In politics, as in all public life, not to move forward means to be thrown back.

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich

The Decembrist uprising on Senate Square took place on December 14, 1825 in St. Petersburg. This was one of the first well-organized uprisings in the Russian Empire. It was directed against the strengthening of the power of the autocracy, as well as against the enslavement of ordinary people. The revolutionaries promoted an important political thesis of that era - the abolition of serfdom.

Background to the 1825 uprising

Even during the life of Alexander 1, revolutionary movements in Russia actively worked to create conditions that would limit the power of the autocrat. This movement was quite massive and was preparing to carry out a coup at the moment of weakening of the monarchy. The imminent death of Emperor Alexander 1 forced the conspirators to become more active and begin their performance earlier than planned.

This was facilitated by the difficult political situation within the Empire. As you know, Alexander 1 did not have children, which means that difficulty with an heir was inevitable. Historians talk about a secret document according to which the elder brother of the murdered ruler, Konstantin Pavlovich, long ago abandoned the throne. There was only one heir - Nikolai. The problem was that on November 27, 1825, the population of the country swore an oath to Constantine, who formally became emperor from that day, although he himself did not accept any authority to govern the country. Thus, situations arose in the Russian Empire when there was no actual ruler. As a result, the Decembrists became more active, realizing that they would no longer have such an opportunity. That is why the Decembrist uprising of 1825 happened on Senate Square, in the capital of the country. The day chosen for this was also significant - December 14, 1825, the day when the whole country had to swear allegiance to the new ruler, Nicholas.

What was the plan of the Decembrist uprising?

The ideological inspirers of the Decembrist uprising were the following people:

• Alexander Muravyov - the creator of the union
• Sergei Trubetskoy
• Nikita Muravyov
• Ivan Yakushin
• Pavel Pestel
• Kondraty Ryleev
• Nikolai Kakhovsky

There were other active participants in secret societies who took an active part in the coup, but it was these people who were the leaders of the movement. The general plan of their actions on December 14, 1825 was as follows - to prevent the Russian armed forces, as well as state authorities, represented by the Senate, from taking the oath of allegiance to Emperor Nicholas. For these purposes, it was planned to do the following: capture the Winter Palace and the entire royal family. This would transfer power into the hands of the rebels. Sergei Trubetskoy was appointed head of the operation.

In the future, the secret societies planned to create a new government, adopt the country's constitution and proclaim democracy in Russia. In fact, it was about creating a republic, from which the entire royal family was to be expelled. Some Decembrists went even further in their plans and proposed killing everyone related to the ruling dynasty.

Decembrist uprising of 1825, December 14

The Decembrist uprising began in the early morning of December 14th. However, initially everything did not go as they planned and the leaders of the secret movements had to improvise. It all started with the fact that Kakhovsky, who had previously confirmed that he was ready to enter Nikolai’s chambers early in the morning and kill him, refused to do so. After the first local failure, a second one followed. This time Yakubovich, who was supposed to send troops to storm the Winter Palace, also refused to do so.

It was too late to retreat. Early in the morning, the Decembrists sent their agitators to the barracks of all units in the capital, who called on the soldiers to go to Senate Square and oppose the autocracy in Russia. As a result, it was possible to bring to the square:

• 800 soldiers of the Moscow Regiment
• 2350 sailors of the Guards crew

By the time the rebels were brought to the square, the senators had already taken the oath to the new emperor. This happened at 7 o'clock in the morning. Such haste was necessary because Nicholas was warned that a major uprising was expected against him in order to disrupt the oath.

The Decembrist uprising on the senatorial square began with the fact that the troops opposed the candidacy of the emperor, believing that Constantine had more rights to the throne. Mikhail Miloradovich personally came out to the rebels. This is a famous man, a general in the Russian army. He called on the soldiers to leave the square and return to the barracks. He personally showed a manifesto in which Constantine renounced the throne, which means that the current emperor has all the rights to the throne. At this time, one of the Decembrists, Kokhovsky, approached Miloradovich and shot him. The general died that same day.

After these events, the Horse Guards, commanded by Alexey Orlov, were sent to attack the Decembrists. Twice this commander tried unsuccessfully to suppress the rebellion. The situation was aggravated by the fact that ordinary residents who shared the views of the rebels came to the Senate Square. In total, the total number of Decembrists numbered several tens of thousands. There was real madness going on in the center of the capital. The tsarist troops hastily prepared crews for the evacuation of Nicholas and his family to Tsarskoye Selo.

Emperor Nicholas hurried his generals to resolve the issue before nightfall. He was afraid that the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square would be taken up by the mob and other cities. Such mass participation could cost him the throne. As a result, artillery was brought to Senate Square. Trying to avoid mass casualties, General Sukhozanet gave the order to shoot with blanks. This did not give any results. Then the Emperor of the Russian Empire personally gave the order to shoot with combat and grapeshot. However, at the initial stage this only aggravated the situation, as the rebels returned fire. After this, a massive attack was carried out on the area, which sowed panic and forced the revolutionaries to flee.

Consequences of the 1825 uprising

By the night of December 14, the excitement was over. Many of the uprising activists were killed. Senate Square itself was littered with corpses. State archives provide the following data on those killed on both sides that day:

• Generals – 1
• Staff officers – 1
• Officers of various ranks – 17
• Life Guard soldiers - 282
• Common soldiers – 39
• Women – 79
• Children – 150
• Ordinary people – 903

The total number of victims is simply enormous. Never before has Russia seen such mass movements. In total, the Decembrist uprising of 1805, which took place on Senate Square, cost the lives of 1,271 people.

In addition, on the night of December 14, 1825, Nicholas issues a decree on the arrest of the most active participants in the movement. As a result, 710 people were sent to prison. Initially, everyone was taken to the Winter Palace, where the emperor personally led the investigation into this case.

The Decembrist uprising of 1825 was the first major popular movement. Its failures lay in the fact that it was largely spontaneous in nature. The organization of the uprising was weak, and the involvement of the masses in it was practically non-existent. As a result, only the small number of Decembrists allowed the Emperor to suppress the rebellion in a short time. However, this was the first signal that there was an active movement against the government in the country.

History knows many uprisings and coups. Some of them ended successfully, while others ended tragically for the conspirators. The Decembrist uprising, which occurred on December 14, 1825, falls precisely into the second category. Rebellious nobles challenged the existing order. Their goal was the abolition of royal power and the abolition of serfdom. But the plans of supporters of political reforms were not realized. The conspiracy was mercilessly suppressed, and its participants were severely punished. The reason for the failure was that Russia was not yet ready for fundamental changes. The rebels were ahead of their time, and this is never forgiven.

