Instructions
Some believe that the city on the Neva received the name “St. Petersburg” in honor of its founder, Peter I. But this is not so. The Northern Capital received its name in honor of the heavenly patron of the first Russian Emperor- Apostle Peter. “St. Petersburg” literally means “City of St. Peter,” and Peter the Great dreamed of founding a city in honor of his heavenly patron long before St. Petersburg was founded. And the geopolitical significance of the new Russian capital enriched the name of the city with a metaphorical meaning. After all, the Apostle Peter is considered the keeper of the keys to the gates of heaven, and the Peter and Paul Fortress (it was from here that the construction of St. Petersburg began in 1703) was called upon to guard the sea gates of Russia.
The Northern Capital bore the name “St. Petersburg” for more than two centuries – until 1914, after which it was renamed “in the Russian manner” and became Petrograd. This was a political move by Nicholas II, associated with Russia's entry into the First World War, which was accompanied by strong anti-German sentiment. It is possible that the decision to “Russify” the name of the city was influenced by Paris, where Germanskaya and Berlinskaya streets were promptly renamed Zhores and Liege streets. The city was renamed overnight: on August 18, the emperor ordered the name of the city to be changed, the documents were drawn up immediately, and, as they wrote in the newspapers the next day, the townspeople “went to bed in St. Petersburg and woke up in Petrograd.”
The name "Petrograd" existed on maps for less than 10 years. In January 1924, on the fourth day after the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Petrograd Council of Deputies decided that the city should be renamed Leningrad. The decision noted that it was adopted “at the request of the grieving workers,” but the author of the idea was Grigory Evseevich Zinoviev, who at that time held the post of chairman of the city council. At that time, the capital of Russia had already been moved to Moscow, and the importance of Petrograd fell. Naming the city after the leader of the world proletariat significantly increased the “ideological significance” of the city of three revolutions, making it essentially the “party capital” of communists of all countries.
At the end of the 80s of the last century, during the democratic transformations in the USSR, another wave of renaming began: cities with “revolutionary names” received their historical names. Then the question arose about renaming Leningrad. The author of the idea was Lensovet Vitaly Skoybeda. On June 12, 1991, on the first anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR, a referendum was held in the city, in which almost two-thirds of voters took part - and 54.9% of them were in favor of returning the name “St. Petersburg” to the city.
The official name of Leningrad since August 18, 1914, was adopted after Russia’s entry into World War I as a more “patriotic” name instead of the “German” name St. Petersburg. Previously found as in fiction(A.S. Pushkin) ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)
Petrograd- Petrograd, official name Leningrad from August 18, 1914, adopted after Russia’s entry into World War I as a more “patriotic” name instead of the “German” name St. Petersburg. Previously found in fiction... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
PETROGRAD, the name of the city of St. Petersburg in 1914 24. Source: Encyclopedia Fatherland ... Russian history
Exist., number of synonyms: 5 city (2765) Leningrad (12) Petersburg (13) ... Synonym dictionary
Saint Petersburg Geographical names world: Toponymic dictionary. M: AST. Pospelov E.M. 2001 ... Geographical encyclopedia
City federal significance St. Petersburg Flag Coat of Arms ... Wikipedia
PETROGRAD- (name; see also LENINGRAD, PETERSBURG, PETROPOL) We / each / hold in our five / worlds drive belts! / This took the audiences of / Petrograd, Moscow, Odessa, Kyiv, M914 15 (393) to the Golgothas; When everyone is settled in heaven and hell, / earth... ... Proper name in Russian poetry of the 20th century: dictionary of personal names
Petrograd- Saint Pétersbourg Pour les articles homonymes, voir Saint Pétersbourg (homonymie). Saint Petersbourg Saint Petersburg … Wikipédia en Français
The name of the city of St. Petersburg in 1914 24. * * * PETROGRAD PETROGRAD, the name of the city of St. Petersburg (see SAINT PETERSBURG) in 1914 24 ... encyclopedic Dictionary
See St. Petersburg... Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by Max Vasmer
Books
- , Yarov Sergey Viktorovich, Balashov Evgeny Mikhailovich, Musaev V.I.. This book of essays on the history of Petrograd in the years Civil War, without exaggerating, shows the difficulties and shadow sides of life, without neglecting the positive that is already reflected in...
