Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/747

The Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 565 In Russia the crops failed, and the starving peasants burned and plundered the houses and barns of the nobles, arguing that if the buildings were destroyed, the owners could not come back and the Tsar's police could no longer make them their headquarters. Moreover, it became known that government officials had been stealing money which should have gone for rifles and supplies, and even funds of the Red Cross" Society for aiding the wounded. THE WINTER PALACE, PETROGRAD The massacre on "Red Sunday" took place in front of this magnificent palace of the Tsar 1027. "Red Sunday" (January 22, 1905). On Sunday, Jan- uary 22, 1905, a fearful event occurred. The workingmen of St. Petersburg had sent a petition to the Tsar and had informed him that on Sunday they would march to the palace humbly to pray him in person to consider their sufferings, since they had no faith in his officials or ministers. When Sunday morning came, masses of men, women, and children, wholly unarmed, attempted to approach the Winter Palace in the pathetic hope that the "Little Father," as they called the Tsar, would listen to their woes. Instead, the Cossacks tried to disperse them with their whips, and then the troops which guarded the palace shot and cut down hundreds and wounded thousands in a conflict which