Somehow it was quickly forgotten that the impetus that became the main cause of the first Russian revolution of 1905 was the execution on January 9, 1905 in St. Petersburg by the imperial troops of a peaceful demonstration of workers, led by, later called Bloody Sunday. In this action, on the orders of the "democratic" authorities, 96 unarmed demonstrators were shot and 333 were wounded, of which 34 more people later 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 execution of a peaceful demonstration of workers took place, he was in exile, the Social Democrats did not in any way influence 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 the priest Gapon himself indicate that there was no treacherous or provocative intent in his actions. It can be seen that life in Rus' was not so sweet and rich, 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 a kind of messiah, dreamed of becoming a peasant king.

The conflict, as often happens, began with a banality. In December 1904, 4 workers were fired from the Putilov factory - members of the Gaponov "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers". At the same time, the master told the fired: "Go to your" Assembly ", it will support you and feed you." The workers followed the insulting "advice" of the master and turned to Gapon. An investigation carried out on behalf of Father George showed that three of the four were dismissed unfairly and illegally, and the master himself was biased towards members of the Gapon organization.

Gapon quite rightly saw in the master's act a challenge thrown to the Assembly by the administration of the plant. And if the organization does not protect its members, it thereby loses its credibility among the members of the assembly and other workers.

On January 3, a strike at the Putilov factory began, which gradually spread to other enterprises in St. Petersburg. The following took part in the strike:

• 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 factory, the Neva thread, and the Neva paper-spinning manufactory - 2 thousand workers left their jobs;

In total, more than 120 enterprises with a total number of about 88,000 people took part in the strike. Mass strikes, for their part, also served as the reason for such a disloyal attitude towards the procession of workers.

On January 5, Gapon made a proposal to turn to the king for help. In the following days, he drafted the text of the appeal, which included economic and several political demands, the main of which was the involvement of people's representatives in the constituent assembly. On Sunday, January 9, a religious procession to the king was scheduled.

The Bolsheviks tried to take advantage of the situation and draw the workers into the revolutionary movement. Students and agitators came to the departments of the Gapon Assembly, scattered leaflets, tried to make 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. Himmer Gapon checkmate the Social Democrats.

For many years, communist history was silent about one event, incidental, but which influenced the subsequent outcome of Sunday. Perhaps they considered it insignificant, or, most likely, the silence of this fact¸ made it possible to expose the tsarist government as bloodthirsty monsters. On January 6, the Epiphany blessing of water took place on the Neva. Nicholas 2 himself took part in the event. One of the artillery pieces fired towards the royal tent. This weapon, intended for training shooting ranges, turned out to be a loaded live projectile that exploded almost next to the tent. It did some other damage. 4 glasses were broken in the palace and a policeman was wounded, by coincidence - the namesake of the emperor.

Then, during the investigation, it turned out that this shot was accidental, fired due to someone's negligence and oversight. However, he seriously scared the king, and he hastily left for Tsarskoye Selo. Everyone was convinced that a terrorist attack had been attempted.

Father Georgy assumed the possibility of clashes between the demonstrators and the police, and, wanting to avoid them, wrote 2 letters: to the Tsar and the Minister of the Interior P.D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky.

In a letter to His Imperial Majesty, Father George wrote:

The priest urged Nicholas 2 to go out to the people "with a courageous heart", informed that the workers would guarantee his safety "at the cost of their own lives."

In his book, Gapon recalled how difficult it was for him to convince the leaders of the workers 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, written in approximately the same words, the priest asked the minister to immediately inform the tsar about the upcoming event and to acquaint him with the petition of the workers. It is known that the minister received the letter and on the evening of January 8 took it along with the petition to Tsarskoye Selo. However, no response was received from the king and his minister.

Addressing the workers, Gapon said: “Let's go, brothers, let's make sure that the Russian tsar really loves his people, as they say. If he gives all the freedoms, then he loves, and if not, then this is a lie, and then we can do with him as our conscience tells us ... "

On the morning of January 9, workers in holiday clothes gathered on the outskirts to move in columns to the palace square. People were in a peaceful mood, they came out with icons, portraits of the king and banners. There were women in the columns. The procession was attended by 140 thousand people.

Not only the workers were preparing for the procession, but also the tsarist government. Troops and police units were drawn to Petersburg. The city was divided into 8 parts. 40,000 military and police officers were involved in the suppression of popular unrest. Bloody Sunday has begun.

Results of the day

On this difficult day, gun salvos thundered on the Shlisselburg tract, at the Narva Gates, on the 4th line and Maly Prospekt of Vasilyevsky Island, next to the Troitsky Bridge and in other parts of the city. According to military reports and police reports, shooting was used where the workers refused to disperse. The military first fired a warning volley into the air, and when the crowd approached closer than a predetermined 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 in different reports and documents varies.

Not all relatives found the bodies of their relatives in hospitals, which gave rise to rumors that the police underestimate the information about the dead, who were buried secretly in mass graves.

It can be assumed that if Nicholas II had ended up in the palace and went out to the people, or sent (at worst) a confidant, if he had listened to the delegates from the people, then there could have been no revolution at all. But the tsar and his ministers preferred to keep their distance from the people, setting up heavily armed gendarmes and soldiers against them. Thus, Nicholas 2 turned the people against him 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 grievously survived the execution of the workers. According to the recollections of one of the eyewitnesses, he sat for a long time, looking at one point, nervously clenching his fist and repeating "I swear ... I swear ...". A little moving away from the shock, he took the paper and wrote a message to the workers.

It is 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 on Christian love and forgiveness, after everything that happened on that fateful day. He would take this weapon in his hands and shoot the king.

On this day, Gorky also addressed the people and the 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 plants, but also the army and navy went on strike. The Bolsheviks could not stand aside, and in November 1905 Lenin illegally returned to Russia on 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 the Interior. The post of governor-general of St. Petersburg appeared, to which the tsar appointed D.F. Trepov.

On February 29, Nicholas II created a commission, which was called upon to establish the reasons for the discontent of the St. Petersburg workers. Political demands were declared unacceptable. However, the activities of the commission turned out to be unproductive, since the workers put forward demands that were of a political nature:

• openness of committee 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.

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

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 down, and its instigator, Pop Gapon, fled Russia. According to official figures, 130 people were killed and several hundred wounded that day. About how true these figures are, and how important the events of Bloody Sunday turned out to be for Russia, I will briefly talk in this material.

