Final game of the 1997 Summer Series.

Members

Team of connoisseurs

• Inna Druz (rating - 11 300 000)
• Alexander Druz (rating - 11,000,000)
• Mikhail Jabbarov (rating - 11,000,000)
• Georgy Zharkov (rating - 10,000,000)
• Andrey Kozlov (rating - 8 800 000)
• Boris Burda

Round 1 (Veronika Ananicheva, Engels)

"Holy Carrier"

Attention, "Holy Carrier"!

What pleasantly surprised Marc Chagall when he saw this painting of his at the Berlin Exhibition in 1914?

Boris Burda says: He was surprised that the picture was hung correctly Correct answer: The picture was hung incorrectly, and in this form Chagall saw the picture more lively and dynamic. Check - 0: 1 . Boris Burda - rating 0.

Round 2 ("Super Blitz")

This is how the cap is worn during the parade

And so - during preparation

Not a single bet played. At stake - 2,500,000 rubles. Alexander Druz remains at the table.

Question 1(Evgeny Alekseev, Mariupol). How do some soldiers wear their caps during a parade and how do they wear them while preparing for a parade?

Answered by Alexander Druz: During the parade - traditionally; while preparing for the parade - back Correct answer: During the parade - traditionally; while preparing for the parade - upside down and should not fly off during the parade in order to cultivate one's gait Check - 0: 2 . Alexander Druz - rating 0.

Round 3 (Alevtina Sarycheva, Tula region)

“Behold, you are those who dispute about that of which you have knowledge; why do you argue about what you have no knowledge of? You will be tested both in your possessions and in yourselves, and I will judge between you.” These are words from the third chapter. What is the name of the first chapter that opens the book?

Boris Burda says: Opening (Al-Fatiha) The answer is correct. Check - 1: 2 . Boris Burda - rating 5,000,000.

Round 4 (Larisa Rozhdestvenskaya)

Part of the human body

Not a single bet played. At stake - 1,500,000 rubles.

Attention, part of the human body!

Where exactly, in what place of the Czech city of Litomysl in the 16th century. was this part of the human body embedded in the wall?

Andrey Kozlov answers: The hand was embedded in the wall of a temple or an almshouse as a sign of alms, mercy Correct answer: This part of the body - the elbow - was built into the wall in the market square as a standard of length when selling and buying goods. Check - 1: 3 . Andrey Kozlov - rating 0.

Round 5 (Tatiana Radyakina, Yuzhny village, Rostov region)

Weapons of the proletariat

Played by Andrey Kozlov. At stake - 15,000,000 rubles.

Attention, weapons of the proletariat!

It turns out that the cobblestones were used not only by the proletariat, but also by some Saka horsemen to improve their skills. How did they do it?

Andrey Kozlov answers: They sat on this cobblestone Correct answer: They pinched him between his legs and jumped Check - 1: 4 .

Round 6 ("Blitz")

Not a single bet played. At stake - 3,000,000 rubles.

Question 1(Stanislav Korenblit, Moscow). Read by heart a poem about the 47th element of the first book of Euclid's "Beginnings".

Boris Burda says: Pythagorean pants equal in all directions The answer is correct.

Question 2(Igor Sitkovsky, Moscow). "Master," the same Euclid was once asked, "what would you choose - one whole apple or two halves equal to this whole?" What did Euclid choose and how did he explain his choice?

Mikail Jabbarov answers: Euclid chose the whole because it is always easier to make two halves out of a whole, but it is much more difficult to make a whole out of two halves. Correct answer: Euclid chose two halves, because if he had chosen a whole apple, how would he know whether it was wormy or not. Check - 1: 5 .

Round 7 (Olga Lipich, Penza)

Played by Andrey Kozlov. At stake - 25,000,000 rubles.

At this time of the year, television, Kabuki theater and other theaters in Japan specifically include scary plays in their repertoire. The Japanese themselves at this time of the year also tell each other horror stories about ghosts and ghosts. What time of year does this happen and why?

Andrey Kozlov answers: In the summer, because from horror the Japanese begin to grow cold The answer is correct. Check - 2: 5 . Andrey Kozlov - rating 25,000,000.

Round 8 (Sergey Karpov, Astrakhan)

Played by Boris Burda. At stake - 20,000,000 rubles.

“Many, blowing the air out of themselves with great swiftness, will lose their sight, and soon all their other senses.” Who are these "many" and what is going on?

Boris Burda answers ahead of schedule: It is necessary to blow out the candle and at first sight will be lost, and during sleep all other senses will be lost. The answer is correct. Check - 3: 5 . Boris Burda - rating 25,000,000.

Round 9 (Andrey Nefyodov, Tula)

Mark Bernes, who sang the song "Scavs full of mullets"

In the black box - granulated sugar

Played by Inna Druz. At stake - 15,000,000 rubles.

Attention, black box!

"... for the wedding, the movers put on their shoes with a terrible creak." In the black box - the cause of this creak. What's there?

Answered by Inna Druz: Granulated sugar The answer is correct. Check - 4: 5 . Inna Druz - rating 15,000,000.

Round 10 (Alexander Kostyukov, Rostov-on-Don)

Played by Boris Burda. At stake - 5,000,000 rubles.

Before him, in the mournful darkness,
The coffin is rocking crystal,
And in that crystal coffin
The princess sleeps forever.

Boris Burda says: "And about the coffin of the dear bride / He hit with all his strength / The coffin broke. The maiden suddenly / Came to life The answer is correct. Check - 5: 5 . Boris Burda - rating 30,000,000.

Round 11 (Igor Filippov, USh 349/56)

Played by Alexander Druz. At stake - 15,000,000 rubles.

"Whoever conquers pain and fear, he himself will become God." With this thought, this writer is close to Mr. Filippov. And what is this writer close to connoisseurs?

Answered by Alexander Druz: Dostoevsky The answer is correct. Check - 6: 5 . Alexander Druz - rating 15,000,000.

Alexandra Marinina, using her right, adds a point to the score of the viewers.

Check - 6: 6

Round 12 ("Zero")

According to Druz, the necessary funds were collected from everyone in this saucer for the implementation of the project.

Played by Mikail Jabbarov. At stake - 10,000,000 rubles.

We will assume that this saucer is not mine, but Muravyov-Apostol. Remember, there was such a dreamer, a Decembrist, a dreamer? So, Muravyov-Apostol came up with a wonderful project in his time. Some great action was to take place on this project, and this project was to be achieved in a simple, easy and understandable way. Unfortunately, the project did not materialize. You have a chance to implement the Muravyov-Apostol project. Do a great action that Muravyov-Apostol did not succeed in and tell me why he brought this saucer with him?

Mikail Jabbarov transfers the right to answer to Alexander Druz: Funds were collected in this saucer from everyone in a circle in order to implement a humane project Correct answer: Muravyov-Apostol wanted every gambling house in Russia to have this saucer, and from each win the chip had to be placed in the saucer. Raised funds went to charity. Check - 6: 7 . Due to the fact that the location of the planned project was not named, the answer was not counted.

Game results

• The team of connoisseurs is defeated.

• For the first time since 1989, the score of the game exceeded 6 points.
• On the last question, a conflict occurred between the presenter and the experts. In the course of lengthy attempts, Alexander Druz manages to give the correct answer, but the presenter does not count it and asks to clarify exactly where the funds were collected. In the end, Alexander casually mentions the word "casino", but he is immediately interrupted by Andrei Kozlov, who considered that everything happened in the Hunting Lodge in the Neskuchny Garden. Despite the fact that the majority of those gathered in the house were in favor of the victory of experts, the presenter awarded a point to the viewers, which caused violent indignation on the part of the playing team.

» Muravyov-Apostle Matvei Ivanovich (1793-1886)

Decembrist, retired lieutenant colonel (since 1823). Brother S.I. Muravyov-Apostol. Participant Patriotic War 1812 and foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1814. One of the founders of the Union of Salvation, a member of the indigenous council of the Union of Welfare and the Southern Society; negotiated the unification of the Southern and Northern societies. Participant in the uprising Chernihiv regiment. Sentenced to 20 years hard labor, then reduced to 15 years. Under the amnesty of 1856, he returned from Siberia, until 1863 he lived in Tver, and then in Moscow. Remained faithful to the Decembrist ideals. Three years before his death, he dictated his memoirs about his stay in Siberia.
M.I. died. Muravyov-Apostol February 21, 1886, was buried in Moscow at the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent (please do not confuse with the modern Novodevichy cemetery).

Biography:

Retired lieutenant colonel.
From nobles.
Born in St. Petersburg.
Father - Ivan Matveevich Muravyov-Apostol (10/1/1768 - 03/12/1851), writer, member Russian Academy, envoy in Hamburg and Madrid, mother - Anna Semyonovna Chernoevich (d. 28.3.1810)
His father is married to Praskovya Vasilievna Grushetskaya by a second marriage.
For the father 3478 souls.
He was brought up (until 1802) together with his brother Sergei in Paris at the Hicks boarding house, then in St. Petersburg - the Corps of Railway Engineers (since 1810).
He entered the service as a lieutenant in the L.-Gds. Semyonovsky Regiment - 11/20/1811, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812 (Vitebsk, Borodino - awarded the insignia of the Military Order of George, Tarutino, Maloyaroslavets) and foreign campaigns (Lutzen, Bautzen, Kulm, where he was wounded, awarded the Order of Anna 4th class, Leipzig, Paris ), warrant officer - 12/18/1812, second lieutenant - 1/13/1816, lieutenant - 2/2/1817, appointed adjutant to the Little Russian Governor-General, Adjutant General Prince. N.G. Repnin-Volkonsky - 1/1/1818 (Poltava), staff captain - 12/15/1819, transferred to the Life Guards. Jaeger Regiment with the retention of Repnin's adjutant - 1/24/1821, transferred as a major to the Poltava Infantry Regiment - 3/21/1822, retired as a lieutenant colonel - 1/21/1823, lived in the Khomutets estate of the Mirgorodsky district of the Poltava province.
Mason, member of the United Friends and the Three Virtues Lodge (1816 - 3 May 1820).

One of the founders of the Union of Salvation (participant in the Moscow conspiracy of 1817), member of the Union of Welfare (member of the Indigenous Council, participant in the St. Petersburg meetings of 1820), Southern Society, participant in the uprising of the Chernigov regiment.

Arrest order - 12/19/1825, arrested on the morning of 12/29 by Lieutenant Colonel Gebel in Trilesy, released by officers of the Chernigov regiment, arrested again between the village. Kovalevka and s. Korolevka - 3.1.1826, sent to Belaya Tserkov, from there to Moscow, sent from Moscow 14.1.1826, arrived in St. Petersburg to the main guardhouse - 15.1; 17.1 transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress (" sent Muravyov, a retired colonel, to be imprisoned at his discretion and kept strictly» ) in No. 20 of the Trubetskoy bastion, in May 1826 it was shown in No. 35 of the Kronverk curtain wall.
Convicted of the 1st category and confirmed on 10/7/1826 sentenced to hard labor for 20 years.
Sent to Rochensalm - 17.8.1826 (signs: height 2 arshins 4 4/8 inches, "white, clean, round face, light brown eyes, large nose, sharp, dark hair on the head and eyebrows, small warts on the right cheek, on the right on the same leg from the thumb, the second and third are fused together, on the right thigh there is a wound from a bullet that has passed right through and has a scar”), the term was reduced to 15 years - 22.8.1826, then, by the highest command, it was immediately turned to a settlement in Siberia.
Left Fort Slava - 10/1/1827, sent from Shlisselburg to Siberia - 10/2/1827, arrived in Irkutsk at the end of November 1827, arrived in Yakutsk 12/24/1828, sent to Vilyuysk, Yakutsk region - 6/1/1828, at the request of sister E.I. . Bibikova is allowed to be transferred to the Bukhtarma fortress Omsk region- March 13, 1829, delivered from Irkutsk to Omsk - August 29, 1829, arrived in the Bukhtarma fortress - September 5, 1829.
In June 1832 the governor general Western Siberia Velyaminov allowed him to live in the house of State Councilor Brant, 1 verst from the fortress near the Seleznevka River, then settled in his own house, which he bought from the official Zaleyshchikov, was allowed to be transferred to Yalutorovsk - 06/3/1836, left the Bukhtarma fortress - 09/25/1836, arrived in Yalutorovsk - 10/1/1836.

