Don't tell dreams. Freudians may come to power.
Stanislav Jerzy Lec
In the history of every country there are several dates known to everyone. In Russian history, these dates include December 14, 1825. On this day, conspirators-members of the Northern Society led several guards units to Senate Square, who followed them, convinced that they were going to defend Emperor Constantine, to whom they had already sworn allegiance.
The speech was not prepared. The date of the uprising was dictated by the news of the unexpected death of Emperor Alexander and information that the conspiracy had been discovered, all names were known to the government. The “dictator” of the uprising, elected by the Northern Society, Guards Colonel Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, did not appear on the square. For about five hours, the soldiers stood in a square on Senate Square, waiting for some decision on the part of the conspiratorial officers commanding them, who also did not know what to do. It was cold, the temperature dropped to minus 8. It was getting dark when Nikolai sent for artillery. A feature of the guards conspiracies of the 18th century. There was a lack of resistance on the part of the overthrown sovereigns: neither Anna Leopoldovna, nor Peter III, nor Paul I defended themselves; taken by surprise, they lost power and, as a rule, their lives.
Nicholas I decided not to give up. Convinced of his right to the throne, he showed determination and energy in the difficult conditions of confusion caused by the double oath. Without ceasing to attempt negotiations with the rebels, he gathered forces. A different behavior of the emperor could have given victory to the “Decembrists”, despite their immobility.
After several volleys of grapeshot into a motionless square of rebels, the soldiers fled, losing killed and wounded. The rebellion was suppressed. On December 29, 1825, the Chernigov regiment rebelled in the south. The command was assumed by a member of the Southern Society, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol. On January 3, 1826, the Chernigovites were defeated. Arrests began throughout the country. Nicholas I, who closely monitored the investigation, believed that about 6 thousand people were involved in the conspiracy3. From a large number of those arrested, the “leaders” were chosen - 121 people. They were tried, five were sentenced to death by hanging, the rest were sentenced to various terms of hard labor in Siberia. The leaders of the Southern Union were hanged - Pavel Pestel, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, the head of the Northern Union Kondraty Ryleev and Pyotr Kakhovsky, who mortally wounded Count Miloradovich on the square.
The execution of the leaders of the uprising shocked Russian society, significantly contributing to the birth of the legend. Elizabeth abolished the death penalty in Russia. At the same time, the Code of Tsar Alexei, published in 1649 and providing for the death penalty for 63 types of crimes, continued to operate in the country - not canceled by anyone and not replaced by anything. The Charter of Peter I was not repealed either: death for 112 types of crimes. In the 75 years preceding December 14, 1825, only Mirovich and the Pugachevites were executed. But thousands of people were beaten to death with whips, spitzrutens, and executed without trial. In July 1831, military settlers in Staraya Russa rebelled. 2,500 people were driven through the line, 150 died from spitzrutens. This did not cause any unrest in society.
The execution of the Decembrists shocked society, because it was the execution of “our own”: brilliant guards officers, representatives of the most noble noble families, heroes of the Napoleonic wars. The conspirators were young (the average age of those convicted was 27.4 years) and educated: some of those arrested testified in French.
The martyrdom of five leaders of the movement, cruel punishments of other participants - hard labor, settlement, fortress, sending to the Caucasus as ordinary soldiers under Chechen bullets - turned the Decembrists into saints of the Russian revolutionary movement, into the forerunners of the liberation movement, into the first conscious fighters against autocracy.
After the massacre of the rebels, their names were banned in Russia; neither the movement itself nor its participants could be spoken or written: censorship closely monitored compliance with the ban. The first who began to openly talk about the Decembrists, the “phalanx of heroes” who rebelled for freedom, was Alexander Herzen, who lived abroad. The cover of The Polar Star, which he began publishing in London in his Free Russian Printing House, was decorated with profiles of executed Decembrists. An important role in spreading the legend of the Decembrists was played by Polish emigrants who fled Poland after the defeat of the uprising of 1831 and found Russian sympathizers abroad - Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin, who called themselves followers of the ideas of the Decembrists. Thus, for Polish democratic emigrants, the Decembrists became an example of Russian democrats, brothers in the struggle “for our and your freedom.” Polish democrats will not stop looking for like-minded people and allies in Russia.
When creating the genealogy of his revolution, Lenin included the Decembrists in it. The scheme turned out to be simple and clear: “The Decembrists woke up Herzen,” Herzen woke up the Narodnaya Volya, and then Lenin had to wake up.
The uprising ended in failure. It is unknown what the conspirators would have done if they had seized power. Posterity was left with only their dreams, set out in sketches of programs, in conversations recorded by memoirists, in detailed testimony of the investigative commission.
The first society of future Decembrists was created in 1816, bore the long name “Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland,” but was known as the “Union of Salvation.” Its most prominent members are guards officers Nikita Muravyov and Pavel Pestel. Disagreements between the organizers led to the collapse of the Union of Salvation, on the ruins of which the Union of Welfare was formed in January 1818. “The initial intention of society,” as Pavel Pestel said about the goals of the Union of Salvation, “was the liberation of the peasants.” Then, however, the problem of radical social reform gives way to a political problem. “The real goal of the first society,” as Pestel answered the investigators, “was the introduction of a monarchical constitutional government”4. Within the framework of the Welfare Union, the goal is narrowed - the Charter makes no mention of the liberation of the peasants, but expresses “hope for the goodwill of the government.” The moderation of the views of the Union of Welfare attracts young officers to it, but raises objections from a number of participants, led by Pestel, who from the beginning of 1820 raised the question of turning Russia into a republic. In 1821, the Welfare Union at a congress in Moscow decided to cease to exist. In place of the abolished union, two societies arise - the Southern, led by Pavel Pestel, and the Northern, led by Nikita Muravyov and Nikolai Turgenev.
All Decembrists agreed on the need for reforms in Russia. Everyone agreed that “the ladder is being swept from above”, that the necessary reforms (or even revolution, according to some) could only be carried out from above - through a military conspiracy. Shortly before the uprising, Pestel decisively asserted: “The masses are nothing, they will be what the individuals who are everything want.”
With complete similarity of views regarding the answer to the question: how to do it? There were heated debates regarding the answer to the question: what to do? The debate about the changes Russia needed can be boiled down to three main views. The ideologist of the Northern Society was Nikita Muravyov (1796-1843), who wrote a draft constitution approved by the majority of the “northerners”. Nikita Muravyov's project provided for the transformation of Russia into a constitutional monarchy. An extremely high electoral qualification (real estate worth 30 thousand rubles or capital worth 60 thousand rubles) sharply limited the number of electors to the upper house of parliament - the Supreme Duma. The Constitution declared that “serfdom and slavery are abolished.” The land remained with the landowners, the peasants received a small (2 dessiatines) allotment.
The second group of views was represented by Nikolai Turgenev (1789-1871). Soon after the formation of the Northern Society, he emigrated and did not take part in the uprising, but was sentenced in absentia to eternal hard labor - after the death penalty, this was the most severe punishment.
Very influential in Decembrist circles, Nikolai Turgenev, unlike Nikita Muravyov, considered the first thing to be the liberation of the peasants. One should, he said, begin with the establishment of civil freedom before dreaming of political freedom. “It is not permissible to dream of political freedom there,” wrote Nikolai Turgenev, “where millions of unfortunate people do not even know simple human freedom.”
