War is such an unjust and bad thing that those who fight try to drown out the voice of conscience.
L.N. Tolstoy
Secret societies of the Decembrists have their origins in the "Union of Salvation" and "Union of Prosperity". Each union developed the ideas of the liberal development of Russia, every year the organizations penetrated deeper and deeper into the governance of the country. It is especially necessary to note the "Union of Welfare", which existed from 1818 to 1821. He promoted the ideas of reforms with the preservation of autocracy. the events of 1820-1821 changed everything. During this time, revolutions took place in Spain, and then in Portugal and Italy. They were practically without blood and the revolutionaries succeeded in the main thing - they achieved the adoption of a liberal constitution. The leaders of secret societies expected that a similar scenario of a bloodless revolution was possible in Russia, but the leaders' views on methods of achievement were different. As a result, the Union of Welfare fell apart:
- Southern secret society with the center in Ukraine, in Tulchin.
- Northern secret society centered in St. Petersburg.
Southern secret society
The southern secret society of the future Decembrists was formed in 1821. It was based in Ukraine in 3 centers:
- In Tulchin. Here was the headquarters of the society, which was called the "Root Council". This city was chosen as the main one, since the 2nd Ukrainian army was quartered here, on the basis of which the society functioned. It was headed by Pestel and Yushnevsky.
- In Kamenka. The heads of the department were Davydov and Volkonsky.
- In Vasilkov. The leaders are Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin.
The secret society of the Decembrists in the south made all decisions at the congresses. These conventions were held annually in Kiev. The first congress was held in January 1822. At this congress, Pestel for the first time formulated his program of reforming Russia, which he called "Russian Truth".
Russian Truth Pestel
Pavel Ivanovich Pestel called his document on the creation of the Constitution "Russian truth", since he wanted to emphasize the connection of his secret society with ancient Russia. Let us recall that in 1047 Yaroslav the Wise adopted the "Russian Truth", in which the set of laws of Kievan Rus was set forth. Then it was necessary, because the country could not be governed without laws. Calling his document Russkaya Pravda, Pestel emphasized that the Russian Empire as of 1822 also had no laws, was powerless, and needed a strong hand to put things in order. Moreover, the order, as this secret society of the Decembrists assumed, was supposed to be more liberal than the post-war policy of Alexander 1.
Pestel's Russkaya Pravda suggested the following:
- Russia must turn from an Empire into a Republic, where the people's parliament will play a decisive role. The parliament is elected.
- The executive power belongs to the Sovereign Duma, which consists of 5 members. Every year 1 person out of 5 changes. The Duma is elected.
- Only men over 20 were allowed to vote.
- The Supreme Council was supposed to monitor the observance of laws in the country. The cathedral was supposedly supposed to consist of 120 people who hold their office for life.
- The country proclaims freedom of religious views and beliefs, press, movement and speech. Before the judiciary, all categories of the population must be equal.
- Complete abolition of serfdom. It was proposed to divide the lands into 2 large groups: public and private. As much land was transferred to private land ownership as should be sufficient for the peasant. The rest went into public use.
- Poland should receive an independent status. Pestel believed that after that Poland would be an ally of Russia.
As you can see, the main program document of the Southern Secret Society of the Decembrists assumed the complete elimination of the monarchy. All power was planned to be concentrated in the hands of the Parliament, which works from a single center. The program did not indicate in which center the Parliament would work: in St. Petersburg or in Moscow. At its core, it was a radical document, which, although it tried to give a liberal path of development for the Russian Empire, required for this to completely overthrow the power of the monarch.
Northern Secret Society
The Northern Secret Society was formed in 1822 in St. Petersburg. The company operated only in the capital of the Russian Empire, without forming a representative office in other cities. The leaders of this secret union of future Decembrists were Muravyov, Pushchin, Lunin, Turgenev, Obolensky and Trubetskoy. Northern society was less radical than Southern society. It did not demand the abolition of the monarchy, but spoke about the creation of restrictive conditions in the form of the Constitution. Ultimately, the Muravyov Constitution was adopted, which in fact was the statutory documents for society.
Muravyov's constitution
The "constitution" developed by Muravyov, and to which the Northern Secret Society of the Decembrists aspired, assumed the following:
- The Russian Empire becomes a constitutional monarchy. Power still belongs to the emperor, but now it must be limited by the Constitution. Mostly the emperor was deprived of legislative power.
- Legislative power was transferred to the disposal of the Parliament. The parliament was elected, but not everyone was allowed to take part in the elections. In contrast to the Southern society, the elections were allowed not on the basis of reaching a certain age, but on the basis of achieving a certain property. In fact, only the rich were allowed to vote.
- All government offices in Russia were to become elective. Thus, the Table of Ranks, introduced by Peter 1, was destroyed.
- The general equality of the strata of the population before the law was asserted. Freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of the press were also consolidated.
- Abolition of serfdom. The document provided for the redistribution of land. Most of it was to pass into the permanent use of landlords. The peasants were supposed to allocate 2 tithes of land. This was not enough to feed the peasant family, so the document seemed to suggest that the peasants would voluntarily be hired to work for the landlords.
- The Russian Empire was to be transformed into a Federation form. It was supposed to introduce 13 federal districts, each of which was supposed to have its own center. I would like to note that Kiev was supposed to be the center of Chernomorsk.
This Constitution was not an attempt to change the country for the better, but an attempt to redistribute resources. Yes, the document provided for the abolition of serfdom, but in fact the peasants did not become free. The entire program of the Northern Secret Society was based on the fact that the landowners, as a class, were to receive a more significant role in the government of the country.
Common and Differences in Societies
The secret societies of the Decembrists set themselves a single goal - the abolition of serfdom and the reform of the country's governing system. Another thing is that the ways of reforming were different. Traditionally, in the south, it was not about attempts to modify the government, but about a full-scale revolution, during which the emperor was to be arrested or executed. The northern society adhered to the principles of introducing the Constitution, since this society was closer to the circles of government of the country, therefore it was located in St. Petersburg. Since this society was close to government, it could not consider options for the destruction of the imperial power. Therefore, the Constitution was chosen, but the Constitution is aimed at ordinary people, but at the wealthy.
Ultimately, despite differences in the principles of conducting their activities, the development of the Northern and Southern secret societies led to an uprising on Senate Square in December 1825. The uprising was spontaneous, but it was the first prepared and relatively large-scale attempt to overthrow the government.
DECABRISTS
The emergence of the movement of noble revolutionaries was determined both by internal processes taking place in Russia and by international events of the first quarter of the 19th century.
Reasons and nature of the movement. The main reason is the understanding by the best representatives of the nobility that the preservation of serfdom and autocracy is disastrous for the future fate of the country.
An important reason was the Patriotic War of 1812 and the presence of the Russian army in Europe in 1813-1815. The future Decembrists called themselves "children of the 12th year". They understood that the people who saved Russia from enslavement and liberated Europe from Napoleon deserve a better fate. Acquaintance with European reality convinced the advanced part of the nobility that the serfdom of the Russian peasantry must be changed. They found confirmation of these thoughts in the works of French enlighteners who spoke out against feudalism and absolutism. The ideology of noble revolutionaries took shape on domestic soil, since many statesmen and public figures already in the 18th - early 19th centuries. spoke with condemnation of serfdom.
