One of the most tragic events that took place in the history of Russia - Bloody Sunday. Briefly speaking, on January 9, 1905, a demonstration was executed, in which about 140 thousand representatives of the working class took part. This happened in St. Petersburg during the time of which people began to call it Bloody. Many historians believe what exactly served as the decisive impetus for the start of the 1905 revolution.

Brief background

At the end of 1904, political ferment began in the country, this happened after the defeat that the state suffered in the notorious Russian-Japanese War. What events led to the mass execution of workers - a tragedy that went down in history as Bloody Sunday? Briefly speaking, it all started with the organization of the “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers.”

It is interesting that the creation of this organization was actively promoted. This was due to the fact that the authorities were concerned about the growing number of dissatisfied people in work environment. The main goal of the “Assembly” was initially to protect representatives of the working class from the influence of revolutionary propaganda, organize mutual assistance, and educate. However, the “Assembly” was not properly controlled by the authorities, as a result of which there was a sharp change in the direction of the organization. This was largely due to the personality of the person who led it.

Georgy Gapon

What does Georgy Gapon have to do with the tragic day that is remembered as Bloody Sunday? Briefly speaking, it was this clergyman who became the inspirer and organizer of the demonstration, the outcome of which was so sad. Gapon took the post of head of the “Assembly” at the end of 1903, and it soon found itself in his unlimited power. The ambitious clergyman dreamed of having his name go down in history and proclaiming himself a true leader of the working class.

The leader of the “Assembly” founded a secret committee, whose members read forbidden literature, studied the history of revolutionary movements, and developed plans to fight for the interests of the working class. The Karelin spouses, who enjoyed great authority among the workers, became Gapon's associates.

The "Program of Five", including the specific political and economic demands of the members of the secret committee, was developed in March 1904. It was she who served as the source from which the demands that the demonstrators planned to present to the Tsar on Bloody Sunday 1905 were taken. In short, they failed to achieve their goal. On that day, the petition never fell into the hands of Nicholas II.

Incident at the Putilov plant

What event made workers decide to demonstrate massively on the day known as Bloody Sunday? You can briefly talk about it like this: the impetus was the dismissal of several people who worked at the Putilov plant. All of them were participants in the “Meeting”. Rumors spread that people were fired precisely because of their affiliation with the organization.

The unrest did not spread to other enterprises operating at that time in St. Petersburg. Mass strikes began and leaflets with economic and political demands on the government began to be distributed. Inspired, Gapon decided to submit a petition personally to the autocrat Nicholas II. When the text of the appeal to the Tsar was read to the participants of the “Meeting”, the number of which already exceeded 20 thousand, people expressed a desire to participate in the meeting.

The date for the procession was also determined, which went down in history as Bloody Sunday - January 9, 1905. The main events are summarized below.

Bloodshed was not planned

The authorities became aware in advance of the impending demonstration, in which about 140 thousand people were supposed to take part. Emperor Nicholas left with his family for Tsarskoe Selo on January 6. The Minister of the Interior called an emergency meeting the day before the event, which is remembered as Bloody Sunday 1905. In short, during the meeting it was decided not to allow the rally participants to go not only to Palace Square, but also to the city center.

It is also worth mentioning that bloodshed was not initially planned. Authorities had no doubt that the crowd would be forced to disperse by the sight of armed soldiers, but these expectations were not justified.

Massacres

The procession that moved to the Winter Palace consisted of men, women and children who did not have weapons with them. Many participants in the procession held portraits of Nicholas II and banners in their hands. At the Neva Gate, the demonstration was attacked by cavalry, then shooting began, five shots were fired.

The next shots were heard at the Trinity Bridge from the St. Petersburg and Vyborg sides. Several volleys were fired at the Winter Palace when the demonstrators reached the Alexander Garden. The scene of the events soon became littered with the bodies of the wounded and dead. Local clashes continued until late in the evening; only by 11 p.m. did authorities manage to disperse the demonstrators.

Consequences

The report that was presented to Nicholas II significantly downplayed the number of people injured on January 9. Bloody Sunday summary which is recounted in this article, killed 130 people and injured another 299, according to this report. In reality, the number of killed and wounded exceeded four thousand people; the exact figure remained a mystery.