Causes of the Decembrist uprising

The Patriotic War of 1812 is notable for its massive patriotic upsurge. All segments of the population stood up to defend the fatherland. The peasants, shoulder to shoulder with the nobles, crushed the French. For the upper class this was a complete surprise, since they considered the Russian people dense and ignorant, incapable of high noble impulses. Practice has proven that this is not so. After this, the opinion began to prevail among the nobility that ordinary people deserved a better life.

Russian troops visited Europe. Soldiers and officers saw very closely the life of the French, Germans, and Austrians and were convinced that they lived better and more prosperous than the Russian people, and they had more freedoms. The conclusion suggested itself: autocracy and serfdom are to blame. It is these two components that prevent a great country from developing both economically and spiritually.

The progressive thoughts of Western Enlightenment philosophers were also of considerable importance. The socio-philosophical views of Rousseau, who was a supporter of direct democracy, enjoyed enormous authority. The minds of the Russian nobles were also greatly influenced by the views of Montesquieu and Rousseau's follower, the Swiss philosopher Weiss. These people proposed more progressive forms of government compared to the monarchy.

It should also be noted that Alexander I did not seek to radically change anything in his domestic policy. He tried to implement reforms, but they were extremely inconsistent. In words, the emperor advocated for the freedom of the peasants, but in practice nothing was done to abolish serfdom.

All these factors were the reason why the opposition arose first, and then the uprising came. And even though it was defeated, it left an indelible mark in the minds of the Russian people.

The opposition movement originated in the Russian Empire in 1814

The origins of the opposition movement in Russia

One of the first organizations that set as its goal a radical change in the existing system was " Order of Russian Knights". Its creators were Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov (1788-1842) and Major General Matvey Aleksandrovich Dmitriev-Mamonov (1790-1863). These people advocated a constitutional monarchy and in 1814 united like-minded people into a secret organization.

In 1816 it was created " Salvation Union"It was organized by guards officers. The leader among them was Muravyov Alexander Nikolaevich (1792-1863). Together with him, the founders were Sergey Petrovich Trubetskoy (1790-1860), Muravyov-Apostol Sergey Ivanovich (1796-1826), Muravyov-Apostol Matvey Ivanovich (1793-1886).The society also included Pavel Ivanovich Pestel (1793-1826) and Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov (1795-1843).

One of the members of the Union of Salvation, Mikhail Sergeevich Lunin (1787-1845), was the first to put forward the idea of ​​​​assassinating the Russian sovereign. Many officers opposed this proposal. They proposed their own program for the reconstruction of society, which excluded violence. These fundamental differences ultimately led to the collapse of the organization.

In 1818, instead of the Order of Russian Knights and the Union of Salvation, a single and larger organization was created called " Welfare Union". Its goal was the abolition of serfdom and constitutional government. But the secret society soon ceased to be secret and was dissolved in 1821.

Instead, two more well-covered organizations appeared. This " Northern society", headed by Nikita Muravyov and " Southern Society". It was headed by Pavel Pestel. The first society was located in St. Petersburg, and the second in Kyiv. Thus, a base was created for opposition action. All that remained was to choose the right time. And soon the circumstances turned out favorably for the conspirators.

On the eve of the uprising

In November 1825, Emperor Alexander I died in Taganrog. This sad event happened on November 19th. In St. Petersburg they learned about the death of the sovereign a week later. The autocrat had no sons. His wife bore him only two daughters. But they lived very little. Daughter Maria died in 1800, and daughter Elizabeth died in 1808. Thus, there were no direct heirs to the royal throne.

A new law on succession to the throne was issued by order of Paul I in 1797. He forbade women from sitting on the Russian throne. But the men were given the green light. Therefore, the wife of the deceased sovereign, Elizaveta Alekseevna, had no rights to the crown. But the Russian Tsar’s brothers had all the rights to the throne.

The second brother was Konstantin Pavlovich (1779-1831). It was he who had full right to the imperial crown. But the heir to the throne married the Polish Countess Grudzinskaya. This marriage was considered morganatic, and, therefore, children born in it could not inherit the royal crown. In 1823, Constantine renounced all rights to the throne. However, only Alexander I knew about this.

After the death of the sovereign, the whole country swore allegiance to Constantine. They even managed to mint 5 ruble coins with his profile. The third brother Nikolai Pavlovich (1796-1855) also swore allegiance to the new emperor. But Constantine did not accept the throne and at the same time did not formally renounce it. Thus, an interregnum began in the country.

It didn't last long. Already on December 10, it became known that the entire country would have to swear allegiance to another emperor, that is, Nicholas I. Members of the Northern Society decided to take advantage of this situation.

Under the pretext of refusing to re-oath and allegiance to Constantine, the conspirators decided to revolt. The main thing for them was to attract the troops with them, and then they planned to arrest the royal family and publish the manifesto. It would announce to the people the creation of a Provisional Government and the approval of a new constitution. After this, it was planned to convene the Constituent Assembly. It was they who had to decide on the further form of government. It could be either a constitutional monarchy or a republic.

The rebel officers also elected a dictator. It became Guards Colonel Sergei Trubetskoy. It was he who was supposed to lead the country until the end of the Constituent Assembly. But in this case, the choice turned out to be unsuccessful, since the elected leader was extremely indecisive. But be that as it may, the performance was scheduled for December 14th. On this day everyone had to swear allegiance to the new emperor.

Decembrists go to Senate Square

Chronology of the uprising

On the eve of the scheduled date, the conspirators gathered for the last time at Ryleev’s apartment. It was decided to take the regiments to Senate Square and force the Senate to announce the fall of the monarchy and the introduction of constitutional government. The Senate was considered the most authoritative body in the country, so it was decided to act through it, since in this case the rebellion would take on a legal character.

Early in the morning of December 14, officers went to military units stationed in the capital and began campaigning among the soldiers, urging them not to swear allegiance to Nicholas I, but to remain loyal to the legitimate heir to the throne, Constantine. By 11 o'clock, the Guards Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, and the Guards Naval Crew entered Senate Square. In total, approximately 3 thousand soldiers and officers gathered on the square. The rebels lined up in a square near the monument to Peter I.

All further actions depended on the chosen leader Trubetskoy, but he did not appear, and the conspirators were left without leadership. However, it was not only that. They began to swear allegiance to the new emperor at 7 am, and the rebel regiments only finally gathered on Senate Square and lined up at 1 pm. No one made an attempt to capture the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Winter Palace and the Senate building.

Rebels or Decembrists, as they were later called, simply stood and waited for additional military forces to approach them. Meanwhile, many ordinary people gathered in the square. They expressed complete sympathy for the rebel guards. But they did not call on these people to stand next to them or provide assistance in any other way.

The new emperor decided to first enter into negotiations with the Decembrists. He sent to them the first person of St. Petersburg - Governor General Miloradovich Mikhail Andreevich. But peace negotiations did not work out. First, the parliamentarian was wounded with a bayonet by Prince Evgeniy Obolensky, and then Pyotr Kakhovsky shot at the governor. As a result of this shot, Miloradovich was mortally wounded and died on the same day.