- Petrograd at the turn of the era. The city and its inhabitants during the years of the revolution and the Civil War. This book of essays on the history of Petrograd during the Civil War, without exaggerating, shows the difficulties and shadow sides of life, without neglecting the positive that is already reflected in...
Exactly 100 years ago, on August 19 / September 1, 1914, the Highest Command of Emperor Nicholas II was published Governing Senate on the renaming of St. Petersburg to Petrograd. The decision to change the name of the capital of the Russian Empire was made by the Emperor the day before - on August 18/31.
The renaming of the capital in the first month of the First World War was not accidental and reflected the general mood of the inhabitants, overwhelmed by anti-German sentiments. As the historian of the Russian Army A.A. Kersnovsky noted, “Yesterday’s cosmopolitans suddenly turned out to be ardent nationalists. The dominant note here, however, was reckless chauvinism, hysterical rage against everything “German.” People who seemed to be quite sensible suddenly demanded that their surnames be changed German origin in the Russian way". “German speech was banned,” echoes Kersnovsky modern historian and publicist S.V. Fomin . - Violators were subject to a very impressive fine of up to three thousand rubles or three months in prison. Performing musical works by German composers was considered an unpatriotic act. Bearing German names settlements were renamed".
However, similar phenomena were observed in countries allied with Russia. For example, in Paris, the municipality changed the name of Germanskaya Street to Jaures Street, and Berlin Street to Liege Street.
In this impulse of rejection of everything German, already on July 31 / August 12, the liberal Birzhevye Vedomosti published a note with the characteristic title “Not Petersburg, but Petrograd,” which conveyed the wishes of the Czech diaspora of St. Petersburg “remember the initiative of a long series of Russian figures and thinkers of the 18th and early XIX centuries, who were offended by the German name of our capital". Citing further quotes from the decrees of Empress Catherine II and Emperor Alexander I, in which the capital of the Empire was sometimes called the “City of St. Peter,” the Czech diaspora of the city noted that Petrograd “is called our capital by all southern and Western Slavs, also Chervonorussy." “It’s time to correct the mistake of our ancestors, it’s time to throw off the last shadow of German tutelage. We, Czechs, ask the public administration of the capital to enter with a petition to the Highest Name for the approval and obligatory henceforth use of the Russian name of the capital "Petrograd" ", - said the conclusion of the appeal.
Let us also note that the name “Petrograd”, which is a Russian copy of the German (Dutch) name “Petersburg”, was not accidental and was already well known to educated Russians thanks to the poetic lines of A.S. Pushkin from “The Bronze Horseman”:
Over darkened Petrograd
November breathed the autumn chill.
Splashing with a noisy wave
To the edges of your slender fence,
Neva was tossing around like a sick person
Restless in my bed...
This name of the city is also found in the poems of G.R. Derzhavin (“Procession along the Volkhov of the Russian Amphitrite”):
No, not a painting of ancient wonders
Surprises mortals to look at;
Ekaterina marches
With Georg to Petrograd!
However, both A.S. Pushkin and G.R. Derzhavin used in the same works another name to designate St. Petersburg - “Petropol”. And in the 1870s, as stated “ Russian word"A movement arises among the Slavophiles in favor of renaming St. Petersburg to Petrograd." " Historical documents confirm that the Slavophiles tried to introduce this name into life,” the newspaper recalled in 1914. - In correspondence and in personal conversations, they completely avoided the name Petersburg, and they even wrote “Petrograd” on the envelopes of letters, as a result of which misunderstandings often arose between Slavophiles and representatives of the postal department, who did not vouch for the accurate delivery of letters with the inscription “Petrograd”. This movement, however, did not have any real results.”
