The history of the Decembrists in Russia is known to almost every person. These people, who dreamed of changing the world and seeing their country different, laid down their heads for their ideas. But their uprising shook up society and served as the reason for a number of subsequent reforms, which nevertheless changed the socio-political life in the country. From our article you will learn about the uprising itself, as well as about the execution of the Decembrists, which was accompanied by many rumors.
Dissatisfaction with the Tsarist regime in Russia
The War of 1812 gave officers the opportunity to see the true state of affairs in the country and understand the need for large-scale political reforms. Many of the military, having visited European countries, realized how much the development of the Russian Empire was hampered by serfdom, which none of the tsars dared to abolish. Military actions revealed the ineffectiveness of the existing legislative and executive powers, so most officers had hope for limiting the monarchy, which was supposed to begin with the liberation of the peasants. These ideas penetrated deeply into Russian society, so in the mid-nineteenth century secret groups began to form in St. Petersburg that actively developed a reform program.
The first secret societies
The first serious and massive group was the Union of Salvation, which managed to exist for two years. This society saw its main goal as the abolition of serfdom and the implementation of reforms. During their work, the leaders of the Union of Salvation wrote several versions of the program, which was supposed to serve as the basis for political reforms. However, many historians are inclined to believe that most of the members of the secret society belonged to the Masonic lodge. In this regard, disagreements constantly arose within the group, which led to the dissolution of the Union of Salvation.
Instead, in the eighteenth year of the nineteenth century, the “Union of Welfare” was formed, the leaders of which went further than their predecessors. According to the written program, members of the secret society worked to change public consciousness, forming a liberal-minded stratum of the intelligentsia. For this purpose, library circles, educational societies and other organizations were created, which aroused great interest among young people in large cities of Russia. In total, the Union of Welfare included more than two hundred people, but the main composition was changing all the time. Passionate about politics and ardent young people found their own families, had children and moved away from once interesting and fashionable ideas. Over time, several branches of the secret society appeared in the country, and some of them were very radical. Naturally, such ideas could not but arouse interest from the state. The Union of Welfare came under the surveillance of the authorities and was disbanded three years after its creation.
Southern and Northern Society of Decembrists
The collapsed “Union of Welfare” became the basis for the emergence of two new secret groups, which later became the focus of the uprising. The Northern Society of Decembrists was formed one year after the collapse of the previous secret organization. St. Petersburg became its center; in parallel, the Southern Society operated in Ukraine. Members of both groups were quite active and managed to recruit a large number of people into their ranks. They hoped that the written programs of the Decembrists could be implemented and the time for a new regime would come in Russia. By 1825, a very unstable political situation had developed in the country, which members of secret organizations took advantage of.
Prerequisites for the uprising
Before moving on to the story of the uprising, which resulted in the exile and execution of the Decembrists, it is necessary to explain why the conspirators decided to act in this particular period of time. The fact is that after the death of Tsar Alexander I, the issue of succession to the throne arose very acutely in Russia. According to the law, his brother Constantine was supposed to rule the empire after the childless king. However, he had long ago renounced the throne, about which there was an official document. Therefore, the next oldest brother, Nikolai, could claim his rights, but it was he who did not enjoy the support of the people and the military elite.
On November twenty-seventh, Constantine was sworn in and became the legitimate emperor. The newly-made ruler did not seek to delve into state affairs, recalling his previous abdication. However, Konstantin made no attempts to issue a second refusal. Tension grew in all levels of society, and at that moment Nicholas decided to take advantage of the situation and proclaimed himself the only legitimate emperor. His brother immediately signed the renunciation, and the second oath was scheduled for the fourteenth of December. This fact caused great discontent among the aristocracy and the high military command. This was the most convenient moment for the Decembrists and their like-minded people to speak out.
Action plan
After analyzing the situation, the leaders of the uprising decided to prevent the king from taking the oath. For this purpose, this plan has been developed, taking into account all the details. The performance was supposed to begin on Senate Square. The Decembrists, at the head of several regiments, planned to capture the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress. The entire royal family was subject to arrest, while the leaders of the uprising took into account the option of killing the king. However, not all participants in the uprising supported such a decision. Many advocated sending the imperial family safe and sound outside Russia.
The Decembrists planned to form a new government, publish a Manifesto on Rights and Freedoms, which would include a clause on the abolition of serfdom, as well as a reform program. The form of government was to be a republic or a constitutional monarchy.