On 26/8/1856, under an amnesty, he was restored to his former rights, on his return he settled on 3/1/1857 in the village of Zykova, Moscow district, moved to Tver on 12/4/1857, was allowed to live in Moscow on 14/8/1858, was allowed to live in St. Petersburg and wear the Kulm cross and military medal of 1812 - 04/27/1863, the soldier's St. George's Cross was returned (in connection with the 200th anniversary of the life guards of the Semenovsky regiment) - 1883.
He died in Moscow and was buried in the Novodevichy Convent.

Wife(from 1832) - Maria Konstantinovna Konstantinova (1810 - January 3, 1883), the daughter of a priest, was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovo ​​cemetery.
The son died in 1837, two adopted daughters - Augusta Pavlovna Sozonovich and Anna Borodinskaya, both in 1860 were allowed to be called Matveevs and were given the rights of personal honorary citizenship

Brothers: Sergei, Ippolit, Vasily (1817-1867),
sisters Ekaterina (1795-1861), married to I.M. Bibikov, Anna, married to collegiate adviser Khrushchev; Elena, for the Decembrist S.V. Kapnist.

VD, IX, 179-284; GARF, f. 109, 1 exp., 1826, file 61, part 51.

Matvey's childhood years were spent mainly in Germany (Hamburg), Spain and France. He received an excellent education, first at home, and then at Hicks' Parisian boarding school. Before moving to Russia, which happened in 1809, the European-educated Matvey, like his brother Sergei, did not even suspect that serfdom dominated in their homeland, and only at the very border Anna Semyonovna revealed this truth to them.

Moving from Prussia to Russia, the children saw a Cossack on the clock, jumped out of the carriage and rushed to hug him, and when they set off on their way, they heard from their mother: “I am very glad that a long stay abroad did not cool your feelings for your homeland, but get ready, children, I have terrible news to tell you; you will find what you do not know: in Russia you will find slaves!” .

In 1811, Matvey entered the St. Petersburg Corps of Railway Engineers, but studied there for only four months, because. the war with France was approaching, and Matvey decided in the life guards. Semyonovsky regiment with the rank of ensign. In the regiment, he met the future Decembrist I.D. Yakushkin, friendship with whom passed through their entire subsequent life. In addition, cousin Artamon Muravyov and Nikolai Muravyov, the founder of the early Decembrist organization "Choka" (Sakhalin), organized on the principles of the "Social Contract" by J.-J. Rousseau, served in the regiment. All of them became members of this society, remaining true to its Decembrist principles until the end of their days.

With the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, as part of the regiment, Matvey Ivanovich participated in the battle of Borodino, where he was awarded the insignia of the Military Order (No. 16698) for distinction by a majority of votes from the lower ranks of the seventh company and promoted to ensign. Participated in the battles of Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets, in foreign campaigns of 1813-1814, where he distinguished himself at Luzen, Bautzen and Kulm. He was wounded in the leg, awarded the Order of Anna, 4th degree. Participated in the famous Battle of Leipzig and in the battles near Paris.

Having gone through the entire war in Russia and in European campaigns as part of the Semyonovsky regiment, Matvey returned with him from France: on May 22, 1814, the regiment set out from Paris, on June 13 they sailed on ships from Cherbourg, on July 18 they landed in Peterhof, on July 30 as part of The Semyonov Regiment of the Russian Guard entered Petersburg with a solemn march.

In 1815, the Three Virtues Masonic Lodge was founded (its installation - 01/11/1816), which the future Decembrists S.G. Volkonsky, one of the founders of the lodge, Matvey and Sergey Muravyov-Apostles, Nikita Muravyov and P.I. Pestel. As N.M. wrote Druzhinin, here we are already "in front of us - a rationalistic environment of advanced officers who are looking for support for a close friendly association."

However, soon the future Decembrists became disillusioned with Freemasonry, because this kind of brotherhood did not meet the internal needs of the advanced nobles in comprehending reality, in penetrating the meaning of events and determining their own attitude towards them. In the minds of the "first-born of freedom" there was a process of formation of political culture, and it required not only individual comprehension, but also collective.

On February 9, 1816, in the barracks of the Semyonovsky regiment, at the apartment of the brothers Matvey and Sergey Muravyov-Apostolov, Alexander Nikolayevich Muravyov, Nikita Muravyov, S.P. met with them. Trubetskoy, I.D. Yakushkin. They organized a secret society, the Union of Salvation.

It met the needs of the political consciousness of the Decembrists, the craving for a collective understanding of Russian reality and true brotherhood in the struggle for the implementation of political ideals. By the beginning of 1817, the Charter of the Union had already been written by a specially created authoritative commission. P.I. During the investigation into the case of the Decembrists, Pestel admitted: “The statute of our original society was drawn up by no less than one, but by a Commission appointed by the society, of three members and a secretary. The members were: Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, Prince Ilya Dolgorukov and I, and the secretary was Prince Shakhovskoy.

So, Matvey, together with his brother Sergei, are now members of a secret society, the purpose of which was precisely defined by I.D. Yakushkin: “To promote the good of Russia” and further: “... here (in a secret society - M.S.) the main ulcers of our fatherland were sorted out: the inertia of the people, serfdom, cruel treatment of soldiers, whose service for 25 years was hard labor; widespread extortion and robbery and, finally, a clear disrespect for man in general. What was called the highest educated society then consisted for the most part of the Old Believers, for whom to touch on any of the questions that occupied us would have seemed a terrible crime. There is nothing more to say about the landowners living on their estates.

At the same time, the growth of the military career of Matvey Ivanovich continued: in 1818, with the rank of lieutenant, he was appointed adjutant to the Little Russian Governor-General, Prince N.G. Repnin and moved to Ukraine. When there was a rebellion of the Semyonovsky regiment in the capital, and the regiment was disbanded, Matvey Ivanovich, remaining Repnin's adjutant, was transferred to the life guards. Jaeger Regiment. The character of M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, which was formed on the confession of Decembrist convictions, manifested itself in a particular case. In 1822, at a ceremonial dinner at Prince N.G. Repnin, in Kyiv, Matvey Ivanovich defiantly refused to raise a toast to the emperor's health and poured wine on the floor, quarreled with Repnin, left the post of adjutant and transferred to the army Poltava infantry regiment.

In moral terms, the transition from the guards to the army was considered at that time a clear downgrading of a career. However, the Decembrist went for it. In 1823, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel and never returned to military service. The capital - Petersburg, as well as his father's estate Khomutets, Mirgorodsky district, Poltava province, became his place of residence.

Freedom from compulsory service allowed Matvey Ivanovich to actively engage in the affairs of a secret society. Researcher of Decembrism N.A. Rabkina, on concrete historical material, proved the active and fruitful activity of M.I. Muravyov-Apostol in the 1820s in three secret societies. In fact, he stood at the origins and was engaged in practical work in five secret societies: in 1811 - a secret early Decembrist organization - "Choka" (Sakhalin), 1816 - 1818. - The Union of Salvation, in 1818 Matvey Ivanovich was one of the founders of the Union of Welfare, in 1820 - 1825. he is a member of the Southern secret society of the Decembrists, in 1823 - 1825. - one of the founders of the branch of the Southern secret society in St. Petersburg.

In 1823, the head of the Southern Secret Society P.I. Pestel sent Matvey Ivanovich to St. Petersburg as his trusted representative with a very important mission: to negotiate with the leaders of the Northern Secret Society on ways to merge the two societies, hold a unifying congress and develop a common program. The negotiations were difficult and an agreement was reached on the points mentioned by M.I. Muravyov-Apostol failed. A sharply negative position on all key issues of the negotiations was taken by the head of the northerners N.M. Muravyov. However, Matvey Ivanovich was active in recruiting many from the Northern society to the side of the "southerners". Moreover, he personally accepted several young cavalry guards as members of the southern branch of the Northern Society, which, according to P.I. Pestel, was very important: the future revolutionary action was conceived as a mass participation in it of officers of the guard and the army.

In the spring of 1824, P.I. arrived in St. Petersburg. Pestel to negotiate the unification of societies. He held a constituent meeting of the branch of the Southern Society, which was attended by M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, delivered an hour-long speech in which he detailed his political program - "Russian Truth".

Convinced by the arguments and logic of P.I. Pestel, cavalry guards members of the St. Petersburg branch of the Southern Society expressed their full readiness to follow the program outlined. Later, in investigative testimony, Pestel admitted: “Vadkovsky, Polivanov, Svistunov, Annenkov (all four are cavalry guard officers) and artillery Krivtsov ... were in full revolutionary and republican spirit.” In total, by the end of 1825, the number of the St. Petersburg branch of the Southern Society reached 24 people, and this was a considerable merit of Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol.

According to N.M. Druzhinin, members of the St. Petersburg cell of the Southern Society, as "militant republicans, ready for the most decisive violent measures," "raved about regicide projects and expressed a desire for immediate action."

At the center of these plans was M.I. Muravyov-Apostle. He was preparing to become a member of the "cohort of the doomed." It was assumed that it would include ten young people who were not related by families, impeccably brave and selfless: knowing about their personal doom, they must decide to exterminate the royal family.

Ultimately, everything was limited to conversations and assumptions that had no practical action in this regard. However, the fact that M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, P.N. Svistunov and others on regicide, established by the investigation, influenced the issuance of harsh sentences to them, especially since the investigation actually considered only this version, ignoring other motives for the uprising: the need to abolish serfdom, change the political regime, modernize the economy, the army, develop public education, etc.

How did further developments- it is well known: having not reached an agreement on key issues in 1824, the South and the North agreed on a possible consensus for 1826 and, based on its results, a joint performance was to be prepared on the basis, as P.I. was convinced. Pestel, the programs of the southerners - "Russian Truth". However, the dynastic crisis caused by the unexpected death of Emperor Alexander I on November 19, 1825, forced the Decembrists to openly protest against the autocratic-serf system earlier: in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825, and in the South (uprising of the Chernigov regiment) on December 29, 1825 - January 3, 1826

Due to unpreparedness, fragmentation of forces and leadership, deliberate betrayal and the subsequent arrest of the leaders of the Southern Secret Society and other factors, the uprising, as you know, was defeated. Arrests, investigations and repressions began.

Matvey Ivanovich was an active participant in the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, along with his brothers Sergei Ivanovich, the leader of the uprising, and Ippolit, the youngest, who was only 19 years old. On the day of the defeat of the uprising of the Chernigov regiment on January 3, 1826, in the field between the villages of Kovalevka and Korolenko, Matvey Ivanovich was with his comrades and brothers in arms, saw the death of the younger, Ippolit (he, wounded in the arm and not wanting to surrender, shot himself ). Sergei was wounded in the head and taken prisoner along with Matvey by government troops.

Arrested Matvey Ivanovich was taken to St. Petersburg to the main guardhouse on January 15, 1826, and on January 17 he was transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress in No. 20 of the Trubetskoy bastion with an accompanying royal rescript: “The sent Muravyov, a retired lieutenant colonel, should be imprisoned at his discretion and kept strictly”.

In May 1826, Matvey Ivanovich was shown in No. 35 of the Kronverk Curtain of the same fortress. There was an investigation. Matvey Ivanovich was very upset by the death of Ippolit, the injury and arrest of Sergei, he was devoured by pity for his orphaned father, his state of mind was oppressed. He tried to shield his brother, took all the blame on himself, deliberately increased his responsibility.

At dawn on July 13, 1826, on the day of the execution of brother Sergei, together with P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky, Matvey Ivanovich and other Decembrists were taken to the fortress parade ground. Swords were broken over their heads, their uniforms were thrown into the fire, and a gallows towered on the crownwork of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Matvei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol was sentenced by the Supreme Criminal Court, and in fact by decree of Emperor Nicholas I, issued on July 10, 1826, in the first category - to death. By the same decree, the tsar replaced the death penalty with the deprivation of ranks, the nobility and 20 years of hard labor, followed by a settlement in Siberia.

