Decomposition of serfdom and the formation of capitalist relations in the late 18th - early 19th century.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, the formation of capitalist relations began. Landlord and peasant farms lost their natural, closed character and were drawn into market relations. In an effort to adapt to them and increase the profitability of their farms, the majority of landowners intensified feudal exploitation.

Capitalist relations, albeit slowly, penetrated the peasant economy. A significant part of the peasants went bankrupt and was forced to sell their labor as a commodity.

Small-scale commodity production continued to develop in various forms: peasant crafts and small-scale urban industry. On the basis of peasant crafts, capitalist manufactory grew up and an industrial bourgeoisie was formed.

The cotton industry developed most rapidly, in which hired labor was used, machines began to be used, and the first capitalist factories arose.

With the development of industry and trade, there was an increase in cities and urban population.

Feudal-serf relations delayed the economic development of Russia.

Domestic policy of tsarism.

After the suppression of the peasant war of 1773-1775, which shook the noble empire to its foundations, the feudal reaction intensified.

In 1775, the government issued an "Institution for the administration of the provinces of the Russian Empire." According to this law, the whole country was divided into 50 provinces. In each of them, a large police-bureaucratic apparatus was created. As a result of the reform, the local dictatorship of the nobility was strengthened.

The end of the 18th century was marked by a new aggravation of the class struggle in the country. In 1796-1997, 32 provinces were covered by the peasant movement.

In an effort to strengthen the obsolete backward, serf system at any cost, the government of Paul 1, who ascended the throne, issued a manifesto obliging the peasants to "stay" in their former rank to perform all duties in favor of the landowners. The right of landowners to exile serfs to the settlement was confirmed.

However, alarmed by the growth of peasant unrest, the government in April 1797 issued a decree forbidding landowners to force peasants to perform corvée work on Sundays and major church holidays. The decree also expressed a "wish" that corvee should not exceed three days a week. The decree had no practical value.

In March 1801, Paul was the first to be killed in a palace coup. Alexander 1 became king. The change of kings did not change the class content of the autocracy's policy, although the government proclaimed a "liberal" course.

Influence of the Patriotic War of 1812 on anti-serfdom sentiments.

On the night of June 12, 1812, Napoleon's troops invaded Russia. By this time, the French bourgeoisie had subjugated almost all of Europe and was preparing to establish world domination. Russia was to become a market for French goods, sources of cheap raw materials and labor.

Together with the Russian people, who took upon themselves the brunt of the war, the peoples of multinational Russia rose up to fight. The Napoleonic invasion brought national enslavement and increased social oppression to all of them. During the war, Caucasian peoples, detachments of Kalmyks, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Tatars, Mordovians, Mari, Chuvashs joined the ranks of the Russian regular army and militia.

The reasons for the patriotic upsurge of 1812 are that, by performing feats in the regular army and in partisan detachments, the people hoped for liberation from feudal oppression. During the war, in the territory occupied by the enemy in Belarus, Latvia, and the Smolensk region, numerous uprisings of serfs took place. This patriotic upsurge had a huge impact on the growth of self-awareness of the peoples of Russia, caused the strengthening of the liberation movement in the country.

In September 1814, a congress of the victorious powers met in Vienna. The basis of his activity was the reactionary principle of legitimism, which implied the restoration of overthrown dynasties and the return of European states to the old borders that they had before the revolutionary wars. The policy of the participants in the Congress of Vienna, including tsarist Russia, was aimed at preserving the old, monarchical and feudal order, at fighting the revolutionary and national liberation movement.

Noble stage in the Russian liberation movement. Decembrists.

The peasants who returned after the victorious end of the Patriotic War were again turned into serf slaves. Tsarism began to intensively plant military settlements. The settlers bore both cruel feudal and military-administrative oppression. Peasants were forbidden to dispose of the products of their labor, trade, etc.

The reactionary policy of tsarism and the growth of feudal oppression caused a new intensification of the class struggle in the country. Between 1796 and 1825, over 850 peasant uprisings took place. Discontent also gripped the army.

In the era of serfdom, more than three-quarters of all participants in the liberation struggle were nobles, and only one-quarter were philistines, peasants and representatives of other classes. The spread of advanced ideas contributed to the emergence of secret revolutionary organizations in Russia. All the secret societies were supposed to come out in May 1826. However, the government found out about this - the Decembrists failed to carry out a military coup. They took a wait-and-see position that was disastrous for the uprising - Senate Square was surrounded. The Decembrists were arrested, the leaders were executed, and the rest were sentenced to various terms of solitary confinement in a fortress, hard labor, followed by a life-long settlement in Siberia.

Despite the failure of the uprisings, the Decembrist movement was of great historical significance. This was the first armed uprising in Russia, which aimed at the destruction of the autocracy and serfdom.

The crisis of the feudal system of economy.

In the first half of the 19th century, despite the restraining influence of serfdom, Russian industry achieved a certain progress. In 1828 Russian industry was presented for the first time at the international fair in Leipzig.

The beginning of the industrial revolution somewhat accelerated the replacement of serf labor by civilians in Russian industry.

However, serfdom and the routine technique it gave rise to continued to dominate many decisive branches of production. The Ural metallurgy was almost completely based on the labor of serf workers, which provided about 82% of the total Russian metal production. The civilian workers themselves were quitrent serfs who carried on their shoulders the double oppression of landowners and capitalists.

The economic basis was the landlord economy. They owned almost the entire land fund of the country and the bulk of the peasants. The landowners were the main suppliers of bread (up to 90%) and other products to the domestic and foreign markets. Marketability grew due to the strengthening of the most backward, barbaric forms of exploitation - corvee and months, due to an increase in dues. The consequence of this was the progressive impoverishment of the main production - the peasantry.

After the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, tsarism intensified its reactionary policy even more. The 3rd department was created, censorship was strengthened, persecution fell on education, advanced science and literature.

The objective reflection of the serfdom was a new upsurge in the spontaneous protest of the masses. A wave of peasant and urban unrest swept through. The serf workers also fought.

Public education.

The socio-economic development of the country forced tsarism to undertake some reforms in the field of school education. In 1802, the Ministry of Public Education was created.

Formally, the charter introduced the availability of education. In fact, the school in Russia had a pronounced class character. The children of serfs were not allowed to attend the gymnasium. Among the students of higher educational institutions, a significant percentage was made up of young people of various ranks, who were under the influence of revolutionary democratic ideology.

Aggravation of the crisis of the serfdom. revolutionary democratic movement.

By the end of the 1950s, new productive forces were further developed in the bowels of feudal Russia. The industrial revolution continued in Russia. The cotton industry was already entirely based on the use of machines. At some metallurgical enterprises hot blast was introduced, rolling mills appeared. Steam engines were used in industry.

The development of productive forces led to further changes in social relations. Serf labor at enterprises was replaced by civilian labor, which meant the further development of bourgeois production relations. By 1861, in the manufacturing industry, civilian workers accounted for 87%. At the same time, serf labor still dominated in the mining, cloth and some other industries.

The growth of capitalist enterprises led to the decline of serf manufactories. At the same time, the feudal system fettered the development of productive forces and capitalist relations in industry. The hired workers for the most part consisted of serfs released by the landowners for quitrent. Often the entrepreneurs themselves were serfs. The market for industry was still narrow. Capital accumulation was slow.

Russia lagged behind the capitalist countries. This manifested itself most sharply in metallurgy, the main center of which remained the feudal Urals.

The further development of capitalism took place in the depths of feudal agriculture. Bourgeois ownership of land was born. By 1861, merchants and peasants already owned 6 million acres of land. Large business enterprises were created on these lands.

The majority of the landlords, as before, sought to increase the production of grain for sale by expanding their plowing by dispossessing the peasants of land and intensifying their feudal exploitation in the form of corvée and dues. This led to the ruin of peasant farms. A significant part of the quitrent peasants went to the cities.

The new productive forces found themselves in sharp contradiction with the forced, unproductive labor of the serfs. The corvée peasant was not interested in mastering machine technology and rational farming techniques. Therefore, until the abolition of serfdom, the primitive plow and wooden harrow remained the main instruments of production. Agriculture was in a state of stagnation and decline.

The growth of the peasant movement.

The intensification of feudal exploitation, dispossession of land, and an exorbitant increase in corvée and dues led to a sharp deterioration in the position of the peasant masses, especially during the years of the Crimean War.

All this caused an aggravation of the class struggle, expressed in the growth of a spontaneous peasant movement against serfdom. The most widespread forms of the peasant movement were mass escapes and unauthorized resettlements, refusal to fulfill duties and payments, unauthorized plowing of landowners' lands, cutting down forests, and so on.

The growth of the peasant movement was the sharpest manifestation of the aggravation of the crisis of serfdom. It caused great alarm and confusion among the landlords. Many of them spoke openly about the threat of a general peasant uprising and the need to abolish serfdom.

In early 1857, the government formed the Secret Committee for Peasant Affairs. He was to develop a plan for the gradual emancipation of the peasants "without abrupt and abrupt coups." At the end of 1857, the formation of provincial noble committees began. They were entrusted with the development of reform projects. Later, the Main Committee and special editorial commissions were created in St. Petersburg. Initially, the government hoped to carry out the "liberation" of the peasants without allotment land and to preserve almost the entire previous system of feudal relations. However, already in 1859 Russia entered a period of revolutionary situation, and tsarism was forced to make a number of concessions.

But, foreseeing the impossibility of maintaining the old land order, the nobles, even before the reform, began new mass violence against the peasantry. They took away the best lands from the peasants, reduced allotments, set them free without land, sent the dissatisfied to Siberia for settlement, handed them over to recruits, etc. Landowners seized peasant estates, demolished buildings, took away the fields sown by peasants, and often cattle. Many owners, in anticipation of the inevitable fall of serfdom, deliberately ruined their enterprises: factories were not repaired, mines were abandoned, food was not prepared. In December 1860, more than 100 thousand serf workers and their families in the Urals were under the threat of starvation. The position of civilian workers was no better. In 1859-1961, due to a sharp reduction in production in the cotton industry, mass layoffs and wage cuts began.

The revolutionary situation was marked by the activation of the labor movement.



«103 Chapter 5. The beginning of the liberation movement in Russia. Decembrists § 1. Features of the first stage of the liberation movement in Russia ... "

Chapter 5

in Russia. Decembrists

§ 1. Features of the first stage of the liberation

movement in Russia

formation The concept of the liberation movement includes not only the Decembrist

revolutionary struggle, but also liberal-ideological opposition speeches, as well

also all shades of advanced socio-political thought.