The beginning of the uprising
Historians say that on the fourteenth of December, from the very morning, everything did not go as planned. Peter Kakhovsky, who was supposed to enter the Winter Palace and kill the emperor, which would have been the beginning of an uprising, refused to do so. The plan to bring the sailors to the palace also fell through. The performance of the Decembrists, planned as a powerful and unexpected capture of key points in St. Petersburg, lost its surprise and strength literally before our eyes.
However, with the light hand of Kondraty Ryleev, who was the leader of the conspirators, at least three thousand people came out to Senate Square, awaiting the command to attack. But the rebels seriously miscalculated; Nicholas I was aware of the intentions of the conspirators in advance and took the oath from the senators early in the morning. This discouraged the Decembrists, who could not make a decision on their further actions.
Bloody pages of the uprising
More than once, people loyal to the Tsar came out to the regiments lined up in the square, trying to convince the soldiers to return to their barracks. Gradually, more than ten thousand citizens flocked to the palace. The people formed two rings around Senate Square, and government troops were also surrounded, which threatened very serious problems. The people sympathized with the Decembrists and shouted unpleasant slogans against Nicholas I.
Darkness was approaching, and the emperor understood that the problem must be solved before the common people finally joined the rebels. Then it will be quite difficult to stop the conspirators. But the Decembrists still hesitated and could not decide to take active action. As historians say, this predetermined the outcome of events. The king took advantage of the prolonged pause and pulled up about ten thousand loyal soldiers to the city. They surrounded the rebels and began firing grapeshot at the Decembrists and the curious crowd. This was followed by rifle fire, which made the ranks of the Decembrists waver. Many rushed to run towards the city, others descended onto the icy Neva. Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin tried to line up troops on the ice to capture the Peter and Paul Fortress, but they were fired at by cannonballs. The ice crumbled, and dozens of people went under the water.
Victims of the uprising
After the suppression of the uprising, the city streets were littered with corpses; eyewitnesses of the events wrote in their memoirs that several hundred Decembrists were killed in total. The emperor ordered the bodies to be disposed of before morning, but his order was taken literally. They made holes in the ice and threw the bodies of all those killed there. Many said that the wounded, who could still be helped, also went under the ice. A large number of soldiers and ordinary people who were maimed and wounded never turned to doctors for fear of ending up in prison. It is known that at least five hundred people died from their wounds in the city.
Trial of the conspirators
The morning after the bloody events, mass arrests began. In total, about six hundred people were imprisoned. The Decembrists were arrested one by one and secretly brought to Zimny, where the interrogations were headed by the emperor himself. One of the first to be brought was Pavel Pestel. It is known that his interrogation lasted several hours. It was not easy for Muravyov-Apostol, who distinguished himself during the uprising itself and took an active part in its preparation.
The formed investigative commission worked under the clear leadership of Nicholas I. He knew about every step of the investigators, and all interrogation reports were sent to him. Many understood that the trial of the Decembrists was just a formality. After all, based on the results of investigative actions, the decision had to be made by the emperor himself. He carefully studied the programs of the Decembrists and found out the circumstances of the conspiracy. He was especially interested in those individuals who personally consented to the murder of the king.
During the trial of the Decembrists, they were all divided into eleven categories. Each implied a certain degree of guilt, and punishment was assigned depending on the severity of the crime committed. About three hundred people were found guilty.
It is interesting that the emperor himself saw in the uprising the terrible specter of “Pugachevism,” which almost shook the Russian monarchy. This forced Nicholas I to impose very harsh punishment on the conspirators.
Sentence
As a result of court hearings, five organizers of the uprising were sentenced to death, among them were Pavel Pestel, Ryleev, Bestuzhev and Kakhovsky. The emperor decided that state criminals should be quartered, despite their high social status. Among the persons already mentioned was S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, who also had to suffer such a terrible death.
Thirty-one Decembrists were sentenced to execution by beheading, while the rest had to go to Siberia for hard labor. So Nicholas I decided to deal with those who attempted to oppose him and the monarchy as a whole.
Change of sentence
Due to numerous requests for clemency for criminals, the emperor relented and replaced the execution of the Decembrists by quartering with hanging. Beheading was also changed to lifelong hard labor. However, most of the convicts believed that it was simply impossible to survive in the mines in Siberia, and with his decision the tsar simply prolonged the torment of the rebels. After all, it is known that convicts as a whole rarely survived three years of daily hard work. Most of them died after a year of hard labor.
