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Old March 21st, 2015 #1
Karl Radl
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Default Father Georgiy Gapon and the Jewish Origins of Russia's Bloody Sunday

Father Georgiy Gapon and the Jewish Origins of Russia's Bloody Sunday


The events of Sunday 22nd January 1905 ('Bloody Sunday') where 150,000 loyal Russian workers and urban poor marched to the Tsar's Winter Palace in order to highlight their brutal exploitation by capitalist 'entrepreneurs' and were then met in the streets by some 12,000 Tsarist troops resulting in 200 of the marchers being killed and another 800 wounded. (1) The backlash from this massacre was the immediate spark that caused the 1905 revolution in Russia and the precursor to the February (i.e. the Cadet [the liberal party]) and the October (i.e. the Bolshevik) revolutions of 1917. (2)

Perhaps most poignantly this massacre radicalized the hitherto loyal Russian workers (3) and it was also first time that a new stratagem for getting grievances addressed was used (and able to be practiced) in Russia: a nation-wide general strike. Some 3,000,000 Russian workers took part (4) and this was so effective that Russia became simply ungovernable as a result. (5)

The consequence of this new spirit of revolutionary militancy (and it should also be noted that the events of Bloody Sunday also caused many workers to completely lose their faith in Christianity) (6) was the rise of several revolutionaries to positions of leadership among the angry workers. The most important of these was the infamous Leon Trotksy (7) and without the events of Bloody Sunday and the resultant 1905 revolution. There would in all likelihood not been a Bolshevik revolution and even if there had been. There would have been no Trotsky to facilitate the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people across the Russia and Central Europe in the name of 'class war' and 'revolution'.

Thus is important for us to look into the events surrounding 'Bloody Sunday' in a bit more detail.

The man who lead the marchers that day was an Orthodox priest of Ukrainian origin (8) named Father Georgiy Gapon. Gapon has been labelled an 'adventurer' by Riasanovsky (9) and referred to by Figes as being extremely ignorant (of both political theory and Christian theology) and a bit of an evangelical huckster. (10)

This is supported by the fact that Gapon believed that God had put him 'at the centre of events' (11), which suggests extreme personal egotism on his part, as well as his formal theological education being at best sparse. (12) What political education he had was received second hand through his father's 'peasant socialism' (13) and by the graces of a young lady (from a wealthy family and whom subsequently became Gapon's wife) who had become infatuated with Social-Revolutionary ideas (14) (which incidentally were disproportionately created and propagated by jewish intellectuals at the time). (15)

We also find evidence for the idea that Gapon's appeal was more emotional than intellectual in his own contention that other priests (who had complained about him stealing their congregation) were jealous because he was a better orator than they were. (16) Further Gapon even describes the oratorial tricks he used to get the people 'in the spirit' in his autobiography, (17) while Figes reproduces examples of the sort of things he said to whip up the fervor of the people to fever pitch. (18)

This critical view of Gapon is further endorsed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's official biography of him, (19) which asserts that Gapon was all but unfrocked (which is also mentioned by Figes) (20) due both to doctrinal concerns in regards to his views (i.e. they probably heretical) as well as his inappropriate behaviour towards women. The concrete theological objection to Gapon from the Orthodox Church was that, after the death of his wife, he was living with another woman and in a sexual relationship with her without being married. (21)

Further to this the official biography charges that Gapon was the subject of complaints in regards to his inappropriate conduct towards the pupils at a local school for young girls at which he taught. (22) This is supported by noting that in his autobiography Gapon shows an intense and quite inappropriate interest in very young girls at not infrequent intervals.

For example he focuses in on the young girls in the crowd listening to his speeches, (23) obsesses about a young girl he saw while on holiday in Yalta, (24) recounts with evident joy the visits of young local girls to a monastery he was visiting to have sex with the monks (and presumably Gapon as well), (25) fixates on young girls being strip-searched in public after finishing work at a factory (26) and spends a significant amount of time describing the beauty of a revolutionary associate's young mistress. (27)

All this somewhat punctures the notion of the idealistic Gapon and refocuses our vision on the man that Gapon was; an ignorant charismatic egotistical sexual predator.

When Gapon was a student at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy; he often preached in districts primarily inhabited by the industrial workers and the urban poor. (28) It was this and his evident charisma (which enabled him then, as well as later, to smooth over personal and political differences between his followers) (29) that made him attractive to Serge Zubatov; the head of the Moscow section of the Okhrana.