The liberation movement in this sense begins in the era of transition from

feudalism to capitalism, i.e., in the era of the breakdown of feudal-absolutist institutions and the rise of the bourgeoisie. This transitional era put forward the tasks of bourgeois-democratic transformations. In socio-economic and political development, Russia lagged behind the advanced Western European countries, in which already in the XVII-XVIII centuries. bourgeois-democratic revolutions took place and a representative political system was established, which marked the victory of the bourgeoisie. However, in Russia at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. the tasks of the same transformations were set by social thought, which largely borrowed the advanced ideas of Western European thinkers. But the specifics of Russia lay in the fact that the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic transformation of the country, put forward by its liberation movement, were ahead of the real conditions for their implementation. This, in essence, was the tragedy of the first freedom fighters in Russia.

In various historical periods, the Russian liberation movement had its own characteristics, in accordance with which its periodization can be established.

As is known, V. I. Lenin divided the liberation movement in Russia in its historical development (until 1917) into three stages: noble, raznochinsk and proletarian. He based this periodization on the estate-class criterion, because, as he pointed out, the predominance at one stage or another of a certain class (or estate) "left its mark on the movement", i.e., determined its features: the composition of participants, the nature program requirements and organizational and tactical principles. This scheme of a purely "class" approach dominated Soviet research and educational literature.

Note that the use of the class criterion has its own reasons. In fact, at the first stage (until approximately the middle of the 19th century), the nobility practically dominated the Russian liberation movement, at the second stage the raznochintsy led the liberation struggle, at the third - the proletariat. And yet, at the "raznochinsk" stage in the liberation movement (especially among its liberal opposition wing), people from the nobility continued to play a significant role.

Even at the proletarian stage, the democratic parties that actually led the revolutionary struggle and acted on behalf of the proletariat or the peasantry were represented mainly by those who did not come from the workers and peasants, but from the intelligentsia. As for the moderate wing of the liberation movement, the liberal opposition parties, it was almost entirely represented by the bourgeois-landlord intelligentsia.

But in the periodization of the liberation movement in Russia, other criteria are also legitimate - first of all, the nature of the advanced ideology adopted by its leaders. At the noble stage (mainly during the years of the Decembrist organizations), the liberation movement was dominated by the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, the theory of "natural rights of man and citizen", formulated in the 18th century. French enlighteners. The Raznochinsk stage passes under the sign of socialist ideas, mainly "Russian socialism", oriented towards a special, non-capitalist path to socialism, relying on the peasant community. Proletarian was based on the ideas of Marxism in their modification in relation to Russian conditions, expressed in Leninism.

Another essential criterion in distinguishing periods of the liberation movement is the characteristics of one or another historical epoch. Each stage of the liberation movement is associated with a certain socio-economic and political life of the country: the noble one fully corresponds to the pre-reform, serf era;

Raznochinskiy coincides with the establishment and development of capitalism in the post-reform era; proletarian - with the era of imperialism. Each epoch, putting forward its tasks of social and political transformations in the country, also formed the composition of the participants in the movement, determined the strategy and tactics, as well as the forms of struggle. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the Russian liberation movement of the XIX - early XX centuries. - a single process, and each subsequent stage is organically connected with the previous one.

The predominance of nobles and intellectuals in the Russian liberation movement was due (unlike in the countries of Western Europe) to the fact that in Russia a wide "middle" stratum of the population, the so-called "third estate", which could put forward its own political programs, did not form. demands and lead the revolutionary struggle.

A. N. Radishchev, N. I. Novikov, Russian enlighteners at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, A. I.

Herzen, N. P. Ogarev, V. G. Belinsky, the Petrashevites - these are the most prominent representatives of the first, noble, stage of the liberation movement in Russia. They represented a very narrow circle of the most educated, advanced nobility. In general, the Russian nobility remained a serf-minded and conservative estate loyal to the throne.

The origins of the Decembrist ideology. The Decembrists were people of high morality, which distinguished them from the rest of the nobility, forced them to rise above their class privileges given to them by their origin and position, that is, "become Decembrists", sacrificing all their wealth and even life itself in the name of high and noble ideals - the liberation of Russia from serfdom and from the despotism of autocratic power. The distinctive moral features of the Decembrists were their true chivalry, spiritual purity, high sense of camaraderie, awareness of civic duty and readiness for selfless, disinterested service to the fatherland. They correlated all their practical actions with moral standards. To achieve a great end, there must be, as they argued, highly moral means. "For a great deed one should not use low means" (K. F. Ryleev).

Consequently, the "cause" of the Decembrists is not only their civil, but also a high moral feat, as they imagined it.

They felt the fatefulness of the era in which they had to live and act, when, in their opinion, "the fate of Russia" was being decided. They were characterized by a feeling of the coming grandiosity of the events of their time, which served as the leading motive for their actions.

The Decembrists are representatives of the radical wing of the noble opposition to the autocracy, which united mainly military youth. The sources of the Decembrist ideology were the ideas of the French enlighteners of the 18th century, Russian "freethinkers" of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. - A. N. Radishchev, N. I. Novikov and their followers, as well as the influence of the liberating spirit of "freethinking" that prevailed at the beginning of the 19th century. at Moscow University, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, in some military educational institutions where many future Decembrists studied.

The Patriotic War of 1812 had a great influence on the formation of the ideas of liberation of the Decembrists. Over a hundred future Decembrists were participants in the war of 1812, 65 of those whom the tsarist court would later call "state criminals" stood to death on the Borodino field.

The victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 contributed to the growth of national self-awareness in Russia, gave a powerful impetus to the development of advanced social thought and Russian national culture in general. It was the war of 1812 that raised questions about the fate of Russia and the ways of its development before the future Decembrists. It revealed the enormous possibilities of the people, who, as the Decembrists believed, having liberated their country from foreign invasion, sooner or later had to find the strength in themselves to free themselves from "internal tyranny" - to throw off the yoke of feudal slavery.

The foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814, in which many Decembrists took part, introduced them to the socio-political changes in Europe after the French Revolution of the late 18th century, enriched them with vivid impressions, new ideas and life experience. All this turned out to be in harmony with those liberation ideas, the main source of which at that time was primarily patriotism.

It was in the Decembrist movement that liberation ideas were especially closely connected with patriotic sentiments, and to a large extent flowed from them. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that at an early stage of the liberation movement, not only in Russia, but also in other countries - in the conditions of the formation of a nation, the growth of national self-consciousness - advanced ideas were inextricably linked with the development of national culture, with the progress of the nation in general. The Decembrists - ardent patriots of their homeland - understood earlier than others that serfdom and autocratic arbitrariness are the main cause of Russia's backwardness, which in the final analysis can lead to its death. Therefore, they considered the elimination of the serf system and autocracy primarily as a deeply patriotic task - the "salvation" of Russia.

The Decembrists appeared on the historical arena in the era of major military-political cataclysms, their time brought "unheard of changes, unprecedented revolts":

Napoleonic wars, revolutions in different countries of Europe, national liberation uprisings in Greece and Latin American colonies. “The current century,” P. I. Pestel wrote in his testimony to the investigation, “is marked by revolutionary thoughts. From one end of Europe to the other one and the same thing is visible, from Portugal to Russia, not excluding a single state, even England and Turkey, these two opposites. All of America presents the same spectacle. The spirit of transformation makes, so to speak, minds everywhere bubbling."

The formation of the Decembrist ideology and the emergence of the first Decembrist organizations took place in the context of the growth of liberal opposition sentiments in Russia after the Patriotic War of 1812. The Decembrists were closely connected with the liberal opposition, or otherwise "near-Decembrist" environment, on which they relied in their activities and which to a large extent degree shared their characteristic views. These are prominent writers (for example, A. S. Pushkin, P. A. Vyazemsky, A. S. Griboyedov, D. V. Davydov), statesmen and military figures (M. M. Speransky, N. S.

Mordvinov, P. D. Kiselev, A. P. Ermolov), known for their independent views.

Therefore, the emergence of Decembristism and the activity of Decembrist societies, especially at their early stage, cannot be understood without connection with their liberal opposition environment. It is impossible not to take into account the fact that the formation of Decembrist ideas and views was influenced both by the reform activities and reform plans of the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, and later disappointment in the "reformer on the throne", which followed as a result of their actual rejection.

Masonic lodges (more than 80 Decembrists, including all their leaders, were members of them), as well as the experience of secret societies in European countries, had a significant influence on the organizational and tactical principles of the Decembrists.

§ 2. Early Decembrist organizations They were preceded by the so-called "pre-Decembrist" organizations - "youth brotherhoods" and officer "artels" in the guards regiments, which operated in 1814-1816.

Among them, the most famous are the “artel” of officers of the Life Guards of the Semenovsky Regiment and the “Order of Russian Knights” by M.F. Orlov and M.A. Dmitriev-Mamonov, which even had its own written charter.

Union of Salvation The first Decembrist society - the Union of Salvation - arose in early February 1816 in St. Petersburg. The initiator of its creation was a 23-year-old colonel

Guards headquarters A. N. Muravyov. The society initially included young officers:

N. M. Muravyov, brothers M. I. and S. I. Muravyov-Apostles, S. P. Trubetskoy and I. D.

Yakushkin. The society received its final structure a year later, when the energetic P. I. Pestel, who arrived in St. Petersburg, joined it. With his participation, the "statute" (charter) of a secret society was drawn up and adopted. From that moment on, it was called the "Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland."

It was still a small group of like-minded people in the amount of 10-12 people, which was of a conspiratorial nature. At the end of 1817, its membership increased to 30 members. In the internal everyday life of the organization, the influence of the Masonic ritual affected: its composition was divided into three "categories" - the highest ("bolyar"), the middle ("husbands") and the younger ("brethren"); accepted into society gave a solemn oath, taken on the cross and the Gospel - to be faithful to society and not to divulge its secrets.

In the first Decembrist organization, although its goal was defined - the introduction of a constitution and the abolition of serfdom, it was not yet clear by what means to achieve this goal, there was also no program of transformation.

It was supposed in the future, most likely at the moment of the change of kings on the throne, to “pull out” the constitution from the government: not to swear allegiance to the new king if he does not grant a constitution. At the same time, members of the secret society cherished the hope that the reigning Emperor Alexander I, continuing his reform activities, could himself grant Russia a constitution similar to the one he granted in 1815.

