Bloody Sunday 1905
Bloody Sunday, Russia, January 22, 1905 (January 9 by the Julian calendar) was a demonstration in St. Petersburg, inspired by Father Gapon, a paid agent of Okhranka, Russian Security Bureau, see e.g., [1]. The demonstration was put down by armed force.This event is considered to be one of the most serious blunders of Okhranka, with grave consequences. Father George Gapon founded the Assembly of Russian Factory and Plant Workers, an offically-sanctioned and police-sponsored organization to diverge the unrest away from revolutionary activities. In late December there was a strike at Putilov plant, sympathy strikes in other parts of the city raised the number of strikers above 80,000. By January 8 the city had no electricity, no newspapers and all public areas were declared closed. Father Gapon organized a peaceful 'worker procession' to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition that Sunday. He was warned not to act, troops were deployed around the Winter Palace and at other key points. An unconcerned Tsar left the city on January 8 for Tsarskoe Selo.
On the Sunday striking workers and their families gathered at six points in the city. Clutching icons and singing hymns they processed towards the Winter Palace to present a memorandum to Tsar Nicholas II, without police interference. The army pickets fired warning shots and then fired directly into the crowds to disperse them. Gapon was fired upon near the Narva Gate, around forty people surrounding him were killed but he was uninjured. Estimates of the dead are uncertain, anti-government sources claimed over 4,000 dead, a more rational estimate is still 1,000 killed or wounded, both from shots and trampled during the panic. As reports spread across the city there was instant disorder and looting. Gapon's Assembly was closed down that day, he quickly left Russia. Returning in October he was assassinated by the esers.
It is believed that this event sparkled the further events of Russian Revolution of 1905.