Seriously, folks… I’d like you to let me know if you see parallels between the patriots of 1905’s St Petersburg, Russia, and present-day patriots here in the United States.
Known to history as “Bloody Sunday”, it was in the dead of winter in 1905 when patriotic, Tsar-loving, overtly religious Russians marched on Tsar Nicholas II Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In all honesty, those who took to the streets weren’t technically “marchers” in a secular political protest, but actually those involved in a religious procession who looked to the Tsar as their temporal savior from oppressive government thugs.
Led by Fr. Georgy Gapon of the Russian Orthodox Church, literally thousands upon thousands of Russians followed their beloved priest to deliver a petition to the Tsar’s winter home asking for little more than their voices be officially heard by way of elected representatives (instead of unelected bureaucrats) as well as asking for the recognition of what we call today our basic human rights.
Father Gapon urged marchers to destroy any-and-all leaflets distributed by groups such as the Marxists and the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
In keeping with the religious theme of the procession, the crowd not only carried crucifixes and Orthodox Christian banners, but also broke into spontaneous singing the Imperial Russian National Anthem, “God, Save the Tsar!”;
God, save the Tsar!
Strong, sovereign,
Reign for glory, for our glory!Reign to make foes fear,
Orthodox Tsar!
God, save the Tsar!
Regardless, between the Imperial Guard and the Cossack troops, it’s unsure who opened fire first. But when it was all over, well over 1,000 of the marchers were either dead or wounded.
Going back to my original question, does anyone else see the essentially same thing about to happen in the here and now?