Poland (this hope was strengthened in 1818, when he publicly announced this intention in Warsaw). In this case, it was supposed to support him in every possible way. As P. I. Pestel showed during the investigation, then they reasoned in this way: "If the sovereign bestows firm laws and a constant order of affairs on the fatherland, then we will be his most faithful adherents and savers." But the hopes of the Decembrists were replaced by disappointments, they were broken by the real actions of the monarch.

In August 1817, the royal court, together with the guards, left for Moscow to hold celebrations in connection with the fifth anniversary of victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. Most of the members of the Union of Salvation turned out to be part of the guards who arrived in Moscow. Apartment A.

N. Muravyov in the Khamovniki barracks became a meeting place for the Decembrists. At this time, they received news of the massacre of the peasants of the Novgorod province, who resisted their transfer to military settlers. At the same time, a letter came from St. Petersburg from Trubetskoy, who reported rumors that Alexander I intended to restore the independence of Poland and annex some primordially Russian territories to it, which greatly hurt the patriotic feelings of the Decembrists. Spontaneously, a plan arose for an immediate action, which was supposed to begin with regicide. I.D.

Yakushkin volunteered to sneak into the Kremlin with two pistols: from one to hit the tsar, and from the other to commit suicide, which was supposed to give this act the character of a noble duel. After lengthy and heated disputes between supporters and opponents of regicide, they came to a decision to abandon this intention in view of the extremely limited forces of the conspirators for a coup, if regicide could be carried out. As a result, it was decided to liquidate this first secret society and start creating a new, broader organization.

The Welfare Union This organization was established in January 1818 in Moscow under the name of the Welfare Union. During its three-year existence (1818 -

1821) The Union of Welfare made a significant step in the development of organizational and tactical principles and program provisions of the Decembrists.

The new organization had up to 200 members and had its own charter, called the "Green Book". The first part of the charter was well-intentioned and pursued, according to the Decembrists, "the immediate goal - the spread of education, the occupation of civil positions by members of a secret society," that is, it set only educational goals. It also detailed the organizational principles of the Welfare Union. When compiling the first part of the Green Book, the charter of the secret Prussian society Tugenbund (Union of Virtue), created in 1808 with the aim of patriotic education of the people, when Prussia, defeated by Napoleon, was under his yoke, was used.

The first part of the "Green Book" was introduced to all those who joined the Union of Welfare.

Somewhat later, the second part of the charter was written in rough form, containing the "secret" goal of the society: "the introduction of a constitution and lawful free government, equality of citizens before the law, publicity in public affairs and in legal proceedings, the destruction of peasant slavery, recruitment and military settlements."

The "secret" part of the "Green Book" has not been preserved, but the testimony of the Decembrists involved in its creation testifies to its content.

The founding members (there were 29 of them - almost all former members of the Salvation Union) made up the Root Union. He elected the governing body - the Council of the Indigenous Union, consisting of six people. Each member of the Indigenous Union was obliged to create a cell of a secret society - "uprava", the head of which he became. It was supposed to create up to 30 councils in this way in the near future. However, in the future it was planned to create much more of them, because each council was given the right to form subordinate cells-upravdas. In this case, it became the "main council", and those created by it. were called "sides". In reality, up to 15 councils were formed as part of the Welfare Union. Most of them were in St. Petersburg, mainly in the guards regiments. Councils were created in Moscow, Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Chisinau, Tulchin and some other cities. There were many such members of the Union of Welfare who, having joined it, practically did not take any part in its affairs. Subsequently, they lagged behind him and were not involved in the investigation.

In the Union of Prosperity, the task of forming an advanced "public opinion" in the country as a necessary condition for the transformational plans of the Decembrists was put forward to the fore. The thesis of "public opinion ruling the world", put forward in the XVIII century. French enlighteners, was widespread in the European liberation movement of the late XVIII - early XIX centuries. MM Speransky also attached decisive importance to public opinion in the historical process.

The Decembrists were convinced that it was enough to prepare an advanced public opinion in the country, as the necessary conditions for a bloodless political upheaval would arise. To create an advanced public opinion, it will take, as the Decembrists calculated, about 20 years. In this regard, they provided for the formation, in addition to the cells-managements of the Union of Welfare, various legal and semi-legal educational, literary, charitable societies, with the help of which it was supposed to prepare public opinion in a certain direction. In those years, it was essentially already taking shape in Russia. The activities of the Union of Welfare, mainly propaganda and educational, took place in an atmosphere of noticeable socio-political revival after and under the influence of the Patriotic War of 1812. Until about 1820, there was still no noticeable strengthening of the reactionary political course of the autocracy, characteristic of the last five years of the reign of Alexander I. The Russian journals of that time still continued to publish articles outlining the French and American constitutions, and books appeared in which anti-serfdom ideas were openly promoted. All this created an environment for the practically open propaganda and educational work of the Union of Welfare.

Through scientific, "free" literary and charitable societies, legally operating "side councils" (for example, through the "free society of lovers of Russian literature", literary circles "Arzamas" and "Green Lamp"), which included many members of the Union of Welfare, the Decembrist the organization was closely connected with the progressive literary and scientific circles of Russia. The members of the Welfare Union advocated the protection of advanced science and literature, defended the offended and unjustly convicted, redeemed talented self-taught people from serfdom, created Lancaster schools for mutual education under the regiments, provided assistance to starving peasants (for example, in the Smolensk province), ardently opposed the serfs in the salons law, the use of corporal punishment in the army, Arakcheev military settlements. As I. D. Yakushkin recalled, at the meetings of the secret society they "discussed the main ulcers of the fatherland: the inertia of the people, the cruel treatment of soldiers, for whom service for 25 years was hard labor, widespread extortion, robbery, and, finally, a clear disrespect for man in general ".

In the Welfare Union there were people of different views and ideas about the ways and means of political transformations in the country. The majority adhered to a moderate orientation, not going beyond the educational tasks outlined in the first part of the Zelenev Book. At the same time, a radical wing was also taking shape in society, demanding "decisive measures" and the introduction of a republic. The wider the circle of the Welfare Union became, the more heterogeneous its composition increased. Disputes boiled at his meetings, various projects and plans were born, various, sometimes opposite, opinions collided.

1820-1821 became a turning point in the history of the Decembrist secret societies in Russia.

In 1820-1821. in the countries of Southern Europe (Portugal; Spain, Naples, Piedmont) a wave of revolutionary uprisings swept. In 1821, a national liberation uprising began in Greece against the Ottoman yoke. Finally, in Russia itself, in October 1820, the Semyonovsky Guards Regiment rebelled, headed by Alexander I himself. These events contributed to the growth of radical sentiments among the Decembrists, but at the same time frightened its moderate members.

The situation in the country has also changed. The revolutionary events in Western Europe dramatically changed the political course of Alexander I, who turned to open reaction.

In January 1820, a meeting of 14 members of the Indigenous Administration of the Welfare Union met in St. Petersburg. At this meeting, Pestel made a presentation on the forms of government in Russia after the revolutionary upheaval. Outlining all the "benefits and disadvantages of both monarchical and republican governments," Pestel argued the advantages of the latter. After heated debates and Pestel's convincing arguments, all participants in the meeting ultimately spoke in favor of the republic. Pavel Pestel and Nikita Muravyov were instructed to start developing the program documents of the secret society.

Disagreements between the radical and moderate currents in the Welfare Union became especially aggravated by the end of 1820. The congress of representatives of the administrations of the Welfare Union, which met in Moscow in January 1821, decided: in view of the aggravated disagreements in the secret society, declare it dissolved. The purpose of such an action was to get rid of unreliable and hesitant fellow travelers, as well as to extinguish the suspicions of the government, already aware through denunciations of the existence of a secret society. After the formal self-dissolution of the Union of Welfare at the same congress, it was decided to create a new, more secretive secret society, consisting of four councils - in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Smolensk and Tulchin. By this action, the Decembrists who gathered at the Moscow Congress sought to isolate Pestel (by removing him from the leadership of the newly created Tulchinsk administration), whose extreme radicalism and his increased influence on the affairs of the secret society began to cause concern among the Moscow and St. Petersburg administrations of the Welfare Union.

The Tulchinsk administration headed by Pestel - the most numerous in the Union of Welfare - did not recognize the decision of the Moscow Congress to dissolve the secret society and decided to "continue the society". In March 1821, the Southern Society was formed on the basis of the Tulchinsk Council. Almost simultaneously in St. Petersburg N. M. Muravyov and N.

I. Turgenev laid the foundation for the Northern Society, which received its final structure in 1822. Both societies interacted with each other and considered themselves as parts of one organization.

After 1821, the activities of the newly formed Decembrist societies took place already in an atmosphere of increased domestic and international reaction. Under conditions of ubiquitous police surveillance and censorship, it became more and more difficult to carry out propaganda, as envisaged by the Green Book. The Decembrists were forced to switch to a stricter secrecy, to develop a different, more effective tactic, designed not for long-term propaganda, but for the preparation of a revolutionary action, and in the near future.

As early as 1820, the idea of ​​a "military revolution" - a military uprising without the participation of the masses of the people - began to take over the minds of the Decembrists more and more. It should be emphasized that the tactical plan to carry out a revolutionary coup "in the name of the people", but without its participation, was due not only and not even so much to the "nobility narrow-mindedness" of the Decembrists. They proceeded from the experience of two types of revolutions: the French - the revolution of the masses, accompanied by "unrest and anarchy", and the Spanish 1820 - the revolution "organized", "without blood and unrest", accomplished with the assistance of a disciplined military force, led by authoritative military leaders - members of secret societies. The example of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic dictatorship that followed it showed the Decembrists that the logical outcome of such a revolution was the emergence of a dictator. They were terrified by the horrors of the Jacobin terror as a consequence of the "mob revolution". The Decembrists were convinced that people's revolutions inevitably lead to despotism, because a dictator always appears on the crest of a spontaneous wave of "unbridled masses".

A military revolution "like the Guishpanian" was supposed to be an alternative to a revolution like the French one. As the Decembrists have repeatedly pointed out, the military revolution will be "the most rapid, bloodless, painless", and most importantly - "organized", preventing anarchy with all its negative consequences. In the conditions of Russia, it will be an alternative to Pugachevism. As S. P. Trubetskoy testified during the investigation, "in Russia, serfdom disposes to Pugachevism more than in any other state." He painted a gloomy picture of how Pugachevism could end in Russia: “With the uprising of the peasants, horrors that no imagination can imagine will inevitably be connected, and the state will become a victim of strife and can be the prey of ambitious people, and finally, it can fall apart, and from one strong state to disintegrate into different weak ones.

