The Decembrists gathered on the Senate Square 3 thousand soldiers. They lined up in a square around the monument to Peter the Great. Hardly many of them realized the political meaning of the uprising. Very different-minded contemporaries told how the rebellious soldiers shouted: "Hurrah, the constitution!" - believing that this is the name of the wife of Konstantin Pavlovich. The Decembrists themselves, not having the opportunity and time for frank political agitation, led the soldiers to the square in the name of the "legitimate" sovereign Konstantin: "Having sworn allegiance to one sovereign, immediately swearing allegiance to another is a sin!" However, Konstantin was desired for the soldiers not in himself, but as a "good" (presumably) tsar - the opposite of the "evil" (all the guards knew this) Nicholas.

The mood in the square of the rebels on the Senate Square was cheerful and upbeat. Alexander Bestuzhev, in front of the soldiers, sharpened his saber on the granite of the monument to Peter. The rebels held out passively, but steadfastly. Even when one Moscow regiment was standing on the square, General Miloradovich, the hero of 1812, an associate of Suvorov and Kutuzov, tried to persuade the Muscovites to disperse and began an incendiary speech (and he knew how to speak with soldiers), but the Decembrist P.G. Kakhovsky shot him. Miloradovich's attempt was repeated by the commander of the guard A.L. Warriors, but also unsuccessfully, although this parliamentarian got off cheaply: he was shell-shocked by a log thrown from a crowd of onlookers. Meanwhile, reinforcements were approaching the rebels. New attempts to persuade them to obedience were made by the third of the brothers of Alexander I, Mikhail Pavlovich, and two metropolitans - St. Petersburg, Father Seraphim, and Kyiv, Father Eugene. Each of them also had to flee. "What kind of metropolitan are you when you swore allegiance to two emperors in two weeks!" - the Decembrist soldiers shouted after the fleeing Fr. Seraphim.

In the afternoon, Nikolai Pavlovich threw horse guards against the rebels, but the rebellious square repelled several of her attacks with rifle fire. After that, Nicholas had only one means left, "ultima ratio regis", as they say about this means in the West ("the last argument of kings") - artillery.

By 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Nikolai pulled to the square 12 thousand bayonets and sabers (four times more than the rebels) and 36 guns. But his position remained critical. The fact is that a crowded (20-30 thousand) crowd of people gathered around the square, at first only watching both sides, not understanding what was happening (many thought: exercises), then it began /94/ to show sympathy for the rebels. Stones and logs flew from the crowd into the government camp and its parliamentarians, which were in great abundance near the building of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was then under construction.

Voices from the crowd asked the Decembrists to hold out until dark, promising to help. Decembrist A.E. Rosen recalled this: "Three thousand soldiers and ten times more people were ready for anything at the behest of the commander." But there was no leader. Only at about 4 pm the Decembrists chose - right there, on the square - a new dictator, also a prince, E.P. Obolensky. However, time had already been lost: Nicholas launched the "last argument of the kings."

At the beginning of the 5th hour, he personally ordered: "Firing with guns in order! Start the right flank! First! .." To his surprise and fear, there was no shot. "Why don't you shoot?" - Lieutenant I.M. attacked the right-flank gunner. Bakunin. "Why, your own, your honor!" - answered the soldier. The lieutenant grabbed the wick from him and fired the first shot himself. He was followed by a second, a third... The ranks of the rebels trembled and fled.

At 6 pm it was all over. They picked up the corpses of the rebels on the square. According to official figures, there were 80 of them, but this is clearly a reduced figure; Senator P.G. Divov counted 200 dead that day, Justice Ministry official S.N. Korsakov - 1271, of which "niello" - 903.

Late in the evening, the participants in the uprising gathered for the last time at Ryleyev. They agreed on how to behave during interrogations, and, having said goodbye to each other, dispersed - some home, and some right in Winter Palace: give up. The first to appear in the royal palace with a confession was the one who first came to Senate Square - Alexander Bestuzhev. Meanwhile, Ryleev sent a messenger to the South with the news that the uprising in St. Petersburg was suppressed.

St. Petersburg did not have time to recover from the shock caused by December 14, when it learned about the Decembrist uprising in the South. It turned out to be longer (from December 29, 1825 to January 3, 1826), but less dangerous for tsarism. By the beginning of the uprising, on December 13, Pestel was arrested at the denunciation of Mayboroda, and after him, the entire Tulchinsk council. Therefore, the southerners managed to raise only the Chernigov regiment, which was headed by Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol - the second most important leader of the Southern Society, a man of rare intelligence, courage and charm, "Orpheus among the Decembrists" (as the historian G.I. Chulkov called him), their common pet. The commanders of other units, on which /95/ the Decembrists counted (General S.G. Volkonsky, colonels A.Z. Muravyov, V.K. Tizenhausen, I.S. M.I. Pykhachev, the commander of the horse artillery company, betrayed his comrades and took part in the suppression of the uprising. On January 3, in a battle near the village of Kovalevka, about 70 km southwest of Kyiv, the Chernigov regiment was defeated by government troops. Seriously wounded Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, his assistant M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and brother Matvey were taken prisoner (the third of the brothers Muravyov-Apostles Ippolit, who swore "to win or die", shot himself on the battlefield).

