"Sovereign!
We, workers and residents of the city of St. Petersburg, of different classes, our wives, children and helpless old parents, have come to you, sovereign, to seek truth and protection.
We are impoverished, we are oppressed, we are burdened with overwork, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure their bitter fate and remain silent.
We have endured, but we are being pushed further and further into the maelstrom of poverty, lack of rights and ignorance, we are strangled by despotism and arbitrariness, and we are suffocating. No more strength, sir! There is a limit to patience. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than the continuation of unbearable torment.
The petition said...
"PETITION OF WORKERS AND RESIDENTS OF PETERSBURG
FOR SUPPLY TO Tsar NICHOLAS II ON THE DAY OF JANUARY 9, 1905
Sovereign!
We, workers and residents of the city of St. Petersburg of various classes, our wives, and children, and helpless old parents, have come to you, sovereign, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, we are burdened with overwork, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure their bitter fate and remain silent. We have endured, but we are being pushed further and further into the maelstrom of poverty, lack of rights and ignorance, we are being strangled by despotism and arbitrariness, and we are suffocating. No more strength, my lord. There is a limit to patience. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than. continuation of unbearable torment (...)
Look without anger, carefully at our requests, they are directed not to evil, but to good, both for us and for you, sovereign! It is not impudence that speaks in us, but consciousness, the need to get out of an unbearable situation for all. Russia is too big, her needs are too varied and numerous, for officials alone to manage her. Popular representation is necessary, it is necessary that the people themselves help themselves and govern themselves. After all, he only knows his true needs. Do not push away his help, they ordered immediately, immediately to call on representatives of the Russian land from all classes, from all estates, representatives and from the workers. Let there be a capitalist, and a worker, and an official, and a priest, and a doctor, and a teacher - let everyone, whoever they are, elect their representatives. Let everyone be equal and free in the right to vote - and for this they commanded that elections to the Constituent Assembly take 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:
I. Measures against the ignorance and lack of rights of the Russian people
1) Immediate release and return of all those who suffered for political and religious beliefs, for strikes and peasant unrest.
2) Immediate declaration of freedom and inviolability of the person, freedom of speech, press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience in matters of religion.
3) General and compulsory public education at public expense.
4) The responsibility of ministers to the people and the guarantee of the legitimacy of government.
5) Equality before the law of all without exception.
6) Separation of church and state.
II. Measures against the poverty of the people
1) The abolition of indirect taxes and their replacement by a direct progressive income tax.
2) Cancellation of redemption payments, cheap credit and gradual transfer of land to the people.
3) The execution of orders from the military naval department should be in Russia, and not abroad.
4) Termination of the war by the will of the people.
III. Measures against the oppression of capital over labor
1) Abolition of the institution of factory inspectors.
2) Establishment at plants and factories of permanent commissions of elected [from] workers, who, together with the administration, would sort out all the claims of individual workers. The dismissal of a worker cannot take place otherwise than by the decision of this commission.
3) Freedom of consumer-industrial and professional workers' unions - immediately.
4) 8-hour working day and normalization of overtime work.
5) Freedom of struggle between labor and capital - immediately.
6) Normal wages - immediately.
7) The indispensable participation of representatives of the working classes in the development of a bill on state insurance of workers - immediately.
"Essays on the history of Leningrad" Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 1956.
On January 8, Gapon sent a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs, where he announced the intention of the workers to take the petition to the tsar, on Palace Square, the next day, January 9th. The content of the petition is attached. The events of January 9 are also interesting, but that's another story.
CHRONOS LIBRARY
PETITION OF WORKERS AND RESIDENTS OF PETERSBURG
FOR SUBMISSION TO CZAR NICHOLAS II
Sovereign!
We, workers and residents of the city of St. Petersburg of various classes, our wives, and children, and helpless old parents, have come to you, sovereign, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, we are burdened with overwork, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure their bitter fate and remain silent. We have endured, but we are being pushed further and further into the maelstrom of poverty, lack of rights and ignorance, we are being strangled by despotism and arbitrariness, and we are suffocating. No more strength, my lord. There is a limit to patience. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than. continuation of unbearable torment (...)
Look without anger, carefully at our requests, they are directed not to evil, but to good, both for us and for you, sovereign! It is not impudence that speaks in us, but consciousness, the need to get out of an unbearable situation for all. Russia is too big, her needs are too varied and numerous, for officials alone to manage her. Popular representation is necessary, it is necessary that the people themselves help themselves and govern themselves. After all, he only knows his true needs. Do not push away his help, they ordered immediately, immediately to call on representatives of the Russian land from all classes, from all estates, representatives and from the workers. Let there be a capitalist, and a worker, and an official, and a priest, and a doctor, and a teacher—let everyone, whoever they are, elect their representatives. Let everyone be equal and free in the right to vote, and for this they ordered that elections to the Constituent Assembly take 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:
I. Measures against the ignorance and lack of rights of the Russian people
1) Immediate release and return of all victims of political and religious beliefs,
for strikes and peasant unrest.
