THE DECEMBRISTS OPENED THE BLACK PAGE OF OUR HISTORY
The execution of the Decembrists is one of the darkest pages in Russian history. But who discovered it? Isn't it the same ones who brought troops to Senate Square in December 1825? And their motives - either revolutionary romantics or palace conspirators - are no longer important. The uprising did not lead to the horror of a Russian riot, but it did end in the horror of execution.
Somewhere here they were executed...
“The first cannon boomed, the grapeshot scattered; Some bullets hit the pavement and ricocheted up snow and dust in columns, others tore several rows out of the front, others rushed overhead with a squeal and found their victims among the people clinging between the columns of the Senate house and on the roofs of neighboring houses. The broken windows rang as they fell to the ground, but the people who flew down after them stretched out silent and motionless. From the first shot, seven people near me fell; I didn’t hear a single sigh, I didn’t notice a single convulsive movement... The second and third knocked down a bunch of soldiers and mobs that had gathered in crowds near our place.” So Nikolai Bestuzhev began counting the number of victims of the uprising on Senate Square on December 26 (14), 1825. Six shots of grapeshot from three guns overturned the battle formations of the rebels.
How many were there - victims of the uprising? Who counted the soldiers and commoners who remained on the ice of the Neva and fell into the ice holes?
For some reason, in the statistics of losses, memory stubbornly records only the five who were hanged and, to some extent, sent “into the depths of the Siberian ores.” Probably because of the well-known epigram on the new Emperor Nicholas I: “He reigned for a short time, but performed many miracles: he exiled 125 to Siberia, and hanged five.”
Judicial investigation
In total, more than 3 thousand people were arrested. 579 people were involved in the investigation and trial of the Decembrists.
On June 13 (1), 1826, a secret trial of the Decembrists began - without their participation. According to the degree of guilt of the defendants, the Supreme Criminal Court divided them into 11 categories. Outside the ranks were the leaders of the Southern and Northern societies Pavel Pestel and Kondraty Ryleev, who led the uprising of the Chernigov regiment Sergei Muravyov-Apostol and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, as well as Pyotr Kakhovsky, who mortally wounded the St. Petersburg Governor-General Mikhail Miloradovich.
In early July, the court sentenced five Decembrists to death by “quartering”, 31 people to death by “cutting off their heads”, 17 to “political death” (imitation execution), and then to exile to eternal hard labor, two to “eternal hard labor." On July 22 (10), Nicholas I approved the court's verdict, making changes to it. Five “out of rank” were “pardoned” and instead of being quartered they were sentenced to hanging, 19 people to exile, 9 officers were demoted to soldiers.
Announcement of the verdict
None of the convicts knew their fate. By the will of the tsar, the rebels had to learn about the trial and the decision on the eve of the execution, in the premises of the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The organizers staged the announcement of the verdict no less gloomily than the execution of the rebellious Queen Mary Stuart. The day before, a long line of carriages with members of the court pulled into the fortress from the Senate building. Two squadrons of gendarmes guarded the dignitaries. In the house of the commandant of the fortress, the judges sat at a table covered with red cloth.
The prisoners were brought to the commandant's house from the casemates. They hugged at an unexpected meeting and asked what it meant. When they found out that the verdict would be announced, they asked: “What, were we judged?” It turned out that yes.
The Decembrists were placed according to the categories of the sentence in separate rooms, from where they were led in groups into the hall to hear the verdict. They were taken out of the hall through other doors. In the room next to the hall there were a priest, a doctor and two barbers with bloodletting preparations in case of need to help convicts who had survived the horror of the sentence. But she wasn't needed. The chief secretary read out the verdict to the rebels.
Rehearsal for death
On the eve of the execution, a rehearsal took place. In Herzen’s almanac “Polar Star,” an anonymous witness to the execution wrote: “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 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 Chief of Police Posnikov, having dismantled the scaffold piece by piece, to send it at different times from 11 to 12 o’clock at night to the place of execution...”
This testimony was supplemented by the head of the police department of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Vasily Berkopf: “The highest order was: to carry out the execution by 4 o’clock in the morning, but one of the dray horses with one of the gallows posts got stuck somewhere in the dark, which is why the execution was delayed significantly...”
Final preparations
While the final preparations were underway, the tsar allowed the sister of Sergei Muravyov-Apostol to meet with her brother. The doomed man was calm. Another convict, Kondraty Ryleev, managed to write a letter to his wife in the last hours: “At these minutes I am busy only with you and our baby; I am in such a comforting peace that I cannot express to you.” The letter ends with the words: “Farewell, they tell you to get dressed...”
At 12 o'clock at night, Governor General Pavel Kutuzov, the newly appointed chief of gendarmes Alexander Benkendorf with their staffs and other commanders arrived at the Peter and Paul Fortress, where soldiers of the Pavlovsk Guards Regiment were already located. On the square opposite the Mint, the soldiers were placed in a square. At about three o'clock in the morning, all 120 convicts, except five sentenced to death, were taken out of the casemates into the center of the rectangle of bayonets.
According to an eyewitness, “the weather was wonderful” and the orchestra of the Pavlovsk regiment played almost without interruption. Those who were destined for hard labor or exile to the active army in the Caucasus had their uniforms torn off and thrown into the fire, their swords broken over their heads. After dressing them in gray mantles, the prisoners were sent back to the dungeons.
The path to the place of execution
The same anonymous witness, who left his notes in Herzen’s almanac “Polar Star,” completed the picture of the latest preparations. According to him, the five doomed soldiers of the Pavlovsk regiment under escort were sent 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 in front 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 close range, even though it was dark, Pestel, looking at the scaffold, was heard to say: “C’est trop” - “This is too much” (French). They were immediately seated on the grass at a close distance, where they remained for a very short time.”
Another witness claimed that Pestel, seeing the gallows, said: “Don’t we deserve a better death? It seems that we have never turned our heads away from bullets or cannonballs. They could have shot us.”
Archpriest Myslovsky of the Kazan Cathedral approached the doomed to strengthen their spirit. Ryleev put his hand to his heart and said: “Can you hear how calmly it beats?” The convicts hugged each other.
Carpenters, under the leadership of military engineer Matushkin, quickly prepared a new crossbar with hooks. The old crossbar got lost somewhere along the way during the night transportation from the city prison to the fortress. Since the cavalry guard colonel Count Zubov refused to attend the execution (“these are my comrades, and I will not go”), for which he lost his career, rumor later saw the loss of the pillar as a sign of deliberate, silent sabotage. They also said that a certain poor lieutenant refused to accompany the five. “I served with honor,” he said, “and I don’t want in my declining years to become the executioner of people I respect.” Is this a legend or a confirmed fact, the sources are silent.
According to the recollections of another anonymous witness, whose memoirs were found a hundred years later in a private archive, “they were ordered to take off their outer clothing, which they immediately burned at the stake, and gave them long white shirts, which they put on, and tied quadrangular leather breastplates on which It was written in white paint - “criminal Kondrat Ryleev...” (according to another version - “Regicide” - V.K.), and so on.”