The reprisal against the Decembrists was carried out cruelly. In total, according to M.V. Nechkina, over 3 thousand rebels were arrested (500 officers and more than 2.5 thousand soldiers). V.A. Fedorov counted 316 arrested officers according to the documents. The soldiers were beaten with gauntlets (others to death), and then sent to penal companies. To deal with the main criminals, Nicholas I appointed the Supreme Criminal Court of 72 senior officials. He instructed M.M. to manage the work of the court. Speransky. It was the king's Jesuit move. After all, Speransky was on suspicion: among the Decembrists were people close to him, including his secretary S.G. Batenkov, who paid the heaviest punishment of all the unexecuted Decembrists (20 years of solitary confinement). The tsar reasoned that Speransky, with all his desire to be gentle, would be strict, for the slightest leniency towards the defendants on his part would be regarded as sympathy for the Decembrists and proof of his connection with them. The king's calculation was fully justified.

More than 100 Decembrists, after replacing the "cutting off the head" with hard labor, were exiled to Siberia and - with demotion to the rank and file - to the Caucasus to fight against the highlanders. Some of the Decembrists (Trubetskoy, Volkonsky, Nikita Muravyov, etc.) were voluntarily followed to hard labor by their wives - young, barely married aristocrats: princesses, baronesses, generals, in total - 12. Three of them died in Siberia. The rest returned with their husbands after 30 years, having buried more than 20 of their children in Siberian soil. The feat of these women, the Decembrists, is sung in the poems of N.A. Nekrasov and the Frenchman A. de Vigny.

April 5th, 2015

Almost finished posting threads yet. This is already the ninth and penultimate topic. Volunteers for disclosure in the post of topics of the second ten were practically not found, but the authors of the topics, in principle, can submit them in the next vote.

So today we have a topic alternative history from a friend kisyha_74. The concept may not be entirely accurate, but there is certainly a certain current and direction that casts doubt on the official version of many historical events. History in general has always been a complex matter. And the further it goes back in time, the more difficult it is. All these are just serifs and outlines for independent further study for those who are interested.

What claims are made to the well-known official version? On December 26, 1825, an uprising of the Decembrists broke out in St. Petersburg.

If you remove shavings of Soviet mythology from it, you can see a lot of interesting things.

1. The king is not real

In fact, the coup d'état took place not on December 26, but on November 27, 1825. On this day in St. Petersburg, the death of Emperor Alexander in Taganrog was announced and Konstantin Pavlovich, the 2nd in seniority after the childless Alexander, was declared the new emperor. He was hastily sworn in by the Senate, State Council and the whole capital. True, Konstantin had no rights to the throne, since back in 1823 he abdicated in favor of Nicholas, which was also formalized by Alexander's spiritual testament. Nikolai also took the oath to Konstantin under pressure from the military governor Miloradovich.

However, already on December 3, Constantine refused the crown. Either in St. Petersburg they decided to outplay everyone, or because Konstantin was afraid to share the fate of his father Paul I, he allegedly said: "They will strangle them, as they strangled their father." Nicholas was declared the legitimate heir to the throne. Everything that happened, of course, took place in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy and gave rise to a lot of rumors.

2. Who pulls the strings

The oath to the new emperor was appointed on December 14 (26). The Decembrists, who previously did not designate themselves in any way, timed their speech to the same date. They did not have a coherent program, the idea was this - to bring the regiments to the Senate Square that day in order to prevent the oath to Nicholas. The main conspirator, Prince Trubetskoy, appointed by the dictator, did not come to the square at all, it is quite possible that the appointment took place retroactively. There was practically no coordination, Ryleev rushed around St. Petersburg, "like a patient in his restless bed", everything was done at random. It looks rather strange for a secret society that has been operating for several years, covering a significant part of the military elite, which has an extensive network throughout the country.

3. Orange technology

For the withdrawal of troops, classical technologies were used, today they would be called orange. So Alexander Bestuzhev, having arrived at the barracks of the Moscow regiment, already ready for the oath, began to assure the soldiers that they were being deceived, that Tsarevich Konstantin had never abdicated and would soon be in St. Petersburg, that he was his adjutant and was sent by him on purpose ahead, etc. . Having enticed the soldiers with such a deception, he led them to the Senate Square. In the same way, other regiments were brought to the square. At this time, thousands of people gathered on the square and near the embankment of St. Isaac's Cathedral. It was easier to work with the common people, they spread the rumor that the legitimate Emperor Konstantin was already on his way to St. Petersburg from Warsaw and was taken under arrest near Narva, but soon the troops would release him, and after a while the excited crowd shouted: “Hurrah, Konstantin!”