Georgy Gapon managed to hide abroad, but in March 1906 the clergyman was killed by the Socialist Revolutionaries. Mayor Fullon, who was directly related to the events of Bloody Sunday, was dismissed on January 10, 1905. The Minister of Internal Affairs Svyatopolk-Mirsky also lost his post. The meeting of the emperor with the working delegation took place during which Nicholas II expressed regret that so many people had died. However, he still stated that the demonstrators had committed a crime and condemned the mass march.

Conclusion

After Gapon's disappearance, the mass strike ended and the unrest subsided. However, this turned out to be only the calm before the storm; soon new political upheavals and casualties awaited the state.

The power of one person over another destroys, first of all, the ruler.

Lev Tolstoy

Bloody Sunday - a mass procession of workers on January 9, 1905 to the Tsar to present a Letter of Demand. The demonstration was shot, and its instigator, priest Gapon, fled from Russia. According to official data, 130 people were killed and several hundred were injured that day. I will briefly discuss in this article how true these figures are and how important the events of Bloody Sunday turned out to be for Russia.

On January 3, 1905, a rebellion began at the Putilov plant. This was a consequence of the deterioration of the social situation of workers in Russia, and the reason was the dismissal of some workers at the Putilov plant. A strike began, which in just a few days covered the entire capital, virtually paralyzing its work. The rebellion gained mass popularity largely thanks to the “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg.” The organization was led by priest Georgy Gapon. By January 8, when more than 200 thousand people were involved in the rebellion, it was decided to go to the tsar in order to present to him the “demands of the people.” The document contained the following sections and requirements.

Petition of the people to the king

Group	Requirements
Measures against ignorance and lack of rights of the people	Release of all those affected by political opinions
	Declaration of freedoms and personal integrity
	General public education at the expense of the state
	Responsibility of Ministers to the people
	Equality of all before the law
	Separation of Church and State
Measures against public poverty	Abolition of indirect taxes
	Cancellation of redemption payments for land
	Execution of all government orders domestically and not abroad
	Ending the war
Measures against the oppression of capital over the ruble	Abolition of factory inspectors
	Creation of working commissions at all plants and factories
	Freedom of trade unions
	8-hour working day and rationing of overtime work
	Freedom of struggle between labor and capital
	Salary increase

Only measures against the oppression of capital over the ruble can be called “worker”, that is, those that really worried the rebellious factory workers. The first 2 groups have nothing to do with the position of the workers, and were obviously introduced under pressure from revolutionary organizations. Moreover, it was the first 2 groups of demands that created Bloody Sunday, which began in the form of a struggle for workers’ rights, and ended in the form of a struggle against autocracy. Freedom of the press, freedom political parties, immediate end to the war, abolition of indirect taxes, amnesty for political prisoners, separation of church and state - how does all this relate to the demands of the workers and their needs? At the very least, some points can be connected with the needs of manufacturers, but how, for example, everyday life workers is associated with the separation of church and state and an amnesty for all political prisoners? But it was precisely these 2 points that transformed the rally into a revolution...

Course of events

Chronology of events in January 1905:

• January 3 – riot at the Putilov plant in response to the dismissal of workers. The head of the rebellion is priest Gapon, chairman of the Assembly.
• January 4-5 – the rebellion spreads to other plants and factories. More than 150 thousand people were involved. The work of almost all plants and factories has been stopped.
• January 6 – there were no significant events, since the holiday of Epiphany was celebrated.
• January 7 – 382 enterprises in St. Petersburg were engulfed in rebellion, so the events could be called general. On the same day, Gapon voiced the idea of ​​a mass procession to the Tsar to convey demands.
• January 8 - Gapon hands over a copy of the Address to the Tsar to the Minister of Justice - N.V. Muravyov. In the morning, the government gathers the army into the city and closes off the center, since the revolutionary nature of the demands is obvious.
• January 9 – mass sixth columns to the Winter Palace. Shooting of a demonstration by government troops.

The chronology of Bloody Sunday allows us to draw a paradoxical conclusion - the events were a provocation, and a mutual one. On the one hand there were the Russian police authorities (they wanted to show that they could solve any problem and intimidate the people), and on the other hand there were revolutionary organizations (they needed a reason for the strike to develop into a revolution, and they could openly advocate for the overthrow of the autocracy). And this provocation was successful. There were shots from the workers, there were shots from the army. As a result, shooting began. Official sources speak of 130 dead. In reality there were many more victims. The press, for example, wrote (this figure was later used by Lenin) about 4,600 dead.

