...Finally, the fateful December 14th arrived - a remarkable number: it was minted on the medals with which deputies of the People's Assembly were dissolved to draw up laws in 1767 under Catherine II.
It was a gloomy December St. Petersburg morning, with 8° below zero. Before nine o'clock the entire governing Senate was already in the palace. Here and in all guard regiments the oath was taken. Messengers constantly galloped to the palace with reports of how things were going. Everything seemed quiet. Some mysterious faces appeared on Senate Square in noticeable anxiety. One, who knew about the order of the society and was passing through the square opposite the Senate, was met by the publisher of “Son of the Fatherland” and “Northern Bee”, Mr. Grech. To the question: “Well, will anything happen?” he added the phrase of the notorious Carbonari. The circumstance is not important, but it characterizes table demagogues; he and Bulgarin became zealous slanderers of the dead because they were not compromised.
Shortly after this meeting, at about 10 o'clock on Gorokhov Prospekt, there was suddenly a drumbeat and the oft-repeated “Hurray!” A column of the Moscow Regiment with a banner, led by Staff Captain Shchepin-Rostovsky and two Bestuzhevs, entered Admiralty Square and turned towards the Senate, where it formed a square. Soon it was quickly joined by the Guards crew, carried away by Arbuzov, and then by a battalion of life grenadiers, brought by adjutant Panov (Panov convinced the life grenadiers, after already taking the oath, to follow him, telling them that “ours” do not take the oath and occupied the palace. He really led them to the palace, but, seeing that the life rangers were already in the yard, he joined the Muscovites) and Lieutenant Sutgof. Many ordinary people came running and immediately dismantled the woodpile that stood at the dam surrounding the buildings. St. Isaac's Cathedral. Admiralty Boulevard was filled with spectators. It immediately became known that this entry into the square was marked by bloodshed. Prince Shchepin-Rostovsky, beloved in the Moscow regiment, although he did not clearly belong to society, but was dissatisfied and knew that an uprising was being prepared against Grand Duke Nicholas, managed to convince the soldiers that they were being deceived, that they were obliged to defend the oath taken to Constantine, and therefore must go to the Senate.
Generals Shenshin and Fredericks and Colonel Khvoshchinsky wanted to reassure them and stop them. He cut down the first and wounded one non-commissioned officer and one grenadier, who wanted to prevent the banner from being given away and thus entice the soldiers. Luckily, they survived.
Count Miloradovich, unharmed in so many battles, soon fell as the first victim. The insurgents barely had time to line up in a square when [he] appeared galloping from the palace in a pair of sleighs, standing, wearing only a uniform and a blue ribbon. You could hear from the boulevard how he, holding the coachman’s shoulder with his left hand and pointing with his right, ordered him: “Go around the church and turn right to the barracks.” Less than three minutes later, he returned on horseback in front of the square (He took the first horse, which stood saddled at the apartment of one of the Horse Guards officers) and began to convince the soldiers to obey and swear allegiance to the new emperor.
Suddenly a shot rang out, the count began to shake, his hat flew off, he fell to the bow, and in this position the horse carried him to the apartment of the officer to whom it belonged. Exhorting the soldiers with the arrogance of an old father-commander, the count said that he himself willingly wished for Constantine to be emperor. One could believe that the count spoke sincerely. He was excessively wasteful and always in debt, despite frequent monetary rewards from the sovereign, and Constantine's generosity was known to everyone. The count could have expected that with him he would live even more extravagantly, but what to do if he refused; assured them that he himself had seen the new renunciation, and persuaded them to believe him.
One of the members of the secret society, Prince Obolensky, seeing that such a speech could have an effect, leaving the square, convinced the count to drive away, otherwise he threatened with danger. Noticing that the count was not paying attention to him, he inflicted a light wound on his side with a bayonet. At this time, the count made a volt-face, and Kakhovsky fired a fatal bullet at him from a pistol, which had been poured the day before (the count’s saying was known to the entire army: “My God! the bullet was not poured on me!” - which he always repeated when they warned against dangers in battles or were surprised in salons that he was never wounded.). When he was taken off his horse at the barracks and carried into the officer’s apartment mentioned above, he had the last consolation of reading a handwritten note from his new sovereign expressing regret - and at 4 o’clock in the afternoon he no longer existed.
Here the importance of the uprising was fully expressed, by which the feet of the insurgents, so to speak, were chained to the place they occupied. Not having the strength to go forward, they saw that there was no salvation going back. The die was cast. The dictator did not appear to them. There was disagreement in the punishment. There was only one thing left to do: stand, defend and wait for the outcome from fate. They did it.
Meanwhile, according to the orders of the new emperor, columns of loyal troops instantly gathered at the palace. The Emperor, regardless of the empress’s assurances or the representations of zealous warnings, came out himself, holding the 7-year-old heir to the throne in his arms, and entrusted him to the protection of the Preobrazhensky soldiers. This scene produced the full effect: delight in the troops and pleasant, promising amazement in the capital. The Emperor then mounted a white horse and rode out in front of the first platoon, moving the columns from the Exertsirhaus to the boulevard. His majestic, although somewhat gloomy, calmness then attracted everyone's attention. At this time, the insurgents were momentarily flattered by the approach of the Finnish regiment, whose sympathy they still trusted. This regiment walked along the St. Isaac's Bridge. He was led to the others who had sworn allegiance, but the commander of the 1st platoon, Baron Rosen, came halfway across the bridge and ordered to stop! The entire regiment stopped, and nothing could move it until the end of the drama. Only the part that did not climb the bridge crossed the ice to the Promenade des Anglais and then joined the troops that had bypassed the insurgents from the Kryukov Canal.
Soon, after the sovereign left for Admiralty Square, a stately dragoon officer approached him with military respect, whose forehead was tied with a black scarf under his hat (This was Yakubovich, who came from the Caucasus, had the gift of speech and knew how to interest the St. Petersburg people with stories about his heroic exploits salons. He did not hide his displeasure and personal hatred towards the late sovereign among the liberals, and during the 17-day period, members of the secret society were convinced that if possible, “he would show himself.”), and after a few words he went to square, but soon returned empty-handed. He volunteered to persuade the rebels and received one insulting reproach. Immediately, by order of the sovereign, he was arrested and suffered the common fate of those convicted. After him, General Voinov drove up to the insurgents, at whom Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, poet, publisher of the magazine “Mnemosyne”, who was then in punishment, fired a pistol shot and thereby forced him to leave. Colonel Sturler came to the life grenadiers, and the same Kakhovsky wounded him with a pistol. Finally, Grand Duke Mikhail himself arrived - and also without success. They answered him that they finally wanted the reign of laws. And with this, the pistol raised at him by the same Kuchelbecker’s hand forced him to leave. The pistol was already loaded. After this failure, Seraphim, the Metropolitan, in full vestments, with a cross presented with banners, emerged from the St. Isaac's Church temporarily built in the Admiralty buildings. Approaching the square, he began his exhortation. Another Kuchelbecker, the brother of the one who forced Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich to leave, came out to him. A sailor and a Lutheran, he did not know the high titles of our Orthodox humility and therefore said simply, but with conviction: “Go away, father, it is not your business to interfere in this matter.” The Metropolitan turned his procession to the Admiralty. Speransky, looking at this from the palace, said to Chief Prosecutor Krasnokutsky, who was standing with him: “And this thing failed!” Krasnokutsky himself was a member of a secret society and later died in exile (above his ashes there is a marble monument with a modest inscription: “Sister to a suffering brother.” He is buried in the Tobolsk cemetery near the church). This circumstance, no matter how insignificant, nevertheless reveals Speransky’s disposition of mind at that time. It could not be otherwise: on the one hand, the memory of what has been suffered is innocent, on the other hand, there is distrust of the future.