2) Immediate declaration of freedom and inviolability of the person, freedom of speech,
press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience in matters of religion.
3) General and compulsory public education at the expense of the state.
4) The responsibility of ministers to the people and the guarantee of the legitimacy of government.
5) Equality before the law of all without exception.
6) Separation of church and state.
II. Measures against the poverty of the people
1) The abolition of indirect taxes and their replacement by a direct progressive income tax.
2) Cancellation of redemption payments, cheap credit and the gradual transfer of land to the people.
3) The execution of orders from the military naval department should be in Russia, and not abroad.
4) Termination of the war by the will of the people.
III. Measures against the oppression of capital over labor
1) Abolition of the institution of factory inspectors.
2) Establishment at plants and factories of permanent commissions of elected [from] workers, who, together with the administration, would sort out all the claims of individual workers. The dismissal of a worker cannot take place otherwise than by the decision of this commission.
3) Freedom of consumer-industrial and professional workers' unions—immediately.
4) 8-hour working day and normalization of overtime work.
5) Freedom for the struggle of labor against capital—immediately.
6) Normal wages - immediately.
7) The indispensable participation of representatives of the working classes in the elaboration of a draft law on state insurance of workers—immediately. (…)
Beginning of the first Russian revolution. January-March 1905. Documents and materials. M., 1955. S. 28-31.
———————————————————————————
E.A. Nikolsky is a captain from the General Staff.
Printed by book: Nikolsky E.A. Notes about the past.
Comp. and prepare. text by D.G. Browns. M., Russian way, 2007. p. 133-137.
Sunday January 9, 1905 with the permission of the civil authorities, the workers protected by the police under the leadership of a well-known priest Gapon, revolutionary Rutenberg and others moved in masses with icons and banners to the Winter Palace, wishing to express their wishes to the Sovereign. military authorities, as is known, they opposed the permitted demonstration only the day before, when it was already impossible to cancel the procession due to the small amount of time left. At the same time, the Emperor and his family left for Tsarskoye Selo.
I lived on the Petersburg side. When I walked to the headquarters in the morning across the Palace Bridge and passed the Winter Palace, I saw that units of the guards cavalry, infantry and artillery were heading towards Palace Square from all sides.
Further, I describe what I observed from the window of the General Staff building. Very soon, almost the entire area was filled with troops. Ahead were the cavalry guards and cuirassiers. At about twelve o'clock in the afternoon, individual people appeared in the Alexander Garden, then rather quickly the garden began to fill with crowds of men, women and teenagers. Separate groups appeared from the side of the Palace Bridge. When the people approached the grating of the Alexander Garden, infantry appeared from the depths of the square, passing the square at a quick pace. Having lined up with a deployed front to the Alexander Garden, after a triple warning by horns about opening fire the infantry began firing volleys at the masses of people who filled the garden. The crowds surged back, leaving many wounded and dead on the snow. The cavalry also came out in separate detachments. Some of them galloped to the Palace Bridge, and some - across the square to Nevsky Prospekt, to Gorokhovaya Street, chopping with checkers all met.
I decided to leave the headquarters not through the Palace Bridge, but to try to get out somehow as soon as possible through the arch of the General Staff Building on Morskaya Street to some side street and then go by a roundabout way to the Petersburg Side. He went out by the back door through the gate, directly facing Morskaya Street. Further - to the corner of the last and Nevsky. There I saw a company of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment, in front of which I walked Colonel Riemann. I paused at the corner while the company crossed Morskaya towards the Police Bridge. Interested, I walked along Nevsky Prospekt directly after the company. Near the bridge, at the command of Riemann, the company was divided into three parts - into a half company and two platoons. Half company stopped in the middle of the bridge. One platoon stood to the right of Nevsky, and the other to the left, with fronts along the Moika River.
For some time the company stood idle. But groups of people - men and women - began to appear on Nevsky Prospekt and on both sides of the Moika River. Waiting for more to come Colonel Riemann, standing in the center of the company, without making any warning, as it was established by the charter, he commanded:
- Straight into the crowds firing volleys!
After this command, each officer of his unit repeated Riemann's command. The soldiers got ready, then, at the command "Platoon", they put their rifles to their shoulders, and on command« Plea» volleys rang out which have been repeated several times. After firing for people who were no more than forty or fifty steps away from the company, the survivors rushed headlong to run back. After two or three minutes, Riemann gave the command:
- Directly on the running firing packs!
Chaotic, rapid fire began, and many, who managed to run back three or four hundred paces, fell under the shots. The fire continued for three or four minutes, after which the bugler played a ceasefire.
I went closer to Riemann and began to look at him for a long time, attentively - his face and the look in his eyes seemed to me like those of a madman. His face kept twitching in a nervous spasm, for a moment he seemed to be laughing, for a moment he was crying. His eyes looked ahead of him, and it was clear that they did not see anything. A few minutes later he came to his senses, took out a handkerchief, took off his cap and wiped his sweaty face.
