The New Student's Reference Work/Gapon, George

Gapon, George, a Russian socialist and priest, was born in Biliki, Poltava, in southern Russia. As a boy he lived with his peasant, parents, tending the sheep and cattle. At the age of twelve, he entered the lower Ecclesiastical School in Poltava. There he commenced to be influenced by the writings of Tolstoi. At sixteen he passed into the Ecclesiastical Seminary. For a few years following he taught in Poltava and there became ordained to the priesthood. Two years later he entered the Ecclesiastical Academy in St. Petersburg. About 1904 he formed a society called The Gathering of Russian Factory Hands of St. Petersburg. This was gradually enlarged, until it became a powerful band of socialists. Father Gapon led the Russians in their appeal to the czar in 1905, when he was shot. He was found hanged in April, 1906, in a country-home of Mme. Zverzhinskaia, in Oxorkow, Russia.