When the whole process of taming by peaceful means was thus completed, the action of arms began. General Orlov, with complete fearlessness, twice launched an attack with his horse guards, but the peloton fire overturned the attacks. Without defeating the square, he, however, thereby conquered an entire fictitious county.
The Emperor, slowly moving his columns, was already closer to the middle of the Admiralty. On the north-eastern corner of Admiralteysky Boulevard, an ultima ratio [last argument] appeared - guns of the Guards artillery. Their commander, General [al] Sukhozanet, drove up to the square and shouted to put down the guns, otherwise he would shoot with buckshot. They aimed a gun at him, but a contemptuously commanding voice was heard from the square: “Don’t touch this..., he’s not worth a bullet.” (These words were shown later during interrogations in the committee, with the members of which Sukhozanet already shared the honor of wearing the general -adjutant aiguillette. This is not enough, he was later the chief director of the cadet corps and the president of the Military Academy. However, we must be fair: he lost his leg in the Polish campaign.). This, naturally, offended him to the extreme. Jumping back to the battery, he ordered a volley of blank charges to be fired: it had no effect! Then the grapeshots whistled; here everything trembled and scattered in different directions, except for the fallen. This could have been enough, but Sukhozanet fired a few more shots along the narrow Galerny Lane and across the Neva towards the Academy of Arts, where more of the curious crowd fled! So this accession to the throne was stained with blood. In the outskirts of Alexander's reign, impunity for the heinous crime committed and merciless punishment for the forced noble uprising - open and with complete selflessness - became eternal terms.
The troops were disbanded. St. Isaac's and Petrovskaya squares are furnished with cadets. Many lights were laid out, by the light of which the wounded and dead were removed all night and the spilled blood was washed from the square. But stains of this kind cannot be removed from the pages of inexorable history. Everything was done in secret, and the true number of those who lost their lives and were wounded remained unknown. Rumor, as usual, arrogated the right to exaggeration. Bodies were thrown into ice holes; claimed that many were drowned half-dead. Many arrests were made that same evening. From the first taken: Ryleev, book. Obolensky and two Bestuzhevs. They are all imprisoned in the fortress. In the following days, most of those arrested were brought to the palace, some even with their hands tied, and personally presented to the emperor, which gave rise to Nikolai Bestuzhev (He first managed to hide and escape to Kronstadt, where he lived for some time at the Tolbukhin lighthouse among the sailors loyal to him ) later tell one of the adjutant generals on duty that they had made a move out of the palace.
NICHOLAS I - KONSTANTIN PAVLOVICH
<...>I am writing you a few lines just to tell you good news from here. After the terrible 14th we were fortunately back to normal; there remains only some anxiety among the people, which, I hope, will dissipate as calm is established, which will be obvious evidence of the absence of any danger. Our arrests are very successful, and we have all the main characters of this day in our hands, except one. I have appointed a special commission to investigate the matter<...>Subsequently, for the sake of the court, I propose to separate those who acted consciously and premeditatedly from those who acted as if in a fit of madness<...>
KONSTANTIN PAVLOVICH - NICHOLAS I
<...>Great God, what events! This bastard was unhappy that he had an angel as his sovereign, and conspired against him! What do they need? This is monstrous, terrible, covers everyone, even if they are completely innocent, who did not even think about what happened!..
General Dibich told me all the papers, and one of them, which I received the day before, is more terrible than all the others: this is the one in which Volkonsky called for a change of government. And this conspiracy has been going on for 10 years! How did it happen that he was not discovered immediately or for a long time?
ERRORS AND CRIMES OF OUR CENTURY
Historian N.M. Karamzin was a supporter of enlightened autocracy. In his opinion, this is a historically natural form of government for Russia. It is no coincidence that he characterized the reign of Ivan the Terrible with these words: “The life of a tyrant is a disaster for humanity, but his history is always useful for sovereigns and peoples: to instill disgust for evil is to instill love for virtue - and the glory of the time when a writer armed with the truth can, in autocratic rule, put such a ruler to shame, so that there will be no more like him in the future! The graves are emotionless; but the living fear eternal damnation in History, which, without correcting evildoers, sometimes prevents atrocities, which are always possible, for wild passions rage even in the centuries of civil education, leading the mind to remain silent or to justify its frenzy with a slavish voice.”
Such views could not be accepted by opponents of autocracy and slavery - members of the secret societies that existed at that time, later called the Decembrists. Moreover, Karamzin was closely acquainted with many of the leaders of the movement and lived in their houses for a long time. Karamzin himself bitterly noted: “Many of the members [of the secret society] honored me with their hatred or, at least, did not love me; and I, it seems, am not an enemy of either the fatherland or humanity.” And assessing the events of December 14, 1825, he said: “The errors and crimes of these young people are the errors and crimes of our century.”
DECEMBRIST IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Was there a special everyday behavior of the Decembrist that distinguished him not only from reactionaries and “extinguishers”, but also from the mass of liberal and educated nobles of his day? Studying the materials of the era allows us to answer this question positively. We ourselves feel this with the direct instinct of the cultural successors of previous historical development. So, without even going into reading the comments, we feel Chatsky as a Decembrist. However, Chatsky is not shown to us at a meeting of the “most secret union” - we see him in his everyday surroundings, in a Moscow manor house. Several phrases in Chatsky’s monologues characterizing him as an enemy of slavery and ignorance are, of course, essential for our interpretation, but his manner of holding himself and speaking is no less important. It is precisely from Chatsky’s behavior in the Famusovs’ house, from his refusal of a certain type of everyday behavior:
The patrons yawn at the ceiling,
Show up to be quiet, shuffle around, have lunch,
Bring a chair, hand a handkerchief...
It is unmistakably defined by Famusov as “ a dangerous person" Numerous documents reflect different sides everyday behavior of a noble revolutionary and allow us to talk about the Decembrist not only as a bearer of one or another political program, but also as a certain cultural, historical and psychological type.
At the same time, we should not forget that each person in his behavior implements not just one program of action, but constantly makes a choice, updating any one strategy from an extensive set of possibilities. Each individual Decembrist in his real everyday behavior did not always behave like a Decembrist - he could act like a nobleman, an officer (already: a guardsman, a hussar, a staff theorist), an aristocrat, a man, a Russian, a European, a young man, etc., etc. . However, within this complex set of capabilities there was some special behavior, special type speeches, actions and reactions inherent specifically to a member of a secret society. The nature of this special behavior will be of immediate interest to us...
