Decembrist revolt. Briefly

On December 26, 1825, an attempted coup took place on Senate Square in St. Petersburg. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, many of whom were officers of the guard. They tried to use guard units to prevent Nicholas I from ascending the throne, but the attempt was unsuccessful - troops loyal to the throne suppressed the rebellion with artillery.

In the first quarter of the 19th century, Russia was agitated by revolutionary sentiments. The main reason for this was that the most progressively minded part of the nobility was disappointed by the rule of Alexander the First, who, despite his promises (to grant the people a constitution), in fact did not weaken absolutism one iota. A certain part of the Russian ruling class saw this as the main obstacle to the development of the country and sought to end the centuries-old backwardness of Russia.

The growth of these sentiments was greatly facilitated by the liberation campaign in Europe after the War of 1812. Having become acquainted with various political movements in the West, the advanced Russian nobility decided that it was serfdom that was the reason for the backwardness of the state. Russian serfdom was perceived by the rest of the world as an insult to national public dignity. The views of the future Decembrists were greatly influenced by educational literature, Russian journalism, as well as the ideas of Western revolutionary educators.

It was after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, when Waterloo had already died down, that revolutionary sentiments in Russia began to turn into practical actions. In February 1816, the first secret political society, the “Union of Salvation,” arose in St. Petersburg, which set itself the goal of abolishing serfdom in Russia and adopting a constitution. It was headed by A.N. Muravyov, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, S.P. Trubetskoy, I.D. Yakushkin, P.I. Pestel. Limited strength prompted the members of the “Union” to create a broader organization, and in 1818 the “Union of Welfare” was created in Moscow, numbering about 200 members and having a charter with an extensive program of action.

The conspirators saw ways to achieve their goals in promoting their views, in preparing society for a painless revolutionary coup. However, due to disagreements, the society was dissolved. In March 1821, the Southern Society arose in Ukraine, headed by P.I. Pestel, and in St. Petersburg on the initiative of N.M. Muravyov, the Northern Society was organized. Both societies interacted with each other and viewed themselves as part of the same organization.

In 1823, preparations began for the uprising, which was scheduled for the summer of 1826. However, as a result of the death of Alexander I in December 1825, an interregnum arose and the conspirators decided to take active action immediately, believing that a more favorable moment would not present itself. Members of the Northern Society decided to come forward with the demands of their program on the day of taking the oath of office to the new Emperor Nicholas I.

On December 26, 1825, conspiratorial officers brought the Grenadier Life Guards, the Moscow Life Guards, and the Guards Marine Regiment to Senate Square in St. Petersburg. The total number of rebels was about three thousand bayonets. This would be quite enough for a coup; the history of our country was changing dramatically and with less military support (for example, Elizaveta Petrovna needed only a few guards companies to seize power).

But Nicholas, who had already ascended the throne, was warned about the uprising and managed to swear in the Senate, which gave him the opportunity to quickly gather loyal troops, which soon surrounded Senate Square. First, they entered into negotiations with the rebels, which led nowhere, and after Kakhovsky mortally wounded Governor Miloradovich, troops loyal to the government used artillery. Unable to do anything against the hail of grapeshot, the rebels surrendered - the Decembrist uprising was suppressed.

A little later (December 29), the Chernigov regiment also rebelled, the rebellion of which was also suppressed in two weeks.

Arrests of organizers and participants of the uprisings occurred throughout Russia. In the case of the Decembrists, 579 people were brought to trial, 289 were found guilty. Five - Ryleev, Pestel, Kakhovsky, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Muravyov-Apostol - were hanged. More than 120 people were exiled for various periods to Siberia for hard labor or settlement.

Capital of the Russian Empire, December 14 (26). The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, many of them officers of the Guard. They tried to use guard units to prevent Nicholas I from accessing the throne. The goal of the conspirators was the abolition of the autocracy and the abolition of serfdom. The uprising was strikingly different from the conspiracies of the era of palace coups in its goals and had a strong resonance in Russian society, which significantly influenced the socio-political life of the subsequent era of the reign of Nicholas I.

Decembrists

Prerequisites for the uprising

The conspirators decided to take advantage of the complex legal situation that had developed around the rights to the throne after the death of Alexander I. On the one hand, there was a secret document confirming the long-standing renunciation of the throne by the brother next to the childless Alexander in seniority, Konstantin Pavlovich, which gave an advantage to the next brother, who was extremely unpopular among the highest military-bureaucratic elite to Nikolai Pavlovich. On the other hand, even before the opening of this document, Nikolai Pavlovich, under pressure from the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, hastened to renounce his rights to the throne in favor of Konstantin Pavlovich.

On November 27, the population swore an oath to Constantine. Formally, a new emperor appeared in Russia; several coins with his image were even minted. But Constantine did not accept the throne, but also did not formally renounce it as emperor. An ambiguous and extremely tense interregnum situation was created. Nicholas decided to declare himself emperor. The second oath, the “re-oath,” was scheduled for December 14. The moment the Decembrists had been waiting for had arrived - a change of power. The members of the secret society decided to speak out, especially since the minister already had a lot of denunciations on his desk and arrests could soon begin.

The state of uncertainty lasted for a very long time. After the repeated refusal of Konstantin Pavlovich from the throne, the Senate, as a result of a long night meeting on December 13-14, 1825, recognized the legal rights to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich.

