The name of Raevsky Vladimir Fedoseevich is associated with the Decembrist movement. He is even called the first Decembrist. His activity as a revolutionary was declassified by the authorities four years before the uprising of the Decembrists in 1825.
V. Rayevsky was, in fact, the first victim of political persecution by the tsarist government. He is also known as a brave warrior who participated in the war of 1812, a poet and a talented publicist. Today we will talk about the biography of Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky.
The beginning of the biography
He was born in the family of a landowner, a former middle-class major in 1795 in the Staroskolsky district, in the village of Hvorostyanka. Previously, it was the Kursk province, and now - the Belgorod region.
Raevsky began his studies in 1803 at the Noble Guesthouse, which was located at Moscow University. Continued to study in 1811 in St. Petersburg in the Noble Regiment, which included the second cadet corps.
While studying in Moscow, his classmates later became the Decembrists Turgenev N.I., Bursov I.G., Kryukov N.A. Alexander Griboedov, the future author of the famous satirical comedy "Woe from Wit", also studied at the boarding house. diplomat, poet and composer. In the Petersburg period, the future Decembrist G. Batenkov was a fellow practitioner of Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky.
The two friends of young men at an early age aroused feelings of hatred for despotism, a desire for freedom. They began to dream of freedom, condemned tsarism, and discussed “free ideas” with each other, dreaming of “putting them into action” when they became adults.
Participation in the war of 1812
At the end of his studies in the cadet corps, in May 1812, the seventeen-year-old Vladimir, with the rank of ensign, was sent to serve in the artillery, in the twenty-third brigade.
Here are some points of his biography of this period.
- He participated in many battles, including in Borodino. After the battle, he was presented with a sword made of gold, on which the inscription flaunted: "For courage." And also Raevsky was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree.
- In October 1812, a battle took place near Vyazma, for the difference in which Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky received the rank of second lieutenant.
- Already in April of the following year, he became a lieutenant for many differences during military operations.
- In November 1814, V. Rayevsky ended the war in Poland with the rank of staff captain.
Secret circle member
The further fate of Raevsky was as follows:
- In 1815-1816 he was an adjutant to the commander of the artillery unit of the 7th Infantry Corps, stationed in Kamenetz-Podolsky. There he became a member of a secret circle of officers.
- On his return from overseas campaigns, in January 1817, he retired, which lasted a year and a half. The resignation was caused by the fact that the army had Arakchey’s orders - endless parades on the parade ground, drill, cruelty towards the soldiers, constant checks, which the future Decembrist Rayevsky was very burdened with.
- During this period, several poetic works were written, including two songs: “Song of the Warriors before the Battle”, “Song of the Warriors before the Battle”.
Joining the Decembrists Society
During this period, the socio-political views of Vladimir Fedoseevich were fully formed. He was a widely educated person in the field of history, knew literature well, loved and knew Russian folk literature.
A year and a half after his retirement, in 1818, at the insistence of his father, he again went to military service, but already in the infantry. V.F. Raevsky was sent to the second Southern Army, which was located in Bessarabia. He ended up in the sixteenth division, where he was soon appointed as the future commander of another future Decembrist, General Orlov M.F.
In 1820, Vladimir Fedoseyevich joined Chisinau in a secret society called the “Union of Welfare”. It was formed in 1818 on the basis of another, licentious society (the “Union of Salvation”), and consisted of about 200 people, mostly noblemen. His goal was the destruction of autocracy and serfdom, the introduction of constitutional rule. Moreover, it was planned to achieve this in relatively peaceful ways. Raevsky was one of the leaders of the Bessarabian group of Decembrists.
Soon he entered the Southern Secret Society, which was formed in March 1821 on the basis of one of the administrations of the Union of Welfare (Tulchinskaya), headed by a directory consisting of three people: Pestel P. I., Muravyov-Apostol S. I., Yushnevsky A.P.
Revolutionary advocacy
Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky launched a broad activity related to revolutionary propaganda. He was a teacher of history, geography, and literature at the divisional Lancaster school, and he used classes to educate soldiers in politics.
Raevsky revealed to the soldiers the ideas of equality of all people, their freedom. He told them about the events of the French revolution that took place in the 18th century, about the Spanish revolutionary events. And also Vladimir Fedoseyevich enlightened his students on the foundations of constitutional rule, having earned the reputation of "unbridled freethinker" from the highest authorities.
Impact on Pushkin
In the very beginning of the 1820s, Raevsky created wonderful examples of journalistic articles, such as On the Soldier and On Slavery of the Peasants. They were distributed among soldiers and officers, clearly demonstrating the views of a fiery revolutionary.
During this period, Vladimir Raevsky meets with A.S. Pushkin. In the future Decembrist, the great poet was attracted by such remarkable traits as charm, education, intelligence, integrity and a clear expression of revolutionary spirit.
According to the researchers, the freedom-loving views of the “sun of Russian poetry” on the historical process, more than once set out in his works, to a certain extent were formed under the influence of the first Decembrist, Raevsky.
The activities of the first freethinker and destroyer of army discipline, as he was called at the top, have long been subject to surveillance by military agents. A.S. Pushkin managed to warn him of impending danger, and Raevsky was able to destroy many important papers that could declassify a secret society.
Arrest and Sentence
Raevsky was arrested in February 1822, accused of revolutionary propaganda among cadets and soldiers, although there was no direct evidence. He was imprisoned in a fortress in Tiraspol, but did not name any of the accomplices during interrogation. Here appeared programmatic poems by Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky: “To friends in Chisinau”, “Singer in the dungeon”, in them he reported, including about his inherent “marble patience”.
In 1823, he was sentenced to death, but then the sentence was canceled. After the failure of the Decembrist uprising, he was brought to the investigation in this case, but even then his will was not broken.
Settlement and Amnesty
Raevsky spent almost six years in solitary confinement, after which he was deprived of his noble rank and all insignia and sent to a settlement in Siberia, in the village of Olonki, Irkutsk Region. But this did not break him. He began to engage in agriculture, trade in bread, contracts, married a local peasant who gave birth to nine children. All of them managed to educate.
The matter of public education V.F. Raevsky did not leave in the Siberian wilderness. Although economic activity distracted him from poetry, his best poems were created here: Doom and The Dying Duma.
In 1856, the Decembrists were amnestied, but Raevsky did not take advantage of this circumstance and remained forever in Siberia. After all, in European Russia there were all the same orders against which he fought, but here he felt freer. Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky passed away in 1872.