Then those sentenced to execution were escorted to Safonov’s dacha, “about 100 steps” from the gallows, and taken to different rooms to await the completion of construction. It was later said that the convicts noticed five coffins in the house, their mouths opening to swallow their victims. In the house of the prisoners they received communion: four Orthodox Christians - priest Myslovsky, Pestel - pastor Reinbot.
The last "sorry"
The carpenters' axes were clattering, there was a strong smell of smoke in the air: forests were burning near St. Petersburg. It was cloudy, it was raining, and a weak wind slightly swayed the ropes of the gallows. It was cool - 15 degrees. Sunrise broke at 3:26 am. The king ordered in advance to finish the job by four, so the executioners were in a hurry.
Those sentenced to death were again taken out of their rooms. They could only take small steps: their feet were tied. The doomed were accompanied by a priest. Pestel was so exhausted by the protracted, terrible procedure that he could not cross the high threshold. The guards were forced to lift him and carry him over the obstacle.
The final journey of the doomed was observed by the high authorities, crowded at the scaffold: Golenishchev-Kutuzov, generals Chernyshev, Benkendorf, Dibich, Levashov, Durnovo. And also chief police officer Knyazhnin, police chiefs Posnikov, Chikhachev, Derschau, head of the police department Berkopf, archpriest Myslovsky, paramedic and doctor, architect Gurney, five assistant quarterly wardens, two executioners and 12 Pavlovian soldiers under the command of Captain Pohlman.
Police Chief Chikhachev once again loudly read the verdict of the Supreme Court, with the final words: “Hang for such atrocities!”
After which the poet Kondraty Ryleev, turning to his comrades, said: “Gentlemen! We must pay our last debt." They knelt down and crossed themselves, looking at the sky. “Ryleev alone spoke - he wished for the prosperity of Russia,” wrote a certain “who was present at the execution.” According to other recollections, “God save Russia...” said Muravyov.
Archpriest Myslovsky overshadowed them with a cross and read a short prayer. Then, rising to their feet, each of them kissed the cross and the priest’s hand. Ryleev asked the archpriest: “Father, pray for our sinful souls, do not forget my wife and bless my daughter.” And Kakhovsky fell on the priest’s chest, cried and hugged Myslovsky so tightly that they took him away from him doomed to death with difficulty.
Execution of the sentence
The executioner, who was supposed to carry out the sentence, according to the testimony of Knyazhnin, when he saw the faces of these people point-blank, fainted. Therefore, his assistant, the convicted Stepan Karelin, a former court postilion who was serving a sentence for stealing a salop (women's outer clothing - a warm cape, common in the first half of the 19th century - V.K.) agreed to do his job.
Vasily Berkopf, the head of the control department of the Peter and Paul Fortress, recalled further: “Under the gallows, a hole of considerable size and depth was dug into the ground; it was covered with boards; criminals should have become criminals on these boards, and when the loops were put on them, the boards should have been taken out from under their feet... but due to the haste, the gallows turned out to be too high, or, more accurately, its pillars were not dug deep enough into the ground , and the ropes with their loops therefore turned out to be short and did not reach their necks. Near the shaft on which the gallows was built, there was a dilapidated building of the Merchant Shipping School, from where, on Benckendorff’s own instructions, the school benches were taken ... "
The executioners placed nooses around the necks of the doomed. “Then, according to the testimony of the assistant quarter warden, they put these bags on them... They really didn’t like the bags,” writes the warden, “they were unhappy, and Ryleev said: “Lord! What is this for?
In the last minutes of their lives, the victims were in white coats, and heavy chains hung on their feet. The drummers beat an alarming beat, the flutists struck a squeaky note that threatened to end along with the lives of the doomed. Vasily Berkopf continued to testify: “The benches were placed on boards, the criminals were dragged onto the benches, nooses were put on them, and the caps that were on their heads were pulled over their faces. When the benches were taken away from under their feet, the ropes broke and three criminals fell into the pit, breaking through the boards laid over it with the weight of their bodies and shackles.”
Re-hung
Ryleev, Kakhovsky and Muravyov fell down. The executioners later suggested that the ropes had broken because they had gotten wet in the rain. Ryleev’s cap fell off, and a bloody eyebrow and blood behind his right ear were visible. He sat huddled in pain.
There are slight discrepancies in the descriptions of further details that have come down to us in the retellings of other Decembrists. Decembrist Ivan Yakushkin wrote: “Sergei Muravyov was brutally killed; he broke his leg and could only say: “Poor Russia! And we don’t know how to hang properly!” Kakhovsky swore in Russian. Ryleev didn’t say a word.”
The shocked executioners tried to straighten the collapsed boards. At the same time, it turned out that Pestel’s rope was so long that he reached the platform with his toes stretched out like a ballerina’s. He clung to life, which only prolonged his torment. It was noticeable that life was still glimmering in him under the hood for some time. Pestel and Bestuzhev-Ryumin remained in this position for another half hour, after which the doctor announced that the criminals had died.
Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s adjutant Bashutsky, who was present at the execution, recalls other details: “The bloodied Ryleev rose to his feet and, turning to Kutuzov, said: “You, general, probably came to watch us die. Please your sovereign that his wish is being fulfilled: you see, we are dying in agony.”
The head of the police department of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Vasily Berkopf, further recalled: “There were no spare (boards), they were in a hurry to get them in the nearest shops, but it was early in the morning, everything was locked, which is why the execution was delayed.”
The Governor-General sent Adjutant Bashutsky to obtain other ropes to re-hang the condemned.
There was a terrible pause. The doomed now knew exactly what they were about to experience again.
The Decembrist I. Gorbachevsky conveys to his descendants: “Kakhovsky, at this time, while new loops were being prepared, mercilessly scolded the executor of the sentence... He scolded as no commoner had ever cursed: scoundrel, scoundrel, you don’t even have a strong rope; give your aiguillette to the executioners instead of a rope.”
After which the whole procedure was repeated for the three unfortunates. Later, the governor-general wrote 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. Due to the inexperience of our executioners and the inability to arrange gallows the first time, three, namely: Ryleev, Kakhovsky and Muravyov, fell through, but were soon hanged again and received a well-deserved death. Which I convey to your Majesty most submissively.”
After the execution
After examination by doctors, the corpses were removed from the gallows, placed on a cart and covered with canvas. The cart with the bodies was taken to the destroyed building of the merchant shipping school. And the next night, as chief police chief B. Knyazhnin wrote: “I ordered the dead bodies to be taken out of the fortress to the distant rocky shores of the Gulf of Finland, to dig one large hole in the coastal wooded bushes and to bury everyone together, leveling them to the ground, so that there would be no indication of where they are buried..."
In the evening after the execution, the officers of the cavalry regiment, from which many Decembrists emerged, gave a holiday in honor of the reigning empress on Elagin Island with a magnificent fireworks display. And the military engineer Matushkin was later demoted to the ranks of soldiers for poor construction of the scaffold. The Tsar issued a manifesto about consigning to oblivion the entire cause of the Decembrists.
And two months later, in the papers of Catherine II’s late grandmother, the emperor discovered a draft constitution drawn up by Catherine’s advisor, Count Nikita Panin. The document spoke of granting the people the freedoms for which the Decembrists fought. The new king ordered the paper to be hidden more securely until another time.
