121 years ago, Russian printers went on strike over commas.

In 1905, workers at Sytin’s Moscow publishing house engaged in a strike that would alter the course of Russian history. At the time, printers were compensated by the individual characters they set, but punctuation – including commas, semi-colons, and periods – was not included in their pay. Their lack of remuneration for these essential elements of written language became a rallying point for the burgeoning labor movement.

The "Comma Strike" quickly gained traction, inspiring a widespread boycott across Russia. This surge in worker solidarity culminated in the czar's concession of Russia's first constitutional monarchy. The October uprising of 1905, which marked the revolution's climax, was triggered by this very economic dispute. The catalyst for change, it is said, was the power of a simple punctuation mark.