Watching Riemann carefully, I did not notice where the well-dressed man had come from at that time. Raising his hat with his left hand, he went up to Riemann and in a very polite manner asked his permission to go to the Alexander Garden, expressing the hope that near Gorokhovaya he might find a cab to go to the doctor. Moreover, he pointed to his right hand near the shoulder, from the torn sleeve of which blood oozed and fell into the snow.
Riemann at first listened to him, as if not understanding, but then, putting his handkerchief in his pocket, he pulled out a revolver from its holster. Hitting them in the face of the man standing in front of him, he uttered a public curse and shouted: - Go where you want, even to hell!
When this man walked away from Riemann, I saw that his whole face was covered in blood. After waiting a little longer, I went up to Riemann and asked him:
Colonel, will you fire again? I am asking you because I have to walk along the Moika Embankment to the Pevchesky Bridge.
Can't you see that I have no one else to shoot at, all this bastard got scared and fled, - was Riemann's answer.
I turned along the Moika, but at the very first gate to the left in front of me lay a janitor with a badge on his chest, not far from him was a woman holding a girl by the hand. All three were dead. In a small space of ten or twelve paces, I counted nine corpses. And then I came across dead and wounded. Seeing me, the wounded stretched out their hands and asked for help.
I went back to Riemann and told him about the need to immediately call for help. He replied to me:
Go your own way. None of your business.
I was no longer able to go along the Moika, and therefore I went back along the Morskaya, went again from the back door to the headquarters, from there I called the mayor's office by phone. I asked to be connected to the mayor's office. The officer on duty answered. I told him that I was now at the Police Bridge, there are many wounded and immediate medical assistance is needed. The order will now be made, was his answer.
I decided to go home across the Palace Bridge. Approaching the Alexander Garden, I saw that the garden was full of wounded and dead. I did not have the strength to walk along the garden to the Palace Bridge. Having crossed the square between the troops, I went past the Winter Palace to the left, along Millionnaya Street, along the Neva River Embankment, and crossed the Liteiny Bridge to my home. All the streets were deserted, I did not meet anyone along the way. The huge city seemed to have died out. I came home completely nervously and physically overwhelmed. I lay down and got up the next morning.
On Monday I had to go to the headquarters, because the hasty papers that had not been executed on Sunday were waiting for me there. Passing, as always, along the lattice of the Alexander Garden, I saw that the corpses and the wounded had all been removed. True, in many places were still visible small parts of corpses torn off by volley fire. They stood out brightly against the white snow, surrounded by blood. For some reason, I was especially impressed by a piece of a skull with hair, somehow stuck to an iron grating. He, apparently, froze to her, and the cleaners did not notice him. This piece of skull with hair remained there for several days. For twenty-seven years this piece has been before my eyes. The iron fence of the garden, made of rather thick rods, was cut in many places by rifle bullets.
For quite a long time, the scene at the Police Bridge was restored in my memory in great detail. And Riemann's face rose before me as though alive. Until now, I see a woman with a girl and the hands of the wounded stretching towards me.
Then it turned out that during the shooting along different streets random bullets killed and wounded several people in their apartments located at a great distance from the firing points. So, for example, I know of a case where the watchman of the Alexander Lyceum was killed in his lodge on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt.
After some time, I had to talk at headquarters about the incident on January 9 with one of the highest commanders of the military units of the guard. Under the influence of the still vivid impression of the bloody event, I could not restrain myself and expressed my opinion to him.
In my opinion, the execution of unarmed people walking with icons and banners with any request to their Monarch was a big mistake, which will be fraught with consequences. The sovereign should not have left for Tsarskoye Selo. It was necessary to go out onto the balcony of the palace, make a soothing speech and talk personally with the delegates called, but only from real workers who had served in their factories for at least ten to fifteen years. A warm, friendly word from the emperor to the whole mass of the people would only raise his prestige and strengthen his power. The whole event could turn into a mighty patriotic manifestation, the force of which would extinguish the voice of the revolutionaries.
The investigation proved that all the crowds of people went to their Sovereign completely unarmed. The people wanted to find answers to their painful questions.
Perhaps you are right, - the general answered me, - but do not forget that Palace Square is the tactical key to Petersburg. If the crowd had taken possession of it and turned out to be armed, then it is not known how it would have ended. And therefore, at a meeting on January 8, chaired by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, it was decided to resist by force in order to prevent the accumulation of the masses on Palace Square and advise the emperor not to stay on January 9 in St. Petersburg. Of course, if we could be sure that the people would go to the square unarmed, then our decision would be different. Yes, you are partly right, but what is done cannot be changed.
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Read here:
Gapon Georgy Apollonovich (biographical materials).
Zubatov Sergey Vasilievich (1864 - 1917) gendarmerie colonel
Rutenberg Pinkhas Moiseevich (1878-1942)
— revolutionary, Zionist activist.
Pinkhas was born in 1878 in the city of Romny, Poltava province, in a family merchant of the 2nd guild Moses Rutenberg. Mother - daughter of Rabbi Pinchas Margolin from Kremenchug. There were seven children in the family: four daughters and three sons. He studied in a cheder, at the Romensky real school, then entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. In his student years he took part in the revolutionary movement. First he was a social democrat then became a member socialist revolutionary parties(party nickname Martin). He was expelled from the institute for participating in student unrest in 1899 and exiled to Yekaterinoslav. In the autumn of 1900 he was reinstated at the institute and graduated with honors.
