Shadows of the Past: True Crime and Historical Enigmas

The Tragic Fate of the Imperial Romanov Dynasty - Part 2

On January 3, 1905, a strike broke out in the Poti armament factories and the OSF in Saint Petersburg. Workers from other factories in the capital voted to organize a solidarity demonstration. They decided to bring a petition to the tsar, which, while respectful of the established order, asked Nicholas II to listen to the sufferings of his people.

On January 9, 1905, in Saint Petersburg, at dawn, workers and their families gathered praying for a peaceful day. One hundred fifty thousand marched in columns from various neighborhoods of the city towards the Winter Palace. With an icon at the front, their procession looked more like a religious procession than a workers' protest.

At the forefront are women and children, led by the bearded figure of Father Gapon, a shady character who's into both revolutionary socialists and the imperial secret police. Behind him, there's a portrait of the tsar and a big white banner saying, "Soldiers don't shoot at the people."

One hundred and twenty thousand men are deployed in the city to prevent them from reaching the palace. The troop first fires into the air, then towards the unarmed crowd. 44 people are killed, hundreds more injured while trying to flee.

Gapon, discovering the carnage incredulously, exclaims, "There's no God left, there's no tsar left."

Although Nicolas II wasn't present during this massacre, this event remains deeply ingrained in the Russian collective memory, questioning the divine role of the tsar, hence earning him the nickname "Nicholas the Bloody."