Bloody Sunday ( 1905 ) Bloody Sunday ( ) was the name that came to be given to the events of in St Petersburg , Russia , where unarmed demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard when approaching the city center and the Winter Palace from several gathering points . The shooting did not occur in the Palace Square . Bloody Sunday was an event with grave consequences for the Tsarist regime , as the disregard for ordinary people shown by the reaction of the authorities undermined support for the state . The events which occurred on this Sunday have been assessed by historians , including Lionel Kochan in his book " Russia in Revolution 1890 - 1918 " , to be one of the key events which led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 . Prelude . The previous December in 1904 , a strike occurred at the Putilov plant , which filled military orders during the Russo - Japanese War . Sympathy strikes in other parts of the city raised the number of strikers above 800 , 000 . By , the city had no electricity and no newspapers whatsoever . All public areas were declared closed . Father Gapon , a Russian priest who was concerned about the conditions experienced by the working and lower classes , organized a peaceful " workers ' procession " to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to the Tsar that Sunday stating reforms they had desperately wanted . The petition , written by Gapon , made clear the problems and opinions of the workers and called for improved working conditions , fairer wages , and a reduction in the working day to eight hours . Other demands included an end to the Russo - Japanese War and the introduction of universal suffrage . Troops had been deployed around the Winter Palace and at other key points . Despite the urging of various members of the imperial family to stay in St . Petersburg , the tsar heeded the advice of his ministers and left on January 8 for Tsarskoye Selo . Shootings . On Sunday , , striking workers and their families gathered at six points in the city of St Petersburg in Russia . They were organised and led by Russian Orthodox priest Georgy Gapon . Holding religious icon s and singing hymns and patriotic songs ( particularly " God Save the Tsar ! " ) , a crowd of " more than 3 , 000 " proceeded without police interference towards the Winter Palace , the Tsar ' s official residence . The crowd did not know that the Tsar was not in residence . The army pickets near the palace released warning shots , and then fired directly into the crowds to disperse them . Gapon was fired upon near the Narva Gate . Around forty people surrounding him were killed , however he was not injured . Although the Tsar was not at the Winter Palace or even in the city and did not give the order for the troops to fire , he received the blame for the deaths , resulting in a surge of bitterness towards himself and his autocratic rule from the Russian people . The number killed is uncertain but the Tsar ' s officials recorded 96 dead and 333 injured ; anti - government sources claimed more than 4 , 000 dead ; moderate estimates still average around 1 , 000 killed or wounded , both from shots and trampled during the panic . Another source noted that the official estimate was 130 persons killed . Nicholas II described the day as " painful and sad " . As reports spread across the city , disorder and looting broke out . Gapon ' s Assembly was closed down that day , and Gapon quickly left Russia . According to one version , returning in October , he was assassinated by the order of the Combat Organization of the Socialist - Revolutionary Party after he revealed to his friend Pinhas Rutenberg that he was working for the Okhrana or Secret Police . This event was seen by the British ambassador to inflame revolutionary activities in Russia and contributed to the Revolution of 1905 . The writer Leo Tolstoy was also emotionally affected by the incident . In popular culture . Dmitri Shostakovich ' s 11th Symphony , subtitled " The Year 1905 " , is a programmatic work centered around Bloody Sunday . The second movement , entitled " The Ninth of January " , is a forceful depiction of the massacre . The sixth of Shostakovich ' s " Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets " is also called " The Ninth of January " Shostakovich ' s father and uncle were both present at the march that day , a year before the composer ' s birth .