Father Gapon And Bloody Sunday Essay Research

Father Gapon And Bloody Sunday Essay, Research Paper

At the beginning of the 1900’s, Russia was still being run by nobility, while the peasants made up more than half of the population. The Russian people didn’t see much of the rest of the world outside of their commune way of life. They were hard workers who farmed the land while struggling against the cold and hardships of their life. Czar Alexander II hoping to bring Russia out of the dark ages signed the “Emancipation Manifesto”. Which freed the serfs from ownership to the nobles. The unwillingness of the people to change their way of life left them blinded to the ways of the outside world (Scheer 73).

By the late 1800’s Nicholas II came into power. Many officials petitioned to Nicholas that the people have a opportunity to express their concerns. But despite all of the pressure Nicholas ignored their requests. Nicholas remained popular with the public by keeping tight control on any printed material containing revolutionary ideas. Nicholas was hoping to start a war with Japan. His advisors at this time urged him to refrain from going to war with Japan. But Nicholas replaced the most opposing advisor, Witte, with Pleve who believed a small victory would be good for the public. It was no question that the Trans-Siberian railroad, Russia’s only track, would not be able to provide the needed supplies to the military (Volkov 132). So the advisors eventually got Nicholas to see that the war would be a failure, but Japan had been insulted enough when news of Japans attack on Russia was received. Nicholas seemed to be unaware of the support he had from the Russian people. His concern was that his advisors warned him that this war was costing him the throne. The war was not going well. Russian ships were sunk by Japanese torpedoes and the Japanese were winning the war. News of the war finally reached Russia and the people were alarmed. Witte was called into settle the was with Japan. He negotiated with Japan and he ended the war with a loss of territory for Russia (Volkov 137).

During the war a sense of unhappiness with the Czar’s became apparent. The rise of a movement by Father Gapon, a monk, was developed. Georgii Apollonovich Gapon was the next leader to take control of labor organizations in favor of the peasants. Gapon came from a family with financial difficulties and often helped his parents with money. His mother was heavily religious and instilled and insisted on “the strict observance of rituals, saying of prayers, and church attendance” (Sablinsky 35). As an Orthodox priest with a poverty stricken and religious background, he became a leader in the labor movement. Father Gapon started the movement by working with the police. But when four members of Gapons movement were fired, a strike moved throughout St. Petersburg. Gapon was a natural choice for the leader of the strike. Gapon began his leadership combining the state sponsorship with Christian brotherhood. “The Gaponovite organization presented a strange combination of pious traditionalism and radical, potentially, explosive, innovation” (Sablinsky 32).

He began a strike; between January 3rd and January 7th of 1905 there was a workers’ strike in St. Petersburg which included 140,000 to 150,000 people. The numbers of demands grew as the number of people grew. Gapons followers wanted to form a petition and, after much dispute, the idea was approved. The petition began with the workers’ grievances such as, “We are impoverished; we are oppressed, overburdened with excessive toil, contemptuously treated” (Sablinsky 188). The petition went on to state the causes of the workers’ unhappiness and then called for the attention of the Czar and public representation in government to be their main demands. The petition also asked for freedom of the press, improved working conditions, legalization of labor unions, minimum wage, and the start a public school system (Sablinsky 1976). With optimism about his plan, Gapon said;

A great moment for us has come. Do not grieve is there are victims. ….,but here, in the streets of the capital, that blood, if it is spilled , will prepare the ground for the resurrection of Russia. Do not remember me with ill feeling. Show that the workman can not only organize the people, but can die for them. -Sablinsky 242

Father Gapon thought the most effective way to give their petition to the Czar was by gathering in a large mass in front of the Winter Palace. Gapons intention was to deliver the petition peacefully, as he informed the Czar in a letter that he stated, “The Czar has nothing to fear guarantee his personal inviolability. Let him, as a true Czar, come to his people with a courageous heart and accept our petition from our hands”(Gapon 219). The night before the scheduled march few slept. Gapon feared of arrest and went though considerable lengths to protect himself. Accompanied by a bodyguard, he was disguised as a woman and was taken to a apartment of a worker. There he was safe and able to get some sleep (Sablinsky 172).

On January 22, 1905, about 50,000 people led by Father Gapon, including workmen and their wives and children, carried portraits of the Czar and marched toward the Winter Palace in a mission to deliver the petition to the Czar. However, the day did not turn out peacefully, as the New York Times, January 23, 1905 stated: “this has been a day of unspeakable horror in St. Peter