In the first quarter of the 19th century. A revolutionary ideology arose in Russia, the bearers of which were the Decembrists. Disillusioned with the policies of Alexander 1, part of the progressive nobility decided to put an end to the reasons, as it seemed to them, for the backwardness of Russia.
Attempted coup d'état that took place in St. Petersburg, the capital Russian Empire, December 14 (26), 1825, was called the Decembrist Uprising. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, many of them were officers of the guard. They tried to use the guards units to prevent Nicholas I from ascending the throne. The goal was the abolition of the autocracy and the abolition of serfdom.
In February 1816, the first secret political society arose in St. Petersburg, the goal of which was the abolition of serfdom and the adoption of a constitution. It consisted of 28 members (A.N. Muravyov, S.I. and M.I. Muravyov-Apostles, S.P.T Rubetskoy, I.D. Yakushkin, P.I. Pestel, etc.)
In 1818, the organization “ Welfare Union”, which had 200 members and had councils in other cities. The society propagated the idea of abolishing serfdom, preparing a revolutionary coup using the forces of the officers. " Welfare Union"collapsed due to disagreements between radical and moderate members of the union.
In March 1821, arose in Ukraine Southern Society led by P.I. Pestel, who was the author of the policy document " Russian Truth».
In St. Petersburg, on the initiative of N.M. Muravyov was created " Northern society”, which had a liberal plan of action. Each of these societies had its own program, but the goal was the same - the destruction of autocracy, serfdom, estates, the creation of a republic, the separation of powers, and the proclamation of civil liberties.
Preparations for an armed uprising began. The conspirators decided to take advantage of the complex legal situation that had developed around the rights to the throne after the death of Alexander I. On the one hand, there was a secret document confirming the long-standing renunciation of the throne by the brother next to the childless Alexander in seniority, Konstantin Pavlovich, which gave an advantage to the next brother, who was extremely unpopular among the highest military-bureaucratic elite to Nikolai Pavlovich. On the other hand, even before the opening of this document, Nikolai Pavlovich, under pressure from the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, hastened to renounce his rights to the throne in favor of Konstantin Pavlovich. After the repeated refusal of Konstantin Pavlovich from the throne, the Senate, as a result of a long night meeting on December 13-14, 1825, recognized the legal rights to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich.
The Decembrists decided to prevent the Senate and troops from taking the oath to the new king.
The conspirators planned to occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and Winter Palace, to arrest royal family and, if certain circumstances arise, kill. Sergei Trubetskoy was elected to lead the uprising. Next, the Decembrists wanted to demand from the Senate the publication of a national manifesto proclaiming the destruction of the old government and the establishment of a provisional government. Admiral Mordvinov and Count Speransky were supposed to be members of the new revolutionary government. The deputies were entrusted with the task of approving the constitution - the new fundamental law. If the Senate refused to announce a national manifesto containing points on the abolition of serfdom, equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms, the introduction of compulsory military service for all classes, the introduction of jury trials, the election of officials, the abolition of the poll tax, etc., it was decided to force him do this forcibly. Then it was planned to convene a National Council, which would decide the choice of form of government: a republic or a constitutional monarchy. If the republican form was chosen, the royal family would have to be expelled from the country. Ryleev first proposed sending Nikolai Pavlovich to Fort Ross, but then he and Pestel plotted the murder of Nikolai and, perhaps, Tsarevich Alexander.
On the morning of December 14, 1825, the Moscow Life Guards Regiment entered Senate Square. He was joined by the Guards Marine Crew and the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment. In total, about 3 thousand people gathered.
However, Nicholas I, notified of the impending conspiracy, took the oath of the Senate in advance and, gathering troops loyal to him, surrounded the rebels. After negotiations, in which Metropolitan Seraphim and the Governor-General of St. Petersburg M.A. Miloradovich (who was mortally wounded) took part on the part of the government, Nicholas I ordered the use of artillery. The uprising in St. Petersburg was crushed.
But already on January 2 it was suppressed by government troops. Arrests of participants and organizers began throughout Russia. 579 people were involved in the Decembrist case. Found guilty 287. Five were sentenced to death (K.F. Ryleev, P.I. Pestel, P.G. Kakhovsky, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol). 120 people were exiled to hard labor in Siberia or to a settlement.
About one hundred and seventy officers involved in the Decembrist case were extrajudicially demoted to soldiers and sent to the Caucasus, where Caucasian War. Several exiled Decembrists were later sent there. In the Caucasus, some, with their courage, earned promotion to officers, like M. I. Pushchin, and some, like A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, died in battle. Individual participants in the Decembrist organizations (such as V.D. Volkhovsky and I.G. Burtsev) were transferred to the troops without demotion to soldiers, which took part in the Russian-Persian War of 1826-1828 and the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829 . In the mid-1830s, just over thirty Decembrists who served in the Caucasus returned home.
The verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court on the death penalty for five Decembrists was executed on July 13 (25), 1826 in the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
During the execution, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky and Ryleev fell from the noose and were hanged a second time. There is a misconception that this was contrary to the tradition of inadmissibility of the second execution of the death penalty. According to military Article No. 204 it is stated that “ Realize death penalty until the end result occurs ", that is, until the death of the convicted person. The procedure for releasing a convicted person who, for example, fell from the gallows, which existed before Peter I, was abolished by the Military Article. On the other hand, the “marriage” was explained by the absence of executions in Russia over the previous several decades (the exception was the executions of participants in the Pugachev uprising).
On August 26 (September 7), 1856, the day of his coronation, Emperor Alexander II pardoned all the Decembrists, but many did not live to see their liberation. It should be noted that Alexander Muravyov, the founder of the Union of Salvation, sentenced to exile in Siberia, was already appointed mayor in Irkutsk in 1828, then held various responsible positions, including governorship, and participated in the abolition of serfdom in 1861.
For many years, and even nowadays, not infrequently, the Decembrists in general and the leaders of the coup attempt were idealized and given an aura of romanticism. However, we must admit that these were ordinary state criminals and traitors to the Motherland. Not for nothing in the Life St. Seraphim Sarovsky, who usually greeted any person with exclamations of " My joy!", there are two episodes that sharply contrast with the love with which Saint Seraphim treated everyone who came to him...
Go back where you came from
Sarov monastery. Elder Seraphim, completely imbued with love and kindness, looks sternly at the officer approaching him and refuses him a blessing. The seer knows that he is a participant in the conspiracy of the future Decembrists. " Go back where you came from ", the monk tells him decisively. The great elder then leads his novice to the well, the water in which was cloudy and dirty. " So this man who came here intends to outrage Russia “, said the righteous man, jealous of the fate of the Russian monarchy.
Troubles will not end well
Two brothers arrived in Sarov and went to the elder (these were two Volkonsky brothers); he accepted and blessed one of them, but did not allow the other to approach him, waved his hands and drove him away. And he told his brother about him that he was up to no good, that the troubles would not end well and that a lot of tears and blood would be shed, and advised him to come to his senses in time. And sure enough, the one of the two brothers whom he drove away got into trouble and was exiled.
Note. Major General Prince Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky (1788-1865) was a member of the Union of Welfare and Southern Society; convicted of the first category and, upon confirmation, sentenced to hard labor for 20 years (the term was reduced to 15 years). Sent to the Nerchinsk mines, and then transferred to a settlement.
So, looking back, we must admit that it was bad that the Decembrists were executed. It’s bad that only five of them were executed...
