In the beginning of 19o4, according to the petition presented by the
workmen of several factories and workshops of St. Petersburg, there was
established the charter of the St. Petersburg Society of Workmen of Factories
and Workshops, the establishment of which was authorized for the purpose
of allowing the workmen to make use of their leisure hours in a more useful
way as regards religious and intellectual enlightenment. Having this purpose
in view, in compliance with the petition of the organizers of the society,
the chaplain of the St. Petersburg prison, George Gapon, was instituted
president of the above- mentioned society. Beginning his activity by holding
religious meetings in the various branch institutions of the society, Gapon
and his assistants, some of the workmen who were the organizers of the society,
gradually merged into deliberating at their meetings upon the condition
of workmen in various factories and workshops of the capital, and endeavoring
to influence the owners in misunderstandings arising between these latter
and their employees.
In December, 1904, this society took a prominent part in opposing the dismissal
from the Putilov Works of four workmen, members of their society, considering
this dismissal as a desire on the part of the administration of these works
to get rid of men belonging to their association. Although it was found
out later that two of the dismissed workmen had left the works according
to their own desire, and that the third had been dismissed for staying voluntarily
away, the Putilov section of the society, headed by Gapon, considering the
dismissal of the four workmen from the standpoint of personal feeling, succeeded
in influencing the majority of the workmen of the Putilov Works, and the
works were stopped entirely on January 2, 1905.[1]
Taking advantage of the general strike, the workmen placed before the administration
of the factory not only the demand that the dismissed workmen be reinstated
in their positions and that one of the head workmen, suspected of having
been instrumental in the dismissal of these persons, be dismissed, but also
the demand that the mode of appreciation of the work done and that of the
dismissal of the workmen be changed, insisting upon such right of agitation
by members of this section of the above-named society among the workmen
as would result in the section's being given the right of control over the
actions of the administration of the works. Persuasion on the part of the
inspection of the works remained fruitless, and soon, under the influence
of the agitation spread by the numerous sections of the society among the
manufacturing districts of St. Petersburg, the strike spread through the
greater part of the manufacturing establishments of the capital, first as
a means of supporting the demands of the Putilov workmen, and later, taking
advantage of the occasion with the purpose of obtaining from the owners
some private privileges.
How far the above-mentioned movement of the working classes, which first
arose exclusively on the principle of comradeship and solidarity, not brought
about by any special complications in economical conditions, was in the
beginning from any political coloring and the influence of secret revolutionary
societies, is best demonstrated by the fact that at the time attempts made
by revolutionists to use the meetings as a means of agitation in the direction
desired by them, suffered a complete defeat, and the agitators that penetrated
into the assemblies of workmen were often exposed to blows on the part of
the workmen and were invariably cast out of their midst. But as the strike
grew, the demands of the workmen became more extensive, and, from the desire
of seeing local needs complied with, grew into the laying down of one general
program in the name of all the strikers to the owners, demanding the curtailing
of the working day, the taking part by the workmen in the administration
of the factories, etc. Such demands, in a written form composed by Gapon,
were distributed among the workmen and still more strengthened the strikers
in their opposition to possible undertakings in isolated cases. The owners
of works on which strikes had occurred came to the conclusion at one of
their meetings that the compliance with some of the demands of the strikers
would bring about the complete ruin of the national industry, while others
could be investigated and partly granted, but only on the condition of separate
consents for each case and not as a compliance with the demand of the whole
mass of strikers. The workmen refused such an examination of their demands,
asking for a general understanding with the plenipotentiaries named by the
organization of the strikers. As, notwithstanding the obstinacy of the strikers,
public order had nowhere in the capital been violated, and there were no
data showing the participation in the strike of secret anti-governmental
organizations, no measures of repression were taken by the authorities and
no arrests took place among the workmen.
In the meanwhile Gapon, entering into relations with the heads of the local
revolutionary groups, who desired to take advantage of the strike for their
own purposes and give it the character of a general protest of the working
classes against the existing mode of government, gradually began to introduce
at the meetings into the program of the demands of the workmen corrections
of a political character, and having consecutively introduced general constitutional
principles, ended the program by demanding the separation of the Church
from the government, a measure which is in absolute contradiction of the
historical spirit of the religious creed of the Russian people and could
in no way have been consciously dictated by the workmen. The same agitation
was undertaken by the revolutionary leaders, who now were allowed in the
meetings by the workmen, in view of the protection shown by the workmen
to the revolutionists standing with Gapon at the head of the Society of
Workmen of Factories and Workshops.
Having gone so far, Gapon, influenced by political agitators, was forced
to end this movement by some extreme act, and, instigated by the agitators,
began to instill among the workmen the idea of presenting publicly to the
Emperor a petition from the workmen expressing their needs. Such a sermon
on the part of Gapon in the midst of workmen, the majority of whom, like
the whole Russian people, have a deep faith in their Czar and his constant
care for the subjects entrusted to him by the Almighty, could not but be
crowned with success, and really awoke among the strikers a general desire
to go, on January 9th, in a mass to the square of the Winter Palace and
to present to His Majesty in person, through Gapon and delegates, a petition
on the general needs of the working classes. The faith in the possibility
of presenting the petition in such manner was strengthened still more by
the belief in the minds of the workmen that Gapon was not in their eyes
a casual secret agitator, but a priest, acting as the president of a legally
instituted society.
