Kazansky Demonstrations

Categories / Social Life
KAZANSKY DEMONSTRATIONS, mass political gatherings on the square in front of Kazan Cathedral on 6 December 1876. The first political demonstration in Russia was held here, organized by the secret society Land and Liberty (Zemlya i Volya). Among the participants were students, graduates of the women's courses, and a group of workers. G.V. Plekhanov, a student at the Mining Institute, made a speech, and the worker Y.S. Potapov raised over the crowd a red flag with a sign reading, "Land and Liberty". The police beat demonstration participants, and 34 people were prosecuted in 1877. The second Kazanskaya Demonstration was organized on 4 March 1897 by the Soviet of United Lands and other illegal student organizations in answer to the news about the self-immolation of student M.F. Vetrova in the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison (hence its second name, the Vetrova Demonstration). It was held as a requiem. About 6.000 demonstrators were surrounded by the police at the exit from the cathedral and escorted to the Kazansky police-station; the majority of them managed to go into hiding, though about 1.200 people were registered by the police. The Kazanskaya Demonstration of 4 March was prepared by illegal student organizations as a protest against repression of members of students' movements. About 15.000 people participated in the demonstration. Groups of revolutionary workers joined the students' protest. Demonstrators were cruelly beaten by the police and gendarmes. According to unofficial data, up to 1.000 people were arrested. Violence in the capital's centre caused public indignation throughout Russia and Europe. About 100 outstanding national culture figures spoke against the government's actions, and themselves suffered repression. The Kazanskaya Demonstration of 3 March 1902 was organized by the left wing of the Petersburg League of the Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. For the fist time in Russia, the main mass of demonstrators was comprised of workers. Despite preventive arrests, several thousand people participated in the third Kazanskaya Demonstration, and several slogans were openly shouted for the first time, including "Down with Autocracy!" and "Fiat Freedom!" Clashes with the police and gendarmes lasted till late evening. About 500 participants were arrested.

References: Первая рабочая демонстрация в России. М.; Л., 1927; Гусятников П. С. Революционное студенческое движение в России, 1899-1907. М., 1971; Канн П. Я. Революционный форум Петербурга // ВИ. 1976. № 12. С. 197-202.

Z. P. Solovyeva. Plekhanov Georgy Valentinovich
Potapov Yakov Semenovich
Vetrova Maria Fedoseevna
Первая рабочая демонстрация в России. М., Л., 1927
Канн П. Я.. Революционный форум Петербурга // Вопр. истории, 1976
Гусятников П. С. Революционное студенческое движение в России, 1899-1907. М., 1971 Kazan Cathedral
Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberty) of 1870s
Trubetskoy Bastion
Union of Struggle for Liberation of the Working Class, St. Petersburg
1876
1897
1901