In November 1914, the Russian Bolshevik Party's activities grew increasingly frequent. They actively forged connections among factory workers and peasants in and around St. Petersburg. The Bolshevik Party's activities drew the Russian government's attention. However, the Tsar had focused all his attention on the military and had simply ignored them. Or rather, he had long since grown numb to such riots and uprisings; nothing about them seemed strange anymore.
On November 3, large-scale strike demonstrations erupted across Russia to commemorate the 1905 Bloody Sunday. Workers in the capital, St. Petersburg, answered the Bolshevik Party's call and held strikes and demonstrations, shouting slogans such as, "Down with the war!" and "Bread and peace!"
Afterward, some 130,000 male and female workers from fifty factories in St. Petersburg went on strike and marched, drawing back the curtain on the February Revolution. The next day, the number of people participating in the strike demonstrations rose to 200,000.
Under the Bolshevik Party's leadership, virtually all of St. Petersburg's workers joined the strike. This further expanded its scale. And that caught the Tsar's attention.
"Your Majesty, the situation in St. Petersburg has become extremely dire. Vast numbers of workers have joined the strike at the instigation of those rebels. Order throughout the capital has already become a complete mess. If we do not find a way to stop them, the riots may very well spread across the entire country. That would be extremely disadvantageous for us!" Home Minister Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin's face was filled with panic.
"Bastards! Those damned rebels! We never should have spared them in the first place. At this time of national peril, not only do they fail to think of serving the country, they repeatedly cause us trouble instead. This time, I absolutely will not spare them again. Tell the St. Petersburg