Uprising plan

The Decembrists decided to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new king. The rebel troops were to occupy the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the royal family was planned to be arrested and, under certain circumstances, killed. A dictator was elected to lead the uprising - Prince Sergei Trubetskoy.

After this, it was planned to demand that the Senate publish a national manifesto, which would proclaim the “destruction of the former government” and the establishment of a Provisional Revolutionary Government. It was supposed to make Count Speransky and Admiral Mordvinov its members (later they became members of the trial of the Decembrists).

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.

After this, a National Council (Constituent Assembly) was to be convened, which was to decide the form of government - a constitutional monarchy or a republic. In the second case, the royal family would have to be sent abroad. . In particular, Ryleev proposed sending Nikolai to Fort Ross. However, then the plan of the “radicals” (Pestel and Ryleev) involved the murder of Nikolai Pavlovich and, possibly, Tsarevich Alexander.

Events of December 14

However, a few days before this, Nikolai was warned about the intentions of the secret societies by the Chief of the General Staff I. I. Dibich and the Decembrist Ya. I. Rostovtsev (the latter considered the uprising against the tsar incompatible with noble honor). 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. . .

A large crowd of St. Petersburg residents gathered on the square and the main mood of this huge mass, which, according to contemporaries, numbered in tens of thousands of people, was sympathy for the rebels. They threw logs and stones at Nicholas and his retinue. Two “rings” of people were formed - the first consisted of those who came earlier, it surrounded the square of the rebels, and the second ring was formed of those who came later - their gendarmes were no longer allowed into the square to join the rebels, and they stood behind the government troops who surrounded the rebel square. Nikolai, as can be seen from his diary, understood the danger of this environment, which threatened great complications. He doubted his success, “seeing that the matter was becoming very important, and not yet foreseeing how it would end.” It was decided to prepare crews for members of the royal family for a possible escape to Tsarskoe Selo. Later, Nikolai told his brother Mikhail many times: “The most amazing thing in this story is that you and I weren’t shot then.”

Nicholas sent Metropolitan Seraphim and Kyiv Metropolitan Eugene to persuade the soldiers. But in response, according to the testimony of Deacon Prokhor Ivanov, the soldiers began shouting to the metropolitans: “What kind of metropolitan are you, when in two weeks you swore allegiance to two emperors... We don’t believe you, go away!..” The metropolitans interrupted the soldiers’ conviction when the Life Guards appeared on the square Grenadier Regiment and Guards Crew, under the command of Nikolai Bestuzhev and the Decembrist Lieutenant Arbuzov.

But the gathering of all the rebel troops occurred only 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. But Nicholas managed to take the initiative into his own hands, and the encirclement of the rebels by government troops, more than four times larger than the rebels in numbers, was already completed. . In total, 30 Decembrist officers brought about 3,000 soldiers to the square. . According to Gabaev’s calculations, 9 thousand infantry bayonets, 3 thousand cavalry sabers were collected against the rebel soldiers, in total, not counting the artillerymen called up later (36 guns), at least 12 thousand people. Because of the city, another 7 thousand infantry bayonets and 22 cavalry squadrons, that is, 3 thousand sabers, were called up and stopped at the outposts as a reserve, that is, in total, another 10 thousand people stood in reserve at the outposts. .

Nikolai was afraid of the onset of darkness, since most of all he feared that “the excitement would not be communicated to the mob,” which could become active in the dark. Guards artillery appeared from the Admiralteysky Boulevard under the command of General I. Sukhozanet. A volley of blank charges was fired at the square, which had no effect. Then Nikolai ordered to shoot with grapeshot. The first salvo was fired above the ranks of the rebel soldiers - at the “mobs” on the roof of the Senate building and the roofs of neighboring houses. The rebels responded to the first volley of grapeshot with rifle fire, but then they began to flee under a hail of grapeshot. According to V.I. Shteingel: “It could have been limited to this, 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 crowd of curious people fled!” . 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 against the Peter and Paul Fortress. The troops lined up, but were fired at by cannonballs. The cannonballs hit the ice and it split, many drowned. .

Arrest and trial

By nightfall the uprising was over. Hundreds of corpses remained in the square and streets. Based on the papers of the official of the III Department M. M. Popov, N. K. Shilder wrote:

After the artillery fire ceased, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich ordered Chief of Police General Shulgin to remove the corpses by morning. Unfortunately, the perpetrators acted in the most inhumane manner. On the night on the Neva, from the Isaac Bridge to the Academy of Arts and further to the side of Vasilievsky Island, many ice holes were made, into which not only corpses were lowered, but, as they claimed, also many wounded, deprived of the opportunity to escape from the fate that awaited them. Those of the wounded who managed to escape hid their injuries, afraid to open up to doctors, and died without medical care.

S. N. Korsakov from the Police Department compiled a certificate on the number of victims during the suppression of the uprising.

During the indignation on December 14, 1825, the following people were killed: generals - 1, staff officers - 1, chief officers of various regiments - 17, lower ranks of the Life Guards - 282, in tailcoats and greatcoats - 39, females - 79, minors - 150, rabble - 903. Total - 1271 people.

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 arrested Decembrists were brought to the Winter Palace. Emperor Nicholas himself acted as an investigator.