A company of young nobles who dreamed of changing the state of affairs in Russia. In the early stages, quite a lot of people participated in the Decembrist secret societies, and later the investigation had to think about who to consider as a conspirator and who not. This is because the activities of these societies were limited exclusively to conversations. Whether the members of the Union of Welfare and the Union of Salvation were ready to take any active action is a moot point.
The societies included people of varying degrees of nobility, wealth and position, but there were several things that united them.
Decembrists at the mill in Chita. Drawing by Nikolai Repin. 1830s Decembrist Nikolai Repin was sentenced to hard labor for 8 years, then the term was reduced to 5 years. He served his sentence in the Chita prison and in the Petrovsky Factory. Wikimedia CommonsThey were all nobles
Poor or wealthy, well-born or not, but they all belonged to the nobility, that is, to the elite, which implies a certain standard of living, education and status. This, in particular, meant that much of their behavior was determined by the code of noble honor. Subsequently, this presented them with a difficult moral dilemma: the code of the nobleman and the code of the conspirator apparently contradict each other. A nobleman, being caught in an unsuccessful uprising, must come to the sovereign and obey, the conspirator must remain silent and not betray anyone. A nobleman cannot and should not lie, a conspirator does everything that is required to achieve his goals. 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 vast majority were officers
The Decembrists are people of the army, professional military men with the appropriate education; many went through battles and were heroes of wars, had military awards.
They were not revolutionaries in the classical sense
All of them sincerely considered their main goal to be service for the good of the fatherland and, had circumstances been different, they would have considered it an honor to serve the sovereign as state dignitaries. The overthrow of the sovereign was not at all the main idea of the Decembrists; they came to it by looking at the current state of affairs and logically studying the experience of revolutions in Europe (and not all of them liked this idea).
How many Decembrists were there in total?
Nikolai Panov's cell in the Petrovsky Zavod prison. Drawing by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1830s Nikolai Bestuzhev was sentenced to hard labor forever, kept in Chita and in the Petrovsky Plant, then in Selenginsk, Irkutsk province. In total, after the uprising on December 14, 1825, more than 300 people were arrested, 125 of them were convicted, the rest were acquitted. 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.
It is worth noting that the people who participated in the Decembrist secret societies and directly in the uprising are two not too intersecting sets. Many of those who participated in the meetings of the early Decembrist societies subsequently completely lost interest in them and became, for example, zealous security officials; in nine years (from 1816 to 1825), quite a lot of people passed through secret societies. In turn, those who were not members of secret societies at all or were accepted a couple of days before the rebellion also took part in the uprising.
How did they become Decembrists?
“Russian Truth” by Pavel Pestel. 1824 Program document of the Southern Society of Decembrists. The full name is the Reserved State Charter of the great Russian people, which serves as a testament for the improvement of Russia and contains the right order both for the people and for the temporary supreme government, which has dictatorial powers. To be included in the circle of Decembrists, sometimes it was enough to answer the question of a not entirely sober friend: “There is a society of people who want the good, prosperity, happiness and freedom of Russia. Are you with us?" - and both could later forget about this conversation. It is worth noting that conversations about politics in the noble society of that time were not at all encouraged, so those who were inclined to such conversations, willy-nilly, formed closed circles of interests. In a certain sense, the Decembrist secret societies can be considered a way of socializing the then generation of young people; a way to get away from the emptiness and boredom of officer society, to find a more sublime and meaningful way of existence.
Thus, the Southern Society arose in the tiny Ukrainian town of Tulchin, where the headquarters of the Second Army was stationed. Educated young officers, whose interests are not limited to cards and vodka, gather in their circle to talk about politics - and this is their only entertainment; They would call these meetings, in the fashion of that time, a secret society, which, in essence, was simply a way characteristic of the era to identify themselves and their interests.
In a similar way, the Salvation Union was simply a company of comrades from the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment; many were relatives. Returning from the war in 1816, they organized their life in St. Petersburg, where life was quite expensive, according to the artel principle familiar to soldiers: they rent an apartment together, chip in for food and prescribe the details of general life in the charter. This small friendly company will subsequently become a secret society with the loud name of the Union of Salvation, or the Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland. In fact, this is a very small - a couple of dozen people - friendly circle, the participants of which wanted, among other things, to talk about politics and the ways of development of Russia.
By 1818, the circle of participants began to expand, and the Union of Salvation was reformed into the Union of Welfare, in which there were already about 200 people from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and all of them had never gathered together and two members of the union might no longer know each other personally. This uncontrolled expansion of the circle prompted the leaders of the movement to announce the dissolution of the Union of Welfare: to get rid of 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?
The first page of Nikita Muravyov's constitutional project. 1826 The Constitution of Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov is a program document of the Northern Society. It was not officially accepted by the society, but was widely known and reflected the sentiments of the majority of its members. Compiled in 1822-1825. Project “100 Main Documents of Russian History” In fact, the Decembrists were the first political opposition in the history of Russia, created on ideological grounds (and not, for example, as a result of the struggle of court groups for access to power). Soviet historians habitually began with them the chain of revolutionaries, which continued with Herzen, Petrashevists, Narodniks, Narodnaya Volya and, finally, the Bolsheviks. However, the Decembrists were distinguished from them primarily by the fact that they were not obsessed with the idea of revolution as such, and did not declare that any transformations were meaningless until 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?
The Battle of Moscow at Borodino on September 7, 1812. Painting by Albrecht Adam. 1815 Wikimedia Commons 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 could not agree on what to do next. How to introduce a constitution and organize general elections in a country with an overwhelmingly illiterate peasant population? They did not have an answer to this and many other questions. The Decembrists’ disputes among themselves only marked the emergence of a culture of political discussion in the country, and many questions were raised for the first time, and no one had answers to them at all.
However, if they did not have unity regarding goals, they were unanimous regarding the means: the Decembrists wanted to achieve their goal through a military coup; what we would now call a putsch (with the amendment that if the reforms had come from the throne, the Decembrists would have welcomed them). The idea of a popular uprising was completely alien to them: they were firmly convinced that involving the people in this story was extremely dangerous. It was impossible to control the rebel people, and the troops, as it seemed to them, would remain under their control (after all, most of the participants had command experience). The main thing here is that they were very afraid of bloodshed and civil strife and believed that a military coup would make it possible to avoid this.
In particular, this is why the Decembrists, when bringing the regiments to the square, had absolutely no intention of explaining their reasons to them, that is, they considered conducting propaganda among their own soldiers an unnecessary matter. They counted only on the personal loyalty of the soldiers, to whom they tried to be caring commanders, and also on the fact that the soldiers would simply follow orders.
How did the uprising go?
Senate Square December 14, 1825. Painting by Karl Kohlman. 1830s Bridgeman Images/Fotodom Unsuccessful. This is not to say that the conspirators did not have a plan, but they failed to carry it out from the very beginning. They managed to bring troops to Senate Square, but it was planned that they would come to Senate Square for a meeting of the State Council and the Senate, which were supposed to swear allegiance to the new sovereign, and demand the introduction of a constitution. But when the Decembrists came to the square, it turned out that the meeting had already ended, the dignitaries had dispersed, all decisions had been made, and there was simply no one to present their demands to.
