With the death of Tsar
Alexander I and all of Europe rattled by liberal-inspired movements, the
Northern Society prepared to make their own. But how would their plan, so
quickly conceived, work out?
With the death of Tsar
Alexander I and all of Europe rattled by liberal-inspired movements, the
Northern Society prepared to make their own. But how would their plan, so
quickly conceived, work out?
Other
Enlightenment-Inspired Movements
The Northern Society had
been agitated to make their move as other liberal movements began to fight for
their liberties. In Spain, Ferdinand VII faced a revolt by liberals wanting to
reinstate the 1812 Cadiz Constitution. In Greece, Greek revolutionaries began
to fight for their independence against the Ottoman Empire. In Latin America,
the colonies rose up in revolution, toppling down their respective colonial
governments and established their own republics.
The Revolt
The Plan
With these events that
transpired, the Society hastily planned their coup d’etat to topple down the
incoming new Tsar Nicholas I. With the aim of establishing a constitutional monarchy,
they would use the confusion in succession to their advantage to instigate a
coup by the army. They would demand that Constantine be the new Tsar instead
of Nicholas who they saw as arrogant
and very conservative. Leading members of the Northern Society would persuade
different military units to rebel against Nicholas by standing that Constantine was the
rightful heir and they would fight to defend his right to the throne. Then they
would coerce important government institutions such as the Senate in order to
enact reforms, such as the creation of a Constitution.
Nicholas, on the other hand, prepared for his coronation. On December 13, 1825, he
issued his manifesto accepting his duties as Tsar. On the following day, he
prepared to accept the oath of loyalty of various military units.
The Execution
On December 14, 1825,
the day when Nicholas I expected
the oath of loyalty of several units, the Society began to move. At 7:30 am,
the Moscow Guards Regiment refused to swear their oath. Few royalist officers
within the regiment had been beaten before the guards marched out of their
barracks and into the Senate Square. The soldiers shouted as they march:
“Constantine and Constitution.” Many of the soldiers thought they were fighting
for the birthright of Constantine and his wife Constansia instead of
Constantine and a binding document that ruled over the land. In short, most of
the soldier had been dupe in the protest. At 11:00, the rebel soldiers declared
Sergei Trubetskoi as their leader. However, Trubetskoi himself disagreed with the
coup and rejected the leadership by hiding in the house of his friend, the
Austrian Ambassador. At 2:00 pm, other units from the Marines and the Grenadier
Guards Regiment joined. All in all, 3,000 soldiers mobbed the Senate Square
alongside with civilians, women and children who joined and sympathized with
the rebels.
Meanwhile, Nicholas mobilized his loyal
troops to contain and quell the revolt. He attempted to persuade the rebels
first into dispersing by sending the Metropolitan Bishop Serafim to negotiate
in vain. Then he sent the Governor General and a respected Napoleonic War
veteran Mikhail Miloradovich to convince the rebels to stand down. However,
Peter Kakhovsky shot Miloradovich and another officer, Colonel Ludwig von
Sturler. For the last time, Nicholas sent
his own brother Mikhail to ask the rebels to leave the square. And for the last
time, they refused.
The End
Nicholas then
decided to end the revolt at all cost. He personally led 9,000 troops from the Finland
Life Guard, Preobrazhensky and Ismailovsky Regiments to surround the
rebels. Nicholas,
ordered four cannons to fire blank first as a warning shot. After which,
cannons fired grape shots towards the rebels. After the first fatal shots, the
rebel soldiers and civilians ran and scattered for their lives. After few
minutes, the Senate Square had been cleared leaving 60 people dead. Following
the carnage in the plaza, authorities arrest the ring leaders one by one. The
Northern Society failed in their coup.
Meanwhile the Southern
Society attempted to stir up their own revolt.