On August 11, 1914, Emperor Nicholas II received a report from the Minister of Agriculture A.V. Krivoshein, who, as is commonly believed, convinced the Emperor of the need to issue a decree to rename St. Petersburg. As I.I. Tkhorzhevsky, manager of the office of the Ministry of Agriculture, recalled, Krivoshein himself later said: “The Emperor is holding up well. Many people attack him for Petrograd. Rukhlov (Minister of Railways - RNL) allegedly said: why are you, Your Majesty, correcting Peter the Great! - And do you know how the Emperor answered? He didn’t get angry, but laughed it off: “Well! Tsar Peter demanded reports from his generals about victories, but I would be glad to hear news about victories. The Russian sound is dearer to my heart...” Isn’t that well said?”. According to the “Russian Word”, the issue of renaming the capital received an unexpectedly quick resolution, after in support of this measure, in addition to A.V. Krivoshein, the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, V.K. g. changed his German surname to his wife’s surname, becoming Desyatovsky) and Minister of Internal Affairs N.A. Maklakov.
Unfortunately, the Tsar’s diary entries do not say a word about the motives that made him decide to rename the city, but already on August 20 / September 2, 1914, he mentions the capital of the Russian Empire as Petrograd.
However, the tsar's initiative to rename the capital was not understood by everyone. According to Tkhorzhevsky, the discontent largely lay in the fact that “The city was renamed without asking: they were definitely demoted”. “The historical name, associated with the founder of the city and borrowed from Holland, reminiscent of the “eternal worker on the throne,” was replaced, under the influence of some patriotic whim, by the meaningless name of Petrograd, common with Elizavetgrad, Pavlograd and others like that.”- lamented the famous St. Petersburg lawyer and member State Council A.F.Koni. “The crown of stupidity was, of course, the demand to rename St. Petersburg to Petrograd - the city of St. Peter to the city of Peter I. The ignorance of our educated circles, from which the initiative came, was amazing,” wrote in turn A.A. Kersnovsky. - Peter I named the city he founded in honor of his saint - “St. Petersburg” - in Dutch, not at all according to the German model, and, of course, did not think of naming it in honor of himself. St. Petersburg in Russian could be translated "Svyatopetrovsk". "Petrograd" was the first step towards "Leningrad". Some barbarians adopted from others". In connection with this renaming, the poetess Z.N. Gipius left the following entry in her diary: “At the behest of the Tsar, Peter the Great’s Petersburg failed and was destroyed. Bad sign! Later, in December 1914, in the poem “Petrograd,” the poetess burst out with the following indignant lines:
Who encroached on Petrovo’s brainchild?
Who is the perfect work of hands
I dared to offend by taking away even a word,
Dare to change even a single sound?
And given the fact that the renaming of the capital coincided with the disaster that Russian troops suffered in East Prussia, it is not surprising that the following entry appeared in the diary of the artist K. A. Somov: “The defeat of our troops, two corps were destroyed, Samsonov killed . Shameful renaming of St. Petersburg to Petrograd!” St. Petersburg mayor I.I. Tolstoy reacted in the same way in his diary, noting on August 19: “The morning newspapers report that yesterday, the 18th, the renaming of St. Petersburg to “Petrograd” took place, according to the Highest Decree. (...) I don’t like this kind of chauvinism at all, being a rather sad omen: who do they want to please with this? If this renaming is a joy for someone, then it should be significantly overshadowed by the news that appeared in the morning newspapers today about a serious defeat, if not the defeat of the Russian army in Prussia.”. Baron N.N. Wrangel also pointed out this: “...Today's government announcement speaks of serious setbacks. All the more tactless is the Highest decree published today on the renaming of St. Petersburg to Petrograd. Not to mention that this completely meaningless order, first of all, darkens the memory of the great transformer of Russia, but the promulgation of this renaming “in revenge on the Germans” today, on the day of our defeat, should be considered extremely inappropriate. It is unknown who persuaded the Emperor to take this step. But the whole city is deeply indignant and filled with indignation at this tactless outburst.”. Even the Tsar’s mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, showed her dissatisfaction, sarcastically remarking: “Soon My Peterhof will be called Petrushkin Dvor”.
