What Happened on Bloody Sunday 22nd January 1905?

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What Happened on Bloody Sunday 22nd January 1905?

Bloody Sunday was the day when all the tensions that led to and began the 1905 revolution came together. By 1903 the activities of the parties that were opposing the government combined with the appalling conditions in which the working class people lived led to demonstrations, strikes and protests. The ministers of the Tsar warned him that Russia was on the verge of a revolution.

The government attempted to deal with the problem were not very effective. It relaxed its repressive and censorship measures in 1903 which just resulted in a bombardment of anti-monarchist pamphlets and books. Government approved trade unions were set up but this led to demands for free unions.

In 1904 the Tsar hoped to get the country behind him by winning spectacular victories at war so he engaged in a rather pointless war with Japan suffering a series of humiliating defeats. The people had had enough and a protest was organized outside the winter palace. Two hundred thousand people congregated outside the palace led by Father Gapon.

Unarmed the people wished to appeal to the Tsar for better working conditions and to end the war with Japan. Their main plea was for elections based upon universal suffrage. Father Gapon held a petition for the Tsar.

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"We are treated as slaves who must bare their fate and be silent<sum>We ask but little: to reduce the working day to eight hours and to provide a minimum wage of one rouble a day."

The Tsar had left the city and was not present in the palace. The people who had come in peace carrying icons and pictures of their Tsar were fired upon by the Semenovsky regiment and collided with mounted Cossacks. Over 500 people were killed and 3000 or more were wounded. It was a day when the Tsars grip over Russia slipped even more.

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