At the very beginning of the 1900s, P. Rutenberg married Olga Khomenko - a participant in the revolutionary movement, owner of the publishing house "Library for All". This marriage could take place only if the Jew was baptized, which he did formally. Already in exile, in the synagogue of Florence, Pinchas will perform the medieval rite of repentance of an apostate - he will receive 39 blows with a whip and return to the faith of his fathers.
In 1904, P. Rutenberg became the head of the tool workshop of the Putilov factory. Through his friend, the famous Socialist-Revolutionary Boris Savinkov, made contact with Fighting organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. At the same time, at the plant, he met priest Georgy Gapon, who, with the support of Plehve and Zubatov, created the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg", which united over 20 thousand workers. This organization attracted the attention of the revolutionaries, and P. Rutenberg became Gapon's closest associate.
On January 9, 1905, at the Winter Palace, a procession heading towards the tsar was shot, 1216 Russian workers died, although 130 victims were officially announced. Pinkhas Rutenberg accompanied Gapon in a column and took him to the nearest courtyard, where dressed up and cut, after which he hid in the apartment writer Batyushkov and then helped to escape abroad. Rutenberg also went abroad, where, by decision of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, he was appointed head of the military organization of the party.
In the summer of 1905, he took part in an unsuccessful attempt deliver weapons to Russia by ship« John Crafton».
In the autumn of 1905 he was arrested, he was released according to the Manifesto of October 17. Then, in accordance with this manifesto, Gapon was also able to return to Russia. In November-December 1905, P. Rutenberg led a combat squad in one of the working districts of St. Petersburg.
Abroad, where Gapon was greeted as a hero, he published his memoirs. The fees allowed him to live widely, and he distributed them to the revolutionaries, including V. Lenin. In the summer of 1905, Gapon was recruited by the police, P. Rachkovsky, the head of the political department of the police, contacted him. It was Gapon who told the head of the St. Petersburg security department that P. Rutenberg allegedly took part in the procession because he had a plan to shoot the tsar during his exit to the people.
Then he began to persuade P. Rutenberg to cooperate with the police. After that, Rutenberg went to Helsingfors (Helsinki), reported everything to the Central Committee, and he was instructed to kill Gapon and Rachkovsky. Azef - Head of the Combat Organization, fearing his exposure, single-handedly allowed to liquidate only Gapon. It was necessary to convince the workers of the "betrayal" of Gapon. During another meeting between Gapon and Rutenberg, one of the workers dressed up as a cab driver and overheard the entire conversation during which Gapon persuaded Rutenberg to be an informer. March 28 in Ozerki near St. Petersburg Gapon was hanged. In 1909, P. Rutenberg published his memoirs of these events in Paris. In 1925, his book "The Murder of Gapon" was published in Leningrad.
Departing from the revolutionary movement, P. Rutenberg left for Germany in 1906, from 1907 to 1915 he lived in Italy. It was then that he returned to Judaism and openly accepted the ideas of Zionism. He worked as an engineer, invented a new system for building dams for hydroelectric power plants. At one time he lived with Maxim Gorky in Capri. Created in Italy Society« About Causa Ebraik», defending the interests of Jews in the post-war« world order». Participated in the society Zionist from Yekaterinoslav Ber Borokhov.
In 1915, P. Rutenberg left for the United States, where he published the article "The National Revival of the Jewish People." His call to create Jewish Legion received support from D. Ben-Gurion. In the same place, in the USA, P. Rutenberg prepared a complete plan for the irrigation of Eretz Israel.
In February 1917 he returned to Russia. Head of the Provisional Government A. Kerensky appointed him deputy provincial commissar. In October, P. Rutenberg became an assistant N. Kimkina- Authorized by the government to "restore order in Petrograd."
During the October Revolution Rutenberg offered to arrest and execute V. Lenin and L. Trotsky. But during the assault on the Winter Palace he himself was arrested and spent six months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Released at the request of M. Gorky and A. Kollontai. Then he worked in Moscow. After the announcement of the "Red Terror" by the Soviet authorities, Rutenberg fled to Kyiv - the capital of then independent Ukraine, then in Odessa he led the supply in the French military administration.
In 1919, Rutenberg left Russia forever. He went to Palestine where he began the electrification of the country. Helped V. Zhabotinsky create the so-called Jewish self-defense during the Arab riots in Jerusalem in April 1920.
Then he started fighting for obtaining a concession for the use of the waters of the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers for the needs of electricity supply. In this he was supported by W. Churchill and H. Weizmann. In 1923, he established the Palestine Electric Company and began building power plants in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberias, Nagaraim. For two years (1929-1931) P. Rutenberg headed the Jewish community of Palestine. He made great efforts to smooth out the contradictions in relations between Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky. In 1940, he issued a public appeal "To the Yishuv", in which he called on the Jewish community for national unity, opposed the party struggle and demanded equal rights for all residents of the Yishuv. In 1942, P. Rutenberg died in a Jerusalem hospital. He bequeathed his fortune, acquired in Italy and increased in Eretz Israel, to be the basis of the Rutenberg Foundation.