By decree of December 17, 1825, a Commission was established for research into malicious societies, chaired by Minister of War Alexander Tatishchev. On May 30, 1826, the investigative commission presented Emperor Nicholas with an all-submissive report compiled by D. N. Bludov. The manifesto of June 1, 1826 established the Supreme Criminal Court of three state estates: the State Council, the Senate and the Synod, with the addition of “several persons from the highest military and civil officials.” A total of 579 people were involved in the investigation.

Notes

, With. 8
, With. 9
, With. 322
, With. 12
, With. 327
, With. 36-37, 327
From Trubetskoy's notes.
, With. 13
Decembrist revolt. Causes of defeat
[Vladimir Emelianenko. California dream of the Decembrists]
, With. 345
V. A. Fedorov. Articles and comments // Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern society. - Moscow: MSU, 1981. - P. 345.
, With. 222
From Shteingel's memoirs.
, With. 223
, With. 224
N. K. Schilder T. 1 // Emperor Nicholas the First. His life and reign. - St. Petersburg, 1903. - P. 516.
Mikhail Ershov. Repentance of Kondraty Ryleev. Secret materials No. 2, St. Petersburg, 2008.
V. A. Fedorov. Articles and comments // Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern society. - Moscow: MSU, 1981. - P. 329.

Museums of the Decembrists

Irkutsk Regional Historical and Memorial Museum of the Decembrists
Novoselenginsky Museum of Decembrists (Buryatia)

Movie

Literature

Academic documentary series "North Star"
Gordin Ya. Revolt of the reformers. December 14, 1825. L.: Lenizdat, 1989
Gordin Ya. Revolt of the reformers. After the mutiny. M.: TERRA, 1997.
Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern society/ Ed. V. A. Fedorov. - Moscow: MSU, 1981.
Olenin A. N. Private letter about the incident on December 14, 1825 // Russian Archive, 1869. - Issue. 4. - Stb. 731-736; 049-053.
Svistunov P. A few comments on the latest books and articles about the event of December 14 and the Decembrists // Russian Archive, 1870. - Ed. 2nd. - M., 1871. - Stb. 1633-1668.
Sukhozanet I.O. December 14, 1825, story of the chief of artillery Sukhozanet / Communication. A. I. Sukhozanet // Russian antiquity, 1873. - T. 7. - No. 3. - P. 361-370.
Felkner V.I. Notes of Lieutenant General V. I. Felkner. December 14, 1825 // Russian antiquity, 1870. - T. 2. - Ed. 3rd. - St. Petersburg, 1875. - P. 202-230.

Links

On July 13, 1826, five conspirators and leaders of the Decembrist uprising were executed on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress: K.F. Ryleev, P.I. Pestel, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky

In the first quarter of the 19th century. A revolutionary ideology arose in Russia, the bearers of which were the Decembrists. Disillusioned with the policies of Alexander 1, part of the progressive nobility decided to put an end to the reasons, as it seemed to them, for the backwardness of Russia.

The attempted coup that took place in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, on December 14 (26), 1825, was called the Decembrist Uprising. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, many of them were officers of the guard. They tried to use the guards units to prevent Nicholas I from ascending the throne. The goal was the abolition of the autocracy and the abolition of serfdom.

In February 1816, the first secret political society arose in St. Petersburg, the goal of which was the abolition of serfdom and the adoption of a constitution. It consisted of 28 members (A.N. Muravyov, S.I. and M.I. Muravyov-Apostles, S.P.T Rubetskoy, I.D. Yakushkin, P.I. Pestel, etc.)

In 1818, the organization “ Welfare Union”, which had 200 members and had councils in other cities. The society propagated the idea of abolishing serfdom, preparing a revolutionary coup using the forces of the officers. " Welfare Union"collapsed due to disagreements between radical and moderate members of the union.

In March 1821, arose in Ukraine Southern Society led by P.I. Pestel, who was the author of the policy document " Russian Truth».

In St. Petersburg, on the initiative of N.M. Muravyov was created " Northern society”, which had a liberal plan of action. Each of these societies had its own program, but the goal was the same - the destruction of autocracy, serfdom, estates, the creation of a republic, the separation of powers, and the proclamation of civil liberties.

Preparations for an armed uprising began. The conspirators decided to take advantage of the complex legal situation that had developed around the rights to the throne after the death of Alexander I. On the one hand, there was a secret document confirming the long-standing renunciation of the throne by the brother next to the childless Alexander in seniority, Konstantin Pavlovich, which gave an advantage to the next brother, who was extremely unpopular among the highest military-bureaucratic elite to Nikolai Pavlovich. On the other hand, even before the opening of this document, Nikolai Pavlovich, under pressure from the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, hastened to renounce his rights to the throne in favor of Konstantin Pavlovich. After the repeated refusal of Konstantin Pavlovich from the throne, the Senate, as a result of a long night meeting on December 13-14, 1825, recognized the legal rights to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich.

