Everything about Bloody Sunday 1905 totally explained
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For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday.
Bloody Sunday was an incident on 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.
Preludes
The previous December, a strike occurred at the
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'd desperately wanted. Reforms such as an end to the
Russo-Japanese war and more suffrage as well as the shortening of the workers day to 8 hours, fair pay and condemnation of the overtime 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.
Bloody Sunday
On the fated Sunday, striking workers and their families gathered at six points in the city of St. Petersburg. They were organised and led by
Father Gapon, a Russian priest who was concerned about the conditions experienced by the working and
lower classes. He drew up a petition to be presented to the Tsar, making clear the problems and opinions of the workers, and calling for improved working conditions, fairer wages and a reduction in the working day to eight hours. Other demands included an end to the
Russo-Japanese war and the introduction of
universal suffrage.
Clutching religious
icons and singing hymns and patriotic songs (particularly "God save the czar"), a crowd of about 200,000, led by Father Gapon proceeded towards the
Winter Palace, the Tsar's official residence, 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'd 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 petition to the czar. 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. Although the Tsar hadn't been present at the Winter Palace at this time, he received the blame for the deaths, resulting in a surge of bitterness towards himself and his autocratic rule from the Russian people.
The number
killed is uncertain. The czar's officials recorded 96 dead and 333 injured; anti-government sources claimed more than 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.' As reports spread across the city, disorder and
looting broke out. Gapon's Assembly was closed down that day, and Gapon quickly left
Russia. Returning in October, he was assassinated by his friend
Pinhas Rutenberg when Gapon revealed that he was working for the
Okhrana or Secret Police.
(External Link
).
This event inflamed revolutionary activities in Russia that resulted in the
Revolution of 1905.
In Music
Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his
Eleventh Symphony as a
program composition about Bloody Sunday and the revolution, with the third
movement paying homage to the fallen workers gunned down by the Tsarist army.
Bloody Sunday is the subject of the Psychedelic Rock song "1905" by
Wire_(band)Further Information
Get more info on 'Bloody Sunday 1905'.
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