The Road To Bloody Sunday: Father Gapon And The St. Petersburg Massacre Of 1905

429 Pages·1976·18.9 MB·English

by  Walter Sablinsky

The Road to Bloody Sunday
RI
Studies of the Russian Institute Columbia University
Walter Sablinsky
The Road to Bloody Sunday
Father Gapon and the St. Petersburg
Massacre of 190$
Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright © 1976 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will
be found on the last printed page of this book
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
This book has been composed in Linotype Baskerville
The illustrations on the title page and the jacket are reproduced
from V. I. Nevskii, Deviatoe ianvaria (Al'bom), text by
V. I. Nevskii, illustrations by K. Svarog and I. Simakov. Leningrad, 1985.
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
The Russian Institute of Columbia University sponsors the
Studies of the Russian Institute in the belief that their publication
contributes to scholarly research and public understanding.
In this way the Institute, while not necessarily endorsing their
conclusions, is pleased to make available the results of some of
the research conducted under its auspices. A list of the
Studies of the Russian Institute appears at the back of the book.
For Content, Theodore, and Valerie

Contents
PREFACE ix
CHAPTER I: Introduction: St. Petersburg
Workers before 1905 3
CHAPTER H: Father Georgii Gapon 34
CHAPTER III: Zubatov in St. Petersburg 56
CHAPTER IV: The Assembly of the Russian
Factory and Mill Workers of the
City of St. Petersburg 85
CHAPTER V: "The Spring": The Ministry of
Sviatopolk-M irskii 119
CHAPTER VI: The Putilov Strike 143
CHAPTER VII: The Turn to Politics 172
CHAPTER VIII: "To the Tsar!" 198
CHAPTER IX: Bloody Sunday: January 9, 1905 229
(Map: Routes of the Marchers, p. 233)
CHAPTER X: Conclusion: St. Petersburg Workers
after Bloody Sunday 272
CHAPTER ΧΙ: Epilogue: The End of Father Gapon 292
APPENDICES: I. The Statutes of the Assembly 323
II. The Petition of January 9 344
BIBLIOGRAPHY 351
INDEX 405

TreJace
The year 1905 was a critical one in the history of Russia.
During that year the subjects of the emperor shook the very
foundations of the state and came close to toppling over
the whole structure of the autocratic empire. The monarchy
survived, but only for another twelve years. The revolu­
tion of 1905 set the patterns and unleashed the forces that
triumphed in 1917.
This study deals with the opening phase of this revolu­
tionary year, the massacre of unarmed workers on Sunday,
January ninth (or January twenty-second in New Style), as
they strove in vain to petition their monarch to accept from
them a list of their grievances. Ironically the workers were
organized and led by an Orthodox priest, Father Georgii
Gapon, and they either supported or belonged to a labor
organization patronized by the police authorities in St.
Petersburg.
I have tried to shed some light on the personality of the
mercurial priest whose personality is irrevocably linked to
the labor organization which he founded, and the events
that led to Bloody Sunday—as January ninth became
known. The evolution of the organization he founded is
traced as well as its relations with the authorities, political
movements and events in Russia that preceded Bloody Sun­
day. Finally, the discussion turns to the impact of Bloody
Sunday on the workers of St. Petersburg and the lower
classes of Russia, who were stunned by the spectacle of
imperial troops shooting down unarmed workers led by a
man of God. This event played a crucial role in turning
the lower classes of Russia away from their tsar and allowed
the revolutionaries to identify him personally with the
regime and hold him personally responsible for its short­
comings.
PREFACE
I have relied in this study primarily on published mate­
rial that has appeared in the press in abundance since 1905.
This is supplemented by archival materials in a number of
archives outside the Soviet Union. I am particularly in­
debted to the Archive of Russian and East European His­
tory and Culture at Columbia University and its curator,
L. F. Magerovsky, as well as to the Hoover Institution on
War, Revolution and Peace for their kindness in allowing
me access to their files of the Okhrana and the Β. I. Niko-
laevsky archives. I am also indebted to the Bund Archives
of the Jewish Labor Movement in the name of Franz
Kurskii in New York and to the International Institut voor
Sociale Geschiedenis in Amsterdam for providing me with
some indispensable information. My thanks are due to the
staffs of the University of California (Berkeley), Columbia
University, Tulane University, University of North Caro­
lina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, the University of Chi­
cago, Hoover and the University of Virginia libraries, the
New York Public Library and the Library of Congress for
their assistance in my research.
I owe a particular debt to my teachers who taught me
what I know about Russian history and who guided my
initial research, Professors Martin Malia and Nicholas V.
Riasanovsky of the University of California. I am deeply
grateful for the intellectual stimulation provided by the
fellowship of the Inter-University Project on the History of
Menshevism under the direction of Professor Leopold H.
Haimson. My interest in 1905 was stimulated by my partici­
pation in the Project and the study was first suggested by
Solomon M. Schwarz who willingly gave his time and his
familiarity with the subject to add depth to my study. He
arranged for interviews with surviving participants of the
events, particularly Ludwig G. Gerb, who was actively in­
volved in Gapon's organization in the fateful January days
of 1905. The seminars of the Project were an invaluable
experience, and although I take full responsibility for the
views expressed here, I owe much to the provocative discus­
sions with the participants. I would like to remember par-