The Crash of Russia

- "You will receive all the funds tomorrow. And he wrote out a bill for 400,000 pounds. "We must make sure that the Tsar is killed during a riot, or overthrown in the form of a palace coup; with the abdication of Nicholas II in favor of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, we will be able to control him, we have a dossier on him," replied King Edward VII. The next day, Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, by order of the King, received the necessary sum from the London bank "N M Rothschild & Sons" for a secret operation in Russia, the purpose of which was the Revolution, after which he sent a courier on a steamer with the money to Russia to the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, the actual privy councilor Sergei Yulievich Witte, a secret agent who had long been working for Great Britain and America. And Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming himself left for Paris for negotiations with the Masonic brothers. A week later, the courier met Witte at his mansion in St. Petersburg on the Petrograd side, on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt. The meeting took place a few days before the New Year of 1905. Witte was drinking coffee and eclairs in the living room with his wife Matilda after dinner, while logs were crackling in the fireplace. A servant entered and reported: "Your Excellency, an Englishman has arrived from London and demands to be received immediately in the name of the king." - "Ask for him," the count answered. The servant left the living room and invited the Englishman. The courier entered, bowed slightly and said in English: "In the name of the British Crown, I have been ordered to give you an envelope from His Majesty. The envelope contains a letter from Edward VII and a check made out to you by Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming." - "Thank you, sit down, would you like some coffee, with cream or without?" Witte answered the courier in English. "Hello," said Matilda. "With cream, thank you," said the courier in English and sat down at the table. A servant came up to the table and poured coffee with cream into a cup for the guest. "We need to talk privately with the guest after coffee," said Witte to his wife. "Okay," said Matilda, finished her coffee, got up from the table and left the room with the servant. "How are things in London?" asked Witte in English, opening the envelope. "There was a meeting with the king in London and I was told to tell you that decisive action is expected of you, details in the letter. You can cash the check at the bank and spend part of the money on bribing the people named in the letter, and the rest of the money is yours," answered the courier. Witte took the check, saw the amount written out in his name - two hundred thousand pounds sterling, turned pale, read the letter, which said that he "needs to meet with the leader of the trade unions Gapon and convince him to bring all the workers to the tsar for negotiations on January 9, hand the tsar a petition with the demands of the labor movement and go peacefully with icons to convince the emperor that he is not in any danger, so that the tsar will come to negotiations and begin to talk to the workers personally. And after these events, regardless of the result, Witte must demand and promote the introduction of a constitutional monarchy in Russia, so that there is a new legislative body in which all parties and estates will be represented, a body that will pass all laws without the will and participation of the emperor. And Witte must promote the forces that want to overthrow the tsar from the throne." "Tell Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming that everything will be done," said Sergei Witte, finishing his coffee. The Englishman stood up and said: “I’ll pass on everything, allow me to take my leave,” and left.

The next morning, Witte opened the safe, which contained more than a million rubles, British pounds sterling and gold bars, took 200,000 rubles from it, put them in a bag, and went to Georgy Gapon. Gapon was not at home, the servant said that he should be looked for in the apartment building on the corner of Nevsky and Vladimirsky Prospects. Then Witte took a cab to the apartment building. He entered and asked the doorman where Gapon was resting, the doorman led the minister into one of the halls on the first floor.