Gapon and his role

After the start of the strikes, Gapon, who led the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers, gained great influence. However, it cannot be said that Gapon was a key figure in Bloody Sunday. Today, the idea is widely spread that the priest was an agent of the Tsarist secret police and a provocateur. Many prominent historians talk about this, but not one of them has yet brought a single fact to prove this theory. Contacts between Gapon and the Tsarist secret police took place in 1904, and Gapon himself did not hide this. Moreover, the people who were members of the Assembly knew about this. But there is not a single fact that in January 1905 Gapon was a tsarist agent. Although after the revolution this issue was actively addressed. If the Bolsheviks did not find any documents in the archives linking Gapon with the special services, then there really are none. This means that this theory is untenable.

Gapon put forward the idea of ​​​​creating a petition to the Tsar, organizing a procession, and even led this procession himself. But he did not control the process. If he really had been the ideological inspirer of the mass upsurge of the workers, then the petition to the Tsar would not have contained those revolutionary points.

After the events of January 9, Gapon fled abroad. He returned to Russia in 1906. Later he was arrested by the Social Revolutionaries and executed for collaborating with the tsarist police. It happened on March 26, 1906.

Actions of the authorities

Characters:

• Lopukhin is the director of the police department.
• Muravyov is the Minister of Justice.
• Svyatopolk-Mirsky - Minister of Internal Affairs. As a result, he was replaced by Trepov.
• Fullon is the mayor of St. Petersburg. As a result, he was replaced by Dedyulin.
• Meshetich, Fullon - generals of the tsarist army

As for the shooting, it was an inevitable consequence of calling in the troops. After all, they weren’t called for a parade, were they?

Until the end of the day on January 7, the authorities did not consider the popular uprising as a real threat. No steps were taken at all to restore order. But on January 7, it became clear what threat Russia faced. In the morning, the issue of introducing martial law in St. Petersburg is discussed. In the evening, a meeting of all the actors takes place and a decision is made to send troops into the city, but martial law is not introduced. At the same meeting, the question of arresting Gapon was raised, but this idea was abandoned, not wanting to further provoke the people. Later, Witte wrote: “at the meeting it was decided that the workers’ demonstrators should not be allowed beyond the known limits located on Palace Square.”

By 6 a.m. on January 8, 26.5 infantry companies (about 2.5 thousand people) were introduced into the city, which began to be located with the goal of “preventing it.” By evening, a plan for the deployment of troops around Palace Square was approved, but there was no specific plan of action! There was only a recommendation - not to let people in. Therefore, virtually everything was left to the army generals. They decided...

The spontaneous nature of the procession

Most history textbooks say that the workers' uprising in Petrograd was spontaneous: the workers were tired of the arbitrariness and the dismissal of 100 people from the Putilov plant was the last straw, which forced the workers to active actions. It is said that the workers were led only by the priest Georgy Gapon, but there was no organization in this movement. The only thing they wanted simple people- convey to the king the severity of his situation. There are 2 points that refute this hypothesis:

1. In the workers' demands, more than 50% of the points are political, economic and religious demands. This has nothing to do with the daily needs of the factory owners, and indicates that there were people behind them who were using the discontent of the people to foment revolution.
2. The rebellion that developed into “Bloody Sunday” happened in 5 days. The work of all factories in St. Petersburg was paralyzed. More than 200 thousand people took part in the movement. Can this happen spontaneously and by itself?

On January 3, 1905, an uprising broke out at the Putilov plant. About 10 thousand people are involved in it. On January 4, 15 thousand people were already on strike, and on January 8 – about 180 thousand people. Obviously, to stop the entire industry of the capital and start a revolt of 180 thousand people, an organization was needed. Otherwise for such short terms nothing would have worked.

The role of Nicholas 2

Nicholas 2 is a very controversial figure in Russian history. On the one hand, today everyone justifies him (even canonized him), but on the other hand, the collapse of the Russian Empire, Bloody Sunday, 2 revolutions are a direct consequence of his policies. At all important historical moments for Russia, Nikola 2 withdrew himself! So it was with Bloody Sunday. On January 8, 1908, everyone already understood that serious events were taking place in the capital of the country: more than 200 thousand people were taking part in strikes, the city’s industry was stopped, revolutionary organizations began to become active, a decision was made to send the army into the city, and even the issue of introducing martial law in Petrograd was being considered. . And in such difficult situation The Tsar was not in the capital on January 9, 1905! Historians today explain this for 2 reasons:

1. There were fears of an assassination attempt on the emperor. Let's say, but what prevented the king, who is responsible for the country, from being in the capital under heavy security and leading the process by making decisions? If they were afraid of an assassination attempt, then they could not go out to people, but the emperor is simply obliged at such moments to lead the country and make responsible decisions. It would be the same as if, during the defense of Moscow in 1941, Stalin had left and not even been interested in what was happening there. This cannot even be allowed to happen! Nicholas 2 did just that, and modern liberals are still trying to justify him.
2. Nicholas 2 cared about his family and withdrew to protect his family. The argument is clearly made up, but it is acceptable. One question arises: what did all this lead to? During February revolution Nicholas 2, just like on Bloody Sunday, withdrew from making decisions - as a result, he lost the country, and it was because of this that his family was shot. In any case, the king is responsible not only for the family, but also for the country (or rather, first of all for the country).

The events of Bloody Sunday on January 9, 1905, they most clearly highlight the reasons why the Russian empire– the king did not care deeply about what was happening. On January 8, everyone knew that there would be a procession to the Winter Palace, everyone knew that it would be numerous. In preparation for this, the army is brought in and decrees are issued (albeit unnoticed by the masses) banning processions. At such an important moment for the country, when everyone understands that a serious event is being prepared - the king is not in the capital! Can you imagine this, for example, under Ivan the Terrible, Peter 1, Alexander 3? Of course not. That's the whole difference. Nicholas 2 was a “local” man who thought only about himself and his family, and not about the country, for which he bore responsibility before God.

Who gave the order to shoot

The question of who gave the order to shoot during Bloody Sunday is one of the most difficult. Only one thing can be said reliably and accurately - Nicholas 2 did not give such an order, because he did not direct these events in any way (the reasons were discussed above). The version that the shooting was necessary for the government also does not stand up to the test of facts. Suffice it to say that on January 9, Svyatopolk-Mirsky and Fullon were removed from their posts. If we assume that Bloody Sunday was a government provocation, then the resignations of the main characters who know the truth are illogical.

Rather, it may be that the authorities did not expect this (including provocations), but they should have expected it, especially when regular troops were brought into St. Petersburg. Then the army generals simply acted in accordance with the order “not to allow.” They did not allow people to move forward.

Significance and historical consequences

The events of Bloody Sunday on January 9 and the shooting of a peaceful demonstration of workers became a terrible blow to the positions of the autocracy in Russia. If before 1905 no one said out loud that Russia did not need a tsar, but only talked about convening a Constituent Assembly as a means of influencing the tsar’s policies, then after January 9 the slogans “Down with autocracy!” began to be openly proclaimed. Already on January 9 and 10, spontaneous rallies began to form, where Nicholas 2 was the main object of criticism.

The second important consequence of the shooting of a demonstration is the beginning of a revolution. Despite the strikes in St. Petersburg, it was only 1 city, but when the army shot the workers, the whole country rebelled and opposed the tsar. And it was the revolution of 1905-1907 that created the basis on which the events of 1917 were built. And all this is due to the fact that Nicholas 2 did not govern the country at critical moments.

Sources and literature:

• History of Russia edited by A.N. Sakhorova
• History of Russia, Ostrovsky, Utkin.
• The beginning of the first Russian revolution. Documents and materials. Moscow, 1955.
• Red Chronicle 1922-1928.

January 9 (January 22 according to the new style) 1905 - an important historical event in modern history 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 The guard was assigned to suppress the unrest; 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 march 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.

It is unlikely that in the Russian history of the 20th century there will be a more callous and more deceitful myth than the myth of the “bloody “resurrection”. In order to get rid of this historical event heaps of dirty and deliberate lies, it is necessary to record several main points related to the date “January 9, 1905”:

1. This was not a spontaneous event. This was an action that had been prepared for many years, for the financing of which significant funds were allocated and significant forces were involved in its implementation.

More about this: http://cont.ws/post/176665

2. The very term “Bloody Sunday” was thrown into print on the same day. This term, by the way, was invented by an English journalist of that time, named Dillon, who worked in a semi-socialist newspaper (I don’t know who but I strongly doubt the spontaneity of such a term, especially from an Englishman).