The Decembrists decided to prevent the Senate and troops from taking the oath to the new king.
The conspirators planned to occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace, arrest the royal family and, if certain circumstances arose, kill them. Sergei Trubetskoy was elected to lead the uprising. Next, the Decembrists wanted to demand from the Senate the publication of a national manifesto proclaiming the destruction of the old government and the establishment of a provisional government. Admiral Mordvinov and Count Speransky were supposed to be members of the new revolutionary government. The deputies were entrusted with the task of approving the constitution - the new fundamental law. If the Senate refused to announce a national manifesto containing points on the abolition of serfdom, equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms, the introduction of compulsory military service for all classes, the introduction of jury trials, the election of officials, the abolition of the poll tax, etc., it was decided to force him do this forcibly. Then it was planned to convene a National Council, which would decide the choice of form of government: a republic or a constitutional monarchy. If the republican form was chosen, the royal family would have to be expelled from the country. Ryleev first proposed sending Nikolai Pavlovich to Fort Ross, but then he and Pestel plotted the murder of Nikolai and, perhaps, Tsarevich Alexander.

On the morning of December 14, 1825, the Moscow Life Guards Regiment entered Senate Square. He was joined by the Guards Marine Crew and the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment. In total, about 3 thousand people gathered.

However, Nicholas I, notified of the impending conspiracy, took the oath of the Senate in advance and, gathering troops loyal to him, surrounded the rebels. After negotiations, in which Metropolitan Seraphim and the Governor-General of St. Petersburg M.A. Miloradovich (who was mortally wounded) took part on the part of the government, Nicholas I ordered the use of artillery. The uprising in St. Petersburg was crushed.

But already on January 2 it was suppressed by government troops. Arrests of participants and organizers began throughout Russia. 579 people were involved in the Decembrist case. Found guilty 287. Five were sentenced to death (K.F. Ryleev, P.I. Pestel, P.G. Kakhovsky, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol). 120 people were exiled to hard labor in Siberia or to a settlement.
About one hundred and seventy officers involved in the Decembrist case were extrajudicially demoted to soldiers and sent to the Caucasus, where the Caucasian War was taking place. Several exiled Decembrists were later sent there. In the Caucasus, some, with their courage, earned promotion to officers, like M. I. Pushchin, and some, like A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, died in battle. Individual participants in the Decembrist organizations (such as V.D. Volkhovsky and I.G. Burtsev) were transferred to the troops without demotion to soldiers, which took part in the Russian-Persian War of 1826-1828 and the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829 . In the mid-1830s, just over thirty Decembrists who served in the Caucasus returned home.

The verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court on the death penalty for five Decembrists was executed on July 13 (25), 1826 in the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

During the execution, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky and Ryleev fell from the noose and were hanged a second time. There is a misconception that this was contrary to the tradition of inadmissibility of the second execution of the death penalty. According to military Article No. 204 it is stated that “ Carry out the death penalty until the end result occurs ", that is, until the death of the convicted person. The procedure for releasing a convicted person who, for example, fell from the gallows, which existed before Peter I, was abolished by the Military Article. On the other hand, the “marriage” was explained by the absence of executions in Russia over the previous several decades (the exception was the executions of participants in the Pugachev uprising).

On August 26 (September 7), 1856, the day of his coronation, Emperor Alexander II pardoned all the Decembrists, but many did not live to see their liberation. It should be noted that Alexander Muravyov, the founder of the Union of Salvation, sentenced to exile in Siberia, was already appointed mayor in Irkutsk in 1828, then held various responsible positions, including governorship, and participated in the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

For many years, and even nowadays, not infrequently, the Decembrists in general and the leaders of the coup attempt were idealized and given an aura of romanticism. However, we must admit that these were ordinary state criminals and traitors to the Motherland. It is not for nothing that in the Life of St. Seraphim of Sarov, he usually greeted any person with exclamations " My joy!", there are two episodes that sharply contrast with the love with which Saint Seraphim treated everyone who came to him...

Go back where you came from

Sarov monastery. Elder Seraphim, completely imbued with love and kindness, looks sternly at the officer approaching him and refuses him a blessing. The seer knows that he is a participant in the conspiracy of the future Decembrists. " Go back where you came from ", the monk tells him decisively. The great elder then leads his novice to the well, the water in which was cloudy and dirty. " So this man who came here intends to outrage Russia “, said the righteous man, jealous of the fate of the Russian monarchy.

Troubles will not end well

Two brothers arrived in Sarov and went to the elder (these were two Volkonsky brothers); he accepted and blessed one of them, but did not allow the other to approach him, waved his hands and drove him away. And he told his brother about him that he was up to no good, that the troubles would not end well and that a lot of tears and blood would be shed, and advised him to come to his senses in time. And sure enough, the one of the two brothers whom he drove away got into trouble and was exiled.

Note. Major General Prince Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky (1788-1865) was a member of the Union of Welfare and Southern Society; convicted of the first category and, upon confirmation, sentenced to hard labor for 20 years (the term was reduced to 15 years). Sent to the Nerchinsk mines, and then transferred to a settlement.

So, looking back, we must admit that it was bad that the Decembrists were executed. It’s bad that only five of them were executed...

And in our time, we must clearly understand that any organization that sets as its goal (openly or hidden) the organization of disorder in Russia, the arousal of public opinion, the organization of actions of confrontation, as happened in poor Ukraine, the armed overthrow of the government, etc. - subject to immediate closure, and the organizers to trial as criminals against Russia.

Lord, deliver our fatherland from disorder and civil strife!

“Ah! Mon Prince, vous avez fait bien du mal à la Russie, vous l"avez reculée de cinquante ans!" (“Ah, Prince, you have done a lot of evil to Russia, you have pushed it back fifty years!”) General Levashov - to Prince Trubetskoy

190 years ago, on the morning of December 26, 1825, guard officers (staff captains, lieutenants, lieutenants...) and several civilians led about three thousand soldiers to Senate Square in St. Petersburg. This is how the famous Decembrist uprising began. Subsequent events shocked the entire country and largely determined its fate for decades to come.

