ON 22 JANUARY 1905 , tsarist forces violently disrupt a peaceful protest march in St Petersburg, Russia. The protestors were members of the St Petersburg Assembly of Russian Factory and Mill Workers, founded, in 1903, by the Orthodox priest Georgy Apollonovich Gapon.
The Assembly was the latest in a series of “police unions,” labour organisations started by tsarist authorities as counterweights to the unionisation efforts of growing revolutionary parties. These organisations, controlled by police agents, sought to meet some of the economic and cultural needs of the workers while encouraging their inherent social conservatism. Gapon sought to avoid embroiling his Assembly in industrial disputes, instead organising dances, concerts and lectures, and using his status as a priest to lobby the state. In 1904, the interior ministry officially recognised the Assembly.…