On January 3, 1905, a rebellion began at the Putilov factory. This was a consequence of the deterioration of the social situation of workers in Russia, and the reason was the dismissal of some workers of the Putilov factory. A strike began, which in just a few days swept the entire capital, virtually paralyzing its work. The rebellion gained mass character largely due to the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg." The organization was led by priest George Gapon. By January 8, when more than 200 thousand people were involved in the rebellion, it was decided to go to the king in order to deliver to him "the demands of the people." The document contained the following sections and requirements.

Only measures against the oppression of capital over the ruble can be called "workers", 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 brought in under pressure from the revolutionary organizations. Moreover, it was the first 2nd groups of demands that created Bloody Sunday, which began in the form of a struggle for the rights of workers, and ended in the form of a struggle against the autocracy. Freedom of the press, freedom of political parties, an immediate end to the war, the abolition of indirect taxes, an amnesty for political prisoners, the 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 the manufacturers, but how, for example, everyday life workers associated with the separation of church and state and the amnesty of all political prisoners? But it was these 2 points that transferred the rally to the category of revolution ...

Course of events

Chronology of the events of January 1905:

• January 3 - rebellion at the Putilov plant in response to the dismissal of workers. At the head of the rebellion is Pope Gapon, chairman of the Assembly.
• January 4-5 - the growth of the rebellion in other plants and factories. More than 150 thousand people are involved. The work of almost all plants and factories was stopped.
• January 6 - there were no significant events, since the holiday "Baptism" was celebrated.
• January 7 - 382 enterprises of St. Petersburg were engulfed in a rebellion, so the events could be called universal. On the same day, Gapon voices the idea of ​​a mass procession to the king in order to convey the demands.
• January 8 - Gapon passes a copy of the Appeal to the Tsar to the Minister of Justice - N.V. Muravyov. The government has been gathering the army into the city in the morning and blocking the center, since the revolutionary nature of the demands is obvious.
• January 9 - mass sixth columns to the Winter Palace. Execution 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 at that. On the one hand, there were the police agencies of Russia (they wanted to show that they could solve any problem and scare the people), and on the other hand, revolutionary organizations (they needed a reason for the strike to develop into a revolution, and they could openly advocate 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 fact, there were many more victims. The press, for example, wrote (later Lenin used this figure) about 4,600 dead.

Gapon and his role

After the strikes began, Gapon gained great influence, who led the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers. Nevertheless, it is impossible to say that Gapon was the key figure of 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 cited a single fact to prove this theory. Contacts between Gapon and the tsarist secret police were in 1904, and Gapon himself did not hide this. Moreover, the people who were members of the Assembly knew about it. But there is not a single fact that in January 1905 Gapon was a tsarist agent. Although after the revolution this issue was actively dealt with. If the Bolsheviks did not find any documents in the archives linking Gapon with the special services, then there really are none. So this theory is invalid.

Gapon put forward the idea of ​​creating a petition to the king, organizing a procession, and even led this procession himself. But he did not manage the process. If he really was ideological inspirer mass upsurge of the workers, the petition to the tsar would not contain those revolutionary points.

After the events of January 9, Gapon fled abroad. He returned to Russia in 1906. Later he was arrested by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and executed for cooperation 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 the Interior. As a result, he was replaced by Trepov.
• Fullon is the mayor of St. Petersburg. As a result, he was replaced by Dedulin.
• Meshetic, Fullon - generals tsarist army

As for the shooting, it was the inevitable consequence of calling in the troops. After all, they were not called for the parade, were they?

Until the end of the day on January 7, the authorities did not consider the popular uprising as a real threat. In general, no steps were taken to restore order. But on January 7, it became clear what threat Russia was facing. In the morning, the issue of introducing martial law in St. Petersburg is being discussed. In the evening there is a meeting of all actors and a decision is made to send troops to 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 further than the known limits located on Palace Square.”

By 6 o'clock in the morning on January 8, 26.5 infantry companies (about 2.5 thousand people) were brought into the city, which began to settle down with the aim of "preventing". By evening, a plan was approved for the deployment of troops around Palace Square, but specific plan no action! There was only a recommendation - not to allow people. Therefore, in fact, everything was assigned to the army generals. They decided...

The spontaneous nature of the procession

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

1. More than 50% of the items in the demands of the workers 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 used the discontent of the people to foment the revolution.
2. The mutiny that escalated 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 factory. About 10 thousand people are involved in it. On January 4, 15,000 people were already on strike, and on January 8, about 180,000 people. It is obvious that an organization was needed to stop the entire industry of the capital and start a riot of 180 thousand people. Otherwise, nothing would have happened in such a short time.

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), but on the other hand, the collapse of the Russian Empire, Bloody Sunday, 2 revolutions are a direct consequence of his policy. At all important historical moments for Russia, Nikola 2 retired! So it was with Bloody Sunday. On January 8, 1908, everyone already understood that serious events were taking place in the country in the capital: more than 200 thousand people took 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 question of introducing martial law in Petrograd was being considered. . And in such a difficult situation, the king was not in the capital on January 9, 1905! Historians today attribute this to 2 reasons:

1. They feared 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 guard and leading the process, making decisions? If they were afraid of an assassination attempt, then it was possible not to go out to the people, but the emperor is simply obliged at such moments to lead the country and make responsible decisions. It is equivalent if, during the defense of Moscow in 1941, Stalin left and was not even interested in what was happening there. This is not even possible! Nicholas 2 did just that, and modern liberals are still trying to justify him.
2. Nicholas 2 took care of his family and retired to protect his family. The argument is clearly sucked from the finger, but let's say. One question arises - what did all this lead to? During February Revolution Nicholas 2, just like on Bloody Sunday, abstained from making decisions - as a result, he lost his 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, primarily for the country).

The events of Bloody Sunday on January 9, 1905, they most clearly highlight the reasons why the Russian Empire collapsed - the tsar did not care 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, decrees are issued (albeit imperceptible to the masses) forbidding 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" person who thought only about himself and his family, and not about the country, for which he was responsible 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 for certain and for sure - Nicholas 2 did not give such an order, because he did not manage these events in any way (the reasons were discussed above). The version that the government wanted the shooting also does not stand up to scrutiny by the 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.

It is more likely that the authorities did not expect this (including provocations), but they should have expected it, especially when regular troops were brought into St. Petersburg. Further, army generals simply acted in accordance with the order "not to allow." They did not allow people to move.

Significance and historical implications

The events of Bloody Sunday on January 9 and the shooting of a peaceful demonstration of workers were a terrible blow to the positions of the autocracy in Russia. If before 1905 no one said aloud that Russia did not need a tsar, but they spoke at most about convening a Constituent Assembly as a means of influencing the policy of the tsar, then after January 9, the slogans “Down with the autocracy!” began to be openly proclaimed. Already on January 9 and 10, spontaneous rallies began to form, where Nikolai 2 was the main object of criticism.

