Kazan demonstration
The Kazan demonstration of 1876 was the first political demonstration in Russia. It took place on December 6, 1876, in front of the Kazan [Cathedral, St. Petersburg|Kazan Cathedral] in Saint Petersburg. The demonstration was organised and conducted by the members of Zemlya i volya and workers' associations. Some 400 people gathered in the cathedral square. Georgi Plekhanov, who was one of the organisers of the demonstration, gave a passionate speech during the demonstration, indicting the autocracy and defending the ideas of Chernyshevsky, who was then in exile. One of the workers - Ya.Potapov - waved a red flag. The demonstrators offered resistance to the police. As a result, 31 demonstrators were arrested, of which five people would later be sentenced to 10 to 15 years of katorga, other ten to Siberian exile and other three, including Potapov, to a 5-year incarceration in a monastery.