On January 22, 1905, a procession of Petersburg workers heading to the Winter Palace to present a collective petition to Emperor Nicholas II regarding workers' needs was dispersed. This procession was organized by the legal organization "Assembly of Russian Factory and Plant Workers of St. Petersburg" under the leadership of Father Georgy Gapon. The workers took action after an unsuccessful strike that began on January 3 at the Putilov factory and spread to all enterprises in the city. On January 5, Gapon suggested seeking support from the Tsar, and on January 7 and 8, he drafted a petition outlining the workers' demands. In addition to economic demands, the petition included political ones, the main one being the convening of a people's representation in the form of a Constituent Assembly. On the day of the procession, the Emperor was neither in the palace nor in the city. The political nature of the action and the demonstrators' attempts to break through the soldiers' cordon led to dispersals, during which firearms were used against unarmed workers. This dispersal, which resulted in the deaths of several hundred people, sparked a wave of outrage in Russia and beyond and marked the beginning of the First Russian Revolution.