The second important consequence of the execution of the demonstration is the beginning of the 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 rule the country at critical moments.

Sources and literature:

• History of Russia, edited by A.N. Sakhorov
• History of Russia, Ostrovsky, Utkin.
• Beginning of the first Russian revolution. Documents and materials. Moscow, 1955.
• Red chronicle 1922-1928.

Many of us must have seen the film directed by Sergei Eisenstein for the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik coup. If not the entire film, then almost everyone remembers the episode in which the "revolutionary sailors" climb the bars of the gates of the Winter Palace. These shots, almost like documentaries, are very fond of quoting many television, so to speak, publicists in their programs about the "Great October". Well, this is precisely the task that the director set himself - to create a myth about the "storm", what kind of "revolution" without the "storm". And the image quality, due to the then level of filming equipment, really allows you to create the illusion that you are not watching a silent feature film, but a real film report from the scene. But still, despite all this "film forgery", there is something true in it, debunking another later myth. The myth of the "blank" shot "Aurora". The events and their immediate material consequences, apparently, were still fresh in the memory of eyewitnesses. Therefore, there was no need to hide the fact that after a six-inch bow gun fired, a real shell exploded in one of the floors of the Winter Palace. But what about the "blank shot"? After blank shots, explosions, as you know, do not happen. This small fact disproved the legend that the Aurora cruiser only gave the signal to storm the palace. Those who bothered to find out in more detail about how everything really happened could find out that the Aurora fired live shots, and not once, but three times. One shell exploded on Sennaya Square (wow, a flight !?), one fell into the Neva, and only with the third shell did the revolutionary gunners, in the absence of officers, hit the “target”. But in addition to the Aurora, Zimny, which, by the way, in addition to the Provisional Government, housed a soldier's infirmary, was fired upon by two batteries located on the beach of the Peter and Paul Fortress. So, the revolutionaries did not even think about any preservation of the works of art of the Hermitage, the “national treasure” in the Bolshevik way. This example prompts us to treat with great caution all the "historical facts" presented by communist and post-communist falsifiers. This fully applies to the so-called "Bloody Sunday", the events of January 9, 1905 in St. Petersburg.

Indeed, what do we know about them at the suggestion of communist-liberal “historians”: “Hundreds of thousands of workers of the capital, driven to despair by lack of rights and poverty, indignant at the surrender of Port Arthur, on a winter Sunday afternoon with wives and children, with icons, banners and royal portraits , singing prayers and the anthem "God save the Tsar", peacefully, with an expression of loyal feelings, they came to Palace Square to tell Emperor Nicholas II about their needs, in the hope that the Tsar Father would protect them from the arbitrariness of breeders and manufacturers. The king ordered them to be shot, shedding streams of innocent blood. More than 4,600 people were killed and wounded. “As the King is with us, so are we with the King, etc.” That, perhaps, is all.

But there is one circumstance. None of the columns of demonstrators reached the Palace. 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 Narva outpost 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 the revolutionaries, who were entrenched on the barricades (these are no longer “columns of a peaceful procession”). Nowhere else were shots fired at the crowd. This is a historical fact confirmed by police reports. Small groups of hooligan "revolutionaries" really penetrated 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. Junker Nikolaevsky, who was passing by in a cab, cavalry school dragged off the sleigh, broke the saber with which he defended himself, and beat him and wounded him. But these "freedom fighters" fled from one kind of Cossack patrols that appeared in the distance. In general, no one on Palace Square were not shot. A small lie (the first), causing, as they say, a big mistrust. Distrust, in turn, gives rise to a desire to get to know real events more closely.

What was the source of the lie?

Morning Petersburg newspapers of January 10. But the primary source on which the metropolitan journalists relied was a leaflet that had been distributed in St. Petersburg since 5 o'clock in the afternoon on January 9th. It was in it that “thousands of workers shot on Palace Square” were reported. But, excuse me, how could it have been written and replicated by that time, especially since printing houses did not work on Sunday, sent to the districts and distributed to distributors. It is obvious that this provocative leaflet was made in advance, no later than January 8, i.е. when neither the place of execution nor the number of victims was known to the authors. Here it should be noted that the number of dead, including police officers, on January 9 was actually 96 people, and 311 injured. Not thousands. This is the second lie. And, although one human life is priceless, a lie does not become the truth from this. In other words, what was planned was passed off as actually happening. Who planned all this? When is it scheduled and how? Naturally, those who wrote the leaflet and organized the "peaceful procession", i.e. revolutionaries. Revolutions do not happen spontaneously, they are carefully prepared, funds are sought, weapons are acquired, and so on.

Therefore, we must turn our attention not only to the events of January 9, 1905, but, above all, to those that preceded them.

On January 27, 1904, as is known, Japan treacherously attacked Russia without declaring war. The combat strength of the troops of the Japanese troops, well equipped and organized according to the German model, at the beginning of the war was 140 thousand bayonets and sabers with 684 guns. By the end of the third month of hostilities, this number could be increased to 200 thousand bayonets and sabers with 720 guns. Russia, immediately after the start of the war, could oppose in the corresponding region no more than 25 thousand people, not counting the garrisons of the fortresses, and after 2-3 months - 70 thousand bayonets and cavalry with 160 guns for field operations and about 30 thousand bayonets of the garrison of the fortress of Port Arthur, whose construction was not yet completed. Despite this advantage, the Japanese generals failed to achieve a quick victory. An attempt to capture Port Arthur with one blow immediately failed. The losses of the Japanese during the first assault amounted to 15 thousand people against 6 thousand Russians. For 157 days, the heroic defenders of Port Arthur, the heirs of Nakhimov and Totleben, repulsed the attacks of the enemy, who sent 200 thousand soldiers and officers against them. Three assaults were repulsed, inflicting 110,000 casualties on the enemy, while the Russians lost 27,000. And, despite the fact that the fortress of Russian glory fell under the onslaught of a many times superior, stubborn and skillful enemy, Japan could not count on victory in the war with its daily depleted forces alone. The military power of Russia in the Far East was constantly growing. By 1905, the Siberian road was already passing 14 pairs of trains a day, instead of 4 at the beginning of the war. About 300 thousand people were concentrated in Manchuria. The economy and finances of the land of the rising sun were undermined. The war practically did not affect the life of internal Russia. The State Bank did not stop the exchange of bank notes for gold for a single day. The harvest of 1904 was plentiful. Industry increased its production, including as a result of military orders, which, by the way, ensured wage increases, primarily in the defense industry (this, by the way, refutes the third lie, about “workers driven to poverty”). Military expenses were partly covered by the free cash of the treasury, partly by loans. At the same time, the subscription to both external loans several times exceeded the issue amount. Russia's credit was high: it borrowed money at 5-6% per annum, while Japan, despite all its military successes, had to pay 7-8%. Japan, using all its forces, was still ahead (in the Far East, that is, in the immediate vicinity of its base), but Russia was beginning to catch up. By the spring or summer of 1905, with the normal development of the forces of both sides, Russia had to overcome the difficulties caused by the remoteness of the theater of operations from the vital centers of the country. Russia's victory was undeniable. It would have been, if the internal enemy had not entered into an alliance with the external enemy of our Motherland.