For a real king

The pretext for the uprising was the death of Emperor Alexander I on November 19. His brother Constantine was supposed to inherit the throne of the Russian Empire, but he, like Alexander, was childless. Moreover, he was married to a Polish noblewoman - and his future children would still not be able to inherit the throne. Therefore, back in 1822, Constantine abdicated the throne, and the following year, Alexander I secretly drew up a manifesto on transferring the throne to the next most senior brother, Nicholas.

The unsuspecting society continued to consider Constantine as the heir. Nikolai was not loved in the army either. And on November 27, the oath to Constantine began - Nikolai had to be the first to swear allegiance. But then the will of Alexander I was revealed - and a two-week interregnum began. As a result, Constantine renounced power; on December 14, a manifesto on Nicholas’s accession to the throne was to be published. The Decembrists decided to take advantage of this chance to “wedge themselves” between two legitimate monarchs - and withdrew the troops subordinate to them under the pretext of protecting the “correct” king - i.e. Constantine, who was being kept in chains.

If we compare the recollections of the participants in the events, a noticeable difference in the behavior of the parties catches the eye. The Decembrists lead their troops to the square, but then hour after hour they passively stand in place and, at best, defend themselves - and then they do it belatedly. All the energy of the conspirators was enough for single strikes with a saber, bayonet or shot at officers trying to talk to soldiers. And the soldiers shoot from the hand and without aiming, most often - upwards, or even blanks.

Nicholas and his supporters - for example, the chief of artillery Ivan Sukhozanet, who fought from Pultusk to Paris - although they do not know what exactly is happening, they do not lose control of the soldiers at hand. And they act. The Senate and Synod manage to swear allegiance to the new emperor around eight o'clock in the morning. The generals and regimental commanders of the guard also swore allegiance to Nicholas and went to their units - even before the rebels entered the square at the eleventh hour. The Winter Palace is occupied by sappers personally loyal to Nicholas. Orders are given loudly and confidently, troops actively move behind their commanders. Nikolai himself leads the Preobrazhensky battalion. The cavalrymen are attacking. Parliamentarians are sent out. And, as a decisive argument, artillery is located (and used). Even before the uprising, an operation was thought out and carried out to arrest the leader of the Southern Society of Decembrists, Pavel Pestel.

Four cannons were fired to suppress the uprising. According to Sukhozanet, “there was no need to aim the guns, the distance was too close.” By the third salvo there was no one left on the spot. In total, at least seven buckshot shots were fired on the square - and some of them, according to some historians, could have been fired upward.

Kakhovsky's shot at Miloradovich. Lithograph from a drawing by A. I. Charlemagne. 1861
borodino2012–2045.com

Information about human casualties differs tenfold - from several dozen to more than a thousand killed. In Soviet times, the data of the police official Sergei Nikolaevich Korsakov was considered the most reliable. According to his note, a total of 1,271 people were killed, including 39 “in tailcoats and greatcoats,” 903 “rabbles” and 9 “women.” 1 general (Miloradovich) and 1 staff officer (probably Colonel Sturler) were mortally wounded by the Decembrist Kakhovsky. The lower ranks of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment were killed 93, although, according to the calculations of the regimental historian, no more than 29 people were killed, wounded and missing. The same discrepancies between the notes and the archives of the units are found in other cases - in total, another 189 lower ranks were killed versus 27 along with the missing.

Layout of regiments on Senate Square
http://www.runivers.ru/

What did the Decembrists want?

And until now, almost every participant in those events, their actions and behavior are assessed extremely emotionally and contradictorily. The Decembrists were either rebels and traitors, or practically holy “heroes forged from pure steel” (Herzen). Nicholas I is either a bloody despot and gendarme of Europe, or a wise and generous ruler. Alas, the length of the article does not allow us to reveal all aspects of the Decembrist movement (and this is impossible) - only to raise some questions.

“Fighters against centuries of slavery?” But the intended dictator was to become Prince Trubetskoy - Gediminovich. One of the most active participants in the uprising was Rurikovich, Prince Obolensky. Representatives of such ancient and noble families could technically even look at the Romanovs as rootless upstarts.

Colonel Pestel, the first in the Corps of Pages to be awarded five military orders, was called a “fanatical doctrinaire” a century ago, who allegedly screwed up his soldiers “to teach them to hate their superiors” - which is refuted by the documents of the regiment. At the same time, the future Republican revolutionary loved his father, the Governor-General of Siberia, and often consulted with him. Some relatives cursed the Decembrists - but not Pestel Sr. (the story about the last conversation of the Pestels was invented by Herzen). Another paradox - in 1821, Pestel compiled unfavorable reports about the Greek rebels - supposedly members of a worldwide revolutionary conspiracy.

Portrait of Pavel Pestel
www.rosimperija.info

“The desire to see a representative structure in your Fatherland”? But this did not at all mean a desire to immediately overthrow the tsarist government - moreover, after the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, Alexander I was looked upon as the liberator of Europe from Napoleon. And the first idea to kill the emperor arose in 1817 - after the message that “the sovereign intends to return to Poland all the regions we have conquered and retire to Warsaw with the entire court.”