Putting the liberation of the peasants at the forefront, Nikolai Turgenev sharply objected to Nikita Muravyov’s projects, which expanded the rights of the nobility. Since he saw the absolutism of the monarch as a factor restraining the desires of the nobility and landowners, and since slavery could fall, as Pushkin put it, “at the tsar’s mania,” he considered republican dreams premature.
The program of Pavel Pestel (1793-1826) can be considered a unique synthesis of the views of Nikita Muravyov and Nikolai Turgenev. The son of the Siberian governor-general, who even among governors-general was considered a bribe-taker, who made a brilliant military career (in 1821 - colonel), stood out among his contemporaries for his intelligence, knowledge and strong character, Pavel Pestel was the most prominent figure in all secret societies, starting with the Union salvation. His program, set out in the unfinished Russkaya Pravda, the code of laws of the future Russian republic, was the most developed and most radical document of the Decembrist movement.
Pavel Pestel proposed a new path for the development of Russia. Mikhail Bakunin was the first to notice this. After the death of Nicholas I and the accession to the throne of Alexander II, who began a reform program, Mikhail Bakunin, who lived in exile, wrote the brochure “The People's Cause: Romanov, Pugachev or Pestel.” The old revolutionary, who believed in the possibility of a “revolution from above,” in the transformation of the country “according to the tsar’s mania,” called on Alexander II to convene a Zemsky National Council and at it resolve all zemstvo affairs, and receive the blessing of the people for the necessary reforms. There are three possible paths for the people (and for fighters for the people - revolutionaries): Romanov, Pugachev, or, if a new Pestel appears, then him. “Let’s tell the truth,” Mikhail Bakunin wrote in 1862, “we would most willingly follow Romanov if Romanov could and wanted to turn from the St. Petersburg emperor into the Zemsky Tsar.” The whole question, however, is “does he want to be the Russian Zemstvo Tsar Romanov, or the Holstein-Gothorpe Emperor of St. Petersburg?” In the first case, he alone, because “the Russian people still recognize him,” can carry out and complete a great peaceful revolution without shedding a single drop of Russian or Slavic blood.” But if the Tsar betrays Russia, Russia will be plunged into bloody disasters. Mikhail Bakunin asks: what form will the movement take then, and who will lead it? “The impostor-tsar, Pugachev or the new Pestel-dictator? If Pugachev, then God forbid that the political genius of Pestel is found in him, because without him he will drown Russia and, perhaps, the entire future of Russia in blood. If it’s Pestel, then let him be a people’s man, like Pugachev, otherwise the people will not tolerate him.”5
The revolutionary radicalism of Pestel's plans attracted Bakunin. The “political genius” of the leader of the Southern Society was manifested, according to the author of “People’s Cause,” both in the talent of a conspirator and in the program for “saving Russia.” Decembrist Ivan Gorbachevsky will write in his memoirs: Pestel was an excellent conspirator. And he will add: “Pestel was a student of Count Palen, no more and no less.”6 In 1818, the young guards officer Pavel Pestel met with General Peter Palen, the leader of the palace coup on March 11, 1801, which ended with the assassination of Paul I and the enthronement of Alexander I. 72-year-old Palen, retired and living on his estate near Mi -tavoy, often talked with Pestel and once gave him advice: “Young man! If you want to do something through a secret society, then this is stupidity. Because if there are twelve of you, then the twelfth will invariably be a traitor! I have experience and I know the world and people."7
The “political genius” of Pavel Pestel did not manifest itself, of course, in the organization of a secret society, although the Southern society was better organized than the Northern one. Perhaps if Colonel Pestel had been in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825, the conspirators would have been able to seize power. Without Count Palen, the conspiracy against Paul I would hardly have succeeded. Pavel Pestel left his name in the history of Russia as the author of “Russian Truth” - a project for the radical reorganization of the country. Nikolai Turgenev compared Pestel's program with the “brilliant utopias” of Fourier and Owen. The authors of “The History of Russian Utopia” are influenced by Pestel Mably, Morelli, Babeuf8.
Pestel solves two questions that occupied Russian society throughout the 18th century clearly and clearly: rejecting all forms of restriction of the monarchy, he proposes to make Russia a republic; “slavery must be decisively abolished, and the nobility must certainly forever renounce the vile privilege of possessing other people.” At the same time, all classes are destroyed: “... the very title of nobility must be destroyed; its members become part of the general composition of Russian citizenship.” Pestel's program, when read at the end of the 20th century, attracts attention not only as a historical document - evidence of the state of mind at the beginning of the 19th century, but also by the relevance of some decisions debated by Russian society 170 years after the death of the leader of the Southern Society.
Insisting on the liberation of the peasants, Pavel Pestel considered it necessary to preserve communal land ownership, which was supposed to exist alongside private ownership of land. Pestel’s reluctance to give all the land to private owners is associated with his sharp condemnation of the “aristocracy of wealth,” in other words, capitalist tendencies. The “aristocracy of wealth” seems to him to be much more harmful to the people than the feudal aristocracy.
Like all other utopians, the author of Russkaya Pravda does not believe that the people, whose happiness he is so concerned about, will be able to understand their own benefit. Therefore, Pavel Pestel pays special attention to the creation of the Ministry of Police (“deanery order”), the organization of a system of espionage (“secret search”), censorship, proposes to establish a corps of gendarmes (“internal guard”) of one thousand people per province, considering that “fifty thousand There will be enough gendarmes for the entire state.”
Issues of the administrative structure of the state occupy a lot of space in the project. The main administrative unit was supposed to be the volost. The country's population was divided between volosts, which became self-governing. The volost society provided land plots for the use of all citizens assigned to the volost.
The idea of universal equality underlay Pestel's solution to the problem of managing an empire. He categorically rejected federalist ideas, which Alexander I could not get rid of until the end of his life. Pavel Pestel saw Russia as centralized, united and indivisible. “Russkaya Pravda” proposed to annex all of Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Far East and part of Mongolia to the empire. Pestel considered it necessary to resettle the rebellious Caucasian mountaineers who resisted Russian troops to central Russia. Orthodoxy was declared the state religion, the Russian language the only language of the empire.
Russkaya Pravda offered Jews a choice: assimilation or leaving Russia for the Middle East, where they could found their own state.
The above postulates of Pestel demonstrate the attitude of the head of Southern society to the imperial problem: the Russian republic seemed to him to be a single centralized state with a single people, made up of all the peoples of the empire. In fact, Alexander I turned Russia into a federal state, granting broad rights to Poland and Finland. Pavel Pestel categorically rejects the principle of federalism. He consistently pursues this idea, offering his final solution to the “Polish question.”
Southern society, seriously preparing for a coup, began negotiations with Polish revolutionaries. For Pestel, who participated in one of the secret meetings, it was important to get the support of the Poles, who were expected to organize an uprising and the murder of Grand Duke Constantine in Warsaw simultaneously with Russia. Representatives of Polish revolutionary societies demanded recognition of Poland's right to independence. In 1825, a small radical group of conspirators merged with the Southern Society - the Society of United Slavs, whose members included both Russians and Poles. Their program dreamed of creating a federation of Slavic republics: its territory was washed by four seas - the Black, White, Adriatic, and Arctic Ocean.
The ideas that would soon acquire the name “Slavophilism” did not captivate Pavel Pestel. He agreed to the independence of Poland, but limited this agreement with many conditions.