The international situation also contributed to the formation of a revolutionary outlook among some of the Russian nobles. According to the figurative expression of P.I. Pestel, one of the most radical leaders of secret societies, the spirit of transformation made "minds bubble everywhere."
“Every post is a revolution,” they said, hinting at receiving information in Russia about the revolutionary and national liberation movement in Europe and Latin America. The ideology of the European and Russian revolutionaries, their strategy and tactics largely coincided. Therefore, the uprising in Russia in 1825 is on a par with the general European revolutionary processes. They were objectively bourgeois in nature.
However, the social movement in Russia had its own specifics. It was expressed in the fact that in Russia there was virtually no bourgeoisie capable of fighting for its interests and for democratic reforms. The broad populace was dark, uneducated, and downtrodden. They retained monarchist illusions and political inertia for a long time. Therefore, the revolutionary ideology, the understanding of the need to modernize the country took shape at the beginning of the 19th century. exclusively from the advanced part of the nobility, who opposed the interests of their class. The circle of revolutionaries was extremely limited - mainly, representatives of the high-born nobility and the privileged officer corps.
Secret societies in Russia appeared at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. They were Masonic in nature, and their members shared, in the main, the liberal educational ideology. In the years 1811-1812. there was a "Choka" circle of 7 people, created by N.N. Muravyov. In a fit of youthful idealism, its members dreamed of founding a republic on Sakhalin Island. After the end of the Patriotic War of 1812, secret organizations existed in the form of officers' associations, circles of young people linked by kinship and friendship. In 1814 in St. Petersburg N.N. Muravyov formed the "Sacred Artel". Also known is the Order of the Russian Knights, founded by M.F. Orlov. These organizations actually did not take active action, but they were of great importance, since the ideas and views of the future leaders of the movement were formed in them.
The first political organizations. In February 1816, after the return of most of the Russian army from Europe, a secret society of the future Decembrists, the Union of Salvation, arose in St. Petersburg. From February 1817 it was named "Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland". It was founded by P.I. Pestel, A.N. Muravyov, S.P. Trubetskoy. They were joined by K.F. Ryleev, I. D. Yakushkin, M.S. Lunin, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol and others.
The Union of Salvation was the first Russian political organization to have a revolutionary program and charter - the Statute. It contained two main ideas for the reorganization of Russian society - the elimination of serfdom and the destruction of autocracy. Serfdom was seen as a shame and the main brake on the progressive development of Russia, autocracy as an obsolete political system. The document spoke of the need to introduce a constitution that would limit the rights of absolute power. Despite heated debates and serious disagreements (some members of society strongly spoke out in favor of a republican form of government), the majority considered a constitutional monarchy to be the ideal of the future political system. This was the first watershed in the views of the Decembrists. Disputes on this issue continued until 1825.
In January 1818, the Union of Welfare was created - a fairly large organization, numbering about 200 people. Its composition, as before, remained predominantly noble. There were many young people in it, the military predominated. The organizers and leaders were A.N. and N.M. Muravyovs, S.I. and M.I. Muravyov-Apostles, P.I. Pestel, I. D. Yakushkin, M.S. Lunin and others. The organization received a fairly clear structure. The Root Council, the general governing body, and the Council (Duma), which possessed executive power, were elected. Local organizations of the Union of Welfare appeared in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tulchin, Kishinev, Tambov, Nizhny Novgorod.
The program and charter of the union were called "Green Book" (according to the color of the binding). Conspiracy tactics and conspiracy of leaders. They called for the development of two parts of the program. The first, connected with legal forms of activity, was intended for all members of society. The second part, which spoke about the need to overthrow the autocracy, the elimination of serfdom, the introduction of constitutional government and, most importantly, the implementation of these requirements by violent means, was known to those who were especially initiated.
All members of the society took part in legal activities. They tried to influence public opinion. For this purpose, educational organizations were created, books and literary almanacs were published. Members of the society also acted by personal example - they set free their serfs, ransomed them from the landowners and set free the most gifted peasants.
Members of the organization (mainly within the framework of the Root Council) waged fierce disputes about the future structure of Russia and the tactics of the revolutionary coup. Some insisted on a constitutional monarchy, others on a republican form of government. By 1820, Republicans began to dominate. The root government considered a conspiracy based on the army as a means of achieving its goal. Discussion of tactical issues - when and how to carry out a coup - revealed great disagreements between radical and moderate leaders. Events in Russia and Europe (the uprising in the Semyonovsky regiment, revolutions in Spain and Naples) inspired the organization's members to seek more radical action. The most resolute insisted on the earliest possible preparation for a military coup. The moderates objected to this.
At the beginning of 1821, due to ideological and tactical differences, it was decided to dissolve the Union of Welfare. By taking such a step, the leadership of the society intended to get rid of traitors and spies, who, as it reasonably believed, could infiltrate the organization. A new period began, associated with the creation of new organizations and active preparations for a revolutionary uprising.
In March 1821, the Southern Society was formed in Ukraine. Its creator and leader was P.I. Pestel, a staunch Republican with some dictatorial manners. The founders were also A.P. Yushnevsky, N.V. Basargin, V.P. Ivashev and others. In 1822 the Northern Society was formed in St. Petersburg. Its recognized leaders were N.M. Muravyov, K.F. Ryleev, S.P. Trubetskoy, M.S. Lunin. Both societies "thought not otherwise how to act together." These were large political organizations for that time, possessing well-theoretically developed program documents.
Constitutional projects. The main projects discussed were the "Constitution" of N.M. Muravyov and "Russian Truth" by P.I. Pestel. "Constitution" reflected the views of the moderate part of the Decembrists, "Russkaya Pravda" - the radical. The focus was on the question of the future state structure of Russia.
N.M. Muravyov advocated a constitutional monarchy - a political system in which executive power belonged to the emperor (the hereditary power of the tsar was retained for continuity), and legislative power belonged to parliament ("People's veche"). The suffrage of citizens was limited by a rather high property qualification. Thus, a significant part of the poor population was excluded from the political life of the country.
P.I. Pestel unconditionally spoke out for the republican state system. In his draft, the legislative power was possessed by a unicameral parliament, and the executive power was possessed by the "Sovereign Duma" consisting of five members. Every year one of the members of the "State Duma" became the president of the republic. P.I. Pestel proclaimed the principle of universal suffrage. In accordance with the ideas of P.I. Pestel in Russia, a parliamentary republic with a presidential form of government was to be established. It was one of the most progressive political projects of the state structure of that time.
In solving the agrarian and peasant question, which is most important for Russia, P.I. Pestel and N.M. Muravyov unanimously recognized the need for the complete abolition of serfdom and the personal emancipation of the peasants. This idea ran like a red thread through all the program documents of the Decembrists. However, the question of allotting land to the peasants was solved by them in different ways.
N.M. Muravyov, considering the landlord's ownership of the land inviolable, offered to transfer to the ownership of the peasants a personal plot and 2 tithes of arable land per yard. This was clearly not enough to run a profitable peasant economy.
According to P.I. Pestel, part of the landowners' land was confiscated and transferred to a public fund to provide the workers with an allotment sufficient to "feed" them. So, for the first time in Russia, the principle of land distribution according to the labor rate was put forward. Consequently, in solving the land issue P.I. Pestel took a more radical position than N.M. Muravyov.