All the glory of Russia may perish, if not forever, then for many centuries. "Some Decembrists in their testimony during the investigation tried to present their plans for a military coup as a desire to prevent a possible Pugachevshchina in Russia.

1821-1823 - the time of formation, numerical growth and organizational design of the Southern and Northern societies. The southern society consisted of Tulchinskaya, Kamenskaya and Vasilkovskaya administrations. The society was headed by the Directory (or the Root Duma), to which P. I. Pestel, A. P. Yushnevsky and the head of the Northern Society N. M. Muravyov were elected in March 1821 (thus, the connection between the Northern and Southern societies was emphasized ). In fact, Pestel "dominated" in Southern society, whose authority and influence were indisputable. His strong will, clear analytical mind, encyclopedic erudition, deep conviction that he was right and the iron logic of his judgments captivated and, as it were, suppressed his listeners, so that, according to the Decembrists themselves, "it was difficult to resist his influence." Pestel's immediate superior, commander of the 2nd Army, Count P. X. Wittgenstein said of him: "Let him command the army, put him at the head of any ministry - he will be in place everywhere." But these qualities of Pestel, which, according to the Decembrists, made him the "driving spring" of the Southern Society, aroused suspicion among the members of the Northern Society - they suspected in him the intention to "become a Russian Bonaparte."

Pestel advocated a strictly disciplined secret organization, which became the Southern Society, the most numerous and radical. Every year in early January, starting from 1822, in Kyiv, where in those days officers of many regiments came to buy provisions and fodder, congresses of the leaders of the Southern Society and its administrations gathered to discuss organizational, tactical and program issues.

The northern society also consisted of several councils (departments) in the guards regiments of the capital. The Northern Society was headed by the Duma of three people - N.M.

Muravyov, S. P. Trubetskoy and E. P. Obolensky. In 1823, I.I.

Pushchin received K. F. Ryleev, who was well known in Decembrist circles as a talented poet, author of freedom-loving and patriotic works. Then they talked a lot about Ryleev's satire "To the temporary worker", which caused a sensation, directed against Arakcheev. Ryleev was immediately introduced to the highest category ("convinced") and soon took a leading position in Northern society. Adopted by him in 1824-1825. a group of young officers of the army and navy formed the so-called "Ryley branch" in the Northern society, which later played a decisive role in the Decembrist uprising. The Moscow Council was also part of the Northern Society, in it a prominent place was occupied by the lyceum friend of A.S. Pushkin, the judge of the Moscow Court of Appeal, I.I.

In 1821, the Kishinev Administration of the Union of Welfare, headed by the commander of the 16th Infantry Division, Major General M.F., became an independent organization.

Orlov and his friend Major V.F. Raevsky. The arrest of Raevsky in February 1822 in connection with his anti-government agitation among the soldiers led to the defeat of the Kishinev organization in 1823.

§ 4. Constitutional projects of P. I. Pestel and N.

M. Muravyova The development of constitutional drafts and plans for armed action occupied a paramount place in the activities of the Decembrist societies after 1821. In 1821-1825. two political programs of revolutionary transformations in Russia were created - P. I. Pestel's "Russian Truth" and the Constitution of Nikita Muravyov; In principle, the plan for the joint action of both societies was also agreed upon.

The Decembrist projects for the political and social reorganization of Russia were based on the principles of "natural law" developed by the thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment - Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, Holbach, whose works the authors of the Decembrist constitutions were well acquainted with. Under "natural law" was understood the inviolability of the individual, freedom of speech and conscience, equality of all before the law, non-recognition of class differences, guarantees for the protection of private property, and politically - the introduction of a representative form of government with the separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial. These provisions were directed against the feudal-absolutist order and contained a great revolutionary charge for that time. They laid the foundations of a bourgeois legal state. When developing their drafts, Pestel and N. Muravyov also relied on the constitutional experience of other European and American states.

Pestel's Russkaya Pravda proclaimed the decisive abolition of serfdom, the establishment of a republic in Russia and the equality of all citizens before the law.

“The slavery of the peasants must be decisively destroyed,” Pestel wrote, “and the nobility must forever renounce the vile advantage of possessing other people.” The peasants were to receive not only personal freedom, but also land.

When solving the agrarian question, Pestel proceeded from two prerequisites: land is a public property, from which every citizen has the right to receive a land allotment, but at the same time, private ownership of land was also recognized, for "labor and work is the source of property." Pestel sought to reconcile the public and private beginnings by dividing the entire land fund of the country into two parts - public land and private land. Public land was transferred to the disposal of the volost society (the primary administrative and economic unit of the country), so it was called "volost". Each citizen had to be assigned to a certain volost for this. Whatever he did (trade, industry, etc.), in case of failure in his activities, he could always find a means of subsistence in his volost at the expense of a piece of public land due to him. This land could neither be sold nor mortgaged, but was provided free of charge to anyone who wished to engage in agriculture. She, according to Pestel, was intended to produce a "necessary product" in order to provide the necessary means of subsistence for every citizen and thus had to serve as a guarantee against begging and hunger.

All state and monastic lands were to be included in the public land fund. In addition, to replenish it, partial confiscation of land from large landowners was envisaged: from those who had more than 10 thousand acres, half was taken away without any remuneration, from owners from 5 to 10 thousand acres, half was alienated either for monetary compensation or for providing an equivalent plot in the other place. Private lands were in free commodity circulation and served to "deliver abundance", that is, they were called upon to promote the development of private entrepreneurial initiative in agricultural production.

Pestel built his attitude to private property on the basis of a reasonable combination of public and private interests ("good"). "The rich will always exist," he wrote, "and that's a very good thing." However, he emphasized, "it is unacceptable to add other political rights and advantages to wealth to the detriment of the rest of the population," that is, to establish, for example, a property qualification for holding public office. Providing for a number of measures to protect private property and private enterprise, Pestel at the same time opposed large owners (or, as he said, "the aristocracy of wealth"), which, as he saw in the example of England and France, have a strong influence on government policy.

Pestel considered the "aristocracy of wealth" even more dangerous than the "feudal aristocracy".

The former class division was to be abolished. All estates "merge into a single estate - civil." Civil and political rights were given to men who reached the age of 20. Instead of the former recruitment, universal military service was introduced with a 15-year term of service. Military settlements were liquidated. Russkaya Pravda declared freedom of speech, press, assembly, occupation, movement, religion, inviolability of the person and home, the introduction of a new court, equal for all citizens, with open trial and the right of the accused to defense. However, restrictions were also placed on the exercise of some of these rights. All sorts of societies and associations were categorically forbidden, "at least open, even secret, because the former are useless, and the latter are harmful." Pestel saw the futility of the former in the fact that their activities "are included in the circle of actions of the government itself"; the latter are harmful because the very fact of secret activity makes one suspect them of "maliciousness", because the new social order "does not force anything good and useful to be hidden, but even, on the contrary, it provides all means for their introduction and promulgation by law."

Established censorship of morals. The "writer" and the publisher were brought to trial for works that violated the "rules of morality" or damaged the honor and dignity of a citizen. The government was obliged to have "vigilant and strict supervision" over various kinds of private and public "festivals and amusements" so that "they are not contrary to the purest morality and do not contain depravity and temptation."

The education of children, according to Pestel's project, should be carried out in government educational institutions. Individuals were strictly forbidden to "set up boarding houses and other educational institutions." Pestel motivated this ban by the impossibility of controlling private educational institutions by the government.

The Russkaya Pravda proclaimed freedom of conscience. Orthodoxy was declared "the dominant faith of the great Russian state", however, freedom was also granted to other religions, "unless they are contrary to Russian laws, spiritual and political, the rules of pure morality and do not violate the natural duties of a person." Clerics were regarded as government officials, "performing special positions." Monasteries were preserved, but people no younger than 60 years old were allowed to take the veil.

Russkaya Pravda elaborates civil and family law relations in detail. The age of majority was proposed to be considered 15 years, when young men and women in a solemn atmosphere take the oath of allegiance to the fatherland. From that moment on, girls have the right to marry; young men, on the other hand, receive such a right from the age of 20, as well as the right to elect and be elected to government bodies at all levels, to enter the military and civil service. Parents have full power over minor children, but they are also responsible for their upbringing and actions.

Pestel was an ardent supporter of the establishment of republican government in Russia. Calling autocracy "furious malevolence," he opposed any form of monarchical government, believing that any monarchy would inevitably "end with despotism." As the investigation established, Pestel considered it necessary during the revolutionary upheaval to "exterminate" the entire reigning family.

According to Russkaya Pravda, the future Russian republic should be a single and indivisible state, with a strong centralized government. Pestel was an opponent of the federation, believing that it would contribute to the development of centrifugal and separatist tendencies and thus to the weakening of the state, and possibly its collapse. He considered the federal structure as the restoration of the "former specific system" that existed in Russia, with all its negative consequences. Administratively, the Russian Republic was to consist of ten large regions, each of which would include five districts (or provinces); districts were divided into counties (or counties), and counties - into volosts.

The highest legislative power, according to Russkaya Pravda, belonged to the unicameral People's Veche, consisting of 500 people elected for 5 years. Every year 1/5 of the People's Council was re-elected. The executive power was to be exercised by the Sovereign Duma in the amount of 5 people, elected by the People's Council also for 5 years.

The Duma was chaired by the one who had been in its composition for the last, fifth, year. The supreme control ("monitor") power was handed over to the Supreme Council of 120 people. The most authoritative and honored citizens of the country were elected to it for life.

Local administrative power was exercised by regional, district, district and volost "local assemblies", and executive power was exercised by regional, district, district and volost "local boards". The heads of "local assemblies" and at the same time "local boards" were to be elected "posadniks" (in volosts - "volost leaders"). Local authorities were elected for a one-year term.

When solving the national question, Pestel proceeded from two contradictory principles: "the rights of the people", that is, the right of national self-determination, and the "right of convenience" - the recognition of "every large state" of its desire "to establish borders, strong local position and strong natural strongholds", and at the same time - the desire "to ensure that the forces of the small peoples surrounding it multiply its own forces, and not the forces of any neighboring large state, basing this desire and diligence on the right of security." Pestel called both rights equally legitimate and fair, however, in his opinion, the right to self-determination can really be granted only to those peoples who have the strength and ability to "preserve it", otherwise they cannot "because of their weakness enjoy independent political independence" and will inevitably fall under the rule of "one of the large neighboring states." Therefore, this right for small peoples is "imaginary and non-existent." “Besides, small nations, located between large ones, serve as a constant field for military operations, ruin and disastrous actions of all kinds.” Therefore, Pestel pointed out, "it will be better and more useful for them when they unite in spirit and society with a large state." Based on these premises, Pestel believed that in relation to the peoples inhabiting Russia, the "right of convenience" should act. He made an exception for Poland, which received political independence on the condition that a democratic republic would be established in it with the help of the Russian revolution and the same transformations would be carried out as in Russia, with which she would enter into an “eternal alliance”.