4. Provocateurs

In the meantime, regiments loyal to Emperor Nicholas arrived on the square. A confrontation formed: on the one hand, the rebels and the incited people, on the other, the defenders of the new emperor. Trying to persuade the rebels to return to the officers' barracks, the crowd threw logs from a dismantled woodpile near St. Isaac's Cathedral. One of the rebels is a hero Caucasian War Yakubovich, who came to Senatskaya and was appointed commander of the Moscow regiment, referred to headache and disappeared from the square. Then he stood in the crowd near the emperor for several hours, and then approached him and asked permission to go to the rebels in order to persuade them to lay down their arms. Having received consent, he went to the chain as a truce and, going up to Kuchelbecker, said in an undertone: “Hold on, they are cruelly afraid of you,” and left. Today, on the Maidan, he would have been written down in titushki.

5. "Noble" shot

However, things soon came to clashes. General Miloradovich went to the rebels for negotiations and was killed by a shot by Kakhovsky. The hero Kakhovsky, if you look at him through a magnifying glass, will turn out to be a very interesting person. The Smolensk landowner, lost to the nines, he came to St. Petersburg in the hope of finding a rich bride, but he did not succeed. By chance, he met Ryleev and he dragged him into a secret society. Ryleev and other comrades supported him in St. Petersburg at their own expense. And when it was time to pay the benefactors' bills, Kakhovsky, without hesitation, fired. After that, it became clear that an agreement would no longer be possible.
6. Senseless and merciless

AT Soviet time a myth was created about the unfortunate sufferers - the Decembrists. But for some reason, no one talks about the real victims of this senseless rebellion. While there were few killed among the members of the secret societies who brewed this mess, the common people and the soldiers drawn into the massacre felt the full charm of the buckshot. Taking advantage of the indecisiveness of the rebels, Nikolai managed to transfer artillery, shot at the rebels with grapeshot, the people and soldiers rushed in all directions, many fell through the ice and drowned, trying to cross the Neva. The result is deplorable: among the mob - 903 killed, minors - 150, women - 79, lower soldier ranks - 282.

7. Everything is secret ...

AT recent times the next version of the causes of the rebellion is gaining momentum. If you look closely, all the threads lead to Konstantin, in whom you can see the true customer. The Decembrist revolutionaries, who kept papers on the reorganization of Russia, the adoption of a constitution, the abolition of serfdom, for some reason began to force the soldiers to swear allegiance to Konstantin. Why did people who oppose the monarchy do this? Maybe because they were directed by someone who benefited from it. It is no coincidence that Nikolai, having begun an investigation into the uprising, and he was personally present at the interrogations, said that they should not look for the guilty, but would give everyone the opportunity to justify themselves, he certainly knew who was behind this, and did not want to wash dirty linen from the hut. Well, one more conspiracy and eloquent fact. As soon as Konstantin left Warsaw after another uprising of the Poles and ended up in Vitebsk, he suddenly fell ill with cholera and died a few days later.

What other points are subject not only to doubt, but perhaps to a greater extent “not discussed”?

First of all - regicide.

Moreover, as S. G. Nechaev, the head of the “People’s Reprisal” society, later said, “the whole great litany” (today they would say “the entire payroll”) the august family, including the grand duchesses extradited abroad and their offspring, should have perished. So that no one can claim the throne.

The thought of the immorality of such a step, of course, occurred to the leaders of the conspiracy. And if they themselves were ready to step over mental anguish, then neither the crowd, nor the numerous ordinary participants, nor even a number of high-ranking brethren, for example, Prince S.P. Trubetskoy, shared bloodthirsty aspirations.

Therefore, the so-called. "doomed cohort" - a detachment of several people who knew in advance that they were sacrificing themselves. They undertook to kill representatives of the royal house, and then the new government of the republic would execute them, dissociating themselves from the massacre. So, A. I. Yakubovich promised to shoot Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, and V. K. Kuchelbeker - Mikhail Pavlovich. As the latter later told his brother: "The most amazing thing is that we were not killed."

The logic is well known: what is the death of one family compared to the happiness of millions? But the destruction of the reigning house seems to untie the hands for bloody atrocities in the rest of the country. The punitive bodies, the creation of which Pestel envisaged, were supposed to number 50 thousand people. Later, 4 thousand served in the Gendarme Corps, including the lower ranks - the essence internal troops. Why did Pestel need so much? In order to "persuade" compatriots who disagree with the republic. So the royal family would be followed not by great, but by numerous families. Is it only the nobility? Experience in the early 20th century shows that it is not far.

How did they hand over their

Historians are now studying internal strife in the circle of conspirators and know that at the Moscow Congress of 1821, for the first time in Russian history, the question of robber expropriations - money for the revolution - was raised. That spying on each other and opening letters were not alien to the heroes of December 14th. Their behavior after their arrest in the fortress is so shocking to novice researchers that two mutually exclusive myths had to be invented. The nobleman de answers at the first request, so the arrested did not hide anything, called their comrades, told everything they knew.

Another option: the Decembrists wanted to impress large organization so that the government gets scared and makes concessions. So, Prince S. G. Volkonsky, at the very first interrogation, listed the names of 22 members of the society, some of whom turned out to be completely uninvolved. That is, he slandered people.