Both projects dealt with other aspects of the socio-political system of Russia. They provided for the introduction of broad democratic civil liberties, the abolition of estate privileges, and a significant facilitation of the military service of soldiers. N.M. Muravyov proposed a federal structure of the future Russian state, P.I. Pestel insisted on preserving the indivisible Russia, in which all peoples were to merge into one.
In the summer of 1825, the southerners agreed on joint actions with the leaders of the Polish Patriotic Society. At the same time, the "Society of United Slavs" joined them, forming a special Slavic council. All of them launched active agitation among the troops with the aim of preparing an uprising in the summer of 1826. However, important internal political events forced them to speed up their action.
The uprising in St. Petersburg. After the death of Tsar Alexander I, an extraordinary situation developed in the country - an interregnum. The leaders of the Northern Society decided that the change of emperors created a favorable moment for the performance. They developed a plan for the uprising and appointed it for December 14 - the day the Senate took the oath to Nicholas. The conspirators wanted to force the Senate to adopt their new program document - "Manifesto to the Russian people" - and instead of swearing an oath to the emperor, proclaim the transition to constitutional rule.
The "Manifesto" formulated the main demands of the Decembrists: the abolition of the previous government, ie. autocracy; the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of democratic freedoms. Much attention was paid to improving the situation of the soldiers: the destruction of recruitment, corporal punishment, and the system of military settlements was proclaimed. The Manifesto announced the establishment of a temporary revolutionary government and the convocation after some time of the Great Council of representatives of all estates of Russia to determine the future political structure of the country.
Early in the morning of December 14, 1825, the most active members of the Northern Society began agitation among the troops of St. Petersburg. They intended to bring them to Senate Square and thereby influence the senators. However, the progress was rather slow. Only by 11 o'clock in the morning was it possible to bring the Moscow Life Guards regiment to Senate Square. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the insurgents were joined by the sailors of the Guards naval crew and some other units of the St. Petersburg garrison - about 3 thousand soldiers and sailors led by Decembrist officers. But further events did not develop according to the plan. It turned out that the Senate had already sworn allegiance to Emperor Nicholas I and the senators had gone home. There was no one to show the Manifesto. S.P. Trubetskoy, appointed dictator of the uprising, did not appear on the square. The rebels found themselves without leadership and doomed themselves to senseless tactics of waiting.
In the meantime, Nikolai gathered the units loyal to him on the square and resolutely took advantage of them. Artillery buckshot scattered the ranks of the rebels, who, in a disorderly flight, tried to escape on the ice of the Neva. The uprising in St. Petersburg was defeated. Arrests of members of the society and their sympathizers began.
The uprising in the south. Despite the arrests of some leaders of the Southern Society and news of the defeat of the uprising in St. Petersburg, those who remained at large decided to support their comrades. December 29, 1825 S.I. Muravyov-Apostol and M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin raised the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. It was originally doomed to fail. On January 3, 1826, the regiment was surrounded by government troops and shot with grapeshot.
Investigation and trial. 579 people were involved in the investigation, which took place in secret and closed. 289 were found guilty. Nicholas I decided to severely punish the rebels. Five people - P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky - were hanged. The rest, dividing according to the degree of guilt into several categories, were exiled to hard labor, to a settlement in Siberia, demoted to soldiers and transferred to the Caucasus into the active army. None of the punished Decembrists during the life of Nicholas returned home. Some of the soldiers and sailors were beaten with rods and sent to Siberia and the Caucasus. For many years in Russia it was forbidden to mention the uprising.
The reasons for the defeat and the significance of the performance of the Decembrists. The stake on a conspiracy and a military coup, the weakness of propaganda, the lack of preparedness of society for transformations, lack of coordination of actions, wait-and-see tactics at the time of the uprising are the main reasons for the defeat of the Decembrists.
However, their performance was a significant event in Russian history. The Decembrists developed the first revolutionary program and plan for the future structure of the country. For the first time, a practical attempt was made to change the socio-political system of Russia. The ideas and activities of the Decembrists had a significant impact on the further development of social thought.
What you need to know on this topic:
Socio-economic development of Russia in the first half of the XIX century. Social structure of the population.
Agricultural development.
The development of Russian industry in the first half of the XIX century. Formation of capitalist relations. Industrial revolution: essence, preconditions, chronology.
Development of waterways and highways. Start of railway construction.
Aggravation of socio-political contradictions in the country. Palace coup in 1801 and the accession to the throne of Alexander I. "The days of the Alexandrovs are a wonderful beginning."
The peasant question. The decree "on free farmers". Government measures in the field of education. State activity of M.M. Speransky and his plan of state transformations. Creation of the State Council.
Russia's participation in anti-French coalitions. Tilsit Peace Treaty.
Patriotic War of 1812. International relations on the eve of the war. Causes and the beginning of the war. The balance of forces and military plans of the parties. M.B. Barclay de Tolly. P.I.Bagration. M.I.Kutuzov. The stages of the war. Results and significance of the war.
Foreign campaigns 1813-1814 Congress of Vienna and its decisions. Sacred union.
The internal situation of the country in 1815-1825 Strengthening of conservative sentiments in Russian society. A.A. Arakcheev and Arakcheevshchina. Military settlements.
Foreign policy of tsarism in the first quarter of the 19th century
The first secret organizations of the Decembrists were the Union of Salvation and the Union of Prosperity. Northern and Southern Society. The main program documents of the Decembrists are "Russian Truth" by P.I. Pestel and "Constitution" by N.M. Muraviev. Death of Alexander I. Interregnum. Uprising on December 14, 1825 in St. Petersburg. The uprising of the Chernigov regiment. Investigation and trial of the Decembrists. The meaning of the Decembrist uprising.
The beginning of the reign of Nicholas I. Strengthening the autocratic power. Further centralization, bureaucratization of the state system in Russia. Strengthening repressive measures. Creation of the III branch. Censorship charter. The era of censorship terror.
Codification. M.M.Speransky. Reform of the state peasants. P.D. Kiselev. The decree "on obliged peasants."
Polish uprising of 1830-1831
The main directions of Russian foreign policy in the second quarter of the XIX century.
Eastern question. Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829 The problem of straits in the foreign policy of Russia in the 30-40s of the XIX century.
Russia and the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 in Europe.
Crimean War. International relations on the eve of the war. Causes of the war. The course of hostilities. The defeat of Russia in the war. The Paris Peace of 1856. International and internal consequences of the war.
Accession of the Caucasus to Russia.
Formation of the state (imamate) in the North Caucasus. Muridism. Shamil. Caucasian War. The significance of the annexation of the Caucasus to Russia.
Social thought and social movement in Russia in the second quarter of the 19th century.
Formation of government ideology. The theory of the official nationality. Circles of the late 20s - early 30s of the XIX century.
N.V. Stankevich's circle and German idealistic philosophy. A.I. Herzen's circle and utopian socialism. "Philosophical letter" P.Ya. Chaadaev. Westerners. Moderate. Radicals. Slavophiles. MV Butashevich-Petrashevsky and his circle. The theory of "Russian socialism" A.I. Herzen.
Socio-economic and political prerequisites for the bourgeois reforms of the 60-70s of the XIX century.
Peasant reform. Preparation of the reform. "Regulations" February 19, 1861 Personal liberation of the peasants. Nadela. Ransom. Obligations of the peasants. Temporarily liable state.
Zemskaya, judicial, urban reforms. Financial reforms. Reforms in the field of education. Censorship rules. Military reforms. The significance of bourgeois reforms.