The date of execution of the Decembrists was set for the night of July thirteenth of the year twenty-six. Nicholas I feared that the people who saw the execution would rebel again, so he ordered the sentence to be carried out in the dark in the presence of random spectators.
Execution
The place where the Decembrists were executed was chosen for security reasons. The authorities were afraid to take the convicts somewhere far from the Peter and Paul Fortress. After all, reports came to the emperor’s desk that disparate groups of conspirators were planning to recapture Bestuzhev-Ryumin and other organizers of the uprising on the way to the scaffold. As a result, the gallows were built on the roof of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the execution itself took place.
According to historical sources, while it was still dark, the prisoners were led outside in white coats. On each person’s chest hung a black leather sign with the name of the convict; after throwing a noose, a white linen cap was put on the Decembrists’ head. Before ascending the scaffold, Kondraty Ryleev turned to the priest and asked him to pray for the souls of the Decembrists and his family. Eyewitnesses recalled that his voice was firm and his gaze clear.
Two executioners took part in the execution, who, after the verdict was announced, knocked the benches out from under the feet of the Decembrists. It was at this moment that three loops broke and the condemned fell onto the scaffold. Pyotr Kakhovsky made an angry speech to the head of the execution. His words contained accusations accompanied by undisguised contempt for his tormentors. Contrary to all the rules, the Decembrists, who had already escaped from the gallows, were executed again. This caused a murmur from the crowd, because in such a case the miraculously saved convicts should have been pardoned. However, the sentence was still carried out.
Funeral of the Decembrists
Due to an unpleasant incident, the execution dragged on until dawn. Therefore, they planned to bury the Decembrists only the next day. The bodies were taken by boat to Goloday Island, where they were interred.
But some historians still doubt the reliability of this information. Many argue that there are no records preserved anywhere certifying the burial of the executed conspirators. According to an alternative version of events, the corpses of the Decembrists were simply thrown into the river so that no one would ever even remember their existence.
Secrets of execution
It should be mentioned that all the circumstances of the execution of the conspirators are still unknown. Immediately after the execution of the sentence, rumors spread throughout St. Petersburg that there were already dead bodies of Decembrists in the noose. Many talked about strangling the conspirators while still in their cells, so that during the execution no one could save them. This fact was never confirmed or denied.
There were also many rumors about the fact that the bodies of the conspirators were nevertheless quartered after hanging. With this, the newly-crowned emperor wanted to assert his strength and power, erasing among the people the memory of the December uprising.
Results and consequences of the uprising
Despite the fact that the conspiracy against the tsarist government could not be brought to an end, it had serious consequences for Russia. First of all, such a large-scale protest against the autocracy sowed doubts in the minds of ordinary people about the inviolability of the tsarist regime. The people warmly sympathized with the Decembrists, so the liberation movement in the country began to gain momentum.
Many interpreted the uprising as the first stage of the revolutionary movement that led to the events of 1917. Without the Decembrists, history could have taken a completely different turn, almost all historians admit this.
The events on Senate Square shook not only Russia, but also Europe. Many newspapers began to publish articles about the weakness of the tsarist government and draw parallels between the Decembrist uprising and the revolutionary movement that captured many countries. This interpretation made it possible for new secret societies to contact their like-minded people in Europe. Some historians believe that further developments in the country were coordinated by the more progressive European revolutionary movement. This formulation usually refers to England, which had very close ties with the Russian revolutionaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Memory of the Decembrists
The alleged burial of the conspirators still did not go unnoticed by people who considered their uprising a real feat and the first serious attempt to change the life of ordinary people in the country.
A hundred years after the execution of the Decembrists, an obelisk was erected on Goloday Island. Black granite was used to make it, and the island itself was renamed in honor of those who rebelled against the monarchy. The streets, squares and bridges of St. Petersburg were named after the conspirators. It also received a new name and a place where the rebel regiments stood all day. From that time on, it began to be called Decembrist Square.
Another fifty years later, an obelisk with a bas-relief and an inscription appeared at the site of the execution of the conspirators. It is dedicated to the five executed Decembrists; it is their faces in profile that are depicted on the black bas-relief. The monument itself is made of light granite, and on the pedestal there is a composition of wrought iron. Interestingly, in the process of clearing a place for the obelisk, the builders came across a half-decayed wooden pillar with shackles covered with rust.
Now the area around the monument has turned into a beautiful and landscaped park. Many trees have been planted here, and beautiful wrought-iron lanterns and fences have been installed. Townspeople often walk near the obelisk, enjoying the beautiful surrounding views.