The situation reached a dead end: the officers did not know what to do next and continued to keep the troops in the square. The rebels were surrounded by government troops and a shootout occurred. The rebels simply stood on Senate Street, not even trying to take any action - for example, to storm the palace. Several shots of grapeshot from government troops scattered the crowd and put them to flight.
Why did the uprising fail?
For any uprising to succeed, there must be an undoubted willingness to shed blood at some point. The Decembrists did not have this readiness; they did not want bloodshed. But it is difficult for a historian to imagine a successful rebellion, whose leaders make every effort not to kill anyone.
Blood was still shed, but there were relatively few casualties: both sides shot with noticeable reluctance, if possible over their heads. Government troops were tasked with simply scattering the rebels, but they fired back. Modern calculations by historians show that about 80 people died on both sides during the events on Senate Street. Talks that there were up to 1,500 victims, and about the heap of corpses that the police threw into the Neva at night, are not confirmed by anything.
Who judged the Decembrists and how?
Interrogation of the Decembrist by the Investigative Committee in 1826. Drawing by Vladimir Adlerberg Wikimedia Commons To investigate the case, a special body was created - “the highly established Secret Committee to find accomplices of the malicious society that opened on December 14, 1825,” to which Nicholas I appointed mainly generals. To pass a verdict, a Supreme Criminal Court was specially established, to which senators, members of the State Council, and the Synod were appointed.
The problem was that the emperor really wanted to condemn the rebels fairly and according to the law. But, as it turned out, there were no suitable laws. There was no coherent code indicating the relative gravity of various crimes and the penalties for them (like the modern Criminal Code). That is, it was possible to use, say, the Code of Law of Ivan the Terrible - no one has canceled it - and, for example, boil everyone in boiling tar or cut them on the wheel. But there was an understanding that this no longer corresponds to the enlightened 19th century. In addition, there are many defendants - and their guilt obviously differs.
Therefore, Nicholas I instructed Mikhail Speransky, a dignitary then known for his liberalism, to develop some kind of system. Speransky divided the charge into 11 categories according to the degree of guilt, and for each category he prescribed what elements of the crime corresponded to it. And then the accused were assigned to these categories, and for each judge, after hearing a note about the strength of his guilt (that is, the result of the investigation, something like an indictment), they voted on whether he corresponds to this category and what punishment to assign to each category. There were five outside the ranks, sentenced to death. However, the sentences were made “with reserve” so that the sovereign could show mercy and mitigate the punishment.
The procedure was such that the Decembrists themselves were not present at the trial and could not justify themselves; the judges considered only the papers prepared by the Investigative Committee. The Decembrists were only given a ready verdict. They later reproached the authorities for this: in a more civilized country they would have had lawyers and the opportunity to defend themselves.
How did the Decembrists live in exile?
Street in Chita. Watercolor by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1829-1830 Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images Those who received a sentence of hard labor were sent to Siberia. According to the verdict, they were also deprived of ranks, noble dignity and even military awards. More lenient sentences for the last categories of convicts include exile to a settlement or to distant garrisons where they continued to serve; not everyone was deprived of their ranks and nobility.
Those sentenced to hard labor began to be sent to Siberia gradually, in small batches - they were transported on horses, with couriers. The first batch, of eight people (the most famous included Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Obolensky), were especially unlucky: they were sent to real mines, to mining factories, and there they spent the first, really difficult winter. But then, fortunately for the Decembrists, in St. Petersburg they realized: after all, if you distribute state criminals with dangerous ideas among the Siberian mines, this also means 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. If it were not for the arrival of their wives, the Decembrists, as the tsar wanted, would have been completely cut off from their past life: they were strictly forbidden to correspond. But it would be scandalous and indecent to prohibit wives from correspondence, so the isolation didn’t work out very well. There was also the important point that many still had influential relatives, including in St. Petersburg. Nicholas did not want to irritate this layer of the nobility, so they managed to achieve various small and not very small concessions.
Interior view of one of the courtyards of the casemate of the Petrovsky Plant. Watercolor by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1830 Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images A curious social collision arose in Siberia: although deprived of the nobility and called state criminals, for local residents the Decembrists were still aristocrats - in manners, upbringing, and education. Real aristocrats were rarely brought to Siberia; the Decembrists became a kind of local curiosity, they were called “our princes,” and the Decembrists were treated with great respect. Thus, that cruel, terrible contact with the criminal convict world, which happened to exiled intellectuals later, did not happen in the case of the Decembrists either.
A modern person, who already 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.
“I didn’t sleep,” Obolensky recalls, “we were ordered to get dressed. I heard steps, heard whispers... Some time passed, I heard the sound of chains; the door opened on the opposite side of the corridor. The chains rang heavily, I heard the drawn-out voice of my unchanging friend, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev: “Sorry, sorry, brothers!” - and measured steps moved away to the end of the corridor. I rushed to the window. It was beginning to get light."
“At two o’clock in the morning the chains rang for the last time,” writes Rosen. “The Five Martyrs were led to hang in the ditch of the Kronverk curtain. On the way, Sergei Muravyov-Apostle loudly said to the accompanying priest that you are leading five thieves to Golgotha - and “which,” answered the priest , “they will be at the right hand of the Father.” Ryleev, approaching the gallows, said: “Ryleev dies like a villain, may Russia remember him!”
Dawn came gloomy and damp. Ryleev came out cleanly dressed - in a frock coat, well shaven. The shackles were supported by a handkerchief threaded through one link. The others also cleaned themselves up before leaving. Except for Kakhovsky, who didn’t even comb his hair.
They were led first to mass in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Then, accompanied by Myslovsky, police chief Chikhachev and a platoon of grenadiers from the Pavlovsky regiment, they went to the scaffold.
Myslovsky remembered the words of Pestel, who, seeing the gallows, said: “Don’t we deserve a better death? It seems that we never turned our heads away from bullets or cannonballs. They could have shot us.”
Myslovsky turned to Ryleev with consolations. He took his hand and put it on his heart: “Listen, father, it doesn’t beat stronger than before.”
Before they were brought to the place, in the square, in sight of the prepared gallows - a crossbar on two pillars, a civil execution was carried out over all the other Decembrists. The sentence was read to them again, then their swords were broken over their heads, the military uniforms were torn off and thrown into the fires. In these fires - there were four of them - uniforms and epaulettes were still smoldering, and red-hot medals were glowing when five suicide bombers came here. They tore off their outer clothing, threw it into the fire, put white robes on them, and tied a leather bib with the inscription - white on black - to each of them. From Ryleev: “Criminal Kondrat Ryleev.”
Engineer Matushkin and his assistants were busy at the gallows - not everything was ready there. The executioner and his assistant, discharged either from Sweden or from Finland, set up the loops. The gallows turned out to be too high - they sent to the Merchant Shipping School for benches. While they were being transported, the five convicts sat on the grass and talked. Having plucked blades of grass, they cast lots to see who should go first, who should go second, and so on - to execution. They sat on the benches in the order they were drawn by lot. Nooses were placed around their necks, and caps were pulled over their eyes. Here Ryleev calmly remarked that his hands should be tied. The executioners came to their senses and did it.
