Bishop of Volyn Antonius (Khrapovitsky) and January 9/22, 1905

British press proclaimed the murder of Grand Duke Sergius being a revenge for the “Bloody Sunday”. Th at was an episode of anti-Russian media campaign during the Russian-Japanese war. Imperia l Manifesto of February 18, 1905 contained an official statement about intern al unrest and labor strik es. The sermon of bishop of Volyn Antonius (Khrapovitsky) at Isaac Cathedral of St. Petersburg on February 20, 1905 was a direct response to the Manifesto. In that sermon, Antonius also made a statement about causes of riots at the capital on January 9/22, 1905. Antonius was absent from the capital in January, but got infor mation about the events when present in the Holy Synod in February 1905. The statement by Antonius has been seen as a confir mation of the official government evaluation of the January 9/22, 1905 riots. That was al so the reason why immediately upon the publication that sermon provoked a series of media attacks on Antoni us from writer s associated with a “liberation movement”. First responder was Vasily Rozanov, who was sh ortly followed by Sergey Bulgakov. For both writers, the criticism of the sermon by Antonius was directly related to their political views and loyalties to the revolution ary movement. The better-known attack on Antonius was performed by then well-known writer Dmitry Merezh kovsky in 1906-1907. Merezhkkovsky’s attitude was conn ected fir st with th e pr opagan da campaign to th e election of State Duma in ear ly 1906. Later, Merezhkovsky’s interest to the subject of Antonius’ sermon was linked to h is stay in Paris and connections to socialists and terrorists.