understanding of what they needed to do; they did not see a bright leader in the person of the monarch. Therefore, the appearance of such personalities as Pop Gapon, charismatic, with well-developed oratorical talent, who understand their audience, forced people to start listening.
It is worth noting that a number of workers’ demands were indeed fair. For example, an 8-hour working day. Or protection from illegal dismissal, the ability to file complaints, and so on. At the same time, the workers themselves wanted to control the amount of payment they received; during their speeches in the “Assembly” they practically convinced themselves that this was quite possible. It is difficult to imagine that this would actually be feasible even now. Although, of course, some guarantees are normal here.
If we cover such a historical event as Bloody Sunday 1905 briefly, then the main events can be reduced to the following: the “Assembly” performances began to gain more and more popularity, Gapon managed to achieve concessions at several enterprises through strikes, which worried entrepreneurs. As a result, at the Putilov factory, the master fired 4 workers because they were members of the “Assembly”. Attempts to agree on the cancellation of this decision and sanctions for the master did not yield any results. The strike also led to nothing, even when it began to spread to other enterprises. In total, about 150 thousand people were involved in the situation.
Taking into account the current situation, Gapon proposed submitting a petition to the Tsar. He also tried to meet and talk with representatives of the authorities, handed over the document to the Winter Palace, but the priest was stubbornly ignored. Which led to an escalation of the situation and toughening of formulations, and then to extremes: either the king will satisfy all our demands, or we do not have a king. The situation became tense, and when on January 9, 1905, the workers decided to go to the Winter Palace, blood was shed. The fact that most of them were completely unarmed caused enormous outrage in society. So the date January 9, 1905 went down in history and became the beginning of the First Russian Revolution.
Bloody Sunday: myths
Historically, there are a lot of myths around Bloody Sunday, exaggerations in one direction or the other. To begin with: for some reason many, especially Soviet historians, like to portray Bloody Sunday as the execution of an unarmed crowd in front of the windows of the Winter Palace in front of the Tsar, who listened as they first called him for a long time, then refused to disperse, but he still did not come out. And the whole crowd was shot. There really were murders of unarmed people, and the situation does not justify them. However, the whole picture
somewhat more complicated. Moreover, the king did not come out to anyone, because he was not in the city at all in those days. Perhaps he would not have come out anyway, but his absence is a fact.
Unlike those historical events that happened many years ago, what is being described happened in 1905, even photographs of Gapon, a lot of eyewitness accounts, interrogation reports, and so on have been preserved. The event is truly extremely unsightly, especially for the government, so there is no point in distorting what happened in any way.
To begin with, it is worth characterizing the role of Gapon himself. He was a talented speaker, as already mentioned, as a priest he inspired confidence in both sides, that is, both the authorities and the workers. Thanks to his friendship with the mayor, he avoided arrest for quite a long time, which he took advantage of. His struggle for rights and a better life is sympathetic. But at the same time, Gapon turned out to be overly optimistic about the outcome of the procession and the attempt to hand over the petition to the Tsar personally. He also quite abruptly moved from demands and hope for the tsar as a protector to threats of overthrow and constant strikes. A careful study of the background to the events of Bloody Sunday reveals how his position changed more dramatically almost every day. It can be said that by the rapidity of events, he frightened the authorities and did not give them time to consider the existing options for how they could react to the situation. It cannot be said that what happened was entirely Gapon’s responsibility. However, some part is definitely there.
What is alarming when carefully studying the data on the activities of the “Assembly” is that the workers wanted to listen exclusively to Gapon or only to his proxies. When other revolutionaries (Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries) realized that a real revolutionary force had formed in St. Petersburg, they tried to go to meetings and agitate, but they were not listened to, they were driven away or even beaten, they threw out and tore up leaflets. According to eyewitnesses, an almost religious atmosphere reigned at Gapon’s meetings. The priest often read the “Our Father”, each point of the petition was not only read out, but also explained until everyone reached a state of complete agreement, until the whole hall began to loudly shout out approval to the speaker in chorus. Most of all, this resembles some sects, rather than the critical development of action plans.
Which echoes the behavior of the workers who walked to the Winter Palace on January 9. Many, at the sight of the soldiers, opened their coats and outerwear, began to shout, offering to shoot, and laughed. This is reminiscent of people brought to a state of sectarian ecstasy, confident that they are suffering for a better life, serving a higher purpose. Perhaps some lacked the understanding that there was a real threat to life or that what was happening was real. At the same time, the Socialist Revolutionaries were going to participate in the same procession. They planned to bring weapons, some planned to bring bombs, some made plans to build barricades.
And here it’s worth moving smoothly to the idea of the exclusively peaceful and harmless nature of the procession. For starters: Gapon threatened to bring up to 150 thousand people onto the streets of St. Petersburg. Even now this is quite a lot, then it was a very serious figure, which posed a danger, since such a crowd could not be controlled by any forces, except perhaps the army. Even unarmed.
In addition, there are still memories that Gapon asked the Socialist Revolutionaries for weapons, including bombs. Shots were fired at the military from the crowd; therefore, the demonstrators had weapons with them. However, the demonstration was truly peaceful: not a single soldier was killed by the demonstrators, no one resisted the dispersal, while the soldiers shot or chopped up several hundred people with sabers throughout the day and wounded about the same number. Nevertheless, the Socialist Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks had their own plans for inclusion in the demonstration. And they just did not expect a completely peaceful outcome of events. However, in fairness, it should be noted that Gapon, with great difficulty, convinced the workers to give guarantees of immunity and security to the tsar. And one must assume that if Nicholas II had come to them, they would have been fulfilled.
The above does not mean that the peaceful nature of the demonstration is in any way denied. It’s just that the events are somewhat more complicated than Soviet historians usually showed them. And if you don’t understand such moments and don’t try to figure it out, then inevitable distortion begins.
Responsibility of the authorities
The responsibility of the authorities is of great importance in what is happening. Nicholas II was informed about the mood of the workers even before the tragedy. If he wanted, he could well delve deeper into the situation, especially since censorship was weakened at that time, and many events were leaked to the press. If the emperor had personally taken control of the situation, agreed to communicate with the delegates before the tragedy occurred, and promised them to reform the legislation in the direction of protecting their rights, then it is likely that the First Russian Revolution would not have taken place at all. After all, a careful study of the situation showed that before all the events began, not one of the revolutionary parties had any real weight.