Who is Gapon? Bloody Sunday: provocateur Pop Gapon

Priest Georgy Gapon went down in history as a participant in Bloody Sunday. He is unfairly considered a provocateur and secret police agent.

Double game

Contemporaries knew Georgy Gapon as a passionate, unshakable revolutionary, leader of the organization “Meetings of Russian Factory Workers.” According to the historian Felix Lurie, “Pop Gapon” played a double game: he lulled the vigilance of the police, assuring their highest ranks that there was no place for revolutionary ideas in the “Assembly,” while at the same time he incited the workers to declare a general strike. Thanks to his connections with the police, Gapon received the label “provocateur”, with which he went down in history. They say that Gapon specifically led the people to the Narva outpost so that the police would brutally suppress the uprising.

Indeed, the “peaceful procession with banners” organized by Georgy Gapon raised many questions among historians. What did the organizers of the demonstration count on when it was known in advance about the tsar’s intention to reject the petition and harshly suppress the unrest? The essence of the “appeal” reached Nicholas II on January 7 through the Minister of Justice Muravyov. And the very next day the sovereign ordered the arrest of the authors of the petition.

What did Gapon achieve when he led a crowd of people to certain death? Was the work issue that important to him or were there higher goals? It is quite possible that he hoped that the shooting of a peaceful procession would cause a popular uprising, headed by him, Georgy Gapon. This is evidenced by the memoirs of another revolutionary, Vladimir Posse, who once asked a priest what he would do if the tsar accepted the petition. Gapon replied:

“I would fall on my knees before him and convince him, in front of me, to write a decree on amnesty for all political ones. The king and I would go out onto the balcony, I would read the decree to the people. General rejoicing. From this moment on, I am the first adviser to the Tsar and the de facto ruler of Russia. Well, what if the king didn’t agree? - Then it would be the same as when refusing to accept a delegation. There is a general uprising, and I am at the head of it."

By the way, the organizers of the “peaceful march” had different opinions. For example, Gapon’s right-hand man and later killer, Pyotr Rutenberg, was preparing an assassination attempt on the Tsar, hoping to kill him when he went out onto the balcony of the Winter Palace to address the people. We learn about this from the memoirs of the head of the St. Petersburg security department, Gerasimov.

Agent

Another question that remains open is whether Georgy Gapon was a police officer, a double agent. It is no secret that it was rumors about Gapon’s betrayal and his denunciations against former comrades, including the Socialist Revolutionaries, that became the main reason for his murder. It must be said that when the archives were made public, many researchers rummaged through the documents in search of any denunciations written by George. After a long search, one of the specialists on this issue, historian S.I. Potolov, stated that in the lists of the Police Department, as well as in other documents, there is no information about the secret agent Georgy Gapon, therefore there is no confirmation of this popular myth. In addition, the ban on recruiting clergymen as agents, like Gapon, despite all his public activities, speaks in favor of refuting this opinion. Today, the most common version is that Gapon was framed by shuffling documents and deliberately spreading rumors.

It cannot be said that he had no connections with the police at all. He often used the latter as a financial source, by transmitting certain information about people, whom he himself then warned in advance about the danger. But Gapon gave all his money to the needs of workers and organizations. True, the public often did not believe this, calling Gapon Judas and accusing him of greed.

Peter Rutenberg, in his book, noted the high cost of George’s suit, when all his other comrades were dressed in ordinary coats, and Savinkov, the second organizer of the bloody murder of the priest, wrote that George was a down-to-earth person in his desires - he loved luxury, money, women.

Against the background of such a general mood, the information that upon returning to Russia after the Manifesto of October 17, Gapon received 30 thousand rubles from Witte, worked as a trigger. Gapon was going to revive his former organization “Council”, and the money from the Minister of Finance was used for this. In general, Georgy often did this - first he took money from the Police Department, thanks to his connections, then spent it on campaigning. He was sincerely surprised by the excitement that 30 thousand caused: “Are you amazed by my open relations with Witte and the consent of hungry workers’ organizations to accept money from him?”

A negative reaction, in fact, was caused by another rumor launched - they say that 30 thousand were transferred to the account of a certain Rybnitsky, who is Gapon. The last straw for George’s associates was the news of receiving 100 thousand rubles from the Police Department for information about the terrorist plans of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and handing over Rutenberg’s name to the authorities.