And in our time, we must clearly understand that any organization that sets as its goal (overtly or covertly) the organization of disorder in Russia, the arousal public opinion, organizing protest actions, as happened in poor Ukraine, armed overthrow of power, etc. - subject to immediate closure, and the organizers to trial as criminals against Russia.
Lord, deliver our fatherland from disorder and civil strife!
A company of young nobles who dreamed of changing the state of affairs in Russia. In the early stages, quite a lot of people participated in the Decembrist secret societies, and later the investigation had to think about who to consider as a conspirator and who not. This is because the activities of these societies were limited exclusively to conversations. Whether the members of the Union of Welfare and the Union of Salvation were ready to take any active action is a moot point.
The societies included people of varying degrees of nobility, wealth and position, but there were several things that united them.
Decembrists at the mill in Chita. Drawing by Nikolai Repin. 1830s Decembrist Nikolai Repin was sentenced to hard labor for 8 years, then the term was reduced to 5 years. He served his sentence in the Chita prison and in the Petrovsky Factory. Wikimedia CommonsThey were all nobles
Poor or wealthy, well-born or not, but they all belonged to the nobility, that is, to the elite, which implies a certain standard of living, education and status. This, in particular, meant that much of their behavior was determined by the code of noble honor. Subsequently, this presented them with a difficult moral dilemma: the code of the nobleman and the code of the conspirator apparently contradict each other. A nobleman, being caught in an unsuccessful uprising, must come to the sovereign and obey, the conspirator must remain silent and not betray anyone. A nobleman cannot and should not lie, a conspirator does everything that is required to achieve his goals. Imagine a Decembrist living in an illegal position using forged documents - that is, the ordinary life of an underground worker of the second half of the 19th century centuries - impossible.
The vast majority were officers
The Decembrists are people of the army, professional military men with the appropriate education; many went through battles and were heroes of wars, had military awards.
They were not revolutionaries in the classical sense
All of them sincerely considered their main goal to be service for the good of the fatherland and, had circumstances been different, they would have considered it an honor to serve the sovereign as state dignitaries. The overthrow of the sovereign was not at all the main idea of the Decembrists; they came to it by looking at the current state of affairs and logically studying the experience of revolutions in Europe (and not all of them liked this idea).
How many Decembrists were there in total?
Nikolai Panov's cell in the Petrovsky Zavod prison. Drawing by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1830s Nikolai Bestuzhev was sentenced to hard labor forever, kept in Chita and in the Petrovsky Plant, then in Selenginsk, Irkutsk province. In total, after the uprising on December 14, 1825, more than 300 people were arrested, 125 of them were convicted, the rest were acquitted. Exact amount It is difficult to identify participants in Decembrist and pre-Decembrist societies, precisely because all their activities boiled down to more or less abstract conversations in a friendly circle of young people not bound by a clear plan or strict formal organization.
It is worth noting that the people who participated in the Decembrist secret societies and directly in the uprising are two not too intersecting sets. Many of those who participated in the meetings of the early Decembrist societies subsequently completely lost interest in them and became, for example, zealous security officials; in nine years (from 1816 to 1825), quite a lot of people passed through secret societies. In turn, those who were not members of secret societies at all or were accepted a couple of days before the rebellion also took part in the uprising.
How did they become Decembrists?
“Russian Truth” by Pavel Pestel. 1824 Program document of the Southern Society of Decembrists. The full name is the Reserved State Charter of the great Russian people, which serves as a testament for the improvement of Russia and contains the right order both for the people and for the temporary supreme government, which has dictatorial powers. To be included in the circle of Decembrists, sometimes it was enough to answer the question of a not entirely sober friend: “There is a society of people who want the good, prosperity, happiness and freedom of Russia. Are you with us?" - and both could later forget about this conversation. It is worth noting that conversations about politics in the noble society of that time were not at all encouraged, so those who were inclined to such conversations, willy-nilly, formed closed circles of interests. In a certain sense, the Decembrist secret societies can be considered a way of socializing the then generation of young people; a way to get away from the emptiness and boredom of officer society, to find a more sublime and meaningful way of existence.
Thus, the Southern Society arose in the tiny Ukrainian town of Tulchin, where the headquarters of the Second Army was stationed. Educated young officers, whose interests are not limited to cards and vodka, gather in their circle to talk about politics - and this is their only entertainment; They would call these meetings, in the fashion of that time, a secret society, which, in essence, was simply a way characteristic of the era to identify themselves and their interests.
In a similar way, the Salvation Union was simply a company of comrades from the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment; many were relatives. Returning from the war in 1816, they organized their life in St. Petersburg, where life was quite expensive, according to the artel principle familiar to soldiers: they rent an apartment together, chip in for food and prescribe the details of general life in the charter. This one is small friendly company subsequently it will become a secret society with the loud name of the Union of Salvation, or the Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland. In fact, this is a very small - a couple of dozen people - friendly circle, the participants of which wanted, among other things, to talk about politics and the ways of development of Russia.
By 1818, the circle of participants began to expand, and the Union of Salvation was reformed into the Union of Welfare, in which there were already about 200 people from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and all of them had never gathered together and two members of the union might no longer know each other personally. This uncontrolled expansion of the circle prompted the leaders of the movement to announce the dissolution of the Union of Welfare: to get rid of extra people, and also to give the opportunity to those who wanted to seriously continue the matter and prepare a real conspiracy, to do this without unnecessary eyes and ears.
How were they different from other revolutionaries?
The first page of Nikita Muravyov's constitutional project. 1826 The Constitution of Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov is a program document of the Northern Society. It was not officially accepted by the society, but was widely known and reflected the sentiments of the majority of its members. Compiled in 1822-1825. Project “100 Main Documents of Russian History” In fact, the Decembrists were the first political opposition in the history of Russia, created on ideological grounds (and not, for example, as a result of the struggle of court groups for access to power). Soviet historians habitually began with them the chain of revolutionaries, which continued with Herzen, Petrashevists, Narodniks, Narodnaya Volya and, finally, the Bolsheviks. However, the Decembrists were distinguished from them primarily by the fact that they were not obsessed with the idea of revolution as such, and did not declare that any transformations were meaningless until they overthrew old order things and no utopian ideal future was proclaimed. They did not oppose themselves to the state, but served it and, moreover, were an important part of the Russian elite. They were not professional revolutionaries living within a very specific and largely marginal subculture - like everyone else who later replaced them. They thought of themselves as possible assistants to Alexander I in carrying out reforms, and if the emperor had continued the line that he had so boldly begun before their eyes by granting the constitution to Poland in 1815, they would have been happy to help him in this.
What inspired the Decembrists?
The Battle of Moscow at Borodino on September 7, 1812. Painting by Albrecht Adam. 1815 Wikimedia Commons More than anything - experience Patriotic War 1812, characterized by a huge patriotic upsurge, and the Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army of 1813-1814, when many young and ardent people saw another life up close for the first time and were completely intoxicated by this experience. It seemed unfair to them that Russia lives differently from Europe, and even more unfair and even savage - that the soldiers with whom they won this war side by side are entirely serfs and the landowners treat them like a thing. It was these topics - reforms to achieve greater justice in Russia and the abolition of serfdom - that were the main ones in the conversations of the Decembrists. No less important was the political context of that time: transformations and revolutions after the Napoleonic Wars took place in many countries, and it seemed that Russia could and should change along with Europe. The Decembrists owe the very opportunity to seriously discuss the prospects for a change of system and revolution in the country to the political climate.
What did the Decembrists want?
