Criminal
02-27-2004, 08:42 AM
http://www.angelfire.com/oz/1spy/Gapon.html#link
George Gapon was born in Poltva, in the Ukraine. He received a religious education at a Russian Orthodox seminary and took holy orders in 1895. Sent to St. Petersburg (AKA Leningrad,) Gapon was assigned to duties at one of the city's many churches. His duties brought him in direct contact with the oppressed workers. While preaching the Social Gospel, Gapon, through politically naive, concluded that the workers would have to agitate to better their conditions.
An effective orator, Gapon preached social reform instead of religion. He lectured the workers about the need to abstain from drinking and gambling, to better themselves by rejecting all vice. He lobbied for better conditions at factories, but he also reminded his followers that they owed their allegiance to their church and to the Czar, Nicholas Romanov II. His credo was later summed up by one historian as "God save the Czar and the eight-hour day."
In 1903, unions secretly organized by the Okhrana under the direction of S. V. Zubatov, had caused industrialists and government officials to panic. Zubatov was disgraced, but the Okhrana still clung to the belief that it could manipulate the workers by having its agents organize and control the workers. To that end, Okhrana chiefs approached Gapon, who had made a favorable name for himself among the working community of St. Petersburg.
Gapon was easily recruited, believing that the Okhrana represented the Czar he claimed to revere. He accepted large amounts of money to organize his Union of Russian Factory Workers, and to especially bring into that organization the most revolutionary of those workers, so that they could be subdued and controlled.
Gapon did exactly that, earning a great respect from workers and revolutionaries alike, although none knew at the time that he was a police spy. To the Russian and foreign revolutionaries infesting St. Petersburg in 1904, Gapon was one of the pre-eminent revolutionary leaders. The clever Japanese spy, Motojiro Akashi, learned of Gapon and, as a military attaché assigned to the Japanese Embassy in St. Petersburg, sought out Gapon, offering him money and arms, encouraging him to lead a full-scale revolution. Akashi's motive, of course, was to aid Japan in creating internal chaos in a country it planned to attack in the upcoming Russo-Japanese war.
Abandoning his priestly duties altogether, Gapon began to play a double game. He encouraged foreign powers and revolutionaries outside of Russia to provide him with money with which to build his union into a potent revolutionary movement, when all the while he took money from the Okhrana to suppress his own movement. The ruthless V.K. Phleve, Minister of Interior, not only authorized the Okhrana to go on supplying Gapon with funds, but he added more money to the priest's coffers to organize a national union, The Assembly of Russian Workingmen. (Only weeks after Phleve authorize additional payments to be made to Gapon, he was blown to pieces by a bomb hurled by an assassin who was, incredibly, under the instructions of Okhrana spy Yevno Azev.)
In response to the disastrous Russo-Japanese war which resulted in the surrender of Russia's only Pacific outlet, Port Arthur, the workers at the Putilov Steel Works went on strike in January 1905. During the four-day strike, Gapon fumed and fulminated against the industrialists, feeling that their refusal to respond to workers' demands was placing the czar in jeopardy, that Nicholas would be unfairly blamed for any civil unrest which might result.
Gapon was by then a man who could have easily been diagnosed as deranged. Certainly, his perceived dual role of secret protector of the throne through his Okhrana position and his leadership of hundreds of thousands of oppressed workers, gave him a grandiose idea of self. He thought that only he could, at that moment, avert a national crisis, a bloody calamity that threatened to envelop and destroy the ancient monarchy he so revered. Gapon, rich with the contributions of police funds, huge donations from foreign espionage operations, and money from all of the European revolutionary groups, was the man of the hour, a leader who possessed more power than the government itself.
