Decembrists

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Russian revolutionaries, of whom 80 per cent were officers, responsible for the first ‘bourgeois’ revolution against the Russian autocracy in December 1825. Many Decembrists had fought in the Napoleonic wars and considered themselves ‘the children of 1812’. They included a number of staff officers who had written works of military history (Nikolai Muravyov, Pavel Pestel', Ivan Burtsov). Between 1816 and 1821 two societies, the ‘Salvation Union’ and ‘Benevolent Union’, were active. Soviet historians consider them to be the first revolutionary organizations of the modern era.

Tsar Alexander I died suddenly in November 1825. His brother Konstantin was the legitimate successor, but he refused the throne and passed it to his younger brother Nicholas. This was unpopular, especially among the Guards regiments, and the resulting dispute over succession was the catalyst for the Decembrist revolt. On 26 December a ‘Manifesto to the Russian People’ proposed the election of a temporary government and Guards units in St Petersburg led by Lt Gen Prince Trubetskoy turned out to oppose Nicholas I, assembling in the Senate Square. Gov Gen Miloradovich pleaded with them to desist, but was mortally wounded. However, most troops remained loyal to Nicholas and a force outnumbering the 3, 000 rebels four to one now appeared, armed with artillery firing case-shot. The rebels had no cannon and in the ensuing battle about 80 were killed. By nightfall, the revolt was suppressed. A fortnight later, the Chernigov regiment in the Ukraine also rebelled, but was defeated after five days. Some of the leaders, including Pestel', were imprisoned in the Peter and Paul fortress, and about 120 were sent to Siberia. Some officers were reduced to the ranks and sent to the Caucasus, and the soldiers who had participated in the revolt were segregated into a ferociously controlled 1, 000-strong penal battalion.

— Christopher Bellamy