First of all, the right of the Poles to unconditionally secede from Russia was rejected: the revolutionary provisional government, after the establishment of the republic, recognized the independence of Poland and transferred to it those provinces (provinces) that agreed to join the Polish state. Until this time, Polish territory continues to remain Russian property. When determining the boundaries of the future Polish state, Russia has a decisive vote. Poland and Russia sign a cooperation agreement, the main condition of which is the inclusion of Polish troops in the Russian army in the event of war. The government system, administrative structure and basic principles of the social system correspond to the principles of “Russian Truth”. Pestel wanted to prevent the influence of the Polish "aristocracy" on society and feared the Poles' attachment to the monarchy.
Northern society rejected Pestel's proposals on the “Polish question”. Nikita Muravyov believed that it was impossible to return the lands conquered by Russia, it was not necessary to enter into negotiations with the peoples inhabiting the state, and even more so it was impossible to agree to concessions in relation to a foreign state, which in the future might show hostility towards Russia.
The “northerners” refused to accept all other points of Pestel’s program. The pretext was the colonel’s ambition, which frightened many “Decembrists”. There were reasons for this. Pestel's imperious character is noted by everyone who knew him. In addition, he foresaw the long dictatorship necessary for the construction of the Russian republic. In response to a remark by one of the Decembrists regarding a dictatorship that would last several months, Pestel sharply objected: “Do you think it is possible to change this entire state machine, give it a different basis, accustom people to new orders within a few months? This will take at least ten years!”9. The possibility of having the author of Russkaya Pravda as dictator for at least ten years frightened members of the Northern Society. But most of all - and this is the main reason for the refusal to accept “Russian Truth” by the “northerners”. - the extremism of Pestel’s program frightened me. The extreme nature of his views was revealed during interrogations of the leader of the Southern Society.
The Decembrists openly told investigators, including the emperor, about their views. On both sides of the investigative table sat “their own” - nobles, officers, often good friends, sometimes relatives. But it’s one thing to talk about your views, another thing to name your accomplices. The conspirators answered the question about the other participants in different ways. Pavel Pestel named everyone. Evgeny Yakushkin, the son of a Decembrist, who knew well his father’s comrades who had returned from exile and helped write their memoirs, expressed his opinion about Pestel: “None of the members of the secret society had such definite and firm convictions and faith in the future. He was unscrupulous about funds... When the Northern society began to act indecisively, he announced that if their case was discovered, he would not let anyone escape, that the more victims there were, the greater the benefit, and he kept his word. In the investigative commission, he pointed directly at everyone who participated in the society, and if only five people were hanged, and not 500, then Pestel was not at all to blame for this: for his part, he did everything he could for this”10.
A historian of Russian social thought wrote in 1911: “In Pestel’s project we have the first beginnings of socialism, which from the second half of the 19th century became the dominant worldview among the Russian intelligentsia.” Three quarters of a century passed after Pestel’s execution; six years remained before the revolution, which realized some of his ideas.
The Decembrists were tried by the Supreme Criminal Court, in which Speransky participated. He compiled a carefully developed classification of the types and types of political crimes, and he himself categorized everyone involved in the case of the uprising. This determined the degree of punishment. Historians reproach the famous lawyer for the fact that the reasons why the conspirators were assigned to one category or another are often illogical. But Nicholas I was pleased and wrote to his brother Konstantin in Warsaw that he gave “an example of a trial built almost on a representative basis, thanks to which it was proven in front of the whole world how simple, clear, sacred our case is.” Konstantin, spoiled by life in Warsaw, believed that the trial in St. Petersburg was illegal, because it was secret, and the accused had no defense.
The basis for the sentence were three crimes committed by the convicts: attempted regicide, rebellion, and military mutiny. The five main criminals were sentenced to quartering, which in Russia in the 19th century. not applied. The emperor decided to replace quartering with hanging.
There is evidence that three hanged men fell from the gallows because the rope broke. Sergei Muravyov allegedly said: “My God, they don’t even know how to hang properly in Russia.”
There were no spare ropes, and it was early, so we had to wait until the shops opened. 25 participants in the uprising were sentenced to eternal hard labor, another 62 to various terms of hard labor, 29 were exiled or demoted.
Ordinary participants in the uprising - soldiers and officers - were also subjected to repression. Two types of punishment were applied to them. The first one is spitzrutens. The condemned man, tied to a gun pointed at him with a bayonet, slowly walked through a line of soldiers armed with long, flexible rods. Each soldier took a step forward and delivered a blow to his bare chest or back. Peter I introduced spitzrutens into Russia in 1701, borrowing from the cultured Germans. The number of blows ranged from 10 to 12 thousand (12 thousand blows, as a rule, killed the convicted person). 6 soldiers were sentenced to this punishment; in total, 188 people were punished with spitzrutens. The second punishment for the soldiers and officers of the rebel regiments was transfer to the Caucasus, where there was a war with the highlanders. 27,400 people were sent to the Caucasus11.
The English historian carefully notes that although the Decembrists were punished severely and were treated cruelly, the sentence cannot be considered disproportionate to the crime. They were tried for the most serious crimes found in any criminal code. They did not deny their guilt. In 1820, the English historian gives an example, Arthur Thistlewood organized a conspiracy aimed at killing all the ministers. The conspirators did not have time to do anything, they only planned. But the court sentenced five of the leaders to hanging and exiled the remaining participants to Australia. English public opinion was outraged not by the actions of the authorities, but by the criminal intentions of the conspirators12.
Russian society did not forgive Nicholas I for his reprisals against the Decembrists: their heroic aura grew as some ideas from their ideological baggage began to gain wide popularity in Russia.
The repressions of the Soviet era demonstrated the relative nature of the threshold of cruelty, the horror of mass terror. Alexander Solzhenitsyn in “The Gulag Archipelago” compares the tsarist penal servitude with the “extermination-labor” Soviet camps: “At the Akatui brutal penal servitude, work lessons were easy, doable for everyone...”13. Varlam Shalamov in “Kolyma Stories” says that the norm of a Soviet prisoner was 15 times higher than the norm of a Decembrist convict. The Akatui penal servitude, where convicts mined silver, lead, and zinc, was a terrible place. But everything is learned by comparison. An extremely severe punishment for its time seems almost easy for contemporaries of the construction of socialism.
The impression made by the trial of the Decembrists was all the stronger because they knew the rebels by sight, or at least knew their names. The circle from which they came was very narrow. The Decembrist uprising, Mikhail Bakunin would say 30 years later, was “mainly a movement of the educated and privileged part of Russia”14. Vasily Klyuchevsky will say even more clearly: “The event of December 14 was of great importance in the history of the Russian nobility: it was the last military-noble movement.” The historian states: “On December 14, the political role of the nobility ended”15.
Subsequent events confirmed the accuracy of Klyuchevsky’s observation, who saw the reason for the weakness of the movement in the lack of real programs and the internal split of the conspirators. “Their fathers were Russians, whom their upbringing made French; The children were also French by upbringing, but they were the ones who passionately wanted to become Russian.”16
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The first attempt in Russian history to change by force not a specific ruler, but the form of government and social system, ended in a devastating defeat for the revolutionaries. But the glory, the attention of history and the respect of both contemporaries and descendants, went not to the winners, but to the vanquished.
European experience
At the beginning of the century, Russia objectively lagged behind the leading European states in all major indicators, except military power. Absolute monarchy, serfdom, noble land ownership and class structure led to this. The liberal reforms announced by Alexander I were quickly curtailed, and their results tended to zero. By and large, the state remained the same.