The
Involvement of the Society of United Slavs
The Society of United
Slavs dedicated themselves to the idea of Pan-slavism or unity of all Slavic
people. It was founded in 1823 by the brothers Andrei and Peter Borisov, both
were officers coming from a poor background in Ukraine, and surprisingly by a
Polish nationalist Julian Lublinski. They then enlisted another influential member
to their cause, Ivan Gorbachevsky. The Society had 50 officers from military
units in the Volhynia and Kyiv Regions of Ukraine, most came from humble
backgrounds as well.
They made their society
strong by reciting an oath of loyalty, which embodied the ideals of the
organization. The vision of the society was to create a republic of various
Slavic people and to unite them under a federation. They named the Russians
(including Ukrainians and Belarusians), Poles, Hungarians, Bohemians, Croats,
Dalmatians, Serbs, and Moravians as part of the whole Slavic family. Besides
ethnic unity, the Society also wanted to abolish serfdom, an institution that
the Borisov Brothers despised after seeing the abuses done to the serfs.
Society
of United Slavs and Southern Society Alliance
In 1825, the Southern
Society needed to bolster the support for their group. They then intended to
unite with the Society of United Slavs to achieve it. They chose the Society
due to the fact that they wanted to get rid of Russian autocracy and create a
republican form of government.
The two groups, however,
differed greatly in some aspects. The Southern Society wanted a strong
centralized government while the Society of United Slavs wanted republics for
various Slavs then create a federation composed of these republics. In the
means of removing autocracy, the Society wanted moderate methods rather than
regicide and violence.
Nevertheless, even with
these differences, negotiations between the two groups pressed on. Barisov
Brothers and Gorbachevsky went to talk to Mikhail Bestuzhev-Riumin and Sergei
Muraviev-Apostol of the Southern Society. They deliberated well throughout for
days. Finally, in September 1825, disregarding temporarily their differences,
the Society of United Slavs agreed to unite with the Southern Society.
For the following
months, the Society of United Slavs became active in gaining more support from
the troops stationed in Ukraine. Through different pamphlets and speeches, they
convinced a regiment to their cause.
Southern
Society Revolt
When the Decembrist
Revolt erupted in St. Petersburg in December, the Southern Society and the
Society of United Slavs prepared to resist government crackdown. Late in
December, the leader of the Southern Society, Pavel Pestel was arrested. But
even with the loss of their leader, the Southern Society and the Society of the
United Slavs continued resisting the government along with the Cherniv Regiment
in December 29. The resistance, however, proved to be futile, and the leaders
of the Society and the Southern Society were arrested within a month.
The
Aftermath
A thorough investigation
followed after the quelling of the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. Nicholas personally led the
investigation and he wanted to look into what caused the revolt that occurred
within the heart of the Russian Empire. He set up a Special Committee on
December 17 to look into the grievances of the rebels. The investigation led to
the interrogation of over 600 individuals. Eventually, most had nothing to do
but only sympathized with the Decembrist.
121 faced trial on a
special court called the Supreme Criminal Court created especially by Nicholas on June 1, 1826.
Trials went quickly and most defendants had no time to put up a proper defense.
In the end of the trials, 31 were sent to labor camps in Siberia. About 85
faced lower sentences, such as demotion, imprisonment, or confiscation of
property.
On July 10, 31 faced
death sentences by hanging, including the leader of the Northern Society Nikita
Muraviev. And another 5, including Pavel Pestel, Kondrati Ryleyev, Sergei
Muraviev-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Riumin, and Peter Kakhovsky, faced death by
quartering. But in the end, the Tsar showed mercy by commuting the sentences of
the 31, including Muraviev who was sent to work in a mine in Siberia. The other
5 sentenced to death by quartering also got their sentence commuted, from
quartering their method of execution was turned to hanging. On July 18, 1826,
Pavel Pestel, Kondrati Ryleyev, Sergei Muraviev-Apostol, Mikhail
Bestuzhev-Riumin, and Peter Kakhovsky who shot General Miloradovich saw their
end in the gallows of the Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress.