Of course, each of the Decembrists was a living person and, in a certain sense, behaved in a unique way: Ryleev in everyday life is not like Pestel, Orlov is not like N. Turgenev or Chaadaev. Such a consideration, however, cannot be a basis for doubting the legitimacy of our task. After all, the fact that people’s behavior is individual does not negate the legitimacy of studying such problems as “the psychology of a teenager” (or any other age), “the psychology of women” (or men) and - ultimately - “human psychology”. It is necessary to supplement the view of history as a field for the manifestation of various social, general historical patterns by considering history as the result of human activity. Without studying the historical and psychological mechanisms of human actions, we will inevitably remain at the mercy of very schematic ideas. In addition, the fact that historical patterns do not realize themselves directly, but through human psychological mechanisms, is in itself the most important mechanism of history, since it saves it from the fatal predictability of processes, without which the entire historical process would be completely redundant.
PUSHKIN AND THE DECEMBRISTS
The years 1825 and 1826 were a milestone, a boundary that divided many biographies into periods before and after...
This applies, of course, not only to members of secret societies and participants in the uprising.
A certain era, people, style was fading into the past. Average age those convicted by the Supreme Criminal Court in July 1826 were twenty-seven years old: the “average year of birth” of a Decembrist was 1799. (Ryleev - 1795, Bestuzhev-Ryumin - 1801, Pushchin - 1798, Gorbachevsky - 1800...). Pushkin's age.
“A time of hope,” Chaadaev will remember about the pre-December years.
“Lyceum students, Yermolovites, poets,” - Kuchelbecker will define an entire generation. The noble generation, which reached the height of enlightenment from which it was possible to see and hate slavery. Several thousand young people, witnesses and participants in such world events, which would be enough, it seems, for several ancient, grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s centuries...
What, what did we witness...
People often wonder where great Russian literature suddenly, “immediately” came from? Almost all of its classics, as the writer Sergei Zalygin noted, could have had one mother; the firstborn - Pushkin was born in 1799, the youngest - Leo Tolstoy in 1828 (and between them Tyutchev - 1803, Gogol - 1809, Belinsky - 1811, Herzen and Goncharov - 1812, Lermontov - 1814, Turgenev - 1818, Dostoevsky, Nekrasov - 1821, Shchedrin - 1826)...
Before there were great writers, and at the same time with them, there had to be a great reader.
The youth who fought on the fields of Russia and Europe, lyceum students, southern freethinkers, publishers of the "Polar Star" and other companions of the main character of the book - the first revolutionaries, with their writings, letters, actions, words, testify in various ways to the special climate of the 1800-1820s, which was created by them together, in which a genius could and should grow in order to further ennoble this climate with his breath.
Without the Decembrists there would have been no Pushkin. By saying this, we obviously mean a huge mutual influence.
Common ideals, common enemies, common Decembrist-Pushkin history, culture, literature, social thought: that is why it is so difficult to study them separately, and there is so little work (we hope for the future!), where that world will be considered as a whole, as diverse, living , ardent unity.
Born from the same historical soil, two such unique phenomena as Pushkin and the Decembrists could not, however, merge and dissolve in each other. Attraction and at the same time repulsion is, firstly, a sign of kinship: only closeness and commonality give rise to some important conflicts and contradictions, which cannot exist at a great distance. Secondly, this is a sign of maturity and independence.
Drawing on new materials and reflecting on well-known materials about Pushkin and Pushchin, Ryleev, Bestuzhev, Gorbachevsky, the author tried to show the union of those arguing, those who disagree in agreement, those who agree in disagreement...
Pushkin, with his brilliant talent and poetic intuition, “grinds” and masters the past and present of Russia, Europe, and humanity.
And I heard the sky tremble
And the heavenly flight of angels...
A poet-thinker not only of Russian, but also of world-historical rank - in some significant respects, Pushkin penetrated deeper, wider, and further than the Decembrists. We can say that he moved from an enthusiastic attitude towards revolutionary upheavals to an inspired insight into the meaning of history.
The power of protest - and social inertia; “the cry of honor” - and the dream of “peaceful peoples”; the doom of the heroic impulse - and other, “Pushkin”, paths of historical movement: all this arises, is present, lives in “Some Historical Remarks” and the works of the first Mikhailovsky Autumn, in interviews with Pushchin and in “Andrei Chenier”, in letters of 1825, "To the Prophet." There we find the most important human and historical revelations, Pushkin’s command addressed to himself:
And see and listen...
The courage and greatness of Pushkin lies not only in his rejection of autocracy and serfdom, not only in his loyalty to his dead and imprisoned friends, but also in the courage of his thought. It is customary to talk about Pushkin’s “limitedness” in relation to the Decembrists. Yes, by determination and confidence to go into open rebellion, sacrificing themselves, the Decembrists were ahead of all their compatriots. The first revolutionaries set a great task, sacrificed themselves and remained forever in Russian history. liberation movement. However, on his way, Pushkin saw, felt, understood more... He, before the Decembrists, seemed to experience what they were later to experience: albeit in the imagination, but that’s why he’s a poet, that’s why he’s a brilliant artist-thinker of Shakespeare’s , of Homeric proportions, who once had the right to say: “The history of the people belongs to the Poet.”
In November 1825, far from St. Petersburg, in Taganrog, Emperor Alexander I unexpectedly died. He did not have a son, and the heir to the throne was his brother Constantine. But married to a simple noblewoman, a person not of royal blood, Constantine, according to the rules of succession to the throne, could not pass the throne to his descendants and therefore abdicated the throne. The heir of Alexander I was to be his next brother, Nicholas - rude and cruel, hated in the army. Constantine's abdication was kept secret - only the narrowest circle of members knew about it royal family. The abdication, which was not made public during the life of the emperor, did not receive the force of law, therefore Constantine continued to be considered the heir to the throne; he reigned after the death of Alexander I, and on November 27 the population was sworn to Constantine.
Formally, a new emperor has appeared in Russia - Constantine I. His portraits have already been displayed in stores, and several new coins with his image have even been minted. But Constantine did not accept the throne, and at the same time did not want to formally renounce it as emperor, to whom the oath had already been taken.
An ambiguous and extremely tense interregnum situation was created. Nicholas, fearing popular indignation and expecting a speech from the secret society, about which he was already informed by spies and informers, finally decided to declare himself emperor, without waiting for a formal act of abdication from his brother. A second oath was appointed, or, as they said in the troops, a “re-oath” - this time to Nicholas I. The re-oath in St. Petersburg was scheduled for December 14.
The unexpected death of Alexander I and the change of emperors sounded for the Decembrists as a call and signal for open action. It is known that in almost all their tactical plans they linked the beginning of the uprising with the death of the monarch. Therefore, life itself made decisive adjustments to the terms of the general action agreed upon between representatives of the “Southern” and “Northern” societies and pushed the Decembrists to an immediate uprising. Despite the fact that the Decembrists learned that they were betrayed - the denunciations of the traitors Sherwood and Mayboroda were already on the emperor's table, the members of the secret society decided to speak out.
On the night of December 14, the final action plan was approved at Ryleev’s apartment. On the day of the “re-oath,” revolutionary troops under the command of members of a secret society will enter the square. Colonel Prince S.P. was chosen as the dictator of the uprising. Trubetskoy, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812.