Every year on the day of the execution of the Decembrists, many St. Petersburg residents come to the obelisk with flowers and lighted candles. Often the day of remembrance is accompanied by reading the memoirs of participants and witnesses of those bloody events, letters and various works devoted to this topic. Memories of the feat of the Decembrists still live in the hearts of not only the residents of St. Petersburg, but also other Russians who are ready to come to the obelisk on the thirteenth of July just to lay flowers in honor of the executed heroes of the uprising.
The Decembrists were representatives of the nobility who demanded reforms. Possessing high status, a good standard of living and European education, they dreamed of changing life in Russia for the better. They proposed reforms that would bring the country closer to the most developed powers at that time.
The code of noble honor determined the behavior of the Decembrists. Many of them were officers - professional military men who went through a difficult path of trials and wars. They put the interests of the Fatherland at the forefront, but they wanted to see the structure of Russia differently. Not all of them considered the overthrow of the king the right measure.
How many Decembrists were there in Russia? 10, 20, 200?
It's very difficult to calculate. There was no single organization with fixed membership. There was no reform plan. They didn’t even develop an action algorithm. It all came down to simple conversations at the dinner table. Many nobles did not participate in the armed uprising for personal reasons. Others got excited about the idea, but cooled down after the first meetings and discussions.
The most famous Decembrists were P.I. Pestel, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, K.F. Ryleev, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, as well as P.G. Kakhovsky.
The Decembrists became the first opposition in the country. Their ideological views were radically different from those existing at that time. They were not revolutionaries! They served the state and were representatives of the upper class. The Decembrists wanted to help Emperor Alexander I.
Societies and unions of the Decembrists
Historians do not view secret societies as paramilitary organizations. This is more a way of socializing young people. After all, many were tired of officer service; they didn’t want to throw cards and go on a spree. Discussing politics made me feel like I was an important part of society.
Southern Society
The meeting appeared in a small town called Tulchin, where at one time the headquarters of the Second Army was located. Young officers with a good education decided to gather in a close circle and discuss policy issues. What is not an alternative to cards, women and vodka?
Salvation Union
It consisted of officers of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment. After 1815 they returned from the war and settled in St. Petersburg. Members of the Union of Salvation rented living space together. They even prescribed the details of everyday life in the charter: duty, rest, discussions. They were also interested in politics. The participants worked out ways for Russia's further development and proposed reforms.
Welfare Union
A couple of years later, the Union of Salvation grew so much that it turned into the Union of Welfare. There were many more participants (about 200). We never got together. Some might not even know each other by sight.
Later, the Union had to be dissolved, as there were too many people in it who did not bring any benefit to society.
Goals of the Decembrists. What did they want to achieve?
Many Decembrists took part in the hostilities. They took part in foreign campaigns and saw how Europe lives, what kind of order is in other countries. They understood that serfdom and the existing system did not meet the interests of Russia. These are the “shackles” that prevent the country from developing.
The Decembrists demanded:
- Carrying out decisive reforms.
- Introduction of the country's constitution.
- Abolition of serfdom.
- Creation of a fair judicial system.
- Equality of people.
Of course, the details of the plan differed. There was never a clear and well-thought-out algorithm of actions. For example, it was not entirely clear how the constitution would be introduced. There were also questions about how to hold general elections when the population cannot read or write.
The Decembrists raised questions to which there was no single answer. Political discussion was just emerging in Russia. The nobles were afraid of civil strife and bloodshed. Therefore, they chose a military coup as a way to change power. The Decembrists believed that the soldiers would not let them down, that the military would unquestioningly carry out all orders.
Uprising on Senate Square in 1825
The Decembrists needed an opportune moment to translate their “reasonings” into reality. It came in 1825, when Alexander I died. Tsarevich Constantine was supposed to take the place of the emperor, but he abdicated the throne. Nicholas became the head of state.
Due to the lack of a clear and well-thought-out plan, the Decembrists' idea of an armed uprising was doomed to failure. In December 1825 they brought troops loyal to them to Senate Square. But it was too late, because all the decisions on the transfer of power had been made.
There was no one to make demands on. The general situation soon reached a dead end. The rebels were quickly surrounded by troops loyal to the government. A firefight broke out, leaving the rioters separated. They had to flee. Historians have calculated the approximate numbers of those killed at that time on both sides. There were about 80 of them.