In general - reforms, changes in Russia for the better, the introduction of a constitution and the abolition of serfdom, fair courts, equality of people of all classes before the law. In details, they diverged, often radically. It would be fair to say that the Decembrists did not have any single and clear plan for reforms or revolutionary changes. It is impossible to imagine what would have happened if the Decembrist uprising had been crowned with success, because they themselves did not have time and were unable to agree on what to do next. How to introduce a constitution and organize general elections in a country with an overwhelmingly illiterate peasant population? They did not have an answer to this and many other questions. The Decembrists’ disputes among themselves only marked the emergence of a culture of political discussion in the country, and many questions were raised for the first time, and no one had answers to them at all.
However, if they did not have unity regarding goals, they were unanimous regarding the means: the Decembrists wanted to achieve their goal through a military coup; what we would now call a putsch (with the amendment that if the reforms had come from the throne, the Decembrists would have welcomed them). The idea of a popular uprising was completely alien to them: they were firmly convinced that involving the people in this story was extremely dangerous. It was impossible to control the rebel people, and the troops, as it seemed to them, would remain under their control (after all, most of the participants had command experience). The main thing here is that they were very afraid of bloodshed and civil strife and believed that a military coup would make it possible to avoid this.
In particular, this is why the Decembrists, when bringing the regiments to the square, had absolutely no intention of explaining their reasons to them, that is, they considered conducting propaganda among their own soldiers an unnecessary matter. They counted only on the personal loyalty of the soldiers, to whom they tried to be caring commanders, and also on the fact that the soldiers would simply follow orders.
How did the uprising go?
Senate Square December 14, 1825. Painting by Karl Kohlman. 1830s Bridgeman Images/Fotodom Unsuccessful. This is not to say that the conspirators did not have a plan, but they failed to carry it out from the very beginning. They managed to bring troops to Senate Square, but it was planned that they would come to Senate Square for a meeting of the State Council and the Senate, which were supposed to swear allegiance to the new sovereign, and demand the introduction of a constitution. But when the Decembrists came to the square, it turned out that the meeting had already ended, the dignitaries had dispersed, all decisions had been made, and there was simply no one to present their demands to.
The situation reached a dead end: the officers did not know what to do next and continued to keep the troops in the square. The rebels were surrounded by government troops and a shootout occurred. The rebels simply stood on Senate Street, not even trying to take any action - for example, to storm the palace. Several shots of grapeshot from government troops scattered the crowd and put them to flight.
Why did the uprising fail?
For any uprising to succeed, there must be an undoubted willingness to shed blood at some point. The Decembrists did not have this readiness; they did not want bloodshed. But it is difficult for a historian to imagine a successful rebellion, whose leaders make every effort not to kill anyone.
Blood was still shed, but there were relatively few casualties: both sides shot with noticeable reluctance, if possible over their heads. Government troops were tasked with simply scattering the rebels, but they fired back. Modern calculations by historians show that during the events on Senate Street, about 80 people died on both sides. Talks that there were up to 1,500 victims, and about the heap of corpses that the police threw into the Neva at night, are not confirmed by anything.
Who judged the Decembrists and how?
Interrogation of the Decembrist by the Investigative Committee in 1826. Drawing by Vladimir Adlerberg Wikimedia Commons To investigate the case, a special body was created - “the highly established Secret Committee to find accomplices of the malicious society that opened on December 14, 1825,” to which Nicholas I appointed mainly generals. To pass a verdict, a Supreme Criminal Court was specially established, to which senators, members of the State Council, and the Synod were appointed.
The problem was that the emperor really wanted to condemn the rebels fairly and according to the law. But, as it turned out, there were no suitable laws. There was no coherent code indicating the relative gravity of various crimes and the penalties for them (like the modern Criminal Code). That is, it was possible to use, say, the Code of Law of Ivan the Terrible - no one has canceled it - and, for example, boil everyone in boiling tar or cut them on the wheel. But there was an understanding that this no longer corresponds to the enlightened 19th century. In addition, there are many defendants - and their guilt obviously differs.
Therefore, Nicholas I instructed Mikhail Speransky, a dignitary then known for his liberalism, to develop some kind of system. Speransky divided the charge into 11 categories according to the degree of guilt, and for each category he prescribed what elements of the crime corresponded to it. And then the accused were assigned to these categories, and for each judge, after hearing a note about the strength of his guilt (that is, the result of the investigation, something like an indictment), they voted on whether he corresponds to this category and what punishment to assign to each category. There were five outside the ranks, sentenced to death. However, the sentences were made “with reserve” so that the sovereign could show mercy and mitigate the punishment.
The procedure was such that the Decembrists themselves were not present at the trial and could not justify themselves; the judges considered only the papers prepared by the Investigative Committee. The Decembrists were only given a ready verdict. They later reproached the authorities for this: in a more civilized country they would have had lawyers and the opportunity to defend themselves.
How did the Decembrists live in exile?
Street in Chita. Watercolor by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1829-1830 Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images Those who received a sentence of hard labor were sent to Siberia. According to the verdict, they were also deprived of ranks, noble dignity and even military awards. More lenient sentences for the last categories of convicts include exile to a settlement or to distant garrisons where they continued to serve; not everyone was deprived of their ranks and nobility.
Those sentenced to hard labor began to be sent to Siberia gradually, in small batches - they were transported on horses, with couriers. The first batch, of eight people (the most famous included Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Obolensky), were especially unlucky: they were sent to real mines, to mining factories, and there they spent the first, really difficult winter. But then, fortunately for the Decembrists, in St. Petersburg they realized: after all, if you distribute state criminals with dangerous ideas among the Siberian mines, this also means with my own hands scatter rebellious ideas throughout the penal servitude! Nicholas I decided, in order to avoid the spread of ideas, to gather all the Decembrists in one place. There was no prison of this size anywhere in Siberia. They set up a prison in Chita, transported there those eight who had already suffered at the Blagodatsky mine, and the rest were taken immediately there. It was cramped there; all the prisoners were kept in two large rooms. And it just so happened that there was absolutely no hard labor facility there, no mine. The latter, however, did not really worry the St. Petersburg authorities. In exchange for hard labor, the Decembrists were taken to fill up a ravine on the road or grind grain at a mill.
By the summer of 1830, a new prison was built for the Decembrists in Petrovsky Zavod, more spacious and with separate personal cells. There was no mine there either. They were led from Chita on foot, and they remembered this transition as a kind of journey through an unfamiliar and interesting Siberia: some along the way sketched drawings of the area and collected herbariums. The Decembrists were also lucky in that Nicholas appointed General Stanislav Leparsky, an honest and good-natured man, as commandant.
Leparsky fulfilled his duty, but did not oppress the prisoners and, where he could, alleviated their situation. In general, little by little the idea of hard labor evaporated, leaving imprisonment in remote areas of Siberia. If it were not for the arrival of their wives, the Decembrists, as the tsar wanted, would have been completely cut off from their past life: they were strictly forbidden to correspond. But it would be scandalous and indecent to prohibit wives from correspondence, so the isolation didn’t work out very well. There was also the important point that many still had influential relatives, including in St. Petersburg. Nicholas did not want to irritate this layer of the nobility, so they managed to achieve various small and not very small concessions.
Interior view of one of the courtyards of the casemate of the Petrovsky Plant. Watercolor by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1830 Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images A curious social collision arose in Siberia: although deprived of the nobility and called state criminals, for local residents the Decembrists were still aristocrats - in manners, upbringing, and education. Real aristocrats were rarely brought to Siberia; the Decembrists became a kind of local curiosity, they were called “our princes,” and the Decembrists were treated with great respect. Thus, that cruel, terrible contact with the criminal convict world, which happened to exiled intellectuals later, did not happen in the case of the Decembrists either.
