Palace Square - January 9, 1905

Medvedev had been at the square for hours. He had watched as small numbers of people had arrived. These little groups of people were not what he had expected. However as the morning and afternoon progressed the cumulative effect could be seen. Thousands had gathered. And many more had to be on the way.

Medvedev spent his time talking to as many people as he could. He was slightly alarmed at the sight of heavy weapons being positioned by various soldiers. Were the soldiers expecting an army to attack? He was able to talk to a member of the Preobrazhensky regiment.

“Why are you setting up such artillery pieces?”

“This is just standard operating procedure.”

“I have never seen it before.”

“How many times have you seen a gathering like this before.”

“I never have.”

“The winter palace must be protected against any possibility.”

“Do you expect to use them today?”

“Of course not.”

“Do you expect violence today?”

“If we are ordered to disperse the crowd we will disperse the crowd. How violent that becomes is up to the crowd. Now if you will excuse me I must get back to my duties.”

Medvedev next meet with a group of marchers.

“Why are you here today?”

“To see the Tzar when he frees his people from the corrupt factory owners and ministers.”

“You think he will do that?”

“Of course he will. His ministers hide everything from him. But once he sees our plight he will fix everything.”

“Why should he care about you?”

“How can you be here right now and ask that question? He is our sovereign. The greater our lives become the greater his stature grows. By raising us up he becomes ruler of a greater nation.”

“Aren’t you scared of violence?”

“Not here, not now. We made it past the soldiers. They were the ones who might have been controlled by the ministers.”

“But there are soldiers here now.”

“These are the Tzar’s personal soldiers. They will do as he says. So we are safe now.”

Medvedev didn’t understand how they could make the distinction between soldiers, but everyone in the group seemed to agree with the sentiment. Not finding much else to say Medvedev drifted away to find others to talk to.

About this time Vostokov arrived at the square. He was soon followed by those who had survived violent clashes with the army earlier in the day.

Medvedev was struck by the sights of men arriving with bloodstained and tattered clothes and cuts and bruises on faces. He talked to as many as he could. His conclusion was that the soldiers had acted brutally. Yet these men had persisted in a vain hope that the Tzar would hear their pleas. These workers were resting all of their hopes on an autocrat who enthusiastically defended autocracy. As two o’clock approached he wondered if the workers should have known that they were going to be unsuccessful.

Vostokov was enraged as he saw people with injuries or covered in the blood of their comrades arriving at the square. He could stay silent no longer.

“Comrades it is time to fly the red flags!” He shouted.

“Silence, we are not here for that.”

“No, the Tzar will hear our petition.”

“We are not trouble makers.”

Speak like that and we will kick you out of here.”

“Look at what they have done to us today.” Vostokov continued.

“It will be different now. We are at the palace. The Tzar will see us soon.”

Vostokov could see he was not going to make any progress so he decided he would take out his frustration by hurling insults at the soldiers.

He moved as close as he could and he began shouting. “You should be ashamed of yourselves. Look at what you cowards have done. You do not serve Russia, you condemn it. These workers seek to petition the Tzar to make this country better. What do you do, you kill them. Why? Do you not want your wives, sisters, mothers, and brothers to have better lives? What is wrong with you? You are parasites! You bring shame upon yourselves.”

Vostokov continued to move around the square and he continued to repeat his diatribe. As he was moving towards a new set of soldiers he heard the bells tolling. It was two o’clock. The hour had arrived. Silence fell over the crowd.

No one spoke, no one moved. Everyone and everything stopped to listen to the bells ring once and then twice. Father Gapon should appear with his delegation of marchers. Then the Tzar should appear and receive the petition and everyone would rejoice.

Instead silence hung in the air as the crowd looked back to see if Gapon was on the way. Then they would look to the palace to see if the Tzar would appear. It didn’t take long to realize that neither event was going to occur.

Within minutes orders were given to clear the streets. The soldiers snapped into action.

“Disperse now or we will be forced to physically remove you.”

“We will not go!”

The cavalry charged the workers with whips and sabres drawn. The crowd would part and then reform as the cavalry returned to its starting point.

“Prepare to fire!”

Several people on the front row removed their caps and fell to their knees.

“Shoot us then! We will not leave!”

“We will die here free men!”

“Fire!”

Two quick volleys were fired into the crowd and those who didn’t fall dead or wounded quickly retreated. The marchers throughout the city had been dispersed and hundreds were dead and many more were wounded.

Vostokov watched people around him fall. They had been hit by the volley of gunfire that should have hit him. He had been the most vocal opponent of the regime at the square. If he had been a soldier he would’ve made sure to target himself. And yet he watched those around him die while he went unscathed. Twice he had defied death. His revolutionary zeal had been rewarded.

In a rage he abandoned the Palace. He quickly fell in with a group of young men intent on making mischief.

“You look like you could use a rock or two.” One of the men said to Vostokov.