3. It is necessary to place several important, in my opinion, accents in relation to the events immediately preceding the tragedy of January 9:

1) Was walking Russo-Japanese War, industry was already set up to produce military products. And so precisely at this moment, precisely at defense enterprises, St. Petersburg, strikes begin, provoked by false information about the alleged mass layoffs of workers at the Putilov plant.

The plant fulfills an important defense order. This is a special railway transporter for transporting submarines to the Far East. Russian submarines can reverse a bad move naval war in our favor, but for this they need to be transferred to the Far East across the country. This cannot be done without the conveyor ordered from the Putilov plant.

After this, using "Meeting of factory workers" The Social Revolutionaries organize a wave of strikes. The strikes are organized according to a plan developed by Trotsky, who was still abroad at that time.

The principle of chain transmission is used: workers from one striking plant rush into another and agitate for a strike; Threats and physical terror are used against those who refuse to go on strike.

“In some factories this morning, workers wanted to start work, but people from neighboring factories came to them and convinced them to stop work. After which the strike began." (Minister of Justice N.V. Muravyov).

Police reports spoke of the active participation of Japanese and British intelligence services in spreading the riot.

The strike began on January 4 at the Obukhovsky and Nevsky factories. 26 thousand people are on strike. A leaflet was issued by the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP “To all workers of the Putilov plant”: “We need political freedom, we need freedom of strikes, unions and meetings...”.

On January 4 and 5 workers joined them Franco-Russian shipyard and Semyannikovsky plant.

Myself Gapon Subsequently, this is how he explained the beginning of the general strike in St. Petersburg by the workers of these particular factories. “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."

Thus, under a deliberately far-fetched pretext, it was at defense enterprises, using methods of threats and intimidation, that a mass strike was organized, which was the predecessor of January 9.

2) The idea to go with a petition to the Tsar was submitted by the worker Gapon and his entourage on January 6-7.

But the workers, who were invited to go to the Tsar for help, were introduced to purely economic and, one might say, reasonable demands.

Having accepted the incident with the restraint characteristic of him in acute situations, The Emperor, after the reception of foreign diplomatic representatives scheduled for that day at the Winter Palace, at 16:00 on the same day, left with his family for Tsarskoe Selo.

However, an artillery shot on January 6 finally intensified the actions of the military-police authorities in St. Petersburg.

Considering it as a possible attempt to assassinate the Sovereign, which testified to the existence of a secret terrorist organization in the capital garrison, the leadership of the Police Department was inclined to consider these events as the results of the activities of a well-conspiracy revolutionary organization operating on an all-Russian scale, which had begun to implement its plan to seize power in capital.

This may also be why the commandant still distributed live ammunition, despite the decision of his superiors.

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: the newspapers were not published. 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 for a meeting on the evening of January 8, realizing that it was no longer possible to stop the workers, decided not to allow them into the very center of the city.

The main task was not even to protect the Tsar (he was not in the city, he was in Tsarskoe Selo), but to prevent riots, 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 Avenue and Palace Square, among the embankments and canals. Tsarist ministers remembered the Khodynka tragedy

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.

Despite the fact that the flag over the Winter Palace was lowered and the whole city knew that the Tsar was not in the city, some also knew about the order prohibiting the procession.

ATTENTION: ON THE EVE OF JANUARY 9, THE ENTIRE PRESS WENT ON STRIKE, WHICH DEPRESSED THE AUTHORITY TO DISTRIBUTE AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE BAN OF THE PROCESS, BUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER THIS EVENT, THERE WERE INSTANTLY RELEASED IN HUGE CIRCULATIONS, AS AS PREPARED IN ADVANCE, ACCOUNTING ARTICLES.

5. The very nature of the procession was not initially peaceful.

The beginning of a mass procession of workers of St. Petersburg in the part of the city where the priest himself was located G. Gapon.

The procession from the Narva outpost was led by Gapon himself, who constantly shouted: "If we are denied, then we no longer have a King."

He himself described it in his memoirs as follows: “I thought that it would be good to give the whole demonstration a religious character, and immediately sent several workers to the nearest church for banners and images, but they refused to give us them. Then I sent 100 people take them by force and in a few minutes they brought them.

Then I ordered a royal portrait to be brought from our department in order to emphasize the peaceful and decent nature of our procession. The crowd grew to enormous proportions...

“Should we go straight to the Narva outpost or take a roundabout route?” - they asked me. “Straight to the outpost, take heart, it’s either death or freedom,” I shouted. In response there was a thunderous “hurray”.