Gapon was sitting in a cassock on a sofa in the arms of two prostitutes, one of them was sitting on the side hugging him, and the other was on the priest's lap and drinking vodka from a glass with him as brothers. On the table stood a half-drunk decanter, snacks and a gramophone with a record playing. They were listening to Feodor Schalyapin. - "Hello Georgy," said the minister. - "Hello minister, how are you, your honor," answered the priest. - "You've settled in here not badly, I came here with one errand, we need to talk face to face," answered Witte. - "Girls, scram, come in an hour," said the priest, thrust a chervonets into each of their hands, they stood up, said "we'll come in an hour to continue" and left. - "I won't ask for your blessing, but we are paying you 200,000 rubles, they asked me to tell you from England that we need to stir up the workers to revolt on January 9, bring all the workers to the tsar for negotiations, hand the tsar a petition with the demands of the workers' movement and go peacefully with icons to convince the emperor that he is not in any danger, so that the tsar will come to the negotiations and start talking to the workers personally. Write a petition with demands on behalf of the trade union, set out everything the workers want, and when the tsar comes out to speak, let it be at the Palace on Palace Square, tell the tsar that the people demand the introduction of a constitution and abdication of the throne. And assign yourself the role of prime minister in the future cabinet,” said the minister. “God be with you, the tsar will refuse such a thing, it is useless to demand it,” answered Gapon. “And we do not care what he answers and what he wants in general, we are paying you for bringing at least a hundred thousand workers to the square and luring the tsar to negotiations, and what happens next is none of your business. If the tsar recognizes you as the new minister, it is better for you, if he does not, it does not matter,” answered Witte and opened his bag, took out 200,000 rubles and put them on the table. “Okay, we will do everything, sir,” answered the priest. - "Allow me to take my leave," said the minister and left. Meanwhile, Japanese intelligence, represented by its operative Colonel Akashi, began to look for ways to contact Russian oppositionists. From the very beginning of the war, Akashi met with the Finnish nationalist K. Zilliacus, and in March 1904, with Polish radicals. Akashi agreed with the Finns and Poles on cooperation and financing of their revolutionary activities. In 1904, Japanese intelligence established contact with Lenin and Plekhanov in Switzerland. Lenin showed keen interest in the Japanese proposals and received a large sum from them. On January 4, 1905, the Bolsheviks published the first issue of their newspaper "Forward" in Geneva with Japanese money and illegally imported it into Russia. In the autumn of 1904, Akashi financed a general opposition conference in Paris, which adopted a resolution on the overthrow of the autocracy. Minister Witte secretly met with Maximilian Ilyich Schweitzer (the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries) in St. Petersburg in a safe house in October and gave him 50,000 rubles for the Socialist Revolutionaries to demand a constitution through their people at the congress of zemstvos, and also to bring militants under the guise of "self-defense units" to a demonstration planned for January 9 with the goal of killing the tsar when he came to negotiate with Gapon. The congress of zemstvos, which met in St. Petersburg from November 19 to 21, 1904, demanded the adoption of a constitution. Those who demanded a constitution were for the Socialist Revolutionaries, and the leader of the St. Petersburg Socialist Revolutionaries was paid by the traitor minister Witte. Japanese intelligence also transferred significant amounts of money for the militants' participation in the demonstration on January 9; the money was received by the Socialist Revolutionary leaders Gershuni, Asef, and Gots. Some of the funds also came from international Jewish organizations in New York. Under pressure from Japanese intelligence and large American capital, Azef and Savinkov prepared an assassination attempt on the Minister of Justice Muravyov, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich in 1904. No peaceful demonstrations were planned. Work was underway to deliver large quantities of weapons to Russia via Sweden and Finland. The Japanese intelligence officer Colonel Akashi actively joined this task. The Japanese General Staff did everything in its power to hurry the revolutionaries. The former military attaché in St. Petersburg, who moved to Stockholm after the war began and headed the Japanese spy network in Western Europe, Colonel Matoire Akashi was in contact with Lenin and Plekhanov, who were in exile, in July 1904 through the terrorist Vera Zasulich. At his meetings with the haters of Russia, the Japanese spy insisted on organizing armed rebel detachments of up to 100,000 fighters. The revolutionaries received 750,000 yen through Akashi and his people to buy weapons. The agents of the Japanese resident did not lose out either. Thus, just one of them, Georgy Dekanozov, received 125,000 francs for travel expenses alone. One of Akashi's main agents was the Finnish revolutionary Connie Zilliacus. It was through him that Japanese money was distributed among the revolutionary parties. Among his papers, discovered by Russian intelligence, a document was found listing the amount of weapons transferred to the revolutionary parties.

Chapter 19. On the eve of the 1905 revolution.