Zubatov's plan was to use Gapon to create a pro-Tsar union of Russian workers (i.e. what was called a police union) in order to infiltrate the labour movement and move its legitimate grievances into more productive official channels and away from revolutionary fervour. (30)

Chamberlain maintained some years later that this was a genuine attempt by Zubatov to address the concerns of the industrial workers and urban poor. (31) I am inclined to agree with this given that Zubatov was himself a reformed Decemberist radical who still felt a deep concern for the people, but had become dissatisfied with the ideas and methods of the revolutionary movement. (32)

Zubatov's plan was not without precedent as he had successfully set up police unions in Moscow (with the blessing of the governor-general of Moscow; Grand Duke Sergei) and had been able to undermine revolutionary agitation and by separating otherwise loyal workers with legitimate grievances from revolutionary ideologues. (33)

Unfortunately for Zubatov however his police unions were not directly under his control (but rather control by proxy) and they joined several strikes (such as that in Odessa in July 1903). This undermined official confidence in Zubatov and he was dismissed and pensioned off. (34)

Interestingly Gapon's organization, the 'Assembly of Russian Factory and Mill Workers' (originally the 'Assembly of Russian Factory Workers'), took on a life of its own as its membership began to rapidly swell. (35) When Zubatov was dismissed it substantially benefited Gapon as Zubatov's followers and agents immediately joined up with his movement; (36) although this made more sense of when we note that Gapon was still taking the Imperial government's money to support his activities at this point. (37)

It was around this time that Gapon began admitting jews into his movement (38) in addition to the fact that he also had many 'former' Marxists as his aides. (39) Considering his close friendship with mid-level Social-Revolutionary jewish leaders like Pinhas Rutenberg and the close relationship between jews and Marxist activity in the Russian Empire at the time. (40) It is reasonable to suppose that a significant number of Gapon's aides (acknowledged or not) were of jewish origin.

It was these aides, as well as pressure from revolutionaries lower in the union's hierarchy, (41) who were pushing Gapon and his union towards a more radical and revolutionary direction. This in turn lead Gapon, combined with his highly egotistical personality and the veritable messiah complex that he had developed about himself (he was now referring to himself as the 'representative of the workmen'), (42) to become increasingly strident and radical in his demands as well as more and more openly anti-Tsarist. (43)

This radicalization was also assisted by Gapon's contacts outside of his union among Russia's radical/liberal intellectuals who goaded him on in his activities. (44)

The tipping point for Gapon was in December 1904 when several of his organizers at the massive Putilov works were summarily dismissed with little reason given and (after meeting with the aggrieved workers) (45) he interpreted it as an attempt to muzzle him and his increasingly radical union. (46)

After a general strike at the works failed to force the Imperial authorities to fold. (47) Gapon organized a mass march of his followers on the Winter Palace to deliver a petition proposing a constitutional monarchy and large array of other revolutionary changes in Russia written for him by the radical intellectuals he was associated with. (48)

The march began on the morning of Sunday 22nd January and, contrary to the myth propounded by jewish Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein, the marchers did not carry red flags or carry portaits of Karl Marx. (49) Instead they sang hymns (50) and carried Orthodox crosses. (51)

Gapon was, contrary to popular history, at this point becoming increasing radical and delivered the following speech to his followers when he met lines of police and soldiers outside of the Winter Palace (under the command of the Tsar's uncle Grand Duke Vladimir), (52) which is quoted by Figes as follows:

'Gapon: Do the police and the soldiers dare stop us from passing, comrades?

Hundreds of voices in unison: They do not dare.

Gapon: Comrades, it is better for us to die for our demands than live as we have lived until now.

Voices: We will die.

Gapon: Do you swear to die?

Voices: We swear!

Gapon: Let the ones who swear raise their hands...' (53)

We can see that in this speech the fact that Gapon was whipping his followers up in a typical hysterical religious way (54) to what clearly could be easily interpreted as a prelude to the storming of the Tsar's palace. The fact that many of his followers expected that they might well die participating in the march (55) and that Gapon had deliberately spread the rumour that they would be invited inside the Winter Palace for refreshments when they arrived (56) confirms this interpretation.

In other words Gapon had deliberately created a situation where he was inciting a crowd of 150,000 Russian industrial workers and urban poor to prefer death to not having their (revolutionary) (57) demands met. With lines of soldiers and police already fearing revolution in front of them; it was a toxic situation and Gapon and his jewish aides had created it almost by design.

To be fair to the Tsarist troops; they did order Gapon's follows to disperse and had fired two salvos into the air to demonstrate the point. Before they aimed their next salvo at the marchers whose only crime was honesty and a desire to for a better future for themselves and their children. (58) The brutal tactics used by the Tsar's troops on their own people were inexcusable of course, but it should be remembered that Gapon had effectively publicly called for a huge crowd to storm the Winter Palace and bring down the Tsarist government in front of 12,000 troops just outside the palace itself.

While we can deplore the conduct of the troops; there is good reason to see it as a logical response to what they believed was about to happen (a Bolshevik style storming of the palace). The real responsibility for the deaths and the resulting revolution lies with Gapon and his (often jewish) aides. Gapon's real thoughts (despite his superficial professions of loyalty to the Tsar) were demonstrated after the massacre when in an open letter he advocated the wholesale overthrown of the Tsarist system (as well as the murder of all of the Imperial family) (59) and wrote:

'Tear up all portraits of the blood-sucking Tsar and say to him: Be Thou damned with all Thine August Reptilian Progeny.' (60)

One rather thinks that this was Gapon's secret attitude all along and his intention of the march (which fits with his messianic 'death or glory' revolutionary rhetoric at exactly the wrong time) was to storm the Winter Palace (hence the reason Gapon spread the rumour about refreshments being made available to them once they got there) and overthrow the monarchy.