But on the pages of the press, the renaming of the imperial capital to Petrograd was only welcomed. The authors of newspaper essays pointed to the “liberation” of the city from the traces of “German dominance”, monarchist publications restrainedly supported the decision of the Sovereign, and here and there appeared hasty and rather clumsy poems dedicated to this historical decision. The now almost forgotten poet Sergei Kopytkin responded to this event with the poem “Petrograd!”, which contained the following lines:
With what delight is this word
Rus' took it from the Tsar's hands!
And thrown off Petrov’s brainchild
German faded frock coat.
Let the newborn's name
The enemy regiments will hear!
It will spin over them
Like a whirlwind of frustration and melancholy.
It's like an angel of inspiration
Like the heat that feeds the hearts,
In the smoke and roar of battle
Will support the Russian fighter.
Down with the German poison!
Down with Germanic words!
From now on, the Russian State
The Russian chapter is crowning!
“Birzhevye Vedomosti” reported with pathos: “We went to bed in St. Petersburg, and woke up in Petrograd!.. The St. Petersburg period of our history with its German tint has ended... Hurray, gentlemen!..”. « Petersburg Leaflet,” calling the renaming of the capital “a great historical fact,” rejoiced that what “the best of the Slavophiles” dreamed of had happened. “...The capital of the great Slavic state still bore a German name,” said in a newspaper article . - ...Russia - the head of the Slavs - must follow its own historical, unique path. Its capital should have a Slavic name. By the order of the Sovereign Owner of the Russian Land, it will be so from now on.”. At the same time, the publication continued, following the renaming of St. Petersburg, changes must inevitably occur in the names of the cities closest to the capital: Peterhof, Shlisselburg, Oranienbaum and Kronstadt, and in relation to the latter it was especially emphasized that it is unacceptable to retain the name “Kronstadt”, since in within the borders of Austria-Hungary, which was at war with us, there was a city with the same name. “The capital of the most important Slavic people,” wrote "New Time" - by the will of the Sovereign Emperor, she shook off her foreign name and was baptized in Slavic. Petersburg became Petrograd. The common people used to say: Peter, Piterburkh. And the part of him that defended" old faith"I always called it nothing other than Petrograd". The last statement is true - the Old Believer diocese of the city has been called Petrograd since 1901.
At the same time, as noted by researcher of this issue A.G. Rumyantsev, in the Petrograd City Duma some deputies were displeased by the disappearance of the prefix “saint” (“holy”) in the name of the city, and therefore they asked the government to approve the full name of the capital as "City of St. Peter" or "Holy Petrograd". As Baron N.N. Wrangel noted in his diary, the hasty and not universally accepted and understood renaming of the city even led to such a curiosity as the appearance of the “St. Petrograd Hotel” in Vilna.
However, the city on the Neva was not destined to bear the new name for long. In common parlance, the city was still referred to simply as “St. Petersburg,” and due to subsequent tragic events, the name “Petrograd” entered the mass consciousness exclusively with the word “revolutionary” always attached to it. And less than ten years after the tsar’s decree, in January 1924, the Bolsheviks again renamed the former imperial capital, giving it the name of Lenin and thereby turning Petrograd into Leningrad. The original name St. Petersburg was returned to the city only in September 1991 after a referendum in which 54% of Leningraders voted for the historical name of the northern capital.
Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical SciencesIn 1703, on land conquered from the Swedes, Tsar Peter I tore out two pieces of turf and folded them into a cross, thereby marking the beginning of the glorious history of the northern capital.
St. Petersburg and co.