Making one impassioned speech after another, Gapon went from meeting to meeting, enlarging support for the striking unions. He increased his demands upon employers and the government. His Okhrana bosses feared that he was out of control, which he was. Gapon chose to lead the workers, not control them. He was completely carried away by his fanatical sense of purpose. It was his mission, he told his followers, to save the country and the Czar. He would personally lead hundreds of thousands of workers to the Winter Palace and there, as he envisioned it, the czar would emerge to stand on the royal balcony and approve of the petition. He even envisioned himself being invited to stand on that balcony next to his sovereign and, somehow, be instantly named as a special minister to the people, becoming the real power behind the throne and the savior of his country. All contact with reality was gone: Gapon thrilled to his own fairy-tale image.
The priest labored to write five closely-written pages of demands which included an eight-hour day, a minimum wage of one ruble a day [50 cents], no over-time, a constituent assembly, universal suffrage and education, amnesty for all political prisoners, and income tax and the separation of church and state. With the petition written, Gapon, on January 24, 1905, wrote a letter to Nicholas II, announcing the fact that he and the workers would appear before him the next day. He wrote: "Sire! Do not believe the Ministers. They are cheating Thee in regard to the real state of affairs. The people believe in Thee. They have made up their minds to gather at the Winter Palace tomorrow at 2 P.M. to lay their needs before Thee… Do not fear anything. Stand tomorrow before the people and accept our humblest petition. I, the representative of the workingmen, and my comrades, guarantee the inviolability of Thy person. Gapon."
This letter may never have reached the Czar, but it was seen by Okhrana chiefs who became exceedingly alarmed. Only two days earlier, on January 19, 1905, the Czar had visited St. Petersburg to perform an ancient religious rite, the Blessing of the Waters. He had ridden through the streets and had been loudly cheered but while he was standing at the banks of the Neva, a cannon used in the imperial salute somehow let loose a live charge, which exploded near the Czar. Nicholas was unhurt but a policeman standing nearby had been killed. Okhrana agents were still investigating this incident and were unable to determine whether it was an accident of part of a plot to kill the Czar.
Now they learned that their once trusted Gapon was about to lead a march on the Winter Palace involving more than 100,000 disgruntled workers. The czar was not at the Winter Palace. He had left St. Petersburg two days earlier and was at the family retreat, Tsarskoe Selo, fifteen miles outside the city. He was given some brief information about the planned march, however, on the night of January 21,1905.
The next morning, January 22, 1905, which would be remembered as "Bloody Sunday," Gapon appeared, a little man with a pointed black beard, dressed in priestly robes. He began to lead a huge procession estimated to be between 120,00 and 200,000 men, women and children. The marchers moved slowly forward in well-organized peaceful columns. They carried the national flag and portraits of the Czar, along with religious icons and placards. They sang "God Save the Czar," as they moved innocently toward the Winter Palace.
Reports are varied as to what happened next. Many of the streets down which the marchers moved were blocked by mounted Hussars and Cossacks. Infantry with bayonets affixed to the rifles blocked others. The palace guard in front of the Winter Palace appeared in three long lines, guns at the ready. One report had it that officers loudly barked orders to the crowds to disperse, ordering them to return to their homes. Other reports had it that no such commands were given and that the troops simply opened fire, some at a distance of only twenty yards from the lines of helpless workers.
Bullets smacked into bodies as the crowds turned in panic and ran. Gapon, unhurt, fell to the ground, which was hard-packed with snow. Wind and snow swept the streets the open area in front of the Winter Palace. The troops kept firing, and hundreds fell, staining the snow with their blood, an image that would never be forgotten. The official count had ninety-two killed and several hundred wounded but the death toll was most likely five times that number with thousands wounded. The slaughter was senseless and gave cause to the revolutionaries to believe that Nicholas II was a ruthless oppressor of his own people. Gapon was now one of these.
The priest went into hiding and emerged a short time later as a wild-eyed revolutionary seeking the violent overthrow of the Romanov regime. He sent a letter to the Czar which read: "Nicholas Romanov, formerly Czar and at present soul-murderer of the Russian empire. The innocent blood of workers, their wives and children lies forever between you and the Russian people… May all the blood that must be spilled fall upon you, you Hangman!"