Pestel called every inhabitant of Russia "Russian". This name meant not so much belonging to the Russian nationality, as it determined the status of a citizen of the Russian Republic. The entry of small peoples into the Russian state was not associated with forced Christianization and Russification. According to Pestel, no discrimination based on nationality is allowed: all peoples enjoy the same rights and bear the same duties. Giving clear priority to the "right of convenience", Pestel pointed out that in the future "one should not oppose by hostile feelings and actions to the correct separate existence of peoples who can take advantage of full political independence."

Pestel's Russkaya Pravda was called upon to serve as a "Mandate" to the Provisional Government, vested with dictatorial power for a period of 10 years. During this necessary, according to Pestel, transitional period, it puts into practice the transformations recorded in the "Instruction". After a 10-year period, a new constitution was to be adopted, fixing the transformations made, according to Russkaya Pravda, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government resigned its powers.

Russkaya Pravda by Pestel is the most radical constitutional project of the Decembrists. The transformations recorded in it were supposed to be carried out with the help of a tough revolutionary dictatorship envisaged by Pestel.

The constitutional project of N. M. Muravyov proceeded from a different political concept.

Unlike Pestel's Russkaya Pravda, Muraviev's project provided for the preservation of the monarchy, limited by the constitution. In addition, Muravyov was an opponent of strictly centralized power and a unitary state. Russia, according to his project, should become a federation of 14 "powers" and two regions (according to the second project - of 13 "powers" and two regions) with its own capitals and independent government. According to Muravyov, in such a vast country as Russia, the federal structure will be a counterbalance to the excessive strengthening of the central power, which in a centralized state will inevitably turn into despotism. Thus, the federal structure of the country will better ensure the preservation of the freedoms of citizens.

But in determining the federal structure, Muravyov proceeded not from the national, but from the economic and economic characteristics of those regions that were to become "powers." According to his project, "powers" were tied either to the shores of the seas or to large navigable rivers. Accordingly, they received the names: Botanical, Baltic, 3Avolzhskaya, Kama, Obyskaya, Lena, Okinsky, Buzhskaya, Dnieper, Black Sea, etc. The capitals of the "powers", according to Muravyov, were to be large commercial and industrial centers, river or seaports. Poland was not included in the Russian Federation, it was supposed to receive state independence. The "powers" were divided into "povets" (districts), which should have numbered a total of 569, and they, in turn, into volosts of 500-1500 male inhabitants each. The capital of the federation was to be (like Pestel's) Nizhny Novgorod, which was renamed Slavyanok (Pestel's - Vladimir).

Muravyov carried out a strict separation of powers - into legislative, executive and judicial, which, along with the federal structure, was intended to become a guarantee against the emergence of dictatorial power in the country. The supreme legislative body of power in the future Russian Federation was the bicameral People's Veche, which consisted of the Supreme Duma (upper house) and the "House of People's Representatives" (lower house). Deputies to both chambers were elected for a 6-year term, while every two years 1/3 of them were re-elected. Three deputies from each "power" and two from the "region" were elected to the upper chamber, and one deputy from 50,000 male inhabitants was elected to the lower house.

In each "state" the legislative body was the Sovereign Council, which also consisted of two chambers - the Sovereign Duma and the House of Elected. The Sovereign Council was elected for 4 years, while 1/4 of its members were re-elected annually.

The right to participate in elections to central and local authorities was given to male citizens aged at least 21 years. In addition, they had to have a permanent place of residence, real estate worth at least 500 rubles. silver or movable for 1000 rubles, regularly pay taxes and perform public duties, and also not be "in the service" of anyone. And in order to be elected to local and central authorities or to hold public office, an even higher property qualification was established. To occupy the highest government positions, it was necessary to have 30 thousand rubles. real estate silver and 60 thousand rubles. movable property. Thus, a high property qualification gave access to participation in the active political life of the country mainly to the wealthy segments of the population, while, as we see, the owners of real estate (and these were mainly landowning nobles) had a double advantage over the owners of capital (the bourgeoisie).

The supreme executive power belonged to the emperor. He was the Supreme Commander, he was in charge of negotiations with other countries, he appointed, with the consent of the Supreme Duma, ambassadors and consuls, judges of the supreme courts and ministers. Upon accession to the throne, the emperor had to take an oath of allegiance and protection of the constitution. He was considered "the first official of the state." He was allocated a high salary (from 8 to 10 million rubles in silver per year), on which he could support his court. However, the courtiers, as being "in the service", for the duration of their service to the emperor were deprived of voting rights and thus participation in the political life of the country.

The executive power in the "power" was exercised by the sovereign ruler and his deputy, appointed by the Sovereign Council.

The administrative and executive power in the county was handed over to the elected thousandth.

In Muravyov's project, the transformation of the judicial system is elaborated in detail.

A public court was introduced with jurors, advocacy, competitiveness of the parties. The court was declared equal for all citizens of the country. The supreme judicial body of the country was the Supreme Court, in the powers - the sovereign, and in the counties - the county court, the volost "conscientious court" became the lower court.

Muravyov's project proclaimed the abolition of the class structure of society, the introduction of universal equality of citizens before the law, the protection of the inviolability of the person and property, broad freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and free choice of occupation. Muravyov's project, unlike Pestel's, considered it an inalienable right of citizens to create various kinds of associations and communities.

The Muravyov Constitution solemnly declared the liquidation of serfdom: "Serfdom and slavery are abolished. A slave who touches Russian land becomes free." However, landownership was declared inviolable ("landlords' land remains theirs"). Initially, Muravyov planned to free the peasants without land at all, and only in the latest version of his project did he provide for the former landlord peasants to be given their estates and two acres per yard, which was clearly not enough for the normal conduct of the peasant economy and would inevitably force the peasant to go into bondage to his former landowner. State and specific peasants, as well as military settlers, were in a more advantageous position: they were assigned all the allotment land that they had previously used. Muravyov believed that in the future all land, including peasant allotments, should become the private property of their owners.

It was generally accepted that Muravyov's constitutional draft, being more "moderate", bears to a greater extent "features of class, nobility, narrow-mindedness" and therefore stands "below" Pestel's. Meanwhile, Muravyov's project was closer to the conditions of the then Russia than Pestel's project. Back in 1820, Nikita Muravyov stood for a republic, but after deep reflection and studying the then state of Russia, in which tsarist illusions prevailed among the broad masses of the people, he came to the conclusion that a constitutional monarchy was expedient for the country. The introduction of a property qualification for holding public office pursued the goal during the socio-political transformations in the country to rely on the wealthy, the most active segments of the population, providing them with more favorable conditions for economic entrepreneurship.

Both constitutional drafts of the Decembrists were not completed. Of the ten proposed chapters of Russkaya Pravda, Pestel wrote only five, and before that he had drawn up a short summary of the project called "The Constitution of the State Testament."

As for the Constitution of Nikita Muravyov, two unfinished lists and a brief summary of it, written by him in the casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress at the request of the investigation, have been preserved.

Variants of these constitutional drafts were discussed in a narrow circle of Decembrists and, in essence, were not accepted as program documents. Despite the limitations in solving important social problems, the inconsistency and utopian nature of certain provisions, both projects are remarkable monuments of the Decembrist political thought, they reflect the ardent desire of the Decembrists to adapt the advanced ideas of the Age of Enlightenment to Russian conditions.

Petersburg meetings of 1824-1825. characterized by the intensification of the activities of the Decembrist organizations, especially the Northern Society of the Southern Society. Their number increased significantly due to the admission mainly in 1824 of military youth.

The task of direct preparation of a military action was closely set.

In the spring of 1824, Pestel arrived in St. Petersburg in order to negotiate with the leadership of the Northern Society on its merger with the Southern Society. The negotiations were difficult. Pestel sought to unite both societies on the ideological platform of Russkaya Pravda. His project caused heated debate in the Northern Society, whose leadership (especially N.M.

Muravyov and S. P. Trubetskoy) opposed the dictatorship of the Provisional Government proposed by Pestel for the transitional period, defended the idea of ​​the Constituent Assembly and the federal structure of the future Russia. It also objected to Pestel's "division of lands" project. Fears of "ambitious", "dictatorial" intentions, in which Pestel was suspected, also served as a serious obstacle to unification.

Although the unification of both societies did not take place, nevertheless, the parties agreed to work out a compromise version of the constitutional project, and most importantly, on a joint action planned for the summer of 1826.

Plans for the uprising It was supposed to start a speech in St. Petersburg, "like the center of all authorities and governments", with an uprising of the guards and the fleet, then "take the royal family to foreign lands" (with the exception of the emperor himself, who was kept under arrest until the issue of the form of government was resolved - a constitutional monarchy or Republic), to convene the Senate, "in order to promulgate the new order of things through it." On the periphery ("in the army and in the provinces"), the local members of the secret society were to provide military support to the uprising in the capital. This was, according to Pestel, "the main opinion."

But the leaders of the Vasilkovskaya council of the Southern Society, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol and M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, put forward a different plan for a coup: to start an uprising not in the capital, but on the periphery. According to their plan, during the tsarist review of the troops, members of the secret society, dressed as guard soldiers, should arrest the tsar, raise the troops, then move with them in two directions - to Moscow and Kyiv, joining other military units along the way. At the same time, two proclamations were to be issued - to the army and the people - about the goals of the uprising.

The Vasilkovskaya Council tried twice to implement this plan during the tsarist review of troops in Bobruisk in 1823 and in Belaya | Churches in 1824, but at the insistence of Pestel (due to the unavailability of tay-;

society to speak) was forced to refuse;

these intentions. The new plan to capture the tsar, scheduled for 1825 during the supposed review of the tsarist troops in Belaya Tserkov, was canceled due to the fact that Alexander I, who was aware of the denunciations that were being prepared against him, canceled the review.

In 1823, the leaders of the Vasilkovsky council came into contact with the Polish Patriotic Society (which arose in Warsaw in 1821). Negotiations were conducted under the control of Pestel MP Bestuzhev-Ryumin. In 1825, a preliminary agreement was concluded on the support of the Decembrists by the Polish revolutionary forces.