On August 17, 1826, Matvey Ivanovich was sent to Rochensalm - Fort Slava on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. During this move to station house Their relatives were waiting for the prisoners: Matvey Ivanovich - sister Ekaterina Ivanovna Bibikova and Ekaterina Fedorovna Muravyova; I.D. Yakushkina - wife of A.V. Yakushkina and mother-in-law N.N. Sheremeteva, a smart, strong-willed woman who enjoyed great respect and authority among the Decembrists. In this batch of prisoners, together with M.I. Muravyov-Apostol were also A.A. Bestuzhev, A.P. Arbuzov and A.I. Tyutchev. “Fort Slava was built according to the project for strengthening the Finnish border, drawn up in 1791 by A.V. Suvorov. It was a huge round tower, as if grown out of water, in which casemates were prepared for the Decembrist prisoners. Her appearance was gloomy and did not bode well for us, ”I.D. later recalled. Yakushkin. And further: “We were placed one by one in the casemates and locked up… There was a bed with straw along the wall, a table and several chairs completed the belonging of the casemate… it was dark and damp.” On August 22 of the same year, upon confirmation, the term of hard labor for Matvey Ivanovich was reduced to 15 years. From Fort Slava, he was transferred to the Shlisselburg Fortress, from where on October 2, 1827, he was sent by imperial order directly to a settlement in Siberia, without serving hard labor. The tsar determined the distant Vilyuisk in the north of Siberia, on the Vilyui River, a tributary of the Lena, 800 versts from Irkutsk, as the place of settlement. A ninety-year-old man, three years before his death, Matvey Ivanovich recalled: “Vilyuisk, where fate threw me in the person of St. Petersburg administrators, was located at the end of the world ... Vilyuisk could not be called either a city, or a village, or a village; there was, however, a wooden church, around which Yakut yurts and only four wooden small houses were placed in disorder and at a great distance from each other.

Matvey Ivanovich settled in a yurt with ice floes instead of glass, cooked dinner for himself in a chuval, got a cow, read, taught Yakut children. He even set up a school for children of different classes and nationalities. He taught them reading, writing, arithmetic, and in the absence of textbooks he himself compiled several teaching aids. After leaving for the Bukhtarma fortress, pedagogical activity in Vilyuisk, begun by M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, continued the Decembrist peasant Pavel Fomich Vygodovsky (real name - Duntsov) (1802 - 12/12/1881), who was arrested for the second time and deported here in 1855 from Narym for propaganda activities.

About the inhabitants of a remote and abandoned region of Russia - the Yakuts, Matvey Ivanovich recalled with great warmth. There were other Russian settlers there - a carpenter, from former convicts - the Cossack Zhirkov and the talented doctor Uklonsky, who at one time graduated from Moscow University with a gold medal, but completely drank himself here, on the edge of the earth, from longing and hopelessness.

Matvey Ivanovich's sister, Ekaterina Ivanovna Bibikova, wife of the Nizhny Novgorod governor, maid of honor of the Empress, constantly fussed about improving the fate of her only surviving brother - she asked to be transferred from a harsh region to western Siberia, closer to European Russia. On March 13, 1829, the petition was granted, and Matvey Ivanovich was allowed to be transferred to the Bukhtarma fortress in the Omsk region, where he arrived on September 5, 1829.

The governor-general of Western Siberia ordered the commandant of the Bukhtarma fortress, upon the arrival of the exile, “to receive him and assign him an indispensable and permanent residence in the fortress itself, to have strict supervision over him, both over his behavior and so that he would not dare to leave under any circumstances from the fortress." The tsar and the local administration were afraid of the influence of the Decembrists on the Siberians, they took any measures to isolate them and monitor them and even their way of thinking. This is evidenced by the addition to the above instruction made to the head of the fortress, General De Saint Laurent: “Then I forewarn in / b. That Muravyov-Apostol was a well-known freethinker ... by that you undertake to have observation of his way of thinking.”

As soon as the Decembrist arrived at the Bukhtarma fortress, a police guard was assigned to him and housing was determined in the outpost of the fortress, the owner of which was also obliged to inform the commandant about the behavior and mood of the exile. Thus, Matvey Ivanovich was under double surveillance. The commandant of the fortress was obliged to report monthly to the chief of gendarmes A.Kh. Benckendorff about the lifestyle and behavior of the exiled Decembrist. Life researcher M.I. Muravyov-Apostol in the Bukhtarma fortress A.D. Kolesnikov, on the basis of a thorough analysis of archival material from the state archive of the Omsk region, established the fact of the impeccable behavior of the Decembrist in the settlement. Moreover, during the seven-year stay of Matvey Ivanovich in Bukhtarma, there was not a single case of any claims against him from local authorities. All reports of the same type of content: “assigned to the settlement M.I. Muravyov-Apostol was not noticed in any acts contrary to the law ... he was engaged in reading books that he has in French and German dialects. Books, letters and money were sent to him by his sister, Ekaterina Ivanovna Bibikova.

Of course, the Decembrist was burdened by the guard assigned to him and especially the prohibition to go outside the fortress, about which he complained to his sister. She made a new petition addressed to A.Kh. Benckendorff, where she asked "to remove unnecessary restrictions on the movement of her brother", and the chief of gendarmes responded positively to this request: the commandant of the fortress was advised "to allow the exile to go beyond the fence of the fortress".

As a direct consequence of these "relaxations" was the establishment of benevolent relations between the exiled Decembrist and the local population and the officers of the fortress garrison. In 1829 - 1836. Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol was the only exiled Decembrist in Bukhtarma. He, a man of high culture, education, the bearer of the advanced ideas of the century, naturally attracted the attention of the local intelligentsia.

Communication with the Decembrist brought a living stream of life to the environment of the inhabitants of the fortress, suburban area and the local population in the district. In addition, Matvey Ivanovich was ready to sincerely and completely disinterestedly help local people with the development of education among them, medical assistance, and money. So, A.D. Kolesnikov cites in his study the fact that the Decembrist donated his house to the collegiate assessor of the Bukhtarma border customs Andreev “only out of philanthropy, for the reason that he, Andreev, has a family”, for which “he could not find a decent apartment in the fortress, and Muravyov himself switched to an apartment to the house of the collegiate assessor Krok, who manages the customs, with whom he has one table.

Many representatives of the local intelligentsia sent their children to study with Matvey Ivanovich, and he educated them with great pleasure and enthusiasm. In addition, his library, constantly updated with new books and magazines, was in demand among the local intelligentsia.

In 1832, Matvey Ivanovich married the daughter of a local priest, Maria Konstantinovna Konstantinova (1810 - 1883). Their son died in childhood in 1837. Parents took up two orphans, daughters of exiled officers, Augusta Sozonovich and Anna Borodinskaya. Pupils of the Muravyovs-Apostles in 1860 received the right to be called Matveevs, they were given the rights of personal honorary citizenship. The fact of marrying a girl from a respected family further strengthened the authority of the exiled Decembrist in the eyes of the local society. The Muravyovs were welcome guests at many family celebrations and children's christenings as godparents.

However, among the general goodwill, A.D. Kolesnikov found in the documents evidence and hostility towards the Decembrist and his family. Yes, in state archive In the Omsk region, the researcher met a denunciation by a certain warehouse warden of the Bukhtarma customs Petrov, who, noticing the friendly relations of his boss Makarov with Muravyov, immediately reported to his superiors "about Makarov's impermissible relationship with a state criminal." Captain Strashnikov, who was temporarily acting commandant, hastened to conduct an "investigation" and, having drawn unfounded conclusions, sent them to Omsk. Correspondence was opened on this occasion, Makarov was demanded an explanation. In them, he most positively characterized M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, emphasizing his respectable and impeccable behavior.

The investigation was entrusted to Major Andreev, previously mentioned, who completed it in favor of the exiled Decembrist. However, concern arose in the minds of the Siberian authorities about the friendly relations of the exiled Decembrist with the local population, and at the end of 1835, the head of the Siberian district of gendarmes, Maslov, petitioned Benckendorff to transfer M.I. Muravyov-Apostol from Bukhtarma to one of the cities of the Tobolsk province. The Kurgan chosen by Matvey Ivanovich was rejected by the tsar: “... there are already enough state criminals in Kurgan,” and Yalutorovsk was approved as the place of the new settlement, in which the Decembrist lived for almost 20 years.

October 1, 1836 Muravyov-Apostles arrived in Yalutorovsk. Comrades-Decembrists already lived there in the settlement: I.D. Yakushkin, E.P. Obolensky, I.I. Pushchin, V.K. Tizenhausen, N.V. Basargin, A.V. Entaltsev. The colony of associates was friendly, as, indeed, in all other Decembrist settlements. According to I.I. Pushchin, twice a week (on Thursday - at Pushchin, on Sunday - at Muravyov-Apostol) everyone got together and "interpreted frankly", "lived well". The same facts are confirmed by N.V. Basargin. In his “Journal”, a kind of recollection of what he had experienced, he singled out the Yalutorovo colony of the Decembrists, noted their friendship among themselves: “Not a day passed that we did not see each other and, moreover, we dined four times a week and spent evenings with each other ... Between us, everything was almost in common, the joy or sorrow of each was shared by everyone, in a word, it was some kind of brotherhood - a moral and spiritual union.

And here is the absolutely amazing testimony of Matvey Ivanovich himself, made by him in a letter to his pupil A.P. Sozonovich: “When the hour of parting came (in 1853 M.A. Fonvizin received highest resolution return to his homeland, to central Russia and drove to Yalutorovsk to say goodbye to M.I. Muravyov-Apostol and I.D. Yakushkin - M.S.), M.A. (Fonvizin - M.S.) gave us all a friendly hug. I bowed at the feet to Ivan Dmitrievich for accepting him into our secret alliance.

In addition, for Matvey Ivanovich in Yalutorovsk, an opportunity opened up to continue his favorite business - to educate and educate local children, to continue educational activities. The fact is that Ivan Dmitrievich Yakushkin was actively working to create schools for boys and girls, in which the Lancastrian education system prevailed, which had long been mastered by many Decembrists in the army, incl. and Matthew Ivanovich. And now, with all the fervor of his soul, he devoted himself to this work. Its rich library opened its doors to the local intelligentsia. The energy of Matvey Ivanovich was also enough for medical assistance to the poor residents of Yalutorovsk and the surrounding area.

In addition, he did not leave his favorite pastime agriculture. Even in Vilyuisk, he gained experience in growing potatoes in the harsh conditions of Siberia. These experiments continued, and very successfully, and the local population learned new agronomic techniques. Thus, the Decembrist principles of life, beliefs and behavior remained for Matvey Ivanovich and his other comrades the main motives for life in the conditions of Siberian exile.

Matvey Ivanovich took great help and participation in the correspondence of new "offensive" works by S.M. Lunin. So, by the hand of M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, two lists of Lunin's Letters were made. In the Department of Written Sources (OPI GIM) (F. 249. - Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol) there is a bound notebook under No. 3, which contains two series of “Letters from Siberia”, “Analysis of the Report ...” and “Look at Polish Affairs” by Lunin . The notebook has the owner's inscription: “Belongs to Alexander Illarionovich Bibikov (a relative of the Muravyov-Apostolov - M.S.). Yalutorovsk, 1851. Written by Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol. On sheets 8-23 of M.I. Muravyov-Apostol - 16 letters of the first series of the early edition, in French. At the end of the preface, the date is set - “1837” and the place of writing is indicated - “Ourika pres d’ Irkoutsk” (Urik near Irkutsk), which is absent in Lunin’s texts. The second series of "Letters" (ll. 27 - 60) includes all ten letters of the Decembrist. Similarly to this document, the GARF (F. 1153 - Muravyovs) stores a notebook of the same composition as the album of A.I. Bibikov: On the 31st anniversary of the execution of the Decembrists on July 13, 1857, Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol rewrote two series of Lunin's Letters from Siberia.

Lists of Lunin's writings, produced by the hand of Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol, allow us to make an assumption about the involvement of M.I. Muravyov-Apostol to the appearance of Lunin's "Analysis ..." in the uncensored press of A.I. Herzen and N.P. Ogaryova.