On the day of the oath, the rebel troops had to go to Senate Square (See photo on the next page) and by force of arms force the Senate to refuse the oath to Nicholas, force them to declare the government overthrown and publish a revolutionary “Manifesto to the Russian people.” This is one of the most important documents of Decembrism, explaining the purpose of the uprising. It announced the “destruction of the former government” and the establishment of a Provisional Revolutionary Government. The abolition of serfdom and the equalization of all citizens before the law were announced; freedom of the press, religion, and occupations was declared, the introduction of public jury trials, the introduction of universal military service, and recruitment was destroyed. All government officials had to give way to elected officials. Thus, the Senate, by the will of the revolution, was included in the plan of action of the rebels.
It was decided that the Izmailovsky regiment and the cavalry pioneer squadron, under the leadership of Yakubovich, were to move to Winter Palace, capture it and arrest the royal family.
Then the Great Council was convened - constituent Assembly. It had to make a final decision on the forms of abolition of serfdom, on the form government structure Russia, to resolve the issue of land. If the Great Council decided by a majority vote that Russia would be a republic, a decision would also be made on the fate of the royal family. Some Decembrists were of the opinion that it was possible to expel her abroad, while others were inclined towards regicide. If the Great Council came to a decision that Russia would be a constitutional monarchy, then a constitutional monarch would be drawn from the reigning family.
It was also decided to capture and Peter and Paul Fortress turn it into a revolutionary citadel of the Decembrist uprising.
In addition, Ryleev asked the Decembrist Kakhovsky early in the morning of December 14 to penetrate into the Winter Palace and, as if committing an independent terrorist attack, kill Nikolai. Yakubovich came to Alexander Bestuzhev and refused to lead the sailors and Izmailovites to the Winter Palace. He was afraid that in the battle the sailors would kill Nicholas and his relatives and instead of arresting the royal family, it would result in regicide. Yakubovich did not want to take on this and chose to refuse. Thus, the adopted plan of action was sharply violated, and the situation became more complicated. The plan began to fall apart before dawn. But there was no time to delay: dawn was coming.
On December 14, officers - members of the secret society were still in the barracks after dark and campaigned among the soldiers. Alexander Bestuzhev spoke to the soldiers of the Moscow Regiment. The soldiers refused to swear allegiance to the new king and decided to go to Senate Square.
The morning came on December 14, 1825. The regimental commander of the Moscow regiment, Baron Fredericks, wanted to prevent the rebel soldiers from leaving the barracks - and fell with a severed head under the blow of the saber of officer Shchepin-Rostovsky. With the regimental banner flying, taking live ammunition and loading their guns, the soldiers of the Moscow Regiment (about 800 people) were the first to come to Senate Square. At the head of these first revolutionary troops in the history of Russia was the staff captain of the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment, Alexander Bestuzhev. Along with him at the head of the regiment were his brother, staff captain of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment, Mikhail Bestuzhev, and staff captain of the same regiment, Dmitry Shchepin-Rostovsky.
Under the shadow of the banners covered in the glory of 1812, eight hundred men of the Moscow Regiment were the first to enter Senate Square. The arriving regiment lined up at the foot of the monument to Peter I in a square - a combat quadrangle - which made it possible to repel an attack from all four sides (See Appendix 2).
It was 11 o'clock in the morning. St. Petersburg Governor-General Miloradovich galloped up to the rebels and began to persuade the soldiers to disperse. The moment was very dangerous: the regiment was still alone, other regiments had not yet arrived, the hero of 1812 Miloradovich was widely popular and knew how to talk to the soldiers. The uprising that had just begun was in great danger. Miloradovich could greatly sway the soldiers and achieve success. It was necessary to interrupt his campaigning at all costs and remove him from the square. But, despite the demands of the Decembrists, Miloradovich did not leave and continued persuasion. Then the chief of staff of the rebel Decembrists, Obolensky, turned his horse with a bayonet, wounding the count in the thigh, and a bullet, fired at the same moment by Kakhovsky, mortally wounded the general. The danger looming over the uprising was repelled.
The delegation chosen to address the Senate - Ryleev and Pushchin - went to see Trubetskoy early in the morning, who had previously visited Ryleev himself. It turned out that the Senate had already sworn in and the senators had left. It turned out that the rebel troops had gathered in front of the empty Senate. Thus, the first goal of the uprising was not achieved. It was a bad failure. Another planned link broke away from the plan. Now the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress were to be captured.
What exactly Ryleev and Pushchin talked about during this last meeting with Trubetskoy is unknown, but, obviously, they agreed on some new plan of action, and, having then come to the square, they were sure that Trubetskoy would now come there, to the square, and will take command. Everyone was waiting impatiently for Trubetskoy.
But there was still no dictator. Trubetskoy betrayed the uprising. A situation was developing in the square that required decisive action, but Trubetskoy did not dare to take it. He sat, tormented, in the office of the General Staff, went out, looked around the corner to see how many troops had gathered in the square, and hid again. Ryleev looked for him everywhere, but could not find him. Members of the secret society, who elected Trubetskoy as dictator and trusted him, could not understand the reasons for his absence and thought that he was being delayed by some reasons important for the uprising. Trubetskoy’s fragile noble revolutionary spirit easily broke when the hour of decisive action came.
The failure of the elected dictator to appear on the square to meet the troops during the hours of the uprising is an unprecedented case in the history of the revolutionary movement. The dictator thereby betrayed the idea of uprising, his comrades in the secret society, and the troops who followed them. This failure to appear played a significant role in the defeat of the uprising.
The rebels waited for a long time. Several attacks launched on the orders of Nicholas by the horse guards on the square of the rebels were repulsed by rapid rifle fire. The barrage chain, separated from the square of the rebels, disarmed the tsarist police. The “rabble” who were in the square did the same thing.
Behind the fence of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was under construction, were the dwellings of construction workers, for whom a lot of firewood was prepared for the winter. The village was popularly called “St. Isaac’s Village”, and from there many stones and logs flew at the king and his retinue.
The troops were not the only living force of the uprising on December 14: on Senate Square that day there was another participant in the events - huge crowds of people. Herzen’s words are well known: “The Decembrists did not have enough people on Senate Square.” These words must be understood not in the sense that there were no people in the square at all - there were people, but in the fact that the Decembrists were unable to rely on the people, to make them an active force of the uprising.
A contemporary’s impression of how “empty” it was in other parts of St. Petersburg at that moment is curious: “The further I moved away from the Admiralty, the fewer people I met; it seemed that everyone had come running to the square, leaving their houses empty.” An eyewitness, whose last name remained unknown, said: “All of St. Petersburg flocked to the square, and the first Admiralty part accommodated 150 thousand people, acquaintances and strangers, friends and enemies, forgot their identities and gathered in circles, talking about the subject that struck their eyes “The “common people”, “black bones” predominated - artisans, workers, artisans, peasants who came to the bars in the capital, there were merchants, petty officials, students of high schools, cadet corps, apprentices... Two “rings” of people were formed. The first consisted of those who had arrived early, it was surrounded by a square of rebels. The second was formed from those who came later - the gendarmes were no longer allowed into the square to join the rebels, and the “late” people crowded behind the tsarist troops who surrounded the rebellious square. From these “later” arrivals a second ring was formed, surrounding government troops. Noticing this, Nikolai, as can be seen from his diary, realized the danger of this environment. It threatened with great complications.
