Georgy Gapon - a priest, politician, organizer of the procession, which ended with the mass executions of workers who went down in history under the name "Bloody Sunday". It is impossible to say unequivocally about who this person really was - a provocateur, double agent or sincere revolutionary. In the biography of priest Gapon there are many conflicting facts.
Son of a peasant
He came from a wealthy peasant family. George Gapon was born in 1870 in the Poltava province. Perhaps his ancestors were Zaporozhye Cossacks. At least this is the Gapon family tradition. The surname itself comes from the name Agafon.
In the early years, the future priest helped parents: herding calves, sheep, pigs. From childhood he was very religious, he loved to listen to stories about saints who could work miracles. After graduating from a village school, George, on the advice of a local priest, entered a religious school. Here he became one of the best students. However, the disciplines that were part of the program were clearly not enough for him.
Tolstovets
At the school, the future priest Gapon met with the anti-militarist Ivan Tregubov, who infected him with love for forbidden literature, namely, the books of Leo Tolstoy.
After graduating from college, George entered the theological seminary. Now he openly expressed Tolstoy's ideas, which led to a conflict with teachers. He was expelled shortly before graduation. After graduating from seminary, he worked part-time in private lessons.
Clergyman
Gapon in 1894 married the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Shortly after marriage, he decided to take the clergyhip, and this idea was approved by Bishop Hilarion. In 1894, Gapon became a deacon. In the same year, he received the post of priest of a church in one of the villages of the Poltava province, in which there were very few parishioners. Here revealed the true talent of George Gapon.
The priest read sermons, on which many people flocked. He instantly gained popularity not only in his village, but also in neighboring ones. He did not engage in idle talk. The priest Gapon coordinated his life with Christian teaching - he helped the poor, made spiritual demands free of charge.
Popularity among the parishioners aroused the envy of priests from neighboring churches. They accused Gapon of abducting the flock. He them - in hypocrisy and pharisaism.
St. Petersburg
In 1898, the wife of Gapon died. The priest left the children with relatives, he himself left for St. Petersburg to enter the theological academy. And this time, Bishop Hilarion helped him . But after studying for two years, Gapon realized that the knowledge he received at the academy did not provide answers to the main questions. Then he dreamed of serving the people.
Gapon abandoned his studies, went to the Crimea, pondered for a long time about whether to leave as a monk. However, during this period he met with the artist and writers Vasily Vereshchagin, who advised him to work for the good of the people and throw off the cassock.
Social work
Gapon did not drop the priest’s robe. The priesthood did not interfere with social activities, which he began upon his return to St. Petersburg. He began to participate in various charity events, preached a lot. His listeners were workers, whose situation at the beginning of the 20th century remained very difficult. These were representatives of the most vulnerable social stratum: work 11 hours a day, overtime, meager salaries, inability to express their opinions.
Rallies, demonstrations, protests - all this was prohibited by law. And suddenly the priest Gapon appeared, who read simple understandable sermons, penetrating directly into the heart. Many people were going to listen to him. The number of people in the church sometimes reached two thousand.
Workers' organizations
The priest Gapon was related to the Zubat organizations. What kind of associations are these? At the end of the 19th century, workers organizations were established in Russia under the control of the police. Thus, the prevention of revolutionary sentiments was carried out.
Sergey Zubatov was an official of the police department. While he controlled the labor movement, Gapon was limited in actions, he could not freely express his ideas. But after Zubatov was removed from his post, the priest began a double game. From now on, no one controlled it.
He provided the police with information according to which, among the workers, there was no hint of revolutionary sentiment. He himself preached sermons in which notes of protest against officials and manufacturers were heard louder. This went on for several years. Up until 1905.
George Gapon possessed a rare talent as a speaker. The workers not only believed him - they saw in him almost a messiah that could make them happy. He helped those in need with money that he could not get from officials and manufacturers. Gapon was able to inspire confidence in any person - and the worker, and the police, and the owner of the plant.