Revolutionaries of all stripes, as well as the liberalizing so-called "public", were the natural helpers of the Japanese. “If the Russian troops win a victory over the Japanese, which, after all, is not so impossible as it seems at first glance, wrote a certain N. O-v in Osvobozhdenie (the press organ of the liberal Union of Osvobozhdeniye, which suffered from the beginning of the war , in January 1904, his activities from Switzerland to St. Petersburg), then freedom will be calmly strangled to the cries of cheers and the bell ringing of the triumphant Empire. Only large-scale sabotage in the rear of the fighting Russian army, only internal unrest in Russia could prevent such an outcome of the war. This was the only chance for Japan and for the revolution.

And the paths of the enemies of Russia, of course, did not fail to cross. Former military attache in St. Petersburg, who moved to Stockholm after the outbreak of the war and headed the Japanese spy network in Western Europe, Colonel Matoir Akashi in July 1904, through the terrorist Vera Zasulich, established contact with the exiled Lenin Plekhanov.

“We are ready,” Akashi told the revolutionaries, “to help you financially for the acquisition of weapons, but the most important thing is not to let the movement (revolutionary - A.S.) cool down and thus contribute to Russian society element of constant incitement of protest against the government. At his meetings with the haters of historical Russia, the Japanese spy insisted on organizing armed insurgent detachments numbering up to 100,000 militants.

The revolutionaries received 750,000 yen to purchase weapons through Akashi and his men. The agents of the Japanese resident also did not remain in the loser. So, only one of them, Georgy Dekanozov, Stalin's future favorite, received 125 thousand francs for travel expenses alone.

One of Akasha's top agents was the Finnish revolutionary Connie Zilliacus. It was through him that Japanese money was distributed among the revolutionary parties. Among his papers, discovered by Russian intelligence, a document was found listing the number of weapons transferred to the revolutionary parties: 8 thousand rifles - to Finnish nationalists, 5 thousand rifles - to Georgian nationalists, a thousand to Socialist-Revolutionaries, 8 thousand to other socialist parties and another 500 carbines - Mausers - for distribution between the Finnish nationalists and the Socialist-Revolutionaries. With Japanese money, under the leadership of Zilliacus, two clandestine factories were built in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which released thousands of bombs.

The English journalist Dillon, a certain enemy of the tsarist government, wrote in his book The Decline of Russia: “The Japanese distributed money to Russian revolutionaries of certain shades, and considerable sums were spent on this. I must say that this is an indisputable fact.”

In addition to the Japanese, the anti-Russian revolution was subsidized by American millionaires, who transferred many millions of dollars to subversive work in Russia. Particularly distinguished here is a certain Jacob Schiff - the owner of the Kuhn, Leeb and Co. banking house in New York. The total amount of foreign money directed "to the revolution" in Russia amounted to at least 50 million dollars. A huge sum for those times. It is noteworthy that the revolutionaries did not even try to hide the fact that the so-called "first Russian revolution" was made with foreign money. The notorious leader of the militant organization, Social Revolutionary Boris Savinkov wrote in his memoirs (1917): American millionaires in the amount of one million francs, and Americans set a condition so that this money goes to the armament of the people and is distributed among all revolutionary parties. The Central Committee accepted this amount, subtracting 100,000 francs for the fighting organization.

"Educated Society"

The “educated society”, for its part, with some kind of pathological gloating, longed for the defeat of Russia. “The common secret prayer,” wrote the German journalist G. Ganz, who lived in St. Petersburg during the war, “not only liberals, but moderate conservatives at that time was “God, help us be defeated.” Therefore, when we hear from the lips of the heirs of these traitors that the revolution was caused by patriotic feelings offended by military defeats, we say - a lie. This is already the fourth. It was with the outbreak of the war that they headed for the revolution. It was in these difficult days for our Motherland that the founding congress of the notorious "Union of Liberation" was held to create local organizations, which was attended by 105 delegates representing 33 provinces, including 32 chairmen of provincial councils, 7 provincial representatives of the nobility. The question “on the general conditions of state life and desirable changes in it” is submitted for discussion at the congress. 71 people vote for the creation of an elected legislative representation, and only 27 votes for a legislative representation. At the same time, the right of nations to self-determination is proclaimed. In other words, the task is to liquidate the autocracy and dismember Russia. Simultaneously with the Union of Liberation, another illegal organization, the Union of Zemstvo-Constitutionalists, was also created, which also set as its goal the overthrow of the existing system.

It is not surprising, therefore, that these liberal "leaders" took part in a conference of "opposition and revolutionary parties" convened in September-October 1904 in Paris on the initiative of the same Conny Zilliacus and financed by Japanese money. In addition to liberals and socialists, Polish, Latvian, Finnish, Armenian, Georgian and Jewish nationalists were widely represented.

Thus, under the tutelage of Japan, the liberal, socialist and nationalist branches of the anti-Russian forces entered into an agreement. The Paris Conference adopted a resolution on the "destruction of the autocracy" and on the creation of "a free democratic system based on the universal suffrage." Its participants recognized the "usefulness" for the "liberation" of Russia of its defeat in the war with Japan and urged to contribute in every possible way to this. After the meeting, concrete work began on the preparation of the revolution.

On the initiative of the Union of Liberation, as if by magic, on the fortieth anniversary of the judicial reform of Emperor Alexander II, November 20, 1904, "progressive" talkers throughout the country are conducting a "banquet campaign." In 34 cities, 120 meetings and rallies were held, in which 50,000 supporters of the Union of Liberation took part. All their participants are invited to accept the same proposals addressed to the government with a desire to limit royal power.

