Decembrists at the Senate Square

The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising (Russian: Восстáние декáбристов) took place in Imperial Russia on December 14 (December 26 New Style), 1825. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people Events 1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession. Because these events occurred in December, the rebels were called the Decembrists (Dekabristy, Russian: Декáбристы). Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages This uprising took place in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg. Decembrists Square or Ploshchad Dekabristov (Площадь Декабристов is a historic City square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River In 1925, to mark the centenary of the event, it was renamed as Decembrist Square (Ploshchad' Dekabristov, Russian: Плóщадь Декáбристов). The revolt was personally suppressed by Nicholas I of Russia.

The Union of Salvation

In 1816 several officers of the Laurenscott Guard founded a society known as the Union of Salvation, or of the Faithful and True Sons of the Fatherland. The Union of Salvation ("Союз спасения" or Soyuz spaseniya also known as the Society of True and Loyal Sons of the Fatherland since 1817 ("Общество The society acquired a more revolutionary caste after it was joined by the idealistic Pavel Pestel. Colonel Pavel Ivanovich Pestel ( Павел Иванович Пестель; in Moscow &ndash in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian After a mutiny in the Semyenov regiment in 1820 the society decided to suspend activity in 1821. Two groups, however, continued to function secretly: a Southern Society in which Pestel was the outstanding figure and a Northern Society led by Guard officers Nikita Muraviev, Prince S. P. Trubetskoy and Prince Eugene Obolensky. Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubestkoy ( 29 August 1790 – 22 November 1860 was one of the organizers of the Decembrist movement The political aims of the more moderate Northern Society were a constitutional monarchy and limited franchise. The Southern Society, under Pestel's influence, was more radical and wanted to establish a republic and redistribute land.

At the Senate Square

When Tsar Alexander I died on December 1, 1825, the royal guards swore allegiance to the presumed heir, Alexander's brother Constantine. Alexander I of Russia ( Russian: Александр I Павлович / Aleksandr I Pavlovich (23 December 1777 – November 19 1825 served as Emperor of Events 800 - Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Constantine Pavlovich Romanov (Константи́н Па́влович Рома́нов When Constantine made his renunciation public, and Nicholas stepped forward to assume the throne, the Northern Society acted. With the capital in temporary confusion, and one oath to Constantine having already been sworn, the society scrambled in secret meetings to convince regimental leaders not to swear allegiance to Nicholas. These efforts would culminate in the events of December 14. Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people The leaders of the society (many of whom belonged to the high aristocracy) elected Prince Sergei Trubetskoy as interim dictator. A dictator is an Authoritarian ruler (eg Absolutist or autocratic) who assumes sole and absolute power without hereditary ascension such as an Absolute

On the morning of December 14, 1825, a group of officers commanding about 3,000 men assembled in Senate Square, where they refused to swear allegiance to the new tsar, Nicholas I, proclaiming instead their loyalty to the idea of a Russian constitution. Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common An allegiance is a duty of fidelity said to be owed by a subject or a Citizen to his/her state or sovereign. Tsar csar and tzar redirect here For other uses see Tsar (disambiguation. They expected to be joined by the rest of the troops stationed in Saint Petersburg, but they were disappointed.

When Prince Trubetskoy failed to turn up at the square, Nicholas sent Count Mikhail Miloradovich, a military hero who was greatly respected by ordinary soldiers, to pacify the rebels. Count Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich (Михаи́л Андре́евич Милора́дович ( &ndash) was a Russian general prominent during the Napoleonic wars While delivering a speech, Miloradovich was shot dead by an officer called Peter Kakhovsky. Pyotr Grigoryevich Kakhovsky (Пётр Григорьевич Каховский 1797 &ndash July 25 N At the same time, a rebelling grenadier squad lead by lieutenant Nikolay Panov, entered the Winter Palace, but failed to seize it and retreated. See also The movie Russian Ark, an innovative single shot walkthrough with period reenactments spanning three hundred years of court meetings

Nicholas spent the day gathering a military force, and then attacked with artillery. With the firing of the artillery came the end of the revolt in the north.

The revolt suffered because those in charge communicated poorly with the soldiers involved in the uprising. Soldiers in Saint Petersburg were made to chant "Constantine and Constitution," but when questioned, many of them reportedly professed to believe that "Constitution" was Constantine's wife. This may just be a rumor, however, because in a letter from Peter Kakhovsky to General Levashev, Kakhovsky says, "The story told to Your Excellency that, in the uprising of December 14 the rebels were shouting 'Long live the Constitution!' and that the people were asking 'What is Constitution, the wife of His Highness the Grand Duke?' is not true. It is an amusing invention. "