–  –  –

"Society of First Consent" (soon renamed by them into "Society of Friends of Nature"). Initially, they set as their task "the improvement of oneself in the sciences, arts and virtues", that is, in essence it was an educational circle.

In 1823, the Borisov brothers in Novograd-Volynsk, where their unit was stationed, met the politically exiled Pole Julian Lyublinsky, a former student who had extensive experience in conspiracy. Together they determined the organizational principles and main program requirements of the new organization, which was called the Society of United Slavs. In the "Oath Promise" and "Rules" of this society, which can be considered its policy documents, demands were put forward to fight against serfdom and any despotism, for the creation of a Slavic federation of 10 Slavic states: Russia, Poland, Moravia, Bohemia, Serbia, Dalmatia, Croatia , as well as Hungary, Wallachia and Moldavia (members of the Society also ranked Hungarians, Romanians and Moldavians as Slavs). The future social order in the Slavic federation was presented as universal civil equality under republican rule.

Having merged with the Southern Society, the "united Slavs" constituted a special "Slavic Council" in it, which by the end of 1825 already had 52 members. Basically, they were from families of stateless and small-scale nobles, they occupied lower officer posts and lived on a small army salary.

In the summer of 1825, a secret Society of military friends arose on the territory of Lithuania and Belarus. It had up to 50 members (officers, students, petty officials).

Its organizers and leaders were Captain K. G. Igelstrom and Lieutenant A. I.

Vigelin. The society, being at the stage of its organizational formation, did not yet have either a charter or a developed program. But it was a society of an undeniably "Decembrist" type, put forward the same goals as other Decembrist organizations, and was oriented towards a military uprising. The investigation failed to establish any connections with other Decembrist societies.

At the end of 1825, members of the Southern Society launched propaganda work among the soldiers in order to prepare them for military action. Agitation was conducted through trusted non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the cassation after the indignation of 1820.

Semyonovsky regiment - those whom some members of the secret society knew well from their service in this regiment. The soldiers were told about the upcoming action and the "change of government", as a result of which "they will reduce their years of service, increase their salaries, reduce the severity through which they are so tormented." The agitation, as established by the investigation, found a warm response from the soldiers.

In June 1825, Alexander I received a denunciation about the existence of a conspiracy in the troops stationed in southern Russia. However, the scammer, except for the fact of the conspiracy, could not name the names of its participants. A plan was developed to identify and arrest them. The leadership of this operation was entrusted to A. A. Arakcheev, but due to "family circumstances" (the murder of his mistress by the courtyards), he fell into a severe depression and generally retired from all state affairs. In autumn, the tsar in Taganrog, where he was at that time, received new denunciations in which 45 members of the Southern and Northern societies were named by name, including their leaders. On November 10, Alexander I, already seriously ill, ordered the arrest of the identified participants in the conspiracy. However, the death of the emperor on November 19 somewhat delayed the start of the repression.

§ 6. Revolt of the Decembrists. Investigation and trial Uprising December 14, 1825 The news of the death of Alexander I came to St. Petersburg on November 27. According to the law on succession to the throne, adopted by Paul I on April 5, 1797, the next in seniority brother of the deceased childless Alexander I, Tsarevich Konstantin, who was at that time as the viceroy of the tsar in Warsaw, was to take the throne. But Konstantin entered into a morganatic marriage with the Polish countess Joanna Grudzinska. On this occasion, in 1820, by decree of Alexander I, he was deprived of the right to transfer the throne to his descendants, and in 1823, at the insistence of Alexander, he completely renounced his rights to the throne. However, the act of refusal of Constantine and the manifesto on the transfer of the throne to another brother - Nikolai Pavlovich - Alexander I decided to keep secret for the time being.

When news of Alexander's death was received, the troops, government offices, and the populace swore allegiance to Constantine. Nikolai himself took the oath to him.

However, Constantine, not accepting the throne, did not want to officially announce his renunciation of it. The reasons for this behavior of Constantine still remain a mystery.

Thus, an interregnum situation was created.

The news of the death of Alexander I received in St. Petersburg took the members of the Northern Society by surprise. At a meeting with Ryleev, it was decided that if Konstantin takes the throne, then it is necessary to formally announce to all members of the secret society about its dissolution "and act as carefully as possible, trying to take significant places in the guards regiments in two or three years." Meanwhile, persistent rumors began to spread in St. Petersburg that Constantine was abdicating the throne, which thus passes to Nicholas. The Decembrists again had hope for an immediate action. On December 10, it became known for sure that the "re-swearing" was being prepared. Daily meetings began with K. F. Ryleev, S. P. Trubetskoy and E. P. Obolensky, where various versions of the speech were developed. Among them was Trubetskoy's proposal for an armed demonstration "without bloodshed": to raise guard regiments and artillery, gather them in one place outside the city and, relying on this armed force, demand from the government consent to the adoption of a constitution and the introduction of representative government.

On December 13, at Ryleev's apartment, after lengthy and heated discussions, the final plan for the uprising was adopted. It was decided the next day, December 14, on which the oath to the new emperor, Nicholas I, was scheduled, to withdraw the guards regiments in the name of loyalty to the former oath (Konstantin) to Senate Square and force the Senate to announce the introduction of constitutional government. It was supposed to simultaneously occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace, to arrest the royal family. Trubetskoy was elected "dictator of the uprising" (commander of the insurgent troops) as "senior in rank" (he was a colonel of the guard), and E. P. Obolensky was his "chief of staff".

On behalf of the Senate, it was supposed to promulgate the Manifesto to the Russian people, "which proclaimed:" The destruction of the former government "(i.e., the autocratic power of the tsar), the elimination of serfdom of peasants, recruitment, military settlements, corporal punishment, the abolition of the poll tax and the addition of tax arrears , reduction of military service to 15 years, equalization of rights of all classes, introduction of the principle of election to central and local authorities, jury trials with public proceedings, freedom of speech, occupation, movement.

According to the plan developed by the Decembrists, immediately after the uprising, power in the country was handed over to the Provisional Revolutionary "Board", which was supposed to include the most authoritative state and military figures: M. M. Speransky, N. S.

Mordvinov, A. P. Ermolov, P. D. Kiselev; G.S. was introduced there from a secret society.

Batenkov. Three months after the uprising, it was supposed to convene the Great Council, which was supposed to perform the functions of the Constituent Assembly. It was to elect two representatives from each estate from each province to its composition. The Grand Council was to determine "that form of government which is recognized by general opinion as useful and beneficent," and adopt an appropriate constitution.

It was the morning of December 14th. Members of the secret society were in their military units and campaigned against the oath to Nicholas I. By 11 o’clock in the morning, A. A. Bestuzhev and D. A. Shchepin-Rostovsky were the first to bring to Senate Square 800 soldiers of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment, which were built in a square (quadrangle) near the monument to Peter I. Around the square and the monument, a protective chain of soldiers was put up.

By 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the sailors of the Guards crew under the command of Lieutenant Commander N. A. Bestuzhev joined the soldiers of the Moscow Regiment. Following them, the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment arrived on the square, led by lieutenants N.A. Panov and A.N.

Sutgof. In total, 3 thousand soldiers and sailors gathered on the square with 30 officers (some of them were not members of a secret society and joined the uprising at the last moment). They were waiting for the approach of other military units, but most importantly - the dictator of the uprising S.P.

Trubetskoy, without whose orders the rebels could not act independently.

However, he did not appear on the square, and the uprising was left without a leader. Even on the eve of the uprising, Trubetskoy showed hesitation and indecision. His doubts about success intensified on the day of the uprising, when he became convinced that he had not been able to raise most of the guard regiments that the Decembrists had counted on. Trubetskoy's behavior undoubtedly played a fatal role on December 14th. However, there were many other reasons that led to the failure of the uprising. From the very beginning, its leaders made a lot of mistakes: first of all, they failed to take advantage of the initial confusion of the authorities, when it was quite possible to capture the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Senate, the Winter Palace and interfere with the oath to Nicholas I in many regiments in which fermentation was going on; they did not show activity even in the course of the uprising itself, limiting themselves to waiting for other units to join them; thus they made it possible for Nicholas I to seize the initiative.

Before the government troops were pulled to the place of the uprising, Nicholas I tried to influence the rebels by persuasion. The governor-general of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, was sent to them. A popular hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, he tried to shake the soldiers with his eloquence - to convince them not to make a fatal mistake, and his attempt almost succeeded - but he was mortally wounded by a pistol shot by P. G. Kakhovsky. The metropolitans Seraphim of St. Petersburg and Eugene of Kyiv were sent to "exhort" the soldiers, but the rebels very "impolitely" asked them to "depart".

While the persuasion was going on, Nikolai pulled 9,000 soldiers of the guards infantry and 3,000 horsemen to the Senate Square. Twice the Horse Guards Regiment attacked the square of the rebels, but each time its attacks were stopped by rapid rifle fire from the square. However, the rebels fired upwards, and the horse guards themselves acted indecisively. Soldiers showed solidarity on both sides here. And the rest of the government troops showed hesitation. Parliamentarians came from them to the rebels and asked them to "hold out until evening," promising to join them at nightfall.

Nicholas I, fearing that with the onset of darkness "the riot could be communicated to the mob", gave the order to use artillery. Several shots taken at point-blank range at close range caused great havoc in the ranks of the rebels and put them to flight. By 6 p.m. the uprising was crushed. All night, by the light of fires, the dead and wounded were removed and the spilled blood was washed off the square.

The uprising of the Chernigov regiment On December 29, 1825, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, stationed in the area of ​​​​the city of Vasilkov (30 km southwest of Kyiv), began. The uprising was led by S.I.

Muravyov-Apostle. It began at the moment when the members of the Southern Society had already become aware of the defeat of the uprising in St. Petersburg, and even earlier (December 13) the leaders of the Southern Society P.I. Pestel and A.P. societies in the south.

The uprising began in the village of Trilesy, where one of the companies of the Chernigov regiment was located.

In the same village, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol stopped, avoiding arrest. But here he was overtaken and arrested by the commander of the Chernigov regiment, Colonel G.I. Gebel. Several members of the Society of United Slavs, having removed the guard soldiers and seriously wounding Gebel, released Muravyov-Apostol, who, together with a company of this regiment, went to Vasilkov, where the headquarters of the Chernigov regiment was located and five more of his companies were quartered. They enthusiastically joined S. I. Muravyov-Apostol. Muraviev-Apostol and M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin even earlier compiled a revolutionary "Catechism", intended for distribution among the army and the people. This document, written in the manner of the "Orthodox Catechism" in the form of questions and answers, argued with reference to the Holy Scriptures the need for the abolition of monarchical power and the establishment of republican government. The "Catechism" was read to the soldiers of the Chernigov regiment, but did not make the desired impression on them, because they did not accept its anti-tsarist orientation.