CHRONOS LIBRARY. Used site materials http://jew.dp.ua/ssarch/arch2003/08/sh7.htm
B. Savinkov. Memories of a Terrorist. Publishing house "Proletary", Kharkov. 1928 Part II Ch. I. Assassination attempt on Dubasov and Durnovo. XI. (About Gapon).
Spiridovich A. I."The Revolutionary Movement in Russia". Issue. 1st, "Russian Social Democratic Labor Party". St. Petersburg. 1914 Maklakov V.A. From memories. Publishing house named after Chekhov. New York 1954. Chapter Twelve.
E. Khlystalov The truth about the priest Gapon "Word" No. 4′ 2002
F. Lurie Gapon and Zubatov
Rutenberg P.M. Gapon's murder. Leningrad. 1925.
Who made the two revolutions of 1917 (biographical index)
Petition of workers and residents of St. Petersburg to submit to Nicholas IIJanuary 9, 1905
Sovereign!
We, workers and residents of the city of St. Petersburg of various classes, our wives, and children, and helpless old parents, have come to you, sovereign, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, we are burdened with overwork, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure their bitter fate and remain silent. We have endured, but we are being pushed further and further into the maelstrom of poverty, lack of rights and ignorance, we are being strangled by despotism and arbitrariness, and we are suffocating. No more strength, my lord. There is a limit to patience. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than the continuation of unbearable torments.
And so we quit our job and told our hosts that we would not start working until they fulfilled our requirements. We did not ask for much, we only wanted that, without which there is no life, but hard labor, eternal torment. Our first request was that our hosts discuss our needs with us. But we were denied this - we were denied the right to speak about our needs, that the law does not recognize such a right for us. Our requests also turned out to be illegal:
reduce the number of working hours to 8 per day;
set the price for our work with us and with our consent; consider our misunderstandings with the lower administration of the factories;
to increase wages for laborers and women for their work to 1 rub. in a day;
cancel overtime;
treat us attentively and without offense;
arrange workshops so that they can work, and not find death there from terrible drafts, rain and snow.
Everything turned out, in the opinion of our owners and the factory administration, to be illegal, our every request is a crime, and our desire to improve our situation is impudence, insulting to them.
Sovereign, there are many thousands of us here, and all these people are only in appearance, only in appearance - in reality, for us, as well as for the entire Russian people, they do not recognize a single human right, not even the right to speak, think, assemble, to discuss needs, to take measures to improve our situation. We were enslaved, and enslaved under the auspices of your officials, with their help, with their assistance.
Any one of us who dares to raise his voice in defense of the interests of the working class and the people is thrown into prison, sent into exile. Punished as if for a crime, for a kind heart, for a sympathetic soul. To feel sorry for a downtrodden, disenfranchised, exhausted person means to commit a serious crime. The entire working people and peasants are handed over to the tyranny of a bureaucratic government, consisting of embezzlers of public funds and robbers, which not only does not care about the interests of the people, but tramples on these interests. The bureaucratic government has brought the country to complete ruin, brought upon it a shameful war, and is leading Russia further and further to ruin. We, the workers and the people, have no say in the expenditure of the huge taxes levied on us. We do not even know where and for what the money collected from the impoverished people goes. The people are deprived of the opportunity to express their desires, demands, to participate in the establishment of taxes and spending them. Workers are deprived of the opportunity to organize themselves into unions to protect their interests.
Sovereign! Is this in accordance with the divine laws, by whose grace you reign? And is it possible to live under such laws? Wouldn't it be better to die - to die for all of us, the working people of all Russia? Let the capitalists live and enjoy - the exploiters of the working class and officials - embezzlers and robbers of the Russian people. This is what stands before us, sovereign, and it is this that has gathered us to the walls of your palace. Here we are looking for the last salvation. Do not refuse to help your people, bring them out of the grave of lawlessness, poverty and ignorance, give them the opportunity to decide their own destiny,
throw off the unbearable oppression of officials. Break down the wall between you and your people and let them rule the country with you. After all, you are put on the happiness of the people, and officials snatch this happiness from our hands, it does not reach us, we receive only grief and humiliation. Look without anger, carefully at our requests: they are directed not to evil, but to good, both for us and for you, sovereign! It is not impudence that speaks in us, but the consciousness of the need to get out of a situation that is unbearable for all. Russia is too big, her needs are too varied and numerous, for officials alone to manage her. Popular representation is necessary, it is necessary that the people themselves help themselves and govern themselves. After all, he only knows his true needs. Do not push away his help, they ordered immediately, immediately to call on representatives of the Russian land from all classes, from all estates, representatives and from the workers. Let there be a capitalist, and a worker, and an official, and a priest, and a doctor, and a teacher - let everyone, whoever they are, elect their representatives. Let everyone be equal and free in the right to vote, and for this they ordered that elections to the Constituent Assembly take place under the condition of universal, secret and equal voting.