Letters of repentance were written to the emperor, services were offered to reveal "all the hidden sides of the conspiracy." In the hope of saving themselves, they confessed almost in a race. K. F. Ryleev showed almost the most. Although no methods of physical influence were applied to the arrested. Such facts would be very desirable to find early Soviet historiography. But alas...

And torture was prohibited by law. And the sovereign with the investigators is not from that test. Of course, people are not sinless, but there is a line beyond which the authorities did not go at that time. As they wrote then:

“Frightened boys found themselves in the Peter and Paul Fortress, who were grabbed by the hand after the “feast of disobedience”, and who now repeated: we won’t do it again.”

Here are excerpts from Prof. Gernet "History of the tsarist prison", published by the Bolsheviks.

“... The head of the Chita prison and the Petrovsky plant, where all the Decembrists were concentrated, was Leparsky, an exceptionally kind man who created a tolerable life for them. Probably, this was done by the Tsar deliberately, because. he personally knew Leparsky as a devoted to him, but a gentle and tactful person. ”For lack of government work,” wrote the head of the convict prison in Chita, “I occupy them with earthworks in the summer, 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, and in the winter they will be for myself and grind official rye for factory shops. “In fact, there was no need for any “shops” in the work of the Decembrists. Leparsky solved this problem by turning work into a walk or a picnic with useful gymnastics.

Materially, the Decembrists did not need anything. For 10 years of being in hard labor, the prisoners received from relatives, not counting countless parcels of things and food, 354,758 rubles, and their wives - 778,135 rubles, and this is only through official means; undoubtedly, they managed to receive money and secretly from the administration.

“The new Chita prison was divided into four rooms, warm and bright.” In 1828, the shackles were removed from the Decembrists. In the same year, Leparsky "allowed to build two small houses in the yard: in one they put a carpentry, turning and binding machines for those who wish to engage in crafts, and in the other - a piano." “Hard labor soon became a kind of gymnastics for the willing. In the summer, they filled up the ditch, which was called the "Devil's Grave", the guards and servants of the ladies bustled about, carried folding chairs and chess to the place of work. The guard officer and non-commissioned officers shouted: “Gentlemen, it's time to go to work! Who's coming today?" If wishing, ie. not enough sick people were recruited, the officer imploringly said: “Gentlemen, add someone else! And then the commandant will notice that there are very few!” One of those who needed to see a comrade living in another casemate allowed himself to be begged: "Well, perhaps I'll go." The guards carried shovels. Under the leadership of an officer and guarded by soldiers with guns, the prisoners set off. To the sound of shackles, they sang their favorite Italian aria, the revolutionary “Our Fatherland suffers under your yoke,” or even the French Marseillaise. Officers and soldiers paced rhythmically to the beat of revolutionary songs. Arriving at the place, we had breakfast, drank tea, played chess. The soldiers, having put their guns in the goats, settled down to rest, fell asleep; The non-commissioned officers and the guards were finishing the breakfast of the prisoners.”

In Petrovskaya, a new building with 64 rooms was waiting for them. Singles - one each, married - two each.

“The rooms were large,” Zeitlin writes, “for the married, they soon took the form of rooms in an ordinary apartment, with carpets and upholstered furniture.” Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines were obtained. The Decembrist Zavalishin estimates the total book fund of the Petrovsky Prison at 500,000 titles. Prof. Gernet considers this number possible, taking into account the huge library of Muravyov-Apostol. "Kn. Trubetskaya and Prince. Volkonskaya lived outside the prison, in separate apartments, with 25 servants each. “We worked a little on the road and in the gardens. It happened that the officer on duty begged to go to work when there were too few people in the group. Zavalishin describes his return from these works as follows: “on returning, they carried books, flowers, notes, goodies from the ladies, and behind the state workers dragged picks, stretchers, shovels ... they sang revolutionary songs.” “The Decembrists actually did not carry out hard labor, with the exception of a few people who worked in the mine for a short time,” admits prof. Gernet.

Woke up Herzen

It is to A. I. Herzen, a talented journalist who worked in England, that we owe the Decembrist myth. Later, the picture only became more complicated, but did not change in essence.

The printing house "Bells" and "Polar Star" was located in London. England after Napoleonic Wars- the biggest heavyweight player in the European arena. The most dangerous enemy of the Russian Empire. Therefore, support for the opposition journalist was always provided. In London, for example, Nikolai Turgenev, one of the then "Decembrist" defectors, was hiding. Master of high dedication. A man whom Alexander I was afraid to arrest at home, simply writing to him: “My brother, leave Russia” (by the way, this phrase is disputed). But Nicholas I demanded extradition.

Where without Masons.

Here is another version:

The entire ideological basis of both the first Russian secret political unions that arose after the Patriotic War and later ones is not Russian, alien. All of them are written off from foreign samples. Some scholars of the history of the Decembrist uprising argue that the charter of the Union of Welfare was written off from the charter of the German Tugendbund. But most likely, the origins of the political ideas of the Decembrists must be sought in the political ideas of European Freemasonry and in the ideas of the "Great" French Revolution, which again lead us to Masonic ideas about "universal brotherhood, equality and freedom."

