Decembrist uprising dictator. Uprising on the Senate Square: the loss of the romantics

Looking to the West where it's been canceled a long time ago serfdom and introduced a constitution, it became clear that the conditions in which the serfs live are simply terrible. Their owners mocked them, regularly increasing dues and corvee, and in case of disobedience, they were exiled to Siberia, with the support of the tsar himself.

After the war, the industry recovered quite quickly, but it could not compete with the industry of European countries, since in Russia it was based on manufactories, and those, in turn, on manual labor. To establish production, a huge number of peasants had to be attracted. The landowners did not hesitate to take away their lands and attach them to their own, making the amount of quitrents incredibly high. The peasants refused to pay dues, and as a result, anti-serfdom movements began.

Military officers who had been abroad were frankly afraid that soon a revolt would begin among the masses of the people, and it would engulf the whole country. Many became disillusioned with state activity emperor, as he was a supporter of repressive methods of influencing the serfs.

The Decembrists believed and dreamed of democracy and freedom of speech. The main role model was France, where a revolution took place recently. The Decembrists also insisted on the distribution of power by branches, and not its concentration in one hand.

Decembrist uprising on Senate Square in St. Petersburg.

In 1825, the Decembrists went to Senate Square, it happened on December 14. Governor-General Miloradovich tried to calm the Decembrists, but one of the participants in the uprising wounded him. In the process, the Decembrists receive news that the army officers have long sworn allegiance to the new emperor, and they have no choice, they will have to surrender their weapons and be defeated. The Decembrists decide to die, still hoping that reinforcements are somewhere nearby. At this time, a struggle is started between them and the tsarist artillery. Cannons fired at the rebels. Some of the soldiers took to their heels.

After the suppression of the uprising, all participants were awaited by the trial. Three dozen officers were sentenced to death, 17 people were exiled to Siberia for eternal hard labor. The rest were demoted to soldiers or sent to hard labor for a certain period.

Consequences and results of the Decembrist uprising.

The historical significance of the Decembrist uprising is incommensurably high. The uprising of the Decembrists was the first association against the tsarist government. Thanks to him, the unshakable tsarist regime nevertheless shook, it contributed to the future development of the opposition in Russia.

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 gone out of control of its initiators, the uprising brought with it a large number of casualties that could have been avoided. It exacerbated the split in the noble society that had emerged even after the war of 1812, causing a government reaction in almost all areas of cultural, political and public life countries.

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 the “constitution” of Muravyov, a parliamentary monarchy and large landowners were to be preserved. Pestel's program ("Russian Truth") included demands for the establishment of a republic and the transfer of land to communal ownership. They agreed on only one thing - the abolition of serfdom.

At first, the Decembrists themselves declared that the protest would be peaceful. Its only purpose is to draw the attention of the future king to the problem of serfdom. But, as is clear from the revelations of the surviving Decembrists that followed many years later, it was planned to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new tsar, to announce 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, the granting of freedom of speech and assembly. If the Senate did not agree to promulgate the people's manifesto, it was decided to force it to do so. The insurgent 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) 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 lexicon of the Russian nobility due to the influx of emigrants from revolutionary France and the war of 1812, was spinning in 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. Such events were successfully and almost annually carried out both in Russia in the 18th century and in other European countries(for example, Spain or Portugal).

Let's move on to the facts. Absolutely nothing of the "revolutionary" plans was done during the uprising. The main conspirators (Ryleev and Trubetskoy) actually refused to participate in the speech. The dictator Trubetskoy (intentionally or not?) overslept the main action and appeared on the square already, as they say, "for a hat analysis." The rebels did not occupy any palaces or fortresses, but simply stood still, lined up in a "square" and listened to the persuasion of the generals sent to them. Instead of the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of rights and freedoms, the soldiers were ordered to shout "Emperor Konstantin Pavlovich and the constitution" ("Who is the Constitution?" - "It must be the wife of Konstantin. The queen, therefore."). The Decembrists did not consider it necessary to dedicate the direct perpetrators of the rebellion to their plans. If it had 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 plenty of opportunities to arrest or kill the future Tsar Nicholas I. He himself was present on the square and did not hide from anyone. However, no attempt has been made to do so. 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 Stürler, but did not dare to kill the future king.

This time, the conspirators were not lucky. Piercing the future tsar in the throat with a fork or knocking on the head with a snuffbox in the dark chambers of the Winter Palace would be much easier than starting an uprising, however, the conspirators who breathed the air of freedom in the foreign campaign of 1813, 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 Konstantin and Nikolai started a comedy with mutual renunciations in favor of each other. For more than a month, they threw the Russian throne to each other, like a ball in a child's game. The Senate, after long disputes, recognized the rights of Nikolai Pavlovich, who was unpopular among the military bureaucracy, and the Decembrists did not fail to take advantage of this confusion.

In the face of the new emperor, the Decembrists faced a decisive and tough Guards colonel. Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich was neither a weak woman nor a good-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.

The troops that swore allegiance to the new emperor quickly surrounded the rebels. Nicholas I, having recovered from the initial confusion, led them himself. Guards artillery appeared from the side of Admiralteisky Boulevard. A volley of blank charges was fired at the square, which had no effect. After that, the artillery hit the rebels with buckshot, their ranks scattered. It could have been limited to this, 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 curious crowd headed. As a result of the rebellion, 1271 people died, of which 39 were in tailcoats and overcoats, 9 were females, 19 were young children and 903 were blacks.

Pre-revolutionary historiography gave the December uprising an ambiguous assessment. Representatives of the so-called "noble" historiography (Bogdanovich, Schilder, and others) called it both a rebellion and an unsuccessful attempt at a "palace coup", but often they simply hushed it up.

The civil courage and self-sacrifice of the Decembrists aroused great respect in the democratic circles of the Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century. Much attention was paid to them by historians of the bourgeois-liberal trend (Pypin, Kornilov, Pavlov-Silvansky, Dovnar-Zapolsky, Klyuchevsky, and others). The Decembrist movement also found a response in the serious works of prof. Semevsky, who wrote about them with a populist tinge. “They were terribly far from the people,” but the Russian educated society traditionally considered the Decembrists victims of arbitrariness and violence, openly calling them “the conscience of the nation.” Dvoryanin N.A. Nekrasov considered it his duty to dedicate two poems to these "heroes" ("Grandfather" and "Russian Women").

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

Of the general mass of enthusiastic populist-Marxist apologies for the Decembrist movement, only the novel by the symbolist D.S. Merezhkovsky "December 14". This is the look of a man who survived all the horrors of the revolution and civil war in Russia, who observed with his own eyes "the experience of the practical incarnation of the Kingdom of God on earth, as in Heaven."

With light hand V.I. Lenin in all subsequent historiography of the Soviet period (M.N. Pokrovsky, Presnyakov, M.V. Nechkina, N.M. Druzhinin, Syroechkovsky, Aksenov, Gunpowder, 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 singled out three stages of the revolutionary movement in Russia. His phrase that "the Decembrists woke up Herzen" became the talk of the town and the seed for a mass of folk anecdotes.

That's just what the "revolutionary" performance of the Decembrists consisted of - historians argue to this day. The highest gift of civil liberties, the abolition of serfdom and the implementation of land reform - the main ideas expressed by the Decembrists were in the air even during the time of Catherine II and Alexander I.

With their attempt at a "coup" the Decembrists frightened and resolutely pushed the authorities away from even thinking about the possibility of their implementation. The energetic “crackdown” 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 "Nikolaev reaction" contributed to the implementation of the mediocre foreign and domestic policy of the 1830-40s, predetermining the subsequent defeat of Russia in Crimean War. She allowed Herzen, awakened by the Decembrists, to hit the "Bell" and lead the best part of Russian society with him. We still hear the echoes of this bloody alarm to this day ...

History knows many uprisings and coups. Some of them ended successfully, and some ended tragically for the conspirators. The Decembrist uprising, which took place on December 14, 1825, belongs precisely to the second category. The rebellious nobles challenged the existing order. Their goal was the abolition of royal power and the abolition of serfdom. But the plans of the 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 was 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, smashed the French. For the upper class, this was a complete surprise, since they considered the Russian people to be dense and ignorant, incapable of lofty noble impulses. Practice has shown that this is not the case. After that, among the nobility, the opinion began to prevail that simple people deserve a better share.

Russian troops visited Europe. The soldiers and officers saw the life of the French, Germans, Austrians very close and made sure that they live better and more prosperous than the Russian people, and they have more freedoms. The conclusion suggested itself: autocracy and serfdom are to blame. It is these two components that do not allow a great country to develop both economically and spiritually.

The progressive thoughts of Western philosophers of the Enlightenment were also of considerable importance. The socio-philosophical views of Rousseau, who was a supporter of direct democracy, enjoyed great prestige. The minds of the Russian nobles also had big influence the views of Montesquieu and the follower of Rousseau, the Swiss philosopher Weiss. These people offered more progressive forms of government in comparison with the monarchy.

It should also be noted that Alexander I in his domestic politics didn't want to change anything. He tried to implement reforms, but they were extremely inconsistent. In words, the emperor stood up for the freedom of the peasants, but in practice nothing was done to abolish serfdom.

All these factors became the reason that at first the opposition was born, and then the turn of 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 Russian Empire in 1814

The birth 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 Orlov Mikhail Fedorovich (1788-1842) and Major General Dmitriev-Mamonov Matvey Alexandrovich (1790-1863). These people advocated a constitutional monarchy and in 1814 united like-minded people in a secret organization.

In 1816 was created " Union of Salvation"It was organized by guards officers. The leader among them was Muravyov Alexander Nikolaevich (1792-1863). Trubetskoy Sergey Petrovich (1790-1860), Muravyov-Apostol Sergey Ivanovich (1796-1826), Muravyov-Apostol Matvey Ivanovich were considered the founders together with him (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" Lunin Mikhail Sergeevich (1787-1845) was the first to put forward the idea of ​​assassinating the Russian sovereign. This proposal was opposed by many officers. They proposed their own program for the reorganization of society, which excluded violence. These fundamental disagreements eventually led to the collapse of the organization.

In 1818, instead of the "Order of Russian Knights" and the "Union of Salvation", a single and more numerous organization called " Welfare Union". As her goal, she set 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-hidden organizations appeared. This is " 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, the basis for the opposition speech was created. It remains only to choose the right time. And soon the circumstances were favorable 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 Mary 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 to sit on the Russian throne. But the men were given a green street. Therefore, the wife of the late sovereign, Elizaveta Alekseevna, had no rights to the crown. But all the rights to the throne were the brothers of the Russian Tsar.

The second brother was Konstantin Pavlovich (1779-1831). It was he who had the 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 it.

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) 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 whole 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 renouncing the oath and allegiance to Constantine, the conspirators decided to raise an uprising. The main thing for them was to drag the troops along with them, and then the arrest was planned royal family and the release of the manifesto. In it, the people would have been announced the creation of a Provisional Government and the approval of a new constitution. After that, the convocation of the Constituent Assembly was planned. It was it that 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. Guards Colonel Sergei Trubetskoy became them. It was he who was to lead the country until the end of the work 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

Timeline of the uprising

On the eve of the scheduled date, the conspirators gathered for the last time at Ryleyev's apartment. It was decided to bring the regiments to the Senate Square and force the Senate to declare 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 took on a legal character.

Early in the morning of December 14, the officers went to the military units stationed in the capital and began to campaign among the soldiers, urging them not to swear allegiance to Nicholas I, but to remain loyal to the legitimate heir to the throne, Konstantin. By 11 o'clock, the Guards Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the Life Guards of the Grenadier Regiment, and the guards naval crew came to Senate Square. In total, about 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 already at 7 in the morning, and the rebel regiments finally gathered at Senate Square and lined up only at one in the afternoon. 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. In the meantime, a lot of ordinary people gathered on the square. They expressed their full sympathy for the insurgent guardsmen. But they did not call on these people to stand next to them or otherwise provide assistance.

The new emperor decided first to enter into negotiations with the Decembrists. He sent to them the first person of St. Petersburg - Governor-General Mikhail Andreevich Miloradovich. But the peace talks failed. At first, Prince Yevgeny Obolensky wounded the truce with a bayonet, 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 that, Kakhovsky mortally wounded the commander of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment Nikolai Styurler and another officer, but he did not dare to shoot at the emperor, who was in the distance. He did not shoot at the ministers of the church, who also came to persuade the rebels to surrender. They were Metropolitan Seraphim and Metropolitan Eugene. The soldiers simply drove them away with shouts.

Meanwhile, cavalry and infantry units were drawn to the Senate Square. In total, there were about 12 thousand people in their composition. 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 soldierly solidarity.

While the appearance of a battle was taking place on the square, artillery was brought up. The guns fired blanks, but the rebels were not impressed. The situation remained extremely uncertain, and daylight was ending. At dusk, a riot of the common people could begin, which accumulated in huge numbers near the Senate Square.

Russian Emperor Nicholas I

At this time, the emperor decided to shoot at the rebels with buckshot, and the Decembrist uprising entered its final phase. The cannons fired directly into the thick of the soldiers and officers standing in the square. Several shots were fired. The wounded and killed began to fall, the rest began to scatter. Not only the rebels fled, but also onlookers, who looked from the side at the uprising.

The bulk of the people rushed to 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 ice water. By 18 o'clock Senate Square was cleared of the rebels. On it, as well as on the Neva ice, only the wounded and the dead remained lying.

They formed special teams, and they removed the bodies until the morning, by the light of fires. Many of the wounded were lowered under the ice so as not to mess with them. AT total 1270 people died. Of these, 150 children and 80 women who just came to stare at the uprising.

Uprising of the Chernihiv Regiment

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

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 with pleasure began to drink alcohol in unmeasured quantities. Almost the entire staff went drunk.

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

After the uprising

The investigation began in January. A total of 579 people were involved in the case. Moreover, commissions of inquiry 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 terms of hard labor. 19 people were exiled to Siberia, and 9 officers were demoted to the rank and file. The rest were imprisoned for a term of 1 to 4 years or sent to the Caucasus to serve in the army. Thus ended the Decembrist uprising, which left an indelible mark on Russian history.

Secret societies

The first Russian revolutionaries wanted to raise an armed uprising among the troops, overthrow the autocracy, abolish serfdom and popularly adopt a new state law - a revolutionary constitution. It was decided to speak at the time of the change of emperors on the throne. After the death of Alexander I, an interregnum arose - a government crisis that was beneficial to the revolutionaries.

The day of December 14 was the day of the oath to the new emperor -. His older brother - had just died childless, the brother following him renounced the throne (Alexander left a copy of his refusal in the Assumption Cathedral in a closed package, so almost no one knew about the refusal of the throne), and here is the third brother, Nikolai - rude and ignorant serf-owner and tormentor of soldiers - has already put his foot on the step of the throne ...

Plan

The Decembrists carefully worked out their plans. First of all, they decided to prevent the troops and the senate from taking the oath to the new king. Then they wanted to enter the Senate and demand the publication of a nationwide manifesto, which would announce the abolition of serfdom and the 25-year term of military service, the granting of freedom of speech, an assembly of deputies elected by the people.

The deputies had to decide what system to establish in the country and approve its basic law - the constitution. If the Senate did not agree to promulgate the people's manifesto, it was decided to force it to do so. The insurgent troops were to occupy the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress, royal family should have been arrested. If necessary, it was supposed to kill the king. In the meantime, as the Decembrists thought, deputies elected from the provinces would come to St. Petersburg from all sides. Autocracy and serfdom will collapse. Will begin new life liberated people.

A dictator was elected to lead the uprising - a longtime member of the society, one of its founders - Guards Colonel Prince Sergei Trubetskoy.

The beginning of the uprising

More than 3,000 soldiers of the guards under the command of revolutionary officers - nobles gathered on the Senate Square of the capital, raised by the heated speeches of their teachers. The first to march on the square was the Moscow Guards Regiment. He was raised to rebellion by the revolutionary speech of the officer Alexander Bestuzhev. Colonel Commander Baron Frederiks wanted to prevent the rebels from entering the square, but he fell with a severed head under the blow of the saber of officer Shchepin-Rostovsky. Soldiers of the Moscow Regiment came to Senate Square with a fluttering regimental banner, loaded their guns and took live ammunition with them. The regiment lined up in a battle square (quadrilateral) near the monument to Peter I.

End of the rebellion

By nightfall, the first Russian uprising was over. Dozens of corpses remained on the square. The police covered the pools of blood with snow. Fires were burning everywhere. There were guard patrols. The arrested were taken to the Winter Palace.

Not everything that was planned came true. It was not possible to raise all the planned regiments for the uprising. There were no artillery units among the rebels. The dictator Trubetskoy betrayed the uprising and did not come to the square. The rebel troops lined up in front of the empty Senate building - the senators had already taken the oath and dispersed.

In the south, the matter was also not without an armed rebellion. Six companies of the Chernigov regiment released the arrested Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, who went with them to Bila Tserkva; but, overtaken by a detachment of hussars with horse artillery, the rebels laid down their weapons. The wounded Muraviev was arrested.

Investigation and trial

By decree, a Commission was established for research on malicious societies, chaired by Minister of War Tatishchev. The Commission of Inquiry submitted to Emperor Nicholas the most submissive report compiled by D. N. Bludov. The Manifesto of the city 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." The following were put on trial: from the Northern Society - 61 people, from the Southern Society - 37 people, from the United Slavs - 23 people. The court established eleven categories, highlighting five people in particular, and sentenced: death penalty- five by quartering, 31 - by cutting off the head, 17 - to political death, 16 - to exile forever in hard labor, 5 - to exile in hard labor for 10 years, 15 - to exile in hard labor. work for 6 years, 15 - to exile to the settlement, 3 - to the deprivation of ranks, nobility and to exile in, 1 - to the deprivation of ranks and nobility and writing to the soldiers until the length of service, 8 - to the deprivation of ranks with writing to the soldiers with length of service . Emperor Nicholas by decree

After the death of the childless Alexander I, Konstantin Pavlovich, the next oldest brother, was to ascend the throne. However, Konstantin Pavlovich, fearing that he would be "strangled, as his father was strangled," decided to renounce the right to head the state, and therefore Nicholas, the third son of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was declared the heir to the throne. Alexander I indicated this in a secret manifesto on August 16, 1823.

Given that even Nikolai Pavlovich did not know about the exact content of the manifesto until the last, after the death of the emperor, the oath was taken to Konstantin.

Immediately began to mint coins with the image of the new ruler.

“As a faithful subject, I must, of course, mourn the death of the sovereign; but, as a poet, I rejoice at the accession to the throne of Constantine I,” wrote Alexander Pushkin enthusiastically. - There is a lot of romanticism in it; his stormy youth, campaigns with Suvorov, enmity with the German Barclay remind Henry V. Moreover, he is smart, and with smart people everything is somehow better; In a word, I hope a lot of good things come from him.”

Plans are falling apart

However, Konstantin Pavlovich announced that he did not intend to rule the empire. A few days later, Mikhail Speransky prepared a manifesto, according to which Nikolai became the head of state. The future emperor announced his accession to the throne, and the oath was scheduled for December 26.

On the same day, under the pretext of protecting the legal rights of Konstantin, an uprising of the Decembrists took place in St. Petersburg - an attempted coup d'état. The rebels wanted to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to Nikolai Pavlovich. The plans of the Decembrists included the establishment of a constitutional monarchy or republic and the abolition of serfdom. Some radical Decembrists acted

for the murder of Nicholas and even Tsarevich Alexander - the future emperor who abolished serfdom.

By 11 am, the rebels brought troops to the Senate Square, but Nikolai Pavlovich, who knew about the impending uprising, had already managed to take the oath and become the legitimate ruler of the state. The plans of the conspirators, who wanted to demand the introduction of a constitution before the oath, collapsed. The Decembrists did not know what to do next, and the troops simply remained on the square.

How Nicholas was not killed

The Decembrists appointed Pyotr Kakhovsky, a member of the Northern Secret Society, who, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, had an ardent character and love of freedom, as the murderer of Nikolai Pavlovich. On Senate Square, Kakhovskiy killed Governor-General Miloradovich, who went out to the rebels with a request to stop the rebellion, and Colonel Stürler, but did not dare to deal with the newly-made emperor.

Soon the rebels were surrounded by government troops, and a shootout began. Decembrist Mikhail Bestuzhev tried to build soldiers on the ice of the Neva and lead them to Peter and Paul Fortress, but the government army fired cannons at the rebels. Cannonballs pierced the ice, and many participants in the uprising drowned in the Neva.

The rebels took to flight. According to various estimates of historians, from 1.3 thousand to 1.5 thousand people died during the riot. However, there is an opinion that, since government troops were ordered not to shoot the rebels, but simply to drive them away from Senate Square, the number of victims does not exceed one hundred people.

Civilized Europe and less cultured Russia

A few days after the rebellion, a Commission for Research on Malicious Societies was established - a body for investigating the Decembrist uprising. The commission, which Alexander Muravyov, a member of the Northern Secret Society, called "an inquisitorial tribunal without a shadow of justice or impartiality and with deep ignorance of the laws," involved 579 people in the investigation.

At the trial, which took place in the Winter Palace, Nicholas I himself acted as an investigator.

The emperor decided that five Decembrists should be sentenced to death, and 120 organizers of the uprising should be sent to hard labor in Siberia or to a settlement. Interestingly, the defendants themselves were not present at the trial, they were invited only to announce the verdict.

“For me, Russia is now defiled, bloody,” wrote the poet Pyotr Vyazemsky after the trial of the Decembrists. How many victims and what iron hand fell on them."

Sharp criticism of the trial of the rebels began in foreign society. “The imperial government, however, is gravely mistaken if it thinks that a purely formal investigation carried out by a commission of eight members - courtiers and adjutants of the emperor - can arouse confidence in itself in the civilized countries of Europe or even in less cultural Russia”, — wrote the British edition of The Times.

What to do in the link

According to Nicholas I, in exile the Decembrists would be doomed to spiritual death. However, the convicted rebels created their own "academy" in captivity, which includes lectures and the study of languages, reading and discussing books. So, Kuchelbecker led seminars on Russian naval expeditions, Bestuzhev - on the history of the navy, Wolf - on physics, chemistry, anatomy and physiology.

Soon, the Decembrists were allowed to read Russian and foreign publications, draw, and play music. In the conditions of hard labor and subsequent exile, Bestuzhev proposed the idea of ​​a water-jet engine, Thorson designed a threshing machine and a straw-cutting machine, and Bestuzhev made an original design of a small-sized but accurate marine chronometer. In addition, the convicted Decembrists conducted climatological observations,

collected Siberian samples of flora and fauna, were engaged in chemical analysis of waters of mineral springs, carried out seismological measurements.

“Glancing over all their works, we see that they explored Siberia in an anthropological, natural, economic, social and ethnographic position, in a word, they did incomparably more than everything done during this time for any of the other Russian regions,” wrote publicist Ivan Pryzhov.

"This is the last novel I banned"

The image of the Decembrist, cherished by poets and writers of the 19th century, quickly acquired the features of a romantic rebel who fell victim to slander. Alexandre Dumas wrote about the rebels in the novel “Fencing Teacher” - and, of course, Nicholas I banned the work of the French author from publication in Russia.

“Nikolai entered the room when I was reading a book to the Empress,” recalls Princess Trubetskaya, a friend of the Empress. — I quickly hid the book. The Emperor approached and asked the Empress:

- Did you read?
— Yes, my lord.
Do you want me to tell you what you read?

The Empress was silent.

- Have you read Dumas' novel "Fencing Master".
How do you know this, sir?
- Well! This is not hard to guess. This is the last novel I banned."

Decembrists become atheists

Leo Tolstoy wanted to write about the participants in the opposition movement several times. “My Decembrist must be an enthusiast, a mystic, a Christian, returning to Russia in 1956 with his wife, son and daughter and trying on his strict and somewhat ideal look to new Russia", - said the writer in a letter to Alexander Herzen. However, Tolstoy did not go beyond the fourth chapter - according to his contemporaries, he became disillusioned with the uprising and argued that

"The December rebellion is the result of the influence of the French aristocracy, most of which emigrated to Russia after the French Revolution."

It is interesting how the image of the Decembrist was transformed in the 20th century. Despite the fact that Lenin considered the rebels of the past cut off from the people, the participants February Revolution regarded them as their predecessors. The Decembrists remained included in the pantheon of heroes in Stalin's times, while their religious views(the vast majority of the rebels were Orthodox) tried not to mention.

However, sometimes the participants in the events of December 26, 1825 were described as fierce atheists.

A new surge of love for the rebels of the XIX century came in the 1970s. At this time, Vladimir Motyl's film "The Star of Captivating Happiness" is released, which tells about the fate of the Decembrists and their wives who followed their husbands into exile. The rebels of the last century become the inspirers of dissidents, the heroes of local history books and even low-grade romance novels.