Almost 25 years after
the Decembrist Revolt, in 1856, 29 surviving Decembrist in Siberia received
news that Tsar Alexander II, son and successor of Nicholas
I in 1855, allowed
them to return to western Russia except in the capital and Moscow.
The
Effect of the Decembrist Revolt
The Decembrist Revolt
had a profound effect in Russian history. It inspired literary works. It led to
reactionary policies by the government. In long-term, it became a symbol
against autocracy and the Tsarist regime as a whole.
After the event on
December 14, 1825, many free-thinking artist who sympathized with the
Decembrist dedicated works to them. Alexander Pushkin became the most prominent
of this artist. He dedicated a poem to those who were sent to Siberia.
The government of Nicholas
I set its
reactionary policy firmly due to the Decembrist Revolt. It convinced him to
enact strict and tight laws against liberal and anti-Tsarist views. He
instituted strict censorship and surveillance of liberal-minded activist. He
also established his infamous Third Section in the Chancellery Office, which
served as his secret police. His reign found stability throughout but it became
known to many as a time of conservatism and reaction.
In the long-run, the
Decembrist Revolt marked the beginning of a more active and different movement
against Russian autocracy. Unlike other rebellions led by peasants and Cossacks
who disagreed with the policies of the Tsar, the Decembrist movement came from
the lesser nobility and veterans. They were young, educated, and connected.
With this it meant that the Enlightenment ideas no longer belonged only to the
Tsar but to all range of society. The rise in numbers of supporters and
sympathizers to this movements gave rise also to the issue of Serfdom, which
liberal ideals abhorred. Liberals found an ally in form of Tsar
Alexander II who finally
abolished serfdom.
Alexander II also embraced the ideas of Enlightenment
and forgave those Decembrist who were alive and exiled in Siberia. His
successors, did not, however, shared his sentiments. Especially after the
radical anti-Tsarist assassinated Alexander II. Eventually, reactionary and
conservative autocrats regained ground. Only in 1905, when another Revolution
by the elite and the people led to the weakening of autocracy. But the
following events, like World War I, ultimately led to another revolution that
finally ended Russian autocracy, the Romanov Dynasty and the lives of the last
imperial family of Russia.
In conclusion, the
Decembrist Revolt later grew to become a Revolution. As the reforms espoused by
the Decembrist Revolt was not fulfill and the Romanovs continued to refuse to
consider such reforms, became disillusioned only found answers in form of
radicalization. Many then believed that the only for Russia to develop was
through a revolution, which happened in the early 20th century.
These revolutions, the 1905, 1917, and 1918 took its roots from the Decembrist
Revolts.
Explore also:
Bibliography:
General References:
"Society of United Slavs." In Historical Dictionary of Ukraine. Edited by Ivan Katchanovski et. al. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2013.
Gleason, Abbott. "Russian Decembrist Revolt (1825)." In The Encyclopedia of Political Revolutions. Edited by Jack Goldstone. New York, New York: Routledge, 1998.
Books:
Chamberlin, William Henry. The Russian Revolution, Volume I: 1917-1918. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Julicher, Peter. Renegades, Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003.
Kort, Michael. A Brief History of Russia. New York, New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008.
Mohrenschildt, Dimitry Von. Toward a United States of Russia: Plans and Projects of Federal Reconstruction of Russia in the Nineteenth Century. East Brunswick, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1981.
Raleigh, Donald (ed.). The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Rediscovering the Romanovs. New York, New York: Routledge, 1996.
Walicki, Andrzej. A History of Russian Thought: From the Englightenment to Marxism. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1979.
Websites:
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Pavel Ivanovich Pestel", accessed November 21, 2015, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Pavel-Ivanovich-Pestel.
Granville, Johanna. "Muraviev, Nikita." Encyclopedia of Russian History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (November 21, 2015). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404100870.html
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