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- They were hanged twice: 200 years since the execution of the leaders of the Decembrist uprising
They were hanged twice: 200 years since the execution of the leaders of the Decembrist uprising
Exactly 200 years ago, one of the most high-profile executions in the history of Russia took place in St. Petersburg. Five leaders of the Decembrist uprising were hanged in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and three of them were executed twice because of broken ropes. These events have become a symbol of the split in society and the harsh reaction of the authorities to the attempt to change the state system. The reasons for the uprising, the course of the investigation, and how contemporaries perceived the execution of the Decembrists are described in the Izvestia article.
Decembrist Uprising on December 26, 1825 — causes and consequences
The Decembrist movement originated in the early 19th century. After the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, the officers got acquainted with the European order. Constitutional monarchies already existed in a number of countries and serfdom was absent, which was still the basis of the socio-economic structure of the Russian Empire and, as the Decembrists believed, hindered its further development.
This increased the dissatisfaction of young officers with the existing order and prompted the creation of secret associations. So in 1816, the Union of Salvation appeared, and two years later, the Union of Prosperity. Many future leaders of the Decembrist movement had experience participating in Masonic lodges, which helped them master the principles of conspiracy and build a clear internal structure of their organizations.
The painting "Decembrists on the Senate Square" by artist D. Kardovsky
At the same time, unlike Freemasonry, which did not pursue direct political goals, the members of secret societies set themselves much more ambitious goals. It was about a fundamental transformation of the state system — the introduction of constitutional government instead of autocracy. In fact, the events of two centuries ago can be considered as one of the first attempts at revolutionary transformations in Russia.
At the beginning of their activity, some of the nobility were loyal to the emperor and expressed their willingness to cooperate with the authorities, as they expected Alexander I to continue his reforms. However, as time passed, no changes occurred, which caused disappointment among supporters of the reforms and led to the radicalization of the movement.
After the collapse of the Union of Prosperity in 1821, more radical associations emerged — the Northern Society, operating in St. Petersburg, where Sergei Trubetskoy, Nikita Muravyov and Kondraty Ryleev played a leading role, as well as the Southern Society, formed in Little Russia under the leadership of Pavel Pestel, Alexei Yushnevsky and Sergei Muravyov-Apostol.
"Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov", watercolor portrait painted by the Decembrist artist Nikolai Bestuzhev
Their participants developed not only transformation projects, but also plans to overthrow the autocracy, including an assassination attempt on the tsar. At the same time, their political views were not the same: some advocated the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, while others insisted on a republican form of government.
To carry out their plans, the rebels decided to take advantage of the uncertainty with the succession preceding the coronation of Emperor Nicholas I. According to the law, the throne was supposed to pass to Grand Duke Konstantin, but he renounced his rights to the throne, which few people knew about.
The date of the uprising was set for December 14, 1825, the day the troops were reassigned to the new emperor. The rebels hoped to withdraw troops to the Senate Square and force the senators to sign the national manifesto they had drawn up, and then, with the support of the Guard units, occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace.
However, early in the morning on the day of the uprising, the senators had already sworn allegiance to the new emperor and dispersed. The rebels were isolated and were unable to gain broad support from the troops. The Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Mikhail Miloradovich, went to the rebels to convince them to return to the barracks.
Watercolor drawing by Karl Kohlmann "The Uprising on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825"
His appearance seriously alarmed the leaders of the uprising. Miloradovich enjoyed great prestige in the army and could change the course of events. To prevent this, the conspirators decided to take extreme measures: in the midst of negotiations, the Decembrist Yevgeny Obolensky inflicted a fatal bayonet blow on the general.
Fearing that further delay might cause hesitation in the troops, Nicholas I ordered the rebels to open fire. As a result, over 1,270 people died. After the suppression of the uprising, mass arrests began. In total, about 500 participants of the rebellion were detained.
How was the investigation going?
On the night of December 26, the first detainees were taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Among them were key figures — Sergei Trubetskoy and Kondraty Ryleev. During the interrogations, they gave detailed and frank testimony, but deliberately kept silent about a number of radical ideas in an attempt to mitigate the guilt of the participants.
"Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy", watercolor portrait painted by the Decembrist artist Nikolai Bestuzhev
A special Investigative committee has been set up to investigate. It began work on December 17 and held dozens of meetings. Each defendant was interrogated separately. Then his testimony was compared with others. If necessary, repeated interrogations and confrontations were conducted.
The Committee was under the direct jurisdiction of Nicholas I, who led the investigation. The Emperor personally participated in the interrogations to establish the extent of the conspiracy, the number and organization of secret societies. At first, he was convinced that the investigation would end by the end of January, but more and more new facts were revealed, and the investigation dragged on until June 1826.
The peculiarity of the trial was that many of the investigators and the accused were familiar. They served together or were related. This made the case particularly dramatic.
Testimony of the Decembrists
Many participants in the uprising did not deny their involvement in the conspiracy. During the first interrogations, they spoke in detail about the goals of the secret societies and their plans. Kondraty Ryleev became one of the key witnesses.
In his testimony, he did not deny his leading role in the preparation of the conspiracy, mentioning many of his associates. The uprising on the Senate Square, according to his explanations, was caused by unwillingness to back down from his oath to Emperor Constantine I.
In his testimony, Ryleev also named the main reason for the failure of the December uprising. He claimed that Sergei Trubetskoy's non-appearance on the Senate Square played a crucial role. This, according to his version, led to chaos, which resulted in bloodshed and riots.
Reproduction of a portrait of the Decembrist Kondrati Fyodorovich Ryleev from the book by Peter Mikhailovich Golovachev "The Decembrists: 86 portraits, a view of the Petrovsky Factory and 2 household drawings of that time"
According to eyewitnesses, Trubetskoy, whom the conspirators elected the "dictator" of the uprising, did not even warn the rebels about his decision. However, his confessions after his arrest helped the investigation to restore the course of preparation of the speech and establish the role of individual participants.
The testimony of the Decembrists revealed other details of the plan. The investigation revealed that the rebels intended to seize the Winter Palace and arrest the imperial family. This task was assigned to Captain Alexander Yakubovich of the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment, who later refused to perform it.
Approving sentences and preparing for execution
On June 1, 1826, the Supreme Criminal Court was convened for the trial of the Decembrists, which was convened only to pass sentence on particularly important state cases. It was an unprecedented trial for Russia in terms of scale, the procedure of which, up to the sentencing of each accused, was personally led by Emperor Nicholas I.
The court recognized the uprising as an armed military mutiny, and the Decembrists themselves were considered dangerous state criminals. The court concluded that the purpose of the conspirators was to "overthrow the indigenous laws of the Fatherland, spread a general rebellion and produce a military mutiny with the conspiracy of the lower ranks."
The decree also noted that this "pernicious goal for the entire empire" was based on "the reckless love of power of some and the vile greed of other malefactors."
Portrait of Emperor Nicholas I. Reproduction
The final verdict was handed down by the court on July 5. Depending on the degree of participation, the Decembrists were given different penalties. All the defendants were divided into 11 categories. Some of them were sentenced to hard labor, some were sent to settle in Siberia.
Before the rebels were dressed in prison clothes, they were taken out of the casemates, orders were torn from their uniforms and swords were broken over their heads, which symbolized the deprivation of noble dignity.
The five main organizers — Pestel, Ryleev, Kakhovsky, Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin — were sentenced to death by quartering. However, later Emperor Nicholas I replaced this measure with hanging.
The execution of the Decembrists and the reaction of Russian society
On the night of July 25, 1826, the execution of five leaders of the Decembrist uprising took place in St. Petersburg. The day before, a scaffold with five gallows was erected in the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, during the execution, an unexpected incident occurred: three of the convicts (Ryleev, Muravyov-Apostol and Kakhovsky) fell from the gallows and fell into the pit under the scaffold.
They had to be picked up and brought to their senses. After that, they were hanged again. After the execution, the bodies were removed, loaded into a cart and covered with canvas. They did not bury them immediately, as they were afraid that a large gathering of people might provoke unrest. The cart was sent to an empty building of the Merchant Shipping School. Subsequently, the remains were secretly taken out of the city and buried in a deserted place.
The execution of the Decembrists came as a real shock to many of their contemporaries. Since the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, death sentences in Russia have hardly been carried out in public. At the same time, nobles appeared on the scaffold — representatives of the estate, which was traditionally considered the mainstay of the autocracy.
Public opinion is sharply divided. Some considered the punishment excessively harsh, while others, on the contrary, condemned the very attempt at rebellion and encroachment on the state system. Thus, Prince Peter Vyazemsky, who sympathized with the ideas of the Decembrists, although he was not a member of secret societies, confessed: "For me, Russia is now polluted, bloodied, it is stifling, unbearable... to live peacefully... on the stage of execution."
At the same time, the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, in a letter to Alexander Turgenev, called the conspirators "despicable villains," accusing them of striving to "slaughter Russia with such insane ferocity." Historian Nikolai Karamzin wrote a few weeks after the events: "God saved us from a great disaster on December 14," comparing the Decembrist uprising to the "invasion of the French."
Subsequently, the attitude towards the Decembrists changed several times. They became official heroes after the revolutions of 1917. They were considered the forerunners of the Narodnaya Volya and the Bolsheviks. Lenin called them the first revolutionaries, however, noting the "narrowness of their circle" and "remoteness from the people."
By the 100th anniversary of the uprising, a large number of historical and artistic works had appeared, which consolidated the revolutionary and romantic image of the Decembrists. They were seen not just as conspirators, but as romantic heroes sacrificing themselves for freedom. The film "The Star of Captivating Happiness" about the fate of the Decembrists and their wives, which was released in 1975, also played a major role in popularizing this image.
Modern historians tend to consider the Decembrists more carefully. The researchers note that, despite their defeat, they had a significant impact on the socio-political thought of the 19th century and the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that the uprising on Senate Square did not lead to the expected reforms, but, on the contrary, tightened the policy of the authorities and slowed down liberal transformations, strengthening conservative trends in the country for the next decades.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