"Big name"

There is a hypothesis that the reason for Gapon’s murder was certain documents. The priest's widow said that these papers contained some famous name, but did not name the surname. Georgy Gapon himself, shortly before his death, claimed that he had incriminating information on some important people. He even gave some of the documents to his lawyer Sergei Margolin. The latter died two months after Gapon's death under strange circumstances. His colleagues said that a week before his death, he mentioned the need to publish some papers.

There were rumors that the “big name” was Sergei Witte, the Minister of Finance, who lent Gapon 30 thousand. But exact confirmation of this was never found.

Shadow of Yevno Azef

Yevno Fishelevich Azef - he is also a police officer “Raskin”, he is also one of the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries: “Ivan Nikolaevich”, “Valentin Kuzmich”, “Tolsty”. This “super secret police agent” has a track record of surrendering many revolutionaries, including the arrest and execution of members of the flying combat squad of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in February 1908. He also prevented several major assassination attempts: an attack on the Minister of Internal Affairs Durnovo and on Nicholas II himself.

At the same time, Yevno Azev organized “in the role of a revolutionary” several terrorist attacks and murders. On his conscience are the deaths of the chief of the gendarme corps - V.K. Pleve, military prosecutor V.P. Pavlov, and even Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov. Perhaps it was he who planned and provoked the murder of Gapon as a “provocateur”, and then of his lawyer Margolin. For what? To hide your “double” or even “triple” personality. Some historians, including V.K. Agafonov, they believe, playing on both sides, he was sent by the third - he was a Western agent who was sent to Russia to incite unrest.
Azef met Gapon during the latter’s flight abroad after Bloody Resurrection. He let him stay at his apartment. Together they equipped the yacht John Grafton, which was supposed to deliver the necessary weapons for resistance to the Russian revolutionaries. Perhaps, while living in the same apartment with Gapon, Azef learned about some compromising evidence that fell into the hands of George.

Murder

Georgy Gapon was killed on March 28, 1906 at Zverzhinskaya’s dacha in the village of Ozerki near St. Petersburg. He was found only a few days later with a noose around his neck.

Gapon's official killer, the priest's closest associate Pyotr Rutenberg, was quickly found and caught. He was identified by a local janitor. Peter did not deny his involvement, he told how the murder itself happened, and which other workers were present. He named the reason for the corruption and betrayal of Gapon, his connections with the vice director of the Police Department P.I. Rachkovsky. But later historians found another “dark shadow” behind the reprisal against Gapon - this is the “Fat” already known to us, that is, Yevno Azef. It was he who framed Gapon’s accusation of a “double game” in order to shield the real secret agent - himself. As a result, two “frontmen” were killed at the same time - first the “people’s prophet” Georgy Gapon, and then the provocateur N. Yu. Tatarov, who unsuccessfully tried to open the eyes of the Socialist Revolutionary leadership to the hypocritical nature of their party leader.

GAPON GEORGY APOLLONOVICH

(born in 1870 (1871) – died in 1906)

Priest. One of the first leaders of the labor movement in Russia. The name “Pop Gapon” became a household name, a symbol of a provocateur.

Georgy Gapon was destined to become not only the “hero of one day” - “Bloody Sunday”, not only the most popular leader of the initial stage of the First Russian Revolution, but also the involuntary “organizer” of this revolution. Although there is still debate among historians about whether Gapon was a “great revolutionary” or a skilled provocateur.

Georgy Apollonovich Gapon-Novykh was born either in 1870 or 1871. His parents were wealthy peasants from the Poltava region, thanks to which Gapon graduated from the Poltava Theological School and the Poltava Theological Seminary. After graduating from the seminary, Gapon served as a zemstvo statistician and earned money by giving private lessons. In 1896, he was ordained as a priest and assigned to one of the districts of the Poltava province.

Two years later, the young priest entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, and upon graduation defended his dissertation “The current situation of the parish in the Orthodox Churches.” However, the church career did not satisfy the ambitious provincial, who had extraordinary oratorical abilities and a desire for leadership.