The revolutionaries, on the other hand, began preparing armed uprisings. The main one was to be the uprising in St. Petersburg. For its organization, the legal “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers in St. Petersburg”, created on February 15, 1904, was used. By 1905, it had 11 departments and about 20 thousand members in the capital and its environs. The very active participation of the authorities in the establishment of this workers' organization reveals the fifth lie - that the workers are deprived of rights. It was from the hands of tsarist Russia that the workers received the long-awaited freedom of assembly and mutual assistance, the opportunity to organize leisure and self-education. Libraries and free lectures were organized at the branches of the "Assembly". The leadership of the "Assembly" successfully defended the rights of its members, canceled illegal fines and dismissal decisions. In the autumn of 1904, the "Assembly" had a reserve capital, consumer shops and tea shops were opened at its branches. The idea arose of a broad system of cooperation and cheap workshops. A project of a special working bank was put forward. The working members of the "Assembly" responded to the authorities with complete loyalty. This circumstance and decided to use the revolutionary provocateurs.

Assuring the police officials of loyalty to the Tsar, the leader of the "Assembly", the priest of the church of the St. Petersburg transit prison G.A. Gapon, who dreamed of becoming a people's leader, began, in cooperation with the revolutionaries, to gradually conduct anti-government propaganda and agitation. Those monarchist-minded workers who were critical of the prospect of involving them in the political struggle and were not inclined to completely trust Gapon, around whom a narrow group, the so-called. headquarters: social democrats A. Karelin and D. Kuzin, as well as non-party I. Vasiliev and N. Varnashov. Back in March 1904 on conspiratorial meeting, they obliged Gapon to accept secret the political program of the Assembly. In fact, this was already the same petition that would be carried to the Tsar on January 9, 1905. More broadly, it was the program of the 1905 revolution: freedom of speech, press, assembly, freedom of conscience, the responsibility of ministers "to the people", amnesty for political prisoners. Special work was carried out among women. The organizer of this work was the old Social Democrat Vera Markovna Karelina. And in general, despite the assertion that the Gapon movement was represented only by workers, it was attended by a large number of social democrats-intellectuals.

Thus, the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers", which was by no means the only one among the legal workers' organizations, designed to defend only the socio-economic rights of workers without involving them in the political struggle, turned under the leadership of Gapon into an officially recognized, but oriented as a radical social - economic and radical political struggle mass workers' organization, which, thanks to the loyal nature of its statements, not only was not controlled by the authorities, but could act completely unexpectedly for the authorities, following only the instructions of its recognized leader and the revolutionaries standing behind him. Using, like Azef and Malinovsky, relations with the police as a screen, Gapon and the revolutionaries surrounding him, and the main "curator" of Gapon was the Socialist-Revolutionary Pinkhus Rutenberg (party nickname - Martyn Myrtynovich), were preparing a bloody provocation and rebellion. “Only I have to wait,” said Gapon, “for some external event; let Arthur fall«.

December 20, 1904 Port Arthur fell. “The pitiful remnants of the victorious legions have laid down their arms at the feet of the victor,” the legal newspaper Our Days wrote with undisguised gloating, differing little in tone from Osvobozhdenie. The signal for revolution has sounded. Some reason was needed to start an uprising.

In December 1904, representatives of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers" intervened in the conflict that took place at the Putilov factory between the workers and the factory administration, which fired four workers. December 27, 1904 at a meeting of representatives of the district departments of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers" under the leadership of Gapon and with the participation of representatives of the revolutionary parties a provocative resolution was adopted against not only the administration of the plant, but also the city authorities, excluding the possibility of any positive consideration of it - it ended with an open threat to the city authorities: “If these legitimate demands of the workers are not satisfied,” the fifth paragraph of the resolution emphasized, “the union abdicates all responsibility in case of disturbance of the peace in the capital.

On January 2, 1905, at a meeting of the Narva department of the “Assembly of Russian Factory Workers”, after receiving a refusal from the directorate of the Putilov factory, factory inspection and town authorities to satisfy the requirements set forth in the resolution, it was decided to start a strike on January 3, putting forward economic demands to the directorate ( An 8-hour working day is in wartime, three-shift work, the abolition of overtime, free medical care), while organizing a procession to the Winter Palace on January 9 to present the workers' petition to the tsar.

On January 3, 1905, a strike of workers at the Putilov factory (12.6 thousand people) began. On January 4, a strike began at the Obukhov and Nevsky factories. 26 thousand people are on strike. A leaflet was issued by the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP "To all the workers of the Putilov Plant": "We need political freedom, we need freedom to strike, unions and meetings ...".

On January 4 and 5, workers from the Franco-Russian shipyard and the Semyannikovsky plant joined them. Gapon himself subsequently explained the beginning of the general strike in St. Petersburg in this way by the workers of precisely these factories. " We decided,” Gapon wrote, “... to extend the strike to the Franco-Russian shipbuilding and Semyannikovsky factories, which numbered 14,000 workers. I chose these factories because I knew that just at that time they carried out very serious orders for the needs of the war". On January 5, 1905, Metropolitan Anthony of St. Petersburg summoned Gapon twice, demanding an explanation regarding his activities, which were incompatible with the priesthood. However, Gapon did not appear either to Metropolitan Anthony or to the St. Petersburg Theological Consistory, and on the night of January 6, he fled from home, going into an illegal position.

By January 6, 40,000 people are on strike. During the blessing of water on the Neva in front of the Winter Palace, the following incident occurred: one of the guns of the battery that fired the salute fired grapeshot. Unexpectedly for everyone, large grape shot bullets fell both on the pavilion and on the facade of the Winter Palace. About 5 bullets were counted in the gazebo, of which one fell very close to the Sovereign. According to the recollections of a direct eyewitness, General A. A. Mosolov, who served as head of the office of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, no one believed that this was an accident, everyone was sure that this was an attempt on the Sovereign, outgoing from among the troops. Having perceived the incident with the restraint characteristic of him in acute situations, the Sovereign, after the reception of foreign diplomatic representatives scheduled for that day in the Winter Palace, at 4 p.m. of the same day left with his family for Tsarskoye Selo.

