Bloody Sunday

Question 1

Origins of Bloody Sunday

Answer 1

• rising cost of living
• falling wages (Oct 1903-4, wages down by a quarter)
• unemployment (Dec 1904, 4 workers dismissed from Putilov Steel Works (largest ind fac in Petrograd))
• Jan 1905, 120,000 workers on strike
• Father Gapon (Assembly of Russian Factory Workers (6000-8000 members, support workers and pursue industrial reform))

Question 2

Preparation for Bloody Sunday

Answer 2

• sent letters to Tsar and Mirskii

- believed Tsar would return to meet people

Question 3

Bloody Sunday march

Answer 3

• 9 January, 1905
• 150,000 people, carried portrait of Tsar
  Petition grievances ‘almost all children, women and young people’ Le Matin
• 8 hour day
• discuss needs with employers (abolish law against trade unions)
• increase wages of unskilled workers and women to 1 rouble per day

Question 4

Bloody Sunday police response

Answer 4

• 12,000 police had been posted during the night
• fired at protesters near Winter Palace (40 dead)
• Nevsky Prospect, cavalry and cannons blocked entrance to Palace Square
• estimates then = 4600 killed/wounded, recent = 800 injured, 200 dead

Question 5

Bloody Sunday effects

Answer 5

Reputation of Tsar suffered

• held responsible (even though not present)
• ‘Nicholas the Bloody’
• ‘It was their faith in the tsar that was riddle with bullets that day’ CPSU
• “BS caused a wave of revulsion to sweep across the country; among the masses it damaged irreparrebly the image of the “good’ Tsar” Pipes
• ‘the popular myth of a Good Tsar which had sustained the regime through the centuries was suddenly destroyed” Figes

Question 6

Bloody Sunday Workers’ Petition political

Answer 6

• Immediate proclamation of the freedom and inviolability of the person, of freedom of speech and of the press, of freedom of assembly, and of freedom of conscience in matters of religion.
• Universal and compulsory public education at state expense.
• Separation of church and state
• “The bureaucratic administration has reduced the country to complete destitution, drawn it into a shameful war, and brings Russia ever further towards ruin.”
• condemned proizvol
• ”- We need popular representation; it is necessary for the people to help itself and to administer itself.”