Within a week, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol with 970 soldiers and eight officers (about half of the Chernigov regiment) made a raid on the snowy fields of Ukraine, hoping to join other military units in which members of the secret society served. However, this hope was not justified. The military command managed to isolate the Chernigov regiment, withdrawing from its path those regiments that S.I. Muravyov-Apostol counted on joining the Chernigovites. At the same time, large forces of troops loyal to the government were being drawn to the area of ​​the uprising. Nicholas I entrusted the overall command of this operation to his brother Konstantin Pavlovich. When Muravyov-Apostol's hope of joining the 17th Jaeger Regiment, stationed in the city of Belaya Tserkov, did not come true (the authorities had withdrawn this unreliable regiment from the city in advance), Muravyov-Apostol turned his regiment to the village of Trilesy, hoping to make a throw on the city of Zhytomyr . On the morning of January 3, 1826, when approaching Triles, the Chernigov regiment between the villages of Ustinovka and Kovalevka was met by a cavalry detachment of government troops and shot with grapeshot. Muraviev-Apostol, wounded in the head, was captured and sent to St. Petersburg in shackles.

On December 24, 1825, another attempt was made to raise an uprising, this time by the leaders of the Society of Military Friends, Captain K. G. Igelstrom and Lieutenant A.

I. Vigelin. On that day in the city of Bialystok, they managed to convince the Lithuanian Pioneer Battalion to refuse the oath to Nicholas I and intended to raise other military units stationed in this city and its environs. The command managed to isolate the rebellious battalion, arrest the leaders and participants in the conspiracy, and extinguish the fermentation that had already begun in other units. 39 members of this organization and 144 soldiers appeared before a military court.

After the suppression of the uprisings in St. Petersburg and in the Ukraine, the autocracy attacked the Decembrists with all ruthlessness. 316 people were taken into custody. Some of them were arrested by accident and released after the first interrogations. In total, 545 people were involved in the case of the Decembrists - such was the number of people who fell into the Alphabet for Members of a Malicious Society, which was opened on December 14, 1825, compiled later by the investigation. Many of them were investigated in absentia.

The investigation left “without attention” those who had previously lagged behind the secret society, but they were nevertheless included in this “Alphabet”, which was constantly under Nicholas I.

At the same time, commissions of inquiry worked in Bila Tserkva, Mogilev, Bialystok, Warsaw, and also at some regiments of the capital. They investigated cases of soldiers involved in the Decembrist conspiracy, officers of the Chernigov regiment, members of the Polish Patriotic Society, and the Society of Military Friends. It was the first broad political process in the history of Russia. 289 people were found guilty, of which 121 were brought to the Supreme Criminal Court, and in total 173 Decembrists were convicted by all courts. Of those betrayed by the Supreme Criminal Court, five (Pestel, S.

Muraviev-Apostol, M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Ryleev and Kakhovsky) were placed "out of the ranks" and sentenced to "death by quartering", replaced by hanging.

The rest were divided according to the degree of their guilt into 11 categories. 31 people of the 1st category were sentenced to "the death penalty by beheading", replaced by hard labor for life, 37 - to various terms of hard labor with subsequent settlement in Siberia, 19 - to exile in Siberia, 9 were demoted to soldiers. Over 120 people were punished without trial, by the personal order of Nicholas I: they were seated in fortresses for periods of six months to four years, demoted to soldiers, transferred to the active army in the Caucasus, and placed under police supervision. Special judicial commissions that considered the cases of soldiers who participated in the uprisings in St. Petersburg and Ukraine sentenced 178 people to punishment with gauntlets: they were driven through the ranks through a thousand soldiers from one to twelve times, 23 people were sentenced to punishment with sticks and rods. Of the rest of the participants in the uprisings, a consolidated regiment of 4 thousand people was formed, which was sent to the active army in the Caucasus.

Significance of the Decembrist movement. "Your mournful work will not be wasted," A. S. Pushkin wrote to the Decembrists in Siberia. Decembrist traditions and the highly moral feat of the Decembrists inspired subsequent generations of freedom fighters. Members of student circles of Moscow University in the 20-30s of the 19th century, A. I. Herzen and N.

P. Ogarev, the Petrashevites, many democrats of the sixties saw their spiritual mentors in the Decembrists, and considered themselves the successors of their work.

The contribution of the Decembrists to the development of Russian culture is significant. Russian culture in the broadest sense of the word was not only a spiritual and moral ground for the Decembrists, but it was directly embodied in them and was elevated by them to a new level. The ideas of the Decembrists had a significant impact on the work of A. S. Pushkin, A.

S. Griboedov, P. A. Vyazemsky, A. I. Polezhaev. Among the Decembrists themselves were famous writers and poets (K. F. Ryleev, A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, F. N. Glinka, V.

F. Raevsky), scientists and artists (N. I. Turgenev, N. A. Bestuzhev, A. O. Kornilovich, F.

P. Tolstoy).

Placed by the punitive authorities outside of political existence, they were connected with Russia by many threads, despite all prohibitions, and were aware of Russian and foreign political events. Great was their contribution to the development of education and culture in Siberia.

Upon returning from exile, many Decembrists found the strength to get involved in the social life of the country: they appeared in the press with their memoirs, published scientific works, participated in the preparation and implementation of peasant and other reforms as members of provincial committees on peasant affairs, world

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They had a great influence on the further development of the liberation movement in Russia. The main slogans of the "firstborn of freedom" - the overthrow of the autocracy and the abolition of serfdom - retained their significance for the Russian revolutionary movement throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. And after the fall of serfdom in 1861, feudal remnants continued to be preserved in the socio-economic relations of the tsar. The autocracy collapsed under the blows of the February Revolution of 1917, but it did not solve all the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. Only the Great October Socialist Revolution, in the expression, "in passing, in passing," put an end to all the remnants of the Middle Ages in Russia.

Speaking about the influence of the Decembrists on subsequent generations of revolutionaries, one cannot mean only their ideological influence. Of no less importance was the very fact of an open armed uprising against the autocracy in the Russian Empire.

Even for the contemporaries of the Decembrists, the significance of their advanced ideas and their struggle against the feudal-absolutist system in Russia was clear. The lines from his message to Siberia: “Your mournful work and thoughts of high aspiration will not be lost” are evidence of a very deep and true assessment of the role of freedom-loving ideas and the revolutionary feat of the Decembrists. The poet believed that the weapons that fell from the hands of the Decembrists would be picked up by a new generation of freedom fighters.

And such a generation came to replace the Decembrists. Its most prominent representatives were A. I. Herzen and N. P. Ogarev. They grew up on the ideas of the Decembrists and continued their work, raising the revolutionary movement to a new, higher level. For Herzen and Ogarev, the Decembrists were a symbol of the struggle for the liberation of Russia from slavery and the oppression of the autocracy. Polyarnaya Zvezda, Kolokol and other publications of the free Russian press published by Herzen and Ogarev abroad did a great deal to propagate the revolutionary ideas of the Decembrists. Lenin noted that the "Polar Star" "raised the tradition of the Decembrists", and saw in this one of Herzen's services to the Russian liberation movement. On the cover of the "Polar Star" were placed profiles of five executed Decembrists.

In a concise and expressive form, Herzen with exceptional accuracy revealed the historical meaning of the Decembrist uprising, emphasized its close connection with the subsequent course of the liberation movement in Russia. “The guns of St. Isaac’s Square,” he wrote, “woke up a whole generation.”

Herzen and Ogarev showed that the action of the noble revolutionaries was fundamentally different from the palace coups of the 18th century. “Until now,” Herzen pointed out, “no one believed in the possibility of a political uprising, rushing with weapons in hand to attack the giant of imperial tsarism in the very center of St. Petersburg. It was well known that from time to time either Peter (III) or Paul was killed in the palace in order to replace them with others. But between these secrets of the massacre and the solemn protest against despotism - the protest proclaimed in the city square and sealed with the blood and torment of these heroes, there was nothing in common. Herzen identified the main reason for the defeat on December 14, 1825: the Decembrists on Senate Square lacked the people, he wrote.

Herzen and Ogarev, the successors of the Decembrists, who later became revolutionary democrats, personified the living connection between the two generations of the revolutionary movement in Russia - the nobility and the raznochinsk.

The speech of the Decembrists against the autocracy, the death and torment they accepted for the sake of the triumph of freedom in Russia, were widely used for propaganda purposes during the period of the first revolutionary situation in Russia (late 50s - early 60s of the 19th century). The proclamations of the 1960s, which played a major role in the rise of the democratic movement, contained calls to follow the precepts of the Decembrists and to overthrow the regime hated by the people. Especially often the names of the Decembrists were mentioned in proclamations addressed to the army. So, in one of them (1862) it was said: “Officers! Brilliant legends are behind you - December 14, 1825 is behind you! The great shadows of Pestel, Muravyov and Bestuzhev call you to revenge! The proclamation of P. G. Zaichnevsky “Young Russia”, which appeared in May 1862, called on the Russian army to revolt, expressed the hope that it “will also remember its glorious actions in 1825, remember the immortal glory with which the martyr heroes covered themselves”

On the eve of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907. revolutionary social democracy in leaflets dedicated to the memorable dates of the Decembrist uprising, noted their struggle against the autocracy. Thus, a leaflet of the Southern Group of Social Democrats, discovered by the police on December 14, 1901 in Odessa, ended with the words: “Our first and important task is the task of the glorious Decembrist fighters - the overthrow of the autocracy, the achievement of political freedoms. With the blood of our hearts, we will write down the names of Pestel, Ryleev, Kakhovsky, Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin. A 1904 leaflet emphasized that lessons must be learned from the defeat of the Decembrist uprising. The main one is that "the liberation of the people can only be the cause of the people themselves."

I.A. Mironova“…Their business is not lost”

The concept of "liberation movement" includes not only the revolutionary struggle, but also liberal opposition speeches, as well as all shades of progressive social and political thought.

At the initial stage, the Russian liberation movement was dominated by representatives of the nobility, and later by the intelligentsia. This was due to the fact that in Russia, unlike the countries of Western Europe, a wide "middle" layer of the population, the so-called "third estate", was not formed, which could put forward its own political programs and lead the struggle for their implementation.