From a letter to M.A. Fonvizin to Ivan Ivanovich Pushchin dated March 4, 1841, it is clear that in 1841 Matvey Ivanovich was very ill, applied to Benckendorff for permission for treatment in Tobolsk, but was refused. Only a year and a half later, in 1842, he was allowed treatment in this city, where he arrived, as is known from a letter from M.A. Fonvizina I.D. Yakushkin dated November 25, 1842. In the same letter, the author reports that Matvey Ivanovich stayed with P.N. Svistunov, who bought a two-story wooden house in the center of the city from a local merchant, which became the meeting place for many Decembrists settled there.

In Yalutorovsk, the life of Matvey Ivanovich and other Decembrists turned out to be closely connected with educational and pedagogical activity. August 7, 1842 I.D. Yakushkin opened a school according to the Lancaster system of education for boys, and on July 1, 1846 - for girls. Both schools taught reading from the Slavic and civil press, writing, the beginning of arithmetic, "a short Catechism and a short Sacred History", Russian grammar, geography and Russian history. Teaching in all these subjects was distributed among themselves by all the Decembrists of the Yalutorovo colony, incl. and Matvei Ivanovich. I.D. himself Yakushkin at the school for boys taught "the beginnings of algebra, geometry and mechanics", as well as the 1st part of Latin and Greek grammar.

The extensive program was assimilated by children relatively easily due to the combination of the class-lesson system and the Lancaster (peer-to-peer) system. In addition, teachers (Decembrists), using a comprehensive method, had a relative freedom of action and the opportunity to creatively approach the conduct of conversations, excursions, and teaching crafts. All this taken together brought interest, enthusiasm and comparative ease of assimilation of the material into the training. In addition, children of different classes and nationalities studied at the school. The Decembrists strictly ensured that friendly relations existed between the children. Many “peasant orphans from different villages and even other counties” studied together with the townspeople.

Their maintenance was at the expense of the Decembrists. And, of course, the developed and created educational and visual aids played a big role. The manuals were saturated with a variety of educational material with patriotic content, which made them fundamentally different from official textbooks. Children loved school, and parents willingly sent their children to study. Since 1843, the school of I.D. Yakushkin was officially called the Sretensky Theological School, but access to it was open to all classes.

A rather extensive program, assimilated by students over the course of four years, gave much more knowledge than the program of county schools, not to mention parochial ones.

Since 1846, both schools began to receive an allowance "from city incomes" in the amount of 200 rubles a year (in addition to donations from private individuals - local merchants and some Decembrists: P.N. Svistunova, A.M. Muravyov, M.A. Fonvizin ). From 1842 to 1856 594 students entered the boys' school, 531 completed the course; to a girls' school from 1846 to 1856. 240 students enrolled, 192 graduated.

Archpriest Stepan Yakovlevich Znamensky, who became a friend of the Decembrists, rendered great assistance to these schools. All of them spoke of him as a talented, highly educated and humane person who stood up for the enlightenment of the people. In fact, the Decembrist schools of Yalutorovsk became the best, exemplary in all of Western Siberia, and the Lancaster method, widely used by the Decembrists, became widespread throughout the region. From everywhere - from Kurgan, Ishim, Tobolsk to I.D. Teachers went to Yakushkin for experience in organizing school affairs, as well as for mastering teaching methods. These facts testified to the progressive influence of the Decembrists on the cause of public education in Siberia.

The Decembrists, on the other hand, were the founders of education and the bearers of advanced pedagogical thought and practice in Russia in the second quarter and the middle of the 19th century. The Yalutorovo women's school was the first all-class women's school not only in Siberia, but throughout Russia.

When Matvei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol left Siberia in accordance with the tsarist amnesty in November 1856, he asked the director of the male Yalutorovo school for information on the number of students for 14 years. According to the lists, the figure turned out to be very impressive - 1,600 people were educated according to the Lancaster system in one school alone.

Leaving Siberia, Matvey Ivanovich did not part with the advanced ideas of Decembrism, but, on the contrary, continued to develop them, more and more understanding the role and importance of the people themselves in the destinies of the country. It was already quite clear to him that without the participation of the people themselves, to decide key points social-state structure is impossible. This is evidenced by his letter to G.S. Batenkov dated September 27, 1860, when, in the conditions of a fierce struggle between the serf-owners and liberals, preparations were underway for the abolition of serfdom: government".

Matvey Ivanovich thinks a lot not only about the peasant question, but also about history, philosophy, jurisprudence, politics, and literature. He sharply critically assesses the epoch of Nicholas II, the time of Alexander II, and everywhere sees the vices of autocracy, bureaucratic bureaucracy, and is convinced of the need to reform the country. Here is just one of his judgments regarding the reforms of the judiciary: “The announcement of the transformation of the judiciary and the judiciary was accepted by everyone so indifferently. What to expect from Valuev and others. This people values ​​their place, their money, but as far as Russia is concerned, they don't think much about it... The disgusting stupidity of the St. Petersburg bureaucracy is much to blame for the people. Sense to wait from it is not even possible. No one will take away from him (the king - M.S.) good aspirations, but that he is stupid can be positively said, having analyzed everything that is being done with us. It is impossible to do things on your own. Peters are the first to be born for centuries. His mind is indicated by only one thing, the appointment of assistants to himself. Everywhere you look - all these people are below any mediocrity, to say the least.

In another letter to the same Bibikov: “Bureocracy and centralization are the death of peoples and the source of inexhaustible bloody upheavals and the turmoil that we see.”

In a letter to Nikolai Mikhailovich Shchepkin, publisher and public figure, dated January 30, 1863, Matvey Ivanovich is even more critical: “In order for people to take an active part in the matter, it is necessary that they be convinced in advance of the benefits that they will bring ... Why is the division into classes of people breathing the same air and in addition to a matter that concerns everyone? Nothing good can be expected from the Petersburg bureaucracy.

Matvey Ivanovich was very sensitive to Decembrism and its historical assessment. He was glad that the great L.N. Tolstoy conceived a novel about the Decembrists (twice Lev Nikolayevich visited Matvey Ivanovich, and the Decembrist told the writer a lot of valuable information about his comrades). In 1895 L.N. Tolstoy published the political pamphlet Shameful, where he remembered Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol: “... like his brother, and all the best people of his time, he considered corporal punishment a shameful remnant of barbarism, shameful not so much for the punished as for the punishers ... ".

In addition, the Decembrists never stopped their friendly ties until the end of their days: both in Siberia and the Caucasus, and after returning to central Russia after the amnesty. So, Matvey Ivanovich lived in Tver. I.I. Pushchin and S.G. Volkonsky visited him at least twice. There was an intense friendly correspondence between the survivors of the "firstborn of freedom." These letters are a valuable source of our knowledge about the thoughts, deeds, attitudes of the Decembrists, as well as about their worldview of the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian state.

So, the events of Crimean War. Matvey Ivanovich made a sharply critical rebuke to the results of the war: "The last unfortunate war exposed all the disgusting wounds of our society - they require immediate healing."

Sixty years after the uprising, the Decembrists remained true to their ideals and cared about objective and truthful assessments of the event itself and their role in it. In this regard, in 1857 in the "Polar Star" A.I. Herzen published an article by Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol "Semenovskaya history", in which he restored the truth about the uprising on October 16, 1820 in the life guards. Semyonovsky regiment.

When in the late 1860s Matvey Ivanovich moved to Moscow, then took up painstaking editing for P.I. Bartenev in the journal "Russian Archive" manuscript N.I. Lorera "Notes", where she was preparing for publication. He did the actual proofreading of the Notes, a painstaking reconciliation of various dates, names, etc., as well as a straightening of style. This is the work of N.I. Lorera is one of the most remarkable monuments of the Decembrist memoirs.

For about forty years he created his "Notes of the Decembrist" A.E. Rosen. Having started writing them back in the Chita prison, as a young man, being involved in major event Russian history of the first half of XIX century, completed them with a wise old man who outlived many of his fellow prisoners in the 70-80s. who was one of the "last Decembrists", the keeper of their heritage. In the autumn of 1869, Rosen read the chapters of his work to P.N. Svistunov, M.A. Bestuzhev and M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, "who listened to his reading with great pleasure and spoke of his work with sincere praise" .

On August 11, 1857, I.D. died in Moscow. Yakushkin. Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol also accompanied him on his last journey to the Pyatnitskoye cemetery.

Only in 1858, Matvey Ivanovich received permission to wear awards - the Kulm Cross and the military medal of 1812. In 1883, in connection with the 200th anniversary of the life guards. Semyonov regiment, the soldier's St. George's Cross was returned to him, but it did not take long to wear military awards. The life of the old Decembrist was coming to an end. Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol died on February 21, 1886 in Moscow, and was buried in the Novodevichy Convent.

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Matvey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol, retired lieutenant colonel was accused of having intent on regicide and preparing himself to commit it; participated in the restoration of the activities of the Northern society and knew the intentions of the Southern in all their space; acted in rebellion and was taken in arms. Muravyov was born in St. Petersburg on April 25, 1793. He spent his childhood in the same conditions as his brother. During his father's stay in Hamburg, the Russian resident minister, there were many French emigrants in the Muravievs' house, who aroused in the boy an interest in political issues and influenced him in a royalist spirit. During the stay of his father and mother in Madrid, where his father, Ivan Matveyevich, was an envoy, M.I. and his brother studied in Paris and returned to Russia only in 1802. Having entered the corps of the Ministry of Railways, Muravyov did not complete the course there and in 1812 was assigned as a lieutenant in the Semyonov regiment. For participation in the Battle of Borodino, Muravyov was promoted to ensign and received the badge of a military order. He took part in the company of 1813-1814, near Kulm he was wounded in the right thigh on the flight and in 1814 returned to Russia. The war of 1812 and foreign campaigns had a huge impact on the convictions of Muravyov-Apostol, unusually broadened his mental horizons and directed his attention towards social and political issues. Events of 1812-1814 the biographer of Muravyov-Apostol, Mr. Yakushkin, was most of all reflected in their main participant, the army, and especially in the guards regiments and mainly in Semenov, in which Muravyov-Apostol served. The desire to eliminate internal disasters, which then seized the advanced military youth after winning brilliant victories over an external enemy, captured, of course, Muravyov, who, together with his brother Sergei, was one of the founders of the Union of Welfare in 1817, as well as a member of the Masonic Lodge of the Three Virtues. The so-called Semyonov story, which originated solely from the ridiculous strictness and oppression of the new regiment commander, Schwartz, also affected Muravyov, and he retired. The December disaster captured Matvey Ivanovich in the south when he was visiting his brother Sergei. He had a moderating effect on his brother, because, due to the extreme gentleness of his character, he had an aversion to bloody and decisive actions and did not believe in the success of the enterprise. In his frequent moments of mental discord, he even had the thought of suicide. Referred to the first category and sentenced to beheading, M.I., like all the other 31 people of this category, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in the final sentence. But when it turned out from his correspondence with his brother Sergei that he constantly energetically rejected him from decisive actions and extreme plans, M.I. was exiled to an eternal settlement in Vilyuysk, Yakutsk region. At first, however, he was imprisoned in Rochensalm, in the Slava fort, together with, and Arbuzov. Here they all lived in dark, damp casemates, ate rotten ham, not always baked bread, and often drank water mixed with salty sea water that fell into the only well. What kind of memory the former Semenovites retained about him is shown, by the way, by the fact transmitted: at the entrance to the Irkutsk prison, he was suddenly hugged and kissed by a sentry, his former subordinate from the disbanded Semenov regiment. In winter, in bitter frosts, M.I. had to go from Yakutsk to Vileisk, and only thanks to warm fur clothes and an English saddle given to him by the Yakut regional chief, he could complete this difficult journey of 700 faiths. Vilyuisk at that time looked like this: a wooden church, around it in disorder and at a great distance from each other were scattered Yakut yurts and only 4 small wooden houses. M.I. settled in a yurt with ice windows. “Without needing interlocutors,” he says in his “Memoirs,” recorded by Belyaev, I easily got used to the lonely life in my yurt.” Every day he walked, regardless of the weather. The summer, which he was looking forward to with such impatience, deceived his expectations: in mosquitoes and midges, he met the Egyptian execution and not only could not swim, as he had dreamed of in winter, but he could remain in the yurt only with a constant smoke from manure. Although there were plenty of fish and game, the complete absence of vegetables depressed him; he managed to breed only one potato. Wanting to be useful in Vilyuisk, he began to teach local children to read and write, and he had 2 students.