At the same time, the top of Russian society for the most part was highly educated, and strengthened patriotic sentiments in it. The first Russian revolutionaries were mainly officers, since officers visited abroad during the Napoleonic wars and saw with their own eyes that the French “Jacobins” under the rule of the “Corsican usurper” lived objectively better than the majority of the Russian population. They were educated enough to understand why this was so.
At the same time, the European experience was perceived critically. Mainly supporting the ideas of the Great French Revolution, the Decembrists did not want its mass executions and bloody uprisings in Russia, which is why they relied on the action of an organized ideological group.
Freedom and equality
There was no complete ideological unity among the first revolutionaries. Thus, P.I. Pestel saw the future Russia as a unitary republic, and N.M. Muravyov - a federal constitutional monarchy. But everyone generally agreed that it was necessary to abolish serfdom, create an elected legislative body, equalize the rights of classes and ensure basic civil rights and freedoms in Russia.
The discussion of such ideas and the creation of secret organizations that sought to implement them began long before the uprising. In 1816-1825, the Union of Salvation, the Union of Prosperity, the Society of United Slavs, the Southern and Northern societies and other organizations operated in Russia. The date of the uprising (December 14, 1825) was due to a random reason - the death of childless Alexander I and the problem of inheriting the throne. The oath of allegiance to the new king seemed a good reason for a coup.
Senate square
The plan for the uprising mainly belonged to the Northern society. It was assumed that its members-officers, with the help of their units, would interfere with the oath of office of the Senate, contribute to the capture of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace, the arrest of the royal family and the creation of a temporary government body.
On the morning of December 14, 3,000 soldiers were brought to Senate Square in St. Petersburg. It turned out that the Senate had already sworn allegiance to the new Tsar Nicholas I. The dictator of the uprising did not appear at all. The soldiers and the assembled people listened to the declarations of the leaders of the uprising, but did not understand them well. St. Petersburg residents generally reacted kindly to the rioters, but their support was expressed only by throwing garbage at the new tsar’s motorcade. A significant part of the troops did not support the uprising.
At first, government officials tried to end the matter more or less peacefully. Governor General Miloradovich personally persuaded the rebels to disperse, and almost persuaded them. Then the Decembrist P.G. Kakhovsky, fearing the influence of Miloradovich, shot him, and the governor-general was popular in the army. The power switched to a power scenario. The square was surrounded by loyal troops, and grapeshot shooting began. The soldiers under the command of Decembrist officers successfully resisted for some time. But they were pushed onto the ice of the Neva, where many drowned after the ice was broken by cannonballs.
Several hundred people died (rebels, government soldiers and residents of the capital). The leaders and participants of the uprising were arrested. The soldiers were kept in terrible conditions (up to 100 people in a cell measuring 40 square meters). Five leaders of the movement were initially sentenced to death by quartering, and only later, having cooled down, Nicholas I replaced this Middle Ages with simple hanging. Many were sentenced to hard labor and imprisonment.
On December 29, the Chernigov regiment rebelled on the territory of Ukraine. This was another attempt to implement the conspiracy scenario. The regiment was defeated by superior forces on January 3, 1826.
Briefly speaking, the Decembrist uprising was defeated due to their small number and reluctance to explain their goals to the broad masses and involve them in the political struggle.
And the subsequent foreign campaigns of the Russian army had a significant impact on all aspects of the life of the Russian Empire, giving rise to certain hopes for changes for the better and, first of all, for the abolition of serfdom. The elimination of serfdom was associated with the need for constitutional restrictions on monarchical power. In 1814, communities of guards officers emerged on an ideological basis, the so-called “artels”. From two artels: the “Sacred” and the “Semyonovsky Regiment”, the Union of Salvation was formed in St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1816. The founder of the Union was Alexander Muravyov. The Salvation Union included Sergei Trubetskoy, Nikita Muravyov, Ivan Yakushkin, and later Pavel Pestel joined them. The Union's goal was the liberation of the peasants and the reform of government. In 1817, Pestel wrote the charter of the Union of Salvation or the Union of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland. Many members of the Union were members of Masonic lodges, so the influence of Masonic rituals was felt in the life of the Union. Disagreements among society members over the possibility of regicide during a coup d'etat led to the dissolution of the Salvation Union in the fall of 1817. In January 1818, a new secret society was created in Moscow - the Union of Welfare. The first part of the company's charter was written by M. N. Muravyov, P. Koloshin, N. M. Muravyov and S.P. Trubetskoy and contained the principles of organizing the Union of Welfare and its tactics. The second part, secret, contained a description of the ultimate goals of society, was compiled later and has not survived. The union lasted until 1821 and included about 200 people. One of the goals of the Welfare Union was to create progressive public opinion and form a liberal movement. For this purpose, it was planned to found various legal societies: literary, charitable, educational. In total, more than ten boards of the Union of Welfare were formed: two in Moscow; in St. Petersburg in the regiments: Moscow, Yeger, Izmailovsky, Horse Guards; councils in Tulchin, Chisinau, Smolensk and other cities. “Side councils” also arose, including Nikita Vsevolozhsky’s “Green Lamp”. Members of the Welfare Union were required to take an active part in public life and strive to occupy positions in government agencies and the army. The composition of secret societies was constantly changing: as their first participants “settled” in life and started families, they moved away from politics; their place was taken by younger ones. In January 1821, the Congress of the Welfare Union worked in Moscow for three weeks. Its necessity was due to disagreements between supporters of the radical (republican) and moderate movements and the strengthening of the reaction in the country, complicating the legal work of society. The work of the congress was led by Nikolai Turgenev and Mikhail Fonvizin. It became known that through informers the government was aware of the existence of the Union. A decision was made to formally dissolve the Welfare Union. This made it possible to free ourselves from random people who ended up in the Union; its dissolution was a step towards reorganization.
New secret societies were formed - “Southern” (1821) in Ukraine and “Northern” (1822) with a center in St. Petersburg. In September 1825, the Society of United Slavs, founded by the Borisov brothers, joined the Southern Society.
In the Northern society, the main role was played by Nikita Muravyov, Trubetskoy, and later by the famous poet Kondraty Ryleev, who rallied the fighting Republicans around himself. The leader of the Southern Society was Colonel Pestel.
Guards officers Ivan Nikolaevich Gorstkin, Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin, naval officers Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov, brothers Bodisko Boris Andreevich and Mikhail Andreevich took an active part in the Northern society. Active participants in the Southern Society were the Tula Decembrists brothers Kryukov, Alexander Alexandrovich and Nikolai Alexandrovich, the Bobrishchev-Pushkin brothers Nikolai Sergeevich and Pavel Sergeevich, Alexey Ivanovich Cherkasov, Vladimir Nikolaevich Likharev, Ivan Borisovich Avramov. One of the active figures in the “Society of United Slavs” was Ivan Vasilyevich Kireev.
As is clear from the revelations of the surviving Decembrists many years later, they wanted to raise an armed uprising among the troops, overthrow the autocracy, abolish serfdom and popularly adopt a new state law - a revolutionary constitution.
It was planned to announce the “destruction of the former government” and the establishment of a Provisional Revolutionary Government. The abolition of serfdom and the equalization of all citizens before the law were announced; freedom of the press, religion, and occupations was declared, the introduction of public jury trials, and the abolition of universal military service. All government officials had to give way to elected officials.