Socio-economic development of Russia in the second half of the XIX century. Social structure of the population.
Industry development. Industrial revolution: essence, preconditions, chronology. The main stages in the development of capitalism in industry.
The development of capitalism in agriculture. Rural community in post-reform Russia. Agrarian crisis of the 80-90s of the XIX century.
Social movement in Russia in the 50-60s of the XIX century.
Social movement in Russia 70-90s of the XIX century.
The revolutionary populist movement of the 70s - early 80s of the XIX century.
"Land and Freedom" of the 70s of the XIX century. "Narodnaya Volya" and "Black Redistribution". The assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881. The collapse of "Narodnaya Volya".
Labor movement in the second half of the 19th century. Strike struggle. The first workers' organizations. The emergence of a work question. Factory legislation.
Liberal populism of the 80-90s of the XIX century. The spread of the ideas of Marxism in Russia. Group "Emancipation of Labor" (1883-1903). The emergence of Russian social democracy. Marxist circles of the 80s of the XIX century.
Petersburg "Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class". V.I.Ulyanov. "Legal Marxism".
Political reaction of the 80-90s of the XIX century. The era of counterreforms.
Alexander III. Manifesto on the "inviolability" of autocracy (1881). Counter-reform policy. Results and significance of counter-reforms.
The international position of Russia after the Crimean War. Changes in the country's foreign policy program. The main directions and stages of Russian foreign policy in the second half of the XIX century.
Russia in the system of international relations after the Franco-Prussian war. Union of three emperors.
Russia and the Eastern Crisis of the 70s of the XIX century. The goals of Russia's policy in the Eastern question. The Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878: reasons, plans and forces of the parties, the course of hostilities. San Stefano Peace Treaty. Berlin Congress and its decisions. The role of Russia in the liberation of the Balkan peoples from the Ottoman yoke.
Foreign policy of Russia in the 80-90s of the XIX century Formation of the Triple Alliance (1882). Deterioration of Russia's relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The conclusion of the Russian-French alliance (1891-1894).
- Buganov V.I., Zyryanov P.N. History of Russia: late 17th - 19th centuries ... - M .: Education, 1996.
Chronology
- 1816 - 1817 The activities of the "Union of Salvation".
- 1818 - 1821 Activities of the Union of Welfare.
- 1821 Formation of the “Southern Society”.
- 1821 - 1822 Formation of the “Northern Society”.
- 1825, December 14 Decembrist uprising in St. Petersburg.
- 1825, December 29 The uprising of the Chernigov regiment.
Social movement in Russia in the XIX - early XX centuries.
In the history of social and political thought in Russia, the 19th century occupies a special place. During these years, the destruction of the feudal-serf system and the establishment of capitalism proceeded at an especially rapid pace. As Herzen wrote, at the beginning XIX century "there were almost no revolutionary ideas, but power and thought, imperial decrees and a humane word, autocracy and civilization could no longer go alongside."
In Russia, an internally free layer of the intelligentsia is gradually moving into the political arena, which is to play an outstanding role in the 19th century. Awareness of the need for change was also in the government camp. However, the ideas of the ways of change among the autocracy and various political forces differed significantly. In accordance with this, three main trends in the development of socio-political thought are clearly distinguished in the history of Russia: conservative, liberal and revolutionary.
Conservatives strove to preserve the foundations of the existing socio-political system. Liberals put pressure on the government to force it to undertake reforms. The revolutionaries achieved profound changes in various ways, including by forcibly changing the country's political system.
A feature of the social movement at the beginning of the 19th century was the dominance of the nobility. This is primarily due to the fact that in the environment nobility the intelligentsia was formed, which began to realize the need for political transformations in the country and put forward specific political doctrines.
The Russian bourgeoisie during these years did not take an active part in the social movement because it was absorbed by accumulation, profit in the conditions of initial accumulation. She needed not political reforms, but administrative and legislative measures that contributed to the development of capitalism. The Russian bourgeoisie was quite satisfied with the economic policy of tsarism, aimed at the development of capitalism. The political capacity of the Russian bourgeoisie lagged far behind its economic power. It entered the economic struggle at a time when the Russian proletariat, which had created its own political party, was already playing an active role in the social and political struggle.
In the years when the authorities refused to reform, a revolutionary political trend clearly manifested itself. It was Decembrist movement... The main factor in its emergence was the socio-economic, especially the political conditions for the development of Russia.
In 1825, the most far-sighted nobles already understood that the fate of the country and the nobility itself was not limited to royal privileges and favors. The people who came to Senate Square wanted to free the peasants and establish representative bodies of power themselves. Sacrificing their destinies and lives for the people, they could not sacrifice their privilege to decide for the people without asking them.
“We are children of 1812,” wrote Matvey Muravyov-Apostol, stressing that the Patriotic War was the starting point of their movement. Over a hundred Decembrists took part in the war of 1812, 65 of those who in 1825 would be called state criminals fought to death with the enemy on the Borodino field. Acquaintance with the progressive thought of the French and Russian educators strengthened the desire of the Decembrists to put an end to the causes of Russia's backwardness and to ensure the free development of its people.
Academician M.V. Nechkina, a well-known researcher of the history of the Decembrist movement, called the main reason for its inception the crisis of the feudal-serf, autocratic system, i.e. the very Russian reality, and already in the second place noted the influence of European ideas and impressions from the foreign campaigns of the Russian army.
His first secret society " Salvation union”Guards officers A.N. Muravyov, N.M. Muravyov, S.P. Trubetskoy, I. D. Yakushkin, founded in 1816 g... in Petersburg... The name was inspired by the French Revolution (Committee of Public Safety - the French government of the era of "Jacobin dictatorship"). In 1817 P.I. Pestel, who wrote his Statute (charter). A new name also appeared - “The Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland”. The revolutionaries planned at the time of the change of the monarch on the throne to force him to accept the Constitution, limiting the royal power and destroying serfdom.
Based on the "Union of Salvation" in 1818 in Moscow was created "Union of prosperity", which included more than 200 people. This organization set itself the task of promoting anti-serfdom ideas, supporting the government's liberal intentions, creating public opinion against serfdom and autocracy. It took 10 years to solve that problem. The Decembrists believed that the conquest of society would help to avoid the horrors of the French Revolution and make the coup bloodless.
The government's abandonment of reformist plans and the transition to reaction in foreign and domestic policy forced the Decembrists to change their tactics. In 1821, at the congress of the Union of Welfare in Moscow, it was decided to overthrow the autocracy by means of a military revolution. From a vague “Union” it was decided to move to a conspiratorial and clearly formed secret organization. IN 1821 — 1822 biennium emerged “ Yuzhnoe" and " North”Society. IN 1823 g. an organization was created in Ukraine “ Society of United Slavs”, By the autumn of 1825 it merged with the“ Southern Society ”.
Throughout its existence, the Decembrist movement had serious disagreements on the ways and methods of implementing transformations, on the form of state structure of the country, etc. Within the framework of the movement, one can trace not only revolutionary (they manifested themselves especially clearly), but also liberal tendencies. The discrepancies between the members of the “Southern” and “Northern” societies were reflected in the programs developed by P.I. Pestel (“ Russian truth") And Nikita Muravyov (" Constitution”).
