Russian revolution

The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some wasundirected. It included terrorism, worker strikes, peasant unrest, and militarymutinies. It led to the establishment of limited constitutional monarchy, the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the multi-partysystem, and the Russian Constitution of 1906. Start of the revolution
In December 1904, a strike occurred at the Putilov plant (a railway and artillery supplier) in Saint Petersburg. Sympathy strikesin other parts of the city raised the number of strikers to over 80,000. Controversial Orthodox priest George Gapon, who headed a police-sponsored workers' association, led a huge workers' processionto the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to the Tsar on Sunday, 22 January [O.S. 9 January] 1905. The troops guarding the Winter Palace who had been ordered to tell the demonstrators not to pass acertain point, according to Sergei Witte, opened fire on them, which resulted in more than 200 (according to Witte) to 1000 deaths. The event became known as Bloody Sunday, and is usually consideredthe start of the active phase of the revolution.
The events in Saint Petersburg provoked public indignation and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly throughout the industrial centres of theRussian Empire. Polish socialists — both the PPSand the SDKPiL — called for a general strike. By the end of January 1905, over 400,000 workers in Russian Poland were on strike (see Revolution in theKingdom of Poland (1905–1907)). There were also strikes in Finland and the Baltic coast. In Riga, 80 protesters were killed on 26 January [O.S. 13 January] 1905, and in Warsaw a few days later over100 strikers were shot on the streets. By February, there were strikes in the Caucasus, and by April, in the Urals and beyond. In March, all higher academic institutions were forcibly closed for the...