The built city with access to northern waters was supposed to become, according to Peter’s plans, a strong military fort post Russian state. Did Peter need a peaceful city? Needed, but only around a military fortress - the future emperor marked the place for the Peter and Paul Fortress with a cross from his improvised natural remedies. Peter cherished the dream of a military fortress for a long time; he saw a fortress in Azov, but the military campaign ended unsuccessfully. Hare Island became Peter's lucky ticket to an equally happy future. A military fortress was founded, a loud name was given to it, city buildings were erected around it, people settled - it was necessary to think about the name of the city under construction. However, there was no act with a special name for the city. Foreign associates of Peter, Russian subjects - polyglots called the city of St. Peter each in their own way, improvising with all parts of the long name: Sant, Saint, San; Peter, Peter; burg, burkh, burk. Peter himself in his letters carefully deduced St. Petersburg, and St. Petersburg, and Petersburg. The search for euphony continued until 1724, and only after the death of the emperor in 1725, the city received its final name: St. Petersburg.
Petropolis
The legend of what Peter dreamed of calling new town in his honor - only a legend. Peter dreamed of dedicating the city to his patron, the Apostle Peter. Peter played with the name of the apostle until his death; the original idea to name the city on the Neva - Petropolis, did not gain popularity. Petropolis (Petropol, Petropol) - a stone city, became St. Petersburg, leaving only an engraving depicting the city with the caption “Petropolis” as a reminder of its short existence. Why hasn’t the name with Greco-Italian motifs been preserved for the glorious city? Peter created, Peter named, but history Ancient Greece he was unable to replay the game. Polis, the city glorified by Aristotle and Socrates, existed so that people could live well. Did Peter strive to improve the life of the urban population? Of course, but the military capabilities of the new capital and its population were a priority, and Western cities stood nearby, Peter looked towards the Dutch “burgs” dear to his heart.
Petrograd
The firmly established name “St. Petersburg” successfully existed outside the city until 1914. In the summer of 1914, the Russian Empire entered the First World War. No one guessed that the war would drag on for more than three years. Emperor Nicholas II, who entered the war as the patron of the fraternal Slavic peoples, for the first time felt the long-awaited unity with the people - everyone was inspired. Russian Empire Anti-German sentiment spread everywhere - townspeople burned German shops and shops, rioted at the German embassy, and the emperor, not without sin himself, (Nicholas II's wife Alexandra Feodorovna, a former German princess) abandoned St. Petersburg in favor of Petrograd. The innovation was received negatively by the public; Nicholas II’s policy did not find support in government circles: “The Emperor is holding up well. Many people attack him for Petrograd. Rukhlov allegedly said: why are you, Your Majesty, correcting Peter the Great! – And do you know how the Emperor answered? He didn’t get angry, but laughed it off: “Well! Tsar Peter demanded reports from his generals about victories, and I would be glad to hear news about victories. The Russian sound is dearer to the heart...” The history of the new Russian city of Petrograd was short but eventful; the city with a new name stood on the Neva until 1924.
Lenin city
In January 1924, at the Second Congress of Soviets, in memory of the untimely death of Vladimir Lenin, Petrograd received the name Leningrad. The city, which existed for two centuries under the auspices of the first emperor Peter the Great, received a name based on the pseudonym of Vladimir Ulyanov. Leningrad disappeared in the nineties of the 20th century.
St. Petersburg under siege
One of the heroic deeds of the residents of the northern capital with the revolutionary name “Leningrad” was resistance to the fascist blockade. Leningrad defended not only itself, but also its name. The Germans intended to rename the city St. Petersburg not out of love for Russian history, of course. Dreams of a new Reich on the territory of the USSR obliged to give Russian cities German names. The plans of the Nazis were no secret to contemporaries - the Germans placed road signs “Petersburg” and “St. Petersburg” on the Volkhov and Leningrad directions.
