Can I talk about the Decembrist uprising briefly? The coup attempt is surrounded by so many events and is characterized by so many nuances that whole books devote to it. This was the first organized protest against serfdom in Russia, which caused great resonance in society and had a significant impact on the political and social life of the subsequent era of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. Nevertheless, in this article we will try to consecrate the Decembrist uprising briefly.
general information
December 14, 1825 in the capital of the Russian Empire - St. Petersburg - there was an attempt at a coup. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, most of whom were guard officers. The purpose of the conspirators was the abolition of serfdom and the abolition of autocracy. It should be noted that in its objectives the uprising was significantly different from all other plots of the era of palace coups.
Salvation Union
The war of 1812 had a significant impact on all aspects of people's lives. There were hopes for possible changes, mainly - the abolition of serfdom. But in order to eliminate serfdom, it was necessary to constitutionally limit monarchical power. The history of Russia of this period was marked by the massive creation on an ideological basis of communities of guard officers, the so-called artels. Of these two cooperatives, at the very beginning of 1816 the Union of Salvation was formed . Its creator was Alexander Muravyov, Nikita Muravyov, Sergey Trubetskoy, Ivan Yakushkin became members of the society , and later Pavel Pestel joined. The objectives of the Union were the liberation of the peasants and the reform of government. Pestel wrote the charter of the organization in 1817, most of the participants were in Masonic lodges, because the influence of the rituals of the Masons was reflected in the everyday life of the Union. Disagreements between members of the community on the possibility of killing the king during the coup d'etat caused the Union to be dissolved in the fall of 1817.
Union of Welfare
At the beginning of 1818, the Union of Welfare was organized in Moscow - a new secret society. It included two hundred people, preoccupied with the idea of forming advanced public opinion, creating a liberal movement. For this, the organization of legal charitable, literary, and educational organizations was supposed. More than ten union administrations were founded across the country, including in St. Petersburg, Chisinau, Tulchin, Smolensk and other cities. “Side” councils were also formed, for example, Nikita Vsevolzhsky’s government, and the Green Lamp. Members of the Union should have been actively involved in public life, trying to occupy high posts in the army, government agencies. The composition of society regularly changed: the first participants started families and moved away from political affairs, new ones replaced them. In January 1821, for three days, a congress of the Union of Welfare was held in Moscow, due to the disagreement of supporters of the moderate and radical currents. The Congress was led by Mikhail Fonvizin and Nikolai Turgenev. It turned out that the scammers had informed the government of the existence of the Union, and it was decided to formally dissolve it. This made it possible to free oneself from people who entered the community by chance.
Reorganization
The dissolution of the Union of Welfare was a step towards reorganization. New societies appeared: Northern (in St. Petersburg) and Southern (in Ukraine). The main role in the Northern society was played by Sergey Trubetskoy, Nikita Muravyev, and later Kondraty Ryleev, a famous poet who rallied the fighting Republicans around him. The head of the organization was Pavel Pestel, guard officers Naryshkin Mikhail, Gorstkin Ivan, naval officers Chizhov Nikolay and the brothers Bodisko, Mikhail and Boris took an active part. The Southern society was attended by the Kryukov brothers (Nikolai and Alexander) and the Bobrishchev-Pushkin brothers: Pavel and Nikolai, Alexei Cherkasov, Ivan Avramov, Vladimir Likharev, Ivan Kireev.
Background of the events of December 1825
The year of the Decembrist uprising came. The conspirators decided to take advantage of the difficult legal situation that developed around the right to the throne after the death of Alexander I. There was a secret document according to which Konstantin Pavlovich, the brother of childless Alexander I, following his seniority, refused the throne. Thus, the next brother, Nikolai Pavlovich, although he was extremely unpopular among the bureaucratic elite, had an advantage. At the same time, even before the secret document was opened, Nikolai hastened to abandon the right to the throne in favor of Konstantin under the onslaught of M. Miloradovich, Governor-General of St. Petersburg.
Change of power
On November 27, 1825, the history of Russia began a new round - formally a new emperor, Constantine, appeared. Even a few coins were minted with his image. However, Constantine did not officially accept the throne, but did not refuse it. A very tense and ambiguous position was created between the kingdoms. As a result, Nicholas decided to declare himself emperor. An oath was appointed on December 14th. Finally, a change of power has come - a moment that members of secret communities have been waiting for. It was decided to start the Decembrist uprising.
The December 14 uprising was the result of the fact that as a result of a long night meeting on the night of 13-14, the Senate nevertheless recognized the legal right of Nikolai Pavlovich to the throne. The Decembrists decided to stop the Senate and the troops from taking the oath to the new king. It was impossible to hesitate, especially since the minister already had a huge number of denunciations on the table, and arrests could soon begin.
The history of the Decembrist uprising
The conspirators planned to occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace, arrest the royal family and, if certain circumstances arise, kill. Sergei Trubetskoy was elected to lead the uprising. Further, the Decembrists wanted to demand from the Senate the publication of a popular manifesto proclaiming the destruction of the old government and the establishment of an interim government. The members of the new revolutionary government were supposed to make Admiral Mordvinov and Count Speransky. The deputies were entrusted with the task of approving the constitution - the new fundamental law. In the event that the Senate refused to announce a popular manifesto containing clauses on the abolition of serfdom, the equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms, the introduction of mandatory military service for all classes, the introduction of a jury, the election of officials, the abolition of the poll tax , etc., it was decided to force him do it forcibly.