Liberation of the peasants as the main goal? But the first Main Rule of “Russian Truth” read: “ The liberation of Peasants from Slavery should not deprive the Nobles of the income they receive from their Estates"The second point is no less significant: “This liberation should not cause Unrest and Disorder in the State, for which reason the Supreme Government is obliged to use merciless severity against any Violators of the general peace.” In this case, the peasants would not be freed immediately and, most importantly, without land. And according to the Decree on free cultivators, the Decembrists already had the opportunity to release their own peasants.

In general, the plans of the Decembrists are best characterized by the phrase: “The distribution of the People among the Volosts combines all Benefits and all Conveniences, averting all Injustices and all Difficulties”. In other words, it is literally a struggle for all that is good against all that is bad. Despite the fact that among the Decembrists themselves there was not even close to a unity of views. Even proposals for a political structure ranged from a constitutional monarchy headed by a federation of thirteen powers and two regions (Nikita Muravyov, Northern Society) to a unitary republic (Pestel, Southern Society).

Pestel defended the legal equality of all people. But in practice, this would result in the confiscation of lands from landowners, the deportation of those who had separated from all Jews to Asia Minor - in case of disobedience, the resettlement of Caucasian peoples to the central provinces, etc. and so on. Any national identity would destroy the principles of equal opportunity, “homogeneity, uniformity and like-mindedness.”

Results of the failed uprising

The Decembrists, like their opponents, were people of their era. An era at the turning point of the romance of the 18th century and the cynical pragmatism of the 19th century. When secret societies grew, like today's interest groups, and a socialite became a Freemason in his youth, during breaks between card games, drinking wine and other pleasant pastimes. An era when the conspirator, businessman and poet Ryleev could be friends with the poet and secret police agent Bulgarin. The era of enlightenment - many Decembrists received not just a good, but an elite education, but in closed institutions, which leaves a certain imprint on the personality. Although Ryleev, on the contrary, was self-taught. Eras of many conspiracies and revolutions, from Spain to Greece - when even generals intrigued and fought duels. And every young military man could see the career of Napoleon’s artillery lieutenant, and in 1820, the success of the battalion commander Riego, who transformed Spain into a constitutional monarchy and became president of the Cortes. “The mass is nothing, it will be what the individuals, who are everything, want,” said Sergei Muravyov, one of the most active participants in the Southern Society of Decembrists.

But time passed. Former enthusiastic youths became adult statesmen. Many of the founders and active figures of Decembrism (the founder of the Union of Salvation, Alexander Muravyov, Lunin, who proposed to kill Alexander I) had already moved away from their previous ideas by the time of the uprising. Many members of secret societies went on to successful careers. Some of the former Decembrists generally took part in suppressing the rebellion. Trubetskoy, being near Senate Square, does not participate in the uprising - for which he is either accused of cowardice and even meanness, or praised for his sober assessment of what is happening. Colonel Moller, the commander of the battalion guarding the Winter Palace, directly refused to participate in the uprising.

To a person of the 21st century, it may seem incredible, for example, such a situation - the emperor personally, almost alone, “point-blank” interrogates the most dangerous conspirators, many of whom spent many years in the army, and even fought bravely. It is worth noting that some of the conspirators had previously proposed solving the problem by killing Nikolai. However, the participants in the events themselves were brought up in the traditions of society back in the 18th century, in which chivalrous behavior was first and foremost required of the nobles. This probably also explains another “unthinkable” behavior from our point of view - almost all participants in the secret society (except for Lunin and Pestel) did not hide anything during interrogations - including about other members. And earlier, the Decembrists indignantly rejected Pestel’s ideas about conspiracy and the creation of their own secret police, “the office of impenetrable darkness.”

The state of secrecy of “secret societies” is best described by Pushkin’s phrase: “But who, besides the police and the government, did not know about him? they were shouting about the conspiracy in all the alleys.”. And the fact that back in 1823, Alexander I made an unambiguous hint to General Sergei Volkonsky (by the way, the only real general among the Decembrists) to deal with his brigade, and not governing the Russian Empire, shows that the government had long been in the know. Subsequently, some contemporaries were outraged not so much by the fact of the conspiracy as by Volkonsky’s forgery of the state seal for opening government papers. It is not surprising that during the entire period of the Decembrist movement, integral organizations practically did not exist, and the strictly developed, detailed rules were not implemented in practice. Some societies generally existed only in words. In St. Petersburg, almost every Decembrist had his own program of action. Pestel, a theorist and practitioner of the secret police, will be betrayed by the person whom he himself introduced into the secret society.

According to the 19th military article, “if any subject arms an army, or takes up arms against His Majesty, or intends to captivate, or kill, or inflict any kind of violence on the said Majesty,” then he and everyone who helped him should be quartered and their property confiscated. That is, strictly according to the letter of the law in force at that time, five hanged and a hundred sent to Siberia for two uprisings, including the Chernigov regiment in Ukraine, is extremely soft. Especially by the standards of subsequent eras, when the number of deaths during “social experiments” was measured in tens of thousands, or even millions. But, on the other hand, in an age of hopes for enlightenment and all kinds of progress, the arrests and execution of the untouchable elite of society - nobles and officers - looked like an unheard-of crime. And the fate of the soldiers, who were first taken to the square under buckshot and then sent to the Caucasus, did not particularly worry anyone then.