You did not take your eyes off the star of your leader

And among the naked deserts, despising the storm,

Love and truth sought the holy law

And in the world of harmony soared like a winged dream,

A. Bestuzhev wrote to him in July 1829 in Vitim. At the request of his sister, Sofya Ivanovna Bibikova, M.I. was transferred to the Bukhtarma fortress, where he arrived on September 5, 1829. Having received 2000 rubles from his sister, he bought a house, started a mill and an apiary. In Bukhtarminsk, Muravyov experienced a lot of trouble, both because of the vagueness and precariousness of the rules for supervising him, and from the false denunciations of some local officials who took revenge on him for his unwillingness to get to know them as unworthy people. In 1832, he married Marya Konstantinovna Konstantinova, an orphan daughter of a priest who was brought up by the wife of a local customs official, Mrs. Brandt. As in Vilyuisk, in Bukhtarminsk he kept all the time meteorological observations, which were preserved in his papers. On October 1, 1836, Muravyov, without any special petition on his part, was transferred to Yalutorovsk, although he preferred Kurgan. Settling in Yalutorovsk, the Muravyovs bought a small wooden house and led a modest family life, doing farming on a designated area of ​​​​15 acres. Having no children, the Muravyovs took care of two orphan girls and fatherly took care of their education and upbringing. As in Bukhtarminsk, M.I. provided medical assistance to the local poor. The hospitable house of the Muravyovs was always a favorite place for uniting the friendly family of the Yalutorovo Decembrists. Subsequently, he recalled with pleasure his 20-year quiet and pleasant life in Yalutorovsk. Having settled in Moscow in 1860 after the amnesty of 1856, (before that he lived in Tver), Muravyov liked to remember Siberia in general, he called it only “our Siberia”, kept in touch with it, was familiar with many Moscow Siberians. Living in Siberia, Muravyov, like almost all Decembrists, did not lag behind life, did not turn out to be alien to it, obsolete, but emerged from there as an original, useful and living figure. Having retained an amazing mental and physical freshness until his death, he read a lot, especially works on modern Russian history, followed current social issues in new emerging books, magazines and newspapers. His wonderful memory kept in itself all the past, seen and experienced by him. He remained forever faithful to the ideal of his youth. Living in Moscow, he had 15,000 rubles. income and allowed himself not only personal comfort, but also to help those in need, especially young people who aspired to education. He was a great lover of music and walked a lot. Only towards the end of his life did he begin to walk, see and hear badly. In 1883, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Semenov regiment, the Borodino cross was returned to him. Surrounded by universal respect, M. I. Muravyov-Apostol died on February 21, 1886 at 5 am and was buried next to his mother in the Novodevichy Convent.

MURAVYEV-APOSTOL, SERGEY IVANOVICH(1796–1826), one of the leaders of the Decembrist movement. Born September 28 (October 9), 1796 in St. Petersburg. The son of I.M. Muravyov-Apostol, senator and Russian ambassador to Spain, from his first marriage to A.S. He spent his childhood in Hamburg and Paris; studied at the Paris boarding school Ixa; showed brilliant abilities and diligence; wrote poems in French Latin. In 1809 he returned to Russia and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers. In 1810 he was enrolled in the guard. In 1812 he graduated from the institute; received the rank of lieutenant. In the same year, he began military service as a second lieutenant of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment. Member of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Foreign Campaign of 1813–1814; distinguished himself in battles near Borodino on August 26 (September 7), 1812, Krasny on November 3–6 (15–18), 1812, Lutzen on April 20 (May 4), 1813, Bautzen on May 8–9 (20–21), 1813 and Leipzig 4–7 (16–19) October 1813. He was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree and the golden sword "For Courage". From 1815 - commander of the 1st (imperial) company of the Semenovsky regiment.

Influenced by the French Enlightenment thought of the 18th century. and liberal ideas of the era of the French Revolution, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol gradually formed a critical attitude towards the autocratic-serf regime in Russia. In 1816, he became one of the founders of the first secret political organization of the Decembrists, the Union of Salvation, which set as its goal the elimination of serfdom and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. After the creation of the Union of Welfare in 1818, he became a member of its governing body - the Root Council. In January 1820, at the St. Petersburg meeting of members of the society, he supported the idea of ​​P.I. Pestel on the introduction of a republican form of government in Russia.

In October 1820, in connection with the uprising of the soldiers of the Semyonovsky regiment and its disbandment, he was transferred south to the Poltava infantry regiment; soon appointed commander of the 2nd battalion of Chernihiv infantry regiment stationed near Belaya Tserkov; had the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After self-dissolution in January 1821, the Welfare Union joined the Southern Society organized by P.I.Pestel; together with M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, he headed his Vasilkovskaya council. He was an opponent of terrorist methods of struggle (regicide). Unlike P.I. Pestel, he considered possible an independent armed uprising in the south of Russia; planned to raise a large part of the 2nd Army stationed in Ukraine to an anti-government rebellion, and with its help to capture Moscow. He actively tried to win soldiers and officers over to the side of the conspirators. In 1823-1825 he negotiated with other secret officer organizations - the Society of United Slavs and the Polish Patriotic Society, which sought to restore the national independence of Poland. For propaganda among the soldiers, he compiled an anti-monarchist Catechism in the form of questions and answers. In early November 1825 he became one of the three directors of the Southern Society.

After the arrest on December 13 (25), 1825, P.I. Pestel and the defeat of the Decembrists on December 14 (26) in St. Petersburg, he turned out to be the actual head of the Southern Society; invited its members to start an uprising in the south, but did not receive the support of the majority. On December 27, 1825 (January 8, 1826) he was detained by gendarmes in the village of Trilesy, but the next day he was released by officers of the conspirators. On December 29-30 (January 10-11) he raised an uprising of the Chernigov regiment. Rejected the plan to march on Kyiv. Intending to unite with the pro-Decembrist Aleksopol, Akhtyrsky and 17th Jaeger regiments, he moved first to Borisov, and then to Belaya Tserkov, but the authorities managed to withdraw the "unreliable" units to other areas. On January 3 (15), 1826, near Kovalevka, the Chernigovites were attacked and defeated by a detachment of General F.K. Geismar; S.I. Muravyov-Apostol was wounded in the head and was arrested on the battlefield.

The Supreme Criminal Court sentenced him to death by quartering, which Nicholas I replaced by hanging. Together with four other convicts, he was executed on July 13 (25), 1826 on the crown work of the Peter and Paul Fortress; having fallen off the noose due to the inexperience of the executioner, he was hanged a second time.

Ivan Krivushin

Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, the future hero of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the executed Decembrist, was born on September 28 (October 9, old style), 1796 in St. Petersburg. He was the fourth child in the Muravyov family. His father, Ivan Matveyevich, was a prime minister, chief ceremonial master, an official in the collegium of foreign affairs, favored by fate and by Empress Catherine II. Mother - Anna Semyonovna, a strong-willed woman. The prefix Apostle to the surname Muraviev appeared due to Ivan Matveyevich's acquaintance with his cousin, who lived in the Poltava region. Once the father of I. M. Muravyov married a noble girl, the daughter of the famous Ukrainian hetman Danilo Apostol. The stern hetman cursed the fugitive and disinherited her, but the hetman's grandchildren forgot about the curse and fraternized. Michael the Apostle cordially received Ivan Matveyevich and subsequently refused him a village with serfs, along with which the surname was also supposed. Since then, the Muravyovs have also become Apostles.

In 1796, Paul I ascended the throne. Thanks to the emperor, Ivan Matveyevich immediately received the rank of real state councilor and was sent as an envoy to Hamburg. The whole family followed him. In 1801 they returned to St. Petersburg, where the emperor introduced new rules. Now, when meeting with him, the nobles were instructed to get out of the carriage and bow. Ivan Matveyevich does not lose heart and tries to adapt to the new way of life. When a conspiracy was drawn up to overthrow Paul and eliminate him, I. M. Muravyov refused to participate in it.

Under Alexander I, Ivan Matveyevich continued to carry out diplomatic missions and was not disgraced, despite his close friendship with N.P. Panin. The latter was dismissed and forbidden to appear in the capitals. This time, things call Ivan Matveyevich to Madrid, the whole family: Anna Semyonovna and four children (two boys and two girls) go for their father. However, soon, under pressure from Napoleon Bonaparte, the Russian mission in Madrid was withdrawn. Ivan Matveevich returns to St. Petersburg, his wife and children remain in Paris. In the same place, the fifth child of the Muravyov-Apostles couple, Hippolyte, is born.

Sergey Muravyov-Apostol is studying at the Hicks French boarding school, he is the most courageous and lively of all children, even in height he overtakes his older brother, Matvey. Despite the fact that the children live abroad and speak only French, Anna Semyonovna instills in them a love for the Fatherland. When one of Sergei's classmates speaks offensively about Russia, he rushes at the offender with his fists.

Arriving in Russia, Ivan Matveyevich met with a cold reception and almost immediately resigned. His wife sends him letters with urgent requests to send money, because life in Paris is expensive. Since 1808, they began to study in Russian with the children of the Muravyovs. The Russian ambassador to France, Count Tolstoy, equipped his secretary for this: Matvey and Sergey take lessons three times a week mother tongue. Both boys are delighted.

Sergei was a capable child, teachers from the boarding school praised him and even predicted great success in science. Anna Semyonovna has been thinking about a career in mathematics for her son and consults with General Betancourt, the chief director of communications in Russia, who assures her that the future lies in the exact sciences, but that it is better to study them in Europe. Ivan Matveyevich is against it, because he believes that the situation in France is unstable and will only get worse, and that the nobles should still enter the state service and think about military career. In 1809, the family was reunited, Anna Sergeevna returned with her children to St. Petersburg. On the border of Prussia with Russia, the children of the Muravyovs, seeing a Cossack, begin to hug him with joy, perceiving the acquisition of their homeland. When they returned to the carriage in which they traveled from Paris itself, their mother said sternly: “I am very glad that a long stay abroad has not cooled your feelings for your homeland, but get ready, children, I have to tell you terrible news; you will find something what you don't know: in Russia you will find slaves!" Anna Semyonovna meant serfdom, a system in which millions of peasants were deprived of everything and had only duties - natural slavery. With such a warning, Sergei's acquaintance with the Motherland begins.

In 1810, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol easily passed two exams for admission to the newly formed school of railway engineers. The sister of Emperor Alexander I, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, patronizes the sciences. Previously lost connections at the court of Ivan Matveyevich are slowly being restored. At the same time, Anna Semyonovna, on the way to the estate in the Poltava region, falls ill and dies a few days later.

During World War II, Sergei is in Maloyaroslavets at the main headquarters of the army, commanded by Kutuzov. After the battle, officers from the Communications Corps are sent back to St. Petersburg to continue their studies. Taking advantage of his father's connections, Sergei decides to stay at the headquarters, Adam Ozharovsky (husband of Elizabeth's sister) takes him to his detachment. For courage in the battle of Krasnoye, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol receives a golden sword. At the end of 1812, he was already in the rank of lieutenant with the Order of Anna, 3rd degree. In 1813, Sergei wrote to his sister Elizaveta from Petervalsdau: “I live with my brother [Matvey], and since we are in a similar position, that is, without a single sous, we philosophize each in our own way, eating a rather meager lunch ... When Count Adam Ozharovsky was here, I dined with him, but, alas, he left, and his dinners with him. Then Sergei participates in the battles: at Lutzen, for which he was granted Vladimir of the 4th degree with a bow; under Bautzen, for merit he was promoted to the rank of staff captain; at Leipzig - the rank of captain. In 1814, he was with General Raevsky and participated in the battles: Provins, Arcy-sur-Aube, Fer-Champenoise, Paris. For the battle near Paris, Sergei receives Anna of the 2nd degree.

The return to Russia becomes another shock for Sergei Muravyov-Apostol. The people who want to greet the winners, the heroes of the war of 1812, are dispersed by the police with sticks. The serfs who shed blood on the Borodino field and in other fierce battles, returning again, put on the yoke of corvée and dues. These liberators are still the same slaves, nothing has changed, the emperor is not grateful to them for having defeated the enemy, but believes that "each of them [we are talking about all Russians] is a rogue or a fool." The future Decembrist, seeing all this, is becoming more and more disillusioned with the imperial power.