George Gapon was born in Poltva, in the Ukraine. He received a religious education at a Russian Orthodox seminary and took holy orders in 1895. Sent to St. Petersburg (AKA Leningrad,) Gapon was assigned to duties at one of the city's many churches. His duties brought him in direct contact with the oppressed workers. While preaching the Social Gospel, Gapon, through politically naive, concluded that the workers would have to agitate to better their conditions.
An effective orator, Gapon preached social reform instead of religion. He lectured the workers about the need to abstain from drinking and gambling, to better themselves by rejecting all vice. He lobbied for better conditions at factories, but he also reminded his followers that they owed their allegiance to their church and to the Czar, Nicholas Romanov II. His credo was later summed up by one historian as "God save the Czar and the eight-hour day."
In 1903, unions secretly organized by the Okhrana under the direction of S. V. Zubatov, had caused industrialists and government officials to panic. Zubatov was disgraced, but the Okhrana still clung to the belief that it could manipulate the workers by having its agents organize and control the workers. To that end, Okhrana chiefs approached Gapon, who had made a favorable name for himself among the working community of St. Petersburg.
Gapon was easily recruited, believing that the Okhrana represented the Czar he claimed to revere. He accepted large amounts of money to organize his Union of Russian Factory Workers, and to especially bring into that organization the most revolutionary of those workers, so that they could be subdued and controlled.
Gapon did exactly that, earning a great respect from workers and revolutionaries alike, although none knew at the time that he was a police spy. To the Russian and foreign revolutionaries infesting St. Petersburg in 1904, Gapon was one of the pre-eminent revolutionary leaders. The clever Japanese spy, Motojiro Akashi, learned of Gapon and, as a military attaché assigned to the Japanese Embassy in St. Petersburg, sought out Gapon, offering him money and arms, encouraging him to lead a full-scale revolution. Akashi's motive, of course, was to aid Japan in creating internal chaos in a country it planned to attack in the upcoming Russo-Japanese war.
Abandoning his priestly duties altogether, Gapon began to play a double game. He encouraged foreign powers and revolutionaries outside of Russia to provide him with money with which to build his union into a potent revolutionary movement, when all the while he took money from the Okhrana to suppress his own movement. The ruthless V.K. Phleve, Minister of Interior, not only authorized the Okhrana to go on supplying Gapon with funds, but he added more money to the priest's coffers to organize a national union, The Assembly of Russian Workingmen. (Only weeks after Phleve authorize additional payments to be made to Gapon, he was blown to pieces by a bomb hurled by an assassin who was, incredibly, under the instructions of Okhrana spy Yevno Azev.)
In response to the disastrous Russo-Japanese war which resulted in the surrender of Russia's only Pacific outlet, Port Arthur, the workers at the Putilov Steel Works went on strike in January 1905. During the four-day strike, Gapon fumed and fulminated against the industrialists, feeling that their refusal to respond to workers' demands was placing the czar in jeopardy, that Nicholas would be unfairly blamed for any civil unrest which might result.
Gapon was by then a man who could have easily been diagnosed as deranged. Certainly, his perceived dual role of secret protector of the throne through his Okhrana position and his leadership of hundreds of thousands of oppressed workers, gave him a grandiose idea of self. He thought that only he could, at that moment, avert a national crisis, a bloody calamity that threatened to envelop and destroy the ancient monarchy he so revered. Gapon, rich with the contributions of police funds, huge donations from foreign espionage operations, and money from all of the European revolutionary groups, was the man of the hour, a leader who possessed more power than the government itself.