It was decided to take advantage of the complex legal situation that had developed around the rights to the throne after the death of Alexander I. On the one hand, there was a secret document confirming the long-standing renunciation of the throne by the brother next to the childless Alexander in seniority, Konstantin Pavlovich, which gave an advantage to the next brother, who was extremely unpopular among the highest military-bureaucratic elite to Nikolai Pavlovich. On the other hand, even before the opening of this document, Nikolai Pavlovich, under pressure from the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, hastened to renounce his rights to the throne in favor of Konstantin Pavlovich.
The state of uncertainty lasted for a very long time, and the right to choose a new emperor essentially passed to the Senate. However, after Konstantin Pavlovich's repeated refusal from the throne, the Senate, as a result of a long night meeting on December 13-14, 1825, reluctantly recognized the legal rights to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich.
However, the Decembrists still hoped to change the situation by bringing armed guards onto the streets to put pressure on the Senate.
Plan
The Decembrists 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, and the granting of freedom of speech and assembly.
Deputies had to approve a new fundamental law - the constitution. If the Senate did not agree to publish the people's manifesto, it was decided to force it to do so. The manifesto contained several points: the establishment of a provisional revolutionary government, the abolition of serfdom, equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms (press, confession, labor), the introduction of jury trials, the introduction of compulsory military service for all classes, the election of officials, the abolition of the poll tax. 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. A dictator, Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, was elected to lead the uprising.
It is characteristic that the leaders of the future provisional government were supposed to be the leaders of the Senate, Count Speransky and Admiral Mordvinov, which makes one suspect the Senate in connection with the conspirators.
The plan for the uprising must be judged hypothetically, because absolutely none of the above was done:
- the main conspirators (Ryleev, Trubetskoy) actually refused to participate in the uprising;
- contrary to the plan, the rebels did not occupy palaces and fortresses, but stood still;
- in fact, instead of the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of various rights and freedoms, the rebels demanded only Emperor Konstantin Pavlovich and a constitution;
- During the rebellion there were many opportunities to arrest or kill the future Tsar Nicholas I, but no attempts were made to do this.
Events of December 14
By 11 a.m. on December 14, 1825, 30 Decembrist officers brought about 3,020 people to Senate Square: soldiers of the Moscow and Grenadier Regiments and sailors of the Guards Marine Crew. However, already at 7 o’clock in the morning the senators took the oath to Nicholas and proclaimed him emperor. Trubetskoy, who was appointed dictator, did not appear. The rebel regiments continued to stand on Senate Square until the conspirators could come to a common decision on the appointment of a new leader. Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Governor General of St. Petersburg Mikhail Miloradovich, appearing on horseback in front of the soldiers lined up in a square, “said that he himself willingly wanted Constantine to be emperor, but what to do if he refused: he assured them that he himself I saw a new renunciation and persuaded people to believe it.” E. Obolensky, leaving the ranks of the rebels, convinced Miloradovich to drive away, but seeing that he was not paying attention to this, he wounded him in the side with a bayonet. At the same time, Kakhovsky shot Miloradovich. Colonel Sturler, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich and Metropolitan Seraphim of Novgorod and St. Petersburg tried unsuccessfully to bring the soldiers into obedience. The attack of the Horse Guards led by Alexei Orlov was repulsed twice. The troops, who had already sworn allegiance to the new emperor, surrounded the rebels. They were led by Nicholas I, who had recovered from his initial confusion. Guards artillery under the command of General Sukhozanet appeared from the Admiralteysky Boulevard. A volley of blank charges was fired at the square, which had no effect. After this, the artillery hit the rebels with grapeshot, their ranks scattered. “This could have been enough, but Sukhozanet fired a few more shots along the narrow Galerny Lane and across the Neva towards the Academy of Arts, where more of the curious crowd fled!” (Shteingel V.I.)
End of the uprising
By nightfall the uprising was over. Hundreds of corpses remained in the square and streets. Most of the victims were crushed by the crowd rushing in panic from the center of events. An eyewitness wrote:
The windows on the façade of the Senate up to the top floor were splattered with blood and brains, and the walls were left with marks from the blows of grapeshot.
371 soldiers of the Moscow Regiment, 277 of the Grenadier Regiment and 62 sailors of the Sea Crew were immediately arrested and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The first arrested Decembrists began to be taken to the Winter Palace.
Uprising of the Chernigov Regiment
In the south of Russia, things also did not happen without an armed rebellion. Six companies of the Chernigov regiment freed the arrested Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, who marched with them to Bila Tserkva; but on January 3, overtaken by a detachment of hussars with horse artillery, the rebels laid down their arms. The wounded Muravyov was arrested.
265 people were arrested in connection with the uprising (excluding those arrested in southern Russia and Poland - they were tried in provincial courts)
Investigation and trial
The main guilt of the rebels was the murder of high-ranking government officials (including St. Petersburg Governor-General Miloradovich), as well as the organization of mass riots, which led to numerous casualties.
Mordvinov and Speransky were included in the Supreme Criminal Court - precisely those high-ranking officials who were suspected of behind-the-scenes directing of the failed rebellion. Nicholas I, through Benckendorf, bypassing the Investigative Committee, tried to find out whether Speransky was connected with the Decembrists. HELL. Borovkov testified in his notes that the question of involvement in the plans of the Decembrists Speransky, Mordvinov, Ermolov and Kiselev was investigated, but then the materials of this investigation were destroyed.
Place of execution of the Decembrists
During the execution, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky and Ryleev fell from the noose and were hanged a second time. This contradicted the tradition of re-enacting the death penalty, but, on the other hand, was explained by the absence of executions in Russia over the previous several decades (with the exception of the executions of participants in the Pugachev uprising).
In Warsaw, the Investigative Committee for the opening of secret societies began to operate on February 7 (19) and submitted its report to Tsarevich Konstantin Pavlovich on December 22. (Jan. 3, 1827). Only after this did the trial begin, which acted on the basis of the Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Poland, and treated the defendants with great leniency.
In November 1825, Emperor Alexander I unexpectedly died far from St. Petersburg, in Taganrog. He did not have a son, and the heir to the throne was his brother Konstantin. But married to a simple noblewoman, a person not of royal blood, Constantine, according to the rules of succession to the throne, could not pass the throne to his descendants and therefore abdicated the throne. The heir of Alexander I was to be his next brother, Nicholas - rude and cruel, unloved in the army. Constantine's abdication was kept secret - only the narrowest circle of members of the royal family knew about it. The abdication, which was not made public during the life of the emperor, did not receive the force of law, so Constantine continued to be considered the heir to the throne; he reigned after the death of Alexander I, and on November 27 the population was sworn to Constantine. Meanwhile, even before Alexander’s death, the government learned from denunciations of traitors about the existence of secret societies. All these circumstances destroyed previous plans for the unification of the Northern and Southern societies and their joint action.
Formally, a new emperor has appeared in Russia - Constantine I. His portraits have already been displayed in stores, and several new coins with his image have even been minted. But Constantine did not accept the throne, and at the same time did not want to formally renounce it as emperor, to whom the oath had already been taken.
An ambiguous and extremely tense interregnum situation was created. Nicholas, fearing popular indignation and expecting a speech from the secret society, about which he was already informed by spies and informers, finally decided to declare himself emperor, without waiting for a formal act of abdication from his brother. A second oath was appointed, or, as they said in the troops, a “re-oath,” this time to Nicholas I. The re-oath in St. Petersburg was scheduled for December 14.