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, a conflict broke out between workers' circles at the Putilov Plant, the largest enterprise in St. Petersburg. The foreman of the carriage shop from the Mutual Aid Society circle fired four workers, members of the Assembly. In response, the management of the Assembly threatened to declare a strike and make it general. The workers presented their demands to the plant management in a resolution - they demanded that the fired workers be rehired, and that working conditions and pay be improved. Putilov rejected the demands. His refusal set in motion a chain of events: on January 3, 1905, the Putilov Plant went on strike, and four more enterprises went on strike in the following two days. On January 5, it became clear to the workers that the plant management would not make concessions. Priest Georgy Gapon wrote a letter to the Emperor, in which he asked the tsar to convene a Constituent Assembly, which would include representatives of all classes and all estates, from the poorest peasants and workers to capitalists - factory owners, nobles and aristocracy. The main argument in the letter was that the ministers governing Russia and the factory owners do not take into account the rights and opinions of ordinary people. The letter also listed the following demands point by point: I. Measures against the ignorance and lack of rights of the Russian people. 1. Freedom and inviolability of the person, freedom of speech, press, freedom of assembly, Freedom of conscience in matters of religion. 2. General and compulsory public education at state expense. 3. Responsibility of ministers to the people and guarantees of legality of government. 4. Equality before the law for all without exception. 5. Immediate return of all those who suffered for their beliefs. II. Measures against the poverty of the people. 1. Abolition of indirect taxes and their replacement with direct progressive and income Tax. 2. Abolition of forced payments, cheap credit and gradual transfer of land to the people. III. Measures against the oppression of capital over labor. 1. Labor protection by law. 2. Freedom of consumer-productive and professional labor unions. 3. Eight-hour working day and regulation of overtime work. 4. Freedom of labor struggle against capital. 5. Participation of workers' representatives in the development of a bill on state insurance of workers. 6. Normal wages. The letter ended with the words: - "And if you do not command, if you do not respond to our prayer, we will die here, on this square in front of your palace. We have nowhere else to go and no reason to! We have only two paths: either to freedom and happiness, or to the grave. Indicate, Sovereign, which of them, we will follow it unquestioningly, even if it is the path to death. Let our life be a sacrifice for suffering Russia! We do not regret this sacrifice. We willingly make it!

On January 5, Finance Minister Vladimir Kokontsev studied the workers' demands and described them in a report to the emperor as "illegal and unfeasible." On January 6-7, the Assembly began collecting signatures for a petition to the tsar from factories and plants. Georgy Gapon gave a speech at meetings of the organization in all districts of the capital. On the day of Epiphany, January 6, the Emperor with a brilliant retinue, preceded by the clergy and the metropolitan, left the Winter Palace and went to the gazebo built on the Neva, where the blessing of the waters took place. The solemn service began, and the usual gun salute was given from the Peter and Paul Fortress. During the salute, large grapeshot bullets unexpectedly fell - both on the pavilion and on the facade of the Winter Palace. About 5 bullets were counted in the gazebo, one of which fell very close to the Emperor. Neither the Emperor nor anyone else from the retinue flinched... Only just before leaving did I and several other people from the retinue pick up one bullet from the pavilion floor. The religious procession returned to the Winter Palace, and, passing by the Nicholas Hall, we saw several broken window panes. One of the officials of the Petersburg district approached the Tsar and explained that a forgotten grapeshot shell had been found in the barrel of one of the guns. The Tsar silently walked on. The Tsar, without showing it, after a planned reception of foreign diplomats, left with his family for Tsarskoye Tselo on January 6. However, despite this, the Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP spread information that the Tsar himself was calling the people to him so that they (the people) would help the Tsar in the fight against the "lords and gentry who do not allow the country to be governed", so the workers prepared for this day thoroughly. For them, it was a holiday. Many were going to take their children with them, and in addition, the "procession" promised to be led by a priest, who, by tradition, has always been revered in Russian society. On Friday, January 7, 382 enterprises went on strike. That same day, all the printing houses joined the strike - newspapers stopped coming out.

On January 8, 456 enterprises stopped — almost 113,000 workers were already on strike.

Chapter 20. Bloody Sunday.