“In the guard,” the deputy French ambassador Count Boilcont reports on August 29, 1822, “folly and slander have reached the point that one general recently told us that sometimes it seems that there is only not enough leader to start a rebellion. Last month, a parody of the well-known motif “I wandered around the world for a long time” was openly sung in the guard, which contained the most criminal attacks on His Majesty personally and on His trips and congresses: this parody was sung by many officers. Then, what happened in the meeting of young guards officers shows so clearly the spirit reigning among them that it is impossible not to convey it. getting up from the table, they took turns past the portrait of the Emperor and cursed at him.

From the same letter of Count Bualconte we learn who were the instigators of these rebellious moods. These were the Freemasons, with whom, as we remember, the army abounded.

Many of the Decembrists went through Masonic lodges. In the charter of the Union of Salvation, - Zeitlin rightly points out, - “Masonic features are clearly visible, and later one can trace the secret underground streams of Freemasonry in the political movement of those years”. Zeitlin is a Jew and he knew what he was writing.

Recognizes that the conspiracy of the Decembrists ideologically grew on Masonic ideas, and N. Berdyaev.

There is no way to list the names of all who, after the end of World War II, were members of Masonic lodges of various directions. Freemasonry pursued, as before, two goals: to undermine Orthodoxy, the basis of the spiritual identity of the Russian people and the source of its spiritual strength, and to completely undermine the autocracy.

In order to overthrow the autocracy, the officers who were members of the Masonic lodges began preparations for the destruction of the autocracy. The Decembrist uprising was the realization of the plans of the Masons, for which it had been preparing for decades. The Decembrist uprising is, in essence, the uprising of the Masons.

Here is another series of versions, who may be interested "Murka" from MURA. Two versions, and here. Many argue, is it really? but . Let's also remember about, as well as The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

0 Today, with great difficulty, one can imagine what people "breathed", what people who lived almost 200 years ago thought about. Therefore, their actions sometimes cause us to be dumbfounded and condemned, which only adds interest to the life of our ancestors. Today we will talk about the essence Decembrist uprising in 1825.
However, before continuing, I would like to recommend you a few more interesting publications on various topics. For example, what does Aphorism mean, what is Field, how to understand the word Creative, what does the word tradesman mean, etc.
So let's continue briefly about the Decembrist uprising. At that time, a couple of percent of rich people lived in Russia, and all the rest were in the position of beggars or even slaves (serfs). Therefore, among the townspeople and educated people discontent matured, which was very actively used by secret societies.

Decembrist uprising briefly - it was an attempted coup d'état that took place in the capital of the empire, St. Petersburg, on December 14, 1825. It is considered that the main actors and the leaders of the uprising were the nobles, who in parallel were guards officers. Having close contacts with the army units stationed in the city, they tried to attract them to their side so that they would not allow Nicholas I to the throne. The main declared goal of the negotiators was to destroy royal dynasty and the abolition of serfdom. In fact, this revolution was led by secret societies, there is evidence that the English ambassador was the coordinator and real leader of the uprising. The real goal was to destroy Russia and divide it into parts. Moreover, in 1917, the West managed to do this, then, and then in 1991 there was another successful attempt to genocide the Russian population

Well, now let's get back to our sheep, that is, the Decembrists. In fact , Decembrist uprising of 1825 year, was the very first of the well-organized anti-government actions in Russia. Historians believe that it was carried out solely for humanitarian purposes, in order to free the peasants from the shackles of slavery, and also against the power of the autocrat. If in 1917, the slogan was "no war, everyone should leave the trenches and go home," and the idea was also promoted separately for the peasants to give land ownership for free, and then it worked.
However, our Decembrists were either fools, or they were controlled like puppets from behind a cordon, but they had one slogan - "the abolition of serfdom." Who could possibly be interested in this besides the peasants themselves?

Background of the 1825 uprising

Even under Alexander I, English, and german spies worked actively for destabilization situation in the country. Scrupulous work was carried out, the result of which would eventually be the restriction of the power of the autocrat.
A huge amount of work has been carried out over several years, thousands of people have been drawn into the orbit of this idea. However, when Alexander I unexpectedly died, it was a pleasant surprise for the conspirators. Immediately, conflicting instructions began to come from Foggy Albion on what to do, and the gears of this huge wrecking conspiracy began to gradually unwind.

However, as they say, hurry up - you make people laugh, and here ours " villains", from the first days of the conspiracy, everything went awry. The fact is that the king had no children, and his older brother Constantine, had long ago renounced the throne, he did not like power as such.
However, local officials did not seem to know about this circumstance, because how else to explain the fact that the population of the Russian Empire swore allegiance to the emperor Konstantin Pavlovich, although he himself did not accept such powers. As a result, the situation developed in such a way that only Nikolai could become the heir.
Such confusion and confusion reigned at that time in all the cities and towns of Russia.