This is our most important request, everything is based on it and on it, this is the main and only plaster for our sick wounds, without which these wounds will ooze strongly and quickly move us to death.
But one measure still cannot heal our wounds. Others are also necessary, and we tell you directly and openly, as a father, about them, sovereign, on behalf of the entire working class of Russia.
Required:
I. Measures against the ignorance and lawlessness of the Russian people.
1) Immediate release and return of all those who suffered for political and religious beliefs, for strikes and peasant unrest.
2) Immediate declaration of freedom and inviolability of the person, freedom of speech, press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience in matters of religion.
3) General and compulsory public education at the expense of the state.
4) Responsibility of ministers to the people and guarantees of the legitimacy of government.
5) Equality before the law of all without exception.
6) Separation of church and state.
II. Measures against the poverty of the people.
1) The abolition of indirect taxes and their replacement by a direct progressive income tax.
2) Cancellation of redemption payments, cheap credit and gradual transfer of land to the people.
3) The execution of orders from the military naval department should be in Russia, and not abroad.
4) Termination of the war by the will of the people.
III. Measures against the oppression of capital over labor.
1) Abolition of the institution of factory inspectors.
2) Establishment at plants and factories of permanent commissions elected by the workers, which, together with the administration, would sort out all the claims of individual workers. The dismissal of a worker cannot take place otherwise than by the decision of this commission.
3) Freedom of consumer-industrial and professional workers' unions - immediately.
4) 8-hour working day and normalization of overtime work.
5) Freedom of struggle between labor and capital - immediately.
6) Normal wages - immediately.
7) The indispensable participation of representatives of the working classes in the development of a draft law on state insurance of workers - immediately.
Here, sir, are our main needs with which we have come to you; only if they are satisfied is it possible to liberate our Motherland from slavery and poverty, to prosper, it is possible for the workers to organize to protect their interests from the brazen exploitation of the capitalists and the bureaucratic government that robs and strangles the people. Command and swear to fulfill them, and you will make Russia both happy and glorious, and you will imprint your name in the hearts of ours and our descendants for all eternity, and if you do not command, you will not respond to our prayer - we will die here, on this square, in front of your palace. We have nowhere else to go and no reason to. We have only two paths: either to freedom and happiness, or to the grave...
On December 27, 1904, a meeting of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg" was held, headed by priest Georgy Gapon. It was decided to go on strike. The reason was the dismissal of the workers of the Putilov factory.
On January 3, 1905, the Putilov Plant went on strike, on January 4, the Franco-Russian Shipbuilding Plant and the Nevsky Shipbuilding Plant, and on January 8, the total number of strikers reached 150,000 people.
On the night of January 6-7, priest George Gapon wrote petitions to Nicholas. On January 8, the text of the petition was approved by members of the society.
Priest George Gapon.
“Petition of the workers of St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905
Sovereign!
We, workers and residents of the city of St. Petersburg of various classes, our wives, and children, and helpless old parents, have come to you, sovereign, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, we are burdened with overwork, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure their bitter fate and remain silent. We have endured, but we are being pushed further and further into the maelstrom of poverty, lack of rights and ignorance, we are being strangled by despotism and arbitrariness, and we are suffocating. No more strength, my lord. There is a limit to patience. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than the continuation of unbearable torments.
And so we quit our job and told our hosts that we would not start working until they fulfilled our requirements. We did not ask for much, we only wanted that, without which there is no life, but hard labor, eternal torment. Our first request was that our hosts discuss our needs with us. But we were denied this - we were denied the right to speak about our needs, that the law does not recognize such a right for us. Our requests also turned out to be illegal: to reduce the number of working hours to 8 per day; set the price for our work with us and with our consent; consider our misunderstandings with the lower administration of the factories; to increase wages for laborers and women for their work to 1 rub. in a day; cancel overtime; treat us attentively and without offense; arrange workshops so that they can work, and not find death there from terrible drafts, rain and snow.
Everything turned out, in the opinion of our owners and the factory administration, to be illegal, our every request is a crime, and our desire to improve our situation is impudence, insulting to them. Sovereign, there are many thousands of us here, and all these are people only in appearance, only in appearance - in reality, for us, as well as for the entire Russian people, they do not recognize a single human right, not even the right to speak, think, assemble, to discuss needs, to take measures to improve our situation. We were enslaved, and enslaved under the auspices of your officials, with their help, with their assistance.
Any one of us who dares to raise his voice in defense of the interests of the working class and the people is thrown into prison, sent into exile. Punished as if for a crime, for a kind heart, for a sympathetic soul. To take pity on a downtrodden, disenfranchised, exhausted person is to commit a serious crime. The entire working people and peasants are handed over to the tyranny of a bureaucratic government, consisting of embezzlers of public funds and robbers, which not only does not care about the interests of the people, but tramples on these interests. The bureaucratic government has brought the country to complete ruin, brought upon it a shameful war, and is leading Russia further and further to ruin. We, the workers and the people, have no say in the expenditure of the huge taxes levied on us. We do not even know where and for what the money collected from the impoverished people goes. The people are deprived of the opportunity to express their desires, demands, to participate in the establishment of taxes and spending them.