At the time the authorities were sufficiently acquainted with the fact that
the leaders of the anti- governmental organizations existing in the capital
had the intention of taking advantage of the sentiment of the workmen and
their massing on the Winter Palace square for a series of anti-governmental
demonstrations making the demand of an alteration in the existing mode of
government, for the purpose of giving the character of a popular manifestation
to the absolutely peaceful movement of the workmen. They further knew that
the mass of the workmen were ignorant of the political demands introduced
into their petition, and falsely believed that to His Majesty would be presented
merely a petition for the satisfaction of some of the needs of the working
classes. The accomplishment of such intentions could in no way be allowed,
and consequently the inhabitants of the capital were warned in time to keep
order in the streets, and that all assemblies and processions having demonstrations
in view would be dispersed by military force. The arrest of Gapon was ordered
then under the plea of his being a political agitator, yet it could not
be put into execution, for as soon as he entered into relations with the
secret political agitators, he appeared no more at the public meetings of
the society and began to hide in the lodgings of the workmen in the distant
suburbs of the city. Only on the eve of the day appointed for the meeting
on the Winter Palace square, January 8th, did he make known the text of
the petition of the workmen to His Majesty, into which, in addition to the
wish of improvement of their economical conditions, were introduced impudent
demands of a political character. This petition remained unknown to the
greater part of the strikers, and thus the working population was deliberately
deceived as to the true purpose of the assembly on the Winter Palace square.
The fanatical sermon delivered by Gapon, who had entirely forgotten his
priestly dignity, and the criminal propaganda of his assistants belonging
to the local revolutionary groups, excited the working population to such
an extent that on January 9th enormous masses of people began to direct
their course from all the suburbs of the city toward its center. And at
the time that Gapon, continuing to influence the religious sentiment and
loyalty of the people to their sovereign, previous to the beginning of the
procession held religious service in the chapel of the Putilov Works for
the welfare of their Majesties and distributed to the leaders icons, holy
banners, and portraits of the sovereigns so as to give the demonstration
the character of a religious procession, at the other end of the city a
small group of workmen, led by true revolutionists, was erecting a barricade
of telegraph-posts and wire and hoisted a red flag over it. Such a spectacle
was so foreign to the general sentiment of the workmen that from the enormous
crowd going toward the center of the city were heard the words: " These
are not our people, this does not concern us. These are students who are
rioting."
Notwithstanding this the crowds, electrified by the agitation, did not give
way to the general police measures and even at the attacks of the cavalry.
Excited by the opposition they met with, they began to attack the military
forces, endeavoring to break through to the Winter Palace square, so that
it was found necessary for the purpose of dispersing the crowds to use firearms,
avoiding, as far as possible, making useless victims. This latter measure
explains the comparatively small losses experienced by the enormous mass
of people marching to the Winter Palace square. The military forces were
obliged to shoot on the Schlusselburg Road, at the Narva Gate, near the
Tritzky Bridge, on Fourth Street and the Little Perspective of the St. Basil
Island, near the Alexander Garden, at the corner of the Nevsky Perspective
and the Gogol Street, near the Police Bridge and on the Kasan Square. As
has already been said, the crowd had erected a barricade, surmounted by
a red flag, on Fourth Street on St. Basil Island, and two more barricades
were constructed in this rayon, these latter constructed of boards, and
an attack was made against the Second Police Station of the St. Basil district,
the building having been destroyed; also attempts were made to interrupt
telegraphic and telephonic communication. Shots were fired against the mob
from the houses in the neighborhood of the police station, the mob likewise
raiding the side-arm factory of Shaff, the crowd trying to arm themselves
with the blades found in the factory, which, however, were taken away from
them. At the time that, thanks to the vicinity of several higher educational
establishments, the disorders on St. Basil's Island took the character of
a political demonstration, on the St. Petersburg side, nest of the capital's
rowdies, the riot culminated in the devastation and robbing of five shops.
The total number of victims who suffered in the collision with the armed
force, according to information received from the hospitals, was 96 killed
and 333 wounded, from among whom 32 have died so far (including a police
officer killed and assistant police master who died of wounds received).
The measures taken on January 10th for the maintenance of order, similar
to those taken on January 9th, were not put into execution and the attempt
of rowdies to sack the Gostinnoy Dvor was quenched without the aid of the
military forces. Toward evening of that day the workmen of the electric
stations joined in the strike, on account of which fact, taking advantage
of the darkness reigning in some parts of the city, the same rowdies endeavored
to break the windows of stores, but order was quickly restored by ordinary
police measures. Beginning with January 11th, the city had again its usual
aspect and the military details were discharged.
On January 14th the workmen of the Admiralty Works at Ijora, in the Kolpino
district, who had struck at the same time as the others, petitioned the
St. Petersburg and Ladoga Metropolitan, expressing their deep regret and
contrition for having joined in the strike, avowing that only "on account
of their benightedness they had allowed persons absolutely foreign to them
to express political aspirations in their name," begging the Rt. Rev.
Anthony to lay at the feet of His Majesty the expression of their most loyal
sentiments and the belief that only His Majesty "our Father will arrange
everything for the general welfare."
[1] That is, January 15th. The dates used by Count Cassini are Russian Old Style and are thirteen days later than the New Style used in America.