The drums beat a measured beat. The soldiers stood in silence. Governor-General Golenshtsev-Kutuzov and adjutants-general Chernyshov and Benckendorf watched the execution on horseback. Chief Police Officer Knyazhnin, Adjutant Durnovo, and several military and police officers were also there. On the shore - near the walls of the fortress - St. Petersburg residents crowded. A lot of people also gathered on the Trinity Bridge - Baron Delvig, Nikolai Grech, and relatives of many Decembrists were there. From there the huge gallows was clearly visible. There was not an indifferent face in the crowd - everyone was crying.
The ropes turned out to be of different thicknesses and of poor quality. When the executioner pressed the lever, the benches and platform fell into the pit. Pestel and Kakhovsky hung, and three ropes broke - Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Ryleev fell into the same pit with a roar (they were in shackles) - following the boards and benches. Bestuzhev-Ryumin lost consciousness from hitting the boards. Ryleev hit his head - blood was pouring down his face. One of the soldiers remarked: “You know, God doesn’t want them to die.” Yes, and there was a custom all over the world, from time immemorial: the hanged man fell - his happiness - and they did not hang him twice.
Hang them up, hang them up quickly! - Golenishchev-Kutuzov yelled furiously. The executioners dragged the unfortunate people out of the pit.
Ryleev rose to his feet and looked Kutuzov in the eyes. In complete silence his slow words were heard:
You, General, have probably come to watch us die. Please your sovereign that his wish is being fulfilled: you see, we are dying in agony.
Hang them again soon! - shouted Kutuzov. Even Benckendorff could not stand it - he fell face down on the neck of his horse and remained in this position until the end of this massacre.
The vile guardsman of the tyrant! - Ryleev shouted back. - Give the executioner your aiguillettes, so that we don’t die a third time!
A cursed land, where they can neither form a conspiracy, nor judge, nor hang, - said Sergei Muravyov-Apostol.
Bestuzhev-Ryumin could not stand on his feet - the executioners lifted him onto the platform for the second time. The nooses were put on them again...
I forgive and allow! - Myslovsky shouted, raising the cross, but immediately staggered and fell unconscious. When he woke up, it was all over.
The wife of Nicholas I, Alexandra Feodorovna, wrote on Monday, July 13: “What a night it was! I kept imagining the dead... At 7 o’clock Nicholas was woken up. In two letters, Kutuzov and Dibich reported that everything had passed without any disturbances. .. My poor Nikolai has suffered so much these days!”
The report of Golenishchev-Kutuzov said: “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. Due to the inexperience of our executioners and the inability to arrange gallows the first time, three and namely: Ryleev , Kakhovsky and Muravyov (Kakhovsky is mistakenly named here instead of Bestuzhev-Ryumin) fell foul, but were soon hanged again and received a well-deserved death.”
“I thank God,” wrote Nikolai Dibich, “that everything ended well... I ask you, dear friend, to be as careful as possible today and ask you to tell Benckendorff to redouble his vigilance and attention; the same order should be given to the troops.” .
On the same day, the tsar’s manifesto was drawn up and printed, which stated that “the criminals received the execution worthy of them; the Fatherland has been cleared of the consequences of the infection” and that “this intention was not in the properties, not in the morals of the Russians,” which was supposedly drawn up "a handful of monsters." “Let all fortunes unite in trust in the government,” cried Nicholas I.
“The first task of history is to refrain from lying, the second is not to conceal the truth, the third is not to give any reason to suspect oneself of partiality or prejudiced hostility.” “Not knowing history is always being a child.” Cicero Marcus Tullius
DECEMBRISTS
The emergence of the movement of noble revolutionaries was determined both by internal processes taking place in Russia and by international events in the first quarter of the 19th century.
Causes and nature of movement. The main reason is the understanding of the best representatives of the nobility that the preservation of serfdom and autocracy is disastrous for the future fate of the country.
An important reason was the Patriotic War of 1812 and the presence of the Russian army in Europe in 1813-1815. The future Decembrists called themselves “children of the 12th year.” They realized that the people who saved Russia from enslavement and liberated Europe from Napoleon deserved a better fate. Acquaintance with European reality convinced the leading part of the nobles that the serfdom of the Russian peasantry needed to be changed. They found confirmation of these thoughts in the works of French enlighteners who spoke out against feudalism and absolutism. The ideology of noble revolutionaries also took shape on domestic soil, since many state and public figures already in the 18th - early 19th centuries. condemned serfdom.
The international situation also contributed to the formation of a revolutionary worldview among some Russian nobles. According to the figurative expression of P.I. For Pestel, one of the most radical leaders of secret societies, the spirit of transformation made “minds bubble everywhere.”
“No matter the mail, there’s a revolution,” they said, hinting at receiving information in Russia about the revolutionary and national liberation movements in Europe and Latin America. The ideology of European and Russian revolutionaries, their strategy and tactics largely coincided. Therefore, the uprising in Russia in 1825 is on a par with pan-European revolutionary processes. They had an objectively bourgeois character.
However, the Russian social movement had its own specifics. It was expressed in the fact that in Russia there was virtually no bourgeoisie capable of fighting for its interests and for democratic changes. The broad masses of the people were dark, uneducated and downtrodden. For a long time they retained monarchical illusions and political inertia. Therefore, revolutionary ideology and understanding of the need to modernize the country took shape at the beginning of the 19th century. exclusively among the advanced part of the nobility, who opposed the interests of their class. The circle of revolutionaries was extremely limited - mainly representatives of the noble nobility and the privileged officer corps.
Secret societies in Russia appeared at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. They had a Masonic character, and their participants shared mainly a liberal-enlightenment ideology. In 1811-1812 There was a group of 7 people called “Choka”, created by N.N. Muravyov. In a fit of youthful idealism, its members dreamed of founding a republic on the island of Sakhalin. After the end of the Patriotic War of 1812, secret organizations existed in the form of officer partnerships and circles of young people connected by family and friendly ties. In 1814 in St. Petersburg N.N. Muravyov formed the “Sacred Artel”. Also known is the Order of Russian Knights, founded by M.F. Orlov. These organizations did not actually take active actions, but were of great importance, since the ideas and views of future leaders of the movement were formed in them.
The first political organizations. In February 1816, after the return of most of the Russian army from Europe, a secret society of future Decembrists, the “Union of Salvation,” arose in St. Petersburg. Since February 1817, it was called the “Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland.” It was founded by: P.I. Pestel, A.N. Muravyov, S.P. Trubetskoy. They were joined by K.F. Ryleev, I.D. Yakushkin, M.S. Lunin, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol and others.
"Union of Salvation" is the first Russian political organization that had a revolutionary program and charter - "Statute". It contained two main ideas for the reconstruction of Russian society - the abolition of serfdom and the destruction of autocracy. Serfdom was seen as a disgrace and the main obstacle to the progressive development of Russia, autocracy - as an outdated political system. The document spoke of the need to introduce a constitution that would limit the rights of absolute power. Despite heated debates and serious disagreements (some members of society ardently spoke out for a republican form of government), the majority considered a constitutional monarchy to be the ideal of the future political system. This was the first watershed in the views of the Decembrists. Disputes on this issue continued until 1825.