Revolutionaries know this. At such a moment, it would have been natural for the priest to cancel the procession, thereby preventing the shedding of blood. But Gapon seems to forget about his calling to reconcile and forgive. He becomes, as it were, the antipode of the priest, he is all a fiery revolutionary. Inspired by his role in the ongoing events, he rushes around the various branches of the "Assembly" and calls on people to fight. He is the first to talk about shooting and bloodshed: “If the soldiers shoot, we will resist. The SRs promised bombs." He and his accomplices still lead the people to Palace Square. For the flame of revolution to flare up, the blood of the working people must be shed. On the same day, Gapon met with representatives of the "Union of Liberation" headed by V. Khizhnyakov, at which he did not rule out the possibility that "they would shoot" along the procession to the Winter Palace. On January 6, Gapon also took part in a conference with representatives of the revolutionary parties "on the possibility of any joint action» between striking workers and revolutionaries during the preparation and implementation of the procession to the Winter Palace. At this meeting, the text of the petition to the Tsar was again discussed, its demands were radicalized, transferring the main meaning of its content from the economic needs of the workers to political demands on power. “... In the whole pile of memoirs and documents, not a single case of editing a petition ... directly by the workers was recorded,” one of the modern researchers of the Gapon movement rightly notes, “all the options and amendments known to us are the result of a series of narrow meetings ... It was there that the petition was born as a political document , there it was developed as a common platform, equally acceptable to both the liberal "public" and the left parties.

By January 7, 105,000 people are already on strike. Newspapers came out for the last time; from that day on, the strike, turned into a citywide strike, spread to the printing houses. The St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP decides to send its best agitators to all departments of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers". On January 7, at a conference with the Mensheviks, Gapon said: “If they beat us, we will respond in kind, there will be victims ... Let's set up barricades, smash gun shops, break up the prison, take over the telephone and telegraph—in a word, we'll start a revolution.... ". At the same time, Gapon and his closest assistants held a meeting with representatives of the Social Democratic and Socialist-Revolutionary parties. Gapon himself described his speech to them as follows. “It has been decided that tomorrow we will go,” I told them, “but do not put up your red flags so as not to give our demonstration a revolutionary character. If you want to, go ahead of the procession (!). When I go to the Winter Palace, I will take with me two flags, one white, the other red. If the Sovereign accepts the deputation, then I will announce this with a white flag, and if he does not accept it, then with a red one, and then you you can throw out your red flags and do what you think is best". “In conclusion, I asked if they had weapons, but the Social Democrats answered me that they did not, and the Social Revolutionaries that they had several revolvers, from which, as I understood, they prepared shoot at the troops". This is the actual agreement on signals. On January 7, the petition is finalized, which is a remarkable document of its kind. Despite the expressions of the loyal feelings of the workers towards their Sovereign contained in it, it was a harsh political ultimatum of the authorities, making obviously impossible demands on the Sovereign. Firstly, the petition was drawn up not only on behalf of the workers, but also on behalf of all “residents of the city of St. Petersburg of various classes” in general. The content of the petition testified that the demands were put forward not so much to satisfy the economic needs of the workers, but, under their cover, the interests of liberals and revolutionaries - “led immediately, immediately call on representatives of the Russian land from all classes, from all estates, representatives and from workers ... Let everyone be equal and free in the right of election, - and for this they ordered that Elections to the Constituent Assembly took place under the condition of universal, secret and equal voting. This is our biggest request... But one measure still cannot heal our wounds. Others are also needed: the immediate release and return of all those who suffered for political ... convictions; immediate declaration of freedom of speech, press, freedom of assembly; the responsibility of the ministers to the people and the guarantee of the legitimacy (?) of government; separation of church and state« . Did the workers of St. Petersburg really intend to control the ministers? Or did they, Orthodox Russian people, need a separation of church and state? This is where the sixth lie lies - there was no provocative procession that was essentially loyal. The unconditional unacceptability for the state authorities of the content of the petition drawn up under the leadership of Gapon was aggravated by the legal inadmissibility of such actions in relation to the Tsar, because Russian legislation did not provide for the right to submit such petitions to the Emperor by anyone other than representatives of the nobility, and the “Code of Punishments ”suggested bringing to court the compilers of such petitions. Therefore, from a legal point of view, Gapon's petition, even regardless of the method of its submission and content, was a crime.

So, at the very last moment, instead of the economic demands accepted and supported by the workers, a petition appears, allegedly also drawn up on behalf of the workers, but containing extremist demands for nationwide reforms, the convening of a Constituent Assembly, and a political change in the political system. All points known to the workers and actually supported by them are carried over to the conclusion. It was in its purest form a political provocation of the revolutionaries, who tried on behalf of the people in difficult military conditions to present demands to the Russian government they did not like.

The workers, who were invited to go to the Tsar for help, were introduced only to economic demands. Gapon's provocateurs, when they were going to the Tsar, even spread the rumor that the Tsar himself wanted to meet with his people. The scheme of provocation is as follows: revolutionary agitators, allegedly on behalf of the Tsar, went around and conveyed to the workers something like “his” words: “I, the Tsar of God, am powerless to cope with officials and bars, I want to help the people, but the nobles do not give. Rise up, Orthodox, help me, the Tsar, to overcome my and your enemies.” Many eyewitnesses told about this, for example, the Bolshevik L. Subbotina. She also relayed a dialogue with one revolutionary student: “Well, comrade Lydia, just think about the greatness of the idea,” says one student, whom we called the Fire Breather, “to use faith in the Tsar and God for the revolution ...”. Hundreds of revolutionary provocateurs walked among the people, inviting people on January 9 at two o'clock to Palace Square, declaring that the Tsar would be waiting for them there. The workers prepared for this day like a holiday: they ironed their best clothes, many were going to take their children with them. In general, for the majority of workers this day seemed like a big religious procession to the Tsar, especially since it was promised to be led by a priest, a spiritual person, traditionally revered.

By January 8, 111,000 people are on strike. The St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP issued proclamations "To all St. Petersburg workers" calling for the overthrow of the autocracy and "To the soldiers" calling not to shoot at the people. At an illegal night meeting of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP, it was decided to take part in the procession to the Winter Palace.

Until that day, the authorities did not yet know that another petition was prepared behind the backs of the workers, with extremist demands. And when they found out, they were horrified. An order is given to arrest Gapon, but it is too late, he has fled. And it is already impossible 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 with the Tsar. It cannot be canceled: the newspapers did not come out. And until late in the evening on the eve of January 9, hundreds of agitators walked through the workers' districts, exciting people, inviting them to a meeting with the Tsar. The workers fell asleep with the thought of tomorrow's meeting with the Father-Tsar. In an effort to avert tragedy, the authorities issued a notice banning the January 9 march and warning of the danger. But due to the fact that only one printing house worked, the circulation of the advertisement was small.

On January 8, Gapon sent a letter to the Minister of the Interior, from which it is clear that, for the sake of certain forces, he deceived both the workers and the Tsar himself: “Your Excellency! Gapon wrote. - The workers and residents of St. Petersburg of various classes desire and must see the Tsar on the ninth of this January, on Sunday at 2 pm on Palace Square, in order to directly express to him their needs and the needs of the entire Russian people.

