Czar’s Version of the Massacre Before the Winter Palace

Today’s installment concludes The Russian Revolution of 1905,
the name of our combined selection from Prince Peter Kropotkin and Arthur Cassini. The concluding installment, by Arthur Cassini from his Speech as Ambassador.

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Previously in The Russian Revolution of 1905.

Time: 1905
Place: Russia

The arrest of Gapon was ordered then under the plea of his being a political agitator, yet it could not be put into execution, for as soon as he entered into relations with the secret political agitators, he appeared no more at the public meetings of the society and began to hide in the lodgings of the workmen in the distant suburbs of the city. Only on the eve of the day appointed for the meeting on the Winter Palace square, January 8th, did he make known the text of the petition of the workmen to His Majesty, into which, in addition to the wish of improvement of their economical conditions, were introduced impudent demands of a political character. This petition remained unknown to the greater part of the strikers, and thus the working population was deliberately deceived as to the true purpose of the assembly on the Winter Palace square.

The fanatical sermon delivered by Gapon, who had entirely forgotten his priestly dignity, and the criminal propaganda of his assistants belonging to the local revolutionary groups, excited the working population to such an extent that on January 9th enormous masses of people began to direct their course from all the suburbs of the city toward its center. And at the time that Gapon, continuing to influence the religious sentiment and loyalty of the people to their sovereign, previous to the beginning of the procession held religious service in the chapel of the Putilov Works for the welfare of their Majesties and distributed to the leaders icons, holy banners, and portraits of the sovereigns so as to give the demonstration the character of a religious procession, at the other end of the city a small group of workmen, led by true revolutionists, was erecting a barricade of telegraph-posts and wire and hoisted a red flag over it. Such a spectacle was so foreign to the general sentiment of the workmen that from the enormous crowd going toward the center of the city were heard the words: “These are not our people, this does not concern us. These are students who are rioting.”

Notwithstanding this the crowds, electrified by the agitation, did not give way to the general police measures and even at the attacks of the cavalry. Excited by the opposition they met with, they began to attack the military forces, endeavoring to break through to the Winter Palace square, so that it was found necessary for the purpose of dispersing the crowds to use firearms, avoiding, as far as possible, making useless victims. This latter measure explains the comparatively small losses experienced by the enormous mass of people marching to the Winter Palace square. The military forces were obliged to shoot on the Schlusselburg Road, at the Narva Gate, near the Tritzky Bridge, on Fourth Street and the Little Perspective of the St. Basil Island, near the Alexander Gar den, at the corner of the Nevsky Perspective and the Gogol Street, near the Police Bridge and on the Kasan Square. As has already been said, the crowd had erected a barricade, surmounted by a red flag, on Fourth Street on St. Basil Island, and two more barricades were constructed in this rayon, these latter constructed of boards, and an attack was made against the Second Police Station of the St. Basil district, the building having been destroyed; also attempts were made to interrupt telegraphic and telephonic communication. Shots were fired against the mob from the houses in the neighborhood of the police station, the mob likewise raiding the side-arm factory of Shaff, the crowd trying to arm themselves with the blades found in the factory, which, however, were taken away from them. At the time that, thanks to the vicinity of several higher educational establishments, the disorders on St. Basil’s Island took the character of a political demonstration, on the St. Petersburg side, nest of the capital’s rowdies, the riot culminated in the devastation and robbing of five shops.

The total number of victims who suffered in the collision with the armed force, according to information received from the hospitals, was 96 killed and 333 wounded, from among whom 32 have died so far (including a police officer killed and assistant police master who died of wounds received).

The measures taken on January 10th for the maintenance of order, similar to those taken on January 9th, were not put into execution and the attempt of rowdies to sack the Gostinnoy Dvor was quenched without the aid of the military forces. Toward evening of that day the workmen of the electric stations joined in the strike, on account of which fact, taking advantage of the darkness reigning in some parts of the city, the same rowdies endeavored to break the windows of stores, but order was quickly restored by ordinary police measures. Beginning with January nth, the city had again its usual aspect and the military details were discharged.

On January 14th the workmen of the Admiralty Works at Ijora, in the Kolpino district, who had struck at the same time as the others, petitioned the St. Petersburg and Ldoga Metropolitan, expressing their deep regret and contrition for having joined in the strike, avowing that only “on account of their benightedness they had allowed persons absolutely foreign to them to express political aspirations in their name,” begging the Rt. Rev. Anthony to lay at the feet of His Majesty the expression of their most loyal sentiments and the belief that only His Majesty “our Father will arrange everything for the general welfare.”

This ends our selections on The Russian Revolution of 1905 by two of the most important authorities of this topic:

• Special article to Great Events by Famous Historians, volume 20 by Prince Peter Kropotkin published in 1914.
• A speech as Ambassador by Arthur Cassini.

Prince Peter Kropotkin began here. Arthur Cassini began here.

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