The procession moved to the powerful singing of “Save, Lord, Thy people,” and when it came to the words “To our Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich,” representatives of the socialist parties invariably replaced them with the words “save Georgy Apollonovich,” while others repeated “death or freedom.”

The procession walked in a continuous mass. My two bodyguards walked ahead of me... Children were running to the sides of the crowd... when the procession moved, the police not only did not interfere with us, but themselves, without hats, walked with us..."

As is clear from the above description, from the very beginning of the workers’ march under the leadership of G. Gapon, the Orthodox-monarchist paraphernalia in this procession was combined with a very active desire of the representatives of the revolutionary parties participating in it to direct the actions of the workers along the path of their harsh confrontation with representatives of the authorities, even though there were women and children among the workers

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).

They prepared banners and banners: “Down with Autocracy!”, “Long live the revolution!”, “To arms, comrades!”

The first meeting of workers with the troops and police took place at 12 noon near the Narva Gate.

A crowd of workers, approximately 2 to 3 thousand people, moved along the Peterhof highway to the Narva triumphal gates, carrying with them portraits of the Tsar and Queen, crosses and banners.

Police officials who came out to meet the crowd tried to persuade the workers not to go into the city and repeatedly warned that otherwise the troops would shoot at them.

When all the exhortations did not lead to any results, the squadron of the Horse Grenadier Regiment tried to force the workers to return back.

At that moment, Lieutenant Zholtkevich was seriously wounded by a shot from the crowd, and the police officer was killed.

As the squadron approached, the crowd spread out on both sides, and then two shots from a revolver were fired from its side, which did not cause any harm to any of the squadron’s people and only grazed the horse’s mane. In addition, one of the workers struck a platoon non-commissioned officer with a cross.

As you can see, the first shots were fired not from the troops, but from the crowd, and the first victims were not the workers, but the police and army officials.

Let us note the same behavior as one of the “believing” participants in the demonstration: he beats a non-commissioned officer with a cross!

When the squadron met armed resistance and, unable to stop the movement of the crowd, returned back, the officer commanding the troops warned three times about opening fire, and only after these warnings had no effect, and the crowd continued to advance, more than 5 volleys were fired, whereupon the crowd turned back and quickly dispersed, leaving more than forty people killed and wounded.

The latter were immediately given assistance, and all of them, with the exception of the slightly wounded who were taken by the crowd, were placed in the Aleksandrovskaya, Alafuzovskaya and Obukhovskaya hospitals.”

Events developed in approximately the same way in other places - on the Vyborg side, on Vasilievsky Island, on the Shlisselburg tract.

Red banners and slogans appeared: “Down with Autocracy!”, “Long live the revolution!” (this is war time!!!)

Isn’t this picture strikingly different from the sadistic execution of an unarmed crowd carried out by forced soldiers under the command of officers who hate the common people?

Two more powerful columns of workers followed towards the center from the Vyborg and St. Petersburg sides.

Bailiff of the 1st precinct of the St. Petersburg part of Krylov, stepping forward, addressed the crowd with exhortations to stop moving and turn back. The crowd stopped but continued to stand. Then the companies, with closed bayonets, moved towards the crowd shouting “Hurray!” The crowd was pushed back and began to disperse. There were no casualties among her.

On Vasilyevsky Island the crowd behaved aggressively and revolutionary from the very beginning.

Even before the first shots were fired, the crowd, led by a Bolshevik L.D. Davydov, seized Schaff's weapons workshop. 200 people destroyed the headquarters of the 2nd precinct of the Vasilyevskaya police unit.

Major General Samghin reported: “At about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the crowd on the 4th line, having increased significantly in number, began to set up barbed wire, build barricades and throw out red flags. The companies moved forward. (...) While the company was moving, bricks and stones were thrown from house No. 35 on the 4th line, as well as from the house under construction opposite it, and shots were fired.

On Maly Prospekt the crowd rallied and began shooting. Then one half company of the 89th infantry. The White Sea Regiment fired 3 salvos. (...)

During these actions, one student was arrested for making a defiant speech to the soldiers, and a loaded revolver was found on him. During the actions of the troops on Vasilyevsky Island, the troops detained 163 people for robbery and armed resistance.”

It was such a “peaceful” crowd that the troops on Vasilievsky Island had to act against! 163 armed militants and robbers are in no way similar to peaceful, loyal citizens.

