The Bloody Sunday 1905 - The First Russian Revolution

The Russian emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, is concerned. Russia is at war with Japan and is losing. But there’s more. In Russia, the world's largest empire, there is growing dissatisfaction with how the Tsar governs the country. Outside his Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, a large crowd gathers.

They demonstrate against the war, and prevailing injustices, and want increased rights. In the past year, the price of food has been raised, and wages have been reduced. The demonstrators are peaceful. But when they reach the Winter Palace, they are shot at. How could this happen?

We need to go back, in history. In Russia, landlords own the land. They also own the farmers who work on it. These peasants are not allowed to make decisions about their own lives. They are in serfdom.

The farmers are oppressed. Russia is known as "the people's prison". Serfdom disappears in 1861, when landowners allow the farmers to rent, or lease, some land.. But the landlords keep the best land for themselves. So, the peasants are still poor, and cannot influence their own situation.

At the same time, many people move to cities, where industry starts to develop. More and more people work in factories, so the working class grows. But wages are low, and they are treated poorly. The gap between rich and poor is great. In the 1880s, the ideas of a German economist named Karl Marx gain followers in Russia.

Marx believes that workers will never get better conditions if the profits they create with their work largely go to factory directors. The workers must take over the factories together, and keep the profits. It is part of the socialist idea. Many workers think Marx is right. But the tsar, listens to neither the peasants, nor the workers.

The workers form the Russia's Social Democratic Workers Party. Within the party, there is a group, the Bolsheviks, that want to take power by force. They oppose private ownership and want workers and peasants together to start a socialist revolution. The Bolshevik leader is Vladimir Lenin. But to protest, against the tsar, is dangerous.

The Tsar’s security police arrest many. Despite these arrests, and even some changes to law, to make the situation better for workers, nothing helps. And it is not only Bolsheviks who protest, many others have also had enough! As the crowd approaches the Winter Palace, the tsar's soldiers open fire. The police and soldiers attack the protestors who panic, and run in different directions.

Shots flutter and gunpowder fills the bitter winter air. Police and soldiers kill and injure many. The day will be called Bloody Sunday. After Bloody Sunday, workers, peasants and soldiers form labor councils, soviets, which, among other things, start strikes, and protests, in several places in Russia. The Soviets want to decide for themselves how their lives go.

They want to vote and see changes - They want direct democracy. In the countryside, the farmers revolt. They let their animals graze on the landowners’ pastures and fell trees in their forests. The Black Sea Fleet no longer wants to obey the Tsar, and they mutiny. Now the revolution threatens the power of the Tsar.

The Tsar deploys more soldiers and defeats the uprising. He also creates a parliament, the Duma, to calm the unrest. Here the people will be allowed to have their say. Although the Duma has no real power, the Tsar’s plan succeeds. The attempted revolution stopped in December 1905.

The Tsar starts to arrest revolutionaries. In 1907 Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, flees abroad…