The priest spoke with representatives of the proletariat in their language. Sometimes his speeches, contemporaries claimed, caused workers a state of almost mystical ecstasy. Even in a brief biography of priest Gapon, the events of January 9, 1905 are mentioned. What preceded a peaceful rally that ended with bloodshed?
Petition
On January 6, George Gapon delivered a fiery speech to the workers . He said that between the worker and the king were officials, manufacturers and other bloodsuckers. He called to appeal directly to the ruler.
Priest Gapon composed a petition in an eloquent church style. On behalf of the people, he turned to the king with a request to help, namely to approve the so-called program of five. He called for the people to be led out of poverty, ignorance, and oppression of officials. The petition ended with the words "let our life become a victim for Russia." This phrase suggests that Gapon understood how the procession to the royal palace could end. In addition, if in the speech that the priest read on January 6, there was a hope that the ruler would hear the prayers of the workers, then two days later he and his associates did not believe much in this. Increasingly, he began to utter the phrase: "If he does not sign the petition, then we no longer have a king."
Priest Gapon and Bloody Sunday
On the eve of the procession, the king received a letter from the organizer of the upcoming procession. He reacted to this message with an order to arrest Gapon, which was not so easy to do. Almost round the clock the priest was surrounded by fanatically devoted workers. In order to detain him, it was necessary to sacrifice at least ten police officers.
Of course, Gapon was not the only organizer of this event. Historians believe that this was a carefully planned action. But it was Gapon who made the petition. It was he who led several hundred workers on January 9 to Palace Square, realizing that the procession would end in bloodshed. At the same time, he called for taking wives and children with him.
About 140 thousand people took part in this peaceful rally. The workers were unarmed, but an army was waiting for them at the Palace Square, which opened fire. Nicholas II did not even think of considering the petition. Moreover, that day he was in Tsarskoye Selo.
On January 9, several hundred thousand people died. The authority of the king was finally undermined. The people could forgive him a lot, but not the massacre of the unarmed. In addition, among the dead on Bloody Sunday were women and children.
Gapon was injured. After the dispersal of the march, several workers and Social Revolutionary Rutenberg took him to his apartment to Maxim Gorky.
Life abroad
After the shooting of the demonstration, priest Gapon threw off his cassock, shaved off his beard and left for Geneva - the center of the Russian revolutionaries of that time. By that time, all of Europe knew about the organizer of the procession to the king. Both the Social Democrats and the Socialist-Revolutionaries dreamed of having a person in their ranks who could lead the labor movement. In the ability to influence the crowd he had no equal.
In Switzerland, George Gapon met with revolutionaries, representatives of various parties. But he was in no hurry to become a member of one of the organizations. The leader of the labor movement believed that a revolution should take place in Russia, but only he can become its organizer. According to contemporaries, this was a person with a rare pride, energy and self-confidence.
Abroad, Gapon met with Vladimir Lenin. He was a man closely associated with the working masses, and therefore the future leader carefully prepared for a conversation with him. In May 1905, Gapon nevertheless joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party. However, he was not included in the central committee and was not dedicated to conspiratorial affairs. This outraged the former priest, and he broke with the Social Revolutionaries.
Murder
In early 1906, Gapon returned to St. Petersburg. By that time, the events of the First Russian Revolution were already in full swing, and he played an important role in this. However, the leader of the revolutionary priest was killed on March 28. Information about his death appeared in newspapers only in mid-April. His body was found in a country house owned by the Social Revolutionary Peter Rutenberg. He was the killer of the leader of the St. Petersburg workers.
Portrait of the priest Gapon
In the photo above you can see the man who organized the procession of workers on January 9, 1905. Portrait of Gapon, compiled by contemporaries: a handsome man of short stature, looks like a gypsy or a Jew. He had a bright, memorable appearance. But most importantly, the priest Gapon had an extraordinary charm, the ability to enter into trust in a stranger, to find a common language with everyone.
Rutenberg admitted to killing Gapon. He explained his deed by the venality and betrayal of a former priest. However, there is a version that the accusation of Gapon in a double game was framed by Yevno Azef, a police officer and one of the Social Revolutionary leaders. It was this man who in reality was a provocateur and a traitor.