Solzhenitsyn city
On April 28, 1991, Alexander Solzhenitsyn addressed an appeal “To the residents of the city on the Neva,” Solzhenitsyn did not want to return the name of St. Petersburg to the city, which is what he wrote about. Solzhenitsyn did not like the foreign preferences of the imperial power - this was the case with St. Petersburg, and it also affected Yekaterinburg. Agreeing with the initiatives of Emperor Nicholas II, Solzhenitsyn suggested to his contemporaries that the city be named St. Petrograd. This name combined original Russian roots and tribute to the Apostle Paul. Solzhenitsyn had an idea to name the city Nevograd. This option became a compromise between Petrograd and St. Petersburg. As a result of the referendum, the city turned to the original source - in 1991, St. Petersburg was restored, and the initiatives of Solzhenitsyn, who dedicated many pages to the city on the Neva, did not receive support. This is how St. Petersburg residents live in St. Petersburg.
Nien
Many people have thought about the name of the northern capital. To this day, the heirs of the peoples who lived on the territory of the city built by Peter call Petersburg nothing other than Nien, Nevograd, Nevaborg. The Ingermanland city of Nyen, according to the separatists, began from the Swedish fortress of Nyenskansk, and the hand of Peter did not create it. This kind of interpretation of the name is not uncommon. It’s worth thinking about what the Slavophiles would call the northern city? Finns neighboring in considerable proximity? Offer options, the northern city has tried a lot of them, it is no stranger to it.
With the beginning of the war with Germany, St. Petersburg began to be called by the Russian word - Petrograd. The city's industry, albeit slowly, was being rebuilt on a war footing. Private enterprises were loaded with military orders.
In 1915-1917 Petrograd factories produced more than half of the total number of guns, mortars and carriages, and up to 50% of the shells manufactured in Russia. As a result of military orders, Petrograd factories significantly expanded production. So, for example, the Izhora plant in 1913 produced products worth 16.6 million rubles, and in 1915, 27.8 million rubles. The products of the Obukhov plant in the 1st half of 1914 were estimated at 4.5 million rubles, and in the 2nd half of 1914 - 25.5 million rubles. 30 Riga and 25 Lithuanian enterprises evacuated from the Baltic states were located in Petrograd.
The profits of military industrialists were enormous. The lion's share of them fell on large and largest enterprises. The newspapers wrote about the turnover of the Triangle: “The numbers of the Triangle are positively overwhelming. This is some kind of fountain of millions.” During the war years, the bourgeoisie in all major cities created military-industrial committees, as well as Zemsky and City Unions - organizations involved in the mobilization and regulation of industry. The Central Military-Industrial Committee was located in Petrograd.
During the war years, the composition of the Petrograd proletariat changed. Already during the first mobilizations of 1914, about 40% of the city’s industrial workers were drafted. Subsequently, the tsarist authorities deliberately sent leaders of the strike movement into the army. In their place came people from the villages, as well as small property owners who had taken refuge from the front in defense factories. The petty-bourgeois population of the city increased significantly due to the influx of refugees from the occupied by German troops districts. All these petty property-owning elements supported the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. However, there were still many cadre workers in Petrograd who had gone through the school of the first revolution of 1905-1907. and a new revolutionary upsurge. They, as before, followed the Bolsheviks. Despite police persecution, the destruction of legal workers' organizations, the militarization of a number of enterprises, the economic offensive of the bourgeoisie against the workers, the revolutionary struggle of the Petrograd proletariat did not stop.
The Petrograd organization of the Bolsheviks, despite all the persecutions and frequent failures, which were reported many times Tsarist secret police, retained her leadership role in the labor movement. Its number at times reached 2 thousand people.
At the beginning of the war, the Duma faction of the Bolsheviks (A.E. Badaev, M.K. Muranov, G.I. Petrovsky, F.N. Samoilov, N.R. Shagov) played a major role in establishing party work. Keeping close ties with V.I. Lenin, the Petrograd organization launched socialist propaganda among the workers and the entire working population of the city, calling for proletarian internationalism and proletarian revolution. Not limiting themselves to oral propaganda, the Bolsheviks of Petrograd issued dozens of leaflets in mass editions, and in 1915-1916. published 4 issues of the illegal newspaper “Proletarsky Voice”.