U modern man, already aware of the horrors of the Gulag and concentration camps, there is a temptation to treat the exile of the Decembrists as a frivolous punishment. But everything is important in its historical context. For them, exile was associated with great hardships, especially in comparison with their previous way of life. And, whatever one may say, it was a conclusion, a prison: for the first years they were all constantly, day and night, shackled in hand and leg shackles. And to a large extent, the fact that now, from a distance, their imprisonment does not look so terrible is their own merit: they managed not to give up, not to quarrel, maintained their own dignity and inspired real respect in those around them.
In the early morning of July 13, 1826, the leaders of the armed uprising on Senate Square were executed on the ramparts of the Kronverksky bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Five of more than one and a half hundred arrested in the “December 14th” case: Pavel Pestel, Kondraty Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Vladimir Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Pyotr Kakhovsky were hanged. The bodies of the executed Decembrists were not given to their families for burial. The burial place of the leaders of the uprising is still a mystery.
This was the highest will of the emperor. And they carried it out so thoroughly that after forty years the new governor-general of the capital, acting at least with the knowledge of Nicholas’s son, Emperor Alexander II, could not even detect traces of the mysterious burial.
However, based on the principle: “Everything in Russia is a secret, but nothing is a secret” a large number of contemporaries of the execution left written evidence of the burial place of the Decembrists. Here are some of them:
“They were buried in the fortress ditch with quicklime, near the gallows”;
“The bodies were taken to the seaside and there thrown with stones tied to them into the depths of the waters”;
“A box with the naked bodies of five people was taken to some island in the Gulf of Finland and buried in a hole along with lime”;
“At night, the bodies were transported in a boat in matting and buried on the shore of Goloday Island.”
The last statement is believed to be closer to the truth. At least, it is on this island, currently part of St. Petersburg, that there are two monuments in honor of the Decembrists. On each of them it is written that this is where the remains of the leaders rest. December uprising. The straight line distance between the monuments is one kilometer. The island itself Soviet times was renamed Dekabristov Island."
Let's try to trace the path of the bodies of the executed Decembrists until the moment of their burial. After doctors recorded the death of all five hanged men, the bodies were placed in an empty barn located next to the merchant shipping school. Officially it is believed that due to the authorities' fear of transporting bodies during daylight hours. However, already in the morning a rumor was spread among the people that the bodies were thrown into the water of the fortress canal.
“People came and went all day, looked, saw nothing and nodded their heads,” one of the eyewitnesses of the execution recorded. All this time the bodies continued to lie in the barn. The authorities waited until nightfall. By the morning next day the barn was already empty. Only shrouds taken from the deceased and boards with the inscription “regicide” remained in it.
In the report of the head of the Kronverk bastion, Colonel Berkopf, it is written: “The next night, a driver from the butchers came with a horse to the fortress, and from there he carried the corpses towards Vasilyevsky Island. But when he took them to the Tuchkov Bridge, armed soldiers came out of the booth and, having taken possession of the reins, put the cabman in the booth. A few hours later the empty cart returned to the same place. The driver was paid and he went home.” According to Chief Police Chief Tuchkov, the bodies of those executed were buried in a common grave in the bushes on the shore of the Gulf of Finland so that no signs of burial were left.
However, there were rumors in St. Petersburg that the burial place was known to Ryleev’s widow. But, as it turned out, not only her. Every St. Petersburger knew about a certain secret grave on a secluded island for at least four months before the first snow fell. A relative of Bestuzhev later wrote: “They were buried on Golodai behind the Smolensk cemetery, and probably not far from Galernaya harbor, where there was a guardhouse. Because the guards from this guardhouse were dressed up to prevent people from going to the grave of the hanged men. This circumstance was the reason for people to flock there in droves.”
The sentries stood at the “grave” for only four months. After this, interest in her fades away, moreover, she soon turns out to be completely forgotten. Soon a rumor spread throughout St. Petersburg that the bodies of those executed had been stolen. In the late autumn of 1826, the third department of the Chancellery of His Imperial Majesty received a denunciation from the famous informer Sherwood, who was awarded the second name Verny by Nicholas the First for revealing plans for the uprising. The denunciation reported that someone dug up the bodies of the executed Decembrists and secretly reburied them in another place.
Who this someone was remained unknown. But it is known that Benckendorf’s department did not even open a case on this denunciation. There can only be one reason - he didn’t find anything, and he couldn’t find it. The fake grave diverted the attention of potential grave diggers until snow fell, which hid all traces of the real grave.
After 1917, the search for the grave of the Decembrists is more like a joke.
At the beginning of June 1917, Petrograd newspapers exploded with sensational headlines: “The grave of the executed Decembrists has been found!” Since the February Revolution that recently occurred in Russia seemed to be a continuation of the work of the Decembrists, the report of this find aroused unprecedented interest in the widest circles of the public.
Here is how it was. In 1906, the city authorities decided to develop Goloday Island with a complex of buildings called “New Petersburg”. The owner of a construction company, Italian Richard Gualino, heard that the Decembrists were buried somewhere on the site of the current construction site, and tried to find the grave. However, in 1911, the police learned about the Italian’s activities and forbade him to carry out excavations.
After the February Revolution of 1917, he left for Turin, leaving engineer Gurevich in his place as manager, whom he asked to continue the search. The newly created Society for the Memory of the Decembrists in Petrograd made a similar request.
On June 1, 1917, Gurevich informed the secretary of the society, Professor Svyatlovsky, that while digging a trench for a water supply behind the garrison outbuilding in an area previously called the “dog cemetery”, where animals were once buried, someone’s coffin was found. The next day, at the request of the professor, General Schwartz allocated soldiers of the 1st Automobile Company for further excavations.
As a result of the measures taken, 4 more coffins were dug out of the ground, which lay in a common grave along with the first. Thus, a total of 5 human skeletons were found, which corresponded to the number of executed Decembrists. In the first, best-preserved coffin, a skeleton was found, dressed in an officer's uniform from the time of Alexander I. The coffin was rich, once upholstered in brocade, had wooden legs in the form of lion paws.
The rest of the dominos were much more modestly made and were less well preserved. Therefore, the bones in them represented only fragments of human skeletons. Judging by the surviving remains of clothing, three of the people buried here were military, and two were civilians. This was completely true - Pestel, Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin were military men, and Ryleev and Kakhovsky were civilians.
Another surge of interest in the grave of the Decembrists arose in 1925 in connection with the upcoming 100th anniversary of their execution. Then an organization engaged in studying the history of the party and revolutionary movement in Russia. Skeletons found earlier were found in the basements of the Winter Palace. As it turned out, in 1918 they were placed in a box, sealed and transported to the Museum of the Revolution, which was then located in the palace.
At the site where the skeletons were found in 1917, it was decided to conduct new excavations, and medical experts from Military Medical Academy, Vikhrov and Speransky, were instructed to give an opinion on the bones stored in the basements of the palace. As a specialist in military uniform An expert from the Main Science Department, Gabaev, was invited.
Before new excavations were carried out on Golodai, it was found out that in fact in 1917, not 5, but 6 coffins were dug (nothing had been previously reported about the last one, and it disappeared somewhere). Medical examination of the remains found in 1917 gave sensational results. It turned out that they belonged not to five, but to only four people: three adults and one teenager aged 12-15 years!
A historical examination of the uniform found in one of the coffins showed that it belonged to an officer of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment of the 1829-1855 model. Thus, the Istpart commission came to the conclusion that the remains found in 1917 on Goloday “cannot belong to the executed Decembrists.” The fact that the executed Decembrists had to be naked - remember the shrouds in the barn of the Merchant Shipping School - was not even remembered then.