Making one impassioned speech after another, Gapon went from meeting to meeting, enlarging support for the striking unions. He increased his demands upon employers and the government. His Okhrana bosses feared that he was out of control, which he was. Gapon chose to lead the workers, not control them. He was completely carried away by his fanatical sense of purpose. It was his mission, he told his followers, to save the country and the Czar. He would personally lead hundreds of thousands of workers to the Winter Palace and there, as he envisioned it, the czar would emerge to stand on the royal balcony and approve of the petition. He even envisioned himself being invited to stand on that balcony next to his sovereign and, somehow, be instantly named as a special minister to the people, becoming the real power behind the throne and the savior of his country. All contact with reality was gone: Gapon thrilled to his own fairy-tale image.
The priest labored to write five closely-written pages of demands which included an eight-hour day, a minimum wage of one ruble a day [50 cents], no over-time, a constituent assembly, universal suffrage and education, amnesty for all political prisoners, and income tax and the separation of church and state. With the petition written, Gapon, on January 24, 1905, wrote a letter to Nicholas II, announcing the fact that he and the workers would appear before him the next day. He wrote: "Sire! Do not believe the Ministers. They are cheating Thee in regard to the real state of affairs. The people believe in Thee. They have made up their minds to gather at the Winter Palace tomorrow at 2 P.M. to lay their needs before Thee… Do not fear anything. Stand tomorrow before the people and accept our humblest petition. I, the representative of the workingmen, and my comrades, guarantee the inviolability of Thy person. Gapon."
This letter may never have reached the Czar, but it was seen by Okhrana chiefs who became exceedingly alarmed. Only two days earlier, on January 19, 1905, the Czar had visited St. Petersburg to perform an ancient religious rite, the Blessing of the Waters. He had ridden through the streets and had been loudly cheered but while he was standing at the banks of the Neva, a cannon used in the imperial salute somehow let loose a live charge, which exploded near the Czar. Nicholas was unhurt but a policeman standing nearby had been killed. Okhrana agents were still investigating this incident and were unable to determine whether it was an accident of part of a plot to kill the Czar.
Now they learned that their once trusted Gapon was about to lead a march on the Winter Palace involving more than 100,000 disgruntled workers. The czar was not at the Winter Palace. He had left St. Petersburg two days earlier and was at the family retreat, Tsarskoe Selo, fifteen miles outside the city. He was given some brief information about the planned march, however, on the night of January 21,1905.
The next morning, January 22, 1905, which would be remembered as "Bloody Sunday," Gapon appeared, a little man with a pointed black beard, dressed in priestly robes. He began to lead a huge procession estimated to be between 120,00 and 200,000 men, women and children. The marchers moved slowly forward in well-organized peaceful columns. They carried the national flag and portraits of the Czar, along with religious icons and placards. They sang "God Save the Czar," as they moved innocently toward the Winter Palace.
Reports are varied as to what happened next. Many of the streets down which the marchers moved were blocked by mounted Hussars and Cossacks. Infantry with bayonets affixed to the rifles blocked others. The palace guard in front of the Winter Palace appeared in three long lines, guns at the ready. One report had it that officers loudly barked orders to the crowds to disperse, ordering them to return to their homes. Other reports had it that no such commands were given and that the troops simply opened fire, some at a distance of only twenty yards from the lines of helpless workers.
Bullets smacked into bodies as the crowds turned in panic and ran. Gapon, unhurt, fell to the ground, which was hard-packed with snow. Wind and snow swept the streets the open area in front of the Winter Palace. The troops kept firing, and hundreds fell, staining the snow with their blood, an image that would never be forgotten. The official count had ninety-two killed and several hundred wounded but the death toll was most likely five times that number with thousands wounded. The slaughter was senseless and gave cause to the revolutionaries to believe that Nicholas II was a ruthless oppressor of his own people. Gapon was now one of these.
The priest went into hiding and emerged a short time later as a wild-eyed revolutionary seeking the violent overthrow of the Romanov regime. He sent a letter to the Czar which read: "Nicholas Romanov, formerly Czar and at present soul-murderer of the Russian empire. The innocent blood of workers, their wives and children lies forever between you and the Russian people… May all the blood that must be spilled fall upon you, you Hangman!"