In 1902, Gapon created a project to improve the lives of workers and create workers' houses and colonies. As a priest, Gapon advocated making life easier for the common people, creating workers' circles, for which the Holy Synod deprived him of his rank, since priests were forbidden to engage in both political and any public non-church activities. The workers' circles created by Gapon already in 1903 united 8 thousand people. However, such groups could only exist peacefully with the approval of the secret police. Gapon received money from the head of the Police Department, Colonel Zubatov, to whom he reported about the mood in the labor movement. With money from the Police Department, Gapon opened a teahouse on the Vyborg side in St. Petersburg, which became the headquarters of his organization “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg” (1904–1905). The Ministry of Internal Affairs allowed the society to operate and even provided it with financial support. But according to the statutes of the Assembly, those workers who were fired for participating in strikes or for revolutionary activities were deprived of benefits. By the beginning of 1905, branches of the Assembly were created in each of the districts of St. Petersburg.

The cause of the spontaneous strike at the Putilov plant was the dismissal of four workers. Hundreds of people gathered in the premises of the Assembly branch, demanding the return of those fired and the organization of free medical care. The workers' representatives went with Gapon to the plant director. After the director refused to agree to their demands, the workers went on strike.

On January 5, 1905, 26 thousand workers went on strike in St. Petersburg, two days later all the printing houses stopped working, the water supply stopped, and the horse tram stopped. On January 7, Gapon was preparing a peaceful demonstration of workers to the Tsar, convincing everyone that the demonstration was permitted by the authorities. In an eloquent letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky, Gapon outlined the goals of the manifestation and asked to convey the Tsar’s request to appear to the people, “ensuring the inviolability of his person.” Gapon insisted that the workers go to the Winter Palace “with their bare hands,” leaving even their penknives at home. He understood that the workers’ “unrest” was his “finest hour,” opening up the opportunity to become a people’s leader and leader of Christian socialists, and perhaps a reformer of the Orthodox Church.

Gapon prepared a petition containing the following words:

“Sovereign! We, the workers and residents of St. Petersburg, our wives, children and helpless old parents, came to you, Sovereign, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, burdened with backbreaking labor, we are mocked, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves.

For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than continuation of unbearable torment.

And so we quit work and told our employers that we would not start working until they fulfilled our demands. We asked a little. We wanted that without which life is not life, but hard labor, eternal torment.

Our first request was that the owners discuss our needs with us, but they also denied us this - the right to talk about our needs; They find that the law does not recognize such a right for us. Our requests to reduce the number of working hours to 8 per day and set prices for our work together with us, and with our consent to resolve our misunderstandings with the lower administration of the plant, to assign unskilled workers and women a payment for their work of no less than 1 ruble, also turned out to be illegal. per day, cancel overtime work, treat us carefully and without insults, arrange workshops so that you can work in them, and not find death there from terrible drafts, rain and snow, soot and smoke.

Everything turned out, according to our hosts, to be illegal. Every request we make is a crime, and our desire to improve our situation is insolence, offensive to our masters. Sire, there are more than 300,000 of us here - and all these people are only in appearance, only in appearance, but in reality, we, like the entire Russian people, are not recognized with a single human right, even to speak, think, gather, discuss our needs , take measures to improve our situation.

Any one of us who dares to raise his voice in defense of the interests of the working class is thrown into exile, punished as for a crime, for a kind heart, for a sympathetic soul. To feel sorry for a worker, a powerless, exhausted person, means committing a serious crime.

The entire people, workers and peasants, are given up to the mercy of the bureaucratic government, consisting of embezzlers and robbers, who not only do not care at all about the interests of the people, but trample on these interests.”

The petition listed a range of social and political demands that demonstrated the broad scope of the movement: freedom of speech, press, person and assembly; universal and compulsory education, the responsibility of ministers to the people, a general political amnesty, an eight-hour working day, the rights of workers' unions and cooperatives, state insurance, the abolition of indirect taxes and the gradual nationalization of land.

On the morning of January 9, 1905, 140 thousand workers set off from the factory outskirts of St. Petersburg to the Winter Palace. The procession resembled a religious procession with banners, images, and royal portraits; people sang “God Save the Tsar...” and the prayer “Save, O Lord, Thy people.” Gapon himself spoke at the head of the procession between the two priests. A crowd of curious and idle people surrounded the serried ranks of the workers in a tight ring. According to witnesses, at least 300 thousand people gathered in the Winter Palace Square and on the surrounding streets.

