The Tsar's stubbornness is hardly romantic...death and destruction pave the way to his continued rule...Revolutionists begin to stir and openly defy this cold and brutal murderer who holds tight to his so called divine rights and narcissistic advisors...
As one leader of the St. Petersburg Central Committee of Labor Vera Sasuvitch eloquently declared the Tsar's government was making its way over the corpse's of the workers, students, and other dissenters making it necessary that the workers demonstrate their formidable strength by moving toward political strikes...a sign of solidarity of with all who oppose the Tsar's will.
She exclaimed Down with the Tsar
Down with courtmartials
Down with death penalties
Down with the state of war against its people throughout Russia!
And war it was...65,000 Russian citizens had either been killed or wounded in the year 1905 during the epic struggle against a system that was well aware of its inadequacy's yet refused to acknowledge a one.
A struggle for rights and dignities that would continue for another twelve years!...Thousands of peasants and workers would die...numerous families destroyed...yet one Romanov's death is a sin without reproach?...
Of course the disaffection of the Russian citizens; their demonstrations and revolts against the Tsar' rule had nothing to do with dissatisfaction of his abilities or ill regard toward his excuses that 'gods' will demands he should rule. Thus according to Tsar and his corrupt advisors, those rascally Jews were the culprits...they should suffer for their dispositions and evil influences over the masses...(an age old and absurd distraction of actual problems)
And in 1905 behold the Massacre's of the Jews!...The Tsar acknowledges and will "Personally Thank" those who organized such atrocities...Men like the Governor of Odessa General Koulbars and the governors of Kesheneff and Bessarabia to name two. The Jews are in fear of more slaughter to come as one witness the pouring of kerosene onto...the lighting afire of rabbi's and the sacking of synagogue's in Odessa looking for loot...cash or any other items of value...Odessa's streets were drenched in blood!
Moving south toward Moscow...a revolt of what can only be described as one being massive in size.
The uprisings prevailed for a time as the leaders of the revolt, fighters for liberty, outwitted and outmaneuvered the forces of the Tsar. But the Tsar's Cossacks are numerous and enjoyed the strengthening of their position by the many reinforcements who deployed to the region. Conversely, the revolting mass had only local supporters and others from nearby localities to join them in engaging in this most unequal of confrontations.
The numbers of rioter casualties climb as thousand of rebels are gunned down by the Tsar's forces...in all
six thousand rioters are killed...fourteen thousand wounded. Numbers that will surely rise as this rebellion finds its way to an end. Rioters in one quarter of Moscow offer to surrender if the Tsar will allow for mercy of his punishment...the aforementioned aide de camp of the Tsar...ex Colonel now General Mien...who but a few months earlier ordered the merciless killings of the many whose procession of outspoken honor for those who called upon the Tsar for a better Russia...now would deal with the so called fighters for liberty in Moscow. Agreeing to mercy...General Mien would mercifully hang thousands of the surrendering rioters on the entry roads to Moscow...he did...so that all could see the wisdom of what happens when one raises his fist against the Tsar!
This excessive action by the Tsar and his henchman General Mien would not be forgotten...the General would immediately become the target for assassination by individuals deemed terrorists by the Tsar and fighters for liberty and freedoms by the people...
And so General Mien's date with destiny would come to pass...
General Min's wife was due to arrive at Komsomolskaya having taken the train from St. Petersburg.
She was returning to Moscow after having spent the better part of her August at their dacha residence.
Having dealt with such bloodshed and horror...General Mien looked forward to this joyful reunion with his wife. General Mien also declared to his guard he wanted to enjoy this moment with his wife alone without the accompaniment of the guard stating he felt as if he were a prisoner in their presence...so he dismissed them.
Newspaper dispatches shared the tale of how upon the arrival of the General's wife, this merciless and blood thirsty man, tenderly and affectionately embraced his wife...then passionately kissed her and turned to see about her luggage.
It was then that a young woman of 28 years old by the name of Zinaida Vassilievna Konopliannikova
General Mien mortally wounded...fell dead on the platform.
It was noted that Ms. Konopliannikova, the revolutionist guilty of the crime would subsequently be sentenced to death...and that she was horribly tortured during her execution. What should have been instantaneous death took more than half an hour due to the bungling of her executioner who failed to properly secure the rope.
More emphatically, during her trial, Ms. Konopliannikova stated to her judges:
“I saw clearly that the autocratic and bureaucratic superstructure rests on the armed force of the Government, and is able to maintain itself only through the constant practice of bloody terror, on the part of those steering our ship of State. And life itself has taught me as follows: you cannot create anything new without first destroying the old; if you cannot pierce an idea with a bayonet, neither can you resist the power of the bayonet with ideas only”
Her understanding that to embrace the desire of freedom and dignity would not be enough...An armed force would be necessary to affect change...change in which individuals in government, intellectuals, professors, engineers, students, workers, peasants and many others in Russia desired and desperately cried out for.
And so...it came to pass that many in Russia believed the sailors’ movement would accomplish the most important part in the approaching struggle for liberty. While others, whose lot were cast in the Old Guard, classified the sailors as rebels and murderers. In the end, the sailors convictions should have ensured them a place in Russian history as men who were heroes willing to sacrifice their lives for their country not as “elements or fanatics."
History shares the sailors embarked on a twelve year run that would force the abdication of the Tsar.
Its movement held dear by those who sought freedom...hardly the criminal element that contemporary historians describe...a movement not created by bad food or immobility of the fleet but a movement that became known as the "armed fist of the revolution" culminating in its freely elected organization named Tsentrobalt and the ascension of its leader in the person of Pavel Yefimovitch Dybenko.
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