Then, the foreign curators of the Decembrists decide that the glorious hour has come when this barbarous country can be destroyed. They give orders to their puppets, the Decembrists, and they begin to act. The day was chosen for the uprising December 14, 1825 when the population had to swear allegiance to the new emperor Nicholas I.

What was the plan of the Decembrists?

The main characters in this bloody performance were:

Alexander Muravyov - the main conspirator and ideological inspirer of the union;

Kondraty Ryleev;

Ivan Yakushin;

Sergei Trubetskoy;

Nikolay Kakhovsky;

Pavel Pestel;

Nikita Muravyov.

It is clear that these people were a screen for some secret societies who were extremely interested in overthrowing the government in the Russian Empire.

The plan of the Decembrists was to somehow prevent the Senate and the Russian army from swearing allegiance to Nicholas I.
The conspirators planned to storm the Winter Palace and take the royal family hostage. This circumstance would have made it extremely easy for the rebels to take power into their own hands; Sergei Trubkoy was appointed the leader of the entire gang.

It is clear that after the coup, England would begin to impose democracy, and would arrange a total genocide, as many of us remember from the 90s of the last century. Although in fact they announced the creation instead of the Empire, free republics. Well, the royal family should have been expelled from the country. Although it is worth noting that some, especially stubborn Decembrists, dreamed of wiping out the entire royal family, and destroying everyone who was somehow related to the royal dynasty.

Decembrist uprising of 1825, December 14

So, on December 14, early in the morning, St. Petersburg is the time and place where the performance was scheduled. However, the rebels did not immediately go according to plan. Most importantly, Kakhovsky, who had previously declared the possibility and desire to go to Nikolai's room, and kill him, suddenly abandons the idea.
This information caused a real shock to the real leaders of the uprising, the British. The next failure was not long in coming, Yakubovich, who was supposed to capture the royal family, refuses to send troops to storm the Winter Palace.

However, as the teenagers say, it was already “too late to rush about,” as the flywheel of the uprising was gaining momentum. The Decembrists and their Western curators did not back down from their plans. Therefore, a number of agitators were sent to the capital's army barracks, who persuaded the soldiers to go to Senate Square and express their indignation at the events taking place in the country. This operation was carried out quite successfully, and 2350 sailors and 800 soldiers appeared on the square.

Unfortunately for the rebels, by 7 a.m., the senators had already swore allegiance Nicholas, and when the rebels were already on the square, this procedure was completed.

When the troops gathered on the square, a general came out to them. Mikhail Miloradovich. He tried to persuade the soldiers to leave the square and again disperse to the barracks. Seeing that the warriors were beginning to hesitate, and could really disperse, the revolutionary Kokhovsky approached Miloradovich and fired at him point-blank. It was already too much, and horse guards were sent to the rebels.
Unfortunately, rebellion it became quite difficult to suppress, because at that time several thousand civilians joined him, among them there were many women and children.

However, in order to save his power, Nikolai had to give a heavy order to shoot at rebels shrapnel and buckshot from cannons. And only then, the Decembrists were forced to flee. So, already closer to the night, on the same day on December 14, the revolution was suppressed, and the dead and dying were lying all over the square.

Looking from the height of his years, we can conclude that the king gave only loyal order, because if the plans of the conspirators had succeeded, Russia would have drowned in blood, and the victims would have been numbered not in thousands, but in millions.

It is worth comparing that long-standing event with what happened in Ukraine Maidan. Don't you think the handwriting is very similar? Both here and there, the Westerners gathered a crowd, caused casualties, only Yanukovych turned out to be a rag, and did not give an order that would eventually save tens of thousands, if not millions of Ukrainians, from the onset of democracy.

We must pay tribute to the king for his decisive actions, in addition, on his side was the fact that the involvement of the masses in the coup was extremely small. panheads At that time, apparently, it was not enough. Most likely, that event can be considered a really big adventure of Western intelligence services and secret societies against the Russian authorities.

REVOLUTIONARY-DEMOCRATIC (RADICAL) MOVEMENT

The meaning of the word Revolution according to Ozhegov:
Revolution - A radical change in the life of society, which leads to the elimination of the obsolete social and political system and the transfer of power into the hands of the advanced class

The meaning of the word Revolution according to Efremova:
Revolution - A quick and deep change in the basic foundations of the political, social and cultural order, produced by overcoming the resistance of entire social groups.

The meaning of the word Democracy according to Ozhegov:
Democracy - Political system based on the recognition of the principles of democracy, freedom and equality of citizens

The meaning of the word Democracy according to Efremova:
Democracy - A political system in which power belongs to the people; democracy.

General ideas

They advocated a bourgeois-democratic republic, and eventually - for a socialist way of solution - a revolution

In the first half of the 19th century

Decembrists- participants in the Russian noble opposition movement, members of various secret societies of the second half of the 1810s - the first half of the 1820s, who organized an anti-government uprising in December 1825 and were named after the month of the uprising.