By the evening of January 8, their number was about 150,000 people. For the first time, a strike engulfed the huge industrial center of the empire. All these crowds took part in the procession the next day. In order to give the demonstration a “popular” character, Gapon’s henchmen ran into churches and forcibly pulled out church banners. A priest was needed at the head of the procession so that “revolutionary blood would be spilled,” as the Socialist Revolutionaries said. On the eve of the workers’ procession, on the evening of January 8, the Minister of Internal Affairs Pyotr Svyatopolk-Mirsky convened a meeting. Based on its results, the authorities came to two decisions: to arrest priest Georgy Gapon; not to allow the workers onto Palace Square and to set up outposts along the procession’s route. The government authorized the troops to use force, although everyone believed that it would not come to that. In fact, power in the capital passed to the military. The police were unable to carry out the order. They found the priest in a working-class district and did not detain him in order to avoid a clash. Morning, January 9. The people take their places in the procession. The procession, the character of which was revolutionary from the very beginning. Gapon constantly shouted from the crowd: "If we are refused, then we no longer have a Tsar." Later, in an interview with the newspapers, he described his actions as follows: "I thought it would be good to give the whole demonstration a religious character. The procession moved to the powerful singing of "Save, O Lord, Your people," and when it came to the words "To our Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich," the representatives of the socialist parties invariably replaced them with the words "save Georgy Apollonovich," while others repeated "death or freedom." The procession was a solid mass, and when the procession moved, the police not only did not hinder us, but walked with us without their hats…” Among all the others in the crowd, the journalist Alexander Matyushensky stood out, who had previously drafted the ill-fated petition to the Tsar together with Gapon. The journalist pushed women and children into the massacre in order to more reliably achieve his goal. And he thought this way: “the destruction of adult men will be forgiven, but women, mothers with babies at their breasts - never! So, let them go, I thought to myself, let them perish and with them perish the only symbol that has shackled Russia with the shackles of slavery, torment and groans.” Each column of workers had its own representative of the revolutionary organization (there were 11 in total). The militant organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries prepared weapons. Representatives of the RSDLP prepared agitators and standard-bearers. With each agitator there was a defender (in fact, an armed bandit). Among the delegation of workers there were to be armed militants.

If the Tsar had come out to the people, he would have been simply killed. The first meeting of workers with the troops took place at 12 o'clock in the afternoon near the Narva Gate. 3,000 workers were moving along the Peterhof Highway to the Triumphal Gate, carrying banners and portraits of the Tsar. They were met by police officers who tried to persuade them not to go to the city center, as they could create a dangerous situation. But all the admonitions did not lead to any result. Then a more powerful squadron of the Horse Grenadier Regiment took up the matter, but at that moment Lieutenant Zholtkevich was seriously wounded by a shot from the crowd, and the local police officer was killed. The crowd began to disperse, shots from it were heard more and more often. The platoon non-commissioned officer was struck in the head with a cross. The first victims were not workers, but soldiers. Major General Samghin reported: “At about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the crowd on the 4th Line, having increased significantly in number, began to set up barbed wire, build barricades and throw out red flags. The companies moved forward. During the movement of the companies, bricks and stones were thrown from house No. 35 along the 4th Line, as well as from the house under construction opposite it, and shots were fired. On Maly Prospekt, the crowd rallied and began to shoot. Then one half-company of the 89th Belomorsky Infantry Regiment fired 3 volleys. During these actions, one student was arrested for addressing the soldiers with a defiant speech, and a loaded revolver was found on him. During the actions of the troops on Vasilievsky Island, the troops detained 163 people for robbery and armed resistance.” The Emperor's standard was hung on the Winter Palace so that the lower ranks of the police and the Cossacks would think that they were guarding the Tsar, but the Tsar had long been safe in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Tselo, which only the highest ranks of the police and military knew about. The location of the Emperor was a state secret, since the Tsar was afraid of militants, social democrats and social revolutionaries. Columns, including revolutionary terrorists, went out to Palace Square. If the Emperor had gone out to meet them... he would have received a bullet. Then - the capture of the Winter Palace and the establishment of anarchy in the country, and this despite the fact that there was a war with Japan. But the police and Cossacks dispersed everyone. After the dispersal of the procession at the Narvskaya Zastava, the priest Gapon was led away from the square by a group of workers and the Socialist Revolutionary P. M. Rutenberg. In the courtyard, they cut his hair and dressed him in civilian clothes, and then hid him in Maxim Gorky's apartment.