Trial of the Decembrists
A special body was created to investigate the causes and identify those involved in the armed uprising. It was called the Secret Committee. A separate court was also established, which was responsible for passing sentences on the “rebels.”
- For Emperor Nicholas I, it was extremely important to condemn the rebels strictly according to the law. The emperor had recently taken office, and it was necessary to show a “strong hand.”
- The difficulty was the absence of such laws. There was no single code containing penalties for committing crimes. Nicholas I entrusted the development of the system to Mikhail Speransky, his dignitary, distinguished by his liberal views.
- It was Mikhail Speransky who divided the charges into 11 categories (depending on the degree of guilt). The punishment was assigned depending on which category the accused fell into.
- The 5 main Decembrists were immediately sentenced to death. Quartering was replaced by hanging.
The Decembrists could not defend themselves and have lawyers. They were even absent from the meeting. The judges simply reviewed the documents prepared by the investigators and made a final decision.
Many participants in the uprising were exiled to Siberia. Only Alexander II, 30 years later, would pardon the Decembrists. Although many of them were never able to live up to this moment
For almost 200 years, the Decembrist uprising has attracted the attention of historians. A huge number of scientific articles and even dissertations have been written on this topic. 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 were the Decembrists?
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.
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.
The societies included people of varying degrees of nobility, wealth and position, but there were several things that united them.
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.
It is impossible to imagine the Decembrist living in an illegal position using forged documents - that is, the ordinary life of an underground worker in the second half of the 19th century.
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.
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?
In total, after the uprising on December 14, 1825, more than 300 people were arrested, 125 of them were convicted, the rest were acquitted.
It is difficult to establish the exact number of 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.
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.
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?
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 small friendly company will subsequently become a secret society with the loud name “Union of Salvation”, or “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.
“Russian Truth” by Pavel Pestel. 1824 Program document of the Southern Society of Decembrists. The full title is “The reserved state charter of the great Russian people, serving as a testament for the improvement of Russia and containing the right order both for the people and for the temporary supreme government with dictatorial powers.”
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 unnecessary people, and also to give the opportunity to those who wanted to seriously continue the business and prepare a real conspiracy to do so without unnecessary eyes and ears.
How were they different from other revolutionaries?
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 the old order of things was overthrown and some 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?
Most of all, the experience of the Patriotic War of 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.
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.
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?
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.
Decembrist revolt. Senate Square December 14, 1825. Painting by Karl Kohlman. 1830s.
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?
A special body was created to investigate the case - “ the most highly established Secret Committee to find accomplices of the malicious society, which opened on December 14, 1825", where 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.
Interrogation of the Decembrist by the Investigative Committee in 1826. Drawing by Vladimir Adlerberg
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 trial of the Decembrists.
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.
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.
Execution of the Decembrists. Drawing of Pushkin in the manuscript of "Poltava", 1828
The place of execution of the Decembrists took a long time to be equipped: a gallows with a special mechanism was built. 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.
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 dispersing rebellious ideas throughout the penal servitude with your own hands!
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.
Cell of the Decembrists in the Chita prison.
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.
A curious social collision arose in Siberia: although deprived of 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.
A modern person who knows about the horrors of the Gulag and concentration camps is tempted to regard 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.
“Hang for such atrocities,” ended the verdict of the Supreme Court, which was read by the police chief on the night of July 25, 1826, in one of the fortifications of the Peter and Paul Fortress. A few minutes later, five ideologists and participants in the Decembrist uprising were executed - some not even on the first attempt: Pestel, Ryleev, Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Kakhovsky.
Ryleev, like his comrade Kakhovsky, left military service to fully devote himself to literature - the first examples of so-called “civil poetry” belong to his pen. In addition to poetic tasks, he also had to fulfill the duties of an official in various government departments: for example, Ryleev served in the chamber of the criminal court and the office of the Russian-American Trading Company.
Several years before the uprising, Ryleev headed the Northern Society of Decembrists. He, as it turned out later, was one of the main organizers of the riot, since he “participated in all plans for outrage and gave instructions on how to excite the lower ranks and act in the square.”
It is no coincidence that during interrogations Ryleev took all the blame on himself - he tried to justify his comrades and relieve them of at least part of the responsibility. In the prison fortress, the poet scrawled his last quatrain on the wall: “Prison is an honor to me, not a reproach / I am in it for a just cause, / And should I be ashamed of these chains, / When I wear them for the Fatherland!”