All this did not prevent a monument from being erected on Goloday in 1939, and the island itself being renamed Decembrist Island.
Currently, Dekabristov Island is densely built up. And, if the Decembrists are really buried there, and not drowned in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, the real grave will apparently never be found.
Fighters against autocracy
Soviet history textbooks were still too ideological. Any rebel in the slightest degree was declared a hero and fighter against the hated autocracy. Take, for example, Stepan Razin. Yes, he did not speak out against the king! Stenka simply did not obey the tsar. He created his own Cossack freemen and plundered the surrounding area. True, he went down in history as a noble robber. A sort of Russian Robin Hood. How many books have been written about him! His bravery and courage were admired by many. The Persian princess must be thrown into the oncoming wave - please, guys! By the way, the first Russian feature film, released in 1908, was about Razin and was called “Ponizovskaya Volnitsa”.
Tsarist Lieutenant General Alexander Navrotsky also admired Stenka. He served in the military-judicial department and, according to the recollections of his contemporaries, was a very strict person. Died in 1914. He had a short conversation with the revolutionary terrorists, not to mention the other criminal elements. So, Alexander Navrotsky wrote the song “There is a cliff on the Volga” about Stenka Razin. After Fyodor Chaliapin performed it, it became very popular in Russia for many years.
Emelyan Pugachev actually declared himself tsar. Peter Fedorovich, resurrected husband of Catherine the Great. Otherwise, so many fugitive Cossacks, ordinary people, Bashkirs and Kalmyks would not have followed him. He gathered over twenty thousand troops! He robbed and hanged everyone who got in his way. Both rich and poor. He was also that bandit! Gloomy personality.
Despite the fact that Catherine declared the uprising a national tragedy and ordered it to be consigned to oblivion, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin sympathized with Emelyan Pugachev. The story " Captain's daughter", for example, serves as confirmation of this.
Many books have also been written and rewritten about Emelka and films have been made. And the name of the Bashkir field commander Salavat Yulaev, loyal to him, is immortalized in the name of the Kontinental Hockey League club from Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
We also have our own fighter against autocracy in Belarus. Pole Kastus Kalinowski, leader of the uprising - but not against the sovereign, but for the revival of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
But most of all books, monographs, studies and articles have been written about the Decembrists. By the way, in next year- the round date of their uprising is 190 years.
Elite of the Russian intelligentsia
The Decembrist uprising is a unique event not only for Russian, but also for world history. For the first time, it was not the oppressed who rose up to fight the regime, but, on the contrary, educated, very rich and titled people. They were called the elite of the Russian intelligentsia. Almost all are nobles and guards officers, heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 and foreign campaigns of the Russian army. Many of them were writers and poets. They even adopted their own officer's Code of Honor, according to which participants in the conspiracy must have impeccable behavior, avoid ill-treatment of soldiers and not use obscene words. All participants in the Decembrist uprising were members of various prohibited secret societies, the most famous of which are the Northern and Southern societies.
There was an action plan, the main goal of which was the overthrow of the autocracy and the abolition of serfdom. It seems to be good. Long time The Decembrists were the object of admiration for their famous contemporaries. Pushkin and Griboyedov, for example. But any plan presupposes, in addition to the goal, the means and methods of its implementation. For some reason, Soviet textbooks and encyclopedic dictionaries were silent about this. One got the impression that all the conspirators who were preparing a rebellion, an armed coup and the overthrow of the legitimate government were ideal people beyond criticism. 
But there is another point of view. I don’t presume to judge which one is correct.
Having seen enough of life abroad, the conspiratorial officers firmly decided to eliminate the autocracy and establish a republic in Russia. Only a few of them proposed creating a constitutional monarchy in the country. In any case, it was planned to adopt a constitution. It was in its absence that the Decembrists saw many of Russia’s troubles. They developed several projects. By the way, at that time the most powerful states in the world were England and, despite the defeat in the Napoleonic wars, France. So, England did not have a constitution at that time. It still does not exist, which does not prevent the United Kingdom from continuing to remain one of the most powerful countries in the world.
At the very beginning of their “glorious” deeds, the conspirators plotted the murder of the royal family. Radicals Pavel Pestel and Kondraty Ryleev persistently proposed to kill not only the entire royal family, but also the grand duchesses married abroad, including the children born by them there - so that Russian throne no one could claim. Somehow I feel uneasy from such plans. Imagine what would have happened if the Decembrists had carried out all this! Okay, the reaction of the Danish royal court would not be so terrible, but how would England, France, Austria and Prussia react to this? It is quite possible that a war would break out, after which these countries would simply dismember and divide Russia.
Before the start of decisive action, the conspirators entered into contact with Polish secret societies. Negotiations with the representative of the Polish Patriotic Union, Prince Anton Yablonovsky, were personally conducted by the Russified German, Colonel Pavel Pestel. The two Masons quickly found each other mutual language. It was agreed that the independence of Poland would be recognized and the provinces of Lithuania, Podolia, Volyn, and Little Russia would be transferred to it from Russia. All this is reminiscent of a scene from the film “Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession”: “Kemsk volost? Yes, take it, please!”
The plan for the uprising was constantly postponed. It is interesting that the officers Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Ivan Povalo-Shveikovsky served in the Bobruisk fortress in 1823. That year, Emperor Alexander I planned to review troops in the fortress. The Decembrists developed the so-called “Bobruisk Plan,” which provided for the arrest of the emperor. But, by luck, the emperor canceled his visit to Bobruisk.
The right moment to speak came on December 14, 1825. At that moment in Russia there was dangerous situation interregnum, and the Decembrists decided to take advantage of this. After the death of Emperor Alexander I, his eldest son Constantine was to take the throne. Nicholas' entry was not intended. The State Council, Senate and troops took the oath to Constantine, but he renounced the reign in writing. A unique case in world history! The brothers Konstantin and Nikolai did not dispute, but persistently ceded the throne to each other. On this occasion, Count Langeron wrote: “The members of the Romanov dynasty are so noble that they do not ascend, but descend to the throne.”
“For Constantine and the Constitution!”
On the morning of December 14, 1825, rebel units consisting of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment, the Life Guards of the Grenadier Regiment and the Guards naval crew lined up in a square on Senate Square in St. Petersburg. There are about three thousand people in total. Civilian onlookers began to gather around them, the number of which gradually increased. Unfortunately, Decembrist officers often did not comply with the requirements of their own Code of Honor. Soldiers were drawn into the uprising by any means - from a simple order from a senior in rank to the distribution of money (sometimes government money) and deliberate lies. The rebels understood very well that “the regiments will not go against the regiments” and the soldiers will not “overthrow the tsar.” Therefore, they were explained that Constantine was their rightful emperor, and he promised to reduce the period of military service (which never happened!). They did not tell the peasant soldiers about the constitution. They thought they wouldn't understand. Therefore, it was explained to everyone that the constitution is the wife of Constantine.
We will stand on the square “For Constantine and the Constitution” until the end! - the officers announced to their subordinates.
Interestingly, it was planned to kill Konstantin, but at that moment he was in Warsaw.
Colonel Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, who had been appointed dictator the day before by the rebels, did not go to Senate Square. According to some sources, he was at home, according to others, he sometimes watched what was happening from around the corner. This, however, did not save him from punishment.