Nicholas I
http://www.bibliotekar.ru/

Now it is difficult to say whether the Decembrists had a chance of victory, and even more so, what path Russia would have taken then. In our reality, the saddest consequence was the mutual bitterness of both the authorities and the opposition for many decades. From the first hours of his reign, Nicholas I became convinced by his own example of the existence of a huge and cruel conspiracy - threatening both the lives of Nicholas himself and his family. Equally, the opposition decided that with such a bloody government it was impossible to do otherwise.

Pushkin, hot on his heels, noted the extreme ambition and distortions in the upbringing of the younger generation: “He enters the world without any solid knowledge, without any positive rules: every thought is new to him, every news has an influence on him. He is unable to believe or object; he becomes a blind follower or an ardent follower of the first comrade who wants to exert his superiority over him or make him his tool.” As an antidote, Pushkin proposed reform of public education. Alas, both supporters and opponents of the authorities usually preferred more radical methods.

Sources and literature:

Gordin Ya. A. Revolt of reformers: When the fate of Russia was decided. St. Petersburg, Amphora, 2015.
Kersnovsky A. A. History of the Russian Army. - M.: Voice, 1993.
Kiyanskaya Oksana. Pestel. M., Young Guard, 2005.
Lomovsky E. The most tragic day // Science and life. - 2014. - No. 6.
Margolis A.D. On the question of the number of victims on December 14, 1825 // Margolis A.D. Prison and exile in Imperial Russia. Research and archival finds. M., 1995.
Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern society // Comp. V. A. Fedorova. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 1981.
Pushkin A.S. About public education. Quote via http://rvb.ru/
Sukhozanet I. O. December 14, 1825, story of the chief of artillery Sukhozanet / Communication. A. I. Sukhozanet // Russian antiquity, 1873. - T. 7. - No. 3.

As is known...
A great phrase, it usually begins stories about events that are fateful and no matter how anyone suspects that this was the case, they always start with the phrase - “as is known...” So, as is known...
"The Decembrist uprising is an attempt at a coup d'etat that took place in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, on December 14 (26), 1825. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, many of them were guard officers. They tried to use guard units to prevent Nicholas from ascending the throne I"
Next, again, a well-known fact that should not be questioned...
“The goal was the abolition of autocracy and the abolition of serfdom. The uprising was strikingly different from the conspiracies of the era of palace coups in its goals and had a strong resonance in Russian society, which significantly influenced the socio-political life of the subsequent era of the reign of Nicholas I.”
Then they usually write about how far the Decembrists were from the people, and so on blah blah blah...
But in fact, everything was not entirely like that, and if a curious reader begins to delve into the details on his own, then an amazing and key event emerges, which led to large-scale wars and far-reaching consequences and perhaps determined the entire modern world order!
... "The conspirators decided to take advantage of the difficult legal situation that had developed around the rights to the throne after the death of Alexander I."
I will make a digression to explain - Alexander the first died and he died in Taganrog on the first of December according to the new style, 1825. The emperor's body remained in place in Taganrog; the coffin with the body was delivered to St. Petersburg only two months later. This is a separate story about what happened next, and a lot of interesting and mysterious things happened, but that’s for later.
According to the existing law, Konstantin Pavlovich, the second oldest son of Pavel Petrovich, should have inherited. The news of the emperor's death was transmitted to Moscow (!!!), and then to St. Petersburg via optical telegraph. That is, they recognized her almost immediately.
Konstantin was in Warsaw, as he was the Tsar of Poland, but he learned the news immediately, having also received it via optical telegraph! Oh, it’s not in vain that I devoted so much of my attention to this means of communication!!!

On November 27 (December 9), 1825, the population was sworn in to Constantine. Formally, a new emperor appeared in Russia; several coins with his image were even minted. Constantine did not accept the throne, but he also did not formally renounce it as emperor. An ambiguous and extremely tense interregnum situation was created. Nicholas decided to declare himself emperor. The second oath, the “re-oath,” was scheduled for December 14, 1825.

For now, we won’t talk about the secret document that the well-known Metropolitan Philaret pulled out from under the counter...

So - according to history, Nikolai Pavlovich was in St. Petersburg, Konstantin Pavlovich Tsar of Poland was in Warsaw, the Duma boyars were in Moscow, and in the city near the Taganiy Rog bay there was Emperor Alexander the First, nicknamed the “savior”
We need to remind the reader of another not unimportant event that happened on the eve...
"The St. Petersburg flood of 1824 is the most significant and destructive flood in the entire history of St. Petersburg. It occurred on November 7 (19), 1824.
The water in the Neva River and its numerous canals (sleeves) rose 4.14-4.21 meters above normal. It is estimated that 462 houses were destroyed during the flood, 3,681 were damaged, 3,600 head of livestock were killed, between 200 and 600 people drowned, and many went missing as their bodies were carried away into the Gulf of Finland.
On the walls of the city's houses there are memorial plaques marking the water level during the flood of 1824. One of them is located at the intersection of the Kadetskaya Line and Bolshoy Prospekt of Vasilievsky Island."
This is an important point!
I immediately want to warn the reader that all this data that I collected in one pile happened not known when, not known with whom and not known where... for now, at least, I propose to accept such an impersonal version for impartiality. Some kings who were waiting in line for great power.
But let's return to the Decembrists, they were already frozen there on Senate Square!