By order of the commander of the St. Petersburg Military District, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, live ammunition was distributed to the soldiers and Cossacks on January 8 and they were ordered to shoot. Without any warning, without an invitation to disperse, volleys were fired through the crowd. The first shots rang out not at the Winter Palace, but at the Narva Gate. Five volleys were fired, two rows of workers fell; dead and wounded appeared. People rushed in different directions, crushing those behind. On the Shlisselburg tract the workers were met by mounted Cossacks; they crowded people, beat them with whips, knocked them down, trampled them with horses. However, by two o'clock in the afternoon crowds of people still gathered around the Winter Palace. The square was cordoned off by cavalry, and infantry lined up in front of the palace. Fatal volleys thundered at point blank range. Soldiers shot at workers at the Trinity Bridge, and on Vasilyevsky Island, and on Nevsky Prospect, and on Kazan Square... On “Bloody Sunday” the people lost their last faith in the anointed one - the Sovereign Emperor.

It is interesting that next to Priest Gapon in the crowd of demonstrators, his friend Pyotr Rutenberg, who was instructed by the Socialist Revolutionary Party to kill the Tsar if he came out to the people, was also walking on soldiers’ chains. Covering Gapon with himself, Rutenberg managed to take him out from under fire. Gapon hid in the mansion of Savva Morozov, and in the evening of the same day he made his way to Maxim Gorky, who promised to help him emigrate. The day after the shooting of the demonstration, Gapon addressed the workers with an inspirational message in which he forever branded “King Cain,” who killed his brothers. While damning Nikolai Romanov, he implored the workers to remember that from now on they are bound by the blood shed together.

Ten days after the shooting of the peaceful procession, Nicholas II agreed to accept a deputation of workers. Gapon's calls for “Orthodox brotherhood” ended in the extermination of the Orthodox by the Orthodox. There were about a thousand killed. And there were two and a half wounded. The Socialist Revolutionary Party sentenced Gapon to exceptional punishment. The execution victims, packed in potato sacks, were secretly buried in various cemeteries in St. Petersburg. And Gapon declared the innocent victims a mistake by the authorities. But a month after January 9, Gapon wrote that “we do not have a king” and called on the workers to fight for freedom.

Soon Gapon fled abroad. In Paris, he meets Lenin and joins the RSDLP as the most famous people's leader (!). In May 1905, Gapon left Lenin's party and joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He loved flattery and money, and was spoiled by hype and fame. The Japanese General Staff transfers 50 thousand francs to the Gapon Fund. This money was used by the revolutionaries to purchase the ship John Crafton, on which they planned to transport a large cargo of weapons for the militants to Russia. There is information that Gapon lost part of this amount in Monte Carlo and Nice. In Paris, he was in constant contact with Count Witte, from whom he also received significant sums.

On October 17, 1905, Nicholas II, with a personal manifesto, announced an amnesty to all participants in the events of January 9. After this, Gapon immediately returns to St. Petersburg and intends to revive the “Society of Factory and Factory Workers”, as well as begin publishing a workers’ newspaper. This required not only legality, but also connections with the police. In January 1906, the Rus newspaper published an article “Down with the Mask,” in which it called Gapon a secret agent of the secret police; for its part, the Police Department charged him with receiving money from “enemy Japan.”

In March 1906, the police instructed Gapon to recruit Rutenberg, convincing him that, as a double agent, he could provide even greater assistance to the workers' cause. Rutenberg reported Gapon’s proposal to the famous provocateur and commander of the “combat organization” of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Azef. It is interesting that Azef immediately decides to “remove” Gapon “as a provocateur,” and with him the head of the political department of the police, Rachkovsky. However, the leader of the Social Revolutionaries Chernov insisted on checking Gapon. It was decided that during the meeting between Gapon, Rachkovsky and Rutenberg, Socialist Revolutionary militants would overhear their conversation, which, as they were sure, would talk about Gapon’s “treason”; and an experienced Socialist Revolutionary militant, coming out of hiding, will shoot Gapon and Rachkovsky. But Azef warned Rachkovsky about the impending assassination attempt, and the militant Ivanov refused to shoot Gapon, without direct evidence of his treason. But the same Azef continued to insist on the immediate liquidation of Gapon. For this purpose, an empty dacha was rented in Ozerki near St. Petersburg, and Rutenberg, who was entrusted with the “mission” to punish the apostate, invited him to the dacha. Three Socialist Revolutionary militants sat in the next room. After Gapon again invited Ruteberg to cooperate with the secret police, the militants ran into the room and rushed to Gapon, calling him a “venal dog.” Rutenberg slipped away, not wanting to “get his hands dirty,” and the militants hanged Gapon, having beaten him beforehand.

