Chapter 7.3.2: The 1905 revolution
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Mini section: Estonians and the Russo-Japanese war.
Due to the mandatory conscription, there were many Estonians serving in the Russian army. More than ten thousand of them took part in the Russo-Japanese war, including about 70 officers and 30 doctors. Among those officers were some of the future Estonian generals, like Jaan Soots and Ernst Põdder.
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On the 9th of January of 1905, there was a peaceful protest in St. Petersburg, where workers tried to hand over a petition to the emperor, where they asked for better living conditions. But when they got to the Winter Palace, soldiers who were gathered there opened fire and killed about 500 people. This caused a wave of strikes across Russia, which on the 12th of January spread to Tallinn.
On that day a general strike was declared in the city. People who wished to continue to go to work were stopped by other workers. There were also some conflicts with the military, the bloodiest of which happened on the 14th of January. When a group of workers marched towards the Mayer Chemical Factory to stop the work there, a row of soldiers opened fire on them. In total 3 people were killed and a couple dozen were wounded. After this date, all factories in the city stopped work. The workers presented their demands to the governor, who redirected them to the boards of their own factories. The boards decided to make some compromises, so some workers got a raise and in some places the length of a shift was reduced from 11 hours to 10 hours.
Throughout the spring and summer strikes were declared in every Estonian city and industrial town. Manor labourers also declared a strike. Students at the University of Tartu refused to go to lectures. Public meetings were held throughout the summer, petitions were sent to the government en masse. At first the demands were of material nature, by the end of the summer political demands started to spread as well. Social democratic ideas spread quickly. Workers started to fly red flags and sing anti-monarchist songs.
A short clip from a museum that accompanies the slogan. The woman is supposed to be Marta Lepp, a writer who partook in the revolutionary activity and was amongst the people wounded in an upcoming event.
On the 12th of October, on the instigation of railway workers in Moscow, an all out general strike was declared across the Russian Empire. More than two million people demanded civil rights and a parliament. Tallinn joined the strike on the 14th of October. Work was stopped, shops were closed. There were protests, vodka stores (which were all state owned, the Russian Empire had a monopoly on the sale of vodka) and weapon stores were looted, the latter was something that was organised by the VSDTP. As the law enforcement had trouble with keeping order in the city, the city government asked, with the permission of the gouverneur, for the workers to keep order in the city. The workers agreed to enforce the law, but in exchange they demanded the removal of the army from the streets, the local political prisoners to be released and a telegram to be sent to St. Petersburg demanding the main goals of the strike. Both the city government and the gouverneur agreed and the night was without any disturbance.
On the next day the workers gave new demands, amongst them the distribution of firearms to the workers in charge of keeping order. During the time when the city council was debating whether or not to comply, the workers moved to the New Market (Uus Turg, nowadays Viru square), to hear about the decision. There were about 2000-3000 workers on the square. Suddenly soldiers appeared on the square, who opened 5 full shots on the crowd. At least 90 people were killed, hundreds more were wounded. Amongst the dead were not only men, but women and children as well. This event became known as Bloody Sunday (Verine Pühapäev).
A painting of the event.
Just a day later, on the 17th of October, the emperor Nicholas II proclaimed a manifesto, in which he declared civil rights, such as free speech, freedom of gathering and so on, as well as the establishment of a parliament, the State Duma. This started the so called “freedom days” in Estonia. All censorship over newspapers was ended, the police stopped interfering in protests, both journalists and speakers were allowed to express their thoughts freely. The first national parties were formed, Tõnisson established the Eesti Rahvameelne Eduerakond (Estonian Pro-People's Progressive Party), the nationally minded socialists like Martna and Speek formed the Eesti Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Tööliste Ühisus (Estonian Social-Democratic Workers Union), the latter had over ten thousand members.
This is where the revolutionary movement split however. The socialists wished to further the revolution and topple the government, the liberals thought however that the revolution was now over and that the necessary reforms should be achieved via the legislature. To solve the differences of opinion, Tõnisson called a meeting between both sides on the 27th of November in Tartu. The talks failed however, the liberals wished for a constitution and universal suffrage, and planned to use passive resistance for that, the socialists wished to fight against the government using all means.
Both delegations presented their arguments to the people at many public meetings across the nation. In many places the socialist side saw support and people started enacting their proposals. Government instructions were ignored, taxes were left unpaid, the use of Estonian for schools and official business began, armed squads were organised for defence and in some rural communities the rural government was forced to step back.
On the late evening of the 11th of December, a meeting was held in the Volta factory in Tallinn, where the deputies of rural communities and workers of Tallinn met. The socialists pressured the countryside to take up arms and rebel. Throughout the next few days, about a dozen armed groups went from Tallinn to the countryside. They moved from manor to manor, closing taverns and vodka factories, confiscating weapons and calling up the locals to attack their lords. In many places they were successful in agitating the local populus and the manors were looted. Everything that could not be taken home was smashed and burnt. The whole affair lasted for about 10 days, around 130 manors were damaged and 65 of them were burnt to the ground (mostly in poorer Northern and Western Estonia).
Burnt down Tuhala manor.
Martial law was declared in the Baltic gouvernates as a result of these lootings. At the end of December numerous sentencing squads would move around, punishing people who they thought had potentially partaken in the activity. They were given up to 500 lashes or straight up shot. Countryside intellectuals suffered the most, school teachers, civil servants, active members of the local community and so on. A big portion of them were most likely innocent. In total the military murdered roughly 400 people in Estonia between 1905-1907. Many more were imprisoned or sent to Siberia for forced labour. The actions of the sentencing squads became infamous amongst the people and successfully ended the 1905 revolution in Estonia.
Many publications, including Teataja, were forced to close. A big portion of the Estonian intelligentsia went into exile, mostly to Finland, which had autonomy within the Russian Empire.
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