One of the most important questions remained the question of the state structure of Russia. According to the "Constitution" N. Muravyova Russia turned into constitutional monarchy where the executive power belonged to the emperor, and the legislative was transferred to a bicameral parliament, - To the People's Veche... The people were solemnly proclaimed by the Constitution as the source of all state life, the emperor was only “the supreme official of the Russian state”. The right to vote provided for a fairly high electoral qualification. The courtiers were deprived of voting rights. A number of basic bourgeois freedoms were proclaimed - speech, movement, religion.
By " Russian truth"Pestela Russia was announced republic, in which power until the implementation of the necessary bourgeois-democratic reforms was concentrated in the hands of Provisional Supreme Rule... Further, the supreme power was transferred to a unicameral To the People's Veche out of 500 people elected for 5 years by men from the age of 20 without any qualification restrictions. The supreme executive body was Sovereign Duma(5 people), elected for 5 years by the People's Chamber and responsible to it. At the head of Russia became the president... Pestel rejected the principle of federal structure, Russia remained united and indivisible.
The second most important issue is the issue of serfdom. Both N. Muravyov's "Constitution" and Pestel's "Russian Truth" against serfdom... “Serfdom and slavery are abolished. A slave who touches the Russian land becomes free, ”stated § 16 of N. Muravyov's Constitution. According to Russkaya Pravda, serfdom was immediately abolished. The emancipation of the peasants was declared to be the “most sacred and indispensable” duty of the Provisional Government. All citizens were given equal rights.
N. Muravyov suggested that the freed peasants keep their homestead land “for vegetable gardens” and two tithes of arable land per yard. Pestel considered the emancipation of peasants without land completely unacceptable and intended to solve the land problem by combining the principles of public and private property. The public land fund was to be formed through the seizure without redemption of landowners' land, the size of which exceeded 10 thousand dessiatines. Half of the land was alienated from land holdings of 5-10 thousand dessiatines for a fee. From the public fund, all who wished to cultivate it were allotted land.
The Decembrists associated the implementation of their programs with a revolutionary change in the existing system in the country. Generally speaking, Pestel's project was more radical and consistent from the point of view of the development of bourgeois relations in Russia than Muravyov's. At the same time, both of them were progressive, revolutionary programs for the bourgeois reorganization of feudal Russia.
Representatives of the “Northern” and “Southern” societies planned a joint performance in the summer of 1826. But the unexpected death of Alexander I, which happened on November 19, 1825 in Taganrog, entailed a dynastic crisis and forced the conspirators to change their plans. Alexander I left no heir, and according to the law, the throne passed to his middle brother Constantine. However, back in 1822, Constantine signed a secret abdication. This document was kept in the Synod and the State Council, but was not made public. On November 27, the country swore allegiance to Constantine. Only on December 12 did the answer come about the abdication of Constantine, who was in Poland. On the On December 14, the oath of allegiance was assigned to Nikolai, younger brother.
The plan of the Decembrists was to withdraw troops to Senate Square (where the buildings of the Senate and Synod were located) and to prevent senators from taking the oath to Nicholas I, to force the government to declare deposed, to issue a revolutionary one " Manifesto to the Russian people y ”, compiled by K.F. Ryleev and S.P. Trubetskoy. The royal family was to be arrested in the Winter Palace. A dictator, i.e. the leader of the uprising, the Colonel of the Guard, Prince S.P. Trubetskoy, chief of staff - E.P. Obolensky.
Several companies of the Moscow regiment entered Senate Square at 11 am. Governor-General M.A. Miloradovich with a call to return to the barracks and swear allegiance to Nicholas I, but was mortally wounded by a shot from Kakhovsky. The number of rebels gradually reached three thousand, however, without leadership (Trubetskoy did not appear on Senate Square), they continued to stand in anticipation. By this time, Nikolai, seeing that "the matter was becoming serious," pulled about 12 thousand people to the square and sent for artillery. In response to the refusal of the Decembrists to lay down their arms, canister fire began. By 6 pm, the uprising was suppressed, about 1300 people died.
December 29, 1825... under the leadership of S. Muravyov-Apostol made Chernigov regiment, but already on January 3, 1826, the uprising was suppressed.
In the case of the Decembrists, 316 people were arrested. The defendants were divided into 11 categories, depending on the degree of their guilt. Five people were sentenced to death by quartering, replaced by hanging (P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, P.G. Kakhovsky, S.I.Muravyev-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin).
On July 13, 1826, an execution took place in the Peter and Paul Fortress. During the execution of Ryleev, Kakhovsky, Muravyov-Apostol, the ropes were broken, but they were hung again.
Trubetskoy, Obolensky, N. Muravyev, Yakubovich, Yakushkin and others went to hard labor in Siberia. bonfire).
Only in 1856 amnesty was announced in connection with the coronation of Alexander II. A whole generation of young, educated and active people was torn from the life of the country. From “the depths of Siberian ores,” the Decembrist A.I. Odoevsky wrote to Pushkin:
“Our sorrowful labor will not be lost,
A spark will ignite a flame ... "
The forecast turned out to be accurate. Having dealt with the Decembrists, the government of Nicholas I was unable to kill free thought and the desire of the progressive part of society for changes.
A company of young nobles who dreamed of changing the state of affairs in Russia. In the early stages, quite a lot of people participated in the Decembrist secret societies, and later the investigation had to think about who was considered a conspirator and who was not. This is because the activities of these societies were limited exclusively to conversations. Whether the members of the Union of Welfare and the Union of Salvation were ready to take any active actions is a moot point.
The societies included people of varying degrees of nobility, wealth and status, but there are several things that united them.
Decembrists at the mill in Chita. Drawing by Nikolai Repin. 1830s Decembrist Nikolai Repin was sentenced to hard labor for 8 years, then the term was reduced to 5 years. He served his sentence in the Chita prison and in the Petrovsky Zavod. Wikimedia CommonsThey were all nobles
Poor or well-to-do, well-born or not, but they all belonged to the nobility, that is, to the elite, which implies a certain standard of living, education and status. This, in particular, meant that much of their behavior was determined by the code of noble honor. This subsequently presented them with a difficult moral dilemma: the nobleman's code and the conspirator's code clearly contradict each other. A nobleman, being caught in an unsuccessful uprising, must appear before the sovereign and obey, the conspirator must be silent and not betray anyone. A nobleman cannot and should not lie, a conspirator does everything that is required to achieve his goals. It is impossible to imagine a Decembrist living in an illegal position with forged documents - that is, the usual life of an underground worker in the second half of the 19th century.
The vast majority were officers
Decembrists are people of the army, professional military men with appropriate education; many went through battles and were heroes of wars, had military awards.
They were not revolutionaries in the classical sense.
All of them sincerely considered their main goal to be service for the good of the fatherland and, had the circumstances been different, they would have considered it an honor to serve the sovereign as state dignitaries. The overthrow of the sovereign was not at all the main idea of the Decembrists, they came to it, looking at the current state of affairs and logically studying the experience of revolutions in Europe (and not all of them liked this idea).
How many Decembrists were there?
Nikolai Panov's cell in the prison of the Petrovsky Plant. Drawing by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1830s Nikolai Bestuzhev was sentenced to hard labor forever, was held in Chita and in the Petrovsky Zavod, then in Selenginsk, Irkutsk province. In total, after the uprising on December 14, 1825, more than 300 people were arrested, 125 of them were convicted, the rest were acquitted. It is difficult to establish the exact number of participants in the Decembrist and pre-Decembrist societies, precisely because all their activities were reduced to more or less abstract conversations in a friendly circle of young people, not bound by a clear plan or strict formal organization.