By the way, the greatest number of casualties on both sides was caused not by the pacification of the demonstrators in the first half of the day, but by skirmishes with pogromists on Vasilyevsky Island, when the militants tried to hold arsenals and local weapons stores.

All this clearly shows that any statements about a “peaceful” demonstration are lies.

The crowd, excited by trained militants, smashed weapons stores and erected barricades.

“In Kirpichny Lane,” Lopukhin subsequently 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 bailiff was killed.”

It should be noted that there were such militants in all work columns.

It should be noted that the troops, wherever they could, tried to act with exhortations and persuasion, trying to prevent bloodshed.

Where there were no revolutionary instigators, or where there were not enough of them to influence the crowd, the officers managed to avoid bloodshed.

Thus, in the area of ​​the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the Rozhdestvenskaya part there were no casualties or clashes. The same is true in the Moscow part.

None of the columns of demonstrators reached Palace Square.

The columns did not even cross the Neva (those who moved from Vasilyevsky Island, the Petrograd and Vyborg sides) and the Fontanka (those who moved from the Narvskaya Zastava and the Shlisselburg tract).

The most numerous of them, marching under the leadership of Gapon from the Putilov plant, was scattered near the Obvodny Canal. To disperse the columns, weapons were also used at the Shlisselburg fire station and at the Trinity Bridge.

On Vasilyevsky Island there was a real battle with revolutionaries entrenched on the barricades (these are no longer “columns of a peaceful procession”).

Nowhere else were they shooting into the crowd. This is a historical fact, confirmed by police reports.

Small groups of hooligan "revolutionaries" actually infiltrated the city center. On Morskaya Street they beat Major General Elrich, on Gorokhovaya Street they beat one captain and detained a courier, and his car was broken. A cadet from the Nikolaev Cavalry School, who was passing by in a cab, was pulled from his sleigh, the saber with which he defended himself was broken, and he was beaten and wounded. But these “freedom fighters” fled from one sight of Cossack patrols that appeared in the distance.

Later, after the events of January 9, Gapon asked in a small circle: “Well, Father George, now we are alone and there is no need to be afraid that dirty linen will be washed out in public, and that’s a thing of the past. You know how much they talked about the event of January 9 and how often one could hear the judgment that, if the Sovereign accepted the deputation "Honor, honor, listen to the deputies kindly, everything would have turned out well. Well, what do you think, Father George, what would have happened if the Emperor had come out to the people?"

Completely unexpectedly, but in a sincere tone, Gapon replied: “They would kill in half a minute, half a second!”

So, when the enemies of the government then wrote that the Tsar “had only to go out to the crowd and agree to at least one of its demands” (which one - about the 9th constituent assembly?) and then “the whole crowd would have knelt before him” - this was the grossest distortion of reality.

Now that we know all these circumstances, we can take a different look at the events of January 9, 1905 itself.

The revolutionaries' plan was simple: Several columns of provoked worker demonstrators, in whose ranks the terrorist revolutionaries were supposed to be hiding for the time being, were intended to be led to the Winter Palace to hand over the petition personally to the Tsar.

Other columns were not to be allowed to reach Palace Square, but were to be shot on the approaches to the city center, which would fuel the indignation of those gathered near the palace. At the moment when the Sovereign would appear for a pacifying call, the terrorist had to commit the assassination of the Emperor.

Part of this diabolical plan was carried out.

On the evening of January 9 Gapon writes a slanderous inflammatory leaflet: "January 9, 12 o'clock at night. To the soldiers and officers who killed their innocent brothers, their wives and children and to all the oppressors of the people, my pastoral curse; to the soldiers who will help the people achieve freedom, my blessing. Their soldier's oath to the traitor Tsar, who ordered the shedding of innocent blood folk, I authorize. Priest Georgy Gapon."

Subsequently, in the printed organ of the Social Revolutionaries “Revolutionary Russia” this false priest called: “Ministers, mayors, governors, police officers, policemen, policemen, guards, gendarmes and spies, generals and officers who order to shoot at you - kill... All measures so that you have real weapons on time and dynamite - you know, accepted... Refuse to go to war... Rise up on the instructions of the battle committee... Water pipelines, gas pipelines, telephones, telegraph, lighting, horse cars, trams, railways destroy..."

Further street clashes were stopped almost within one day. On January 11, the troops were returned to the barracks, and the police, reinforced by Cossack patrols, again began to control order on the streets of the city.