Arrests and trial

While the Northern Society scrambled in the days leading up to December 14, the Southern Society (based out of Tulchin) took a serious blow. Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people On December 13, acting on reports of treason, the police arrested Pavel Pestel. Events 1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months Celestine hoped to return to his previous life Colonel Pavel Ivanovich Pestel ( Павел Иванович Пестель; in Moscow &ndash in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian It took two weeks for the Southern Society to learn of the events in the capital. Meanwhile, other members of the leadership were arrested. The Southern Society, and a nationalistic group called the United Slavs discussed revolt. When learning of the location of some of the arrested men, the United Slavs freed them by force. One of the freed men, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, assumed leadership of the revolt. Sergey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol (Сергей Иванович Муравьев-Апостол October 9 N After converting the soldiers of Vasilkov to the cause, Muraviev-Apostol easily captured the city. The rebelling army was soon confronted by superior forces armed with artillery loaded with grapeshot, and with orders to destroy the rebels. Grapeshot is a type of anti-personnel Ammunition used in Cannons Instead of solid shot a mass of loosely packed metal slugs is loaded into a canvas

Decembrist Revolt

On January 3, the rebels met defeat and the surviving leaders were sent to Saint Petersburg to stand trial with the northern leaders. Events 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. The Decembrists were interrogated, tried, and convicted. Kakhovsky was executed by hanging together with four other leading Decembrists: Pavel Pestel; the poet Kondraty Ryleyev; Sergey Muravyov-Apostol; and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin. Colonel Pavel Ivanovich Pestel ( Павел Иванович Пестель; in Moscow &ndash in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev ( September 29 (September 18 OS) 1795 - July 25 (July 13 O Sergey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol (Сергей Иванович Муравьев-Апостол October 9 N Mikhail Pavlovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin (Михаи́л Па́влович Бесту́жев-Рюм́ин June 4 N Other Decembrists were exiled to Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Far East. Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan ( Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, qɑzɑqˈstɑn Казахстан, Kazakhstán,) officially the The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia.

When the five Decembrists were hanged something unusual happened. The ropes that were being used to hang them split before any of them actually died. ^[1] This caused a sigh of relief in the crowd because, according to a centuries-old tradition, any condemned prisoner who survived a botched execution would be set free. Rather than free these prisoners, Nicholas ordered new ropes and the prisoners were hanged again. This was the last public execution in Russian imperial history.

Suspicion also fell on several eminent persons who were on friendly terms with the Decembrist leaders and could have been aware of their clandestine organizations, notably Aleksandr Pushkin, Alexander Griboedov, and Aleksey Yermolov. Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (Александр Сергеевич Грибоедов alternative transcription Griboedov ( January 15, 1795 – February Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov (ru Алексей Петрович Ермолов or Ermolov (June 4 n Wives of many Decembrists followed their husbands into exile. Exile means to be away from one's home (ie city state or country while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return The expression Decembrist wife is a Russian symbol of the devotion of a wife to her husband.

Assessment

With the failure of the Decembrists, Russia's monarchial absolutism would continue for almost a century, although serfdom would be officially abolished in 1861. Though defeated, the Decembrists did effect some change on the regime. Their dissatisfaction forced Nicholas to turn his attention inward to address the issues of the empire. In 1826, a rehabilitated Speransky began the task of codifying Russian law, a task that continued throughout Nicholas’s reign. Anecdotally, after being defeated in the Crimean War, Nicholas is said to have lamented that his corrupt staff treated him worse than the Decembrists ever had. The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Eastern War (Восточная война Vostochnaya Vojna) (March 1854–February 1856 was fought

Although the revolt was a proscribed topic during Nicholas' reign, Alexander Herzen placed the profiles of executed Decembrists on the cover of his radical periodical Polar Star. Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen ( Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ге́рцен) ( —) was a major Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father Aleksandr Pushkin addressed poems to his Decembrist friends, Nikolai Nekrasov wrote a long poem about the Decembrist wives, and Leo Tolstoy started writing a novel on that liberal movement, which would later evolve into War and Peace. Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov (Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов &ndash) was a Russian poet writer critic and publisher associate of Vissarion Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ( –) (Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, was a Russian Writer widely regarded War and Peace (Война и мир Voyna i mir) is a Novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkii Vestnik

To some extent, the Decembrists were in the tradition of a long line of palace revolutionaries who wanted to place their candidate on the throne, but because the Decembrists also wanted to implement a liberal political program, their revolt has been considered the beginning of a revolutionary movement. A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turnaround" is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively The uprising was the first open breach between the government and liberal elements, and it would subsequently widen.

References

Further reading

• Figes, Orlando (2002) Natasha's Dance: a Cultural History of Russia. Orlando Figes ( IPA pronunciation:) (born 1959 is a British historian of Russia and a professor of history at Birkbeck University of London. London. ISBN 0-7139-9517-3
• Rabow-Edling, Susanna (May 2007). "The Decembrists and the Concept of a Civic Nation". Nationalities Papers 35 (2): 369-391.  

External links

• Decembrist exile in Irkutsk
• Decembrist exile in Siberia
• Online Museum of the Decembrist movement
• Freemasonic background of the movement
• Source for Letter from Peter Kakhovsky to General Levashev