The Presidential Library illustrates the Decembrist Uprising

"Looking at the brilliant qualities that God bestowed on the Russian people, the only one in the world in glory and power, I grieved my soul that all this is crushed, withers and, perhaps, will soon fall, without bringing any fruit in the world", - said Wilhelm Kuchelbecker according to the materials of the rare edition “From the letters and testimonies of the Decembrists: the criticism of modern state of Russia and future plans for the device" (1906), available on Presidential Library’s portal.

December 14 (26), 2018 marks the 193rd anniversary of the uprising on Senate Square in St. Petersburg. The attempted coup d'état in 1825 was organized by a group of noble officers who would later be called Decembrists. The Presidential Library’s portal covers previously unknown materials of official, memoir and research nature - they are combined in the Decembrists in the History of Russia collection. The selection includes electronic copies of monographs, old and modern popular science publications, collections of documents, books, monographs, author’s thesis, as well as visual materials about the Decembrists.  

Analysis of the publications of V. Sablin "Decembrists: Secret Societies" (1907), "Memoirs of the Decembrists: (notes, letters, testimony, drafts of constitutions, extracts from the investigative case)" edited by M. Dovnar-Zapolsky (1906), "According to letters and testimony of the Decembrists" edited by A. Borozdin (1906), "History of the USSR. V. 2. Russia in the XIX Century” by Academician M. Nechkina (1949) and others, allows you to understand that future Decembrists were monolithically united, and on which fundamental issues they had irreconcilable ideological differences, which, in fact, weakened the preparation of the uprising on the Senate square.   

The victory over Napoleon in 1812 caused a tremendous upswing in the Russian national identity, and gave a powerful impetus to the spiritual development of the best people of that time — the future Decembrists.

“The war still lasted”, - wrote the Decembrist Alexander Bestuzhev to Nikolai I from the fortress, - when the warriors, returning to their homes, were the first to grumble in the class of the people. We shed blood, they said, and again they force us to sweat in the corfume. We saved the homeland from the tyrant, and the gentlemen are again tyranning us”. Gained in Europe, the experience of the formation of civil liberties and the realities of serfdom fueled the growth of universal discontent.

With the people there was the best part of the nobility and patriotic youth, who left the militia when the war began. At the same time they had those who transferred their funds for the equipment of the regiments, the creation of hospitals and the casting of cannonballs.

K. Levin’s book "Decembrists: the history of the armed uprising of December 14, 1825" (1923) reveals the deep social and political background of the uprising: "In 1815 a small circle of young officers of the Semenov regiment decided to quit drinking and the empty high-society life, was “artel“ for reading foreign newspapers and conversations on contemporary issues, especially on questions of Russian life. 

Young officers went underground and began to develop versions of the constitution, types of Russian parliamentarism, peasant and army reforms. The situation at that time created “some kind of hectic desire for activity”, noted the Decembrist Mikhail Fonvizin, quoted in the publication Memoirs of the Decembrists: (notes, letters, testimonies, draft constitutions, extracts from the investigative case)”. At the same time, many of the Decembrists considered the revolutionary coup unacceptable and preferred not to go beyond the boundaries of ideological and political transformations. But unexpectedly for all, a suitable excuse for the implementation of the far-reaching plans of the conspirators arose: Alexander I died, his brother Constantine was to become emperor. However, he during the life of Alexander abdicated from the throne in favor of his younger brother Nicholas.

Members of the Northern Society, in which the “Union of Salvation” was transformed, decided to withdraw 14 (26 according to the new style) troops to the Senate building in order to prevent officials from swearing to the new emperor. The conspirators also prepared to read the "Manifesto to the Russian people" according to which autocracy and serfdom were destroyed in Russia, civil liberties were introduced. All power passed to the provisional government. The leader of the uprising was appointed the most senior officer - Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, who at that time served in the Preobrazhensky regiment with the rank of colonel of the guard.

However, he did not appear the next morning on Senate Square. One can only guess why. At the end of the night of the alleged day of the uprising, a messenger arrived at the Trubetskoy house and informed the owner that as early as seven in the morning the senators took Nikolai's oath and proclaimed him emperor. The prince knew that the conspirators planned to occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace, arrest the royal family and, if certain circumstances arise, kill the emperor - and, as he could, oppose it. In his "Notes" he formulated the main point of disagreement of the Northern society he led with Pestel 's postulates: "Changing the form of government by force is a terrible thing that will inevitably entail all the horrors of the French Revolution, from which to protect Russia is one of the first goals of society".

Perhaps it was precisely these fundamental differences that prevented the prince from fulfilling the word given to them the day before. As a participant in the events of A. Belyaev writes later in his book “The Decembrist's Memories of the Experienced and Perceived” (1882), “at night we saw that guns appeared against us; but as none of the leaders on the square was there, no one decided to take upon himself to move the battalions to guns and, perhaps, to start a deadly struggle, which decided the fate of this unfortunate assassination”.

A few volleys of buckshot were enough to quell the conspiracy. The Decembrists responded with rifle fire, but then retreated. On Neva Ice, Bestuzhev made an attempt to establish order of battle and go on the offensive again. The troops lined up, but again fell under the canister. The ice cracked, people sank. The plan was failed...

All members of the secret society and participants in the conspiracy were arrested and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Emperor Nicholas himself acted as an investigator. Five were handed down and carried out the death sentence: K. F. Ryleev, P. I. Pestel, P. G. Kakhovsky, M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol. Many were exiled to Siberia to hard labor or settlement. On the portal of the Presidential Library you can find quite complete information about the life of the Decembrists after the uprising. So, for example, in the historical essay “The Decembrists in the “Western Siberia” (1905) A. Dmitriev-Mamonov contains a detailed description of the life of 39 Decembrists in the field of exile in the period 1826–1856. The author also describes how the exiled members of secret societies helped residents of a remote region: they taught children right in the steppe yurts, opened schools for children and adults in Irkutsk, a small hospital was established at the expense of the wives of the Decembrists, which was used not only by the exiles, but also by local residents .

Some of the Decembrists, during the investigation in St. Petersburg and then, under the influence of a hard convict existence, revised their views, began to call the December uprising "a pathetic game of revolution that killed so many young people". But the steadiest remained faithful to the ideals of youth. Those, in particular, until the end of life remained Decembrists from the lyceum entourage of A. Pushkin. For example, at the end of the Lyceum, the closest friend of the poet Ivan Pushchin, who entered the secret society "Union of Welfare", met on Senate Square on December 14, 1825. And, judging by eyewitness accounts, he is one of the few who has kept his presence of mind in the current critical situation, writes in the preface to “Notes by I. I. Puschina on Pushkin” (1907) E. Yakushkin: “Pushchin left the square one of the last; his grandfather's coat, Admiral Pushchina, was pierced in many places with a canister”. Much is said about Ivan Pushchun, the lines of his letter from Chita in March 1830 to the son of the first director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum E. A. Engelhardt: “I don’t have anything special to say about myself, I can only boldly assure you that, whatever my position I will be able to endure it firmly and will always find in myself such consolations that no human power can deprive me of. I have already endured a lot and more to come in the future, if it pleases God to prolong my incised life; but I expect all this as it should a man who understands the cause of things and their indispensable connection with what should triumph sooner or later, despite the efforts of people who are deaf to the teachings of the century”.