Kyiv's First Maidan: The 1905 Storming of the City Duma

The very first Maidan: how the storming of Kyiv's City Duma unfolded in 1905, and how it ended.

The first "Maidan" ended with protesters shot and a pogrom

History records that during the very first mass unrest in the area of today's Maidan, protesters seized the City Duma. This happened in October 1905, and the outcome was grim.

Days of Strikes

Before the Maidan of 1905 began, the city had already been in turmoil for several days. Revolutionary parties, mainly the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, were pushing for a general strike in St. Petersburg, Kyiv and other cities under the slogan "Down with autocracy!"

The unrest spread through the city. According to official reports, striking agitators "burst into schools, factories, workshops and even pharmacies, demanding that classes, work and trade stop. Where persuasion failed, they used force... On streetcars they took the motor handles from the drivers and cut the trolley ropes, and where that did not work, they smashed the windows with stones." Life in the city came to a standstill.

Meanwhile, Kyiv was effectively left without authority. The frightened Governor General Nikolai Kleigels, who imagined an armed uprising was beginning, hastened to give up his powers. He declared martial law and handed control to the acting commander of the military district, General Karass. Karass could not get a grip on the situation right away, so the security forces were largely inactive. Only a few organizers of the unrest were detained and taken into custody.

At the time, the City Duma stood on Khreshchatyk in the middle of Duma Square, today's Maidan Nezalezhnosti. A crowd of many thousands gathered beneath its walls.

Bloodshed and Pogrom

The protesters showed the Tsar's manifesto to the soldiers and police who arrived at Duma Square and urged them not to intervene. A few hours later, however, the military command decided to use force. A squadron of dragoons galloped onto the square. Stones and bottles flew at them from the crowd, and the soldiers drew their sabers and then opened fire. The celebration of freedom ended in bloodshed. A pogrom followed.

Only on October 20 did the military authorities move to restore order, and they dispersed the pogrom mobs fairly quickly. According to police figures, the bloody events left 47 dead and 205 wounded. For a long time afterward, the streets of Kyiv were lined with houses with smashed windows and broken doors, scattered household belongings and unwashed pools of blood.

The first Maidan is a vivid reminder of how dangerous outbursts of extremism and the provocations that accompany them can be.