The main mood of this huge mass, which, according to contemporaries, numbered in tens of thousands of people, was sympathy for the rebels.
Nikolai doubted his success, “seeing that the matter was becoming very important, and not yet foreseeing how it would end.” He ordered the preparation of carriages for members of the royal family with the intention of “escorting” them under the cover of cavalry guards to Tsarskoye Selo. Nicholas considered the Winter Palace an unreliable place and foresaw the possibility of a strong expansion of the uprising in the capital. He wrote in his diary that “our fate would be more than doubtful.” And later Nikolai told his brother Mikhail many times: “The most amazing thing in this story is that you and I weren’t shot then.”
Under these conditions, Nicholas resorted to sending Metropolitan Seraphim and Kyiv Metropolitan Eugene to negotiate with the rebels. The idea of sending metropolitans to negotiate with the rebels came to Nicholas’s mind as a way to explain the legality of the oath to him, and not to Constantine, through clergy who were authoritative in matters of the oath. It seemed that who better to know about the correctness of the oath than the metropolitans? Nikolai’s decision to grasp at this straw was strengthened by alarming news: he was informed that life grenadiers and a guards naval crew were leaving the barracks to join the “rebels.” If the metropolitans had managed to persuade the rebels to disperse, then the new regiments that came to the aid of the rebels would have found the main core of the uprising broken and could have fizzled out themselves.
But in response to the Metropolitan’s speech about the legality of the required oath and the horrors of shedding brotherly blood, the “rebellious” soldiers began shouting to him from the ranks, according to the testimony of Deacon Prokhor Ivanov: “What kind of metropolitan are you, when in two weeks you swore allegiance to two emperors... We don’t believe you, go away!..”
Suddenly, the metropolitans rushed to the left, hid in a hole in the fence of St. Isaac's Cathedral, hired simple cab drivers (while on the right, closer to the Neva, a palace carriage was waiting for them) and returned to the Winter Palace by detour. Two new regiments approached the rebels. On the right, along the ice of the Neva, a regiment of life grenadiers (about 1,250 people) rose, fighting their way with weapons in their hands through the troops of the tsar’s encirclement. On the other side, rows of sailors entered the square - almost the entire guards naval crew - over 1,100 people, a total of at least 2,350 people, i.e. forces arrived in total more than three times compared to the initial mass of the rebel Muscovites (about 800 people), and in general the number of rebels quadrupled. All the rebel troops had weapons and live ammunition. All were infantrymen. They had no artillery.
But the moment was lost. The gathering of all the rebel troops took place more than two hours after the start of the uprising. An hour before the end of the uprising, the Decembrists elected a new “dictator” - Prince Obolensky, chief of staff of the uprising. He tried three times to convene a military council, but it was too late: Nicholas managed to take the initiative into his own hands. The encirclement of the rebels by government troops, more than four times the number of the rebels, had already been completed. According to G.'s calculations. Abayev, against 3 thousand rebel soldiers, 9 thousand infantry bayonets, 3 thousand cavalry sabers were collected, in total, not counting the artillerymen called up later (36 guns), no less than 12 thousand people. Because of the city, another 7 thousand infantry bayonets and 22 cavalry squadrons were called up and stopped at outposts as a reserve, i.e. 3 thousand sabers; in other words, there were another 10 thousand people in reserve at the outposts.
The short winter day was approaching evening. It was already 3 pm and it was getting noticeably dark. Nikolai was afraid of darkness. In the dark, the people gathered in the square would have been more active. Most of all, Nikolai was afraid, as he later wrote in his diary, that “the excitement would not be communicated to the mob.” Nikolai ordered to shoot with grapeshot.
The first volley of grapeshot was fired above the ranks of soldiers - precisely at the “mob” that dotted the roof of the Senate and neighboring houses. The rebels responded to the first volley with rifle fire, but then, under a hail of grapeshot, the ranks wavered and wavered - they began to flee, the wounded and dead fell. The Tsar's cannons fired at the crowd running along the Promenade des Anglais and Galernaya. Crowds of rebel soldiers rushed onto the Neva ice to move to Vasilyevsky Island. Mikhail Bestuzhev tried to again form soldiers into battle formation on the ice of the Neva and go on the offensive. The troops lined up. But the cannonballs hit the ice - the ice split, many drowned. Bestuzhev's attempt failed.
By nightfall it was all over. The Tsar and his minions did their best to downplay the number of those killed - they talked about 80 corpses, sometimes about a hundred or two. But the number of victims was much more significant - buckshot at close range mowed down people. According to a document from the official of the statistical department of the Ministry of Justice S.N. Korsakov, we learn that on December 14, 1271 people were killed, of which 903 were “mobs”, 19 were minors. Soldiers and officers who tried to escape from the square were arrested. The uprising in St. Petersburg was crushed. Arrests of members of the society and their sympathizers began.
At this time, the Decembrists gathered at Ryleev’s apartment. This was their last meeting. They only agreed on how to behave during interrogations. The despair of the participants knew no bounds: the death of the uprising was obvious.
Two weeks later, on December 29, 1825, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol led the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. By this time, it was already known about the arrests and defeat of the uprising in St. Petersburg, but members of the Southern Society wanted to show the government that the northerners were not alone and that the whole country supported them. But their hopes were not justified. Despite the support of the peasants, the government managed to isolate the Chernigov regiment and a week later, on January 3, 1826, it was shot.
About 600 people were involved in the investigation. Many were personally interrogated by Nikolai himself. Five - P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleeva, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky was sentenced to quartering, which was later replaced by hanging. The rest, according to the degree of guilt, were sentenced to hard labor, exiled to Siberia, and demoted to soldiers. Until the death of Nicholas, not a single Decembrist received forgiveness.
Decembrists, Russian revolutionaries who raised an uprising against autocracy and serfdom in December 1825 (they were named after the month of the uprising). The Decembrists were noble revolutionaries, their class limitations left their mark on the movement, which, according to slogans, was anti-feudal and associated with the maturation of preconditions bourgeois revolution in Russia. The process of decomposition of the feudal-serf system, clearly manifested itself already in the 2nd half of the 18th century. and strengthened at the beginning of the 19th century, was the base on which this movement grew. The weakness of the Russian bourgeoisie contributed to the fact that the revolutionary nobles became the “firstborn of freedom” in Russia. The Patriotic War of 1812, in which almost all the founders and many active members of the future Decembrist movement were participants, and the subsequent foreign campaigns of 1813-14 were to a certain extent a political school for them.
Decembrists- representatives of the left wing of the nobility were the first to openly oppose autocracy and serfdom for carrying out bourgeois-democratic reforms.
The origins of the ideology of Decembrism:
humanistic ideas of French enlighteners and Russian freethinkers of the late 18th century;
patriotic upsurge and growth of national self-awareness after the War of 1812 and foreign campaigns of 1813 – 1814;
disappointment in the internal political course of Alexander I, who curtailed liberal reforms.
The first pre-Decembrist organizations arose among guards officers in 1814–1815.