Workers are deprived of the opportunity to organize themselves into unions to protect their interests. Sovereign! Is this in accordance with the divine laws, by whose grace you reign? And is it possible to live under such laws? Wouldn't it be better to die - to die for all of us, the working people of all Russia? Let the capitalists live and enjoy - exploiters of the working class and officials - embezzlers and robbers of the Russian people. This is what stands before us, sovereign, and it is this that has gathered us to the walls of your palace. Here we are looking for the last salvation. Do not refuse to help your people, bring them out of the grave of lawlessness, poverty and ignorance, give them the opportunity to decide their own destiny, throw off the unbearable oppression of officials from them. Break down the wall between you and your people and let them rule the country with you. After all, you are put on the happiness of the people, and officials snatch this happiness from our hands, it does not reach us, we receive only grief and humiliation. Look without anger, carefully at our requests: they are directed not to evil, but to good, both for us and for you, sovereign! It is not impudence that speaks in us, but the consciousness of the need to get out of a situation that is unbearable for all. Russia is too big, her needs are too varied and numerous, for officials alone to manage her. Popular representation is necessary, it is necessary that the people themselves help themselves and govern themselves. After all, he only knows his true needs. Do not push away his help, they ordered immediately, immediately to call on representatives of the Russian land from all classes, from all estates, representatives and from the workers. Let there be a capitalist, and a worker, and an official, and a priest, and a doctor, and a teacher - let everyone, whoever they are, elect their representatives. Let everyone be equal and free in the right to vote - and for this they commanded that elections to the Constituent Assembly take place under the condition of universal, secret and equal voting.
This is our most important request, everything is based on it and on it, this is the main and only plaster for our sick wounds, without which these wounds will ooze strongly and quickly move us to death. But one measure still cannot heal our wounds. Others are needed, and we tell you directly and openly, as a father, about them, sir, on behalf of the entire working class of Russia.
Required:
I. Measures against the ignorance and lawlessness of the Russian people.
1) Immediate release and return of all those who suffered for political and religious beliefs, for strikes and peasant unrest.
2) Immediate declaration of freedom and inviolability of the person, freedom of speech, press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience in matters of religion.
3) General and compulsory public education at the expense of the state.
4) Responsibility of ministers to the people and guarantees of the legitimacy of government.
5) Equality before the law of all without exception.
6) Separation of church and state.
II. Measures against the poverty of the people.
1) Abolishing indirect taxes and replacing them with direct progressive income taxes
tax.
2) Cancellation of redemption payments, cheap credit and gradual transfer of land
people.
3) The execution of orders from the military naval department should be in Russia, and not abroad.
4) Termination of the war by the will of the people.
III. Measures against the oppression of capital over labor.
1) Abolition of the institution of factory inspectors.
2) Establishment at plants and factories of permanent commissions elected from
workers who, together with the administration, would deal with all claims
individual workers. The dismissal of a worker cannot take place otherwise than with
the decisions of this commission.
3) Freedom of consumer-industrial and professional workers' unions - immediately.
4) 8-hour working day and normalization of overtime work.
5) Freedom of struggle between labor and capital - immediately.
6) Normal wages - immediately.
7) The indispensable participation of representatives of the working classes in the development of a bill on state insurance of workers - immediately.
Here, sir, are our main needs with which we have come to you; only if they are satisfied is it possible to liberate our Motherland from slavery and poverty, to prosper, it is possible for the workers to organize to protect their interests from the brazen exploitation of the capitalists and the bureaucratic government that robs and strangles the people. Command and swear to fulfill them, and you will make Russia both happy and glorious, and you will imprint your name in the hearts of our and our descendants for all eternity, and if you do not command, you will not respond to our prayer, we will die here, on this square, in front of your palace. We have nowhere else to go and no reason to. We have only two paths: either to freedom and happiness, or to the grave ... ".
Priest of the St. Petersburg transit prison Georgy Gapon and mayor Ivan Fullon at the opening of the Kolomna department of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg". 1904
January 8, Nicholas II got acquainted with the content of the petition. Minister of the Interior Prince P.D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky reassured the tsar, assuring him that, according to his information, nothing dangerous was foreseen. The Tsar did not come from Tsarskoye Selo to Petersburg.
According to Count S. Yu. Witte, the decision to prevent the procession to Palace Square was made on the evening of January 8 at a meeting with the Minister of the Interior P. D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky. The meeting was attended by the St. Petersburg mayor I. A. Fullon, Minister of Finance V. N. Kokovtsov, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs K. N. Rydzevsky, Chief of Staff of the Guards and the St. Petersburg District, General. N. F. Meshetich and others. At the meeting, it was decided to arrest Gapon, but the arrest could not be carried out, since “he sat in one of the houses of the working-class quarter and for the arrest at least 10 people would have to be sacrificed by the police.”