The military commandant of St. Petersburg, General Mikhail Miloradovich, tried to persuade the rebels, but the Decembrist Pyotr Kakhovsky, a retired lieutenant, killed him with a pistol shot. For what? The general was a renowned hero. He distinguished himself for his bravery in the Battle of Borodino and successfully commanded the rearguard of the Russian army during the retreat from Moscow.
Before Miloradovich, on the same day, Kakhovsky shot and killed the commander of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, Colonel Nikolai Sturler, who refused to comply with the demands of the rebels. But for some reason it is still not customary to write about this.
Then Metropolitan Seraphim tried to reason with the soldiers and officers, but no one listened to the bishop. In the afternoon, the number of government troops surrounding the rebels gradually reached a fourfold superiority. The artillery opened fire. To this day, some people write that they fired at the line of soldiers. It is not true. They shot exclusively over their heads. Of course, the buckshot, hitting the walls of houses, scattered with a ricochet into the crowd of civilian onlookers. But why stare at the showdown between the military?
On the same day the rebellion was ended. On December 14, 1,271 people died on Senate Square. Of these - one general, 18 officers, 282 soldiers and 1,170 civilians, of whom 79 were women and 150 children.
Well, on whose conscience are these victims?
The events of December 14 are shown quite truthfully in Vladimir Motyl’s film “Star of Captivating Happiness,” released in 1975. A film in the genre of historical drama with a great cast. Nicholas I is played by Vasily Livanov, Pestel by Alexander Porokhovshchikov, Ryleev by Oleg Yankovsky, Trubetskoy by Alexey Batalov.
There was a second attempt at a coup d'etat - the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, stationed in the Kyiv province. They don't write about it in detail. Nothing to advertise. The regimental commander, Colonel Gustav Gebel, became aware of the failed mutiny attempt in St. Petersburg a few days later. He received an order to arrest Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, who served in the regiment and was associated with the Decembrists.
The next day, Decembrist officers Kuzmin, Soloviev, Sukhinov and Shchepillo burst into Gebel’s office and began beating him, demanding the release of Muravyov-Apostol.
Again I return to the concepts of officer honor among the Decembrists. Four for one! This is not only unofficer-like, it’s not even masculine.
The freed Muravyov-Apostol immediately struck his regimental commander in the stomach with a bayonet. Colonel Gebel was saved from death by Private Maxim Ivanov.
It is interesting that, while already in hard labor, the convicted Decembrist Lieutenant Ivan Sukhinov, having rallied around himself the criminal element (there were still only a few political elements at that time), raised an uprising at one of the mines of the Nerchinsk plant. Sentenced to death, he hanged himself in his cell shortly before execution. But that's nothing! At least it’s not a shame: the former officer in the zone has become an authority. And the people in hard labor were specific - inveterate bandits and highwaymen.
The next day, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Murav-Apostol announced to the soldiers that he had been appointed by senior leadership to replace the sick Colonel Gebel (again, not true!) and ordered them to advance to Zhitomir. In Vasilkovo he seized the regimental cash register - 10 thousand rubles in banknotes and 17 rubles in silver. Solid money for those times! So what did he hope for? The man seemed smart. The fact that along the way he will be joined by rebel regiments? Adventurism of the purest water!
Along the route of the regiment, the soldiers committed robberies and drank. Many deserted.
Near the village of Ustimovka, the Chernigov regiment was surrounded by government troops and, after a short battle, surrendered. Ant-Apostle tried to hide, but the orderly pierced the horse’s stomach with a bayonet:
“You, your honor, brewed this porridge, you eat it with us,” the soldier said to the lieutenant colonel.
By decree of Nicholas I, a commission was created to investigate the attempted coup, chaired by Minister of War Alexander Tatishchev. The report to the emperor was compiled by Dmitry Bludov.
A total of 679 people were involved in the investigation. But as things progressed, it became clear that two-thirds (!) of this number were simply agreed upon by members of secret societies in order to give the conspiracy a mass appeal. That's it!
Again to the question of honor. It turns out that the Decembrists did not act according to their principles. Thank God, it was not 1937: then it took a long time to deal with the conspirators. And no one tortured or beat members of secret societies during interrogations. They handed over everyone themselves, including completely innocent people, thus settling their personal scores with someone.
The court sentenced 112 people to civil execution with deprivation of all rights and wealth, 99 people were exiled to Siberia, 36 of them to hard labor. Nine officers were demoted to soldiers. Initially, 36 people were sentenced to death. 31 through beheading and five people - Colonel of the Vyatka Infantry Regiment Pavel Pestel, retired Second Lieutenant Kondraty Ryleev, Lieutenant Colonel of the Chernigov Infantry Regiment Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Second Lieutenant of the Poltava Infantry Regiment Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin and retired Lieutenant Pyotr Kakhovsky - to quartering. In the verdict to Pestel, for example, the following was said: “He had a plan for regicide, sought means for this, elected and appointed persons to carry it out. He plotted the extermination of the Imperial family and incited others to do so... He incited and prepared a rebellion... He participated in the plot to secede the regions from the Empire.”
In the verdict of Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Kakhovsky and Major Mikhail Spiridonov (not executed) it is written: “he himself volunteered to kill the Sovereign Emperor of blessed memory and the now reigning Sovereign Emperor.”
By Nikolai’s personal decision, the sentence was commuted for everyone. The death penalty was left to only five Decembrists, replacing quartering with hanging.
During the execution in the crownwork of the Peter and Paul Fortress (one of the auxiliary fortifications), Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky and Ryleev fell from the noose and were hanged a second time.
There is a misconception that this was contrary to the tradition of inadmissibility of the second execution of the death penalty. However, in the then existing military Article No. 204 it was stated that “the death penalty should be carried out until the final result, that is, until the death of the convicted person.”
The procedure for releasing a convict who fell from the gallows, which was in force even before Peter I, was abolished by the Military Article. On the other hand, the “marriage” was explained by the absence of executions in Russia over the previous several decades. The only exception was the execution of six participants in the Pugachev uprising.
It was difficult to find the executioner. It rained during the execution and the ropes were wet.
Decembrist wives
I personally have never been a fan of the Decembrists. They would have done a lot of things! But I always admired their wives. Well, they were lucky with their wives...
There are truly romantic and touching stories. The poet Nikolai Nekrasov dedicated the poem “Russian Women” to them. There is an episode in the film “The Star of Captivating Happiness” where cavalry guard Ivan Annenkov (actor Igor Kostolevsky) reports to his mother about his upcoming marriage:
So who is she? - the landowner asked imperiously.
Frenchwoman. A fashion model from a fashion house.
Go away! Previously, only I knew that you were a fool. And now all of St. Petersburg will know.
Nevertheless, Polina Gebl, who did not know the Russian language at all, came to the exiled Decembrist in Siberia, married him in Chita, in her marriage she began to be called Praskovya Egorovna Annenkova, she was faithful and loving wife. She gave birth to seven children. In 1856 she settled with her husband in Nizhny Novgorod. She died at the age of 76.
Emperor Nicholas allocated money for the journey to the poor foreign woman in the amount of three thousand rubles from his personal funds.
There was another French Decembrist, a governess in the house of the Ivashev nobles - Camille Le Dantu.
Russia at that time was a very rich country, and many foreign migrant workers came here to work. Many French, German and English women wanted to become governesses and housekeepers in Russian families. And in Switzerland, work in Russia was passed down by inheritance. Young people got jobs as bouncers in taverns from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan. They often arrived maimed - with knocked out teeth and broken noses, but with the initial capital to start their own business. To this day, elderly people dressed in uniform at the entrance to drinking establishments are called doormen. Many Dutch and Danes came to Russia and permanent place residence. They settled mainly in the Volga region. All of them were mistakenly called Germans - from the word “mute”. So: a seventeen-year-old girl Camilla fell in love with a brilliant cavalry officer Vasily Ivashev, but the huge difference in social status did not allow even a hint of her feelings.