January 14, 1905 condemned the riots Holy Synod:

“It’s already been a year since Russia has been waging a bloody war with the pagans for its historical calling as the planter of Christian enlightenment in the Far East... But now, a new test of God, a grief worse than the first, has visited our beloved fatherland...

The criminal instigators of ordinary working people, having in their midst an unworthy clergyman who boldly violated the holy vows and is now subject to the judgment of the Church, were not ashamed to give into the hands of the workers they had deceived, forcibly taken from the chapel honest cross, holy icons and banners, so that, under the protection of shrines revered by believers, it would be more likely to lead them to disorder, and others to destruction.

Toilers of the Russian land, working people! Work according to the commandment of the Lord by the sweat of your brow, remembering that he who does not work is not worthy of food. Beware of your false advisers... they are accomplices or mercenaries of the evil enemy seeking the ruin of the Russian land."

The Emperor dismissed the ministers: Svyatopolk-Mirsky and Muravyov. General was appointed as the new Governor General Trepov, who stopped the riots in the city without bloodshed.

The general gave the troops the famous order: “Don’t spare cartridges!”, but at the same time he did everything to ensure that this order became widely known. The riots stopped.

“Unfortunate events with sad but inevitable consequences of unrest occurred because you allowed yourself to be misled and deceived by traitors and enemies of our Motherland. I know that the life of a worker is not easy. Much needs to be improved and streamlined” (from the speech of Nicholas II before a deputation of workers on January 19, 1905).

You allowed yourself to be led into error and deception by traitors and enemies of our homeland...Strikes and rebellious gatherings only incite the crowd to the kind of unrest 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. A lot needs to be improved and streamlined... But for a rebellious crowd to tell me their demands is criminal.”

Already on January 14, the strike in St. Petersburg began to decline. On January 17, the Putilov plant resumed work.

On January 29, a “Commission was created to find out the reasons for the discontent of workers in St. Petersburg and its suburbs and to find measures to eliminate them in the future,” which over time achieved complete pacification of the workers of the capital.

Thus ended the first act of the pre-planned bloody anti-anti-Russian unrest, later called the “Russian Revolution.”

Socialist Revolutionary militants were preparing another assassination attempt on the Tsar which was to take place at the ball. Terrorist Tatyana Leontyeva managed to ingratiate herself with the organizers of one of the social balls and received an offer to engage in the charity sale of flowers. She offered to personally commit regicide. However, the ball was cancelled.

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! ..."

According to official statistics, on January 9, 96 people were killed, including police officials, and 233 were wounded. According to other sources, killed There were 130 people, 311 were injured.

Nicholas II donated 50 thousand rubles from his personal funds in favor of the workers who suffered on January 9, and gave large monetary compensation to all the families of the victims. (Back then you could buy a good cow for 25 rubles, and families received an average of 1,500 rubles).

The revolutionaries took advantage of the situation and spread a rumor that in fact about five thousand people were killed and wounded...

But the primary source on which the capital’s journalists relied was a leaflet distributed in St. Petersburg as early as 5 o'clock in the afternoon on January 9 . It was there that it was reported that “thousands of workers were shot on Palace Square.”

But, excuse me, how could it be written, replicated by this time, especially since the printing houses were not open on Sunday, distributed to the districts and distributed to distributors? It is obvious that this provocative leaflet was prepared in advance, no later than January 8, i.e. when neither the location of the execution nor the number of victims was known to the authors.

According to the results of a study performed by Dr. historical sciences A. N. Zashikhin in 2008, There are no grounds 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 " Organising Committee Institute of Technology" published "secret police information" that determined the number of killed at 1,216 people. No confirmation of this message was found.

Gapon was deprived church rank and declared a most notorious criminal Orthodox Church . He was accused by the clergy of the fact that, (I quote) “called to inspire the Orthodox with the words of truth and the Gospel, obliged to distract them from false directions and criminal aspirations, he, with a cross on his chest, in clothes

😆Tired of serious articles? Cheer yourself up

Somehow it was quickly forgotten that the impetus that became the main cause of the first Russian revolution of 1905 was the shooting on January 9, 1905 in St. Petersburg by imperial troops of a peaceful demonstration of workers led by , which was 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 with a total workforce of about 88 thousand people took part in the strike. 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 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 the 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 II himself took part in the event. One of 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 Him To the 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 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 for 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.