On 14 December 1825, Senate Square in St Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, witnessed 3,000 officers and soldiers from the imperial guards’ regiments drawn up in ranks refusing to swear allegiance to the new Tsar, Nicholas I, shouting instead for a constitutional monarchy. Two weeks later, a further uprising in Ukraine also denounced the autocracy in what became known as the Decembrist uprising.
Lenin later referred to the Decembrists as precursors of the revolutionary movement of the succeeding century and took the slogan of an exiled Decembrist, ‘from the spark the flame will strike,’ as the slogan on the front of his newspaper, Iskra (Spark). Trotsky later wrote; ‘the uprising of the Decembrists gained an enduring place in Russian history as the watershed separating eighteenth-century palace revolutions from the struggle for liberation, to which it was a dramatic introduction.’
Background
The Decembrist uprising was the result of several years preparation by a network of secret societies. Their aim was not to win reforms by placing a royal ‘pretender’ on the throne, but to abolish absolutist rule altogether, and with it the cruel system of rural serfdom.
The first such society – the Union of Salvation – was established in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1816. Its founder members included brothers Alexander and Nikita Muravyov, their cousins Sergei and Matvei Muravyov-Apostol, Prince Sergei Trubetskoy and the poet Kondrati Ryleev.
Almost all were veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. Many took part in the battle of Borodino and the campaigns in Central Europe. Their experiences shaped the political views of these officers from the nobility. Firstly, it created an admiration for the heroism of the serf soldiers, and later indignation at the slave-like conditions they were forced to return to. Secondly, seeing European countries which had undergone revolutionary changes revealed the crying need for modernisation in Russia, both in its political-economic system and its army,
Initially, the Union of Salvation called for a constitutional monarchy, and the abolition of serfdom. The group became polarised with the recruitment of the extraordinary Pavel Pestel. Pestel, whom the poet Alexander Pushkin described as ‘one of the best minds I know’, was an unapologetic revolutionary republican. He opposed constitutional monarchy on the grounds that it would inevitably lead to absolutist restoration.
He rejected ‘landless emancipation’ in favour of an agrarian law, in which estates would be confiscated and given to the serfs. He supported the right of Poland to independence. Of all his radical positions, however, his critique of the ‘aristocracy of wealth’, the embryonic bourgeoisie that he predicted would eventually take power and intensify the oppression of the masses, was the most farsighted.
The events of 1820 radicalised Russian officers. In January, a mutiny in Spain triggered a revolution which forced the King to reintroduce the 1812 constitution. In Italy, in the kingdoms of Naples and Piedmont uprisings temporarily won constitutions, before falling to intervention by Austrian and Russian forces.
In October, the Tsar’s ‘favourite’ Semyonovksy guards regiment, in which many future Decembrists served, revolted against the removal of the popular General Potemkin. The Tsar’s younger brother Nicholas brutally put this mutiny down and had its leaders, many war heroes of the highest order, degraded and forced to ‘run the gauntlet’, that is to be beaten mercilessly.
These events inspired the Decembrists that a revolt by the soldiers was needed to overthrow Tsardom. Members from the Semyonovsky Regiment, including Pestel, had been ‘exiled’ to the Second Army based in Tulchin, southwest of Kiev. The Decembrists now had members in many more locations, including in Ukraine and Bessarabia.
But the radical Pestel’s relocation to the South polarised the Society. In the North, the moderates consolidated their control in St. Petersburg and Moscow, whilst the South was influenced by Pestel’s overtly republican ideas embodied in his pamphlet ‘Russian Truth’ (Russkaya Pravda).
The military conspirators called a conference in Moscow to agree a programme of action. Without any relations or business in the city, Pestel could not attend without arousing suspicion, so Ivan Burtsov and Vasily Komarov went in his place. The conference decided that the organisation had become too large, needed only members who could be absolutely relied upon, and dissolved the organisation. Pestel was furious and refused to carry this out.
As a result the Society split into separate Northern and Southern Societies. Though they made unsuccessful attempts at reunification, nonetheless they pledged to share details of their activities and plans, and that the signal for a joint action would be the death of the Tsar.
The revolt
This came sooner than expected when Alexander I died of typus in November 1825. The succession crisis that followed provided an opportunity for the rebels. Alexander had died without a legitimate heir, and it was assumed his elder brother Constantine would ascend the throne. But a secret protocol made him ineligible due to his marriage to a Polish countess.