According to eyewitnesses, Gapon was shocked by the shooting of the demonstration. He sat, staring at one point, nervously clenching his fist and repeating: “I swear… I swear…” Having come to his senses, he asked for paper and wrote a message to the workers. The message said: “Comrade Russian workers! We no longer have a tsar. A river of blood has flowed between him and the Russian people today. It is time for Russian workers to begin the struggle for people’s freedom without him. I bless you for today. Tomorrow I will be among you,” and he left for abroad. On “Bloody Sunday,” as it was later called by the people, slightly less than 1,000 people were killed and up to 2,000 were wounded.

The Emperor immediately responded to the events in St. Petersburg. Ministers Svyatopolk-Mirsky and Muravyov were dismissed. Trepov was appointed the new governor-general, who calmed the capital that same day. Upon arrival from Tsarskoye Selo on January 19, the emperor met with a deputation of St. Petersburg workers. He addressed the working delegation with the following speech: "The deplorable events with the sad but inevitable consequences of the troubles occurred because you allowed yourself to be misled and deceived by traitors and enemies of our Motherland. I know that the life of a worker is not easy. A lot needs to be improved and streamlined."

After that, he returned to Tsarskoye Selo, and since then he has never spent the night in the Winter Palace, fearing militants and revolutionaries who would find it easier to kill him in the center of St. Petersburg than in Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk, Peterhof or Gatchina, where the tsar now preferred to live. The tsar gave the people the right to freedom of assembly and mutual assistance, the opportunity to organize leisure and self-education. Libraries and free lecture halls were organized at the offices of the "Assembly". The leadership of the "Assembly" successfully defended the rights of its members, canceled illegal fines and dismissal decisions. And the tsar categorically rejected the introduction of the constitution, but introduced the First State Duma in 1905, having the right to veto the laws it passed, and the tsar had the right to dissolve the State Duma in cases of its disobedience.

Chapter 21. The murder of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.

In early January 1905, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, popularly known as Prince Khodynsky, a member of the State Council, resigned as Governor-General of Moscow, but remained at the head of the district's troops, becoming Commander-in-chief of the Moscow Military District. To do this, the prince traveled to Tsarskoye Selo, met with the emperor, who appointed him Commander-in-Chief of Moscow, and received from Nicholas a breast portrait of Alexander III, which he has worn on his chest ever since.

And he returned to Moscow. He lived in Moscow with his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. On February 3, they had dinner together at home and talked. There was Tsarevich champagne on the table, Fireman's cutlets with baked potatoes, horseradish piglet, sturgeon caviar with pancakes, ice cream, chocolate, grapes and sweets. There was a samovar with tea in the center of the table. Sergei told his wife worriedly: "There is a revolutionary committee in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Filipov, the Head of the St. Petersburg Detective Police, told me about this. He said that riots were brewing in both capitals, and there could be a revolution. And so it happened on January 9, and it was with difficulty suppressed by the police and the military. But we must expect a continuation of the riot in Moscow." - "It's good that you are no longer the governor-general, you will no longer have to be responsible for the situation in Moscow," said his wife. Let's drink champagne to the Emperor, Sergei proposed a toast. The servant serving at the table opened a bottle, poured champagne into their glasses and moved aside, standing at a distance. They raised their glasses, clinked them together, and took a sip. The wife told her husband: "Everyone has their own children, but we don't have our own and we won't have any, your nephews are wonderful children whom we are raising, but I didn't give birth to them. I'm going to die an old maid without knowing what the joys of love and motherhood are.… I went to the church of the Ordination of the Sacrament in the afternoon, I prayed for your soul."