After this, Kakhovsky mortally wounded the commander of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment Nikolai Sturler and another officer, but did not dare to shoot at the emperor, who was in the distance. He did not shoot at the church ministers, who also came to persuade the rebels to surrender. These were Metropolitan Seraphim and Metropolitan Eugene. The soldiers simply drove them away with shouts.

Meanwhile, cavalry and infantry units were drawn up to Senate Square. In total, they numbered about 12 thousand people. The cavalry went on the attack, but the rebels opened rapid rifle fire on the horsemen. But they did not shoot at people, but above their heads. The cavalrymen acted extremely indecisively. They clearly expressed soldier solidarity.

While there was a semblance of battle in the square, artillery was brought up. The cannons fired blank charges, but this made no impression on the rebels. The situation remained extremely uncertain, and daylight was running out. At dusk, a revolt of the common people could begin, who gathered in huge numbers near Senate Square.

Russian Emperor Nicholas I

At this time, the emperor decided to shoot at the rebels with grapeshot, and the Decembrist uprising entered its final phase. The cannons fired straight into the midst of the soldiers and officers standing in the square. Several shots were fired. The wounded and dead began to fall, the rest began to scatter. Not only the rebels fled, but also onlookers who were watching the uprising from the sidelines.

The bulk of the people rushed onto the Neva ice to get to Vasilyevsky Island. However, they opened fire on the ice with cannonballs. The ice crust began to crack, and many of the runners drowned in the icy water. By 6 p.m., Senate Square was cleared of the rebels. Only the wounded and dead remained lying on it, as well as on the Neva ice.

Special teams were formed, and they removed the bodies until the morning, by the light of the fires. Many wounded were lowered under the ice so as not to have to deal with them. A total of 1,270 people died. Of these, 150 were children and 80 women who simply came to watch the uprising.

Uprising of the Chernigov Regiment

The Decembrist uprising continued in the south of Russia under the leadership of members of the Southern Society. The Chernigov regiment was stationed near the city of Vasilkov, 30 km from Kyiv. On December 29, 1825, he rebelled. The rebel companies were led by Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol. On December 30, the rebels entered Vasilkov and captured the regiment headquarters with weapons and treasury. Second Lieutenant Bestuzhev-Ryumin Mikhail Pavlovich (1801-1826) became the first assistant manager.

On December 31, the rebel regiment entered Motovilovka. Here the soldiers were introduced to the "Orthodox Catechism" - the program of the rebels. It was written in the form of questions and answers. It clearly explained why it was necessary to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. But all this did not cause much enthusiasm among the soldiers. But the lower ranks began to drink alcohol in unlimited quantities with pleasure. Almost all the personnel were drunk.

Meanwhile, troops were deployed to the area of ​​the uprising. Muravyov-Apostol sent his regiment towards Zhitomir. But the forced march ended in complete failure. On January 3, not far from the village of Ustinovka, a detachment of tsarist troops blocked the road for the rebels. Artillery fire was opened on the rebels with grapeshot. Muravyov-Apostol was wounded in the head. He was captured, arrested and taken in shackles to St. Petersburg. This ended the uprising of the Chernigov regiment.

After the uprising

An investigation began in January. In total, 579 people were involved in the case. Moreover, investigative commissions were created in many regiments. 289 people were found guilty. Of these, 173 people were convicted. The most severe punishment was received by 5 conspirators: Pavel Pestel, Kondraty Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Pyotr Kakhovsky. The court sentenced them to death by quartering. But then this terrible punishment was replaced by hanging.

31 people were sentenced to indefinite hard labor. 37 rebels were given various sentences of hard labor. 19 people were exiled to Siberia, and 9 officers were demoted to privates. The rest were imprisoned for a period of 1 to 4 years or sent to the Caucasus to join the active army. Thus ended the Decembrist uprising, which left an indelible mark on Russian history.

The events that took place in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825 and later called the “Decembrist uprising” were planned and took place as a classic “chamber palace coup”, but in terms of their goals and objectives they were not a palace coup. Having escaped the control of its initiators, the uprising suffered a large number of accidental casualties that could have been avoided. It aggravated the split in noble society that had emerged since the War of 1812, causing a government reaction in almost all areas of the country’s cultural, political and social life.

Neither the “Northern” nor the “Southern” Decembrist society, as is known, had either a clear program or any agreed-upon ideas about what they would do in the event of a successful outcome of their dangerous enterprise. According to Muravyov’s “constitution,” the parliamentary monarchy and large landownership were to be preserved. Pestel's program (“Russian Truth”) included demands for the establishment of a republic and the transfer of land into communal ownership. They agreed on only one thing - the abolition of serfdom.

At first, the Decembrists themselves declared that the protest would be peaceful. His only goal is to attract the attention of the future king to the problem of serfdom. But, as is clear from the revelations of the surviving Decembrists many years later, it was planned to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new tsar, declaring the “destruction of the former government” and the establishment of the Provisional Revolutionary Government. 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. If the Senate did not agree to publish the people's manifesto, it was decided to force it to do so. The rebel troops were to occupy the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress. The royal family was to be arrested, and the king himself (if necessary) was to be killed. A dictator, Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, was elected to lead the uprising. For regicide - retired lieutenant P.G. Kakhovsky.

The fashionable word “revolution,” which entered the vocabulary of the Russian nobility thanks to the influx of emigrants from revolutionary France and the War of 1812, was on the tip of their tongues, but did not fit into the general concept of the planned actions. The plan of the uprising itself, as we see, is too reminiscent of the scenario of an ordinary palace or “military” coup. These were carried out successfully and almost every year both in Russia in the 18th century and in other European countries (for example, Spain or Portugal).

Let's get down to the facts. Absolutely nothing of what was specified in the “revolutionary” plans was done during the uprising. The main conspirators (Ryleev and Trubetskoy) actually refused to participate in the speech. Dictator Trubetskoy (intentionally or not?) slept through the main action and appeared on the square, as they say, “for a preliminary examination.” The rebels did not occupy any palaces or fortresses, but simply stood in place, lined up in a “square” and listened to the persuasion of the generals sent to them. Instead of abolishing serfdom and introducing rights and freedoms, the soldiers were ordered to shout “Emperor Konstantin Pavlovich and the Constitution” (“Who is the Constitution?” - “Must be the wife of Constantine. The Queen, therefore.”). The Decembrists did not consider it necessary to involve the direct perpetrators of the rebellion in their plans. Even if it occurred to them to do this, they would not have met with either understanding or sympathy even among the guards officers. During the rebellion, there were many opportunities to arrest or kill the future Tsar Nicholas I. He himself was present in the square and did not hide from anyone. However, no attempts were made to do this. P.G. Kakhovsky, appointed “regicide,” mortally wounded the hero of the War of 1812, General Miloradovich, and the commander of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, Sturler, but did not dare to kill the future tsar.

This time the conspirators were unlucky. Piercing the future tsar in the throat with a fork or hitting him on the head with a snuffbox in the dark chambers of the Winter Palace would have been much easier than starting an uprising, but having breathed the air of freedom in the foreign campaign of 1813, the conspirators, inspired by Western ideas, did not look for easy ways. Moreover, for a long time it was unclear: who would have to be killed? After the mysterious death of Alexander I, the Grand Dukes Constantine and Nicholas started a comedy with mutual renunciations in favor of each other. For more than a month they tossed the Russian throne at each other like a ball in a children's game. After much debate, the Senate recognized the rights of Nikolai Pavlovich, who was unpopular among the military-bureaucratic circles, and the Decembrists did not fail to take advantage of this confusion.

In the person of the new emperor, the Decembrists encountered a decisive and tough guards colonel. Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich was neither a weak woman nor a beautiful-hearted liberal. The future tsar was informed in advance about their plans and knew no worse than other guards officers how to deal with the rebels.

Troops who swore allegiance to the new emperor quickly surrounded the rebels. Nicholas I, having recovered from the initial confusion, himself led them. Guards artillery appeared from 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 the emperor ordered a few more shots to be fired along the narrow Galerny Lane and across the Neva, where the bulk of the crowd of curious people headed. As a result of the rebellion, 1271 people died, of which 39 were in tailcoats and greatcoats, 9 were women, 19 were young children and 903 were mobs.

Pre-revolutionary historiography gave the December uprising an ambiguous assessment. Representatives of the so-called “noble” historiography (Bogdanovich, Schilder, etc.) called it both a rebellion and an unsuccessful attempt at a “palace coup,” but often simply kept silent.

The civil courage and self-sacrifice of the Decembrists aroused great respect in the democratic circles of the Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century. Historians of the bourgeois-liberal school (Pypin, Kornilov, Pavlov-Silvansky, Dovnar-Zapolsky, Klyuchevsky, etc.) paid a lot of attention to them. The Decembrist movement also found a response in the serious works of Prof. Semevsky, who wrote about them with a populist tint. “They were terribly far from the people,” but Russian educated society traditionally considered the Decembrists victims of tyranny and violence, openly calling them “the conscience of the nation.” Nobleman N.A. Nekrasov considered it his duty to devote two poems to these “heroes” (“Grandfather” and “Russian Women”).

The founder of Marxism in Russia, Plekhanov, dedicated a special speech on the day of the 75th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising in 1900, in which he analyzed in detail the nature of this movement.

Of the total mass of enthusiastic populist-Marxist apologies for the Decembrist movement, only the novel by symbolist D.S., written in 1918, stands out. Merezhkovsky “December 14th”. This is the view of a man who experienced all the horrors of the revolution and civil war in Russia, who observed with his own eyes “the experience of the practical embodiment of the Kingdom of God on earth as in Heaven.”

With the light hand of V.I. Lenin, in all subsequent historiography of the Soviet period (M.N. Pokrovsky, Presnyakov, M.V. Nechkina, N.M. Druzhinin, Syroechkovsky, Aksenov, Porokh, Pigarev, etc.) the December uprising of 1825 was usually associated with the beginning of the “revolutionary movement” in Russia.

In his article “In Memory of Herzen,” which was once memorized in all Soviet schools, the leader of the world proletariat identified three stages of the revolutionary movement in Russia. His phrase that “the Decembrists woke Herzen” became the talk of the town and the seed for a mass of popular jokes.

But what was the “revolutionary nature” of the Decembrists’ speech? Historians still argue to this day. The highest grant of civil liberties, the abolition of serfdom and the implementation of land reform - the main ideas expressed by the Decembrists were in the air back in the times of Catherine II and Alexander I.

With their attempt at a “coup,” the Decembrists frightened and decisively pushed the authorities away from even thinking about the possibility of their implementation. The energetic “tightening of the screws” that followed the December uprising did not positively change anything in the life of the country. On the contrary, it threw Russia back several decades, artificially slowing down the natural historical process. The “Nicholas reaction” contributed to the implementation of the incompetent foreign and domestic policies of the 1830s and 40s, predetermining the subsequent defeat of Russia in the Crimean War. She allowed Herzen, awakened by the Decembrists, to ring the “Bell” and lead the best part of Russian society with him. We still hear the echoes of this bloody alarm to this day...

Decembrist revolt- a well-known political speech by young representatives of the nobility with the aim of changing the political system. Before the Decembrists, only spontaneous peasant revolts occurred in Russia, caused mainly by oppression from the landowners. The peasants, as a disenfranchised class, could no longer express their discontent.

Decembrist movement- an attempt by representatives of the nobility, mainly officers of the guard and navy, to carry out a coup d'etat in the first quarter of the 19th century. The uprising took place in December 1825 and was unsuccessful.

Prerequisites for the uprising

The main prerequisite for the uprising was the dynastic crisis that occurred after the death of Alexander I. The emperor died suddenly in November 1825 in Taganrog while traveling around the country. Alexander had no sons, so his brother Grand Duke Constantine, the governor of the Kingdom of Poland, was considered the heir. Back in 1822, he renounced the Russian throne, but this document was not made public, which is why the country swore allegiance to Konstantin Pavlovich after Alexander’s death. After the situation with the throne became clear, a “re-oath” was appointed for Alexander I’s younger brother Nicholas.

Causes of the Decembrist uprising

This uprising did not happen spontaneously. Due to the imperfection of the political system, problems accumulated in the country over many years, which became the causes of the Decembrist uprising.

Main reasons:

1. autocratic-serf system;
2. the impact of the ideas of European and Russian enlighteners on the nobles;
3. the results of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the results of the foreign campaign of the Russian army;
4. revolutionary actions in European countries.

The advanced nobility of the first half of the 19th century did not support the policy of Alexander I towards the peasants; they did not like the fact that powerless people were influenced only by force. Influenced by ideas about equality and democracy, Russian nobles wanted to rid Russia of serfdom. The teachings of J. Locke, D. Diderot, and C. Montesquieu had a particular influence. Among the Russian enlighteners, N.I. Novikov and A.N. Radishchev especially stood out.

As a result of the Patriotic War of 1812, an anti-serfdom movement arose in Russia, due to the fact that by that time there were no longer disenfranchised classes in Europe. The progressive nobility also wanted to bring Russia closer to Europe in this regard.

But another result of the Patriotic War was the strengthening of the conservative direction in domestic policy, which assumed the preservation of the existing status.

Patriotic upsurge and growth of self-awareness also became one of the reasons for the uprising.

Uprising plan

The conspirators developed a plan according to which the uprising was to take place. The organizers sought to prevent the oath of office to Nicholas I.

Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy was elected head of the uprising.

Diagram: Disposition of troops on Senator's Square.

Why did the uprising happen on December 14, 1825?

The organizers chose the date of the riot for a reason. It was decided to carry out the uprising on December 14 because it was on this day that the oath to Nicholas I was scheduled.

Participants of the uprising

The ideas and motives of the conspirators were well accepted in the upper echelons of society, by politicians and the nobility. Participants of the uprising:

1. S. P. Trubetskoy,
2. I. D. Yakushkin,
3. A.N. Muravyov,
4. N. M. Muravyov,
5. M. S. Lunin,
6. P. I. Pestel,
7. P. G. Kakhovsky,
8. K. F. Ryleev,
9. N. A. Bestuzhev,
10. S. G. Volkonsky,
11. M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin.

The participants belonged to communities, also called “artels”. In 1816, the Salvation Union was formed from the merger of the “Sacred” and “Semyonovsky Regiment” artels. Creator - A. Muravyov. Trubetskoy, Yakushkin, N. Muravyov and Pestel became members of the Salvation Union. In the fall of 1817, the organization was dissolved due to disagreements on the issue of regicide among the participants.

A new secret society was created in Moscow in January 1818 - the Union of Welfare. The number of participants was about 200 people. It existed until 1821.

Northern and Southern societies were of utmost importance in the events of 1825.

Progress of the uprising

The uprising of the conspirators began with a speech by the Northern Society on Senate Square in St. Petersburg on the morning of December 14, 1825. The Decembrists immediately faced unforeseen problems: Nikolai Kakhovsky had previously agreed to kill Alexander I, but at the last moment changed his mind; Alexander Yakubovich, responsible for the seizure of the Winter Palace, refused to storm it.

In this situation, the Decembrists began to agitate the soldiers to overthrow the autocracy. This led to the fact that 2,350 sailors of the Guards crew and 800 soldiers of the Moscow regiment were able to be brought to Senate Square.

The rebels found themselves on the square in the morning, but the oath had already been taken, and Nicholas I accepted the powers of the emperor secretly at 7 o'clock in the morning. Nicholas managed to gather about 12,000 government troops against the rebel troops.

On the part of the government, Mikhail Miloradovich conducted a dialogue with the rebels, and on the part of the conspirators, Yevgeny Obolensky. Obolensky convinced Miloradovich to withdraw his troops and, observing the lack of reaction on his part, decided to wound him with a bayonet in the side. At that moment, Kakhovsky shot at Miloradovich.

They tried to bring the rebels into obedience, but twice they repelled the attack of the horse guards. The number of victims is 200-300 people. The corpses of the dead and the bodies of the wounded conspirators were thrown into ice holes in the Neva.

After the Southern Society learned that the performance in St. Petersburg had failed, an uprising of the Chernigov regiment occurred in Ukraine (December 29-January 3). This revolt also turned out to be unsuccessful.

Suppression of the uprising

To suppress the uprising, they decided to fire a blank volley, which had no effect. Then they fired buckshot, and the square dissipated. The second salvo increased the number of corpses of the conspirators' troops. These measures managed to suppress the rebellion.

Trial of the Decembrists

The trial of the conspirators took place secretly from the public. The commission of inquiry into this case was headed by the emperor himself.

On July 13, 1826, five conspirators were hanged in the Peter and Paul Fortress: Ryleev, Pestel, Kakhovsky, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Muravyov-Apostol. 121 rioters were brought before the Supreme Court. In total, 579 people were involved in the investigation, the vast majority of them military.

The remaining participants in the uprising were sent to hard labor and eternal settlement in Siberia, or demoted to soldiers and sent to the Caucasus.

Reasons for the defeat of the Decembrists

The main reasons for the failure of the uprising were:

1. Inconsistency in the actions of the conspirators, the passivity of the rebels in their actions;
2. Narrow social base (nobility - a small class);
3. A bad conspiracy, because of which the plans of the rebels became known to the emperor;
4. Unpreparedness of the nobles for changes in the political structure;
5. Weak propaganda and agitation.

Consequences of the 1825 uprising

The main consequence of the Decembrist uprising was the consolidation of ideas about freedom among the masses. The rebellion also increased the divergence between the nobility and the official authorities. A distant consequence of the Decembrist uprising was the overthrow of the tsarist government in 1917.

The consequences of the riot include the fact that this event was reflected in many works of literature.

It is worth noting that the secret investigation hid all the results of the investigation from the people. It was not possible to establish for certain whether there was a plan to assassinate Nicholas I, whether there was a connection with other secret societies, or whether Speransky was involved in these events.

Victims

The number of victims is approximately 200-300 people. Nikolai Pavlovich ordered to hide traces of what had happened as soon as possible, so the dead and wounded who could not move were thrown into the ice hole in the Neva. The wounded who were able to escape hid their wounds from doctors and died without medical attention.

Historical significance of the Decembrist movement

The Decembrist uprising greatly influenced the further development of the country. First of all, this speech showed that there are social problems in Russia and that they need to be solved. The peasantry, as a powerless class, could not influence their lives in any way. And even if the riot was not well organized, it could show the presence of “old” problems.

The Decembrist movement was the first open attempt by noble revolutionaries to change the political system of the country and abolish serfdom.

One of his contemporaries (they believed: Pushkin himself) wrote this about Alexander I, having learned that the tsar, who after St. Petersburg and Moscow, Paris and London, Berlin and Vienna, had visited the provincial Russian town of Taganrog, died there suddenly on November 19, 1825 :

Spent my whole life on the road,
And he died in Taganrog...

His death led to a dynastic crisis, an interregnum that lasted 25 days, until December 14.

Since Alexander I died childless, his next brother Constantine should have become king (according to the law of succession to the throne of 1797). But he had long ago made a vow to himself “not to climb onto the throne” (“they will strangle you, like they strangled your father”). In 1820, he entered into a morganatic marriage with the Polish Countess Zh. Grudzinskaya, thereby cutting off his path to the throne. Alexander, convinced that his brother preferred a non-royal wife to the royal scepter, on August 16, 1823, with a special manifesto, deprived Constantine of his rights to the throne and declared the next of the brothers, Nicholas, heir. Alexander I hid this manifesto in the Assumption Cathedral, where it was kept in deep secrecy until the death of the king. This is where the whole fuss of the interregnum caught fire.

As soon as St. Petersburg learned of the death of Alexander I, the authorities and troops began to swear allegiance to Constantine. On November 27, Nikolai swore allegiance to him. Constantine, for his part, swore allegiance to Nicholas. A race of couriers began from St. Petersburg to Warsaw, where Konstantin lived as governor of Poland, and back. Nicholas asked Constantine to come to St. Petersburg and sit on the throne. Konstantin refused. “They offer the crown like tea, but no one /91/ wants it,” they joked in St. Petersburg. In the end, Nicholas decided to become king and scheduled the oath of office for December 14th.

This was the “current moment” then. He favored the uprising, but the Decembrists were not yet ready to act. It was impossible to postpone the speech: the Decembrists learned that the government knew about the existence and even the composition of secret societies and was preparing to deal with them. Denunciations against the Decembrists had been received by Alexander I since May 1821. The most detailed of them was received in Taganrog on December 1, 1825, after the death of the tsar. The informer is a member of the Southern Society, Captain A.I. Mayboroda - named 46 names of the most active conspirators, including the entire composition of the southern Directory and northern Duma.

The Decembrists were well informed about what was happening at court and in the government: one of them (S. G. Krasnokutsky) was the chief prosecutor of the Senate, the other (A. I. Yakubovich) was friends with the St. Petersburg Governor General M.A. Miloradovich, and G.S. Batenkov enjoyed the trust of the most authoritative and knowledgeable member of the government, M.M. Speransky. Having learned that the re-oath was scheduled for December 14, the members of the Northern Society decided: they could not delay any longer. On December 10 they elected "by vote" dictator uprising of the Colonel of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, Prince. S.P. Trubetskoy, and on the evening of the 13th they gathered in K.F.’s apartment. Ryleev for the last meeting. Ryleev said: “The scabbard is broken, and the sabers cannot be hidden.” Everyone agreed with him. It was decided to perform the next morning without fail.

What was the plan for the uprising on December 14, 1825? What slogans did the Decembrists march to Senate Square with?

On the eve of the uprising, members of the Northern Society drew up a new program document - “Manifesto to the Russian People.” Its author was Trubetskoy. The “Manifesto” proclaimed the Decembrists’ goal to overthrow the autocracy and eliminate serfdom. Following the victory of the uprising, it was planned to create a Provisional Government of 2-3 persons, which included M.M. Speransky and Senator N.S. Mordvinov, and among the members of the secret society - Speransky’s secretary G.S. Batenkov. The provisional government was supposed to prepare by the spring of 1826 the convening of the Constituent Assembly (the “Great Council”), and the council would decide the two main questions of the revolution: how to replace the autocracy (with a republic or a constitutional monarchy) and how to free the peasants - with or without land. Thus, the Manifesto left the main questions open, which /92/ speaks of his compromising nature. Moderates and radicals did not have time to coordinate their positions at the time of the uprising and postponed disputes until the Great Council, relying on its will.

The tactical plan of the uprising was as follows. The main forces of the rebels (Moscow, Finnish and Grenadier Life Guards regiments) led by dictator Trubetskoy were supposed to gather on Senate Square near the Senate building, prevent senators from taking the oath of office and force them (if necessary, by force of arms) to issue a "Manifesto to the Russian people" ". Meanwhile, other regiments (Izmailovsky and Guards Marine Crew) under the command of Captain A.I. Yakubovich would have captured the Winter Palace and arrested the royal family. Its fate would be decided by the Great Council depending on the new form of government: a republic (in which case the royal family would be expelled from Russia) or a constitutional monarchy (in which case executive power would be entrusted to the tsar). The plan for the uprising was based on the support of the southerners. On December 13, Trubetskoy sent a messenger to the Directory of the Southern Society with news of the impending uprising.

In total, in St. Petersburg, the Decembrists expected to raise six guards regiments numbering 6 thousand people. They thought this was enough to win. Some of them even hoped to avoid bloodshed, believing, as Ryleev said, that “the soldiers (of the government - N.T.) would not shoot at the soldiers, but, on the contrary, would join us, and everything would end quietly.” The people only had to taste the fruits of the uprising committed in their favor, and the Decembrists considered their sympathetic presence on Senate Square desirable. G.S. Batenkov said that “it is necessary to beat the drum, because this will gather the people.” In a word, an inactive people as the background of a revolution - such was the idea of ​​the military revolution of the Decembrists.

The uprising began on December 14 at about 11 am. The Decembrists brought three guards regiments (Moscow, Grenadier and Sea Crew) to Senate Square and here they learned that Nikolai Pavlovich swore in the Senate at dawn, at 7 o’clock. Moreover, A.I. Yakubovich, who was tasked with seizing the Winter Palace and arresting the royal family, unexpectedly refused to carry out the assignment, fearing a possible regicide. So the two main links in the plan of action for the rebels disappeared, new decisions had to be made on the spot, and the dictator Trubetskoy did not appear on the square. By that time, he realized that the uprising was doomed to death, and decided not to aggravate his own guilt, as well as the guilt of his comrades, by decisive actions. However, there is a version, coming from Nicholas I and penetrating into literature (even Soviet literature), that he was hiding nearby /93/ and looking out into the square from around the corner, waiting to see if more regiments would gather.

The Decembrists gathered 3 thousand soldiers on Senate Square. They lined up in a square around the monument to Peter the Great. Hardly many of them were aware of the political meaning of the uprising. Contemporaries with very different views told how the rebel soldiers shouted: “Hurray for the constitution!” - believing that this is the name of Konstantin Pavlovich’s wife. The Decembrists themselves, not having the opportunity or time for overt political agitation, led soldiers to the square in the name of the “legitimate” sovereign Constantine: “Having sworn allegiance to one sovereign, immediately swearing allegiance to another is a sin!” However, Constantine was desirable to the soldiers not in himself, but as a “good” (supposedly) king - the antipode to the “evil” (the whole guard knew this) Nicholas.

The mood in the square of rebels on Senate Square was cheerful and upbeat. Alexander Bestuzhev, in front of the soldiers, sharpened his saber on the granite of the monument to Peter. The rebels remained passive but steadfast. Even when there was only one Moscow regiment on the square, General Miloradovich, the hero of 1812, an associate of Suvorov and Kutuzov, tried to persuade the Muscovites to disperse and began an incendiary speech (and he knew how to talk to soldiers), but the Decembrist P.G. Kakhovsky shot him. Miloradovich’s attempt was repeated by Guard Commander A.L. Voinov, but also unsuccessfully, although this envoy got off cheaply: he was shell-shocked by a log thrown from a crowd of onlookers. Meanwhile, reinforcements approached the rebels. New attempts to persuade them to submit were made by the third of the brothers of Alexander I, Mikhail Pavlovich, and two metropolitans - St. Petersburg, Father Seraphim, and Kiev, Father Eugene. Each of them also had to flee. “What kind of metropolitan are you when you swore allegiance to two emperors in two weeks!” - the Decembrist soldiers shouted after the fleeing father. Seraphim.

In the afternoon, Nikolai Pavlovich threw the horse guard against the rebels, but the rebel square repelled several of its attacks with rifle fire. After this, Nicholas had only one means left, “ultima ratio regis,” as they say about this means in the West (“the last argument of kings”) - artillery.

By 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Nikolai had brought 12 thousand bayonets and sabers (four times more than the rebels) and 36 guns to the square. But his situation remained critical. The fact is that a large (20-30 thousand) crowd of people gathered around the square, at first they only observed both sides, not understanding what was happening (many thought: a training exercise), then they began /94/ to show sympathy for the rebels. Stones and logs, of which there were a great many near the building of St. Isaac's Cathedral that was then under construction, were thrown from the crowd into the government camp and its envoys.

Voices from the crowd asked the Decembrists to hold out until dark and promised to help. Decembrist A.E. Rosen recalled this: “Three thousand soldiers and ten times more people were ready to do anything at the behest of their superior.” But the boss was not there. Only at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon did the Decembrists choose - right there, on the square - a new dictator, also a prince, E.P. Obolensky. However, time had already been lost: Nicholas launched the “last argument of the kings.”

At the beginning of the 5th hour, he personally commanded: “Fire the guns in order! Start the right flank! First!..” To his surprise and fear, no shot was fired. "Why don't you shoot?" - Lieutenant I.M. attacked the right-flank gunner. Bakunin. “Yes, it’s our own, your honor!” - answered the soldier. The lieutenant snatched the fuse from him and fired the first shot himself. He was followed by a second, a third... The ranks of the rebels wavered and ran.

At 6 pm it was all over. They picked up the corpses of the rebels in the square. According to official figures there were 80, but this is clearly a reduced figure; Senator P.G. Divov counted 200 dead that day, Ministry of Justice official S.N. Korsakov - 1271, of which "rabble" - 903.

Late in the evening, participants in the uprising gathered at Ryleev’s for the last time. They agreed on how to behave during interrogations, and, having said goodbye to each other, went their separate ways - some went home, and some went straight to the Winter Palace: to surrender. The first to show up in the royal palace to confess was the one who was the first to come to Senate Square - Alexander Bestuzhev. Meanwhile, Ryleev sent a messenger to the South with the news that the uprising in St. Petersburg had been suppressed.

Before St. Petersburg had time to recover from the shock caused by December 14, it learned about the Decembrist uprising in the South. It turned out to be longer (from December 29, 1825 to January 3, 1826), but less dangerous for tsarism. By the beginning of the uprising, on December 13, based on Mayboroda’s denunciation, Pestel was arrested, and after him the entire Tulchin government. Therefore, the southerners were able to raise only the Chernigov regiment, which was headed by Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol - the second most important leader of Southern society, a man of rare intelligence, courage and charm, “Orpheus among the Decembrists” (as the historian G.I. Chulkov called him), their common favorite The commanders of other units, on whom /95/ the Decembrists were counting (General S.G. Volkonsky, Colonels A.Z. Muravyov, V.K. Tizengauzen, I.S. Povalo-Shveikovsky, etc.), did not support the Chernigovites, but the Decembrist M.I. Pykhachev, commander of a horse artillery company, betrayed his comrades and took part in suppressing the uprising. On January 3, in a battle near the village of Kovalevka, approximately 70 km southwest of Kyiv, the Chernigov regiment was defeated by government troops. Seriously wounded Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, his assistant M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and brother Matvey were taken prisoner (the third of the Muravyov-Apostolov brothers, Ippolit, who vowed to “win or die,” shot himself on the battlefield).

The reprisal against the Decembrists was carried out brutally. In total, according to the calculations of M.V. Nechkina, over 3 thousand rebels (500 officers and more than 2.5 thousand soldiers) were arrested. V.A. According to documents, Fedorov counted 316 arrested officers. The soldiers were beaten with spitzrutens (some to death), and then sent to penal companies. To deal with the main criminals, Nicholas I appointed a Supreme Criminal Court of 72 senior officials. He instructed M.M. to manage the work of the court. Speransky. This was the king's Jesuit move. After all, Speransky was under suspicion: among the Decembrists there were people close to him, including his secretary S.G. Batenkov, who paid the heaviest punishment of all the non-executed Decembrists (20 years in solitary confinement). The Tsar reasoned that Speransky, despite all his desire to be gentle, would be strict, because the slightest leniency towards the defendants on his part would be regarded as sympathy for the Decembrists and proof of his connection with them. The king's calculations were completely justified.

121 Decembrists were put on trial: 61 members of the Northern Society and 60 members of the Southern Society. Among them were the stars of the Russian titled nobility: 8 princes, 3 counts, 3 barons, 3 generals, 23 colonels or lieutenant colonels, and even the chief prosecutor of the Governing Senate. Of the major figures in the movement, only General M.F. was not convicted. Orlov - his brother Alexei, the tsar’s favorite, the future chief of the gendarmes, begged the tsar’s forgiveness (he seized the moment when he found himself in the church with the tsar, fell at his feet and, calling on all the saints for help, persuaded him to have mercy on his brother). Pardon M.F. Orlov surprised everyone, and shocked those close to the tsar. Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich at the coronation of Nicholas I approached A.F. Orlov and (to quote an eyewitness) “with his usual courtesy told him: “Well, thank God! Everything is fine. I'm glad my brother was crowned. It’s a pity that your brother wasn’t hanged!”

The behavior of the Decembrists during the investigation and trial, perhaps, somewhat brings them down in our eyes. M. Lunin behaved heroically, I. Pushchin, S. Muravyov-Apostol, N. Bestuzhev, I. Yakushkin, M. Orlov, A. Borisov, N. Panov behaved with dignity. /96/

However, almost everyone else (not excluding Pestel and Ryleev) repented and gave frank testimony, revealing even persons not identified by the investigation: Trubetskoy named 79 names, Obolensky - 71, Burtsev - 67, etc. Here, of course, there were objective reasons: “fragility,” as M.V. put it. Nechkin, noble revolutionism; lack of social support and experience in fighting the punitive power of the autocracy; a kind of code of noble honor, obliging the vanquished to humble themselves before the victorious sovereign. But, without a doubt, the subjective qualities of such different people also appeared here, such as, for example, Trubetskoy, instinctively devoted to honoring rank, and the daring, independent Lunin.

All defendants were divided into 11 categories of punishment: 1st (31 defendants) - to “cutting off the head”, 2nd - to eternal hard labor, etc.; 10th and 11th - to demotion to soldier. The court placed five out of rank and sentenced to quartering (replaced by hanging) - this is P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and the murderer of Miloradovich P.G. Kakhovsky. Of the entire court, only Senator N.S. Mordvinov (admiral, first naval minister of Russia) raised his voice against the death penalty for anyone, recording a dissenting opinion. Everyone else showed ruthlessness in trying to please the king. Even three clergy (two metropolitans and an archbishop), who, as Speransky assumed, “according to their rank will renounce the death penalty,” did not renounce the sentence of the five Decembrists to quartering.

Five were executed on July 13, 1826 on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The execution was carried out barbarously. Three - Ryleev, Muravyov-Apostol and Kakhovsky - fell from the gallows and were hanged a second time. Rising to the scaffold for the second time, Muravyov-Apostol allegedly said: “Unfortunate Russia! They don’t even know how to hang themselves properly...”

More than 100 Decembrists, after replacing “beheading” with hard labor, were exiled to Siberia and - demoted to rank and file - to the Caucasus to fight against the highlanders. Some of the Decembrists (Trubetskoy, Volkonsky, Nikita Muravyov and others) were voluntarily followed to hard labor by their wives - young aristocrats who had barely managed to get married: princesses, baronesses, generals, 12 in total. Three of them died in Siberia. The rest returned with their husbands 30 years later, having buried more than 20 of their children in Siberian soil. The feat of these women Decembrist, sung in the poems of N.A. Nekrasov and the Frenchman A. de Vigny.

The new Tsar Alexander II amnestied the Decembrists in 1856. By that time, out of 100 convicts in Siberia, only 40 survived. The rest died in hard labor and in exile.

Could the Decembrists have won? This question, first posed by Herzen, is still being discussed, and even today some historians (following Herzen) answer it positively, believing that the Decembrists “were not alone” and could rely on “a number of individuals and figures” from the nobility and even the government . However, it is difficult to agree with this version: the totality of all the pros and cons of it forces us to admit that the Decembrist uprising was doomed to defeat.

The point is not only that the rebels were small in number, acted passively and scatteredly, and some of them (Trubetskoy, Yakubovich, Volkonsky) even avoided any action, and not that the Decembrists on Senate Square, as Herzen emphasized, “did not there were enough people" - in the sense not of presence, but of interaction. The main thing is that at that time in Russia the autocratic serfdom system had not yet exhausted itself, the conditions for its violent overthrow had not developed, the revolutionary situation had not matured, and the people remained impervious to the ideas of the revolution for a long time. Therefore, the Decembrists, with all their connections with people from the nobility and the government itself, could not count on any broad support on a national scale; they represented an insignificant handful of their class. It is estimated that all officers and generals - members of secret societies, as well as participants in the Decembrist uprisings who were not members of the societies, then constituted only 0.6% of the total number of officers and generals of the Russian army (169 out of 26,424). All the nobles in Russia were almost a quarter of a million. This means that at that time a more rational means of transforming Russia than an armed uprising was the evolutionary path - pressure on the government from those noble and military circles to which the Decembrists belonged.

Nevertheless, the historical merit of the Decembrists is undeniable. They went down in Russian history as pioneers of the liberation struggle against autocracy and serfdom. Their uprising, for all its weaknesses, was an act of international significance. It hit European reaction, the system of the Holy Alliance, the stronghold of which was tsarism. In Russia itself, the Decembrists awakened the freedom-loving spirit of the nation. Their names and destinies remained in memory, and their ideas remained in the arsenal of subsequent generations of freedom fighters. The prophecy of the Decembrist poet A.I. came true. Odoevsky: /98/

Our sorrowful work will not be wasted,
A spark will ignite a flame.

Historiographical information. The literature about the Decembrists is colossal: 12 thousand titles, i.e. more than about any other phenomenon of Russian pre-revolutionary history, except the War of 1812.

The first in the historiography of Decembrism was the protective concept, formulated already in the manifesto on the accession of Nicholas I dated July 13, 1826 (the day of the execution of the leaders of Decembrism): “This intention was not in the properties and not in the morals of the Russians.”<...>The heart of Russia was and will always be unapproachable for him." A classic example of this concept is the book of Baron M.A. Korf "The Accession to the Throne of Emperor Nicholas I" (St. Petersburg, 1848). The Decembrists are presented here as a bunch of madmen, "alien to our holy Rus' “, and their conspiracy is like “a purulent growth on the magnificent body of autocratic Russia”, “without roots in the past and prospects for the future.”

The guardians were opposed by a revolutionary concept. Its founders were the Decembrists themselves (M.S. Lunin and N.M. Muravyov), and A.I. became a classic. Herzen, who in his brilliant works “On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia” (1851) and “The Russian Conspiracy of 1825” (1857) showed the national roots, greatness and significance of the Decembrists as the first Russian revolutionaries, revealed the main source of their weakness (separation from the people), but in general idealized them (“phalanx of heroes”, “heroes forged from pure steel”, etc. .).

Simultaneously with the revolutionary one, a liberal concept was formed and soon prevailed in the historiography of Decembrism. Its founder was the Decembrist N.I. Turgenev, sentenced in the case on December 14 “to beheaded.” He was then abroad, rejected the invitation of the tsarist authorities to return to his homeland and have his head cut off, but for the purpose of self-justification he began to portray all the Decembrists as harmless liberals. This concept was developed by academician. A.N. Pypin (cousin of N.G. Chernyshevsky), who viewed the program guidelines of the Decembrists as a continuation of the reforms of Alexander I, and the uprising of December 14 as an “explosion of despair” due to denunciations and the threat of reprisals.

The most outstanding in pre-revolutionary literature about the Decembrists is the work of V.I. Semevsky, where the views, programs and plans of the Decembrists as a pan-European phenomenon were thoroughly studied, although the foreign influence on their ideology was somewhat exaggerated.

Soviet historians studied all aspects of Decembrism: its origin (S.N. Chernov, S.S. Landa), ideology (B.E. Syroechkovsky, V.V. Pugachev), Northern society (N.M. Druzhinin, / 99/ K.D. Aksenov) and Southern (Yu.G. Oksman, S.M. Fayershtein), the Decembrist uprising (A.E. Presnyakov, I.V. Porokh), reprisals against them (P.E. Shchegolev, V.A. Fedorov). A number of biographical works have been published, the best of which are books by N.M. Druzhinin about Nikita Muravyov and N.Ya. Eidelman about Lunin. The largest generalizing work belongs to academician. M.V. Nechkina. Along with its advantages (the broadest coverage of the topic, a colossal source base, amazing scrupulousness, a vivid form of presentation), there are also disadvantages characteristic of the Soviet historiography of Decembrism as a whole - mainly, emphasizing the revolutionary nature of the Decembrists and hushing up weaknesses that are unacceptable for a revolutionary (for example, unstable behavior many of them during investigation and trial).

A more modern (although not as detailed) overview of the Decembrist movement was given by V.A. Fedorov in the book “The Decembrists and Their Time” (M., 1992). Recently, we have a tendency to revise the traditionally Soviet view of Decembrism, but it is unproductive, judging by the fact that its enthusiasts tend to consider the main factors in the origin of Decembrism not internal, Russian, but external, European factors [16. Cm.: . See for example: Pantin I.K., Plimak E.G., Khoros V.G. Decree. Op. P. 87.

Translated into Russian: Yosifova B. Decembrists. M., 1983, 0"Mara P. K.F. Ryleev. M., 1989.

Cm.: Mauri A. La conspiration descemtmstes. R., 1964.