Perhaps Gapon was not a provocateur, finding himself only a tool in the hands of the police, or perhaps he was a cunning politician who tried to outwit the police, for which he was destroyed by them, but at the hands of revolutionaries. Gapon could also be a sincerely believing Christian socialist who dreamed of creating a new society by raising the working masses to fight. Who knows? History is silent about this.

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Born exactly 140 years ago Georgy Gapon, and on this occasion, an exhibition with the significant title “Who Sowed the Storm” was opened at the Museum of Political History of Russia to a full house. The epigraph to the life of this man could be the famous words of a modern politician: he wanted the best...

These are exactly the good wishes with which the road to hell is paved. The authors of the vernissage, which features 100 exhibits, did not set out to illustrate Gapon’s biography in detail. Here attention is focused only on the key moments of his short, tragically ended life. Already in 1906, the workers, for whom he cared so much, strangled him. The investigative photo album exhibited for the first time tells about this.

Against the backdrop of Gapon’s gloomy death at an abandoned dacha in Ozerki, the photographs of the funeral, where several hundred of his fans gathered to see off their spiritual leader on his last journey, look dissonant.

Gapon played a key role in the events that marked the beginning of the era of revolutionary upheavals of the early 20th century. And this role still raises questions. It seems that he sincerely wanted to help the workers, but they died just from meeting him - and not only on “Bloody Sunday” on January 9. The exhibition presents unique materials about a worker who shot himself in front of Gapon after the leader demanded that another worker be killed...

The events of January 9, 1905 are told not only by leaflets, documents and photographs, but also by such unique exhibits as the original letter from Gapon to Nicholas II and the priest’s appeal to workers and soldiers, composed on the evening of January 9.

“Georgy Apollonovich Gapon,” says author of the exhibition, historian Alexey Kulegin, - for several months in 1905 he was the most popular person in Russia, and, while in exile, he even claimed to be the leader of the entire revolutionary movement. The activities of the priest of the St. Petersburg transit prison, who organized the first legal mass workers' organization in Russia and the procession of workers to the Winter Palace, were assessed differently by both contemporaries and later researchers. For example, there is an opinion that the demonstration on January 9 was a huge provocation.

"SP": - Who was he really - a sincere people's leader, a “revolutionary in a cassock” or a provocateur in the service of the tsarist government and police? The Gaponov Assembly of Factory Workers of St. Petersburg was created in 1904. You show photographs where Gapon is standing next to the mayor. That is, it was a pro-government organization?

“It was the first legal mass workers’ organization in Russia. The ideas of creating such organizations that would be controlled by the authorities went back to the head of the Moscow security department, Colonel Sergei Zubatov, and were later called police socialism. They were called upon to “channel” the labor movement, to direct it not against the government, but in support of it. Zubatov's ideas were criticized both from the right and from the left. But both warned that such organizations were quickly spiraling out of control and becoming dominated by revolutionary forces. And so it happened. In the end, the procession that Gapon organized and which carried a petition to Tsar Nicholas II was shot at the Narva Gate...

“SP”: — At the Narva Gate? But weren’t they stopped on the approaches to the Winter Palace, as all Soviet textbooks wrote about?

— They also reached the Winter Palace, but that was the last episode. They were shot and dispersed in many places in St. Petersburg - not far from the Trinity Bridge, at the Narva Gate, on Vasilievsky Island... We displayed on the stand the shirt of the worker Vasiliev, who died during the demonstration. Vasilyev’s wife gave it to the museum a long time ago. This was not an ordinary worker, but the official leader of the organization, since Gapon himself, as a priest, could not hold the position of chairman and was considered a spiritual leader. In a letter to the Tsar, Gapon writes on behalf of the workers: “Your ministers are not telling you the whole truth, we are coming to you, the people are determined to come to you on Palace Square, we ask the Emperor to come out to the workers, we guarantee your safety...”

