elected the first president of the Georgian Republic in May 1991.
His period in office was brief and unsuccessful. Unable to make the transition from dissident activist to political mediator and statesman, his inGAPON, GEORGY APOLLONOVICH creasing authoritarianism alienated almost every interest group in Georgian society. A coalition of paramilitary groups, his own government’s National Guard, intellectuals, and students joined to overthrow him in a fierce battle in the city center in January 1992. He made his base in neighboring Chechnya and in 1993 attempted to reestablish his power in Georgia, leading the country into civil war. Quickly defeated after his forces captured a number of major towns in west Georgia, he was killed, or committed suicide in December 1993 in the Zugdidi region, Georgia. See also: GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS; NATIONALISM IN THE SOVIET UNION; PERESTROIKA
STEPHEN JONES
(1870-1906), Russian Orthodox priest led a peaceful demonstration of workers to the Winter Palace on Bloody Sunday, 1905; the event began the 1905 revolution.
Father Georgy Apollonovich Gapon was a Ukrainian priest who became involved with missionary activity among the homeless in St. Petersburg, where he was a student at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. His work attracted the attention of police authorities, and when Sergei Zu-batov began organizing workers in police- sponsored labor groups, Gapon was brought to his attention. Zubatov’s efforts in Moscow ran into the opposition of industrialists who objected to police interference in business matters. In St. Petersburg Zubatov tried to tone down police involvement by recruiting clergy to provide direction to his workers. Gapon was reluctant to become involved, sensing opposition to Zubatov among the officials and the distrust of workers, but he began attending meetings and established contacts with the more influential workers. He also argued with Zubatov that workers should be allowed to decide for themselves what was good for them.
During the summer of 1903, Zubatov was dismissed and given twenty-four hours to leave the city. In this manner Gapon inherited an organization created and patronized by the police. On the surface Gapon seemed to justify the trust of the authorities. A clubroom was opened where meetings began with prayers and the national anthem. Portraits of the tsars hung on the wall. Ostensibly there were no reasons for the authorities to be concerned about the Assembly, as the organization was named, but beneath the surface, Gapon’s ambitious plans began to unfold. Gathering a small group of the more active workers, he unveiled to them his “secret program,” which advocated the winning of labor concessions through the strength of organized labor. His advocacy of trade unionism met with the enthusiastic support of the conferees, and he gained loyal supporters who would provide the leadership of the Assembly.
During the turbulent year of 1904, the Assembly grew rapidly. By the end of the year it had opened eleven branches. However, its rapid growth was causing concern among the factory owners, who feared the growing militancy of the workers and resented police interference on their behalf. Shortly before Christmas, four workers, all active members of the Assembly, were fired at the giant Putilov Works. Rumors spread that all members of the Assembly would be fired. When Gapon and police authorities tried to intercede, they were told that labor organizations were illegal and that the Assembly had no right to speak for its members. Faced with a question of survival, Gapon called a large meeting of his followers, at which it was decided to strike the Putilov Works-a desperate measure, since strikes were illegal.
The strike began on January 16, and by January 17 the entire working force in the capital had joined the strike. Branches turned into perpetual gatherings and rallies of workers. At one of the meetings, Gapon threw out an idea of a peaceful mass demonstration to present a workers’ petition to the tsar himself. The idea caught on like fire. Gapon began preparing the petition. It essentially contained the more specific demands of his secret program and a vague compilation of the most popular demands of the opposition groups. Copies of the petition, “Most Humble and Loyal Address to be presented to the Tsar at 2 P.M. on the Winter Palace Square,” were sent to various officials.
Meanwhile the march was prohibited, and reinforcements were brought to St. Petersburg. Police tried to arrest Gapon, but he could not be found. By then the workers were too agitated to abandon their hope to see the tsar; moreover, they did not think soldiers would fire on a peaceful procession that in some places was presented as a religious procession. But the soldiers opened fire in several locations, resulting in more than 130 casualties.
GASPIRALI, ISMAIL BEY
These events, known as Bloody Sunday, began the revolution of 1905.
Gapon called for a revolution, then escaped abroad. Becoming disillusioned with the revolutionary parties, he attempted to reconcile with the post-1905 regime of Sergei Witte. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, he tried to revive his organization but was killed by a terrorist squad acting on the orders of the notorious double agent, Evno Azef. To explain Gapon’s murder, the perpetrators concocted a story of a workers’ trial and execution. See also: BLOODY SUNDAY; REVOLUTION OF 1905; RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH; ZUBATOV, SERGEI VASILIEVICH
Ascher, Abraham. (1988). “Gapon and Bloody Sunday.” Revolution of 1905, vol. 1. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Gapon, Georgy A. (1905). The Story of My Life. London: Chapman amp; Hall. Sablinsky, Walter. (1976). The Road to Bloody Sunday: Father Gapon and the St. Petersburg Massacre of 1905. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
GASPIRALI, ISMAIL BEY
(1851-1914), Crimean Tatar intellectual, social reformer, publisher, and key figure in the emergence of the modernist, or jadid, movement among Russian Turkic peoples.
Ismail Bey Gaspirali was born March 8, 1851, in the Crimean village of Avci, but he spent most of his first decade in Bakhchisarai, the nearby town to which his family had moved during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Reared in the Islamic faith, his education began with tutoring in Arabic recitation by a local Muslim teacher (hoca), but then continued in the Russian-administered Simferopol gymnasium and Russian military academies in Voronezh and Moscow. In 1872 he embarked on a foreign tour that took him through Austria and Germany to France, where he remained for two years. A year followed in Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, before Gaspirali returned home during the winter of 1875. His observations abroad became the basis for one of his earliest and most important essays, A Critical Look at European Civilization (Avrupa Medeniyetine bir Nazar-i Muvazene, 1885), and inspired the urban improvement projects during the four years (1878-1882) that he served as mayor of Bakhchisarai.
By then, the importance of education and the modern press had become for Gaspirali the keys to improving the quality of life for Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples, who were mostly adherents of Islam. Nineteenth- century European military might, economic development, scientific advances, increased social mobility, political experimentation, and global expansion impressed upon him the need for reconsideration of Turkic cultural norms, perspectives, and aspirations. The narrow focus of education, inspired by centuries of Islamic pedagogy whose purpose was the provision of sufficient literacy in Arabic for reading and reciting the Qur’an, struck Gaspirali as unsuited for the challenges of modern life as defined by European experience. A new teaching method (usul-i jadid), emphasizing literacy in the child’s native language, and a reformed curriculum that included study of mathematics, natural sciences, geography, history, and the Russian language, should be instituted in new-style primary schools where children would be educated in preparation for enrolling in more advanced, modern, and Russian-supported institutions. The survival of non-European societies such as his own, many already the victims of European hegemony and their own adherence to time-honored practices, depended upon a willingness to accept change and new information, open up public opportunities for women, mobilize resources and talents, and become involved with worldly affairs.
The medium by which Gaspirali propagandized his new method, both as pedagogue and social transformer, was the modern press. Beginning in April 1883, he published a dual-language newspaper in both Turkic and Russian entitled The Interpreter (Terc?man in Turkic, Perevodchik in Russian). It appeared without interruption until early 1918, becoming the longest surviving and most influential Turkic periodical within the Russian Empire. In later years, Gaspirali published other newspapers- The World of Women (Alem-i Nisvan), The World of Children (Alem-i