Even when creating their organization, the Decembrists decided to speak out at the time of the change of emperors on the throne. This moment has now arrived. At the same time, the Decembrists became aware that they had been betrayed - the denunciations of the traitors Sherwood and Mayboroda were already on the emperor’s table; a little more and a wave of arrests will begin. Members of the secret society decided to speak out.
Before this, the following action plan was developed at Ryleev’s apartment. On December 14, the day of the re-oath, revolutionary troops under the command of members of a secret society will enter the square. Guard Colonel Prince Sergei Trubetskoy was chosen as the dictator of the uprising. Troops who refuse to swear allegiance must go to Senate Square, because the Senate is located here, and here senators will swear allegiance to the new emperor on the morning of December 14th. By force of arms, if they don’t want it for good, we must prevent senators from taking the oath, force them to declare the government overthrown and publish a revolutionary Manifesto to the Russian people. This is one of the most important documents of Decembrism, explaining the purpose of the uprising. The Senate, thus, by the will of the revolution, was included in the plan of action of the rebels.
The revolutionary Manifesto announced the “destruction of the former government” and the establishment of a Provisional Revolutionary Government. The abolition of serfdom and the equalization of all citizens before the law were announced; freedom of the press, religion, and occupations was declared, the introduction of public jury trials, and the introduction of universal military service. All government officials had to give way to elected officials.
It was decided that as soon as the rebel troops blocked the Senate, in which the senators were preparing to take the oath, a revolutionary delegation consisting of Ryleev and Pushchin would enter the Senate premises and present the Senate with a demand not to swear allegiance to the new Emperor Nicholas I, to declare the tsarist government deposed and to issue a revolutionary Manifesto to the Russian to the people. At the same time, the Guards naval crew, the Izmailovsky regiment and the cavalry pioneer squadron were supposed to move to the Winter Palace in the morning, seize it and arrest the royal family.
Then the Great Council was convened - the Constituent Assembly. It had to make a final decision on the forms of abolition of serfdom, on the form of government in Russia, and resolve the issue of land. If the Great Council decided by a majority vote that Russia would be a republic, a decision would also be made on the fate of the royal family. Some Decembrists were of the opinion that it was possible to expel her abroad, while others were inclined towards regicide. If the Great Council came to a decision that Russia would be a constitutional monarchy, then a constitutional monarch would be drawn from the reigning family.
The command of the troops during the capture of the Winter Palace was entrusted to the Decembrist Yakubovich, who, even in the Caucasus, proved himself to be a brave and desperate warrior.
It was also decided to seize the Peter and Paul Fortress, the main military stronghold of tsarism in St. Petersburg, and turn it into a revolutionary citadel of the Decembrist uprising.
In addition, Ryleev asked the Decembrist Kakhovsky early in the morning of December 14 to penetrate the Winter Palace and, as if committing an independent terrorist act, kill Nicholas. At first he agreed, but then, having considered the situation, he did not want to be a lone terrorist, allegedly acting outside the plans of society, and early in the morning he refused this assignment.
An hour after Kakhovsky’s refusal, Yakubovich came to Alexander Bestuzhev and refused to lead the sailors and Izmailovites to the Winter Palace. He was afraid that in the battle the sailors would kill Nicholas and his relatives and instead of arresting the royal family, it would result in regicide. Yakubovich did not want to take on this and chose to refuse. Thus, the adopted plan of action was sharply violated, and the situation became more complicated. The plan began to fall apart before dawn.
On December 14, officers - members of the secret society were still in the barracks after dark and campaigned among the soldiers. Alexander Bestuzhev spoke to the soldiers of the Moscow Regiment. The soldiers refused to swear allegiance to the new king and decided to go to Senate Square. The regimental commander of the Moscow regiment, Baron Fredericks, wanted to prevent the rebel soldiers from leaving the barracks - and fell with a severed head under the blow of the saber of officer Shchepin-Rostovsky. With the regimental banner flying, taking live ammunition and loading their guns, the soldiers of the Moscow Regiment (about 800 people) were the first to come to Senate Square. At the head of these first revolutionary troops in the history of Russia was the staff captain of the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment, Alexander Bestuzhev. Along with him at the head of the regiment were his brother, staff captain of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment, Mikhail Bestuzhev, and staff captain of the same regiment, Dmitry Shchepin-Rostovsky.
The regiment lined up in battle formation in the shape of a square (battle quadrangle) near the monument to Peter I. It was 11 o’clock in the morning. St. Petersburg Governor-General Miloradovich galloped up to the rebels and began to persuade the soldiers to disperse. The moment was very dangerous: the regiment was still alone, other regiments had not yet arrived, and the hero of 1812, Miloradovich, was widely popular and knew how to talk to the soldiers. The uprising that had just begun was in great danger. Miloradovich could greatly sway the soldiers and achieve success. It was necessary to interrupt his campaigning at all costs and remove him from the square. But, despite the demands of the Decembrists, Miloradovich did not leave and continued persuasion. Then the chief of staff of the rebels, the Decembrist Obolensky, turned his horse with a bayonet, wounding the count in the thigh, and a bullet, fired at the same moment by Kakhovsky, mortally wounded the general. The danger looming over the uprising was repelled.
The delegation chosen to address the Senate - Ryleev and Pushchin - went to see Trubetskoy early in the morning, who had previously visited Ryleev himself. It turned out that the Senate had already sworn in and the senators had left. It turned out that the rebel troops had gathered in front of the empty Senate. Thus, the first goal of the uprising was not achieved. It was a bad failure. Another planned link broke away from the plan. Now the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress were to be captured.
But there was still no dictator. Trubetskoy betrayed the uprising. A situation was developing in the square that required decisive action, but Trubetskoy did not dare to take it. He sat, tormented, in the office of the General Staff, went out, looked around the corner to see how many troops had gathered in the square, and hid again. Ryleev looked for him everywhere, but could not find him. Members of the secret society, who elected Trubetskoy as dictator and trusted him, could not understand the reasons for his absence and thought that he was being delayed by some reasons important for the uprising. Trubetskoy’s fragile noble revolutionary spirit easily broke when the hour of decisive action came.
The failure of the elected dictator to appear on the square to meet the troops during the hours of the uprising is an unprecedented case in the history of the revolutionary movement. The dictator thereby betrayed the idea of uprising, his comrades in the secret society, and the troops who followed them. This failure to appear played a significant role in the defeat of the uprising. The words of Herzen are well known: “The Decembrists on Senate Square did not have enough people.” These words must be understood not in the sense that there were no people in the square at all - there were people, but in the fact that the Decembrists were unable to rely on the people, to make them an active force of the uprising.
Under these conditions, Nicholas resorted to sending Metropolitan Seraphim and Kyiv Metropolitan Eugene to negotiate with the rebels. The idea of sending metropolitans to negotiate with the rebels came to Nicholas’s mind as a way to explain the legality of the oath to him, and not to Constantine, through clergy who were authoritative in matters of the oath. It seemed that who better to know about the correctness of the oath than the metropolitans? Nikolai’s decision to grasp at this straw was strengthened by alarming news: he was informed that life grenadiers and a guards naval crew were leaving the barracks to join the “rebels.”
