The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-22
FRED SUNDAY ANNIVERSARY
 NOT TO BE OBSERVED TODAY

This is the tenth anniversary of Russia's t.Red Sunday also called Bloody Sunday and .Black Sun day. but, according to Petrograd dispatches, the labor leaders decided soAne time ago not to call a strike or
 make demonstrations, as in past years. A year ago the twenty-second
 of January was looked forward to with some anxiety by the Czar's gov ernment, and police reserves were kept under arms all day, while strong patrols of Cossacks and dragoons
 were stationed in all sections of the capital. The leaders of the working
 mems organizations abandoned any
 militant plans they may have enter
 tained, and the Iaboring men remain
 ed at work and devoted the days
 wages to a fund for the relief of the
 unemployed.
 "Red Sunday" the anniversary of which has become Russia's labor
 day" was Jan. 22, 1905. A few days
 before the event which is commemo-
 rated, a salute was fired in honor of the Czar, and a shot narrowly miss
 ed the ruler. The authorities beliey ed that the striking workmen were
 responsible for this alleged attempt on the life of the Czar, and the gov
 ernment, headed by Prince Sviato- polk -Mirski, adopted severe repres- siVe measures. On Red Sunday a big deputation of strikers and their i families, led by Father Gapon, a priest1y fanatic, marched to the Win
 ter Palace with the intention of pre-
 senting to the Czar a petition asking for a redress of theiri grievances. The strikers were unarmed, and appar- =entIy peaceful, but they were shot down by Cossacks in a public square of the capital city. Hundreds Of peo- pie, including many women and chill | Til
 As result of Bloody Sunday" a reign of terror was inaugurated in Russia Mirski was dismissed from office and Gen. Trepov was made
 dictator. The whole country was I conyuIsed In the cities the work 1 ing men threatened revolution, and even in the rural districts the peas ants rose against their masters and attacked the mauorhouses- The Grand Duke Sergius, an uncle of the
 Czar, was murdered in Moscow, and many others fell victims to the ven l geance of the Nihilists-
 l The wiser men among the Elm peror's advisers realized the serious l ness of the situation, and many re-
 forms were effected or promised. The l censorship of the press was abandon cd and the Czar announced his will | ingness to call an elective assembly. An imperial decree calling for the es- l tab1ishment of Q consultative Duma
 was issued, Tropov was dismissed, and Count Witte was given the post 1 of prime minister. Another mani festo promised a wider franchise, 1 freedom of religion, speech, and as- l sociation, and other reforms which
 satisfied the conservative reformers.
 The Constitutional Democrats were
 dissatisfied with the proposals, how
 eyer, and again the government
 adopted a policy of savage repres- sion The reactionary Black Hun
 dreds'' received governmental en- l coura cement, but Witte finally quiet i ed the storm by promising something
 akin to universal suffrage. The re l formers had a vast majority in the first election, in 1906. but the Czar
 resisted the Dumas demand for con-
 trol over the executive and dissolved the parliament. Stolypin's brutal repressions and intimidations again
 ushered in a reign of terror and his ] assa assination in 1911, was the result. l Another reform period followed, but Russia was again rent by dissensions i when. the war. broke out and made the subjects of the Czaf, for the l time at least, a united people.