“Father, pray for our sinful souls, don’t forget my wife and bless your daughter,” these were Ryleev’s last words. However, according to one version, having fallen from the rope due to an error by the executioner and falling inside the scaffold, Ryleev managed to add: “An unfortunate country where they don’t even know how to hang you.”
On the eve of the Decembrist uprising, Kakhovsky, who had retired from service and was left without friends and connections, succumbed to radical ideas for those times: he traveled around Europe, inspired by the revolutionary ones in Spain, Portugal and Spain, and did not let go of books about the formation of democracy in Ancient Greece.
Having become a staunch republican, Kakhovsky became friends with Kondraty Ryleev, through whom he got into the Northern Society of Decembrists. Kakhovsky faced a difficult choice: to participate in political activities in Russia or to leave to fight for the independence of Greece. Still, the former lieutenant remained in his homeland and began, together with his comrades, to hatch plans to overthrow the autocracy. Kakhovsky, by the way, although he was considered radical at that time, he did not try on the role of a regicide - when he was offered to get into the Winter Palace and kill Nicholas I, he did not hesitate, but still refused.
On December 26, the day of the uprising, Kakhovsky went around the barracks and agitated the soldiers to join the rebellion. Already on Senate Square, Kakhovsky wounded - as it turned out later, mortally - the Governor-General of St. Petersburg Miloradovich, who was trying to persuade the rebels to disperse. As a result, the court named him one of the main criminals: the quartering was replaced by hanging, but due to the inexperience of the executioner it had to be carried out several times - Kakhovsky fell from the noose.
During the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square, Bestuzhev-Ryumin was still listed as a second lieutenant, which allowed him to conduct widespread agitation among the troops. Bestuzhev-Ryumin also took an active part in the compilation of the revolutionary “Catechism”, which was read to the rebel soldiers.
The military man, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, was convinced that the revolution in Russia would take place without a single drop of blood, similar to the Spanish one, since it would be carried out by the army without the participation of the people. Perhaps that is why, having met government troops during the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, Bestuzhev-Ryumin did not use weapons, but simply allowed himself to be arrested, relying on the mercy of the authorities.
After his execution, he, as well as the other four hanged men, were presumably buried on Goloday Island, which is now called Decembrist Island.
Like many other Decembrists, Ant-Apostol was a member of the Masonic lodge. Perhaps from there he developed a love for secret societies, which he subsequently joined. Muravyov-Apostol was among the co-founders of the Union of Prosperity and the Union of Salvation, and was also responsible for establishing connections with foreign secret societies.
Among the Decembrists, Muravyov-Apostol was one of the most radical: he carried out active propaganda work in the ranks of the army (where, by the way, like everyone else, he had previously served) and even agreed to personally kill the tsar, but it was never possible to develop a plan.
Muravyov-Apostol did not participate in the general performance on Senate Square, but after that he headed the Chernigov regiment in the Kyiv province. He was executed along with four other comrades; Muravyov-Apostol became one of those who had to be put on the scaffold again.
Of all the Decembrists, Pestel was perhaps one of the most honored military men: the discipline in his regiments was praised by Emperor Alexander I himself. Pestel participated in countless battles, in the Patriotic War of 1812 he was even wounded, which, however, did not prevent him from speaking out against the existing state system.
One of the founders of the “Union of Welfare” and the Southern Secret Society, Pestel even compiled “Russian Truth” - this is a constitutional project, the main expression of the ideas of the secret society, written in a clearly republican spirit. Actually, for the most part, Pestel paid for it. The charges of the investigative commission against Pestel were built precisely around this document. History also includes the last words of Pestel, spoken before his execution: “What you sow must come back and will certainly come back later.”
The accession to the throne of Nicholas I was marked by an uprising on Senate Square on December 14, 1825, its suppression and execution of the Decembrists.
It was the strangest rebellion that has ever risen against the existing system. In any case, it started out as the most bloodless.
More than three thousand guardsmen under the command of noble officers gathered on Senate Square in the capital. The Moscow Guards Regiment was the first to enter the square. He was inspired to revolt by the revolutionary speech of officer Alexander Bestuzhev. The regimental commander, Baron Frederick, wanted to prevent the rebels from entering the square, but fell with a severed head under the blow of the saber of officer Shchepin-Rostovsky.
The soldiers of the Moscow Regiment came to Senate Square with the regimental banner flying, loading their guns and taking live ammunition with them. The regiment formed a combat square near the monument to Peter I. St. Petersburg Governor-General Miloradovich galloped up to the rebels and began to persuade the soldiers to disperse and take the oath.