It is an irony of history that Gapon himself was an extreme philo-Semite who denounced the official and popular negative view of jews. Instead Gapon considered any attacks on jews 'indefensible' (61) and wanted to 'liberate' the jews from 'oppression' around the world. (62)

However when you consider that forty percent of the jewish population in the Russian Empire in 1897 were part of that same mercantile/capitalist class (63) who were fundamentally responsible for the plight and systematic exploitation of the very workers that Gapon seduced into his egotistical bid for revolution in Russia.

Then the irony (and tragedy) of Bloody Sunday is thrown into sharp relief; 150,000 Russian men, women and children were being used as a revolutionary battering ram by Gapon and his (often jewish) aides and friends to bring down the Tsarist order that was preventing the same people (the jews) from exploiting them even more.


References


(1) http://www.historytoday.com/richard-...-st-petersburg
(2) Nicholas Riasanovsky, 1993, 'A History of Russia', 5th Edition, Oxford University Press: New York, p.407
(3) Ibid.
(4) William Henry Chamberlain, 1987, [1935], 'The Russian Revolution', Vol. 1., 1st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, p. 49
(5) Robert Service, 2003, 'A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Putin', 2nd Edition, Penguin: New York, pp. 13-14
(6) Riasanovsky, Op. Cit., p. 407
(7) Cf. Robert Service, 2009, 'Trotsky: A Biography', 1st Edition, MacMillan: Basingstoke, pp. 86-95
(8) Georgiy Gapon, 1906, 'The Story of My Life', 1st Edition, E.P. Dutton: New York, p. 7
(9) Riasanovsky, Op. Cit., p. 407
(10) Orlando Figes, 1997, 'A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924', 1st Edition, Pimlico: London, p. 175
(11) Gapon, Op. Cit., p. 5
(12) Ibid, pp. 17; 29-30; 43
(13) Ibid, pp. 7-9
(14) Ibid, p. 22
(15) Erich Haberer, 1995, 'Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth Century Russia', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. 272; Bernard Wasserstein, 2012, 'On the Eve: The Jews of Europe before the Second World War', 1st Edition, Profile: London, p. 61
(16) Gapon, Op. Cit., p. 26
(17) Ibid, pp. 152-153
(18) Figes, Op. Cit, p. 176
(19) http://pravoslavye.org.ua/index.php?..._type=&id=5986
(20) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 65
(21) http://pravoslavye.org.ua/index.php?..._type=&id=5986
(22) Ibid.
(23) Gapon, Op. Cit., p. 46
(24) Ibid, p. 52
(25) Ibid.
(26) Ibid, p. 141
(27) Ibid, pp. 88-89
(28) Ibid, pp. 58-65; Figes, Op. Cit., p. 174
(29) Reginald Zelnik, 1997, 'Revolutionary Russia, 1890-1914', p. 214 in Gregory Freeze (Ed.), 1997, 'A History of Russia', 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York
(30) Riasanovsky, Op. Cit., p. 407; Service, 'History', Op. Cit., p. 13; Robert Service, 2000, 'Lenin: A Biography', 1st Edition, MacMillan: Basingstoke, p. 167
(31) Chamberlain, Vol. 1, Op. Cit., p. 48
(32) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 174
(33) Ibid.
(34) Ibid.
(35) Zelnik, Op. Cit., p. 214
(36) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 174
(37) Gapon, Op. Cit., p. 125
(38) Ibid, p. 132
(39) Zelnik, Op. Cit., p. 214
(40) Cf. Haberer, Op. Cit.; Wasserstein, Op. Cit., p. 61
(41) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 175
(42) Gapon, Op. Cit., pp. 5; 163-164
(43) Service, 'Lenin', Op. Cit., p. 167
(44) Chamberlain, Vol. 1, Op. Cit., p. 48
(45) Gapon, Op. Cit., pp. 148-149
(46) Zelnik, Op. Cit., p. 214
(47) Ibid.
(48) Chamberlain, Vol. 1, Op. Cit., p. 48
(49) Zelnik, Op. Cit., p. 215
(50) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 173
(51) Zelnik, Op. Cit., p. 215; Gapon, Op. Cit., pp. 178-179
(52) Chamberlain, Vol. 1, Op. Cit., p. 49
(53) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 176
(54) Cf. Gapon, Op. Cit., pp. 152-153
(55) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 173
(56) Ibid, p. 176
(57) Ibid, p. 175
(58) Ibid, p. 176
(59) Service, 'Lenin', Op. Cit., p. 173
(60) Figes, Op. Cit., p. 178
(61) Gapon, Op. Cit., pp. 115-116
(62) Ibid, pp. 250-252
(63) Wasserstein, Op. Cit., p. 19

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This was originally published at the following address: http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot...h-origins.html
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