After the Decembrist’s conviction, the governess reported her feelings to his parents. Vasily Ivashev’s parents and his relatives reacted favorably to the girl’s noble impulse and informed their son about it, who agreed with a feeling of amazement and gratitude. In her marriage, Kamilla Petrovna Ivasheva gave birth to four children. She died at the age of 31 from a cold. A year later, Vasily Ivashev also died. Their common grave is still one of the attractions of the city of Turinsk, Sverdlovsk region.
And the first to come to their husbands in Siberia were princesses Ekaterina Trubetskaya and Maria Volkonskaya (daughter of the famous general Nikolai Raevsky). We must pay tribute to the courage of the officers' wives. After all, they were immediately deprived of noble privileges and equated in status to the wives of exiled convicts... Many sought permission to leave for several years.
The emperor again paid the widows of the executed Decembrists from his own funds financial assistance and awarded a pension.
The families of the convicts received benefits from the General Staff for twenty years. The children were placed in educational establishments at government expense.
Nicholas I handed over the draft decrees of the Decembrists to a specially established committee and began developing a peasant reform, which subsequently made their life easier.
Alexander II, who ascended the throne in 1856, amnestied all the Decembrists, and in 1861 abolished serfdom, although by this year there were just over thirty percent of serfs in peasant Russia. Slavery flourished in civilized America at this time...
So much for the hated tsarist regime, so much for the sovereign-emperors who oppressed their people!
Their case is not lost
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin wrote about the Decembrists: “The circle of these revolutionaries is narrow. They are terribly far from the people. But their cause was not lost. The Decembrists woke up Herzen, and Herzen launched revolutionary agitation.”
...The Decembrists’ plan was exceeded in Russia less than a century later.
In Yekaterinburg in the House special purpose, requisitioned from engineer Ipatiev, the royal family was shot. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the following were killed: Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, 50 years old, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, 46 years old, daughters Olga, 23 years old, Tatyana, 21 years old, Maria, 19 years old, Anastasia, 17 years old, and sick Tsarevich Alexei, 14 years old. For the company, four of their close associates were also shot: doctor Evgeny Botkin (son of the world famous doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin), valet Alexei Trupp, cook Ivan Kharitonov and maid Anna Demidova. Why?
The execution was supervised by Yakov Yurovsky. The cook Leni Sednev, a friend of Tsarevich Alexei, was not in the house that day. Lucky! How about drinking, they would also put him up against the wall. Leonid Sednev would die later - in 1942 on the Bryansk Front.
And then they killed the entire royal family - the grand dukes and princesses...
Having accepted martyrdom, the family of Nicholas II was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
It all started with the February revolution of 1917. As Bonch-Bruevich wrote, “The Russian army was destroyed by three decrees (orders):
Failure to salute officers;
Soldiers' Committees;
Election of commanders."
Moreover, all the commanders of the fronts and fleets of the Russian army agreed with the abdication of Nicholas II and signed it... And the leaders of the White movement, generals Lavr Georgievich Kornilov, Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel and Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, the question of the revival of the monarchy in any they didn’t even consider her form...
In Minsk they remember the Decembrists. In the 70s, Decembrist Street and a memorial plaque appeared on the building of the music college - opposite the city hall in the very center of the city. It is dedicated to the Decembrist Nikita Muravyov, the head of the Northern Society of Decembrists. On this site there was a house in which the Decembrist revolutionary lived from 1821 to 1822.
I don't see anything bad in this. History must be remembered and made of it correct conclusions. To govern the state you need to have a firm hand, be able to defend yourself and not simply give power to anyone.
...Looking at the colorful revolutions and armed coups in modern world, once again you are convinced that this does not lead to anything good. The country in its development after such “revolutions” goes into oblivion...
Reserve Lieutenant Colonel IGOR SHELUDKOV
The whole point is that historically the Decembrists in Russia were the first who dared to oppose the power of the Tsar. It is interesting that the rebels themselves began to study this phenomenon; they analyzed the reasons for the uprising on Senate Square and its defeat. As a result of the execution of the Decembrists, Russian society lost the very best of enlightened youth, because they came from families of the nobility, glorious participants in the War of 1812.
Who are the Decembrists
Who are the Decembrists? They can be briefly characterized as follows: these are members of several political societies fighting for the abolition of serfdom and the change state power. In December 1825 they organized an uprising, which was brutally suppressed. 5 people (leaders) were executed, shameful for officers. Decembrist participants were exiled to Siberia, some were shot in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Causes of the uprising
Why did the Decembrists revolt? There are several reasons for this. The main one, which they all, as one, reproduced during interrogations in the Peter and Paul Fortress - the spirit of freethinking, faith in the strength of the Russian people, tired of oppression - all this was born after the brilliant victory over Napoleon. It is no coincidence that 115 people from among the Decembrists were participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. Indeed, during military campaigns, liberating European countries, they never encountered the savagery of serfdom. This forced them to reconsider their attitude towards their country as “slaves and masters.”
It was obvious that serfdom had outlived its usefulness. Fighting side by side with the common people, communicating with them, the future Decembrists came to the idea that people deserve a better fate than a slave existence. The peasants also hoped that after the war their situation would change in better side, because they shed blood for the sake of their homeland. But, unfortunately, the emperor and most of the nobles firmly clung to the serfs. That is why, from 1814 to 1820, more than two hundred peasant uprisings broke out in the country.
The apotheosis was the revolt against Colonel Schwartz of the Semenovsky Guards Regiment in 1820. His cruelty towards ordinary soldiers crossed all boundaries. Activists of the Decembrist movement, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, witnessed these events, as they served in this regiment. It should also be noted that a certain spirit of freethinking was instilled in most of the participants at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum: for example, its graduates were I. Pushchin, V. Kuchelbecker, and the freedom-loving poems of A. Pushkin were used as inspired ideas.
Southern Society of Decembrists
It should be understood that the Decembrist movement did not arise out of nowhere: it grew out of world revolutionary ideas. Pavel Pestel wrote that such thoughts go “from one end of Europe to Russia”, even covering such opposite mentalities as Turkey and England.
The ideas of Decembrism were realized through the work of secret societies. The first of them are the Union of Salvation (St. Petersburg, 1816) and the Union of Welfare (1818). The second arose on the basis of the first, was less secretive and included a larger number of members. It was also dissolved in 1820 due to differences of opinion.
In 1821 there is new organization, consisting of two Societies: Northern (in St. Petersburg, headed by Nikita Muravyov) and Southern (in Kyiv, headed by Pavel Pestel). Southern society had more reactionary views: in order to establish a republic, they proposed killing the king. The structure of the Southern Society consisted of three departments: the first, along with P. Pestel, was headed by A. Yushnevsky, the second by S. Muravyov-Apostol, the third by V. Davydov and S. Volkonsky.
Leaders of the Decembrists: 1.Pavel Ivanovich Pestel
The leader of the Southern Society, Pavel Ivanovich Pestel, was born in 1793 in Moscow. He gets brilliant education in Europe, and upon returning to Russia begins service in the Corps of Pages - especially privileged among the nobles. The pages are personally acquainted with all members of the imperial family. Here the freedom-loving views of young Pestel first appear. Having brilliantly graduated from the Corps, he continues to serve in the Lithuanian Regiment with the rank of ensign of the Life Guards.