On the evening of January 8, by order of the emperor, martial law was introduced in St. Petersburg. All power in the capital passed into the hands of the military administration, headed by the commander of the Guards Corps, Prince. S. I. Vasilchikov. The direct chief of the book. Vasilchikov was the commander-in-chief of the St. Petersburg military district and the troops of the guard, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. All military orders came from the Grand Duke, but the orders were signed by Prince Vasilchikov. Orders for the guards in sealed packages were handed over to the units at night, with the obligation to print them at 6 am on January 9th.
On the evening of January 8, a delegation came to Svyatopolk-Mirsky: Maxim Gorky, A. V. Peshekhonov, N. F. Annensky, I. V. Gessen, V. A. Myakotin, V. I. Semevsky, K. K. Arseniev, E I. Kedrin, N. I. Kareev and worker D. Kuzin demanding the abolition of military measures. Svyatopolk-Mirsky refused to accept them. Then they came to S. Yu. Witte, trying to convince him to help the tsar accept the petition from the workers. Witte evaded decisive action. On January 11, 9 out of 10 deputies were arrested.
Sergei Witte.
On the morning of January 9, the workers who had gathered behind the Narva and Neva gates, on the Vyborg and Petersburg side, on Vasilyevsky Island and in Kolpino, moved to Palace Square. Their total number reached about 50-100 thousand people.
The workers came with their families, children, festively dressed, they carried portraits of the king, icons, crosses, sang prayers. At the head of one of the columns was the priest Gapon with a cross raised high.
At 11.30 in the morning, a column of 3 thousand people led by Gapon was stopped near the Narva Gate by the police, a squadron of horse-grenadiers and two companies of the 93rd Irkutsk Infantry Regiment. At the first volley, the crowd lay down on the ground, after which they tried to move forward again. The troops fired only five volleys into the crowd, after which it fled.
At 11.30 at Troitsky Bridge (approximately 10 thousand people) was stopped by the police and units of the Pavlovsky regiment at the beginning of Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt. A salvo was fired.
Cavalrymen at the Pevchesky Bridge delay the movement of the procession to the Winter Palace. By 12 noon, the Alexander Garden was filled with crowds of men, women and teenagers. A company of the Preobrazhensky Regiment fired two volleys at the masses of people who filled the Alexander Garden right through the garden lattice.
At the Police Bridge, the 3rd battalion of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment under the command of Colonel N.K. Riman shot the crowd on the embankment of the Moika River.
From the memoirs of M. A. Voloshin:
“Sleds were let through everywhere. And they let me through the Police bridge between the ranks of soldiers. They were loading their guns at that moment. The officer shouted to the driver: "Turn right." The driver drove off a few steps and stopped. "Looks like they're going to shoot!" The crowd was tight. But there were no workers. It was the usual Sunday crowd. “Killers!.. Well, shoot!” someone shouted. The horn played the attack signal. I ordered the cab driver to move on ... As soon as we turned the corner, a shot was heard, a dry, not strong sound. Then more and more."
From the memoirs of V. A. Serov:
“What I had to see from the windows of the Academy of Arts on January 9, I will never forget - a restrained, majestic, unarmed crowd advancing towards cavalry attacks and a gunsight is a terrible sight.”
At five o'clock in the afternoon on Maly Prospekt, between the 4th and 8th lines, a crowd of up to 8 thousand people erected a barricade, but was dispersed by the troops, who fired several volleys directly into the crowd.
In addition, volleys were fired on the Shlisselburg tract, at the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Gogol Street, and on Kazanskaya Square.
According to official figures, 130 people were shot dead and 299 people were injured.
"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!”.
By the highest order of January 11, 1905, Major General D. F. Trepov, a resolute fighter against revolutionary actions, was appointed to the new position of the St. Petersburg Governor General.
“For almost a year now, Russia has been waging a bloody war with the pagans for its historical calling as a planter of Christian enlightenment<…>But behold, a new test of God, grief - bitterer than the first visited our beloved fatherland. Workers' strikes and street riots began in the capital and other cities of Russia ... The criminal instigators of ordinary working people, having in their midst an unworthy clergyman who boldly violated holy vows and is now subject to the judgment of the Church, were not ashamed to give into the hands of the deceived workers the honest cross forcibly taken from the chapel , holy icons and banners, so that, under the protection of revered shrines by believers, it is more likely to lead them to disorder, and others to death. Workers of the Russian land, working people! Work according to the commandment of the Lord in the sweat of your face, remembering that the one 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.
On January 19, 1905, Emperor Nicholas II, in his speech to the deputation, stated: “I know that the life of a worker is not easy. Much needs to be improved and streamlined, but be patient. You yourselves in good conscience understand that you must be fair to your masters and take into account the conditions of our industry. But the rebellious crowd to declare their needs to Me is criminal.<…>I believe in the honest feelings of working people and their unshakable devotion to Me, and therefore I forgive them their guilt.<…>“
After January 9, Nicholas II did not appear in public until the celebrations in honor of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty in 1913.
