One of the five executed on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress was the Russian nobleman P.G. Kakhovsky. But it so happened that in relation to many Decembrists, and even to those who shared his sad fate of those sentenced to death, he somehow stands completely apart.
There is evidence that before the execution four others embraced fraternally, and he stood aside. There are records that the same Ryleyev incriminated him during interrogations - there is no direct evidence about who in the bloody mess on
Senate Square mortally wounded Miloradovich, but several former "comrades" pointed specifically to the retired lieutenant. Who is he?
Kakhovsky in Russian service
Kakhovsky Petr Grigorievich (1797-1826), born in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, Smolensk province - a descendant of two fairly ancient genera. On the paternal side, he belongs to the Nechui-Kakhovsky. Representatives of this surname come from the Czech Republic and Poland, some of which in the middle of the 17th century switched to the service of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. They served the Romanovs faithfully, and there was no war in which representatives of this kind would not have participated - they distinguished themselves near Narva, in the Seven Years' War and the annexation of the Crimea, during the assault of Izmail and in the Swiss campaign of Suvorov. One of them, namely Alexander Kakhovsky, was adjutant of Generalissimo A.V. Suvorov. For courage shown, Mikhail Kakhovsky was awarded the āFor Courageā weapon. Two Kakhovsky in the rank of generals took part in the wars with Napoleon.
Royal blood
Mother Nymphodora Mikhailovna belonged to the Smolensk branch of the Olenins. An interesting fact is the legend that the Venison comes from the royal O'Lane family, which once ruled in Ireland.
In the struggle for the crown, the kingās son threw his sister into a cage with wild beasts who took pity on the beauty, and on the back of the bear she moved to France. The legend is reflected in the coat of arms of the Olenins, in the center of which is a princess on the back of a bear.
Not to the court
Thus, it can be argued that Kakhovsky Pyotr Grigoryevich in his origin belonged to āglorious Russian surnamesā. And his blood is no less blue than that which flowed in the veins of the Golitsyns, Trubetskoys, Volkonsky and Obolensky, whose representatives also took part in the December uprising. However, they treated Kakhovsky as a stranger and even shunned him. The reason for this, obviously, was his extreme poverty, and direct, ardent disposition.
Demoted to privates
Education Kakhovsky Petr Grigoryevich received quite decent - The noble boarding school at Moscow University was a closed educational institution for boys from noble families of Russian noblemen. And the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment, at the origins of which stood the legendary P.I. Bagration and where Kakhovsky entered as a junker was prestigious.
But the young man acted so frivolously that, according to a personal grand-ducal order of Konstantin Pavlovich, he was demoted to the rank and file, because he showed laziness in the service, and in decent houses he behaved noisily and obscene, and did not pay to the candy store.
Sensible military
In 1816, a gambler and a rowdy were sent by decision of Governor General Zhemchuzhnikov to the 7th JƤger Regiment in the Caucasus. And here Kakhovsky Petr Grigoryevich quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant (1821). However, this year, due to illness, he was sent on a three-month vacation to his native Smolensk province. Then he resigns due to illness.
Poor and therefore unloved
There is a lot of evidence that Kakhovsky was a very lonely man and had no friends, but he went to the Caucasus for treatment with Major General Svechin, and he became friends with Ryleyev very quickly and strongly. Obviously, natural openness and directness, erudition and well-read (he was very interested in the democracy of Ancient Greece and Rome) first attracted people, and then they got tired. And the "great love" that the future Russian revolutionary experienced, if such a term is applicable to the Decembrists, also began with enthusiastic mutual attraction.
But the summer ended, and 18-year-old Sofya Saltykova, writing to her friend that she loved this man with a heart as pure as a crystal, with all her soul, did not want to know him in Petersburg, and did not let him in. She will later become the wife of Baron Delvig.
Life for freedom
1823 and 1824 P.G. Kakhovsky spends in Europe - is treated in Dresden, lives in Paris for several months, travels to Switzerland, Austria, Italy. And everywhere he could not help but compare feudal Russia with democratic European conquests.
Being a freedom-loving man, he was ready to die for the freedom of citizens and his homeland and a stranger. Kakhovsky returns to St. Petersburg in 1824. He wants to go to Greece to join the ranks of internationalists fighting for the freedom of this country.
Russian Brutus
But in the capital, he quickly converges with Ryleyev, on the recommendation of which he enters the Northern Society and becomes an active member of the radical wing. Obviously, he was brought closer, having previously determined this lonely and brave man to be the āRussian Brutusā. And the Russian revolutionary Kakhovsky himself did not shy from regicide - he considered the monarchy to be the evil of Russia. There were still volunteers for this role, for example, A.I. Yakubovich, but they rather flaunted than went towards the assassination of the emperor with conviction.
He refused to kill the king
The first idea about the need not only to establish the republican system, but also to destroy the royal family, was expressed in 1816 by M.S. Lunin. At first he wanted and even wrote a letter to M.I. Kutuzov with this proposal - to stab Napoleon, going to him as a negotiator.
The next potential victim was Alexander I, although for personal courage on the Borodino field, where they fought for the Tsar and the Fatherland, the Decembrist Lunin was awarded the golden weapon For Courage.
And P.I. Pestel was a supporter of the murder of Nicholas I. But Kakhovsky, the Decembrist brave to recklessness and completely lonely, was determined for this role, while others had families. When on the eve of the uprising Ryleyev handed the dagger to Kakhovsky, Pyotr Grigoryevich hit the poet in the face. And later he refused the honor shown to him to become a regicide. Obviously, he considered Ryleyev a friend and at the last moment realized that he was always needed from the very beginning only in the role of the appointed āscapegoatā.
Doomed to death
Pyotr Grigorievich was not afraid to be known as a murderer - he was mortally offended by the fact that he did not make real like-minded friends. Kakhovsky - the Decembrist, who was charged with three wounds, of which two were fatal - died General Miloradovich and Colonel Sturler.
As an active participant in the anti-monarchist conspiracy, an active agitator who brought many new members to the Northern Society, Kakhovsky was doomed, as well as these two murders.
The king can be killed, but there is no good governor-general
Governor Miloradovich, one of the leaders of the Russian army, the hero of the war of 1812, was the favorite of Nicholas I. The fact that he did not deserve to die is evidenced by the fact that the Governor General arrived at Senate Square to persuade the rebels to change their minds. In his dying letter, Miloradovich asked Nicholas I to let all the serfs belonging to him (1,500 souls) free. Which was done. Later, even Herzen sympathized with Miloradovich.
And this strange Kakhovsky kills the favorite of the royal family, in any case, everyone showed him. And he behaved equally impudently during interrogations, and he also wrote letters denouncing the injustice of the autocracy, and he did not promise to the judges, he did not give anyone away, begging for mercy. The verdict was - hanging by death. Initially, through a quartering, but the king āsoftenedā the sentence.
Last gift
Maybe fate in the last weeks of life has mercy on this man, giving a platonic hobby. The windows of his cell were opposite the windows of the room of the daughter of the commandant of the fortress Podushkin. They fell in love with each other. Adelaide Podushkina sent him books that he read eagerly. To admire her from a distance, to listen to her singing - thatās all he could enjoy in the last days.
It was really a gift of fate, and if not for him, Kakhovsky, who did not communicate with any of his former comrades, would die completely lonely, devoted to absolutely everyone. Even the death penalty by hanging, which occurred on July 25, 1826, turned out to be a mockery for Kakhovsky - the rope from him, Ryleyev and Bestuzhev-Ryumin was cut off, they were hanged a second time. True, in some articles, instead of Kakhovsky, the surname Muravyov-Apostol is called.