A. N. Radishchev, N. I. Novikov, Russian enlighteners at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Decembrists, A. I. Herzen, N. P. Ogarev, V. G. Belinsky, Petrashevists - these are the most prominent representatives of the initial stage of the liberation movement called "noble". Note that they belonged to a very narrow circle of the most educated advanced nobility. The overwhelming majority of the nobility remained a serf-minded and conservative estate loyal to the throne. The Decembrists are people of high morality, which singled them out from the rest of the nobility, forced them to rise above their class privileges given to them by their origin and position in society, to sacrifice all their fortune and even life itself in the name of high and noble ideals - the liberation of Russia from serfdom and despotism autocratic power.

The sources of their "freethinking" were the ideas of the French enlighteners of the 18th century. and Russian "freethinkers" of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. The Patriotic War of 1812 had a great influence on the formation of the liberation ideas of the Decembrists. Over a hundred future Decembrists were participants in this war.

The foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814, in which many Decembrists took part, introduced them to the socio-political changes in Europe after the French Revolution of the late 18th century, enriched them with new impressions, ideas and life experience.

The Decembrists felt the significance of the era in which they had to live and act, when, in their opinion, "the fate of Russia" was being decided. They were characterized by a sense of the grandeur of the events of their era, as well as direct involvement in these events, which served as the driving motive for their actions. They performed on the historical arena in the era of major military and political cataclysms: the Napoleonic wars, revolutions in different countries of Europe, national liberation uprisings in Greece and the Latin American colonies.

The Decembrists were closely connected with the liberal opposition, or, as they say, "near-Decembrist" environment, on which they relied in their activities and which essentially shared the views characteristic of the Decembrists. These are prominent writers (for example, A. S. Pushkin, P. A. Vyazemsky, A. S. Griboedov, D. V. Davydov), statesmen and military figures known for their progressive views (N. S. Mordvinov, P. D. Kiselev, M. M. Speransky, A. P. Ermolov). Therefore, the emergence of Decembristism and the activity of Decembrist societies, especially at their early stage, cannot be understood without connection with their liberal opposition environment. One cannot discount the fact that the formation of Decembrist ideas and views was influenced both by the reform activities and reform plans of the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, and later disappointment in the "reformer on the throne", which followed as a result of their actual rejection.

Freemasonry had a significant influence on the organizational and tactical principles of the Decembrists (more than 80 Decembrists, including all their leaders, were Freemasons), as well as the experience of secret societies in European countries.

Formation of an ideology. The ideology of the Decembrists was formed on the basis of their contemporary social thought, political and military events, social reality in Europe and Russia. These are, first of all, the ideas of the French enlighteners of the 18th century. (Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, etc.), as well as Russian freethinkers of the second half of the XYIII century. (A.N. Radishcheva, N.I. Novikova and others) and a kind of “free-thinking spirit” that prevailed at the beginning of the 19th century. at Moscow University, the 1st Cadet Corps and the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where many future Decembrists studied. The formation of the ideology of the Decembrists was also significantly influenced by such factors as the unsightly Russian feudal reality, the reform plans of the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, and the disappointment in society that followed as a result of their implementation.

The real political school for the Decembrists was the Patriotic War of 1812 (115 future Decembrists were its participants) and the foreign campaigns of the Russian army of 1813-1815, during which they got acquainted with the socio-political changes that took place in Europe as a result of the French Revolution of the end 18th century and subsequent wars. Freemasonry had a certain influence on the ideology and tactics of the Decembrists (all the leaders of the movement and many ordinary Decembrists were members of Russian Masonic lodges), as well as the experience of secret societies created in European countries to combat the occupation of Napoleon - the German Tugenbund, Italian Carbonari, Greek etherists and Spanish conspirators of the early 1820s.

The main slogans of the Decembrists are the destruction of autocracy and serfdom. They were deeply convinced that it was these realities of Russian reality that were the main obstacle to the further development of the country. The Decembrists were unanimous in defining the goal of their movement, but they differed significantly on the question of the means of struggle for the realization of this goal. Some of them were supporters of a peaceful, reformist way of restructuring society, others defended the idea of ​​the need for "decisive measures" in this matter.

It all started with the emergence in 1814-1815. among the officers of the first ideological comradely associations, which were early pre-Decembrist secret societies: two officer artels - in the Semenovsky regiment and among the officers of the General Staff ("Holy artel"), Kamenetz-Podolsky circle of Vladimir Raevsky and the "Order of Russian Knights" M. Orlov and M. Dmitrieva-Mamonov. The most numerous of them was the Order of Russian Knights. Despite the complex Masonic forms it adopted, it was a secret political organization that pursued the goal of a coup d'état and worked on a constitutional project.

35. Comparative characteristics of the early Decembrist organizations "Union of Salvation" and "Union of Welfare"

"Union of Salvation". In 1816, six young officers - A.N. Muravyov, S.P. Trubetskoy, N.M. Muravyov, brothers M.I. and S.I. Muravyov-Apostles and I.D. Yakushkin - created the first secret Decembrist organization "Union of Salvation". Members of the organization believed that it was necessary to save Russia - it was on the verge of death. The "Union of Salvation" had its own program and charter (statute), recruited new members (by the autumn of 1817 there were at least 30 members in it), and animatedly discussed ways to transform Russia. Among his main program installations was the struggle for a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of serfdom. In August 1817, the organization came up with a plan for an immediate action, which for the first time was supposed to begin with regicide as one of the ways to change the existing political system (the so-called "Moscow conspiracy"). However, this plan met with opposition from the majority of members of the Union of Salvation. Disagreements on tactical issues (over the correct "methods of action"), the consciousness of the need to step over the narrow circle of conspiring officers led to the self-liquidation of the Union at the end of 1817.

"Prosperity Union". In January 1818, a new secret organization of the Decembrists arose in Moscow - the Union of Welfare, whose members were primarily concerned with the main idea - to create the prosperity of Russia, that is, a free and prosperous fatherland. It was a broader organization, with about 200 members. It had its charter (“Green Book”) and a program of specific actions. The task of forming "public opinion", which the Decembrists considered the most important driving force in the socio-political reorganization of Russia, was put forward in the first place. To this end, members of the Union took an active part in various legal societies (the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, the Society for the Establishment of Lancaster Schools, etc.), engaged in educational and charitable activities.

The Welfare Union was a strictly centralized organization. The leadership was carried out by the Indigenous Council, which included A. Muravyov, S. Trubetskoy, M. Muravyov, S. Muravyov-Apostol, N. Muravyov, P. Pestel, M. Orlov, D. Yakushkin, N. Turgenev and others, in total about 30 people.

Throughout the years of the Union's existence, heated discussions on issues of program and tactics did not stop in it. In January 1820, a meeting of the Indigenous Council of the Union was held in St. Petersburg, at which Pestel made a report on the topic of which government should be preferred in the country. Most of the meeting participants spoke in favor of introducing a republican form of government in Russia. However, even after the meeting, many Decembrists were not in favor of a republic, but in favor of a constitutional monarchy. The split in the environment of the Union became more and more deepened and aggravated.

The growth of radical sentiments among the Decembrists was facilitated by the unrest of 1820 in the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment, which created an exaggerated idea of ​​the readiness of the army for action among a number of members of the Union, as well as the events of 1820-1821. in Spain, where the army was indeed the main force behind the coup. Among them, the conviction grew stronger and stronger in the need for violent measures to destroy the autocracy and serfdom, and that without a secret organization this coup, which was conceived exclusively as a military uprising, was impossible.

The split within the Union actually brought it to the brink of crisis. In 1821, a new congress of the "Union of Welfare" in Moscow decided to formally dissolve itself and create a new, more secret organization.

Under the movement of the Decembrists, it is customary to understand the liberation movement of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century. against the autocracy, which did not want changes in the social structure of the country. The main participants in the movement were part of the noble youth, who realized the need for political and economic reforms of society. Most of them were military and therefore chose the path of an armed coup in December 1825 (hence the generalized name of the movement - the Decembrists).

The main reasons for the emergence of the Decembrist movement were:

• 1) the domination of autocracy, which hinders the social development of the country;
• 2) the growth of the national self-consciousness of the Russian people, and above all, the peasantry, who sought to destroy the feudal serf system;
• 3) acquaintance and dissemination of the ideas of the French Revolution;
• 4) the reactionary domestic policy of Alexander I (called "Arakcheevshchina"), aimed at preserving the autocracy unchanged.

The main goals of the Decembrists were the elimination of serfdom in Russia, the restriction of autocracy by laws (constitution) or the introduction of republican government in the country, the elimination of estates and the proclamation of civil liberties.

The first society of the Decembrists ("Union of Salvation") arose in 1816. It included no more than 30 people, among them A.N. Muravyov, brothers Muravyov-Apostles, Prince S.P. Trubetskoy, P.I. Pestel. In 1818, another society arose - the Union of Welfare, which was more numerous (200 people). In 1821, the "Union of Welfare" collapsed due to disagreements about the future structure of Russia. On its basis, two new societies arose - the Southern and Northern societies of the Decembrists. The Southern Society (leader P.I. Pestel) developed a program called "Russian Truth" (in memory of the code of laws of Kievan Rus), in which Russia was declared a republic, where every citizen had the right to land, guarantees from poverty and hunger. The Northern Society (leader N.M. Muravyov) developed its own draft program called the Constitution. According to the plan of N.M. Muravyov, Russia was to become a constitutional monarchy, in which the civil rights of the population are respected.

The general performance of the Decembrists was planned for 1826. However, the death of Alexander I in November 1825 and the news of the disclosure of the conspiracy forced the Decembrists to act immediately. A new term for the uprising was set for December 14, 1825. On this day, the Decembrists hoped to capture Nicholas I and the Senate and force them to announce the introduction of a constitutional order in Russia.

On December 14, 1825, on the day of taking the oath to the new Tsar Nicholas I, the Decembrists withdrew their troops (about 3 thousand people) to the Senate Square of the capital and took a wait-and-see position. Meanwhile, Nicholas I took the oath of the Senate in advance, surrounded the rebel troops and shot them with cannons in the evening. On December 29, 1825, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment began in Ukraine. The Decembrists failed to raise the entire army, and on January 3, 1826, the insurgent regiment was defeated.

In the case of the Decembrists, 579 people were arrested, of which 289 were found guilty. Five participants in the movement - K.F. Ryleev, P.I. Pestel, P.G. Kakhovsky, S.I. Muraviev-Apostol and M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin - were executed by hanging, the rest were exiled to Siberia for hard labor or, demoted to soldiers, sent to the active army in the Caucasus.