In 1816 – 1818 There was a secret society, the Union of Salvation, which united about 30 people and was headed by A.N. Muravyov. In 1818, on the basis of this society, the “Union of Welfare” arose, which was more secretive and united about 200 people. At the meetings, issues of the elimination of serfdom and autocracy, the introduction of a constitution and representative government were discussed. In 1821, due to disagreements and persecution by the authorities, the Union of Welfare was dissolved. On its basis, the “Southern Society” appeared in Ukraine, headed by P.I. Pestel and the “Northern Society” in St. Petersburg, headed by N.M. Muravyov (later K.F. Ryleev took the lead role here).
The program document of the "Southern Society" was Pestel's "Russian Truth", according to which it was planned to eliminate the monarchy in Russia and establish a republic with a unicameral parliament ("People's Assembly"). The executive branch is the “Sovereign Duma” of 5 members, each of whom would be president for a year. It provided for the complete abolition of serfdom, the introduction of democratic freedoms and the provision of equal suffrage for all men.
The program of the “Northern Society” (“Constitution” by N.M. Muravyov) was more moderate. Russia was to become a constitutional monarchy, and the emperor was to be the head of the executive branch. Legislative power belonged to a bicameral parliament - the People's Assembly. Serfdom and the class system were completely abolished, civil liberties and equality of all before the law were introduced. At the same time, suffrage was limited by property qualifications and landownership was completely preserved.
Both societies negotiated to coordinate their actions and planned to achieve their goals through a military coup and regicide, which was planned for the summer of 1826. These plans were confused by the unexpected death of Alexander I in Taganrog on November 19, 1825. His brother Konstantin Pavlovich, who secretly refused, was considered the heir from the throne back in 1822. When this became known, a re-oath was appointed to the new Emperor Nicholas I. The Decembrists decided to take advantage of the interregnum situation. It was decided to withdraw troops to Senate Square in St. Petersburg and force the Senate, Synod and State Council not to swear allegiance to Nicholas, but to accept the “Manifesto to the Russian People,” which set out the demands of the conspirators.
On the morning of December 14, 1825, troops loyal to the Decembrists formed a battle square on the square (in total about 3 thousand soldiers and 30 officers). But they acted hesitantly, because... it turned out that senior officials had already sworn allegiance to Nicholas, in addition, S.P., appointed military leader of the uprising. Trubetskoy did not appear on the square. Troops loyal to the government were mobilized against the rebels (12 thousand people and 4 guns). Attempts to persuade the conspirators to disperse were unsuccessful, so the order was given to open fire. The uprising was suppressed. Also, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment on December 29, 1825 in Ukraine ended in failure, because The leaders of the “Southern Society” were arrested the day before.
In total, 579 people were involved in the investigation into the Decembrist case, of whom 289 were found guilty. Over 100 people were exiled to Siberia, the rest were demoted and sent to fight in the Caucasus, 5 people (P.I. Pestel, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, K.F. Ryleev and P.G. Kakhovsky) were executed.
Reasons for the defeat of the uprising:
the narrow social base of the uprising;
reliance on conspiracy and military coup;
insufficient secrecy and passive tactics at the time of the uprising;
the unpreparedness of the majority of society for serious changes.
The significance of the Decembrist uprising lies in the fact that it was the first attempt to change the existing system. Their speech showed the presence of deep contradictions in the country and the need for reforms.
After the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, a repressive police regime was established in the country, any dissent was suppressed
“Ah! Mon Prince, vous avez fait bien du mal à la Russie, vous l"avez reculée de cinquante ans!" (“Ah, Prince, you have done a lot of evil to Russia, you have pushed it back fifty years!”) General Levashov - to Prince Trubetskoy
190 years ago, on the morning of December 26, 1825, guard officers (staff captains, lieutenants, lieutenants...) and several civilians led about three thousand soldiers to Senate Square in St. Petersburg. This is how the famous Decembrist uprising began. Subsequent events shocked the entire country and largely determined its fate for decades to come.
For a real king
The pretext for the uprising was the death of Emperor Alexander I on November 19. His brother Constantine was supposed to inherit the throne of the Russian Empire, but he, like Alexander, was childless. Moreover, he was married to a Polish noblewoman - and his future children would still not be able to inherit the throne. Therefore, back in 1822, Constantine abdicated the throne, and the following year, Alexander I secretly drew up a manifesto on transferring the throne to the next most senior brother, Nicholas.
The unsuspecting society continued to consider Constantine as the heir. Nikolai was not loved in the army either. And on November 27, the oath to Constantine began - Nikolai had to be the first to swear allegiance. But then the will of Alexander I was revealed - and a two-week interregnum began. As a result, Constantine renounced power; on December 14, a manifesto on Nicholas’s accession to the throne was to be published. The Decembrists decided to take advantage of this chance to “wedge themselves” between two legitimate monarchs - and withdrew the troops subordinate to them under the pretext of protecting the “correct” king - i.e. Constantine, who was being kept in chains.
If we compare the recollections of the participants in the events, a noticeable difference in the behavior of the parties catches the eye. The Decembrists lead their troops to the square, but then hour after hour they passively stand in place and best case scenario defend themselves - and then they do it belatedly. All the energy of the conspirators was enough for single strikes with a saber, bayonet or shot at officers trying to talk to soldiers. And the soldiers shoot from the hand and without aiming, most often - upwards, or even blanks.
Nicholas and his supporters - for example, the chief of artillery Ivan Sukhozanet, who fought from Pultusk to Paris - although they do not know what exactly is happening, they do not lose control of the soldiers at hand. And they act. The Senate and Synod manage to swear allegiance to the new emperor around eight o'clock in the morning. The generals and regimental commanders of the guard also swore allegiance to Nicholas and went to their units - even before the rebels entered the square at the eleventh hour. The Winter Palace is occupied by sappers personally loyal to Nicholas. Orders are given loudly and confidently, troops actively move behind their commanders. Nikolai himself leads the Preobrazhensky battalion. The cavalrymen are attacking. Parliamentarians are sent out. And, as a decisive argument, artillery is located (and used). Even before the uprising, an operation was thought out and carried out to arrest the leader of the Southern Society of Decembrists, Pavel Pestel.
Four cannons were fired to suppress the uprising. According to Sukhozanet, “there was no need to aim the guns, the distance was too close.” By the third salvo there was no one left on the spot. In total, at least seven buckshot shots were fired on the square - and some of them, according to some historians, could have been fired upward.
Kakhovsky's shot at Miloradovich. Lithograph from a drawing by A. I. Charlemagne. 1861
borodino2012–2045.com
Information about human casualties differs tenfold - from several dozen to more than a thousand killed. IN Soviet time The data of the police official Sergei Nikolaevich Korsakov was considered the most reliable. According to his note, a total of 1,271 people were killed, including 39 “in tailcoats and greatcoats,” 903 “rabbles” and 9 “women.” 1 general (Miloradovich) and 1 staff officer (probably Colonel Sturler) were mortally wounded by the Decembrist Kakhovsky. The lower ranks of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment were killed 93, although, according to the calculations of the regimental historian, no more than 29 people were killed, wounded and missing. The same discrepancies between the notes and the archives of the units are found in other cases - in total, another 189 lower ranks were killed versus 27 along with the missing.