Causes of occurrence (Decembrists)

1. Russian reality with its inhuman serfdom

2. The patriotic upsurge caused by the victory in Patriotic War 1812

3. The influence of the works of Western enlighteners: Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu;

4. The unwillingness of the Alexander government to carry out consistent reforms

Groups (circles)

Order of Russian Knights (1815-1817)

Leaders: M. F. Orlov and M. A. Dmitriev-Mamonov

Key Ideas: At the beginning, it was about the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with the limitation of autocratic power through the Senate, some of whose members would be appointed, and some would be elected from the nobility and townspeople. At the end of 1816, Dmitriev-Mamonov wrote a new project, the so-called. " Brief experience”, which already provides for a parliament of two chambers of nobles and philistines, and among the latter even representatives of the “village” were allowed

Targets and goals: Establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Russia

Fighting methods: In 1816, in the printing house of the Moscow Medical and Surgical Academy, a circulation of 25 copies was published "Brief Instructions to Russian Knights" by M. A. Dmitriev-Mamonov

Results:-

sacred artel

Leaders: Muraviev brothers: Nikolai, Alexander, Mikhail

Key Ideas

Targets and goals

Fighting methods

Results: Alexander I found out about her and ordered "to stop gatherings of officers."

Salvation Union (1816-1818)

Leaders: Alexander Muravyov and Nikita Muravyov, Captain Ivan Yakushkin, Matvey Muravyov-Apostol and Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, Prince Sergey Trubetskoy

Key Ideas: Members of the Union called themselves "true and faithful sons of the Fatherland." Each of them had to act for the common good, support all the good deeds of the country, prevent evil, persecute officials who care only about their own benefit, and other dishonest people. The members of the Salvation Union swore on the cross and the gospel to keep the secret. Above the charter, or "status" of the Union, Pestel worked the most.

Targets and goals: the destruction of serfdom and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy through open speech at the time of the change of emperors on the throne, the overthrow of tyranny.

Fighting methods: The proposal of I. D. Yakushkin: to carry out regicide during the stay of the imperial court in Moscow

Results: At the end of 1817, it was decided, having dissolved the society, to create on its basis a more numerous organization that could influence public opinion

Welfare Union (1818-1821)

Leaders: Muravievs, Koloshin and Prince Trubetskoy

Key Ideas: In ideology, it was similar to the Union of Salvation, it also strove for the wide dissemination of liberal and humanistic ideas. Magazine "Russian of the 19th century" / Turgenev

Targets and goals: moral (Christian) education and enlightenment of the people, assistance to the government in good undertakings and mitigation of the fate of serfs. Hidden goal: was to establish constitutional government and eliminate serfdom

Fighting methods: The coup d'etat The main force of the coup, it was decided to make the army, which would be led by members of a secret society.

Results: it was decided to dissolve the society as a result of the decree on the prohibition of secret societies (1821)

Southern Society (1821-1825)

Leaders: Pestel

Key Ideas: Pestel's Russkaya Pravda, adopted at a congress in Kyiv in 1823, became the political program of the Southern Society.

Targets and goals:

Fighting methods: The members of the society intended to take power in the capital, forcing the emperor to abdicate.

Results: At the beginning of January 1825 Chernihiv regiment was surrounded by government troops and defeated.

Northern society (1822-1825)

Leaders: N.M. Muravyov, S.P. Trubetskoy, M.S. Lunin, N.I. Turgenev, E.P. Obolensky, I.I. Pushchin

Key Ideas: The program document of the "northerners" was the Constitution of N. M. Muravyov. It envisioned a constitutional monarchy based on the principle of separation of powers. The emperor was deprived of the right to legislate, declare war, make peace, leave the country. Legislative power was vested in the bicameral People's Council. The members of the Northern Society were opposed to violence and intended to convene a Constituent Assembly after the coup, which was supposed to adopt a "Constitution". magazine "Polar Star" / Bestuzhev and Ryleev

Targets and goals: Revolutionary coup, with the help of the army.

Fighting methods: The influential radical wing (K. F. Ryleev, A. A. Bestuzhev, E. P. Obolensky, I. I. Pushchin) shared the provisions of P. I. Pestel’s Russkaya Pravda.

Results: December 1825 Decembrist uprising an attempted coup d'état in the capital. This contributed to the activation of the socio-political movement in 1830-1850.

The results of the Decembrist uprising

Target: raise an armed uprising in the troops, overthrow the autocracy, abolish serfdom and popularly adopt a new state law - a revolutionary constitution. If we proceed from the actual behavior and demands of the rebels, then their goal was to replace the monarchy with an oligarchy - limiting the power of the emperor in favor of the upper stratum of the elite.

Plan: The Decembrists decided to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new Tsar (right to the throne after the death of Alexander 1). Then they wanted to enter the Senate and demand the publication of a national manifesto, which would announce the abolition of serfdom and the 25-year term of military service, the granting of freedom of speech and assembly.

The tsar's cannons fired at the crowd. Part of the rebels retreated to the Neva ice. The ranks were showered with buckshot, cannonballs broke the ice, the soldiers drowned in the water.

End of the rebellion: By nightfall, the uprising was over. Hundreds of corpses remained on the square and streets. Most of the victims were crushed by the crowd. The arrested were taken to the Winter Palace.