In January 1818, the Union of Welfare was created - a fairly large organization, numbering about 200 people. Its composition still remained predominantly noble. There were a lot of young people in it, and the military predominated. The organizers and leaders were A.N. and N.M. Muravyov, S.I. and M.I. Muravyov-Apostoly, P.I. Pestel, I.D. Yakushkin, M.S. Lunin and others. The organization received a fairly clear structure. The Root Council, the general governing body, and the Council (Duma), which had executive power, were elected. Local organizations of the Union of Welfare appeared in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tulchin, Chisinau, Tambov, and Nizhny Novgorod.
The program and charter of the union were called the “Green Book” (based on the color of the binding). Conspiratorial tactics and secrecy among leaders. They called for the development of two parts of the program. The first, associated with legal forms of activity, was intended for all members of society. The second part, which spoke of the need to overthrow the autocracy, abolish serfdom, introduce constitutional government and, most importantly, to implement these demands by violent means, was known especially to the initiated.
All members of society took part in legal activities. They tried to influence public opinion. For this purpose, educational organizations were created, books and literary almanacs were published. Members of society also acted by personal example - they freed their serfs, bought them from landowners, and freed the most gifted peasants.
Members of the organization (mainly within the framework of the Root Council) conducted fierce debates about the future structure of Russia and the tactics of the revolutionary coup. Some insisted on a constitutional monarchy, others on a republican form of government. By 1820, Republicans began to dominate. The means of achieving the goal were considered by the Root Government to be a conspiracy based on the army. Discussion of tactical issues - when and how to carry out a coup - revealed great differences between radical and moderate leaders. Events in Russia and Europe (uprising in the Semenovsky regiment, revolutions in Spain and Naples) inspired members of the organization to seek more radical actions. The most decisive insisted on the speedy preparation of a military coup. Moderates objected to this.
At the beginning of 1821, due to ideological and tactical differences, a decision was made to dissolve the Union of Welfare. By taking such a step, the leadership of the society intended to get rid of traitors and spies who, as they reasonably believed, could infiltrate the organization. A new period began, associated with the creation of new organizations and active preparations for revolutionary action.
In March 1821, the Southern Society was formed in Ukraine. Its creator and leader was P.I. Pestel, a staunch republican, distinguished by some dictatorial habits. The founders were also A.P. Yushnevsky, N.V. Basargin, V.P. Ivashev and others. In 1822, the Northern Society was formed in St. Petersburg. Its recognized leaders were N.M. Muravyov, K.F. Ryleev, S.P. Trubetskoy, M.S. Lunin. Both societies “had no other idea how to act together.” These were large political organizations for that time, possessing well-theoretically developed program documents.
Constitutional projects. The main projects discussed were “Constitution” by N.M. Muravyov and "Russkaya Pravda" P.I. Pestel. The "Constitution" reflected the views of the moderate part of the Decembrists, "Russkaya Pravda" - the radical ones. The focus was on the question of the future state structure of Russia.
N.M. Muravyov advocated a constitutional monarchy - a political system in which executive power belonged to the emperor (the hereditary power of the tsar was retained for continuity), and legislative power belonged to parliament (the "People's Assembly"). The suffrage of citizens was limited by a fairly high property qualification. Thus, a significant part of the poor population was excluded from the political life of the country.
P.I. Pestel unconditionally spoke out for the republican political system. In his project, the legislative power was vested in a unicameral parliament, and the executive power was vested in the “Sovereign Duma” consisting of five people. Every year one of the members of the “Sovereign Duma” became the president of the republic. P.I. Pestel proclaimed the principle of universal suffrage. In accordance with the ideas of P.I. Pestel, a parliamentary republic with a presidential form of government was to be established in Russia. It was one of the most progressive political government projects of that time.
In solving the most important agrarian-peasant issue for Russia, P.I. Pestel and N.M. Muravyov unanimously recognized the need for the complete abolition of serfdom and the personal liberation of peasants. This idea ran like a red thread through all the program documents of the Decembrists. However, the issue of allocating land to peasants was resolved by them in different ways.
N.M. Muravyov, considering the landowner's ownership of land inviolable, proposed transferring the ownership of a personal plot and 2 dessiatines of arable land per yard to the peasants. This was clearly not enough to run a profitable peasant farm.
According to P.I. Pestel, part of the landowners' land was confiscated and transferred to a public fund to provide workers with an allotment sufficient for their "subsistence." Thus, for the first time in Russia, the principle of land distribution according to labor standards was put forward. Consequently, in resolving the land issue P.I. Pestel spoke from more radical positions than N.M. Muravyov.
Both projects also concerned other aspects of the Russian socio-political system. They provided for the introduction of broad democratic civil liberties, the abolition of class privileges, and significant simplification of military service for soldiers. N.M. Muravyov proposed a federal structure for the future Russian state, P.I. Pestel insisted on preserving an indivisible Russia, in which all nations were to merge into one.
In the summer of 1825, the southerners agreed on joint actions with the leaders of the Polish Patriotic Society. At the same time, the “Society of United Slavs” joined them, forming a special Slavic council. All of them launched active agitation among the troops with the aim of preparing an uprising in the summer of 1826. However, important internal political events forced them to speed up their action.
Uprising in St. Petersburg. After the death of Tsar Alexander I, an extraordinary situation arose in the country - an interregnum. The leaders of the Northern Society decided that the change of emperors created a favorable moment for speaking out. They developed a plan for the uprising and scheduled it for December 14, the day the Senate took the oath to Nicholas. The conspirators wanted to force the Senate to accept their new program document - “Manifesto to the Russian People” - and instead of swearing allegiance to the emperor, proclaim the transition to constitutional rule.
The “Manifesto” formulated the main demands of the Decembrists: the destruction of the previous government, i.e. autocracy; abolition of serfdom and introduction of democratic freedoms. Much attention was paid to improving the situation of soldiers: the abolition of conscription, corporal punishment, and the system of military settlements was proclaimed. The “Manifesto” announced the establishment of a temporary revolutionary government and the convening after some time of a Great Council of representatives of all classes of Russia to determine the future political structure of the country.
Early in the morning of December 14, 1825, the most active members of the Northern Society began agitation among the troops of St. Petersburg. They intended to bring them to Senate Square and thereby influence the senators. However, things moved rather slowly. Only at 11 o’clock in the morning was it possible to bring the Moscow Life Guards Regiment to Senate Square. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the rebels were joined by sailors of the Guards naval crew and some other parts of the St. Petersburg garrison - about 3 thousand soldiers and sailors led by Decembrist officers. But further events did not develop according to plan. It turned out that the Senate had already sworn allegiance to Emperor Nicholas I and the senators went home. There was no one to present the Manifesto to. S.P. Trubetskoy, appointed dictator of the uprising, did not appear on the square. The rebels found themselves without leadership and doomed themselves to a senseless wait-and-see tactic.
Meanwhile, Nikolai gathered units loyal to him in the square and decisively used them. Artillery grapeshot scattered the ranks of the rebels, who in disorderly flight tried to escape on the ice of the Neva. The uprising in St. Petersburg was crushed. Arrests of members of the society and their sympathizers began.