Pyotr Kakhovsky mortally wounded Miloradovich. Under the command of naval officers Nikolai Bestuzhev and Arbuzov, rebel sailors came to the square - the Guards Marine Crew, followed by a regiment of rebel life grenadiers.
“It was necessary to decide to put a quick end to this, otherwise the rebellion could have been communicated to the mob, and then the troops surrounded by it would have been in the most difficult situation,” Nikolai later wrote in his “Notes.”
After three o'clock in the afternoon it began to get dark. The Tsar ordered the cannons to be rolled out and shot point-blank with buckshot.
The arrested began to be taken to the Winter Palace.
Justice over the Decembrists was not supposed to be administered by the highest judicial body of Russia - the Senate, but by the Supreme Criminal Court, created by circumventing the laws on the orders of Nicholas I. The judges were selected by the emperor himself, who feared that the Senate would not carry out his will. The investigation established that the conspirators wanted to raise an armed uprising among the troops, overthrow the autocracy, abolish serfdom and popularly adopt a new state law - a revolutionary constitution. The Decembrists carefully developed their plans.
First of all, they decided to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new king. Then they wanted to enter the Senate and demand the publication of a national manifesto, which would announce the abolition of serfdom and the 25-year term of military service, the granting of freedom of speech, assembly, and religion.
If the Senate did not agree to publish the revolutionary manifesto, it was decided to force it to do so. The rebel troops were to occupy the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the royal family was to be arrested. If necessary, it was planned to kill the king.
The trial of the Decembrists took place with many procedural violations. The death sentence was imposed on 36 Decembrists. The verdict determined the method of application of the death penalty: quartering. Nicholas I approved only five death sentences.
For the rest of those sentenced, the death penalty was commuted to hard labor.
In pursuance of the tsar's decree, the Supreme Court had to choose punishment for the five condemned to quartering.
By his decree, the emperor seemed to leave it to the Supreme Court itself to decide the fate of the five main convicts. In fact, the king clearly expressed his will here too, but not for general information. Adjutant General Diebitsch wrote to the Chairman of the Supreme Court regarding the punishment of five people placed outside the category: “In case of doubt about the type of their execution, which may be determined by this court for criminals, the Emperor Emperor deigned to order me to preface Your Grace that His Majesty does not deign in any way only to be quartered, as a painful execution, but also to be shot as an execution typical of military crimes, not even to a simple beheading and, in a word, not to any death penalty involving the shedding of blood...” The draft of this letter was compiled by Speransky . The Supreme Court, therefore, had only one option left - replacing quartering with hanging, which it did.
In general, Nikolai did not allow the outcome of the trial without the death penalty. “As for the main instigators and conspirators, an exemplary execution will be their fair retribution for the violation of public peace,” Nicholas I admonished the members of the court long before the verdict was pronounced.
The verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court, after approval by the emperor, entered into legal force. On July 13, 1826, the following were executed on the crownwork of the Peter and Paul Fortress: K.F. Ryleev, P.I. Pestel, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky.
The five Decembrists, sentenced to hanging by the will of the tsar, like all the other convicts, did not know the sentence. The announcement of the verdict took place on July 12 in the premises of the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress. A long line of carriages with members of the court moved here from the Senate building. Two gendarmerie squadrons accompanied the carriages. In the designated room, the judges sat at a table covered with red cloth. The prisoners were brought from the casemates to the commandant's house. The meeting was unexpected for them: they hugged and kissed, asking what it meant.
When they found out that the verdict would be announced, they asked: “What, were we judged?” The answer was: “Already tried.” The convicts were placed according to the categories of the sentence in separate rooms, from where they were brought into the hall in groups to hear the verdict and its confirmation. They were taken out of the hall through other doors into the casemates. The condemned bravely met the verdict, which was read to them by the chief secretary, while the judges examined them through lorgnettes.
This calmness of those sentenced to death did not leave them, as we will see below, even during the painful hours of execution.
The story of an anonymous witness about the execution was published in Herzen's almanac "Polar Star".
“... The construction of the scaffold was carried out in advance in the St. Petersburg city prison... On the eve of this fateful day, the St. Petersburg military governor-general Kutuzov carried out an experiment on the scaffold in the prison, which consisted of throwing bags of sand weighing eight pounds on the very ropes on which the criminals were supposed to be hanged, some ropes were thicker, others thinner. Governor General Pavel Vasilyevich Kutuzov, having personally verified the strength of the ropes, decided to use thinner ropes so that the loops would tighten faster. Having completed this experiment, he ordered Police Chief Posnikov, to dismantle the scaffold piece by piece, and send it to the place of execution at different times from 11 to 12 o’clock at night...
