Bloody Sunday: Russia's Revolution Ignites in Blood

Thousands of unarmed workers marched toward the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg carrying icons and portraits of Tsar Nicholas II, singing hymns, and asking for bread, shorter working hours, and a voice in government. Imperial troops opened fire. By nightfall, between 200 and 1,000 people lay dead in the snow, and the bond between the Russian people and their tsar was broken forever. January 22, 1905 (January 9 in the Julian calendar then used in Russia) became known as Bloody Sunday. The march was organized by Father Georgy Gapon, an Orthodox priest who led the Assembly of Russian Workers. Over 150,000 workers had gone on strike following the dismissal of four laborers at the Putilov steel works. Gapon drafted a petition to the tsar—respectful in tone but revolutionary in substance—requesting civil liberties, fair wages, and an eight-hour workday. Nicholas II was not even at the Winter Palace that day; he had withdrawn to Tsarskoye Selo outside the city. The order to fire came from his uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir, and the military governor. Troops fired on the crowds at multiple points, including the Narva Gate and the Palace Square. Cossack cavalry charged into fleeing demonstrators. The government initially reported 96 dead, but independent estimates ranged far higher. Gapon, who survived, fled abroad and famously declared, "There is no God any longer. There is no Tsar." Bloody Sunday shattered the myth of the tsar as a benevolent father protecting his people. Strikes spread across the Russian Empire—over 400,000 workers walked off the job in January alone. Mutinies erupted in the military, most dramatically aboard the battleship Potemkin in June. By October, Nicholas was forced to issue the October Manifesto, creating the Duma (parliament) and granting basic civil liberties. But the concessions came too late to restore trust, and the revolution of 1905 became the dress rehearsal for the far more radical upheaval of 1917.