Founded in October 1905, its aim was to rally the people behind 'Great Russian nationalism' and the Tsar, espousing anti-socialist, anti-liberal, and above all antisemitic views.

[17] Save lawyer and journalist Bulatsel, another leading intellectual of the URP was B. V. Nikolsky, privatdozent (senior lecturer) at Petersburg University.

[2] It was founded in October 1905 as a movement to mobilise and rally the masses against the Left, by the two 'minor government officials' Alexander Dubrovin and Vladimir Purishkevich.

17 October] 1905, Purishkevich, Apollo Apollonovich Maikov (son of poet Apollon Maykov), Pavel Bulatzel, Baranov, Vladimir Gringmut[citation needed] and some others gathered at Dubrovin's home.

[21] Several prominent, leading church members were also supportive of the organisation, among them the royal family's close friend and future Orthodox Saint John of Kronstadt, Iliodor the monk, and Bishop Hermogenes.

Minister of the Interior Pyotr Durnovo was completely in the know about the foundation of the Union[24] while his subordinates actively worked upon creation of an open organisation to counteract the influence of revolutionaries and liberals among the masses.

[25] With powerful administrative support and funding at their disposal, the Union of the Russian People managed to organise and conduct its first mass public event less than a fortnight after its creation.

An orchestra was playing, a church choir sang "Praise God" and "Tsar Divine"; leaders of the URP (Dubrovin, Purishkevich, Bulatsel, Nikolsky) addressed the mob from a rostrum erected in the centre of the arena.

[citation needed] Special guests from the "Russian Assembly": Prince M. N. Volkonsky, journalist from Novoye Vremya Nikolai Engelhardt and two bishops also welcomed the new party with their speeches.

Sergei Witte was a rare occasion among high-ranking officials being 'unequivocally hostile to the URP'[26] (in his memoirs he calls Dubrovin a 'high-handed and abusive leader').

These militant groups marched through the streets holding in their pockets knives and brass knuckles, and carrying religious symbols such as icons and crosses and imperial ones such as patriotic banners and portraits of Tsar Nicholas II.

Their numbers were swelled by thousands of criminals who had been released as a part of the October amnesty, who looked at it as a chance of violence and pillaging.

[29] The Union also became the main instigator (through meetings, gatherings, lectures, manifestations and mass public prayers) of the pogroms against Jews (especially in 1906 in Gomel, Yalta, Białystok, Odessa, Sedlets and other cities), in which members of the URP often took an active part.

[citation needed] The supreme body of URP was called the Main Council (Russian: Главный Совет, romanized: Glavny Soviet).

A merchant from Petersburg I. I. Baranov was the treasurer of the URP, and barrister Sergei Trishatny (elder brother of a Deputy Chairman) performed as secretary.

The Kyiv Department of the Union of Russian People was led by Anatoly Savenko and Vasily Shulgin as its most prominent members.

URP also printed its propaganda materials in Moskovskiye Vedomosti ("Moscow News"), Grazhdanin ("Citizen"), Kievlyanin ("Kievan") and others.