By 11 a.m. on December 14 (26), 1825, Decembrist officers brought about 800 soldiers of the Moscow Life Guards Regiment to Senate Square; later they were joined by units of the 2nd battalion of the Grenadier Regiment and sailors of the Guards Marine Crew in the amount of at least 2,350 people.
In total, about three and a half thousand people... stand in the cold and wait by the sea for weather.
But now I want to talk not about why three and a half thousand armed guardsmen allowed themselves to be dispersed like the Schenites, I want to dwell on the scene of the action, on SENATE SQUARE!
The square is so named because the buildings of the Senate and Senod are located on it.
A very beautiful and bright building, artists usually paint it against the backdrop of the Decembrists.
But, how can it be, the building did not exist yet in 1825!
The Senate and Synod buildings are an architectural monument - buildings in the style of late classicism, located on Senate Square in St. Petersburg. Erected in 1829–1834. They are connected by a triumphal arch spanning Galernaya Street. They were originally built for two government bodies of the Russian Empire: the Senate and the Holy Governing Synod. The last major project of the architect Carl Rossi.

Well, of course, now they will argue... there was an old Senate building, it just looks like it!
Read the official history here - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buildings_of_the_Senate_and_Synod
What was there and what remained of the flood field on the eve is still a question, but the Senate was definitely not there, the Senate or more correctly Building of the Twelve Colleges- a building on the University embankment of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg, built in 1722-1742. to accommodate Peter's colleges. The largest monument of Peter's Baroque in size consists of twelve identical three-story sections.
Here it is, still standing and not sneezing...

This drawing is absolutely funny, apparently they didn’t know how to combine the Senate building and St. Isaac’s Cathedral with the square. Well, there is no such area there, but there needs to be some.

This is what they write about how the building from the Senate-collegium turned into something completely different...
Initially, construction was carried out under the leadership of Domenico Trezzini and Theodor Schwertfeger, and it was completed by Giuseppe Trezzini and Mikhail Zemtsov. The first meeting of the boards in the new building took place in 1732. The main construction was completed by the mid-1730s. In 1737-1741, a two-story gallery was added to the western side of the building.
In 1804, the Pedagogical Institute was located in the building, and in 1835 the building was transferred to St. Petersburg University. For this purpose, the complex of colleges was refurbished under the leadership of Apollo Shchedrin."
This is where the small mistake comes in... well, the institute cannot take over the university. On the contrary it can! The concept of institute to a university began to be applied very late, but before there were universities; a university could have a teacher’s institute, but not the other way around! The university is still located in this building.
It turns out that either the time is wrong or the place is wrong.
But we still have one more city where the news of the emperor’s death came - Moscow, but in Moscow there is an ancient SENATE building and a square nearby and a cathedral.

Here's the Senate...

Here is the square and the cathedral and the whole thing looks at the place of execution, where it was as if the heads of the archers were being chopped off.

We haven’t forgotten from this story that the army and the SENATE swore allegiance to Constantine!
There is one more point here... A dictator was elected to lead the uprising - Prince Sergei Trubetskoy.
Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy (August 29 (September 9), 1790, Nizhny Novgorod - November 22 (December 4), 1860, Moscow) - participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, guard colonel, duty staff officer of the 4th Infantry Corps (1825)
Note that Trubetskoy was from Nizhny Novgorod (remember the militia of Minin and Pozharsky? But more on that later, later) The second amazing thing is the date and place of death - Moscow 1860, that is, the main conspirator himself was not touched! Almost. But Trubetskoy was not simple... The Trubetskoys are a family of Lithuanian and Russian Gediminovich princes who originally owned the Trubetskoy principality.
The bulk of the Decembrists were precisely “Poles”, and Constantine was the Tsar of Poland, don’t forget about it!
Well, one more small nuance - the temple in Moscow opposite the Senate, everyone knows it...
The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Moat (Pokrovsky Cathedral, colloquially - St. Basil's Cathedral) is an Orthodox church on Red Square in Moscow, a well-known monument of Russian architecture. Until the 17th century it was called Trinity, since the original wooden church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It was also known as “Jerusalem”, which is associated both with the dedication of one of its chapels and with the procession of the cross to it from the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin on Palm Sunday with the “procession on the donkey” of the Patriarch.

By a strange coincidence, there is a surprisingly similar temple in St. Petersburg!

True, it has to do with blood, but it’s royal blood, and strangely, the same thing applies to Alexander, but this time the second! The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on the Blood, or the Church of the Savior on the Blood in St. Petersburg - an Orthodox memorial single-altar church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ; built in memory of the fact that at this place on March 1, 1881, Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded as a result of an assassination attempt (the expression on the blood indicates the blood of the king). The temple was built as a monument to the martyr tsar using funds raised throughout Russia.
The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ is dedicated to Alexander the Second, and it was built by Alexander the Third!

I’m just collecting information, comparing, trying to systematize, looking for contradictions and coincidences, but the topic is too interesting!
After all, Alexander the first, as it were, did not completely die, but there are stories that he was resurrected in the form of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich and did not just sink into oblivion, but was noted - Fyodor Kuzmich was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1984 as a member of the Council of Siberian Saints for his asceticism.

We need to dig deeper! for at least two hundred years, to plunge into the “time of troubles” when the Poles Gideminovich took Moscow!