The petition was made up on January 5–8, 1905 by Georgy Gapon and a group of workers — leaders of the "Assembly of Russian Factory Workmen of St. Petersburg [ru]" (hereinafter — "Sobranie") with the participation of representatives of the democratic intelligence.

The main demand of the petition was the destruction of the power of officials and the convocation of a popular representation in the form of a Constituent assembly on the basis of universal, direct, secret and equal suffrage.

The political demands of the petition, which proposed to limit the tsarist autocracy, were considered "impertinent" by the government and were the reason for the dispersal of the workers' protests.

Created under the auspices of the St. Petersburg city government and police department, the Sobranie was designed to unite workers for education and mutual aid, thus weakening the influence of revolutionary propaganda on them.

However, the workers were greatly confused by Gapon's connection with the police department, and they could not overcome their distrust of the mysterious priest for a long time.

Zemstvo and other public institutions addressed the highest authorities with petitions or resolutions calling for the introduction of political freedoms and popular representation in the country.

[17] Due to the relaxation of censorship allowed by the government, the texts of Zemstvo petitions penetrated into the press and became the subject of public discussion.

In response, Gapon declared "that the charter was only a screen, that the real program of the society was different, and asked the workers to bring a resolution of a political nature that they had worked out.

He originally planned the speech to coincide with the expected fall of Port Arthur but later moved it to February 19, the anniversary of the emancipation of the peasants under Alexander II.

[21] Concerned about Finkel's growing influence, Gapon demanded that he and other intellectuals be removed from the meetings of the Sobranie leadership circle, and in conversations with the workers began to turn them against the intelligentsia.

[9] On January 5, Gapon told one of the Sobranie sections that the factory owners were gaining the upper hand over the workers because they had the bureaucratic government on their side.

"When the existing government turns its back on us at a critical moment in our lives, when it not only fails to help us, but even takes the side of the businessmen," Gapon said, "then we must demand the destruction of such a political system, in which only disenfranchisement falls to our lot.

[27] According to the memoirs of I. I. Pavlov, Gapon appeared at the apartment on Gorokhovaya and said that "events are unfolding with astonishing speed, the march to the Palace is inevitable, and I still have only everything ...".

[25] The historian V. Y. Yakovlev-Bogucharsky, who received the draft of the petition of January 6 from Gapon, refused to make any changes, arguing that at least 7,000 signatures of workers had already been collected.

The petition really needed changes, but in view of the fact that the signatures of the workers had already been collected under it, NN and his comrades did not feel entitled to make even the slightest changes in it.

A. Shilov, its text is written in the style of church rhetoric, which clearly points to the authorship of Gapon, who was accustomed to such sermons and speeches.

Thus, the worker V. A. Yanov, chairman of the Narva branch of the "Assembly," when asked by the investigator about the petition, replied: "It was written by Gapon's hand, it was always with him, and he often rewrote it".

In accordance with biblical and old Russian tradition, the petition addressed the tsar to inform him that the workers and residents of St. Petersburg had come to him seeking truth and protection.

Finally, the third paragraph, "Measures against the oppression of capital over labor", included the following points: occupational safety and health; freedom of consumer-productive and professional trade unions; an eight-hour workday and rationing of overtime; freedom of labor to struggle against capital; participation of representatives of the working class in drafting a bill on state insurance for workers; and normal wages.

[32] In the second and final version of the petition, with which the workers went to the tsar on January 9, several more points were added to these demands, in particular: the separation of church and state; the execution of military and naval orders in Russia, not abroad; the cessation of war at the will of the people; the abolition of the institution of factory inspectors.

[7][35] When agreement had been reached on all points, the orator would read the last part of the petition, which expressed the workers' willingness to die on the walls of the royal palace if their demands were not met.

According to numerous testimonies, there was an atmosphere of religious exaltation in the sections: people were crying, beating their fists against the walls and swearing to come to the square and die for truth and freedom.

He persuaded the minister to fall at the tsar's feet and beg him to accept the petition, promising that his name would be written in the annals of history.

The official regretted that the failure to publish the petition gave rise to rumors that the workers had gone to the tsar to complain about their low wages rather than with political demands.

[42] At the same time, the text of the petition was published in its first edition in a number of illegal publications — in the journal "Osvobozhdeniye", in the newspapers "Iskra", "Vperyod" and "Revolutionary Russia", as well as in the foreign press.

According to the liberals, the petition marked the union of the workers with the voice of the public, demanding popular representation and political freedoms.

Lenin called the petition "an extremely interesting refraction in the minds of the masses, or their irresponsible leaders of the Social Democratic program".

According to Trotsky, "the petition not only contrasted the vague phraseology of liberal resolutions with the well-honed slogans of political democracy, but also infused them with class content with its demands for freedom to strike and an eight-hour day.

A January 8 leaflet of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP stated that the petition's demands presupposed the overthrow of the autocracy, and therefore it was pointless to address them to the tsar.

"For the first time, at the head of this demonstration, unprecedented in its number of participants, revolutionary in its essence and peaceful in its form, was a priest in vestments, carrying a cross...