Among such unions was the Gathering of Industrial Working-men of St. Petersburg, which had for its program such innocent and non-revolutionary objects as “sober and reasonable pastimes, aimed at physical, intellectual, and moral improvement; strengthening of Russian national ideas; development of sensible views concerning the rights and duties of working-men and improvement of labor conditions and mutual assistance.”  It was founded by Father Gapon, who was opposed to the revolutionary movement, and was regarded by the Socialists as a Czarist tool.

On January 3d—­Russian calendar—­several thousand men belonging to the Gathering of Industrial Workin-gmen of St. Petersburg went out on strike.  By the 6th the strike had assumed the dimensions of a general strike.  It was estimated that on the latter date fully one hundred and forty thousand men were out on strike, practically paralyzing the industrial life of the city.  At meetings of the strikers speeches were made which had as much to do with the political demands for constitutional government as with the original grievances of the strikers.  The strike was fast becoming a revolution.  On the 9th Father Gapon led the hosts to the Winter Palace, to present a petition to the Czar asking for reforms.  The text of the petition was widely circulated beforehand.  It begged the Czar to order immediately “that representatives of all the Russian land, of all classes and groups, convene.”  It outlined a moderate program which had the support of almost the entire nation with the exception of the bureaucracy: 

Let every one be equal and free in the right of election; order to this end that election for the Constituent Assembly be based on general, equal, direct, and secret suffrage.  This is our main request; in it and upon it everything is founded; this is the only ointment for our painful wounds; and in the absence of this our blood will continue to flow constantly, carrying us swiftly toward death.

    But this measure alone cannot remedy all our wounds.  Many others
    are necessary, and we tell them to you, Sire, directly and openly,
    as to our Father.  We need: 

    I.  Measures to counteract the ignorance and legal oppression of
    the Russian people: 

    (1) Personal freedom and inviolability, freedom of speech and the
    press, freedom of assemblage, freedom in religious affairs;

    (2) General and compulsory public education at the expense of the
    state;

    (3) Responsibility of the Ministers to the people, and guaranties
    of lawfulness in administration;

    (4) Equality before the law for all without exemption;

    (5) Immediate rehabilitation of those punished for their
    convictions.

    (6) Separation of the Church from the state.

    II.  Measures against the poverty of the people: