The Palace Square
The Palace Square was designed as the successor to Moscow's
great imperial squares, this vast formal court is best known as
the focal point of the great political struggles that transformed
Russia during the first decades of the twentieth century.
The first of these events was "Bloody Sunday," the
catastrophe that initiated the Revolution of 1905. On the morning
of Sunday, January 9, 1905, thousands of striking workers, including
their wives and children, marched into the square to present a
petition for relief to Nicholas II. They were met by soldiers,
who began firing on the crowd almost immediately, killing hundreds
(according to some accounts thousands) of the demonstrators. The
causes of the massacre are disputed, particularly in light of
the complicated political tensions in the government at the time.
Some historians, for example, argue that both the demonstration
and the military reaction were planned by the conservative secret
police, who were alarmed by signs that the Tsar had decided upon
reform. Whatever its cause, the effect of Bloody Sunday was clear-popular
opposition to the Tsar was galvanised, and conservative reactionaries
gained strength in the government. In the wake of Bloody Sunday
the country's politics became increasingly divisive, and genuine
compromise and reform unlikely. Civil unrest broke out all over
the country, and, with the disaster of the Russo-Japanese War,
the government was forced to accede to popular demands for reform.
It soon became clear, however, that Nicholas and his government
had no intention of making good on this agreement. Popular discontent
and radical political movements were harshly repressed. While
these policies were successful for a time, the government's inept
conduct during the First World War created an enormous surge of
dissent. The critical turning point came in February of 1917,
when the underfed, poorly led, and discontented army refused to
act to put down strikes in Moscow and St. Petersburg and called
for an end to the war. By March, Nicholas had no choice but to
abdicate.
A provisional government assumed control under the leadership
of the moderates, first Prince Lvov, then (in July) Aleksandr
Kerensky. From its seat in the Winter Palace, the Kerensky government
tried and failed to gain popular support and restore civil order.
Among the socialist anti-government parties, the radical Bolshevik
wing gradually gained strength among the increasingly impatient
army and workers. Within a few months the Bolsheviks decided to
assume power. On the night of October 26 they staged an armed
coup d'etat, storming across the Palace Square and seizing the
Provisional Government as it met within the Winter Palace. Although
the storming of the Winter Palace was by no means the massive
popular uprising that it was to become in the Bolshevik commemorations
and in Sergei Eisenstein's film October, it was certainly the
moment of symbolic birth of the Soviet state, which went under
in 1990 and Russia was beginning to breathe again.