The next in line was his younger brother Nicholas, disliked particularly by the soldiers. Terrified of being regarded as a usurper he awaited a public renunciation from Constantine, who did not want the throne. Russia was in the bizarre position of having ‘two self-denying emperors and no active ruler’.
Alexander’s death galvanised the Northern and Southern Societies. In the North the radicals became the principal organisers, winning new recruits who would play crucial roles in the events of December.
Meanwhile Under Pestel’s leadership, the Southern Society forged links with the Polish Patriotic Society and the United Slavs, both groups convinced that their aims would be greatly strengthened by the overthrow of Tsardom in Russia.
Furthermore, the Poles won the Society to reverse their longstanding practice of concealing their aims from the peasants, workers and rank and file soldiers, with whom they now openly discussed their political aims. They engaged with workers in Kiev and tried to win leaders who would organise the seizure of the arsenal during an insurrection. In short both societies expanded their social base.
On 14 December friendly commanders brought parts of the lifeguard regiments to Senate Square. The aim was to storm the nearby Winter Palace, arrest the royal family and force the Senate to call a constituent assembly and proclaim a manifesto written by the Decembrists.
Taking advantage of the troops’ hatred of Nicholas, and their illusions in Constantine, they worked tirelessly to bring troops to Senate Square. They first convinced the Moscow Lifeguard Regiments, who stood in the square for hours unopposed. When Governor General Miloradovich came out to negotiate with the troops, one of the Decembrist leaders Kakhovsky shot and killed him.
But things soon began to go wrong. The detachment sent to the Winter Place to arrest Nicholas failed. The tsar took command of the infantry, cavalry and field artillery loyal to him and surrounded the rebels. Prince Trubetskoy disappeared and Ryleev spent the rest of the day searching for him. The rebel troops were leaderless.
Loyalist cavalry was then ordered to charge on the rebels, some of whom returned their fire. Soldiers in the naval base came to defend the rebels, as did the Grenadier Guards. At this point, around 3,000 troops, and about as many civilian onlookers gathered in the Square. Soon large crowds fraternised with the troops. Civilians threw wood and stones at the loyalist cavalry sent to attack the rebels.
But in the end, the Tsar brought up field guns which fired grapeshot into the crowd. Both troops and civilians were shot indiscriminately. Many of the rebel troops retreated across the frozen river Neva, hoping to capture the Peter and Paul fortress. The Tsar’s forces bombarded the ice with cannon balls and drowned the fleeing soldiers.
Legacy
By the time news reached Tulchin of the failed revolt, many of the Southern leaders, including Pestel, had already been arrested. The United Slavs, however, managed to break Sergei Muravyov-Apostol out of prison. He immediately went to the troops of the Cherigovsky Regiment, promising to lead a fight against serfdom and oppressive military conditions.
They occupied Vasilkov, just outside Kiev, but abandoned a plan to seize the city, instead opting to join forces with the Poles and the Panslavs at Belaia Tserkov. On their way, they were met by loyalist forces. Whilst outnumbered ten to one, Muravyov-Apostol recognised some of the battalions as those of Decembrist officers, not realising that their commanders had been arrested in the preceding days.
When they fired on the rebels, Muravyov-Apostol was struck in the head by a canon and was later captured along with the last remaining leaders of the Southern Society. The revolt had been put to a decisive end.
After six months, over 500 rebels were tried for various crimes, with 120 exiled to Siberia. Pestel, Ryleev, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky and Mihail Bestuzhev-Ryumin were sentenced to death. A reign of complete political suppression followed, strengthening all the forces who supported absolute rule and a continuation of serfdom. It would be the 1860s before Russia saw even a hint of reform.
However, the surviving Decembrists did not cease political activity. Within a couple of years they had begun writing their memoirs and developed a political and radical tradition in Siberia. Many later came to identify with populism and socialism.
When they were pardoned under Alexander II, the small number that returned to European Russia received a hero’s welcome. Their sacrifice – and the criminalisation of any act in sympathy with them – turned them into living legends.
It is no accident that in 2008 the former Senate Square, which had been named Decembrists Square in 1925, was returned to its Tsarist name by Vladimir Putin. In 2019 a film was made which presented them as palace revolutionaries isolated from the masses. The revolution that will eventually overthrow the Russian dictator will need to take as part of its inspiration not only the Bolsheviks in 1917 but the heroism of the Decembrists too.