The king has nothing to fear. I, as a representative of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of the City of St. Petersburg", my fellow workers, even all the so-called revolutionary groups of various trends, guarantee the inviolability of his personality. May he come out like a true King, with a courageous heart, to His people and accept our petition from hand to hand. This requires his good, the good of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, the good of our country.

Otherwise, the end of that moral connection that still existed between the Russian Tsar and the Russian people may come to an end.

Your duty, a great, moral duty to the Tsar and all the Russian people, immediately, today, to bring to the attention of His Imperial Highness (as in the source - A.S.) both all of the above and our petition attached here. Tell the Tsar that I, the workers and many thousands of the Russian people, peacefully, with faith in him, have decided to irrevocably go to the Winter Palace. Let him treat us with confidence in deeds, and not only in manifestos. copy from this acquittal document of a moral nature has been removed and will be brought to the attention of the entire Russian people. January 8, 1905 Fr. Gapon

Obviously, Gapon, deceiving both the Tsar and the People, hid from them the subversive work that was carried out by his entourage behind their backs. He promised the Tsar immunity, but he himself knew very well that the so-called revolutionaries whom he invited to participate in the procession would come out with the slogans “Down with the autocracy”, “Long live the revolution”, and bombs and revolvers would be in their pockets. Finally, Gapon's letter had an unacceptably ultimatum character - a native Russian did not dare to speak with the Tsar in such a language and, of course, would hardly have approved this message. Gapon and the criminal forces standing behind him were preparing to kill the Tsar himself. Later, after the events of January 9, Gapon was asked in a narrow circle: “Well, Father Georgy, now we are alone and there is nothing to be afraid that dirty linen will be taken out of the hut, and it’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 with honor, listen to the deputies kindly, everything would have turned out in a good way. Well, what do you think, oh. George, what would happen if the Sovereign went out to the people? Quite unexpectedly, but in a sincere tone, Gapon replied: "They would have killed in half a minute, half a second!" So, when the enemies of the authorities then wrote that the Sovereign "would have to go out to the crowd and agree to at least one of its demands" (which one - about the constituent assembly?) and then "the whole crowd would kneel before him" - that was the grossest distortion of reality.

January 9, 1905

Now, now that we know all these circumstances, we can take a different look at the events of January 9, 1905 itself. Winter Palace to transfer the petition personally to the Sovereign. Other columns were to be prevented from reaching the Palace Square, but shot on the approaches to the city center, which would have fueled the indignation of those gathered at the palace. At the moment when the Sovereign appeared for a pacifying appeal, the terrorist was supposed to kill the Emperor. Further, the elements excited by blood would complete the destruction of the Royal Family. Part of this diabolical plan succeeded.

By six o'clock in the morning on January 9, 1905, the workers of the capital's outskirts began to gather at the assembly points of 11 departments of the Assembly. On the morning of January 9, Gapon himself went to the southwestern part of the city, beyond the Narva outpost, where one of the largest groups of workers was located, who at the same time and from different parts of St. Petersburg were going to move to Palace Square. Without serving the liturgy (this is on a Sunday), on the morning of January 9, Gapon leads people to death.

The beginning of the mass procession of the workers of St. Petersburg in that part of the city where Gapon was located, he described in his memoirs as follows: “I thought it would be good to give the whole demonstration a religious character, and immediately sent several workers to the nearest church for banners and icons, but they refused to give them to us. Then I sent 100 men to take them by force and after a few minutes they brought them. Then I ordered to bring from our department royal portrait in order to emphasize the peaceful and decent character of our procession. The crowd grew to enormous proportions... "Should we go straight to the Narva outpost or take a roundabout way?" they asked me. "Straight to the outpost, take heart(?), or death or freedom,” I shouted. In response, there was a thunderous "hurrah". The procession moved to the powerful singing of “Save, O Lord, Thy people,” and when it came to the words “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 was in full force. My two bodyguards walked ahead of me ... ". This clearly indicates that the Orthodox-monarchical paraphernalia in this procession was used as a disguise and 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 tough confrontation with the authorities, even despite the fact that among the workers were women and children.

The total number of participants in the procession to Palace Square is estimated at about 300 thousand people. Individual columns numbered several tens of thousands. This huge mass fatally moved towards the center and the closer it came to it, the more it was subjected to agitation by revolutionary provocateurs. There were no shots yet, and some people spread the most incredible rumors about mass executions. Attempts by the police, who, of course, were not intended to counter the large crowds, to introduce the procession into the framework of order, were rebuffed. specially organized groups.

The procession from the Narva outpost, as already mentioned, was led by Gapon himself, who constantly shouted out: “If we are refused, then we no more king". The column approached the Obvodny Canal, where the ranks of soldiers blocked its path. The officers suggested that the crowd, which was pushing harder and harder, stop, but it did not obey. The first volleys followed, blank ones. The crowd was ready to return, but Gapon and his assistants went forward and dragged the crowd along. Live shots rang out. At the first shots fired at the workers by the troops, along with the workers, the policemen who accompanied the Gapon procession were killed or wounded. On the Petrograd side, after provocative shots were fired from the crowd, the troops were also forced, following warning volleys into the air, to make a volley at people.

Events developed in approximately the same way in other places - on the Vyborg side, on the Shlisselburg tract. There, from the very beginning of the “march”, red banners appeared, the slogans “Down with the autocracy!”, “Long live the revolution!” On Vasilyevsky Island, even before the first shots were fired, a crowd led by the Bolshevik L.D. Davydov, captured Schaff's weapons workshop. 200 people defeated the administration of the 2nd section of the Vasilyevsky police unit. The crowd, excited by trained militants, smashed weapons stores and erected barricades. “In Brick Lane,” the Head of the Police Department Lopukhin reported to the Tsar, “the crowd attacked two policemen, one of them was beaten.” By the way, the greatest number of victims on both sides was brought not by the pacification of the demonstrators in the first half of the day, but by the skirmishes with the rioters on Vasilyevsky Island, when the militants tried to hold the arsenals and local weapons stores. All this clearly shows that all statements about a "peaceful" demonstration are lies (seventh).

