The Decembrist uprising of 1825 is one of the few events in the history of our country that all its inhabitants know about. In general terms, almost everyone imagines what kind of event it was, how it was caused, and how it ended. Many historians devoted their activities to the study of this amazing period.
And all because the Decembrist uprising had a tremendous impact on the development of the country, and some believe that many of today's events are a consequence of what happened on Senate Square.
First of all, it is worth mentioning the causes of the Decembrist uprising. And here, of course, one cannot help but recall the war of 1812, or rather the subsequent victorious processions of Russian officers in Europe. During this journey, many of them were inspired by ideas that had long been commonplace in France itself. Under the influence of new trends, they revised their attitude to the state system in our country, and to the current situation as a whole.
The overthrow of the monarchy was associated in many of them with changes for the better, in particular with the abolition of serfdom, as well as the introduction of universal education. Already in the 13-14 years of the nineteenth century, secret societies called "artels" began to form. At the beginning of 1916, two large artels were united: the Semenovsky Regiment and the Sacred. The new society is called the Union of Salvation. The creator of this union was Alexander Muravyov, and the active members were Ivan Yakushkin, Nikita Muravyev, Sergey Trubetskoy, and later Pestel also joined them. The purpose of the Salvation Union was to reform the country's governance system and abolish serfdom. Many of its members were representatives of Masonic lodges, which could not but affect the rituals of the secret society.
However, this association did not exist for very long; already in the fall of 17, it broke up due to internal disagreements. And just a few months later, in January 1918, a new society, the Union of Welfare, was founded, and it lasted until 21 years. All its members without fail led an active public life, tried to occupy high positions and enlightened the population. And in 1921, after rumors that the government became aware of the union, a fateful decision was made on the formal dissolution of society.
This allowed to get rid of random people. On this basis, new societies were formed : Southern in Ukraine and Northern in St. Petersburg. The Northern Society was jointly led by Trubetskoy, Nikita Muravyev and Ryleyev.
But the uprising of the Decembrists provoked an extremely difficult political situation in the country. In connection with the death of Alexander I, an ambiguous situation has developed. By seniority, the throne was to pass to Constantine. However, he had long ago abandoned the throne, and Nikolay was to take his place. However, his popularity in the country was low, and supporters of Constantine persuaded him to write a refusal as well. Then, on November 27, 1825, many swore allegiance to Emperor Constantine. He was in no hurry to confirm his renunciation of the throne, but he was in no hurry to accept it. The wait was delayed, and Nikolai decided to crown himself. The oath was scheduled for December 14th. It was decided to coincide with the uprising.
It was planned to bring regiments of guardsmen and sailors to Senate Square, capture the imperial family and force the Senate to announce the Popular Manifesto, and then proclaim the establishment of an interim government.
However, everything went wrong from the very beginning. From the denunciations, Nikolai already knew about the planned uprising. In this connection, the oath was moved to 7 am on the same day. That is, when the Decembrists came to the square, Nicholas was in fact already an emperor. In addition, Trubetskoy, who was appointed leader of the uprising, did not appear on the square. And they managed to gather troops only 2 hours after the appointed time.
By this time, government forces were pulled up to the Senate Square, the number of which was 4 times greater than the Decembrists. Nikolai was afraid of the unrest of the crowd. A little later, artillery was pulled up to the square, which decided the outcome of the battle. After several shots by buckshot, the Decembrists fled and took to the ice of the Neva. The leadership took another ride to organize the retreating, but they were constantly fired from cannons, and many drowned in the Neva. More corpses and wounded were dumped into the river at night.
The Decembrist uprising was crushed. Almost 600 people were arrested in this case, but only 289 were found guilty. Five of them were hanged, the rest were deported to Siberia.
The reason that the Decembrist uprising of December 14, 1925 failed, was largely due to the inconsistency of the actions of its participants.