Layout of regiments on Senate Square
http://www.runivers.ru/
What did the Decembrists want?
And until now, almost every participant in those events, their actions and behavior are assessed extremely emotionally and contradictorily. The Decembrists were either rebels and traitors, or practically holy “heroes forged from pure steel” (Herzen). Nicholas I is either a bloody despot and gendarme of Europe, or a wise and generous ruler. Alas, the length of the article does not allow us to reveal all aspects of the Decembrist movement (and this is impossible) - only to raise some questions.
“Fighters against centuries of slavery?” But the intended dictator was to become Prince Trubetskoy - Gediminovich. One of the most active participants in the uprising was Rurikovich, Prince Obolensky. Representatives of such ancient and noble families could technically even look at the Romanovs as rootless upstarts.
Colonel Pestel, the first in the Corps of Pages to be awarded five military orders, was called a “fanatical doctrinaire” a century ago, who allegedly screwed up his soldiers “to teach them to hate their superiors” - which is refuted by the documents of the regiment. At the same time, the future Republican revolutionary loved his father, the Governor-General of Siberia, and often consulted with him. Some relatives cursed the Decembrists - but not Pestel Sr. (the story about the last conversation of the Pestels was invented by Herzen). Another paradox - in 1821, Pestel compiled unfavorable reports about the Greek rebels - supposedly members of a worldwide revolutionary conspiracy.
Portrait of Pavel Pestel
www.rosimperija.info
“The desire to see a representative structure in your Fatherland”? But this did not at all mean a desire to immediately overthrow the tsarist government - moreover, after the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, Alexander I was looked upon as the liberator of Europe from Napoleon. And the first idea to kill the emperor arose in 1817 - after the message that “the sovereign intends to return to Poland all the regions we have conquered and retire to Warsaw with the entire court.”
Liberation of the peasants as the main goal? But the first Main Rule of “Russian Truth” read: “ The liberation of Peasants from Slavery should not deprive the Nobles of the income they receive from their Estates"The second point is no less significant: “This liberation should not cause Unrest and Disorder in the State, for which reason the Supreme Government is obliged to use merciless severity against any Violators of the general peace.” In this case, the peasants would not be freed immediately and, most importantly, without land. And according to the Decree on free cultivators, the Decembrists already had the opportunity to release their own peasants.
In general, the plans of the Decembrists are best characterized by the phrase: “The distribution of the People among the Volosts combines all Benefits and all Conveniences, averting all Injustices and all Difficulties”. In other words, it is literally a struggle for all that is good against all that is bad. Despite the fact that among the Decembrists themselves there was not even close to a unity of views. Even proposals for a political structure ranged from a constitutional monarchy headed by a federation of thirteen powers and two regions (Nikita Muravyov, Northern Society) to a unitary republic (Pestel, Southern Society).
Pestel defended the legal equality of all people. But in practice, this would result in the confiscation of land from the landowners, the deportation of those who had separated from all Jews to Asia Minor - in case of disobedience, resettlement Caucasian peoples to the central provinces, etc. and so on. Any national identity would destroy the principles of equal opportunity, “homogeneity, uniformity and like-mindedness.”
Results of the failed uprising
The Decembrists, like their opponents, were people of their era. An era at the turning point of the romance of the 18th century and the cynical pragmatism of the 19th century. When secret societies grew, like today's interest groups, and a secular person became a Freemason in his youth, in the intervals between card games, drinking wine and other pleasant pastimes. An era when the conspirator, businessman and poet Ryleev could be friends with the poet and secret police agent Bulgarin. The era of enlightenment - many Decembrists received not just a good, but an elite education, but in closed institutions, which leaves a certain imprint on the individual. Although Ryleev, on the contrary, was self-taught. Eras of many conspiracies and revolutions, from Spain to Greece - when even generals intrigued and fought duels. And every young military man could see the career of artillery lieutenant Napoleon, and in 1820 - the success of the battalion commander Riego, who transformed Spain into constitutional monarchy and became president of the Cortes. “The mass is nothing, it will be what the individuals, who are everything, want,” said Sergei Muravyov, one of the most active participants in the Southern Society of Decembrists.
But time passed. Former enthusiastic youths became adult statesmen. Many of the founders and active figures of Decembrism (the founder of the Union of Salvation, Alexander Muravyov, Lunin, who proposed to kill Alexander I) had already moved away from their previous ideas by the time of the uprising. Many members of secret societies went on to successful careers. Part former Decembrists generally took part in suppressing the rebellion. Trubetskoy, being near Senate Square, does not participate in the uprising - for which he is either accused of cowardice and even meanness, or praised for his sober assessment of what is happening. Colonel Moller, the commander of the battalion guarding the Winter Palace, directly refused to participate in the uprising.
To a person of the 21st century, it may seem incredible, for example, such a situation - the emperor personally, almost alone, “point-blank” interrogates the most dangerous conspirators, many of whom spent many years in the army, and even fought bravely. It is worth noting that some of the conspirators had previously proposed solving the problem by killing Nikolai. However, the participants in the events themselves were brought up in the traditions of society back in the 18th century, in which chivalrous behavior was first and foremost required of the nobles. This probably also explains another “unthinkable” behavior from our point of view - almost all participants in the secret society (except for Lunin and Pestel) did not hide anything during interrogations - including about other members. And earlier, the Decembrists indignantly rejected Pestel’s ideas about conspiracy and the creation of their own secret police, “the office of impenetrable darkness.”
The state of secrecy of “secret societies” is best described by Pushkin’s phrase: “But who, besides the police and the government, did not know about him? they were shouting about the conspiracy in all the alleys.”. And the fact that back in 1823, Alexander I made an unambiguous hint to General Sergei Volkonsky (by the way, the only real general among the Decembrists) to take care of his brigade, and not management Russian Empire, shows that the government has been in the know for a long time. Subsequently, some contemporaries were outraged not so much by the fact of the conspiracy as by Volkonsky’s forgery of the state seal for opening government papers. It is not surprising that during the entire period of the Decembrist movement, integral organizations practically did not exist, and the strictly developed, detailed rules were not implemented in practice. Some societies generally existed only in words. In St. Petersburg, almost every Decembrist had his own program of action. Pestel, a theorist and practitioner of the secret police, will be betrayed by the person whom he himself introduced into the secret society.
According to the 19th military article, “if any subject arms an army, or takes up arms against His Majesty, or intends to captivate, or kill, or inflict any kind of violence on the said Majesty,” then he and everyone who helped him should be quartered and their property confiscated. That is, strictly according to the letter of the law in force at that time, five hanged and a hundred sent to Siberia for two uprisings, including the Chernigov regiment in Ukraine, is extremely soft. Especially by the standards of subsequent eras, when the number of deaths during “social experiments” was measured in tens of thousands, or even millions. But, on the other hand, in an age of hopes for enlightenment and all kinds of progress, the arrests and execution of the untouchable elite of society - nobles and officers - looked like an unheard-of crime. And the fate of the soldiers, who were first taken to the square under buckshot and then sent to the Caucasus, did not particularly worry anyone then.