Ivan Matveyevich Muravyov, after the death of his wife, remarried and remains in the village with his young wife and three children from his second marriage. At the same time, his notes entitled "Letters from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod in 1813" were published in Son of the Fatherland. In "Letters" the Russian people are glorified and predilection for everything French and France as a whole is condemned. In the same 1814, Sergei's older sister, Elizabeth, Ozharovsky's wife, dies. Her brother is very worried about her death, seeks consolation in religion, decides to leave the service and go abroad to complete his studies or go to university. The father does not give his blessing, and Sergei remains in Russia, soon he is already a lieutenant of the Semenovsky regiment. His brother Matvey, Yakushkin and other freethinkers also serve in the same regiment.

Here is how the Decembrist Yakushkin describes the beginning laid for a secret society in the Muravyovs' house: "Once, Trubetskoy and I, we were at the Muravyovs, Matvey and Sergey; Alexander and Nikita Muravyovs came to them with a proposal to form a secret society, the purpose of which, according to Alexander I knew that Alexander and his brothers were enemies of all Germans, and told him that I did not agree to enter into a conspiracy against the Germans, but that if a secret society were formed, whose members if I were obliged to work with all my might for the good of Russia, then I would gladly join such a society. Matvey and Sergey Muravyov answered almost the same answer to Alexander’s proposal as I did. After some debate, Alexander admitted that the proposal to form a society against the Germans was only a tentative proposal that he himself, Nikita and Trubetskoy had agreed even before that to form a society whose goal was in the broadest sense the good of Russia. Thus, the foundation was laid for the Secret Society, which existed, perhaps, but completely fruitless for Russia. The secret society was formed on February 9, 1816. Then both brothers Muravyov-Apostol enter the Masonic lodge "Three Virtues", Sergei was appointed its master of ceremonies. In general, he is bored, he has "an excess of life", he either has fun, or philosophizes, or dreams of quitting the service. In the Secret Society, they read a letter from Trubetskoy, who claims that misfortunes in Russia will end only with the death of Alexander I. Many want to sacrifice themselves and kill the emperor with their own hands. Sergei is categorically against it, since the funds of the conspirators are scarce, and they do not know what they will do after the assassination of the emperor, there is no plan "how to equip Russia." In addition, Sergei does not want to break the commandment "Thou shalt not kill!", even for a good purpose. According to Nicholas I, Alexander I already at that time knew about the circle of future Decembrists that had formed and was even aware of who exactly volunteered to kill him.

The emblem of the founded secret "Union of Welfare" was a swarm of bees - to lay down their lives for the good of the Fatherland. Before Sergei Muravyov-Apostle, as a spiritual inspirer, instigator of rebellion, there is an acute question: is it necessary to consistently implement the ideas of the Union, the gradual infiltration of good undertakings into all spheres of state life and, thus, slow changes, or is it worth it with arms in hand to achieve their ideals: freedom, equality and fraternity, but above all, deliverance from slavery.

In 1820, the Semyonovsky regiment, where Sergei Muravyov continued to serve, passed under the command of Fyodor Schwartz. The new commander is aware that officers do not apply corporal punishment to soldiers, however, despite this, he is tightening the practice of executions. They say that there was even a soldier's cemetery of the victims of the Arakcheev Schwartz. The officers send a complaint to the chief. For this, the first grenadier company of the regiment in full force is sent to prison. Others are looking for Schwartz to take revenge, he hides in a dunghill. Sergei Muravyov withdraws his company along with eleven others and pacifies the soldiers, preventing them from revolting. Soldiers respecting the lieutenant obediently lay down their arms. Schwartz personally asks for his forgiveness. Schwartz, however, is sentenced to death, commuted to dismissal from service. Sergei, along with other officers, nevertheless ends up in a military prison, but soon leaves it. Almost at the same time, Muravyov-Apostol met Mikhail (Michel) Bestuzhev-Ryumin, their friendship was destined to last to the grave. After being released from the fortress, Sergei was exiled to the army, first to Poltava (his native land!), then to the Chernigov regiment.

In May 1821, Alexander I received a denunciation about a secret society in which officers were members. The denunciation also cites the name of the Muravievs. The scammer is Mikhail Gribovsky and himself a member of the Union of Welfare, he is not the first and not the last of his people who betrays. The emperor does not give way to the case, they refer to his words "it is not for me to judge them", which he uttered, remembering the murder of his father, in fact, sanctioned by him. Alexander at that time was already occupied with questions about a successor. After his death, the throne should go to brother Konstantin, and he is officially called the heir everywhere. In fact, the testament of Alexander I and the abdication of Constantine from the throne were prepared and hidden in a safe place. Brother Nicholas, the future Nicholas I, was informed already in 1819 that he would be the emperor. Later in 1825, the Decembrists will want to, but will not be able to take advantage of the confusion caused by the presence of two heirs, each of whom seems to be legitimate.

In January 1823, we find Sergei Muravyov with his brother Ippolit in Kyiv. Other members of the new secret society, now called the Southern one, will also come here: generals Volkonsky and Yushnevsky, colonels Pestel and Davydov, ensign Bestuzhev-Ryumin. At the meeting, the introduction of republican government in Russia is discussed, Sergey Muravyov suggests not to wait for more favorable circumstances, but to create them ourselves, and he is determined. Already there was no trace left of that cautious young man who doubted the means of the conspirators. Having become acquainted with Pestel's Russian Pravda, he understands that nothing will burn out on its own, and that efforts must be made to get things off the ground.

The friendship between Sergei Muravyov and Bestuzhev is growing stronger. Later, Pestel would call them as if one person, so they thought in unison and were devoted to each other. Michel Bestuzhev admires Muravyov. Already before his death, in prison, Muravyov will ask Bestuzhev's forgiveness for dragging him into the case, to which Michel will ardently assure his friend that it was he, on the contrary, who dragged him to rebellion, and that he is ready to die for him and for the right a business. Muravyov became a kind of father for Bestuzhev, instead of a real parent who does not care about his son.

At the meetings of the Southern Society, the question of the destruction of the emperor and his entire family is again raised. Pestel, as well as Yushnevsky and V. Davydov vote for complete extermination. Sergei Muravyov is against it, in general he seeks not to include Pestel in the St. Petersburg maneuvers (when the time comes), because he is afraid that he, at his own peril and risk, will nevertheless decide to kill. The coup is conceived as follows: the northern society starts a riot in the capital (Petersburg), and then regiments from the south come to its aid. It is difficult to agree who starts first - North or South. Pestel rests on the fact that you need to start in the capital, otherwise, if you start from the south, the authorities will have a lot of time to send troops to suppress. A quick revolution in St. Petersburg and the seizure of power will untie the hands of the southern regiments and make their uprising legitimate. Pestel's version was approved by a majority of votes. Ants and Bestuzhev were against. In the southern provinces, almost all regiments already have their own devoted members of society, officers who are just waiting for a signal to act.

On November 24, 1823, almost all members of the Southern Society meet at the Kamenka estate at the name day of Major E. N. Davydova. The conspiracy is discussed openly, right at the table, but of course veiled. The guests think that the brilliant officers have gathered for the sake of the beautiful granddaughters of the hostess, however, meanwhile they are discussing real plans. They say that Pushkin was also supposed to be present in Kamenka, but at the last moment Yakushkin and others pretended that no society existed, and therefore there were no meetings.

In the next six months, Sergei Muravyov is in the service, deals with the issues of ordinary soldiers, helps them in drawing up petitions or complaints; Bestuzhev-Ryumin sometimes promotes liberal ideas in front of officers of neighboring regiments; in his folder he has forbidden poems by Pushkin, Ryleev, Delvig. Finally, the time of the uprising is set - May 1826, or maybe earlier, but certainly at the celebrations on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Alexander I. It is proposed to capture him during maneuvers in Ukraine. Even Pestel agrees with this. But the emperor suddenly dies, in November 1825. Sergei finds out about this, being in Vasilkovo at a party with D. P. Troshchinsky. As soon as this was announced, on the same night the Muravyov brothers left the estate and disappeared in an unknown direction, they were in disarray and could not even imagine such a turn of events.

Emperor Alexander I suddenly dies at the age of 48 after a short illness in Taganrog. This sudden death is further complicated by the fact that, according to Alexander's will, his younger brother Nikolai should ascend the throne, bypassing the older Konstantin Pavlovich, who during the life of the emperor is called the heir. Both Konstantin and Nikolai are aware of the state of affairs and agree with it. However, the ministers and associates are at a loss and do not know who to declare emperor. They decide to act according to the protocol and take the oath to Konstantin, then they say he will abdicate officially, and then there will be a new oath to Nicholas. Everyone is sworn in except for state and serf landowners "peasants and people."

In the Chernihiv regiment, where Sergey Muravyov serves at this time, they are preparing for the oath. According to tradition, with the accession of a new emperor, an amnesty is announced everywhere, but the commander of the regiment Gebel decides to ignore this tradition and, in front of everyone, orders two soldiers to be punished for theft. The cries of the unfortunate, the general commotion in connection with the formation for the oath, the murmuring in the ranks of the soldiers - all this deeply stirs the soul. young man. Sergey Murvayev loses consciousness right on the parade ground. The soldiers, despite the shouts of the commander to return to duty, bring him to his senses and help him up, this is how endless devotion is manifested. ordinary people the officer who takes care of them.

In the era of a short interregnum, when many documents were signed either in the name of the late Alexander I, or the already abdicated Constantine, or the not yet crowned Nicholas, the activities of the Decembrists intensified, they increasingly gather for meetings, send dispatches to each other, sometimes forgetting about simple caution. The police do not sleep, scammers from among the members of the Southern Society write and write denunciations, in the first lines of which the names of Pestel and Sergei Muravyov-Apostol are increasingly heard. Finally, the conspirators decide that in the event of Constantine's abdication, they will not swear allegiance to Nicholas, but will raise the guard regiments and take them to the Senate Square. If successful, to be appointed State Council at which one of the leaders of the Decembrist movement will be present as an observer.

On December 13, 1825, Pestel was arrested on numerous denunciations. He is interrogated and searched, but no defamatory papers regarding a secret society were found in him.

December 14 - Senta Square Uprising. Ippolit Muravyov is at the same time traveling with a letter to Ukraine. Officially, the authorities sent him to the regiment for service. Unofficially, he is carrying a letter from the northerners to the southerners, from Trubetskoy to Colonel Orlov, who is summoned to St. Petersburg to lead the uprising. Ippolit's path runs through Vasilkov, where, as he knows, there are also older brothers, with whom he hopes to meet. Even after leaving St. Petersburg, Ippolit learns that arrests are underway in the capital in connection with some kind of uprising. He prudently destroys Trubetskoy's letter and hurries to Vasilkov.

K. I. Kolman Uprising on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg December 14, 1825, 1830s, Historical Museum, Moscow

December 18 The Privy Committee meets in the Winter Palace. The result of the meeting is an order for the arrest of almost all members of the Southern Society, including Sergei and Matvey Muravyov. This order was sent to Kyiv for enforcement.

The southern conspirators are at a loss, there is no news from Petersburg, they do not know what is happening, however, they are aware of the arrest of Pestel. Finally, news comes to the regiment about the need to take the oath to Nicholas. Sergei Muravyov understands that the moment has come. On December 25, the Chernigov regiment was sworn in to Nicholas I. The Muravyov brothers did not take the oath, as they were sent to the corps headquarters in Zhytomyr. In Vasilkovo, Bestuzhev-Ryumin remains at the Muravievs' apartment. At the entrances to Zhytomyr, the Senate courier informs the Decembrists about the uprising on Senate Square. Despair overwhelmed Sergei Muravyov, he decides that it is necessary to communicate with the Polish society as soon as possible, which promised support to the Decembrists and says that now regicide is simply necessary.