Then it was planned to convene a popular council that would decide on the choice of form of government: a republic or a constitutional monarchy. If a republican form had been chosen, the royal family would have to be expelled from the country. Ryleyev at first suggested sending Nikolai Pavlovich to Fort Ross, but then he and Pestel conceived the murder of Nikolai and, perhaps, Tsarevich Alexander.
December 14 - Decembrist uprising
Briefly describe what happened on the day of the coup attempt. Early in the morning, Ryleyev turned to Kakhovsky with a request to enter the Winter Palace and kill Nikolai. He first agreed, but then refused. By eleven in the morning, the Moscow Guards Regiment, the Grenadier Regiment, and sailors of the Guards Naval Crew were withdrawn to the Senate Square . In total - about three thousand people. However, a couple of days before the Decembrist uprising of 1825 began, Nikolai Rostovtsev warned Nikolai about the intentions of the members of the secret communities, who considered the rebellion unworthy of the noble honor, and the chief of the General Staff Dibich. Already at seven in the morning the senators took the oath to Nicholas and proclaimed him emperor. Trubetskoy, appointed leader of the uprising, did not appear on the square. The regiments on the Senate continued to stand and wait for the conspirators to come to a common opinion about the appointment of a new leader.
Climax
On this day the history of Russia was made. Count Miloradovich, who appeared on horseback before the soldiers, began to say that if Konstantin refused to be emperor, then there was nothing to be done. Out of the ranks of the rebels, Obolensky urged Miloradovich to leave, and then, seeing that he was not responding, he slightly wounded him with a bayonet in his side. Kakhovsky at the same time shot the count with a pistol. Prince Mikhail Pavlovich and Colonel Sturler tried to lead the soldiers into obedience, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the rebels twice repelled the attack of the Horse Guards, led by Alexei Orlov.
Tens of thousands of Petersburg residents gathered on the square, they sympathized with the rebels and threw stones and logs into Nikolai and his retinue. As a result, two “rings” of people formed. One surrounded the rebels and consisted of those who had come earlier, the other was formed from those who had come later, the gendarmes didn’t let them into the square, therefore, people stood behind the government troops surrounding the Decembrists. Such an environment was in danger, and Nikolai, doubting his success, decided to prepare crews for members of the royal family in case of need to escape to Tsarskoye Selo.
Unequal forces
The newly-made emperor understood that the results of the Decembrist uprising might not be in his favor, so he asked Metropolitans Eugene and Seraphim to ask the soldiers to retreat. This did not bring any results, and Nikolai’s fears intensified. Nevertheless, he managed to take the initiative into his own hands, while the rebels elected a new leader (Prince Obolensky was appointed to them). Government forces were more than four times the size of the Decembrist army: nine thousand bayonets of infantry, three thousand cavalry sabers were assembled, and later they called up artillerymen (thirty-six guns), in total about twelve thousand people. The rebels, as already noted, there were three thousand.
The defeat of the Decembrists
When the guards artillery appeared from the Admiralteysky Boulevard, Nikolai ordered a volley of buckshot on the "mobile" located on the roofs of the Senate and neighboring houses to be fired. The Decembrists answered with rifle fire, and then under a hail of buckshots fled. After them shots continued, the soldiers threw themselves on the ice of the Neva with the aim of moving to Vasilievsky Island. On the Neva ice, Bestuzhev made an attempt to establish a military order and again go on the offensive. The troops were built, but were fired by cannonballs. The ice was breaking, people were drowning. The plan was a failure, in the streets and squares by night lay hundreds of corpses.
Arrest and trial
When asked about the year in which the Decembrist uprising took place and how it ended, not many will probably answer today. However, this event in many respects influenced the further history of Russia. The significance of the Decembrist uprising cannot be underestimated - they were the first in the empire to create a revolutionary organization, develop a political program, prepare and implement an armed uprising. At the same time, the rebels were not ready for the trials that followed the uprising. Some of them after the trial were executed by hanging (Ryleyev, Pestel, Kakhovsky and others), the rest were exiled to Siberia and other places. A split occurred in society: some supported the king, others supported the failed revolutionaries. And the surviving revolutionaries themselves, defeated, shackled, captured, lived in deep mental torment.
Finally
About how the Decembrist uprising took place, was briefly described in the article. They were driven by one desire - to revolutionaryly oppose the autocracy and serfdom in Russia. For enthusiastic youths, outstanding military men, philosophers and economists, prominent thinkers, the coup attempt was an exam: someone showed strengths, someone weak, someone showed determination, courage, self-sacrifice, and someone began to hesitate, could not keep the sequence of actions backed off.
The historical significance of the Decembrist uprising lies in the fact that they laid the foundations of revolutionary traditions. Their speech laid the foundation for the further development of liberation thoughts in serf Russia.