Revolt in the south. Despite the arrests of some leaders of the Southern Society and the news of the defeat of the uprising in St. Petersburg, those who remained free decided to support their comrades. December 29, 1825 S.I. Muravyov-Apostol and M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin rebelled in the Chernigov regiment. Initially, it was doomed to failure. On January 3, 1826, the regiment was surrounded by government troops and shot with grapeshot.
Investigation and trial. 579 people were involved in the investigation, which took place secretly and closed. 289 were found guilty. Nicholas I decided to severely punish the rebels. Five people - P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky - were hanged. The rest, divided according to the degree of guilt into several categories, were exiled to hard labor, to settlement in Siberia, demoted to the ranks of soldiers and transferred to the Caucasus to join the active army. None of the punished Decembrists returned home during Nicholas’s lifetime. Some of the soldiers and sailors were beaten to death with spitzrutens and sent to Siberia and the Caucasus. For many years in Russia it was forbidden to mention the uprising.
The reasons for the defeat and the significance of the Decembrists’ speech. The reliance on a conspiracy and a military coup, the weakness of propaganda activities, the insufficient preparedness of society for changes, lack of coordination of actions, and wait-and-see tactics at the time of the uprising are the main reasons for the defeat of the Decembrists.
However, their performance became a significant event in Russian history. The Decembrists developed the first revolutionary program and plan for the future structure of the country. For the first time, a practical attempt was made to change the socio-political system of Russia. The ideas and activities of the Decembrists had a significant influence on the further development of social thought.
What you need to know about this topic:
Socio-economic development of Russia in the first half of the 19th century. Social structure of the population.
Development of agriculture.
Development of Russian industry in the first half of the 19th century. The formation of capitalist relations. Industrial revolution: essence, prerequisites, chronology.
Development of water and highway communications. Start of railway construction.
Exacerbation of socio-political contradictions in the country. The palace coup of 1801 and the accession to the throne of Alexander I. “The days of Alexander were a wonderful beginning.”
Peasant question. Decree "On Free Plowmen". Government measures in the field of education. State activities of M.M. Speransky and his plan for state reforms. Creation of the State Council.
Russia's participation in anti-French coalitions. Treaty of Tilsit.
Patriotic War of 1812. International relations on the eve of the war. Causes and beginning of the war. Balance of forces and military plans of the parties. M.B. Barclay de Tolly. P.I. Bagration. M.I.Kutuzov. Stages of war. Results and significance of the war.
Foreign campaigns of 1813-1814. Congress of Vienna and its decisions. Holy Alliance.
The internal situation of the country in 1815-1825. Strengthening conservative sentiments in Russian society. A.A. Arakcheev and Arakcheevism. Military settlements.
Foreign policy of tsarism in the first quarter of the 19th century.
The first secret organizations of the Decembrists were the “Union of Salvation” and the “Union of Prosperity”. Northern and Southern society. The main program documents of the Decembrists are “Russian Truth” by P.I. Pestel and “Constitution” by N.M. Muravyov. Death of Alexander I. Interregnum. Uprising on December 14, 1825 in St. Petersburg. Uprising of the Chernigov regiment. Investigation and trial of the Decembrists. The significance of the Decembrist uprising.
The beginning of the reign of Nicholas I. Strengthening autocratic power. Further centralization and bureaucratization of the Russian state system. Intensifying repressive measures. Creation of the III department. Censorship regulations. The era of censorship terror.
Codification. M.M. Speransky. Reform of state peasants. P.D. Kiselev. Decree "On Obligated Peasants".
Polish uprising 1830-1831
The main directions of Russian foreign policy in the second quarter of the 19th century.
Eastern question. Russian-Turkish War 1828-1829 The problem of the straits in Russian foreign policy in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century.
Russia and the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. in Europe.
Crimean War. International relations on the eve of the war. Causes of the war. Progress of military operations. Russia's defeat in the war. Peace of Paris 1856. International and domestic consequences of the war.
Annexation of the Caucasus to Russia.
The formation of the state (imamate) in the North Caucasus. Muridism. Shamil. Caucasian War. The significance of the annexation of the Caucasus to Russia.
Social thought and social movement in Russia in the second quarter of the 19th century.
Formation of government ideology. The theory of official nationality. Mugs from the late 20s - early 30s of the 19th century.
N.V. Stankevich’s circle and German idealistic philosophy. A.I. Herzen’s circle and utopian socialism. "Philosophical Letter" by P.Ya.Chaadaev. Westerners. Moderate. Radicals. Slavophiles. M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky and his circle. The theory of "Russian socialism" by A.I. Herzen.
Socio-economic and political prerequisites for bourgeois reforms of the 60-70s of the 19th century.
Peasant reform. Preparation of reform. "Regulation" February 19, 1861 Personal liberation of the peasants. Allotments. Ransom. Duties of peasants. Temporary condition.
Zemstvo, judicial, urban reforms. Financial reforms. Reforms in the field of education. Censorship rules. Military reforms. The meaning of bourgeois reforms.
Socio-economic development of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Social structure of the population.
Industrial development. Industrial revolution: essence, prerequisites, chronology. The main stages of the development of capitalism in industry.
The development of capitalism in agriculture. Rural community in post-reform Russia. Agrarian crisis of the 80-90s of the XIX century.
Social movement in Russia in the 50-60s of the 19th century.
Social movement in Russia in the 70-90s of the 19th century.
Revolutionary populist movement of the 70s - early 80s of the 19th century.
"Land and Freedom" of the 70s of the XIX century. "People's Will" and "Black Redistribution". Assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881. The collapse of Narodnaya Volya.
Labor movement in the second half of the 19th century. Strike struggle. The first workers' organizations. A work issue arises. Factory legislation.
Liberal populism of the 80-90s of the 19th century. Spread of the ideas of Marxism in Russia. Group "Emancipation of Labor" (1883-1903). The emergence of Russian social democracy. Marxist circles of the 80s of the XIX century.
St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class." V.I. Ulyanov. "Legal Marxism".
Political reaction of the 80-90s of the 19th century. The era of counter-reforms.
Alexander III. Manifesto on the “inviolability” of autocracy (1881). The policy of counter-reforms. Results and significance of counter-reforms.
International position of Russia after the Crimean War. Changing the country's foreign policy program. The main directions and stages of Russian foreign policy in the second half of the 19th century.
Russia in the system of international relations after the Franco-Prussian war. Union of Three Emperors.
Russia and the Eastern crisis of the 70s of the XIX century. The goals of Russia's policy in the eastern question. Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878: causes, plans and forces of the parties, course of military operations. Treaty of San Stefano. Berlin Congress and its decisions. The role of Russia in the liberation of the Balkan peoples from the Ottoman yoke.
Foreign policy of Russia in the 80-90s of the XIX century. Formation of the Triple Alliance (1882). Deterioration of Russia's relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Conclusion of the Russian-French alliance (1891-1894).
- Buganov V.I., Zyryanov P.N. History of Russia: the end of the 17th - 19th centuries. . - M.: Education, 1996.
In the early morning of July 13, 1826, the leaders of the armed uprising on Senate Square were executed on the ramparts of the Kronverksky bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Five of more than one and a half hundred arrested in the “December 14th” case: Pavel Pestel, Kondraty Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Vladimir Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Pyotr Kakhovsky were hanged. The bodies of the executed Decembrists were not given to their families for burial. The burial place of the leaders of the uprising is still a mystery.