In Zhytomyr, the Muravyov brothers dine with General Roth, the corps commander, discuss the uprising in St. Petersburg, Sergey Muravyov even jokes about this so as not to arouse suspicion. But the General favors the young colonel and does not suspect that tomorrow he will receive an order for his arrest. The next day, the Muravyovs go to Vasilkov to meet with other conspirators and signal the start of the performance. From Vasilkov - to Troyanov.

On December 26, Goebel receives an order to arrest the Muravyovs and immediately goes with him to an apartment, where he finds only Bestuzhev-Ryumin (the order for his arrest is late) and another officer. All the papers of the brothers are immediately confiscated, while the gendarmes themselves, led by Gebel, jump to Zhitomir, hoping to find conspirators there. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, taking frisky horses, overtakes Gebel to warn his friend.

From Troyanov, the Muravyovs went to Lyubar, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, and after him Gebel, they are following in their wake. In Lyubar, there is the Akhtyrsky regiment, in which Sergey's cousin, Artamon Muravyov, also a member of the Secret Society, who once volunteered to kill the emperor, serves. In a conversation with Artamon, Sergey says that he does not approve of the uprising on Senatskaya, because the northerners rebelled without the southerners and the southerners are now in great confusion. He is embarrassed by the bloodshed - in St. Petersburg, General Miloradovich was killed by the Decembrist Kakhovsky. Unexpectedly, Bestuzhev-Ryumin appears, announcing the order to arrest the Muravyovs. Sergei understands that it is time to act and asks Artamon to raise the regiment. Artamon refuses, he wants to go to St. Petersburg and explain to the new emperor why the Secret Societies have formed and what the conspirators want. Artamon insists that Nikolai will definitely understand that they did not want anything bad, but only sought to benefit the Fatherland. Sergei Muravyov immediately breaks off his friendship with Artamon and refuses to do business with him. On the same day, a courier leaves St. Petersburg with an order for the arrest of Ippolit Muravyov.

Having learned that they were ordered to be arrested, Matvey Muravyov invites everyone to drink champagne and shoot themselves, because the case is lost. What can a few regiments from Uraina decide? Petersburg is far away, and the case is lost, especially since Artamon refuses to speak. Suicide, as we know, did not happen. A little later, on the way to Berdichev, Matvey again offers to end his life. Michel Bestuzhev protests furiously, Sergei takes the word from his brother that he would never lay hands on himself. Matthew submits. The Decembrists return in a roundabout way to Vasilkov, to the regiments. At the same time, the envoy of the United Slavs, a secret society accidentally discovered by Bestuzhev-Ryumin, is looking for the brothers somewhere near Vasilkov. Goebel and the gendarmes gallop in their tracks, the arrested Pestel is brought to Petersburg, Ippolit Murvavyov-Apostol drives up to Kyiv.

On the night of December 29, the company commander Kuzmin receives a note from Sergei Muravyov with the following content: “Anastasy Dmitrievich! I came to Trilesi and stayed at your apartment. Come and tell Baron Solovyov, Schepilla and Sukhinov to come to Trilesy as soon as possible. Your Sergey Muravyov "The soldiers rejoice, their boss has finally been found! The officers of the Chernigov regiment galloped to the Muravievs in Trilesi, at the same moment Gebel also arrived at Trilesi. The officers who entered found Sergei and the others arrested. They immediately got their bearings in the situation and disarmed the gendarmes, Gebel was seriously wounded, the way to freedom for the Decembrists was open. With this armed attack, the southern rebellion begins.

The regiment moved to Vasilkov and occupied it. Major Trokhin, who was not loved in the regiment, is trying to resist the soldiers, who tear off his epaulettes and even want to kill him, but Sergei Muravyov stands up for him and sends him to the guardhouse under arrest. He does not want the shedding of blood; this is not how the revolution he conceived should be carried out. Soldiers walk importantly around the city and get drunk in taverns. Sergei distributes money to tavern-keepers and merchants for giving water and food to the regiment. On the main square Vasilkov priest reads the Catechism, which ends with a speech by Sergei Muravyov. He says, addressing the soldiers, the following: “Our cause is so great and noble that it should not be tarnished by any coercion, and therefore who among you, both officers and privates, feels incapable of such an enterprise, let him immediately leave the ranks, he can stay in the city without fear, if only his conscience allows him to be calm and does not reproach him for leaving his comrades in such a difficult and glorious field, while the fatherland requires the help of each of his sons. At the end of the prayer service that followed the speech of the Decembrist, the younger Ants-Apostle, Hippolyte, is announced in Vasilkovo.

The reading of the Catechism did not make the proper impression on the soldiers, it was proclaimed that there would be no more king and that only Jesus Christ would henceforth be called king. Seeing that the common people did not understand such allegories, Sergei Muravyov decided to act in the name of Konstantin Pavlovich, the failed heir of Alexander I. This met with approval among the soldiers and, inspired by the sermon, the regiment, lined up as a guard, departed from Vasilkov.

On New Year's Eve in 1826, Mozalevsky, an agent of the Southern Society in Kyiv, scatters the Catechism read in Vasilkov like leaflets. He, along with three other members of the society, is immediately arrested. Michel Bestuzhev tries to infiltrate the neighboring regiments to give a signal about the beginning of the rebellion, but then returns, with difficulty getting rid of the gendarmes sent in the footsteps of the conspirators. Therefore, the Tambov, Penza, Saratov regiments, in which the revolutionary spirit is strong, do not act, because they remain in obscurity. From the 17th Jaeger Regiment stationed in Belaya Tserkov comes the news that he is ready to join the Chernigovites. Aleksapol, Kremenchug regiments of power are taken away so that the flames of the revolutionary fire do not spread to them. The Akhtyrsky regiment of Artamon Muravyov is inactive.

The Muravyov brothers are worried about the younger Ippolit. Later, Matvey Muravyov will write: “My little Ippolit upset me extremely with his unexpected arrival. He was traveling from Moscow to Tulchin. He decided to stay with us, no matter how much I begged him to continue on his way. He told his brother Sergei that he had a letter to him from Prince. Trubetskoy; but that he exterminated him in Moscow, when they came to arrest Svistunov, with whom he lived. He did not know the contents of the letter, having exterminated it as soon as possible, he did not have time to read it. I went with my younger brother to the apartment, where he changed clothes and released the mail horses. Despite all the persuasion, Hippolyte refuses to leave his older brothers and wants to continue the rebellion with them. The conspirators go to Motovilovka, where two companies of the Chernigov regiment, which did not come to Vasilkov, are waiting for them. The commander of one of the companies - no, he fled, the second commander, Captain Kozlov, persuades the soldiers for a long time not to join the Muravyovs, the soldiers are silent. Sergei Muravyov did not insist and released both companies, which retreated to Belaya Tserkov. About a thousand soldiers and a handful of dedicated officers remain at the disposal of the Decembrists. Peasants from the village come to thank Sergei Muravyov, who, in turn, promises them to fight for them and for a just cause.

On January 2, in the morning, the entire regiment marched in the direction of Motovilovka, in order to then come to Belaya Tserkov. Muravyov hopes to link up with the 17th Jaeger Regiment quartered there. But the people of Chernigov do not know that while they spent the day in Motovilovka and moved on, the 17th regiment was taken out of Belaya Tserkov and their man among the huntsmen - Vadkovsky was already under arrest. The mood of the soldiers falls, some officers leave the rebels, and the Decembrists themselves do not know what to expect and how everything will turn out, this does not add to their fortitude. In addition, at the headquarters of the army they already know about the rebellious Chernigov, loyal to the authorities, commanders of divisions and regiments are drawn to the White Church, but not under the pretext of fighting the revolutionaries. The authorities start a rumor that Muravyov's regiment is going to loot and will probably rob the estate of Countess Branitskaya, which is located near Belaya Tserkov. The countess owns large capital, inherited from her uncle, the well-known Prince Potemkin.

On the night of January 2-3, some hussars drive up to the sentries. The Chernigovites want to shoot, but a hussar officer, who has driven very close, begins to talk about supporting the rebels and even promising help. It was impossible to understand whether the hussars were really ready to join the regiment, or whether it was a cunning maneuver to find out the situation. The chief of staff, General Tol, surrounds Belaya Tserkov and Vasilkov with the help of two military corps. On the evening of January 2, the Chernigov regiment is still in Pologi, Sergei is talking with Ippolit about human destiny. Ippolit swears to “win or die”, Matvey Muravyov is still sad and contemplating suicide, he understands that the rebels’ cause is most likely lost, and there is no more hope of joining other friendly regiments.

On January 3, the Chernigov regiment sets off on its last journey - on the road to Zhytomyr. After 7 hours, at 11 am, he stops in Kovalevka. After dinner, the officers begin to burn papers, among which are arrest orders and an archive with correspondence between the Muravyovs and the northerners. At one o'clock in the afternoon the regiment departed for Trilesi, and General Geismar with cannons and four hundred hussars was sent to Kovalevka from Trilesi. The soldiers are saying that it would be better to stay in the village, the cavalry will not attack the infantry in the streets among the gardens and fences. But Sergei Muravyov decides to go through the open snowy steppe, that is, to take a shortcut. According to military logic, going through the steppe means going to certain death, however, Ant is trying to bargain with fate for the last chance and maybe save the soldiers.

As soon as the column of soldiers comes out of Kovalevka, the first volley of cannons is heard, which greatly frightens people. Subsequently, the surviving Decembrists wonder if the first shot was a blank to scare them or if they really fired at their own people. The papers found in the archives confirm the fact that they fired live shots.

General Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, a military historian who himself did not participate in the execution, would later write: “When the Chernigov regiment saw itself in the need to break through the hussars who were standing against them, then, lining up in a square, he went with exemplary courage to them; officers were in front. I heard this from the same hussar lieutenant colonel who commanded the squadrons sent against Muravyov; he added that he was surprised at the courage of the Chernigov soldiers and feared even at one time that they would not repulse the guns from which they were attacked, for they approached them at the closest distance. The Chernigovites go straight for the cannons, hoping that their own people will not shoot to kill, but the buckshot hits the soldiers directly. Sergei Muravyov tries to command, but he is wounded in the head, Lieutenant Shchepillo and several privates fall dead. The soldiers, seeing that the lieutenant colonel is wounded, lose courage: some, having thrown their weapons, scatter, some remain with the commander and throw up their guns, realizing that they will not be victorious, but decide to at least sell their lives dearly.

The hussars continue to shoot, and now almost the entire regiment has dispersed across the field, the soldiers are dropping their weapons. Sergei Muravyov seems stunned and keeps looking for Matvey, constantly asking "Where is my brother?". And then let’s leave the floor to him himself: “When I came,” he will show during the investigation, “to myself, I found the battalion completely upset and was captured by the soldiers themselves at the time when I wanted to sit on horseback to try to collect them; The soldiers who captured me brought me and Bestuzhev to the Mariupol squadron, where they soon brought my brother and the rest of the officers. In the verdict to Sergei Muravev will be the phrase "taken with weapons in hand." Bestuzhev-Ryumin will try to shield his friend and say that they themselves wanted to surrender. Investigators will rely on the testimony of Muravyov, who said that he was captured, and not he himself surrendered.

In the heat of the shelling, nineteen-year-old Ippolit Muravyov shoots himself, believing that the case is lost and his brothers are dead. Later, already being arrested, officer Kuzmin also put a bullet in his forehead. The wounded Sergei Muravyov asks the hussars to say goodbye to his brother, the bodies of the dead along with the rebels were brought to Trilesy. The officer allows farewell. In addition to Hippolyte, 4 privates and 3 officers were killed by the rebels, many were injured. None of the pacifiers were hurt.

The arrested are escorted to St. Petersburg. The captured Chernigov officers are questioned along the way by the hussars assigned to them, and when they find out the purpose and intentions of the rebels, they immediately begin to treat the prisoners better, regret that they did not know all this before: they were assured that the Chernigov regiment rebelled in order to rob with impunity. On the way, Sergei Muravyov is repeatedly interrogated. In Mogilev, General Austin-Saken begins to scold him, Tol is surprised at the courage of the conspirators, as they do not have any military force, with one regiment decided to make a revolution. The brothers are not brought together. Matvey arrives in St. Petersburg two days earlier than Sergei.

