Bloody Sunday (1905)
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- For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday.
Bloody Sunday (Russian: Кровавое воскресенье) was an incident on 22 January [O.S. 9 January] 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, where unarmed, peaceful demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were gunned down by the Imperial Guard. The event was organized by Father Gapon, who was paid by the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, and thus considered to be its agent provocateur. Bloody Sunday was a serious blunder on the part of the Okhrana, and an event with grave consequences for the Tsarist regime, as the blatant disregard for ordinary people shown by the massacre undermined support for the state. Despite the consequences of this action, the Tsar was never fully blamed because he was not in the city at the time of protest.
[edit] Preludes
That December, there was a strike at Putilov plant. Sympathy strikes in other parts of the city raised the number of strikers above 80,000. By January 8, the city had no electricity and no newspapers. All public areas were declared closed. Father Gapon organized a peaceful 'workers' procession' to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to the Tsar that Sunday stating reforms they had desperately wanted. Reforms such as an end to the Russo-Japanese war and more suffrage as well as shortening the workers day to 8 hours,fair pay and condemnation of the un-fair over-time that the factory owners had forced upon their workers. The procession was well stewarded by followers of Gapon and any terrorists and hot-heads were removed and all the participants checked for weapons. He was warned not to act. Troops had been deployed around the Winter Palace and at other key points. The Tsar left the city on January 8 for Tsarskoe Selo.
[edit] Bloody Sunday
On the fated Sunday, striking workers and their families gathered at six points in the city. Clutching religious icons and singing hymns and patriotic songs (particularely "God save the Tsar), they proceeded towards the Winter Palace without police interference. The demonstrators brought along their families in hope of seeing their beloved Tsar and delivering the petition to him as they believed he would take into account their miseries and attempt to sort their problems for them, they believed it would be a peaceful and patriotic day during which they could pass on their polite petition to the Tsar. However, the army pickets near the palace fired warning shots, and then fired directly into the crowds to disperse them. Gapon was fired upon near the Narva Gate. Around forty people surrounding him were killed, but he was uninjured.
Estimates of the number killed are uncertain. The Tsar's officials recorded 96 dead and 333 injured; anti-government sources claimed over 4,000 dead; moderate estimates still average around 1,000 killed or wounded, both from shots and trampled during the panic. Nicholas II described the day as 'painful', but as reports spread across the city, disorder and looting broke out. Gapon's Assembly was closed down that day, and he quickly left Russia. Returning in October, he was assassinated by his friend Pinhas Rutenberg when Gapon revealed that he was working for the Secret Police.
This event sparked revolutionary activities in Russia that resulted in the Revolution of 1905.