After January 9, Gapon became an ardent revolutionary and wrote other appeals - to blow up palaces, kill soldiers, officials, the tsar and his entourage.

“SP”: — Gapon was soon forced to leave Russia, but for some reason after emigrating he became disillusioned with the revolutionary movement?

- Yes, after returning from abroad, he changed dramatically - he tried to establish contact with the authorities, wrote letters of repentance, gave interviews to various newspapers... The workers discussed his behavior and did not know how to react. The exhibition presents the book “The Truth about Gapon”, written by worker Nikolai Petrov. This was one of the people closest to Gapon, the head of one of the workers' organizations. It soon became known that Gapon secretly received 30 thousand rubles from Stolypin from the workers, and Petrov published an article entitled “Down with the mask and the unknown.” After publication, events began to develop rapidly. Gapon decided to eliminate Petrov and even gave the executor, worker Cheremukhin, a revolver. But Cheremukhin, being a young man with an unstable psyche, committed suicide with the same revolver right at a meeting of the central committee of Gaponov’s organization. By that time, Gapon had already become involved in a new adventure with the police department and began to agitate his recent benefactor, Pyotr Moiseevich Rutenberg, to make contact with the security department, promising 25 thousand rubles for him to hand over the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionary Party to the secret police. Rutenberg reported this to the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in particular to one of the leaders, Azef. It was decided to eliminate Gapon. Rutenberg lured him to one of the dachas in Ozerki, and invited a group of workers there, whom he hid in the next room. Rutenberg started a conversation with Gapon about how much money could be earned for handing over the Socialist Revolutionaries to the police. When he thought the workers had heard enough, he released them from their hiding place. They attacked Gapon and hanged him as a traitor... But we know all this from the words of Rutenberg!

"SP": - And there is no other evidence?

— Alas, the reliable circumstances of Gapon’s death are unknown. We do not know who exactly acted there, except for Rutenberg, and we can only take his version on faith... One thing is indisputable: Azef sought to get rid of such a dangerous rival as Gapon as soon as possible, since he himself was a police provocateur, and Gapon could reveal Azef’s double game.

“SP”: - Alexey Mikhailovich, for the first time you will publish materials about Gapon’s funeral. Why was he buried only in May 1906, although he was killed on March 26?

— The body was not found immediately. Until April 30, it was unknown where he was? The police department was looking for Gapon to detain him, but he was already dead. A lot of people gathered for the funeral. The police album that investigators kept when they were investigating Gapon's murder has been preserved. But we were interested not so much in Gapon himself as in his role in such an important and turning point event in Russian history as January 9 - the beginning of the revolution. By the way, in 2010 the round dates of Gapon’s birth coincide—140 years—and the beginning of the first Russian revolution—105 years.

“SP”: — Did the letter that Gapon wrote to Nicholas II reach the emperor?

- Unknown. It seems that he sent a worker with this letter to Tsarskoe Selo, who, of course, was not allowed to see the Tsar. Sources, with varying degrees of reliability, claim that the worker persistently demanded to be received personally by Nicholas II. It is not known where the letter went later? But the author’s copy of the letter has been preserved (see photo).

“SP”: — Have you, as a historian, already formulated Gapon’s role in the first Russian revolution?

— His role is complex: a people’s leader, a revolutionary, and at the same time a provocateur, an adventurer... He has a little bit of everything. If you read the workers’ memoirs, they were all delighted with him. Many were sure that if Gapon had already started the revolution, then he was destined to lead it, but not everything was so clear in this story - there was a lot of mystery.

“SP”: — It’s still surprising that the most important thing has not yet been clarified in it: Gapon, a charismatic person raised by the Tsarist secret police, was let down by the peculiarities of his personality?

- Not only. Those events that occurred after January 9 were much higher and more powerful than the level of Gapon’s personality. He still tried to portray himself as the leader and leader of the labor movement, but he was already Napoleon without an army. The masses did not follow him. By the autumn of the fifth year, revolutionary events captured Russia not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Moscow. Lenin has already returned from exile. In 1906, Gapon's figure faded. And that didn’t suit him, because he didn’t want to be a pawn in someone else’s game. He lacked drive, adrenaline...