Taking the rock and hurling it through the nearest shop window Vostokov said “I would burn the whole city to the ground if I could.”

“We only have rocks and our fists.”

“We will do just fine with those.” Vostokov said as he broke another window.

Before long they broke into a liquor store and didn’t throw another stone that day.

Medvedev had ducked down as soon as the shooting started. Once the shooting was over he stood and instead of running away with the rest of the crowd he went closer to the soldiers, looking to help those who were wounded.

He was surprised by his actions. He always figured he would have run away in a situation like this. Instead he went to help those who he had always considered inferior to him.

He found a man, who appeared to be in his sixties, who had a cut across his chin, looking very disoriented. As he approached he could hear the man wheezing.

“What happened here? What happened here? What happened here?” The man was muttering to himself as he sat on the ground.

“Sir, can I help you?” Medvedev asked.

“I can’t breathe. It hurts so bad.” The man said.

“Where does it hurt?”

“They shot at us. Why did they do that?”

“Did you get shot?”

“No, I… I…. I … No.”

“It’s ok. Can you take a deep breath. What is your name?”

“Sobchek.”

“Mr. Sobchek I am going to help you out of here.”

“They shot at us and then I fell. People stepped on me.”

“It is over now. Can I help you up.”

“Yes, yes. Soon. My ribs they hurt so bad.”

“It’s ok. Take another moment.”

Medvedev wanted to let this man take as long as he wanted but he was keeping an eye on the soldiers. They had started pulling the dead from the square. Medvedev didn’t want to think about what might happen to the bodies. Most likely they would be buried in a mass grave possibly outside of the city.

“Sobchek let me help you to your feet. I don’t want these men to cause you any further trouble.”

“Ok. Pull me up.”

Sobchek grimaced in pain as Medvedev helped him to his feet. Then Medvedev helped him take his first steps away from the palace.

“Why are you helping me, don’t you fear the soldiers and what they might do to you?”

“I have recently learned that you have to lose yourself in service to others to find yourself.”

“So you are a religious man?”

“The farthest thing from it. I was a vain man. I indulged in hedonic pleasure. But in the hailstorm of bullets and tribulations I see that my shortcomings are due to my selfish indulgences.”

“So out of crisis you have reformed?”

“It is too soon to know if this is a permanent change.”

“If you want it to be it will.”

“Undoubtedly. And what about you?”

“I am an old man. I only want to see my grandchildren have a better life than I did. But that is no longer possible.”

“Why is that?”

“Innocent blood was shed. That can only lead to more death.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way.”

“It will be the only way. The Tzar started a war with his people and it can only end once he is dead.”

“And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another.” Medvedev said.

“Yes, we must kill each other now. It is the only way.”

“I wish it didn’t have to be that way.”

“It is the only way.”

“Can it be avoided?”

“As long as men seek to hold power over one another war is inevitable.”

“Are we at war now?”

Yes, the tzar has made all men except the rich his mortal enemies.”

The Streets of Saint Petersburg - Sunday January 9, 1905

Ivan Novikov was busy. Chairs, desks, mattresses, anything that could be used to build a barricade, were at the top of his to find list. Work had to be done.

After returning to the Basil Island Branch and waiting for new instructions for a couple of hours Novikov was ready to leave. If his father hadn’t kicked him out last night he would have gone home. Since he had no where to go he stayed.

He was glad he did. Workers started arriving with news from across the city. The army had killed hundreds of marchers.

“We cannot allow this. We must act. This is our city.”

“The soldiers will come here.”

“And we will fight them.”

“How?”

“There is shop with guns and swords just down the road. Break in and take anything that will help us.”

“What about the rest of us?”

“Comrades we build a barricade. We establish our rights and win our freedoms in the street.”

“Yes!” Came the roar from the crowd.

“The Tzar has shown his depravity. His unjust use of power disqualifies him from ruling over us. Now we fight to depose him. Build the barricade. We must be strong when his evil horde arrives.”

“To the Barricade!” The crowd roared.

From that moment Novikov had been collecting anything that could be heaped into a pile. The end result was impressive. The makeshift barricade stood at about 9 feet in height.

Unfortunately the quest for weapons had not been very successful. At best there were a handful of swords. They did have plenty of rocks and stones. This reality made it clear to all that they could never actually challenge the army sufficiently. Still Novikov felt great. They were going to fight. He had a stack of rocks that could be used as projectiles.

Time continued to pass and no army materialized. The energetic defiance of the workers was waning. If no army showed up soon many would start to slip away from a non existent enemy.

Novikov heard them before he saw them. Finally a detachment of soldiers had found the barricade.

Compared to the brutality of the day, these soldiers were remarkably restrained. The workers and students who had built the barricade threw a round of stones at the soldiers as they approached and then drifted back.

Novikov realized there was no resistance here. Everyone was going to run. The barricade could not stand. There was no fight in the workers. Faced with this reality Novikov drifted away with everyone else and the barricade was quickly destroyed by the soldiers.