Father George Gapon (1870-1906)
Background
- his wife died in 1898
- His parents were Cossacks (peasants)
- His parents were also religious
- 1902 He moved to St Petersburg after becoming a
priest
St Petersburg and Assembly
- Preached in workers’ districts
- Workers were living in poor conditions and worked
long hours
- No health and safety regulations
- Trade unions were resisted
- Organised the Assembly of Russian Factory and
Mill Workers = existed to defend workers’ rights and
to improve their religious status
- Secretly controlled by the Okhrana, to get
information on factory workers and prevent
revolutionaries from joining
- The Assembly was a trade union made with the
permission of the Minister of Interior
- Able to express grievances
- Had 12 branches and 8000 members
- 1904 the organisation became more radical
Bloody Sunday
- March and petition (drafted) organised by Father Gapon
- People were carrying religious symbols, pictures of Nicholas and petitions
- Took advice from the Union of Liberation and Gapon grew his socialist beliefs
- Petition that asked for working day to be cut to 8 hours, right to strike and for election of
assembly by secret ballot and universal suffrage (social and political reforms)
- Gapon called on workers to take action against the regime
- Urged rival groups: the SRs, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks to unite and overthrow tsarism
- Gapon cried out, ‘There is no God anymore, there is no Tsar’
• He was a priest
• Unlike the recent use of religion (Russian orthodoxy) to create support for the Tsar
• Delegitimised the Tsar
• He was concerned about the lives of the workers
Controversies
- he fled the country whilst a wave of strikes was happening
- He got into trouble with the church for gambling and drinking - was he really a churchman?
- 1906 he was hanged after revealing his connections to the Okhrana by the SRs
Background
- his wife died in 1898
- His parents were Cossacks (peasants)
- His parents were also religious
- 1902 He moved to St Petersburg after becoming a
priest
St Petersburg and Assembly
- Preached in workers’ districts
- Workers were living in poor conditions and worked
long hours
- No health and safety regulations
- Trade unions were resisted
- Organised the Assembly of Russian Factory and
Mill Workers = existed to defend workers’ rights and
to improve their religious status
- Secretly controlled by the Okhrana, to get
information on factory workers and prevent
revolutionaries from joining
- The Assembly was a trade union made with the
permission of the Minister of Interior
- Able to express grievances
- Had 12 branches and 8000 members
- 1904 the organisation became more radical
Bloody Sunday
- March and petition (drafted) organised by Father Gapon
- People were carrying religious symbols, pictures of Nicholas and petitions
- Took advice from the Union of Liberation and Gapon grew his socialist beliefs
- Petition that asked for working day to be cut to 8 hours, right to strike and for election of
assembly by secret ballot and universal suffrage (social and political reforms)
- Gapon called on workers to take action against the regime
- Urged rival groups: the SRs, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks to unite and overthrow tsarism
- Gapon cried out, ‘There is no God anymore, there is no Tsar’
• He was a priest
• Unlike the recent use of religion (Russian orthodoxy) to create support for the Tsar
• Delegitimised the Tsar
• He was concerned about the lives of the workers
Controversies
- he fled the country whilst a wave of strikes was happening
- He got into trouble with the church for gambling and drinking - was he really a churchman?
- 1906 he was hanged after revealing his connections to the Okhrana by the SRs