The surviving legal journal “Insurance Issues” played a great role in this explanatory work. At the same time, the Bolsheviks retained their influence in the remaining legal organizations - health insurance funds and insurance authorities.
During re-elections and by-elections to these organizations in 1915-1916. The Bolsheviks won.
In 1915 they also successfully carried out a campaign to boycott the military-industrial committees. V.I. Lenin repeatedly praised the activities of the Petrograd Bolsheviks during the war years.
As a result of the active propaganda of the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks' attempts to poison the workers with the poison of chauvinism were unsuccessful. V.I. Lenin emphasized that the infection of chauvinism affected only the darkest layers of workers, and in general, the working class of Russia turned out to be immunized against chauvinism.
Already the first days of the war were marked in Petrograd by anti-war strikes, demonstrations and rallies. The workers responded with protest strikes on November 12, 1914 to the arrest of Bolshevik Duma deputies.
In 1915 the strike movement assumed great proportions; In total, in the province, that is, mainly in Petrograd itself, there were 125 strikes, in which 130 thousand people participated.
The largest was the August strike in protest against the massacre royal authorities with the workers of Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Kostroma, as well as the September political strike, which took place under Bolshevik slogans. In terms of the scope of the strike struggle, the Petrograd province was second only to the Moscow and Vladimir provinces.
In 1916, the revolutionary struggle of the workers grew with even greater force.
In 1916, 352 strikes took place in Petrograd (27% of all strikes in the country) with the participation of more than 300 thousand workers (about 38% of the total number of strikers).
On January 9, 1916, in memory of the events of January 9, 1905, about 100 thousand people went on strike in Petrograd.
On the Vyborg side, the strike involved over 40 thousand workers. Workers of the Lessner plant with red banners and revolutionary songs took to the street and walked along Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Prospekt.
About 15 thousand workers went on strike in the Moscow region.
Worker demonstrations were organized at the Nobel, Aivaz, Metallichesky and other factories. On the evening of January 10, a crowded demonstration of workers with the participation of soldiers under the slogan “Down with war!” took place on Bolshoy Sampsonpevo Avenue.
On February 4, a strike began among workers in the electrical workshop of the Putilov plant. All striking workers were fired. As a result, the strike spread throughout the entire plant.
On February 6, rallies were held at the Lessner, Aivaz, Metal and other factories in support of the striking Putilov workers. In the same month, the Putilovites went on strike for the second time.
In response to the repressions against the workers of the Putilov plant, mass protest strikes began at the factories of Lessner, Nobel, Erickson, Baranovsky and others.
In March, tens of thousands of Petrograd workers took part in a political strike of solidarity with the workers of the Putilov plant.
Carrying out daily leadership of the strike movement, the Bolsheviks sought to transform spontaneous economic struggle into organized political struggle aimed at overthrowing tsarism. In terms of the number of political strikes, the working class of Petrograd ranked first in the country.
Under the influence of revolutionary events and Bolshevik propaganda, a change occurred in the soldiers’ consciousness.
In October 1916, soldiers of the 181st Infantry Regiment, which included many mobilized Petrograd workers, fraternized with the strikers.
By the autumn of 1916, the revolutionary struggle had sharply intensified. The October strikes of 1916 were especially grandiose, in which 130 thousand workers took part.
The scope of the revolutionary struggle was so great that the head of the Petrograd Military District was forced to temporarily close a number of striking factories: Minny, Snaryadny, the Russian Society factory, the L. M. Erickson and Co., Nobel, New Lessner, Petrograd Metallurgical Plant, etc.
Under the leadership of the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Bolshevik Party, the workers of Petrograd launched a powerful strike struggle at the end of 1916 and in January - February 1917 under the slogans: “Down with autocracy!”, “Down with war!”, “Bread!”.
