We may think the czar cares and is merely ignorant. Perhaps he knows and couldn’t care less like the events of 1905 show:
On the fated Sunday, striking workers and their families gathered at six points in the city. Clutching religious icons and singing hymns and patriotic songs (particularly “God save the Tsar”), they proceeded towards the Winter Palace without police interference. The demonstrators brought along their families in hope of seeing their beloved Tsar and delivering the petition to him as they believed he would take into account their miseries and attempt to sort their problems for them, they believed it would be a peaceful and patriotic day during which they could pass on their polite pettition to the Tsar. However, the army pickets near the palace fired warning shots, and then fired directly into the crowds to disperse them. Gapon was fired upon near the Narva Gate. Around forty people surrounding him were killed, but he was uninjured.
Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg.Estimates of the number killed are uncertain. The Tsar’s officials recorded 96 dead and 333 injured; anti-government sources claimed over 4,000 dead; moderate estimates still average around 1,000 killed or wounded, both from shots and trampled during the panic. Nicholas II described the day as ‘painful’, but as reports spread across the city, disorder and looting broke out. Gapon’s Assembly was closed down that day, and Gapon quickly left Russia. Returning in October, he was assassinated by his friend Pinhas Rutenberg when Gapon revealed that he was working for the Secret Police.This event sparked revolutionary activities in Russia that resulted in the Revolution of 1905.