It is worth noting that the people who participated in the Decembrist secret societies and directly in the uprising are two not too overlapping sets. Many of those who participated in the meetings of the early Decembrist societies subsequently completely lost interest in them and became, for example, zealous guardian officials; for nine years (from 1816 to 1825) quite a lot of people passed through secret societies. In turn, those who did not enter secret societies at all or were accepted a couple of days before the mutiny also took part in the uprising.
How did you become Decembrists?
"Russian Truth" by Pavel Pestel. 1824 year Program document of the Southern Society of Decembrists. The full name is the Reserved State Charter of the great Russian people, which serves as a covenant for the improvement of Russia and contains a true mandate both for the people and for the temporary supreme government with dictatorial powers. To be included in the circle of the Decembrists, sometimes it was enough to answer the question of a not quite sober friend: “There is a society of people who want the welfare, prosperity, happiness and freedom of Russia. Are you with us?" - and both could later forget about this conversation. It is worth noting that conversations about politics in the noble society of that time were not at all encouraged, so those who were inclined to such conversations, willy-nilly, formed closed circles of interests. In a sense, the Decembrist secret societies can be considered a way of socializing the then generation of young people; a way to get away from the emptiness and boredom of officer society, to find a more sublime and meaningful way of existence.
So, the Southern Society arose in the tiny Ukrainian town of Tulchin, where the headquarters of the Second Army was quartered. Educated young officers, whose interests are not limited to cards and vodka, gather in their circle to talk about politics - and this is their only entertainment; they will call these meetings, according to the fashion of the time, a secret society, which, in fact, was just a way characteristic of the era to define themselves and their interests.
Likewise, the Salvation Union was simply a company of comrades-in-arms of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment; many were relatives. Returning from the war in 1816, they organize their life in St. Petersburg, where life was quite expensive, according to the familiar gang principle of soldiers: they rent an apartment, throw off for food and write down the details of the common life in the charter. This small friendly company would later become a secret society with the loud name of the Union of Salvation, or the Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland. In fact, this is a very small - a couple of dozen people - a friendly circle, the participants of which wanted, among other things, to talk about the politics and ways of development of Russia.
By 1818, the circle of participants would begin to expand, and the Union of Salvation was being reformed into the Union of Welfare, in which there were already about 200 people from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and all of them never gathered together and two members of the union might not have known personally. This uncontrolled expansion of the circle prompted the leaders of the movement to announce the dissolution of the Welfare Union: to get rid of unnecessary people, as well as to give the opportunity to those who wanted to seriously continue the business and prepare a real conspiracy to do it without extra eyes and ears.
How did they differ from other revolutionaries?
The first page of the constitutional project of Nikita Muravyov. 1826 year The constitution of Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov is a program document of the Northern Society. It was not officially accepted by the society, but it was widely known and reflected the mood of the majority of its members. Compiled in 1822-1825. Project "100 Main Documents of Russian History" In fact, the Decembrists were the first political opposition in the history of Russia, created on ideological grounds (and not, for example, in the course of the struggle of court groups for access to power). Soviet historians habitually began a chain of revolutionaries with them, which was continued by Herzen, the Petrashevists, Narodniks, Narodnaya Volya and, finally, the Bolsheviks. However, the Decembrists were distinguished from them primarily by the fact that they were not obsessed with the idea of revolution as such, did not declare that any transformations were meaningless until the old order of things was overthrown and some utopian ideal future was proclaimed. They did not oppose themselves to the state, but served it and, moreover, were an important part of the Russian elite. They were not professional revolutionaries living within a very specific and largely marginal subculture - like everyone who later replaced them. They thought of themselves as possible assistants of Alexander I in carrying out reforms, and if the emperor continued the line that he so boldly began before their eyes, granting the constitution to Poland in 1815, they would be happy to help him in this.
What inspired the Decembrists?
The battle for Moscow at Borodino on September 7, 1812. Painting by Albrecht Adam. 1815 year Wikimedia Commons Most of all - the experience of the Patriotic War of 1812, characterized by a tremendous patriotic upsurge, and the Foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814, when many young and hot people first saw another life up close and this experience turned out to be completely intoxicated. It seemed to them unjust that Russia lived differently from Europe, and even more unjust and even savage - that the soldiers with whom they won this war side by side were all serfs and the landowners treated them like a thing. It was these topics - reforms to achieve greater justice in Russia and the abolition of serfdom - and were the main topics in the conversations of the Decembrists. The political context of that time was no less important: transformations and revolutions after the Napoleonic wars took place in many countries, and it seemed that Russia could and should change along with Europe. The Decembrists owe the very opportunity to seriously discuss the prospects for a change in the system and revolution in the country to the political climate.
What did the Decembrists want?
In general - reforms, changes in Russia for the better, the introduction of a constitution and the abolition of serfdom, fair courts, equality of people of all classes before the law. In details, they differed, often dramatically. It would be fair to say that the Decembrists did not have any unified and clear plan of reforms or revolutionary changes. It is impossible to imagine what would have happened if the Decembrist uprising had been crowned with success, because they themselves did not have time and could not agree on what to do next. How to introduce a constitution and organize general elections in a country with a polls of illiterate peasant population? They did not have an answer to this and many other questions. The disputes of the Decembrists among themselves marked only the emergence of a culture of political discussion in the country, and many questions were raised for the first time, and no one had answers to them at all.
However, if they did not have unity about the goals, they were unanimous about the means: the Decembrists wanted to achieve their goal by means of a military coup; what now we would call a putsch (with the amendment that if the reforms came from the throne, the Decembrists would welcome them). The idea of a popular uprising was absolutely alien to them: they were firmly convinced that it was extremely dangerous to involve the people in this story. The insurgent people could not be controlled, and the troops, as it seemed to them, would remain under their control (after all, most of the participants had experience in command). The main thing here is that they were very afraid of bloodshed, civil strife and believed that a military coup made it possible to avoid this.
In particular, therefore, the Decembrists, bringing their regiments to the square, were not at all going to explain their reasons to them, that is, they considered it unnecessary to conduct propaganda among their own soldiers. They counted only on the personal loyalty of the soldiers, whom they tried to be caring commanders, and also on the fact that the soldiers would simply follow orders.
How did the uprising go?
Senate Square on December 14, 1825. Painting by Karl Kohlman. 1830s Bridgeman Images / Fotodom It’s unfortunate. This is not to say that the conspirators did not have a plan, but they failed to carry it out from the very beginning. They managed to withdraw troops to Senate Square, but it was planned that they would come to Senate Square for a meeting of the State Council and the Senate, which were to swear allegiance to the new sovereign, and demand the introduction of a constitution. But when the Decembrists came to the square, it turned out that the meeting had already ended, the dignitaries had dispersed, all decisions had been made, and there was simply no one to make demands.
The situation reached an impasse: the officers did not know what to do next, and continued to keep troops in the square. The rebels were surrounded by government troops, there was a shootout. The rebels simply stood on Senatskaya, not even trying to take any action - for example, to go to storm the palace. Several shots of buckshot from the government forces scattered the crowd and put them to flight.
Why did the uprising fail?