This was the highest will of the emperor. And they carried it out so thoroughly that after forty years the new governor-general of the capital, acting at least with the knowledge of Nicholas’s son, Emperor Alexander II, could not even detect traces of the mysterious burial.
However, based on the principle: “Everything in Russia is a secret, but nothing is a secret,” a large number of contemporaries of the execution left written evidence of the burial place of the Decembrists. Here are some of them:
“They were buried in the fortress ditch with quicklime, near the gallows”;
“The bodies were taken to the seaside and there thrown with stones tied to them into the depths of the waters”;
“A box with the naked bodies of five people was taken to some island in the Gulf of Finland and buried in a hole along with lime”;
“At night, the bodies were transported in a boat in matting and buried on the shore of Goloday Island.”
The last statement is believed to be closer to the truth. At least, it is on this island, currently part of St. Petersburg, that there are two monuments in honor of the Decembrists. On each of them it is written that this is where the remains of the leaders of the December uprising are buried. The straight line distance between the monuments is one kilometer. The island itself was renamed Dekabristov Island in Soviet times.”
Let's try to trace the path of the bodies of the executed Decembrists until the moment of their burial. After doctors recorded the death of all five hanged men, the bodies were placed in an empty barn located next to the merchant shipping school. Officially it is believed that due to the authorities' fear of transporting bodies during daylight hours. However, already in the morning a rumor was spread among the people that the bodies were thrown into the water of the fortress canal.
“People came and went all day, looked, saw nothing and nodded their heads,” one of the eyewitnesses of the execution recorded. All this time the bodies continued to lie in the barn. The authorities waited until nightfall. By the next morning the barn was already empty. Only shrouds taken from the deceased and boards with the inscription “regicide” remained in it.
In the report of the head of the Kronverk bastion, Colonel Berkopf, it is written: “The next night, a driver from the butchers came with a horse to the fortress, and from there he carried the corpses towards Vasilyevsky Island. But when he took them to the Tuchkov Bridge, armed soldiers came out of the booth and, having taken possession of the reins, put the cabman in the booth. A few hours later the empty cart returned to the same place. The cab driver was paid and he went home.” According to Chief Police Chief Tuchkov, the bodies of those executed were buried in a common grave in the bushes on the shore of the Gulf of Finland so that no signs of burial were left.
However, there were rumors in St. Petersburg that the burial place was known to Ryleev’s widow. But, as it turned out, not only her. Every St. Petersburger knew about a certain secret grave on a secluded island for at least four months before the first snow fell. A relative of Bestuzhev later wrote: “They were buried on Golodai behind the Smolensk cemetery, and probably not far from Galernaya harbor, where there was a guardhouse. Because the guards from this guardhouse were dressed up to prevent people from going to the grave of the hanged men. This circumstance was the reason for people to flock there in droves.”
The sentries stood at the “grave” for only four months. After this, interest in her fades away, moreover, she soon turns out to be completely forgotten. Soon a rumor spread throughout St. Petersburg that the bodies of those executed had been stolen. In the late autumn of 1826, the third department of the Chancellery of His Imperial Majesty received a denunciation from the famous informer Sherwood, who was awarded the second name Verny by Nicholas the First for revealing plans for the uprising. The denunciation reported that someone dug up the bodies of the executed Decembrists and secretly reburied them in another place.
Who this someone was remained unknown. But it is known that Benckendorf’s department did not even open a case on this denunciation. There can only be one reason - he didn’t find anything, and he couldn’t find it. The fake grave diverted the attention of potential grave diggers until snow fell, which hid all traces of the real grave.
After 1917, the search for the grave of the Decembrists is more like a joke.
At the beginning of June 1917, Petrograd newspapers exploded with sensational headlines: “The grave of the executed Decembrists has been found!” Since the February Revolution that recently occurred in Russia seemed to be a continuation of the work of the Decembrists, the report of this find aroused unprecedented interest in the widest circles of the public.
Here is how it was. In 1906, the city authorities decided to develop Goloday Island with a complex of buildings called “New Petersburg”. The owner of a construction company, Italian Richard Gualino, heard that the Decembrists were buried somewhere on the site of the current construction site, and tried to find the grave. However, in 1911, the police learned about the Italian’s activities and forbade him to carry out excavations.
After the February Revolution of 1917, he left for Turin, leaving engineer Gurevich in his place as manager, whom he asked to continue the search. The newly created Society for the Memory of the Decembrists in Petrograd made a similar request.
On June 1, 1917, Gurevich informed the secretary of the society, Professor Svyatlovsky, that while digging a trench for a water supply behind the garrison outbuilding in an area previously called the “dog cemetery”, where animals were once buried, someone’s coffin was found. The next day, at the request of the professor, General Schwartz allocated soldiers of the 1st Automobile Company for further excavations.
As a result of the measures taken, 4 more coffins were dug out of the ground, which lay in a common grave along with the first. Thus, a total of 5 human skeletons were found, which corresponded to the number of executed Decembrists. In the first, best-preserved coffin, a skeleton was found, dressed in an officer's uniform from the time of Alexander I. The coffin was rich, once upholstered in brocade, and had wooden legs in the shape of lion paws.
The rest of the dominos were much more modestly made and were less well preserved. Therefore, the bones in them represented only fragments of human skeletons. Judging by the surviving remains of clothing, three of the people buried here were military, and two were civilians. This was completely true - Pestel, Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin were military men, and Ryleev and Kakhovsky were civilians.
Another surge of interest in the grave of the Decembrists arose in 1925 in connection with the upcoming 100th anniversary of their execution. Then an organization engaged in studying the history of the party and the revolutionary movement in Russia began to clarify the circumstances of the finds of 1917. Skeletons found earlier were found in the basements of the Winter Palace. As it turned out, in 1918 they were placed in a box, sealed and transported to the Museum of the Revolution, which was then located in the palace.
At the site where the skeletons were found in 1917, it was decided to conduct new excavations, and medical experts from the Military Medical Academy, Vikhrov and Speransky, were instructed to give an opinion on the bones stored in the basements of the palace. An expert from the Main Science Department, Gabaev, was invited as a specialist in military uniforms.
Before new excavations were carried out on Golodai, it was found out that in fact in 1917, not 5, but 6 coffins were dug (nothing had been previously reported about the last one, and it disappeared somewhere). Medical examination of the remains found in 1917 gave sensational results. It turned out that they belonged not to five, but to only four people: three adults and one teenager aged 12-15 years!
A historical examination of the uniform found in one of the coffins showed that it belonged to an officer of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment of the 1829-1855 model. Thus, the Istpart commission came to the conclusion that the remains found in 1917 on Goloday “cannot belong to the executed Decembrists.” The fact that the executed Decembrists had to be naked - remember the shrouds in the barn of the Merchant Shipping School - was not even remembered then.
All this did not prevent a monument from being erected on Goloday in 1939, and the island itself being renamed Decembrist Island.
Currently, Dekabristov Island is densely built up. And, if the Decembrists are really buried there, and not drowned in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, the real grave will apparently never be found.