“SP”: — Despite all this, he was an ordained priest who called for the death of one or the other?

— He was a priest of the Church of Michael of Chernigov in the St. Petersburg transit prison. But immediately after “Bloody Sunday,” on January 20, 1905, the Synod defrocked him.

“SP”: — Is Gapon guilty of the death of many people and even one of the great princes?

— This is Sergei Alexandrovich, the Moscow governor, who had nothing to do with the events of January 9 at all. He was killed by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev, allegedly in retaliation for the events of “Bloody Sunday.”

“SP”: — Who gave the order to shoot at the demonstrators who were being led to Tsar Gapon?

“The direct order to shoot was given by Prince Vasilchikov, who was endowed with such powers. But he carried out the order of another Grand Duke - Vladimir Alexandrovich, who commanded the troops of the St. Petersburg military district. But not every order is written on paper, and it was not about shooting demonstrators specifically. It was said: not allowed to the Winter Palace. What is it to not allow? The troops were called in, they were given live ammunition... It was not the police who could disperse the crowd with whips, the soldiers did not have water cannons and tear gas... By the way, the workers themselves, who came with the petition, assumed that clashes with the police might occur. They could not even imagine that rifle fire would be opened on them, since they were completely unarmed.

“SP”: — Did Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich somehow answer for this unjustified cruelty?

- No. A criminal case was opened against the participants of the demonstration. Before that, nothing like this had happened in Russian history - one hundred thousand people were walking peacefully through the city, and they were shot... Although, compared to the tragedies that befell our country in the coming years, this cannot be considered a major catastrophe. They killed 130 people and wounded the same number. Soon, millions of dead Russians will become “statistics.”

"SP": - Why did the king do this?

“I think he was just not ready.” The entire system of Russian power at the beginning of the 20th century was very archaic. Nicholas II tried in every possible way to preserve this system and did not think about the changes that were overdue. “Bloody Sunday” nevertheless forced the emperor to make constitutional changes, and he signed the manifesto of October 17. But until the end of his life he could not forgive Witte for snatching these concessions from him. Although, thanks to them, the Russian monarchy was saved for another 12 years.

“He didn’t think about it at all then.” Nikolai took the worst position: he simply took it and left for Tsarskoe Selo. And the next day he wrote in his diary: “A terrible day, there are many killed and wounded in St. Petersburg...” The Tsar could have instructed the Minister of Internal Affairs to go to the demonstration or the same Sergei Witte, the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. In the end, he himself could go out to the demonstrators and say: “My children! I'm with you!" Perhaps then all Russian history would have taken a different path.

St. Petersburg

In the pictures: documents from the exhibition dedicated to Gapon.

FROM PRIESTS TO REVOLUTIONARIES?

Much is known about Bloody Sunday, which occurred in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905, from the school curriculum. Georgy Gapon, a very popular figure at that time, the creator of an authoritative organization called the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg, became the initiator of the tragically ending procession to the Tsar. The priest, who was at the head of one of the work columns, was wounded near the Narva outpost. He was pulled out from under the fire by Pyotr Rutenberg, who, a little over a year later, probably participated in his murder.

After January 9, a turning point occurred in Gapon’s consciousness. If until that day he believed in the tsar, now, under the influence of the shooting that happened in the capital, he wrote a leaflet calling for an immediate uprising. He did this in the apartment of the famous writer Maxim Gorky, who greeted the priest very warmly.

Soon Rutenberg sent Gapon to the estate of people who sympathized with the revolutionaries. There Father George had to wait until he was transferred abroad. However, on the way, the priest missed the guides, and he had to cross the border on his own. Near the town of Taurage, a border guard shot at him, but Gapon escaped unharmed.

HERO OF THE WESTERN PRESS

Georgy Gapon was popular among Russian revolutionaries of all stripes who settled in Western Europe. Even Vladimir Lenin, who had no respect for religion, was very worried before meeting him. Speaking later at the Third Congress of the RSDLP, Lenin described Gapon as “a man undoubtedly devoted to the revolution, proactive and intelligent, although, unfortunately, without a sustained revolutionary worldview.”

But Father George was successful not only in a revolutionary environment. The Western press also began to write about him. Father looked great in the role of a hero devoted to the people: a handsome, charming man, and he speaks well.