Upon arrival in the capital, Sergei is first taken to the General Headquarters, and on January 20 is sent to Winter Palace. He is allowed to write to his father. Nicholas I himself interrogates Sergei. Here is what the emperor writes about this interrogation: “Gifted with an extraordinary mind, having received an excellent education, but in a foreign way, he was in his thoughts impudent and arrogant to the point of madness, but at the same time secretive and unusually firm. Severely wounded in the head, when he was taken with a weapon in his hands, he was brought in chained. Here they took off his chains and brought him to me. Weakened from heavy rapa and fetters, he could hardly walk. Knowing him in the Semyonovsky regiment as a clever officer, I told him that it was all the more difficult for me to see an old comrade in such a sad situation, because I had personally known him for an officer, whom the late sovereign distinguished, that now it should be clear to him to what extent he is criminal, which is the cause of the misfortune of many innocent victims, and exhorted him not to hide anything and not to aggravate his guilt by persistence. He barely stood; We sat him down and began interrogating him. With complete frankness, he began to tell the whole plan of action and his connections. When he said everything, I answered him:

“Explain to me, Muravyov, how could you, an intelligent, educated person, forget even one second before to consider your enterprise profitable, and not what it is - criminal, villainous folly?

He bowed his head without answering...

When the interrogation was over, Levashov and I, we had to pick him up and lead him by the arms.

The next day after the interrogation, Sergei Muravyov writes a letter to the emperor, in which he asks "to use the abilities granted to him by heaven for the benefit of the fatherland and send him to a distant land", he also hopes for the mercy of Nicholas and asks to connect him with his brother. During interrogations, he does not hide anything, he speaks directly about the mission that the Secret Society has entrusted to him. Bestuzhev-Ryumin was also interrogated by the emperor. Michel asks in a letter to the sovereign not to require him to name all the conspirators, he diligently shields his friend, Sergei Muravyov, and even assumes the lion's share of responsibility for the rebellion. Nicholas will not give him a second audience.

Months passed; more than 500 prisoners in cells; interrogations of Pestel, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Sergei, Matvey, Slavs, Severyans. No one is happy, but it is more difficult for Matvey and Bestuzhev-Ryumin than for Sergei, because in those months Sergei found a special line of behavior, apparently, most exactly corresponding to his character. He does not say too much, but he does not deny it either. In his testimony, one cannot find words like “I won’t say”, “I’ll keep silent”, answers all questions, if he doesn’t remember, then, apparently, he really doesn’t remember: in a word, the decision already taken before that to act without fail in 1826 is just, and I seem to have also shown this circumstance in my answers. The testimony of Colonel Davydov about the imaginary oath of Artamon Muravyov on the gospel to encroach on the life of the sovereign is not solid. He regrets, but does not repent, and, apparently, inspires a certain respect even to investigators: everything is clear, he is taken with weapons in his hands, he knew how to rebel - he knows how to answer.

The interrogators were very interested in the question of who exactly was going to liquidate the emperor, whether it was only about the murder of the king or the entire royal family. There is practically no mention of the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of the Constitution, the main thing is to find aggravating circumstances so that the most severe punishment can be applied. Pestel and Sergei Muravyov finally saw each other after many years of separation at a confrontation. Matvey and Michel Bestuzhev give evidence that often contradicts Sergei's testimony. When this is pointed out to him, he immediately agrees that their testimony is true, seeks to avert the right hand of justice from them at any cost, taking all the blame on himself.

Sergei is allowed to write a letter to his brother only once. Ivan Matveyevich was allowed to visit his son in prison. The father will see him in the same uniform in which he was taken, spattered with blood and with a bandaged head. In May 1826, I. M. Muravyov was sent to Europe. At this time, the prisoners are no longer taken for interrogations and the court case seems to be over. On June 30, the Supreme Criminal Court sentences five Decembrists to be quartered. Here are the names of those sentenced: Pavel Pestel, Kondarty Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Pyotr Kakhovsky. In addition, they are sentenced to beheading - 31, to eternal hard labor - 19, to hard labor for 15 years or less - 38, to exile or to soldiers - 27 people. After the verdict, the supreme decree comes to the Supreme Criminal Court: “Having considered the report on state criminals submitted to us by the Supreme Criminal Court, we find the verdict passed by it, consistent with the merits of the case and the force of the laws.

But wishing to agree with the feelings of mercy as much as possible, we recognized the power of laws and the duty of justice, for the benefit of the executions and punishments determined for these criminals, to mitigate.

Then - 12 points, replacing the beheading with eternal hard labor, eternal hard labor - twenty and fifteen years, and at the end - point XIII:

"XIII. Finally, the fate of the criminals, not named here, who, according to the severity of their atrocities, are placed beyond the ranks and beyond comparison with others, I commit to the decision of the Supreme Criminal Court and to the final decision that will be made about them in this court.

The Supreme Criminal Court, in its full presence, has to announce to the criminals convicted by it both the verdict that took place in it, and the mercy bestowed on them from us ...

On his own genuine imperial majesty hand signed tacos:

Tsarskoye Selo Nicholas

None of the accused were present in court. The decision of the Supreme Court was announced to all the prisoners. They did not say a death sentence, but they, of course, guessed the fate of their friends. Upon learning of the punishment, the relatives of the conspirators were most upset. Ekaterina Bibikova (the sister of Matvey and Sergei) asked General Dibich for permission to meet with her brother Sergei and for permission to give the body to the family after the execution. Nicholas I, who was always informed about such things, ordered his sister's request to be satisfied, but refused to hand over the body. The commandant of the fortress, Sukin, who witnessed the meeting, later said that "the separation of brother and sister was forever terrible." Catherine had a nervous fit and she lost consciousness, Sergey picked her up and brought her to consciousness, she sobbed hugging his knees, realizing that she would never see him alive again. After meeting with his sister, Sergei prayed and confessed for a long time.

At the request of Sergei Muravyov, Michel Bestuzhev is placed in a death cell next to him. The Decembrist Rosen would later write about this: “Mikhail Pavlovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin was only 23 years old. He could not voluntarily part with the life he had just begun. He rushed about like a bird in a cage ... It was necessary to console and encourage him. The caretaker Sokolov and the watchmen Shibaev and Trofimov did not prevent them from talking loudly, respecting the last minutes of the life of the condemned victims. I regret that they did not know how to convey to me the essence of their last conversation, but only told me that they were all talking about the Savior Jesus Christ and about the immortality of the soul. M. A. Nazimov, sitting in the 13th room, sometimes could only hear how on the last night S. I. Muravyov-Apostol, in a conversation with Bestuzhev-Ryumin, read aloud some passages from the prophecies and from the New Testament. On the night before the execution, Sergei writes to his brother Matvey: “Dear friend and brother Matyusha ... I asked permission to write these lines to you as in order to share with you, with a friend of my soul, a faithful comrade of life and inseparable from the cradle, also especially for this to talk with you about the most important subject. Calm down, dear brother, my conscience at your expense.

Running my mind through my past delusions, I recall with horror your inclination to suicide, I recall with horror that I never rebelled against it, as I was obliged to do this in my opinion, and even increased it by talking. Oh, how dearly I would give now, so that these apostate words would never come out of my mouth! Dear friend Matyusha! Since I parted with you, I have thought a lot about suicide, and all my thoughts, and especially my conversations with Father Peter, and the consoling reading of the Gospel convinced me that never, in any case, a person has the right to encroach on life my. Look in the Gospel, who is the suicide - Judas, the betrayer of Christ. Jesus, the meek Jesus himself, calls him the son of perdition. In his divinity, he foresaw that Judas would complete the vile act of betrayal with the most vile suicide. In this act of Judas, his destruction was truly accomplished; for is it possible to doubt that Christ, sacrificing himself for our salvation, is Christ, who revealed to us in the divine teaching that there is no crime that true repentance would not atone for before God, is it possible to doubt that Christ would not have joyfully forgiven Judas himself, if b repentance cast him at the feet of the savior? .. Before the soul of a suicide, the Book of Fates, unknown to us, will open, she will see that by her reckless act she hastened the end of her earthly one year, one month, maybe one day. She will see that by rejecting life, which was given to her not for herself, but for the benefit of her neighbor, she has deprived herself of several merits that should still adorn her crown ... Christ himself tells us that there are many mansions in the house of the heavenly father. We must firmly believe that the soul that fled from its place before the time set for it will receive a lower abode. I am horrified by this thought. Imagine that our mother, who loved us so tenderly on earth, is now in heaven a pure angel of light, will forever be deprived of accepting you in her arms. No, dear Matyusha, suicide is always a crime. To whom much has been given, much will be required from him. You will be more to blame than anyone, for you cannot justify your ignorance. I end this letter by embracing you in absentia with that fiery love that has never dried up in my heart and now still acts stronger in me from the sweet hope that my intention, inspired by the creator himself, will not remain in vain and will find an echo in your heart, always accustomed to comprehend mine. Farewell, dear, kind, amiable brother and friend Matyusha. Good bye!

While the Decembrists are preparing to die on the scaffold, this same scaffold is being built. Quartering was replaced by hanging, in connection with this, in the Peter and Paul Fortress, a gallows is hastily made, and a future execution is also rehearsed on it: they tie pound bags of sand to the crossbar and check whether the rope will withstand. Nicholas I prudently orders to divide the sentence to penal servitude and demotement of some and the actual death penalty of five, the course of which the emperor personally drew up in great detail.

In the early morning of July 13, the condemned are taken out of the dungeon. The prisoner Gorbachevsky later recalls: “Then, after the maxim, on the night when Muravyov and his comrades were being led from the fortress to execution, I was sitting in a casemate - at that time it was no longer in the Nevsky Curtain, but in a crown work, and they were led past my window for the fortress. It must have happened that Bestuzhev-Ryumin's shackles got tangled, he could not go further; the square of the Pavlovsky regiment had just stopped in front of my window; while the non-commissioned officer unraveled and straightened his shackles, I, standing on the window, looked at them all the time; the night was bright. Prominent courtiers gathered at the scaffold: Governor-General Golenishchev-Kutuzov is responsible for order, generals Chernyshev, Benckendorff are the personal representatives of the emperor; here are the police ranks: chief police officer Knyazhnin, adjutant wing Nikolai Durnovo, as well as a company of the Pavlovsky regiment, a dozen officers, an orchestra, V. Berkopf, two executioners, engineer Matushkin, building a gallows, 150 people on Troitsky Bridge, but on the shore near the fortress, the surrounding inhabitants, attracted by the drumming. The day before the execution, the sentenced Decembrists are put in shackles, fearing that they will commit suicide. Five were ordered to be hanged at four in the morning, removed at six, and then destroyed the gallows.

An unnamed police official left a description of the execution of the Decembrists: “Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Ryleev came out in black tailcoats and caps with a shaved beard, and very neatly dressed. Pestel and Muraviev-Apostol in uniform frock coats and uniform caps, but Kakhovsky, with disheveled hair and unshaven beard, seemed to have the least peace of mind. On their feet were shackles, which they supported by passing through a handkerchief.

When they gathered, they were ordered to take off their outer clothing, which they immediately burned at the stake, and gave them long white shirts, which they put on and tied quadrangular leather black bibs, on which were written in white paint “criminal Sergey Muravyov”, “criminal Kondrat Ryleev.’” However, it turned out that the ropes were not ready, the driver who was supposed to bring them got stuck somewhere, so five convicts were forced to wait for this driver right in front of the gallows. A hole still needs to be dug, since the gallows posts are made too short and the feet of the executed should be practically on the ground. While preparations are being completed, the prisoners cast lots to see who will be the first to go to execution. Before the execution itself, Sergei prays, and then shakes hands with his comrades. Finally, everyone stands on the bench, their hands are tied behind their backs, but they will have time to shake them again - from the noose, their faces are covered with white caps. When the bench was taken away, it turned out that the three hanged men fell off - the ropes slipped from their necks, the inept executioner could not tighten the noose correctly. Sergei Muravyov was badly injured, falling to the ground, his leg was broken, Ryleev and Kakhovsky, the other two survivors, were all covered in blood.

Spare ropes were not provided and hastily rushed to look for them in nearby shops. Only 15 minutes later, the three "survivors" were hanged again, now completely. Half an hour later, the bodies were removed and buried. At the time of his death, Sergei Muravyov was 29 years old.