Lopukhin, who, by the way, sympathized with the socialists, wrote about these events: “Electrified by agitation, crowds of workers, not succumbing to the usual general police measures and even cavalry attacks, stubbornly rushed to the Winter Palace, and then, irritated by the resistance, began to attack military units . This state of affairs led to the need for emergency measures to restore order, and military units I had to act against huge crowds of workers with firearms ... "

On the evening of January 9, Gapon wrote a slanderous inflammatory leaflet: “January 9, 12 midnight. 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; soldiers who will help the people to achieve freedom, my blessing. I allow their soldier's oath to the traitor Tsar, who ordered to shed the innocent blood of the people. Priest George Gapon. Subsequently, in the Socialist-Revolutionary Russia press organ, this false priest called: “Ministers, mayors, governors, police officers, police officers, guards, gendarmes and spies, generals and officers who order to shoot at you - kill… All measures so that you have real weapons and dynamite on time - know that they have been taken... Refuse to go to war ... Revolt at the direction of the combat committee ... Water pipelines, gas pipelines, telephones, telegraph, lighting, horse cars, trams, railways destroy…”

In order to suppress unrest in the capital, the post of St. Petersburg governor-general (D.F. Trepov became it), who is given emergency powers. Trepov managed to find right line behavior. In a fairly short time, he restored order in St. Petersburg - every day Trepov had meetings either with the factory owners, or with representatives of the workers or other sections of the population. Where necessary, he was not afraid to show firmness, realizing that the revelry of subversive elements and anarchy would cost many times big sacrifices. His famous order to the troops "to spare no cartridges", despite his outward bloodthirstiness, actually stopped the bloodshed. The crowds, set on fire by the subversive elements, feared the troops after this energetic order, and not a single shot was fired that day. Further street clashes were stopped almost within one day. On January 11, the troops were returned to the barracks, and the order on the streets of the city was again controlled by the police, reinforced by Cossack patrols. Already on January 14, the strike in St. Petersburg began to wane. On January 17, the Putilov plant resumed work. On January 29, a “Commission was created to find out the causes of the discontent of the workers in St. Petersburg and its suburbs and to find measures to eliminate them in the future”, which eventually achieved complete appeasement of the workers of the capital. Thus ended the first act of a pre-planned bloody anti-Russian turmoil, later called the "Russian revolution".

Hard day

In comparison with Gapon's exuberant satanic malice, the reaction of Emperor Nicholas II to what happened is remarkable. The tragic meaning of the catastrophe on January 9 was realized by him in the evening of that day. Deliberately avoiding in his diary lengthy and emotional assessments of the events that took place in his life, on January 9, 1905, the Sovereign made the following diary entry: “A hard day! Serious riots broke out in St. Petersburg as a result of the desire of the workers to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different parts of the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and hard!”. On January 19, addressing the workers’ delegation, the Tsar, who allocated 50,000 rubles from his own funds to help the victims (an average of six months’ earnings for each dead), gave a correct assessment of the events of “Bloody Sunday”: “Unfortunate events , with sad but the inevitable consequences of turmoil, occurred because you allowed yourself to be led astray and deceived by traitors and enemies of our country. Inviting you to go and petition Me for your needs, they raised you to rebellion against Me and My government, forcibly tearing you away from honest labor at a time when all truly Russian people must work together and tirelessly to overcome our stubborn external enemy."

Believing in the sanity and devotion of the Russian people, the Tsar turned to him with a manifesto in which he called on “well-meaning people to help the government in eradicating sedition and strengthening the Autocracy.” The Holy Tsar-Martyr with an open heart went towards the people, realizing that in order to counteract the forces hostile to Russia, it is necessary to unite all honest Russian people. The Tsar rightly considered the undermining of the autocratic, Orthodox-monarchical principle as the destruction of Russia, the blame for which and the blood associated with it lies entirely with those who, in the expectation of a world fire, kindled the hellish flame of theomachism in our Motherland.

It was with the money received from Akash that on January 1, 1905 (Old Style), Lenin published the first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Vperyod. Subsequently, after January 9, the financing of the revolutionaries by the Japanese continued. So, only in the spring of 1905, Japanese intelligence gave the revolutionaries funds for the purchase of 14 thousand rifles with a total value of 382 thousand francs. In addition, the Socialist-Revolutionaries received 200,000 francs from Japanese money for the smuggling of weapons to Russia (for the purchase of the ship Calixta Garzia and pay for the crew). To organize an uprising Black Sea Fleet In order to prevent its redeployment to the Far East, Japan allocated another 40,000 yen. The personality of this person is characterized, for example, by the following facts: even while studying at the seminary, he allowed himself to be rude and even blackmailed towards teachers, as a result of which in 1893 he received a diploma of the second degree and “failed” in behavior, which created obstacles for him to receiving dignity; he argued that Christ for him, as well as for his teacher L. Tolstoy, is only the greatest man, the righteous, while he serves the liturgy only as a remembrance and an occasion for delivering a sermon; in the summer of 1902, he seduces the minor pupil of the Blue Cross orphanage, Alexandra Uzdaleva (even before that, he liked to visit the pupils' chambers, wrote immodest poems in their albums, and sinned against chastity); after the discovery of this circumstance, he continues to live with Uzdaleva, declaring her his common-law wife, because of which, according to the 25th Apostolic Rule, Gapon was not supposed to continue the priesthood. The revolutionaries looked at Gapon more realistically. Socialist-Revolutionary P. Rutenberg, assigned by his party to Gapon for a long time and independently of the "staff", says frankly these days: "Gapon is a pawn and the whole question is who moves this pawn." And they decide to "move" against the tsar and his government. who, by the way, worked as the head of the workshop of the Putilov factory. Socialist-Revolutionary fighters were preparing another attempt on the Tsar, which was supposed to take place at the ball. Terrorist Tatyana Leontyeva managed to sneak into the confidence of the organizers of one of the secular balls and received an offer to engage in a charitable sale of flowers. She offered to personally commit regicide. However, the ball was cancelled. What is a revolution without storming its "Bastille"? Isn't it familiar? That's who, it turns out, studied "the leader of the proletarian revolution." The work of a significant part was paralyzed defense enterprises, which was noted with joy by Japanese intelligence. A strike committee was put together, a large money fund was created to help the strikers (mostly from the same foreign funds; the workers, of course, did not know about this), from which they were paid benefits no less than their wages. All the threads of the strikes were drawn to the organization, which was formally headed by Gapon, in fact, it was in the hands of experienced "revolutionaries" like Rutenberg. In the Russian Empire, there never existed police officers, not only divisions, but also regiments. Therefore, in order to prevent the advance of columns of demonstrators into the central part of the city, where government offices were located, the authorities were forced to use troops, naturally untrained in such actions.

1905 The last surviving Isabella house book is in the Cotton MSS. Galba - but it was partially damaged by the fire of the Cotton library in 1731. For excerpts from this book, see Bond: "Notes" and Daugherty: