The uprising of December 14, 1825 Events, however, forced the conspirators to hurry. In November 1825, in Taganrog, after an unexpected and short illness, the 47-year-old Alexander I, who had never been ill, died before that, full of strength and never sick. His death was so unexpected and strange, and the veil of mystery that shrouded both his stay in Taganrog and subsequent events (the funeral of the body, his transfer to Moscow, the behavior of people close to him), was so dense and unusual that rumors soon spread about the voluntary departure of Alexander I from power, which he repeatedly told others about, and the substitution of the body. This rumor had solid grounds in connection with the severe moral and religious crisis in which the emperor was, his fear of a possible coup and violent death tragic example father.
All this immediately created a confused political situation, which the conspirators decided to take advantage of. They planned to interfere with the oath of official St. Petersburg to Nicholas, withdraw troops loyal to them to Senate Square, seize the Winter Palace, and arrest royal family, force the Senate to announce the overthrow of the monarchy and issue a Manifesto on the establishment of a Provisional Revolutionary Government, the abolition of serfdom, the equalization of all citizens before the law, the destruction (of the Kcherut duty and military settlements and other revolutionary measures that appeared in their programs. After that, it was supposed to convene the Constituent Assembly (Great Cathedral) and submit for its consideration the program for the future reorganization of Russia.
Colonel of the General Staff Prince S. P. Trubetskoy was elected dictator, that is, commander of the uprising forces.
On November 27, the capital and the army, as it was supposed to, swore allegiance to Constantine. At the same time, the Guard intervened again. The governor-general of St. Petersburg, L. A. Miloradovin, a man close to the dowager tsarina - the wife of Paul I, threatened Nicholas that he would raise the guard if he did not swear allegiance to his brother. Nikolay reluctantly agreed with this demand. Although on November 27 Nicholas, his family, the Senate and other institutions swore allegiance to Konstantin, the issue was not finally resolved. There was a testament of Alexander I and others to arrest the conspirators. The conspirators also prepared for December 14, trying to prevent the re-swearing and to carry out a coup d'état. The decisive meeting took place at Ryleev's apartment. He asked Kakhovsky to change into the uniform of the Life Grenadier Regiment, penetrate the palace and kill Nicholas I before it was captured. Yakubovich was instructed to take possession of the Winter Palace. Another part of the loyal troops was to occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress.
It was a cold, gloomy, windy morning on December 14th. In the predawn twilight, the Moscow regiment, led by the staff captain of the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment A. A. Bestuzhev, arrived in combat formation with combat equipment on Senate Square and stood in the form of a monument to Peter I. The uprising began. But his plan would immediately fall apart. Kakhovsky refused to commit!, an act of regicide. Yakubovich did not want to lead the insurgent units to the Winter Palace, fearing, as he said, massacres in the palace and the murder of the royal family.
The Winter Palace stood unshakably, and the tsar, having learned about the beginning of the uprising, pulled loyal troops to him.
Trubetskoy did not appear on Senate Square. He hovered around the headquarters, peering around the corner, an old HII. to understand how many rebellious troops have gathered and it is worth it for him to risk his life. He never appeared before the foreigners, leaving them without military leadership.
By 11 o'clock in the morning it turned out that the Senate had already sworn allegiance to Nicholas I and the senators had gone home.
A new monarch appeared on Senate Square, surrounded by loyal troops. The Governor-General M.A. Miloradovich arrived. Government troops launched several attacks against the rebels, but they were repulsed by gunfire. The tension in the square grew. Reinforcements approached the rebels - the life grenadiers, the Fleian naval crew, and now there were about 4 thousand people in the square with 30 officers. Nikolay, for his part, brought infantry units, artillery and horse guards to the square, which outnumbered the rebel forces by four times. A new military leader of the insurgent troops, Prince E. P. Obolensky, was chosen on the square.
The news of the uprising quickly spread throughout St. Petersburg. Crowds of people came to the square. Soon, more than 150,000 of them ached. From the crowd, stones and sticks flew at the soldiers loyal to the tsar. Threats were heard against Nicholas. Those gathered clearly sympathized with the rebels.
Being wary of allowing bloodshed and thus: to tarnish the beginning of his reign, the tsar sent M. A. Miloradovich to the rebels. Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, a brave military leader enjoyed great popularity among the soldiers. Miloradovich turned to the rebels with a heated speech, persuading them to change their minds and return to the barracks. The soldiers were confused. The situation was critical. Then Prince B.P. Obolensky rushed to the Governor-General and turned his horse with a bayonet, wounding Miloradovich in the thigh.
Kakhovsky, who ran up, shot the general in the back. The mortally wounded general was taken home. At some point, the spirit of the rebels strengthened. They immediately drove out the metropolitans sent to them with exhortations.
The tension grew. The people around the square became more and more hostile towards the authorities. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas I ordered to open fire from cannons. At first, a volley of buckshot was fired over the square. This did not sway the rebels. They responded with gunfire. The next hall was already aimed. Buckshot struck the first ranks of the rebels. The caret trembled and crumbled. The soldiers ran onto the ice of the Neva, trying to cross to Vasilyevsky Island. The firing continued, the horse guards stepped in to pursue the fugitives. Artillery struck, the ice began to crumble, polynyas formed, and the rebels began to sink. Their ranks were completely mixed up. Soon it was all over.
Raids and arrests began throughout the city. The arrested Decembrists, as the rebels began to be called after December 14, were taken to the Winter Palace.
The uprising in the south of the country also failed. P. I. Pestel was arrested on December 13, on the eve of the uprising in St. Petersburg.
On December 29, a rebellion broke out in the Chernigov regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel S. I. Muravyov-Apostol and Lieutenant M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin. The rebels captured the city of Vasilkov and went to Zhytomyr to join with other units, which were prepared for the performance by the officers-conspirators. However, a government detachment blocked their path. Artillery volleys fell on Chernihiv. Muraviev-Apostol was wounded and woke up already arrested. They also seized Bestuzhev-Ryumin with weapons in their hands. The rebels were dispersed. The arrests began.
On December 17, 1825, the Investigative Committee began its work in St. Petersburg, which met for six months. Nicholas I was directly involved in his work, he himself interrogated the Decembrists. Three questions were of interest to investigators - involvement in plans for regicide, in an armed uprising in St. Petersburg and in the south, and attitudes towards secret anti-government organizations.
They, the nobles, sought to show the first nobleman of the empire the validity and regularity of their actions. Many were strongly impressed by the personal interest of Nicholas I in finding out the reasons for the revolutionary rebellion of a group of officers. Others were broken by the harsh conditions of detention in the fortress, complete uncertainty about their fate, fear of death.
According to the results of the trial, five 4P estel, Ryleev, S. Muravyov-Apostol, M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Kakhovsky) were executed as worse villains. The rest of the court sentenced to various punishments - to hard labor, deprivation of rank, demotion to the rank and file. The soldiers themselves were to be punished with gauntlets and exiled to remote garrisons. The entire penal Chernisonsky regiment was sent to the Caucasus. Some Decembrist officers were also sent there. In total, about 600 people were involved in the investigation and “-udu.
Only after the death of Nicholas I in 1855, after spending about 5 years in hard labor and in exile, the surviving Decembrists received an amnesty, left the hard labor casemates, but remained in a settlement in Siberia: they were forbidden to enter the central provinces of Russia.
The Decembrist movement went unnoticed by the majority of the population of the vast empire, but left a trace among the top of society, the ruling elite, and the emerging intelligentsia.
At the same time, the uprising of December 14, 1825, frightened and puzzled the well-intentioned part of Russia, forced the conservative forces led by the new emperor to rally.
The extremism of the Decembrists, the blood they threatened Russia with, turned out to be a long break for the country in the<|к>rmistic efforts, and later a painful and overly cautious approach to constitutional reforms, to the abolition of serfdom. The evolutionary path of the country's development turned out to be slow. The reactionary nobility could triumph.
In politics, as in everything public life not to go forward means to be thrown back.
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich
The Decembrist uprising on Senate Square took place on December 14, 1825 in St. Petersburg. It 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 of the 1825 uprising
Even during the life of Alexander 1, revolutionary movements in Russia were actively working to create conditions that would limit the power of the autocrat. This movement was quite massive and was preparing to carry out a coup d'état at the time of the weakening of the monarchy. The imminent death of Emperor Alexander 1 forced the conspirators to become more active and begin their speech ahead of schedule.
This was facilitated by the difficult political situation within the Empire. As you know, Alexander 1 did not have children, which means that the difficulty with the heir was inevitable. Historians talk about a secret document, according to which the elder brother of the murdered ruler, Konstantin Pavlovich, had long since renounced the throne. There was only one heir - Nikolai. The problem was that as early as November 27, 1825, the population of the country took an oath to Constantine, who formally became emperor from that day, although he himself did not take 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, who realized 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 was 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 Muraviev
- Ivan Yakushin
- Pavel Pestel
- Kondraty Ryleev
- Nikolay Kakhovsky
There were other active members of the 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 interfere with the armed forces of Russia, as well as the authorities state power, represented by the Senate, take an oath of allegiance to Emperor Nicholas. For these purposes, it was planned to do the following: to capture the Winter Palace and the entire royal family. This would place power in the hands of the rebels. Sergei Trubetskoy was appointed head of the operation.
In the future, 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 all royal family should have been sent. Some Decembrists in their plans went even further and offered to kill everyone who is related to the ruling dynasty.
Decembrist uprising of 1825, December 14
The Decembrist uprising began in the early morning of December 14. However, initially things did not go as 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, the second one followed. This time, Yakubovich, who was supposed to send troops to storm Winter Palace also refused to do so.
It was too late to retreat. Early morning the Decembrists sent their agitators to the barracks of all metropolitan divisions, 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 area:
- 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. It happened at 7 o'clock in the morning. Such haste was necessary, since Nicholas was warned that a major performance was expected, directed 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 an illustrious man, General Russian army. He urged 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 fired at him. On the same day the general died.
After these events, the horse guards were sent to the Decembrists, commanded by Alexei Orlov. Twice this commander unsuccessfully tried to suppress the rebellion. The situation was aggravated by the fact that ordinary residents came to the Senate Square, who shared the views of the rebels. In total, the total number of Decembrists numbered several tens of thousands. Real madness was going on in the center of the capital. The tsarist troops hastily prepared carriages 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 uprising of the Decembrists on the Senate Square would be picked up by the mob and other cities. Such mass character could cost him the throne. As a result, artillery was brought to the Senate Square. Trying to avoid mass casualties, General Suhozanet gave the order to fire blanks. This gave no results. Then personally the emperor of the Russian Empire gave the order to shoot with live and buckshot. However, on initial stage this only exacerbated the situation, as the rebels returned fire. After that, a massive blow was inflicted on the square, which sowed panic and forced the revolutionaries to flee.
Aftermath of the 1825 uprising
By the night of December 14, the excitement was over. Many of the rebellion activists were killed. Senate Square itself was littered with corpses. State archives provide the following data on those who died that day on both sides:
- Generals - 1
- Staff officers - 1
- Officers of various ranks - 17
- Soldiers of the Life Guards - 282
- Ordinary 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 1271 people.
In addition, on the night of December 14, 1825, Nikolai issues a decree on the arrest of the most active participants in the movement. As a result, 710 people were imprisoned. Initially, everyone was taken to the Winter Palace, where the emperor personally conducted an 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. The organization of the uprising was weak, and the involvement of the masses in it practically did not exist. As a result, only the small number of Decembrists threw the Emperor into short time put down the rebellion. However, this was the first signal that there is an active movement against the authorities in the country.
Decembrist movement (briefly)
The Decembrist uprising was the first open armed uprising in Russia against the autocracy and serfdom. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, most of whom were guards officers. An attempted coup d'etat took place on December 14 (26), 1825 in St. Petersburg, on Senate Square and was suppressed by troops loyal to the emperor.
background
For the uprising of the Decembrists, the reason was the situation that developed with the succession to the throne, after the death of the sovereign Alexander I. All because after the death of the emperor, his brother, Constantine, was to become the sovereign. But, even when Alexander I was alive, Constantine abdicated in favor of his younger brother Nicholas. The fact that Konstantin renounced was not announced publicly, and the people, the army, the state apparatus, due to lack of information, swore allegiance to Konstantin. When it was officially revealed that Constantine had abdicated, a swearing-in was scheduled for December 14, which the conspirators took advantage of.
Rebellion plan
The plan for the uprising was adopted on December 13 during meetings of members of the society at Ryleev's apartment in St. Petersburg. Decisive importance was attached to the success of performances in the capital. At the same time, troops were to march in the south of the state, in the 2nd Army. One of the founders of the Union of Salvation, S.P. was chosen to be the dictator of the uprising. Trubetskoy, Colonel of the Guard, famous and popular among the soldiers.
On the appointed day, it was decided to withdraw troops to the Senate Square, to prevent the oath of the Senate and the State Council to Nikolai Pavlovich and on their behalf to promulgate the “Manifesto to the Russian people”, which proclaimed the abolition of serfdom, freedom of the press, conscience, occupation and movement, the introduction of universal military service instead of recruiting, the destruction of estates.
The course of the uprising
1825, December 14, in the morning - the Life Guards Moscow Regiment entered the Senate Square, it was joined by the Guards Naval Crew and the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, with a total number of about 3 thousand people. Chosen by the dictator Trubetskoy did not appear. The rebel regiments continued to stand on Senate Square until the conspirators could come to a consensus on the appointment of a new leader.
Who knew about the preparation of the conspiracy, took the oath of the Senate in advance and, having pulled together the troops loyal to him, surrounded the rebels. After the negotiations, in which Metropolitan Seraphim and the Governor-General of St. Petersburg M.A. took part on the part of the government. Miloradovich (who was mortally wounded at the same time) Nicholas I gave the order to use artillery. The Decembrist uprising was crushed.
On December 29, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment began under the leadership of S.I. Muravyov-Apostol. However, already on January 2, it was suppressed with the help of government troops. 
Effects
Arrests of participants and instigators began all over Russia. 579 people were involved in the case of the Decembrists. Found guilty 287. Five were sentenced to death and carried out (P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, P.G. Kakhovskiy, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin). 120 people were sent to hard labor in Siberia or to a settlement.
Reasons for the defeat
Lack of support from all sectors of society, which was not prepared for radical transformations;
Narrow social base focused on military revolution and conspiracy;
Lack of necessary unity and coherence in actions;
Bad secrecy, as a result, the government knew about the plans of the rebels;
The unpreparedness of most of the educated society, the nobility to eliminate the autocracy and serfdom;
Cultural and political backwardness of the peasantry and the rank and file of the army.
Historical meaning
Having lost in the socio-political struggle, the rebels won a spiritual and moral victory, set an example true service to his country and people.
The experience of the Decembrist uprising became a subject for reflection by the fighters against the monarchy and serfdom who followed them, and influenced the entire course of the Russian liberation movement.
The Decembrist movement had a great influence on the development of Russian culture.
But, based on a specific historical situation, the defeat of the Decembrists noticeably weakened the intellectual potential of Russian society, provoked an intensification of the government's reaction, delayed, according to P.Ya. Chaadaev, development of Russia for 50 years.
Decembrist uprising - a forceful attempt by young representatives of the highest aristocracy Russian Empire, mainly active and retired officers of the guard and navy, to change the political system. The uprising took place on December 14 (because the Decembrists) 1825 in St. Petersburg, on Senate Square and was crushed by troops loyal to the authorities
Causes of the Decembrist uprising
- Disappointment of noble intellectuals with the failure of the liberal reforms declared by Emperor Alexander I upon accession to the throne.
- Dissatisfaction with the gradual return of power to a reactionary, protective domestic policy
- European education and upbringing received by representatives of the St. Petersburg Light, which made it possible to more sensitively capture liberal Western ideas.
The majority of the Decembrists studied in the cadet corps, land, sea, pages, and the cadet corps were then hotbeds of general liberal education and were least of all similar to technical and military educational institutions *
- The difference in the orders of European and Russian, learned from their own experience by officers who returned from foreign anti-Napoleonic campaigns
- The unjust structure of Russian society: slavery, disrespect for the rights of the individual, contempt for public interests. the savagery of morals, the rigidity of the people, the plight of the Russian soldier in military settlements, the indifference of society
Küchelbecker, during interrogation by the commission of inquiry, admitted that main reason What forced him to take part in a secret society was his grief about the corruption of morals that was found among the people as a result of oppression. “Looking at the brilliant qualities that God bestowed on the Russian people, the only one in the world in glory and power, I grieved in my soul that all this was crushed, withered and, perhaps, would soon fall without bearing any fruit in the world * "
Decembrists
- Prince, colonel, duty officer of the 4th infantry corps S. Trubetskoy (1790 - 1860)
- Prince, major general, commander of the 19th infantry division S. Volkonsky (1788 - 1865)
- Collegiate assessor I. Pushchin (1798 - 1859)
- Officer (retired) of the Guards Jaeger Regiment M. Yakushkin (1793 - 1857)
- Poet K. Ryleev (1795 - 1826)
- Commander of the Vyatka Infantry Regiment, Colonel P. Pestel (1793 - 1826)
- Retired lieutenant Pyotr Kakhovsky (1799-1826)
- Lieutenant of the Poltava Infantry Regiment M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin (1801 - 1826)
- Lieutenant Colonel S. Muravyov-Apostol (1796 - 1826)
- Captain of the Guards General Staff N. Muravyov (1795 - 1843)
- General A. Muravyov (1792 - 1863)
- Poet W. Kuchelbecker (1797 - 1846)
- General M. Fonvizin (1787 - 1854)
- Retired lieutenant colonel M. Muravyov-Apostol (1793-1886)
- Lieutenant Colonel of the Life Guards M. Lunin (1787 - 1845)
- Governor of the Chancellery under the St. Petersburg Governor-General F. Glinka (1786 - 1880)
- Scientist V. Steingel (1783 - 1862)
- Naval officer, director of the museum at the Admiralty N. Bestuzhev (1791 - 1855)
- Naval officer, commander of the galleon K. Thorson (1793 - 1851)
Konstantin Petrovich Torson as a midshipman took part in the battle with the Swedes in the Gulf of Finland in 1808. Lieutenant on the sloop "Vostok" went around the world. In 1824 he was promoted to lieutenant commander - a brilliant career, a favorite of the fleet, proximity to the highest circles of the empire. After the defeat of the December uprising, in 1826, he was sentenced to hard labor. In the Nerchinsk mines, in the Petrovsky casemate, he pondered a program for the development of the productive forces of Siberia. In eternal exile in Selenginsk, he set himself the goal of being useful to the region by introducing machines, and he himself built a threshing machine. He was engaged in melon growing. During his trip to Antarctica on the Vostok sloop, Bellingshausen named the island after him, which was then renamed Vysokiy
- Lieutenant of Railways G. Batenkov (1793 - 1863)
- Naval officer V. Romanov (1796 - 1864)
- Officer of the General Staff N. Basargin (1800 - 1861)
- Naval officer, teacher of the Naval Cadet Corps D. Zavalishin (1804-1892) ………
Goals of the Decembrist uprising
With his leaders, they were vague. “Going out into the street, (the leaders) did not carry behind them a specific plan for the state system; they simply wanted to take advantage of the confusion at court in order to call society into action. Their plan is as follows: in case of success, apply to the State Council and the Senate with a proposal to form a provisional government .... The provisional government was supposed to manage affairs until the meeting of the Zemstvo Duma .... The Zemstvo Duma, as a constituent assembly, was supposed to develop a new state structure. Thus, the leaders of the movement set themselves the goal of a new order, leaving the development of this order to the representatives of the land, which means that the movement was caused not by a certain plan of state structure, but by more boiling feelings that prompted to somehow direct the matter along a different track.
Timeline of the Decembrist uprising of 1825
- 1816 - A secret society was formed in St. Petersburg from the guards officers of the general staff under the leadership of Nikita Muravyov and Prince Trubetskoy. Called the "Union of Salvation", it had an indefinite purpose - "to assist in good undertakings to the government in the eradication of all evil in government and in society."
- 1818 - "Union of Salvation" expanded and adopted the name "Union of Welfare"; the goal is "to promote the good causes of the government"
- March 1819 - The author of liberal ideas M. Speransky was sent by the governor of Siberia
- 1819 - summer - riots in military settlements in Ukraine
- 1820, January 17 - Alexander approved the instructions for managing universities. The basis is religion and education of obedience
- 1820, June - a commission was created to develop new rules for censorship
- 1821 - due to the diversity of opinions of the participants, the Union of Welfare broke up into two revolutionary societies The Southern Society in Kyiv was headed by P. Pestel; Severnoye, in St. Petersburg - Nikita Muravyov.
- 1822, January 1 - decree on the prohibition of secret societies in Russia
- 1823, January - adopted at the congress of the southern society political program. called by its author Pestel "Russian Truth"
According to Russkaya Pravda, Russia was to become a republic. Legislative power was vested in the unicameral People's Council. Executive power was exercised by the State Duma. control functions belonged to the Supreme Council, it was assumed the complete abolition of serfdom
- 1825, December 14 - uprising on Senate Square
- 1825, December 29 - 1826, January 3 - the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, led by S. Muravyov-Apostol and M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin
- December 17, 1825 - The Commission for Research on Malicious Societies is established.
- 1826, July 13 - In the morning, at the very time when physical execution was carried out on those condemned to death, on other Decembrists - civil, convicted sailors - two captain-lieutenants - K. P. Thorson and N. A. Bestuzhev, eight lieutenants, three midshipmen - were sent from Peter and Paul Fortress to Kronstadt.
At the fortress mooring, they were loaded onto two twelve-oared whaleboats, on which it was possible to pass under the low St. Isaac's Bridge. Behind the bridge, the schooner "Experience" was waiting for them. The emperor personally ordered that the sailing schooner be duplicated by another steamer, “so that in the event of opposite winds there could be no stoppage in delivering criminals to Kronstadt on the admiral’s ship without fail at the appointed time.”
At six in the morning on July 13, 1826, the convicts were lined up on the deck of the flagship "Prince Vladimir", where representatives from all the ships of the squadron (both officers and sailors) were called by a signal shot, who were also built on the deck of the flagship, on the mast of which a black flag was raised . The convicts were wearing uniforms with epaulettes. They broke their swords over them, tore off their epaulettes and uniforms, threw it all overboard to the beat of drums.
Many of the officers and sailors standing in a square around were crying, not hiding their tears. …
Why did the uprising happen on December 14, 1825?
“The Emperor Alexander was childless; the throne after him, according to the law on April 5, 1797, was supposed to pass to the next brother, Konstantin, and Konstantin was also unhappy in family life, divorced his first wife and married a Polish woman; since the children of this marriage could not have the right to the throne, Constantine became indifferent to this right and in 1822 he renounced the throne in a letter to his elder brother. The elder brother accepted the refusal and, by a manifesto of 1823, appointed the next brother after Konstantin, Nikolai, heir to the throne. (However) this manifesto was not made public and even brought to the attention of the new heir himself. Three copies of the manifesto were placed in Moscow in the Assumption Cathedral, in St. Petersburg - in the Senate and in the State Council with the sovereign's own inscription: "Open after my death" *.
On November 19, 1825, Alexander went to the south of Russia and died in Taganrog from typhoid fever. This death led to confusion: the Grand Duke Nikolai took the oath to Konstantin, and in Warsaw the elder brother, Konstantin, swore the oath to the younger, Nikolai. Relations began, which, with the roads of that time, took a lot of time.
This time of interregnum was used by the Northern Secret Society. Nicholas agreed to take the throne, and on December 14 the oath of the troops and society was appointed. On the eve of the members of the secret society decided to act. The initiator was Ryleev, who, however, was sure of the failure of the case, but only kept repeating: "we still need to start, something will come out." Prince S. Trubetskoy was appointed dictator. Members of the Northern Society spread in the barracks, where the name of Constantine was popular, a rumor that Constantine did not want to renounce the throne at all, that a violent seizure of power was being prepared, and even that the Grand Duke had been arrested.
The course of the uprising. Briefly
- On December 29, 1825, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment began, led by S. Muravyov-Apostol and M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin. On January 3, it was crushed. 121 members of secret societies were convicted in various ways: from execution to exile to Siberia for hard labor, settlement, demotion to soldiers, deprivation of rank, nobility.
Pestel, Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Kakhovsky were sentenced to death and hanged on July 13 under Art. Art. 1826 in the Peter and Paul Fortress
The meaning of the Decembrist uprising
- “The Decembrists woke up Herzen. Herzen launched a revolutionary agitation. It was picked up, expanded, strengthened, tempered by raznochintsy revolutionaries, starting with Chernyshevsky and ending with the heroes of Narodnaya Volya. The circle of fighters became wider, their connection with the people was closer. “Young navigators of the future storm,” Herzen called them. But it wasn't the storm itself. The storm is the movement of the masses themselves. The proletariat, the only fully revolutionary class, rose at the head of them and for the first time raised millions of peasants to open revolutionary struggle. The first onslaught of the storm was in 1905. The next one is growing before our eyes.”(V. I. Lenin. From the article “In Memory of Herzen” (“Social-Democrat”, 1912)
-
The historian V. Klyuchevsky, on the other hand, believed that the main result of the Decembrist uprising was the loss by the Russian nobility and, in particular, the guards, of political significance, political power, the power that it had in the 18th century, overthrowing and enthroning Russian tsars.
*IN. Klyuchevsky. Russian history course. Lecture LXXXIV
The most terrible disaster for the entire people and state of that time has ended - Patriotic War 1812. The victory over the French brought fame to Russian weapons and raised the authority of the Russian state in the international arena. But the consequences of this war were catastrophic. Military operations devastated the western and central provinces of Russia. Their population has decreased by 10%. Many hundreds of thousands of peasant farms were completely ruined or destroyed. The peasants could not fully pay taxes to the state, and because of this, the treasury did not receive more than 150 million rubles in banknotes. At the time, this was a very large sum of money. For military expenses, a large amount of paper money was additionally printed, which led to inflation and the prices of food and goods rose sharply. Although the industry recovered quickly, it had a very low level production.
The entire industry of Russia was concentrated on manufactories, where almost all the work was done by hand, and, naturally, labor productivity was extremely low. The goods of manufactories could not compete with the goods of foreign manufacturers. In agriculture, things were even worse. It was restored only with increased exploitation of a huge number of serfs. Since the price of bread rose sharply in Europe, the Russian landlords increased the amount of dues many times over, while the number of days of corvée also increased. The landlords, without hesitation, took away the land from the peasants and them to their arable land. The peasants expected life to be easier after the war, but their life became much harder. All these reasons led to the fact that in many places of the vast Russian Empire, an anti-serf movement began. The serfs refused to pay taxes and work for the landlords. And then they raised riots and uprisings. The largest scale performance of the serfs occurred on the Don. Up to 45 thousand peasants took part in these performances.
The tsarist government very cruelly suppressed any discontent on the part of the people. A royal decree was issued that allowed the landowners to send guilty peasants to Siberia for disobedience. Particularly distinguished in this was General Arakcheev, who had a huge influence on Emperor Alexander I. It was he who proposed to introduce military settlements in Russia. This led to the fact that the government could greatly increase the size of the army without increasing military spending. But the other side of the coin of such a policy was the displeasure of the soldiers, which often led to disobedience. All the soldiers' protests were suppressed with great cruelty. The press and literature were repressed by the authorities. All these events showed that the serf and autocratic system of the Russian state became a great obstacle to the progressive development of the country. Since many officers participated in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, they saw a completely different life of the people. It was this contrast that led to the first communities of military officers appearing in Russia.
Causes of the Decembrist uprising
The revolutionary ideology of the Decembrists was not formed immediately, but gradually. And so there were several reasons for the uprising of the Decembrists on Senate Square. First, the reason was the conditions in which he lived Russian people. Officers in foreign campaigns saw that in Europe the people lived in a completely different way. There has long been no serfdom. And also the power in the states was regulated with the help of constitutions and laws. In Russia, the serfs suffered from the arbitrariness of the landowners. Arakcheev arbitrariness reigned in the country, and the strong royal hand contributed to this. It was the war that caused many officers to look at their soldiers differently. Secondly, the frightening situation in the country. The officers sincerely wanted to help their people get rid of the many fetters that bound the population and did not give them the opportunity to show their best side. But they were afraid that the unrest of the peasants could turn into a nationwide movement that would engulf the entire country. Since many officers were landowners to some extent, they were naturally afraid of the appearance of a new Stenka Razin or Yemelyan Pugachev. Thirdly, the Decembrists were disappointed in reform activities emperor. This happened when the autocracy began to pursue a reactionary policy in the state. The transition from the liberal course of autocracy to the conservative direction changed political life in the country. Many young officers turned from supporters of the autocracy into its opponents. Fourthly, the ideas of the Decembrists were secretly or openly supported by the progressive people of that time. These included poets and writers, as well as military and statesmen. Fifthly, the revolutionary events in France served as the ideal struggle for the Decembrists of Russia. It was these events that caused the movement of progressively thinking people to gradually begin to appear in Russia. They dreamed of democracy and freedom of speech. Also, many wanted the Russian emperor to share his power, and branches of power appeared in the country, which have long been the norm in Western countries Europe.
Leaders of the Decembrist uprising
The first secret society of military officers appeared in 1816. It was called the "Union of Salvation" and consisted of only 30 people. For a long time, members of this community were looking for ways to abolish serfdom and ways to overthrow the autocracy. In 1818 this organization was closed. But its members founded the Union of Welfare, which already included 200 people. The members of this union began to stake on the army. But within this community there were contradictions, which subsequently led to its closure. After that, in 1821, two societies already appeared in Russia. In Ukraine, the officers formed the "Southern Society", which was headed by Pavel Pestel. It began to fight for the establishment of a republic and the complete abolition of serfdom. In St. Petersburg, the "Northern Society" appeared, headed by Nikita Muravyov. It wanted to establish a constitutional monarchy, and gradually free the peasants from serfdom. Uprising on the Senate Square. On the morning of December 14, 1825, the Decembrists withdrew their troops to Senate Square in St. Petersburg. The rebels lined up in a square (regular quadrangle) near the monument to Peter the Great. The governor-general of St. Petersburg, Miloradovich, learned about the performance of the soldiers. He was very popular among the soldiers, and therefore he thought that his soldiers would listen. But the Decembrist Pyotr Kakhovsky mortally wounded the general. At this time, the Decembrists learn the terrible news that the soldiers of the armies swore allegiance to the new emperor much earlier. Now the Decembrists are forced to choose between death and the shameful surrender of weapons. They chose death, hoping to be supported by other regiments. But the tsarist armies brought artillery to the square. The rebels were waiting for reinforcements, and thus gradually lost the effect of surprise. They did not even listen to the priests who came to the square for negotiations. And only in the evening, when it was already getting dark, an unequal battle ensued. Cannons fired point-blank at the rebellious soldiers. Panic broke out among them, and the soldiers rushed to run. The entire uprising was completely crushed.
Trial of the Decembrists
After the suppression of the uprising, the trial of the leaders of the uprising began. 121 officers were brought before the court to await their verdict. 30 people were sentenced to death. 17 people were sent to Siberia for eternal hard labor. The rest were sent to certain period hard labor, or demoted to the soldiers. The soldiers were punished with blows with gauntlets and sent to penal companies.
The results of the uprising
There are several reasons that led the Decembrist uprising to defeat. The Decembrists were not supported by the entire army. Only those regiments in which the officers were members of secret societies took part in the uprising. In other regiments they were looked upon as traitors. The Decembrists completely ignored the people, considering everyone incapable of fighting against the autocracy. The uprising was not prepared. The performance of the Decembrists was planned only in 1830, and it began purely by accident. Emperor Alexander suddenly dies, and this freed the entire army from the oath. Did not have common tasks and of the same plan among the secret Decembrist societies. The uprising looked in the eyes of the population as an attempted military coup. At that time, among the people there was great faith in the "good king." And the Decembrists dared to touch on this taboo topic. Therefore, the majority of the population of Russia looked at this uprising as an ordinary conspiracy against the tsar. But, despite the defeat, the Decembrist uprising left a huge mark on history. For the first time, progressive forces were able to unite against tsarist power. Many of the slogans of the Decembrists passed on to later revolutionary organizations. The performance of the Decembrists was the last stage of numerous guards military coups. But it was completely different from all the previous ones. aim Decembrist uprising the task was not to replace the monarch on the throne, but to significantly transform Russia. It was planned to carry out socio-economic and political reforms. The uprising of 1825 greatly shocked the tsarist regime and in the future contributed to the emergence of an opposition movement in Russia.