Suddenly, the metropolitans rushed to the left, hid in a hole in the fence of St. Isaac's Cathedral, hired simple cab drivers (while on the right, closer to the Neva, a palace carriage was waiting for them) and returned to the Winter Palace by detour. Two new regiments approached the rebels. On the right, along the ice of the Neva, a regiment of life grenadiers (about 1,250 people) rose, fighting their way with weapons in their hands through the troops of the tsar’s encirclement. On the other side, rows of sailors entered the square - almost the entire guards naval crew - over 1,100 people, a total of at least 2,350 people, i.e. forces arrived in total more than three times compared to the initial mass of the rebel Muscovites (about 800 people), and in general the number of rebels quadrupled. All the rebel troops had weapons and live ammunition. All were infantrymen. They had no artillery. But the moment was lost. The gathering of all the rebel troops took place more than two hours after the start of the uprising. An hour before the end of the uprising, the Decembrists elected a new “dictator” - Prince Obolensky, chief of staff of the uprising. He tried three times to convene a military council, but it was too late: Nicholas managed to take the initiative into his own hands. The encirclement of the rebels by government troops, more than four times the number of the rebels, had already been completed.
Nikolai ordered to shoot with grapeshot. The first volley of grapeshot was fired above the ranks of soldiers - precisely at the “mob” that dotted the roof of the Senate and neighboring houses. The rebels responded to the first volley of grapeshot with rifle fire, but then, under a hail of grapeshot, the ranks wavered and wavered - they began to flee, the wounded and dead fell. The Tsar's cannons fired at the crowd running along the Promenade des Anglais and Galernaya. Crowds of rebel soldiers rushed onto the Neva ice to move to Vasilyevsky Island. Mikhail Bestuzhev tried to again form soldiers into battle formation on the ice of the Neva and go on the offensive. The troops lined up. But the cannonballs hit the ice - the ice split, many drowned. Bestuzhev's attempt failed.
At this time, the Decembrists gathered at Ryleev’s apartment. This was their last meeting. They only agreed on how to behave during interrogations. The despair of the participants knew no bounds: the death of the uprising was obvious.
The history of the Supreme Criminal Court over the Decembrists has been studied very thoroughly. The subject of the study was the number of court hearings and the time they were held, the issues discussed and decisions on them, the role of M.M. Speransky and Nicholas I at different stages of the court’s activities (during the development of its procedure and during the trial). The issue of the attention of the future head of the III Department, A.Kh., was also briefly touched upon. Benkendorf to the struggle of opinions at court sessions (two of the judges - senators V.I. Bolgarsky and I.V. Gladkov - were his agents and more or less regularly reported to him about what was happening).
In historiography, there is a strong opinion that the composition of the court was specially selected and the verdicts were predetermined in advance. In many ways this was true. However, from the published reports of judge-agents, as well as from the reports of some memoirists, it is known that already at the very beginning of the court’s activity, at least two groups were formed within its composition: “patriots” who advocated the most severe punishments, and “philanthropists” who defended relatively mild ones. measures. Discussions between them became extremely heated. When determining penalties and passing sentences, the struggle was on all issues put to vote. In addition, the organizers of the court themselves did not have a clear idea of either the necessary penalties for the defendants or the optimal procedure for passing sentences.
The court's initial plan for sentencing turned out to be worthless: the assignment of punishments by category had to be supplemented by an individual sentence for each defendant, and even the vote of M.M. himself. Speransky, who was the organizer of the work of the court, in most cases differed from what was planned. The fact that the emperor discussed the proposed punishments with Speransky, the chairman of the court P.V. Lopukhin and court prosecutor D.I. Lobanov-Rostovsky cannot yet be considered pressure on the court. Given the existing legal confusion and the chosen court procedure, it was necessary to first develop a more or less logical grid of punishments. The fact that Nikolai did not prescribe ready-made decisions to his entourage is also evidenced by significant differences on almost all points between the votes of Speransky and Lopukhin, as well as the fact that the punishments for some categories, even after confirmation, remained more severe than initially expected.
Thus, there is no need to talk about direct and tangible pressure on the court, at least at some stages of its work (however, the methods of influencing the court organizers on the course of the process have not yet been sufficiently studied). This left the judges a certain freedom of action and contributed to discussions and the formation of various groupings. Their presence is an established fact.
The Supreme Criminal Court was created by a manifesto of June 1, 1826 and worked from June 3 to July 12, 1826. A total of 68 people took part in passing sentences. The court included members of the State Council who were in St. Petersburg at that time (17 people), senators (35), members of the Holy Synod (3) - these categories were called “estates” - as well as persons specially appointed by the emperor (there were 13 of them ).
At the time of the activity of the Supreme Criminal Court, the systematization of the current legislation of Russia had not yet been completed. Formally, the Council Code of 1649 continued to operate, according to which almost all defendants were subject to the death penalty and the question was only about the method of execution. The current Peter's laws (Military Regulations, Naval Regulations, etc.) were distinguished by the same severity. In addition, Peter’s legislation introduced such a specific punishment as political death - the complete deprivation of a person’s legal status (“the defamed” could not only be killed). In the second half of the 18th century. a measure was introduced that was intermediate in relation to political death - deprivation of the rights of the estate, which also provided for the termination of property and family relations, but without “defamation”. The main difference between political death and deprivation of rights, which also implies the loss of class status, remained the elements of ignominious punishment (hanging, placing the head on the block). Both of these measures (political death and deprivation of state rights) initially implied a link to hard labor, and by the beginning of the 19th century. and a link to eternal settlement in Siberia.
As for the legal training of court members, it still remained low. Most dignitaries became familiar with legal norms during their service. The transition to the modern type of legal thinking was just beginning. All this created great difficulties in determining punishment for a large number of defendants, the degrees of guilt of which varied significantly and whose actions often did not fit any of the known precedents.
Many Decembrists were in prisons and dungeons in shackles, and some were subjected to more sophisticated tortures. Decembrist V.P. wrote about the severity of solitary confinement. Zubkov: “The inventors of the gallows and beheading are the benefactors of humanity; whoever invented solitary confinement is a vile scoundrel; This punishment is not corporal, but spiritual. Anyone who has not been in solitary confinement cannot imagine what it is like.”
The cells in the Secret House of the Alekseevsky Ravelin, where many Decembrists were kept, were no better than in the casemates.
“They stripped me to the skin,” said M. Bestuzhev, “they put me in the official uniform of hermits... They laid me on a bed and covered me with a blanket, because my shackled hands and feet refused to serve me. The thick iron bar of the handcuffs squeezed my hands until they went numb. Deathly silence crushed my soul..."
In the Secret House, the supervision of prisoners was very strict, but all this did not break the courage of the Decembrists. They found the opportunity to communicate with each other by tapping, using the prison alphabet compiled by Bestuzhev. Subsequently, this alphabet - "Bestuzhevka" - became part of the arsenal of all Russian revolutionaries who were imprisoned.
The sentencing in the case of the Decembrists took place in several stages. Initially, the Discharge Commission, separated from the court, determined the number of categories into which the defendants were distributed, according to the severity of their guilt, and made a preliminary distribution of the defendants into categories in accordance with the elements of the crime. After this, the court accepted the proposed number of categories and, based on materials received from the Supreme Commission of Investigation and verified by the Audit Commission, passed sentences first for each category as a whole, and then, in order to clarify individual punishments, for each defendant separately. Finally, the verdict was submitted to Nicholas I for approval.
After the trial, the following were executed by hanging: Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Pavel Pestel, Kondraty Ryleev, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Pavel Kakhovsky. The rest were exiled to Siberia, and the soldiers were also sentenced to corporal punishment.