Pavel Pestel During the War of 1812, Pestel was seriously wounded. Having recovered, he returns to service and fights bravely. By the end of the war, Pestel received many high awards, including a golden award weapon. After World War II, he was transferred to serve in the Cavalry Regiment - at that time the most prestigious place of service.
While in St. Petersburg, Pestel learns about a certain secret society (the Union of Salvation) and soon joins it. Paul's revolutionary life begins. In 1821, he headed the Southern Society - in this he was helped by magnificent eloquence, a wonderful mind and the gift of persuasion. Thanks to these qualities, in his time he achieved unity of views of Southern and Northern societies.
Pestel's Constitution
In 1823, the program of the Southern Society, compiled by Pavel Pestel, was adopted. It was unanimously accepted by all members of the association - future Decembrists. Briefly it contained the following points:
- Russia must become a republic, united and indivisible, consisting of 10 districts. Public administration will be carried out by the People's Assembly (legislatively) and the State Duma (executively).
- In resolving the issue of serfdom, Pestel proposed to immediately abolish it, dividing the land into two parts: for peasants and for landowners. It was assumed that the latter would rent it out for farming. Researchers believe that if the 1861 reform to abolish serfdom had gone according to Pestel’s plan, the country would very soon have taken a bourgeois, economically progressive path of development.
- Abolition of the institution of estates. All the people of the country are called citizens, they are equally equal before the law. Personal freedoms and inviolability of person and home were declared.
- Tsarism was categorically not accepted by Pestel, so he demanded the physical destruction of the entire royal family.
It was assumed that "Russian Truth" would come into force as soon as the uprising ended. It will be the fundamental law of the country.
Northern Society of Decembrists
Northern society begins to exist in 1821, in the spring. Initially, it consisted of two groups that later merged. It should be noted that the first group was more radical in orientation; its participants shared Pestel’s views and fully accepted his “Russian Truth”.
Activists of the Northern Society were Nikita Muravyov (leader), Kondraty Ryleev (deputy), princes Obolensky and Trubetskoy. Ivan Pushchin played not the least role in the Society.
The Northern Society operated mainly in St. Petersburg, but it also had a branch in Moscow.
The path to uniting Northern and Southern societies was long and very painful. They had fundamental differences on some issues. However, at the congress in 1824 it was decided to begin the process of unification in 1826. The uprising in December 1825 destroyed these plans.
2. Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov
Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov comes from a noble family. Born in 1795 in St. Petersburg. Received an excellent education in Moscow. The War of 1812 found him in the rank of collegiate registrar at the Ministry of Justice. He runs away from home for the war and makes a brilliant career during the battles.
Nikita Muravyov After the Patriotic War, he begins to work as part of secret societies: the Union of Salvation and the Union of Welfare. In addition, he writes the charter for the latter. He believes that a republican form of government should be established in the country; only a military coup can help this. During a trip to the south he meets P. Pestel. Nevertheless, he organizes his own structure - the Northern Society, but does not break ties with like-minded people, but, on the contrary, actively cooperates.
He wrote the first edition of his version of the Constitution in 1821, but it did not find a response from other members of the Societies. A little later, he will reconsider his views and release a new program offered by the Northern Society.
Muravyov's Constitution
The Constitution of N. Muravyov included the following positions:
- Russia must become constitutional monarchy: legislative power - the Supreme Duma, consisting of two chambers; executive - the emperor (also the supreme commander in chief). It was separately stipulated that he did not have the right to start and end the war on his own. After a maximum of three readings, the emperor had to sign the law. He had no right to veto; he could only delay the signing in time.
- When serfdom is abolished, the landowners' lands will be left to the owners, and the peasants - their plots, plus 2 tithes will be added to each house.
- Suffrage is only for land owners. Women, nomads and non-owners stayed away from him.
- Abolish the institution of estates, level everyone with one name: citizen. The judicial system is the same for everyone. Muravyov was aware that his version of the constitution would meet fierce resistance, so he provided for its introduction with the use of weapons.
Preparing for the uprising
The secret societies described above lasted 10 years, after which the uprising began. It should be said that the decision to revolt arose quite spontaneously.
While in Taganrog, Alexander I dies. Due to the lack of heirs, the next emperor was to be Constantine, Alexander's brother. The problem was that he secretly abdicated the throne at one time. Accordingly, the reign passed to the youngest brother, Nikolai. The people were in confusion, not knowing about the renunciation. However, Nicholas decides to take the oath on December 14, 1825.
Nicholas I Alexander's death became the starting point for the rebels. They understand that it is time to act, despite the fundamental differences between Southern and Northern societies. They were well aware that they had catastrophically little time to prepare well for the uprising, but they believed that it would be criminal to miss such a moment. This is exactly what Ivan Pushchin wrote to his lyceum friend Alexander Pushkin.
Gathering on the night before December 14, the rebels prepare a plan of action. It boiled down to the following points:
- Appoint Prince Trubetskoy as commander.
- Occupy the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress. A. Yakubovich and A. Bulatov were appointed responsible for this.
- Lieutenant P. Kakhovsky was supposed to kill Nikolai. This action was supposed to be a signal to action for the rebels.
- Conduct propaganda work among the soldiers and win them over to the side of the rebels.
- It was up to Kondraty Ryleev and Ivan Pushchin to convince the Senate to swear allegiance to the emperor.
Unfortunately, the future Decembrists did not think through everything. History says that traitors from among them made a denunciation of the impending rebellion to Nicholas, which finally convinced him to appoint the oath to the Senate in the early morning of December 14.
The uprising: how it happened
The uprising did not go according to the scenario that the rebels had planned. The Senate manages to swear allegiance to the emperor even before the campaign.
However, regiments of soldiers are lined up in battle formation on Senate Square, everyone is waiting for decisive action from the leadership. Ivan Pushchin and Kondraty Ryleev arrive there and assure the imminent arrival of the command, Prince Trubetskoy. The latter, having betrayed the rebels, sat out in the tsarist General Staff. He was unable to take the decisive actions that were required of him. As a result, the uprising was suppressed.
Arrests and trial
The first arrests and executions of the Decembrists began to take place in St. Petersburg. An interesting fact is that the trial of those arrested was not carried out by the Senate, as it should have been, but by one specially organized by Nicholas I for this case. Supreme Court. The very first, even before the uprising, on December 13, was Pavel Pestel.
The fact is that shortly before the uprising he accepted A. Maiboroda as a member of the Southern Society, who turned out to be a traitor. Pestel is arrested in Tulchin and taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.
Mayboroda also wrote a denunciation against N. Muravyov, who was arrested on his own estate.
There were 579 people under investigation. 120 of them were exiled to hard labor in Siberia (among them Nikita Muravyov), all were dishonorably demoted to military ranks. Five rebels were sentenced to death.
Execution
Addressing the court about a possible method of executing the Decembrists, Nikolai notes that blood should not be shed. Thus, they, the heroes of the Patriotic War, are sentenced to the shameful gallows...
Who were the executed Decembrists? Their surnames are as follows: Pavel Pestel, Pyotr Kakhovsky, Kondraty Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin. The sentence was read on July 12, and they were hanged on July 25, 1826. The place of execution of the Decembrists took a long time to be equipped: a gallows was built with special mechanism. However, there were some complications: three convicts fell from their hinges and had to be hanged again.
In the place in the Peter and Paul Fortress where the Decembrists were executed there is now a monument, which is an obelisk and a granite composition. It symbolizes the courage with which the executed Decembrists fought for their ideals.
Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg Found a mistake? Select it and press left Ctrl+Enter.