At 12 o'clock at night, the Governor General, the chief of gendarmes with their staffs and other authorities arrived at the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the soldiers of the Pavlovsk Guards Regiment also arrived, and a square of soldiers was made on the square opposite the Mint, where they were ordered to be taken out of the casemates where they were kept criminals, all 120 convicted, except five sentenced to death... (These five) at the same time at night were sent from the fortress under the escort of Pavlovian soldiers, under the police chief Chikhachev, to the Kronverk to the place of execution.
The scaffold was already being built in a circle of soldiers, the criminals were walking in chains, Kakhovsky walked forward alone, behind him Bestuzhev-Ryumin arm in arm with Muravyov, then Pestel and Ryleev arm in arm and spoke to each other in French, but the conversation could not be heard. Walking past the scaffold under construction at a close distance, even though it was dark, you could hear that Pestel, looking at the scaffold, said: “C"est trop” - “This is too much” (French). They were immediately seated on the grass at a close distance, where they remained for the shortest time. According to the recollection of the quarterly overseer, “they were completely calm, but only very serious, as if they were thinking about some important matter." When the priest approached them, Ryleev put his hand to his heart and said: “ Do you hear how calmly it beats?” The convicts hugged for the last time.
Since the scaffold could not be ready soon, they were taken into the guardhouse into different rooms, and when the scaffold was ready, they were again taken out of the rooms accompanied by a priest. Police Chief Chikhachev read the maxim of the Supreme Court, which ended with the words: “... hang for such atrocities!” Then Ryleev, turning to his comrades, said, maintaining all his presence of mind: “Gentlemen! We must pay our last debt,” and with that they all knelt down, looking at the sky, and crossed themselves. Ryleev alone spoke - he wished for the well-being of Russia... Then, getting up, each of them said goodbye to the priest, kissing the cross and his hand, moreover, Ryleev said to the priest in a firm voice: “Father, pray for our sinful souls, do not forget my wife and bless your daughter "; Having crossed himself, he ascended the scaffold, followed by others, except for Kakhovsky, who fell on the priest’s chest, cried and hugged him so tightly that they took him away with difficulty...
During the execution there were two executioners who first put on the noose and then the white cap. They (that is, the Decembrists) had black skin on their chests, on which the name of the criminal was written in chalk, they were in white coats, and there were heavy chains on their legs. When everything was ready, with the pressing of the spring in the scaffold, the platform on which they stood on the benches fell, and at the same instant three fell: Ryleev, Pestel and Kakhovsky fell down. Ryleev’s cap fell off, and a bloody eyebrow and blood behind his right ear were visible, probably from a bruise.
He sat crouched because he had fallen inside the scaffold. I approached him and said: “What a misfortune!” The Governor-General, seeing that three had fallen, sent adjutant Bashutsky to take other ropes and hang them, which was done. I was so busy with Ryleev that I did not pay attention to the rest of those who had fallen from the gallows and did not hear if they said what something. When the board was raised again, Pestel’s rope was so long that he could reach the platform with his toes, which was supposed to prolong his torment, and it was noticeable for some time that he was still alive. They remained in this position for half an hour, the doctor who was here announced that the criminals had died.”
Governor General Golenishchev-Kutuzov officially reported to the Tsar: “The execution ended with due silence and order both from the troops who were in the ranks and from the spectators, of whom there were few.” But he added: “Due to the inexperience of our executioners and the inability to arrange gallows the first time, three, namely Ryleev, Kakhovsky and Pestel, fell through, but were soon hanged again and received a well-deserved death.” Nikolai himself wrote to his mother on July 13: “I am quickly writing two words, dear mother, wanting to inform you that everything happened quietly and in order: the vile ones behaved vilely, without any dignity.
Chernyshev is leaving this evening and, as an eyewitness, can tell you all the details. Sorry for the brevity of the presentation, but knowing and sharing your concern, dear mother, I wanted to bring to your attention what has already become known to me.”
The day after the execution, the king returned with his family to the capital. On Senate Square, with the participation of the highest clergy, a cleansing prayer service was held with the sprinkling of the land “desecrated” by the uprising.
The Tsar issued a Manifesto about consigning the whole matter to oblivion.