In 13 January 1905 some few ten thousand workers singing revolutionary songs with red flags marched from Moscow suburb on the Great Moscow street to the city center. On the present day Railroad bridge that was called the Iron bridge the protestors were stopped by Riga junior officer school soldier company. The signal of warning was given by the drummer and the order to crowd to fall out was issued. The leaders of the march lowered the Red flags to signal the end of the march. But the crowd continued to move ahead. The pressure of last rank marchers to the first rank marchers were so great that the first line of soldiers were pushed back. They took away the drummers sword, one junior officer got hit in the head by a rock. The protestors climbed on the bridge on started to throw rocks at soldiers some even had pistols. In this moment from Kungu street another junior officer company came. The protestors were now besieged. When the protestors started to take away guns from soldiers hands, the officer gave the order to fire. Three rounds of fire were held at the protestors as the snow turned in bright red. A panic and disorder came out as the some attempted to jump on the icy river Daugava to escape. But the ice was too thin and many drowned. Its not known how many died, various sources state above 70 people in the causalities and more wounded. The number of the drowned was unknown. Also the police pristav Bilev was fatally wounded. What was the intended as the protest march to commemorate the fallen in the Bloody Sunday in Petersburg on January 9 turned into our own Bloody Sunday. For next two years Latvia emerged in revolutionary fires both in cities and the rural areas. It was the first major mass movement against the foreign and social oppression for Latvia on the XX century.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 07:57:55 +0000