After the Decembrists were sent to Siberia, many of their wives followed their husbands. The feat was accomplished by women (at the same time, the Russian nature of the phenomenon is emphasized in every possible way) by abandoning everything they had, leaving their children, they followed their spouses, voluntarily deciding to share with them all the hardships of a harsh convict life. Although out of 12 Decembrists only five were Russian, of the rest two (Annenkova and Ivasheva) were purebred French, one (Trubetskaya) was French by father and upbringing, two were Polish by blood and cultural orientation (Entaltseva and Yushnevskaya), two were Ukrainian at least half (Volkonskaya and Davydova). All of them, however, belonged to the class considered the bearer of Russian state culture - the nobility (with the exception of hired workers Polina Gebl (Annenkova) and Camilla Le-Dantu (Ivasheva)) and in this capacity they were indeed the first Russian women, whose act became a phenomenon socially significant and influenced the formation of the self-awareness of Russian women (it is not for nothing that the granddaughter of the Decembrist Ivashev became one of the founders of the Russian women's movement). I would like to talk about some of the Decembrists in more detail.
She was the first to receive permission to follow her husband E.I. Trubetskoy, who left St. Petersburg on July 24, 1826, the next day after her husband was sent. She was the daughter of Count I.S. Laval and lived with her husband in her father’s rich mansion on the Promenade des Anglais. S.P. Trubetskoy settled in his father-in-law's house in 1822, returning with his wife from Paris. From that time on, the house of Laval became closely associated with the Decembrists. Members of the Secret Society gathered at Trubetskoy, whose rooms were on the ground floor.
After the departure of E.I. Trubetskoy in Siberia, her parents' house became the center where information about the exiles could be obtained.
E.I. Trubetskoy, who dearly loved her husband, shared his fate. From St. Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk she was accompanied by her father's secretary, but soon he fell ill and she continued her journey alone.
After the Transbaikal hard labor in 1839, the Trubetskoys were sent to settle in the village of Oyok, Irkutsk province. In Siberia, Ekaterina Ivanovna’s dream came true: she became a mother, but out of seven children, three died in infancy. In 1845, Prince. E.I. Trubetskoy and her children are allowed to live in Irkutsk, where they buy a house in Znamensky Suburb. In addition to their own, they had five adopted children, including the daughters of the Decembrist M.K. Kuchelbecker - Anna and Justina. For her pupils, the princess became a second mother. The Decembrist's wife was actively involved in charity work. She helped not only her comrades in exile - the Decembrists, but also many poor people of Irkutsk and surrounding villages. The Trubetskoy house is always “filled with the blind, the lame and all sorts of cripples.” A deeply religious person, Ekaterina Ivanovna helped Orthodox churches in Irkutsk and its environs. The leading youth of Irkutsk often gathered in her house. In 1854, Prince. E.I. Trubetskaya died. Ekaterina Ivanovna found her last refuge in the fence of the Znamensky Monastery, where three of her children were already buried.
Following Trubetskoy, M.N. left St. Petersburg. Volkonskaya, wife of a member of the Southern Society S.G. Volkonsky. Maria Nikolaevna arrived in 1826 at the Blagodatsky mine, where she lived in a peasant hut with Prince. E.I. Trubetskoy. “This woman should be immortal in Russian history,” the Siberians believed. She “plays the role of a paramedic, brings healthy food to the sick,” writes out the Koran for a Muslim convict, collects a herbarium of Siberian flora for Dr. Dowler in St. Petersburg, and compiles an entomological collection and a mineralogical cabinet of Siberia. Since 1837, the Volkonskys have lived in a settlement in the village of Urik, Irkutsk province. In 1845, Prince. M.N. Volkonskaya and her children were allowed to move to Irkutsk, where Sergei Grigorievich also moved in 1845. They also transport their house from Urik to Irkutsk. Maria Nikolaevna “managed to make her home the main center of Irkutsk social life,” she was the soul of musical, theatrical and literary evenings; balls and masquerades were often held in her salon for Irkutsk youth. And this “open life in the Volkonskys’ house directly led to the rapprochement of society and the emergence in it of more relaxed and cultural mores and tastes.” The princess takes care of the development of the musical tastes of the students of the Irkutsk Girls' Institute, she herself selects notes for the choir, and helps organize charity balls. After the amnesty of 1856, the Volkonskys lived on the Voronki estate in the Chernigov province, which belonged to their daughter Elena Sergeevna. That's where they are buried.
The fate of the wives of the Decembrists is described in detail in the film “Star of Captivating Happiness” and in Nekrasov’s poem “Russian Women”.
In memory of the Decembrists, Herzen named the magazine he published in London “Polar Star”, on the cover of which the profiles of those executed were depicted.
The ideas of the Decembrists were picked up and strengthened by the revolutionaries - commoners, starting with Chernyshevsky and ending with the Narodnaya Volya. “The proletariat, the only fully revolutionary class, rose at their head and for the first time raised millions of peasants to open revolutionary struggle,” wrote V.I. Lenin, often in his speeches and writings, mentioned the Decembrists as the first revolutionaries. After the October Socialist Revolution, in memory of the Decembrists, many memorable places associated with them were named after them: Ryleev, Yakubovich, Pestel streets, Kakhovsky Lane.
On December 14 (26), 1825, an uprising took place in St. Petersburg, organized by a group of like-minded nobles with the goal of transforming Russia into a constitutional state and abolishing serfdom.
On the morning of December 14 (26), rebel troops began to gather on the snow-covered Senate Square. The first to arrive were the soldiers of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment, led by A. Bestuzhev, later they were joined by sailors of the Guards crew and life grenadiers. They were supposed to force the Senate to refuse the oath to Nicholas and propose to publish a manifesto to the Russian people, drawn up by members of the secret society.
However, the action plan developed the day before was violated from the first minutes: the senators swore allegiance to Emperor Nicholas early in the morning and had already dispersed, not all the intended military units arrived at the gathering place, and the one chosen by dictator S.P. Trubetskoy did not appear on Senate Square at all.
Meanwhile, Nicholas I was gathering troops to the square, delaying the transition to decisive action. The St. Petersburg military governor-general, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, M. A. Miloradovich, attempted to persuade the rebels to lay down their arms, but was mortally wounded by a shot from P. G. Kakhovsky.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas I gave the order to open artillery fire. Seven shots were fired with buckshot - one over the heads and six at point-blank range. The soldiers fled. M.A. Bestuzhev tried to organize the capture of the Peter and Paul Fortress by placing the soldiers running on the ice of the Neva in battle formation, but his plan failed.
By the evening of the same day, the government completely suppressed the uprising. As a result of the rebellion, 1 thousand 271 people were killed, including 9 women and 19 young children.
As a result of the investigation carried out in the case of the Decembrists, five of them - P. I. Pestel, K. F. Ryleev, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol, M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P. G. Kakhovsky - were sentenced to death by hanging. In the early morning of July 13 (25), 1826, the sentence was carried out on the shaft of the crownwork of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Many participants in the uprising and members of secret societies related to its preparation were sent into exile and hard labor in Siberia.
In 1856, the surviving Decembrists were pardoned.
Lit.: December 14, 1825: Memoirs of eyewitnesses. St. Petersburg, 1999; Museum of the Decembrists. 1996-2003.
URL : http://decemb.hobby.ru ; Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern Society, M., 1981; Troitsky N. Decembrists. Uprising // Troitsky N. A. Russia in the 19th century: a course of lectures. M., 1997.See also in the Presidential Library:
Obolensky E.P. In exile and imprisonment: Memoirs of the Decembrists / Prince Obolensky, Basargin and Princess Volkonskaya. M., 1908
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