Nicholas I
http://www.bibliotekar.ru/
Now it is difficult to say whether the Decembrists had a chance of victory, and even more so, what path Russia would have taken then. In our reality, the saddest consequence was the mutual bitterness of both the authorities and the opposition for many decades. From the first hours of his reign, Nicholas I became convinced by his own example of the existence of a huge and cruel conspiracy - threatening both the lives of Nicholas himself and his family. Equally, the opposition decided that with such a bloody government it was impossible to do otherwise.
Pushkin, hot on his heels, noted the extreme ambition and distortions in the upbringing of the younger generation: “He enters the light without any thorough knowledge, without any positive rules: every thought is new to him, every news has an impact on him. He is unable to believe or object; he becomes a blind follower or an ardent follower of the first comrade who wants to exert his superiority over him or make him his tool.” As an antidote, Pushkin proposed reform of public education. Alas, both supporters and opponents of the authorities usually preferred more radical methods.
Sources and literature:
- Gordin Ya. A. Revolt of reformers: When the fate of Russia was decided. St. Petersburg, Amphora, 2015.
- Kersnovsky A. A. History of the Russian Army. - M.: Voice, 1993.
- Kiyanskaya Oksana. Pestel. M., Young Guard, 2005.
- Lomovsky E. The most tragic day // Science and life. - 2014. - No. 6.
- Margolis A.D. On the question of the number of victims on December 14, 1825 // Margolis A.D. Prison and exile in Imperial Russia. Research and archival finds. M., 1995.
- Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern society // Comp. V. A. Fedorova. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 1981.
- Pushkin A.S. About public education. Quote via http://rvb.ru/
- Sukhozanet I. O. December 14, 1825, story of the chief of artillery Sukhozanet / Communication. A. I. Sukhozanet // Russian antiquity, 1873. - T. 7. - No. 3.
In 1825, a coup took place in Russia, which ended rather unsuccessfully for the conspirators.
The impetus for the coup was the liberal views of progressive youth who did not agree with the tsar’s policies. Before the Patriotic War, few people thought about the relationship between the common people, the government and the intelligentsia. In Europe there was no longer serfdom, but in Russia the common people were still oppressed with terrible force.
Young progressive youth were hungry for change. Secret circles began to appear in which they discussed how to change the situation in the country. Soon a core of leaders formed. Gradually they came to the conclusion that it was necessary to change the government in Rus', and for this it was necessary to get rid of the monarch.
Just at this time, a very unclear situation arose with the transfer of power. Alexander the First died, and the new tsar had not yet taken up his duties. Taking advantage of this situation, the conspirators raised the people against Tsar Nicholas. Many people gathered in the square, the situation became more complicated every minute. The people were quite aggressive. But the worst thing was that the leaders themselves could not find common language between themselves. Already on the square, the leader of the uprising had to be replaced; many activists, for unknown reasons, also did not show up. Therefore, the uprising was left, one might say, without leaders. The military approached the angry crowd, who could not justify their actions, and brutally suppressed the riot. The Decembrist leaders, those who survived, were then executed on the same square. The rest were exiled to Siberia.
The main reasons for the defeat of the uprising were lack of knowledge of all the intricacies of such events, naivety, and betrayal. Poor preparation for such a serious event also played a role. Despite the failure of the Decembrists, their uprising served as good lessons for their descendants, who took into account all the mistakes of the Decembrists.
More details
The victorious march of Russian troops to Paris brought not only glory to Russian weapons and Emperor Alexander I, who received the loud title “liberator”. But there was one more circumstance. People looked at how they lived in Europe without serfdom. There was a revolution in France. The main document there was the constitution. Ideas of equality and brotherhood were in the air. And in Russia, the arbitrariness of the landowners and the tsar himself reigned. The difference was so striking that some military personnel began to become disillusioned with the autocracy.
They began to think about liberal changes in Russia. People wanted to live like in Europe. The main idea was this - changing the existing monarchical system to a constitutional one. Some even swung at the republic. The military created secret societies - Northern and Southern. Alexander I suddenly dies. It was decided to take advantage of the confusion in the transfer of the throne. Withdraw troops on the morning of December 14, 1825 to Senate Square and demand from the newly-crowned Tsar Nicholas I that he abdicate the throne. And then he issued a manifesto, then convened a National Council. And choose on it new uniform board. This, of course, was a utopia. They even planned to take the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace. And as a last resort - the arrest, and even murder, of the royal family.
But as always, things didn’t go according to plan. The main leader of the coup, Prince Trubetskoy, did not appear on the square. The troops, left without a commander, were at a loss. They were offered to disperse peacefully, but someone shot Count Miloradovich with a pistol as he spoke. This served as a signal to attack the rebels. Troops loyal to the Tsar approached the square and quickly suppressed the riot. Artillery was used. The square was covered with a pile of corpses. The age of the Decembrists ranged from 20 to 60 years.
The court was quick to render a verdict. Five were hanged. The remaining 124 rebels were exiled to distant, cold Eastern Siberia. Ninety-six people were sentenced to hard labor. On carts, in stages, like criminals, they were quickly transported to their place of exile, shackled in hand and leg shackles. Among them there were one hundred and thirteen people of noble rank, eight had the title of prince, four barons, three generals, eleven colonels and one actual state councilor. The color and pride of Russian society. It was a “political” death - the loss of all civil rights, existence without the right of correspondence. This is how the king dealt cruelly with the rebels. Only thirty-four survivors returned from exile as sick old men.
The Decembrists were resettled throughout Eastern Siberia to the Sea of Okhotsk in the east, Yakutsk in the north, so as not to communicate with each other. And they were constantly transferred from one place to another.
But the sacrifices made by the Decembrists were not in vain. They shook up Russia, made its inhabitants think, and created the first revolutionary organization. This was the first political speech in the history of the country. The trouble with the Decembrists is that they were still so far from the people, they underestimated their strength and power, and their hatred of autocracy. According to V.I. Lenin: “The Decembrists woke up Herzen, and he began revolutionary agitation.”
The Decembrists left their mark on the development of Siberia. With their own money they opened schools, hospitals, and carried out scientific research. As a token of gratitude, people created museums of the Decembrists. The largest is in Irkutsk. The piano that Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya played has been preserved in it to this day.
- Vladimir Monomakh - message report
Specific and then Grand Duke Kyiv, was the last major figure Ancient Rus', trying to stop the slide into political fragmentation. In addition, he became famous for his literary work, which have survived to our time.
- Pythagoras - message report (5th, 8th grade. Geometry)
Pythagoras of Samos is known to us as one of the most intelligent people. His biography is full of many interesting facts, and we can say that it was from above that he was given such a rich and exciting life path.
- Which of the following historical figures was involved in literature: Denis Fonvizin, Alexander Griboyedov, Gabriel Derzhavin
Answer to a question about literature
- What animals feed on tree bark in winter?
In order not to die cold winter many herbivores begin to eat tree bark. Hares eat bark the most among animals.
- Life and work of Fyodor Abramov
Born, Fedor Alexandrovich, on February 29, 1920, in the small village of Verkola, Arkhangelsk province, in a large family of simple peasants. Fyodor's father, Alexander Stepanovich, worked as a cab driver in the city all his life