Results: 579 people were involved in the investigation and trial in the case of the Decembrists, divided into categories according to the severity of guilt. Five - P.I. Pestel, S.I. Muraviev-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev, K.F. Ryleev and P.G. Kakhovsky were hanged on June 13, 1826 by a court verdict; 121 participants in the uprising were exiled to hard labor and settling in Siberia. The main fault of the rebels was the murder of high-ranking civil servants, such as the Governor-General Miloradovich, as well as the organization of riots, which led to numerous victims. Exiled to hard labor and exile, the Decembrists did not change their convictions. And upon returning from exile after the amnesty, many Decembrists appeared in the press with their memoirs, published scholarly works, and participated in the preparation and implementation of peasant and other reforms.

Russia won the Patriotic War, but what did this victory bring to society. After 1812 Russian empire in the person of the emperor, she organized a foreign campaign against the remnants of the Napoleonic army, which ended in 1815. The campaign was successful, Napoleon's army was defeated.

But for Russian society, the campaign brought something else. He gave an understanding that life is better in Europe, that there is a concept of civil law, that in some countries there is no serfdom, and most importantly, the officers saw in reality that the autocratic form of government is not the only one that can exist in the state. The December uprising, which took place on December 14, 1825 on Senate Square, was the result of just this foreign campaign.

Causes of the Decembrist uprising

The reasons for the Decembrist uprising can be considered secret societies that began to emerge in Russia after 1815. The very first such society was the Union of Welfare, which arose in 1818 in St. Petersburg. It included radical young officers and nobles: Pestel, Muravyov-Apostol, the Muravyov brothers, Trubetskoy, and others. This organization had its own charter - the Green Book.

The main goal of the organization is the dissemination of education, in order to prepare society for the adoption of the constitution by the emperor. But the members of the society could not decide in what way the society should achieve a constitution. Studying public opinion on this issue, many members of society became disillusioned with the Union of Welfare.

They understood that society was completely unprepared for peaceful ways to achieve such goals, an uprising was needed. Therefore, the Union gradually turned into only a revolutionary gang, where they studied in detail the Spanish revolution and anti-monarchist movements in European countries. At the same time, the participants in the society understood that the participation of the peasantry and any mob in such an uprising was impossible. The coup must be carried out by advanced officers in the name and good of the people. Due to disagreements in 1821, the society was dissolved.

Participants of the Decembrist uprising of 1825

After the collapse of the Union of Welfare, two new societies were created, which became the main organizations that took part in the Decembrist uprising - these are the Northern and Southern societies.

Pavel Pestel became the head of the southern society. He adhered to the idea of ​​revolution in the country and the creation of a republic. He registered his ideas in the program of the society - "Russian Truth". Nikita Muravyov became the head of the Northern Society. He developed his "Constitution" program, which involved limiting the monarchy by introducing a Constitution in the country. The northern society was not as radical as the southern, however, both societies adhered to a single position regarding serfdom - they treated it negatively. If you take general provisions programs for a future uprising, she suggested:

1. The abolition of serfdom;
2. Civil rights and freedoms to the population;
3. Introduction of representation in the governing bodies.

The most important thing that interested the rebels was the transformation government controlled. This problem has become long overdue in society and inevitable, and therefore led to the Decembrist uprising of 1825.

The course of events of the uprising on Senate Square

Open action was scheduled for 14 December. The main task of the Decembrists was to disrupt the oath to the future emperor. His arrest was supposed, and then a change in the form of government in the country.

In the morning, the rebels arrived at Senate Square, but almost immediately they became aware that the oath to Nicholas had already taken place that night. This happened because the preparation of the uprising took place with poor secrecy, and already knew about the plans of the conspirators. Standing in the square, the rebels did not know what to do and for a long time were inactive. This played into the hands of the government, which began to raise troops. The emperor moved to action. Most of the guards obeyed him and this decided the outcome of the uprising on the Senate.

First, Governor General Miloradovich M.A. tried to persuade the rebels to disperse in order to do without bloodshed. But the Decembrist Kakhovsky P.G. shot at him and the general died. This was the last straw and ordered the massacre to begin. Not wanting much bloodshed, he ordered to shoot buckshot over the heads of the rebels, so the uprising was defeated.

Mass arrests of participants in the Decembrist uprising began throughout the city. On the example of the punishments of the Decembrists of the uprising, the emperor showed his determination in such matters. He believed that the constitutional ideas of his brother the Emperor, which he considered erroneous, served as the source of the Decembrist uprising. All those arrested were brought to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where they were interrogated in detail. Many of the participants and indirectly involved persons were officers, therefore, following the officer's honor, they answered frankly, hiding nothing.

The Supreme Court convicted 121 people. Five people were sentenced to hang: Pestel, Kakhovsky, Muraviev-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Ryleev. The rest of the Decembrists went to hard labor, some of the soldiers created a special regiment, which was sent to the Caucasus. All the severity of the sentences shocked society and forever spoiled the moral character of the new emperor. And the uprising on Senate Square has remained in history as a failed revolution.

Decembrist uprising video