Fame brought money: journalists paid well for interviews. And the clergyman, in modern terms, went crazy. In St. Petersburg, Georgy Apollonovich was modest in everyday life, but abroad he felt the taste of a beautiful life. The priest had a number of affairs with socialites and began visiting Monte Carlo.

POLITICAL IGNORANT

Gapon, while he was in luck, rushed into politics. But the clergyman turned out to be absolutely ignorant. He did not understand at all the essence of the ideological differences between the opposition forces.

The priest decided to unite all emigrants, not only revolutionaries, but also liberals. Of course, around himself: he was always quite ambitious. On April 24, 1905, Georgy Apollonovich convened a conference in Geneva, which brought together representatives of eleven parties. It was decided to create a general committee whose task was the “revolutionary education of the masses.” Gapon was included in the composition.

However, soon the authority of Father George in the revolutionary environment began to rapidly decline. The leaders of the left parties, who were quite educated at that time, were irritated by the priest’s political illiteracy and his excessive desire for leadership. And it was much easier for the priest to communicate with ordinary workers than with “highly intelligent intellectuals.”

TRIPLE PLAY

And then Gapon wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Sergei Witte, and at the same time came into contact with the police department. The essence of his proposals was as follows: to allow the activities of the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers, which was actually dispersed after January 9, and to use the priest as an informant. The authorities were interested in this initiative. Largely because the meeting could become a counterweight to the emerging trade unions, where left-wing parties had influence.

After the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, Father Georgy returned to Russia and began to play not even a double, but a triple game. He appeared before the authorities as a “worker appeaser.” Before the revolutionaries, he positioned himself as a radical who was forced to hide his true intentions. In the proletarian environment, I wanted to belong on the board. However, both those and others felt the priest’s insincerity and lost confidence in him.

With the advent of the Manifesto, the press gained some freedom, and journalists began to dig up facts that were unpleasant for Georgy Apollonovich. In particular, it turned out that the priest put his hand into the pocket of the Assembly.

And then Gapon decided to take an extraordinary step. The priest told the Police Department that his old acquaintance, Socialist Revolutionary Peter Rutenberg, was ready to hand over the militant organization of this party to the police for an “adequate amount.” Let us note that he could not do this even with all his desire: he had nothing to do with the militants. Having received the consent of the authorities, Father Georgy made a corresponding proposal to Rutenberg.

WERE SUPPORTERS HANGED?

The circumstances of the priest's death are still shrouded in mystery. Although police opened a criminal investigation, no one was charged with murder. So, on March 28, 1906, Gapon left St. Petersburg along the Finnish Railway and did not return. According to the workers, he was on his way to a business meeting with a representative of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. In mid-April, information appeared in the newspapers that the priest had been strangled with a rope and his corpse was hanging on one of the empty dachas near St. Petersburg. Soon these reports were officially confirmed.

Some details became known from publications in the Russian and foreign press, as well as from memoirs. On March 28, 1906, Rutenberg arranged a meeting with Gapon in Ozerki. Ostensibly to reach a final agreement. During the conversation, two workers invited by Rutenberg were in the next room. These were supporters of Gapon, so to speak, participants in Bloody Sunday. Realizing what an unscrupulous person their idol was, the proletarians hanged the priest without much discussion.

Whether this was a planned murder or whether the workers acted under the influence of emotions remains a mystery.

BY THE WAY

Shortly before his death, Georgy Gapon promised to make public documents relating to his relationship with Sergei Witte. “When they become public knowledge, many will be in trouble,” the priest assured. He agreed with his lawyer that in the event of his death he would publish these materials.

After Gapon’s murder, the lawyer went to Europe to publicize the information in the foreign press. But on the way, he suddenly died of stomach pain, and the documents disappeared without a trace.

INTERESTING FACT

In the spring of 1906, Pyotr Rutenberg also went abroad. Perhaps he was hiding from the investigation. He returned to Petrograd after the February Revolution and became one of the leaders of the City Duma. On October 24, 1917 he defended the Provisional Government. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. A few months later the Bolsheviks released Rutenberg.

He emigrated from Soviet Russia, moved to Palestine, where, along with politics, he was involved in electrification. He knew Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini. Created the Palestine Electric Company. A power plant near Ashkelon bears Rutenberg's name.

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