For any rebellion to be successful, there must be an undeniable willingness to shed blood at some point. The Decembrists did not have this readiness, they did not want bloodshed. And it is difficult for a historian to imagine a successful rebellion, the leaders of which are making every effort not to kill anyone.
Blood still spilled, but there were relatively few casualties: both sides fired with noticeable reluctance, if possible over their heads. Government troops set the task of simply scattering the rebels, and they fired back. Modern estimates of historians show that during the events on the Senate, about 80 people died on both sides. Talk that there were up to 1,500 victims and a heap of corpses that the police threw into the Neva at night are not confirmed by anything.
Who judged the Decembrists and how?
Interrogation of the Decembrist by the Investigative Committee in 1826. Drawing by Vladimir Adlerberg Wikimedia Commons To investigate the case, a special body was created - "the imperially established Secret Committee to find the accomplices of a malicious society that opened on December 14, 1825", where Nicholas I appointed mainly generals. To pass the sentence, the Supreme Criminal Court was specially established, to which senators, members of the State Council, and the Synod were appointed.
The problem was that the emperor really wanted to condemn the rebels justly and legally. But it turned out that there were no suitable laws. There was no coherent code indicating the relative severity of various crimes and the penalties for them (like the modern Criminal Code). That is, it was possible to use, say, the Sudebnik of Ivan the Terrible - no one canceled it - and everyone, for example, could be boiled in boiling pitch or wheel. But there was an understanding that this no longer corresponded to the enlightened XIX century. In addition, there are many defendants - and their guilt is obviously different.
Therefore, Nicholas I instructed Mikhail Speransky, a dignitary who was then known for his liberalism, to develop some kind of system. Speransky broke the charge into 11 categories according to the degree of guilt, and prescribed for each category what corpus delicti it corresponds to. And then the accused were listed according to these categories, and for each judge, after hearing a note about the strength of his guilt (that is, the result of the investigation, something like an indictment), they voted whether he corresponded to this category and what punishment to assign to each category. Out of the ranks were five, sentenced to death. However, the sentences were made "with a margin" so that the sovereign could show mercy and mitigate the punishment.
The procedure was such that the Decembrists themselves were not present at the trial and could not justify themselves, the judges considered only the papers prepared by the Investigative Committee. The Decembrists only read out a ready-made verdict. For this, they later reproached the authorities: in a more civilized country they would have lawyers and the opportunity to defend themselves.
How did the Decembrists live in exile?
Street in Chita. Watercolor by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1829-1830 years Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Getty Images Those who were sentenced to hard labor were sent to Siberia. According to the verdict, they were also deprived of ranks, noble dignity and even military awards. More lenient sentences to the last categories of convicts are a link to a settlement or to distant garrisons, where they continued their service; not all were deprived of ranks and nobility.
The convicts to hard labor began to be sent to Siberia gradually, in small parties - they were taken on horseback, with couriers. The first party, of eight people (the most famous were Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Obolensky), were particularly unlucky: they were sent to real mines, to mining plants, and there they spent the first, really hard winter. But here, fortunately for the Decembrists, Petersburg realized it: after all, if you distribute state criminals with dangerous ideas to Siberian mines, it means with your own hands to scatter rebellious ideas throughout the hard labor! Nicholas I decided, in order to avoid the spread of ideas, to gather all the Decembrists in one place. There was no prison of this size anywhere in Siberia. They adapted the prison in Chita, those eight who had already suffered at the Blagodatsky mine were transported there, and the rest were taken immediately there. It was cramped there, all the prisoners were kept in two large rooms. And it just so happened that there was absolutely no object of hard labor, no mine. The latter, however, did not really worry the St. Petersburg authorities. Instead of hard labor, the Decembrists were taken to fill up a ravine on the road or grind grain in a mill.
By the summer of 1830, a new prison was built for the Decembrists in the Petrovsky Zavod, more spacious and with separate personal cells. There was no mine there either. They were led from Chita on foot, and they remembered this passage as a kind of journey through unfamiliar and interesting Siberia: some along the way sketched pictures of the area, collected herbariums. The Decembrists were also lucky that Nikolai appointed General Stanislav Leparsky, an honest and good-natured man, as commandant.
Leparsky fulfilled his duty, but did not oppress the prisoners and, in what he could, eased their situation. In general, little by little the idea of hard labor evaporated, leaving imprisonment in remote regions of Siberia. If it had not been for the arrival of their wives, the Decembrists, as the tsar wanted, would have been completely cut off from their past life: correspondence was strictly forbidden to them. But it would be scandalous and indecent for wives to forbid correspondence, so isolation did not work out very well either. There was also that important moment that many had influential relatives, including in St. Petersburg. Nicholas did not want to irritate this layer of the nobility, so they managed to achieve various small and not very small indulgences.
Interior view of one of the courtyards of the Petrovsky Zavod casemate. Watercolor by Nikolai Bestuzhev. 1830 year Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Getty Images An interesting social collision developed in Siberia: although deprived of the nobility, called state criminals, for the local residents the Decembrists were still aristocrats - in manners, upbringing, education. Real aristocrats were rarely brought to Siberia, the Decembrists became a kind of local curiosity, they were called "our princes", and the Decembrists were treated with great respect. Thus, in the case of the Decembrists, that cruel, terrible contact with the criminal convict world, which happened among the exiled intellectuals later, did not happen either.
A modern person who already knows about the horrors of the Gulag and concentration camps is tempted to treat the exile of the Decembrists as a frivolous punishment. But everything is important in its historical context. For them, exile was associated with great hardships, especially compared to the previous way of life. And, whatever one may say, it was an imprisonment, a prison: for the first years they were all constantly, day and night, shackled in hand and foot shackles. And to a large extent, the fact that now, from a distance, their imprisonment does not look so terrible is their own merit: they managed not to sink, not to quarrel, preserved their own dignity and inspired those around them with real respect.
The secret society of the Decembrists was born in 1816. In Petersburg. Its first name was Union of Salvation. Russia had to be saved, it was on the edge of an abyss, - so thought the members of the emerging society. When the society took shape and developed its charter (its main author is Pestel), it received the name of the Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland. The name itself spoke of a desire to dissociate oneself from “patriots” of a different sort - not true and not faithful. Of course, maybe this name was invented without literary influences, but one cannot but recall Radishchev's brilliant work "Conversation about who is the son of the Fatherland." "Not all those born in the Fatherland are worthy of the great name of the son of the Fatherland (patriot)," wrote Radishchev. “O beloved fellow citizens! O true sons of the Fatherland! " - wrote Radishchev in "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow". These words bear a striking resemblance to the name of a secret society.
At first, the goal of the secret society was only to free the peasants from serfdom. But very soon a second one joined this goal: the struggle against autocracy, against absolutism. At the first stage, it resulted in a demand for a constitutional monarchy. The first society was small in number - it consisted of three dozen members, mainly young guards officers. All of them were most often old acquaintances, whose friendship had grown stronger in the terrible days of 1812. and during trips abroad.
Who were these people, the founders and the first members of the Decembrist society? A few words must be said about them: most of them will go through the entire history of the Decembrists, right up to the uprising of 1825.
The founder of the secret society of the Decembrists was the 24-year-old Colonel of the General Staff Alexander Nikolaevich Muravyov. The Muravyov family was one of the most cultural centers of its time. Although the Muravyovs were noblemen and owned estates, their large family was strapped for funds. The entire estate of the father consisted of 140 souls. The father barely gave the children a good education and warned his sons that further they should rely only on their own strength, not hoping for his help. Therefore, the life of the Muravyov brothers was almost poor, they. In their own words, "suffered a lot of need." The young officer began to live with intellectual interests early and dreamed of "avoiding empty and vain small talk and sticking to such a society that would encourage self-knowledge, engaging in serious and universal human feelings and thoughts." First, Aleksandr Muravyov (even before the war of 1812) became a Freemason, then he united around himself an officer's comradely circle, the “Sacred Artel”.
Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, formerly a lieutenant
Semyonovsky regiment, and then, at the time of the foundation of the society, as a senior officer of the General Staff, received a broad and versatile education, attended lectures at Moscow University. He took an active part in every stage of the secret society. However, he took little part in the creation of ideas, more often than not he took on organizational work. He was extremely cautious, afraid of a bold idea, the mass popular movement especially frightened him, and the assumption that someone would consider him "Marat" or "Robespierre" terrified him. Hesitation and indecision were characteristic of his behavior. Starting with the first Decembrist organization, he fought against the radical trend; in the future, he will "crown" this struggle by his failure to appear on the square of the uprising on the day of December 14, 1825.
Lieutenant of the General Staff Nikita Muravyov grew up in a wealthy, wealthy and cultured noble family. His father M.N. Muravyov was close to the Catherine's court, as an educator of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine. Upon the accession of his student Alexander I, he soon became Assistant Minister of Public Education and Trustee of Moscow University. Nikita Muravyov received a thorough and comprehensive education, knew history well, became interested in literature early, studied five European languages well, knew ancient languages - Latin and Greek.
As soon as the war of 1812 began, Nikita Muravyov, seized by a patriotic impulse, began to rush to military service, but his mother did not let her 17-year-old son go to war. Then the young man secretly fled from home, taking with him a map of the area and a list of Napoleonic marshals. Having asked for food in one of the villages near Moscow, he paid a gold piece for a piece of bread and a mug of milk, clearly showing that he did not know the price of Russian money. The peasants mistook him for a French spy, arrested him and presented him to his superiors. The whole story was publicized, and the mother finally released her son to military service. Muravyov took part in foreign campaigns, visited Paris, met with public figures of that time. By the time the secret society was organized, he was full of transformative aspirations and in the early years of the Decembrist movement followed the mainstream of the radical movement.
Lieutenant of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment Matvey Muravyov-Apostol was 22 years old at the time of the foundation of the society, and his brother Sergei, a lieutenant of the same regiment, was 19 years old. The brothers Muravyov-Apostles, who were born into a wealthy noble family, were the children of a Russian envoy in Spain and were brought up in Paris. The mother hid from her sons that serfdom existed in Russia, and both teenagers were shocked when they learned about it, having arrived in Russia. They are passionate Russian patriots and dreamed of serving the Motherland. Both went through the war of 1812. and overseas trips. Sergei Muravyov-Apostol stood out especially, he was richly gifted, lively, eager for activity, and attracted the hearts of his comrades.
The name of the twenty-year-old second lieutenant of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment, Ivan Dmitrievich Yakushkin, closes the six initiators, the first members and founders of the secret society. Yakushkin came from a poor family of ruined Smolensk nobles. The impoverished Yakushkins lived for several years out of mercy in the noble family of the Lykoshkins, friends of Griboyedov.
Soon after the formation of the society, Mikhail Nikolaevich Novikov was admitted to its membership. A former military man, a participant in the war of 1812, Novikov by the time of joining the society was a civilian, served in a department of the Ministry of Justice. He would be much older than other Decembrists in age: at the time of joining society, he was 40 years old. By conviction, he was a Republican. Novikov accepted into the society one of the most prominent Decembrists - Pavel Ivanovich Pestel.
Pestel was the son of a Siberian governor-general. His father was subsequently accused of abuse in the service, lost his post and pension, and lived very cramped. But even before these events, the father sent his son abroad to receive an education, which Pestel completed in Russia in the Corps of Pages, amazing teachers with his knowledge, drawing the attention of Alexander I himself, who was present at the final exam. The first glimpses of freethinking arose in him at the same time. A participant in the war of 1812, seriously wounded in the leg during the Battle of Borodino, young Pestel received an award - a golden weapon - from the hands of Kutuzov.
At the time of joining the society, Pestel was listed in the Guards Cavalry Regiment and was the adjutant of Count Wittgenstein. At the same time, he studied eagerly, listened to the lectures of leading professors and read an incredible amount - his friends always remembered him surrounded by books. Pestel combined exceptional talent with a bright strong-willed nature and great organizational talent. Friends later recalled Pestel's outstanding talent: the strength of his arguments was compelling.
These were the first members of the young secret society.
The Union of Welfare was also a conspiratorial organization and had the same basic goals of struggle as the Union of Salvation — the elimination of serfdom and autocracy. At first, this Union also set aside the idea of creating a constitutional monarchy, in which the rights of the monarch would be limited by laws, and a representative system would exist. However, the Union of Welfare tried to define more clearly the "means" of struggle and to seize the main force that, in the opinion of the Decembrists, drove history. What kind of power was it?
Followers of the philosophers-enlighteners of the 18th century, the Decembrists believed that "the world is ruled by opinions." To master public opinion, the Union of Welfare was supposed, according to the plans of the Decembrists, to create a whole network of secret and explicit (legal) organizations and to lead them. The creation of literary, scientific, pedagogical, economic societies, women's organizations and a youth circle was projected everywhere. According to the new charter, not only nobles, but also merchants, bourgeois, clergy and free peasants were to be accepted into the secret society. It was assumed that within twenty years will be preparing public opinion and around 1840. there will be a revolution.
The work of the Union of Welfare was considerable. The members of the Union of Welfare were especially eager to attract young people to themselves, to tear them away from the old camp; they understood that it was necessary to oppose the "old beliefs of the inveterate nobility" and be able to influence "the opinion of young people." Members of the Union openly protested against serfdom, resented Arakcheev, military settlements, the brutal reprisal against the uprising of settlements in 1819, mobilized public opinion against the obscurantists Magnitsky and Runich, defended the advanced science of their time, betrayed cruel landowners to shame, freed talented self-taught people from serf bondage advocated the spread of Lancaster schools. They were, in the words of Chatsky, supporters of "free life", they hated the despotism and arbitrariness of tsarism, exposed the old system with all the passion of deep conviction, considered this exposure a matter of their honor.
The Union of Welfare was an active organization and did a lot in the three years of its work. But all that he did, in essence, did not bring him closer to the goal. Its main task was the abolition of serfdom in Russia, the elimination of the autocratic serf system, the introduction of lawfully free representative government. But serfdom could not fall from only one "public opinion".
It was impossible to postpone decisions: reality demanded them. Previously, it was possible to wait at least a quarter of a century until, as a result of patient efforts, “public opinion” was created and action could be taken. And now the life of Russia, and indeed of the whole of Europe, has gone forward so rapidly that it was no longer possible to wait so long. Over the three years of the existence of the Union of Welfare, the signs of the crisis of the feudal system have grown menacingly. It was an extremely eventful three-year period that forged political ideology at an unprecedented speed. The frequent and rapid change in the forms of the Decembrist society and the intensive development of its program depended primarily not on any personal qualities of the united figures, but on the speed of development of historical life itself.