Pavel Pestal and the Decembrists in Russia: Attempt at Revolution and Change

 

On the morning of December 14, 1825, an attempt at revolution broke out at St. Isaac’s Square in St. Petersburg, Russia. The revolution’s leaders, many young and representative of some of Russia’s most important aristocratic families, intended to force a Manifesto on members of the Senate and thus proclaim a new government that included the abolition of serfdom. These were the Decembrists, idealistic revolutionaries who chief contribution would be in providing martyrs to the future generations of Russian radicals and revolutionaries.

 

Decembrist Goals

 

Formed as a secret society in 1816, the loose organization that would tie Northern and Southern conspirators together went through several phases of ideological maturity from advocating a constitutional monarchy to regicide. Not all members agreed with each other on proper actions to take nor could they all agree on exactly what form of government should ultimately replace the autocratic rule of Tsar Alexander I. Pavel Pestel, considered the greatest intellect among the group, would confess in 1826 that he had come to the conclusion, after years of reading and observing, that “the republican form of government was superior,” and referred to the United States as a model.

 

Decembrist leaders were, for the most part, highly educated and harbored hopes of a reformed Russia after Alexander I returned from the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Instead, the tsar became more reactionary, even closing Masonic Lodges which had gained in popularity. Decembrists viewed national salvation in terms of republican ideals, using historical guidelines as models. Pestel idealistically invoked Republican Rome, contrasting it “with its lamentable fate under the rule of emperors” and spoke of the “glorious time of Greece when it was a republic.”

 

Casting the Die

 

The death of Alexander I in late 1825 gave the Decembrists the opportunity they had been waiting for. Although everyone assumed Alexander’s brother, Constantine, would succeed him, this was not to be. Constantine had abdicated earlier through a secret letter to his older brother. Alexander then named Nicholas, his 29-year old younger brother to succeed him. So secret was the affair that even Nicholas was unaware of the new arrangement. The Decembrists used this turmoil in succession to launch their revolution in St. Petersburg. The affair would be short-lived. The feeble military units occupying St. Isaac’s Square were leaderless, Prince Trubetskoi, ostensibly the commander of the operation, had absconded. Eventually, Nicholas I, now the Tsar after Constantine’s letter had been made public, ordered grape shot fired into the motley crowd, dispersing them in a melee of fear.

 

In the South, Serge Muraviev, leader of the southern faction, refused to admit defeat and fermented a mutiny with the intent on marching to Kiev. An imperial army had little difficulty ending the affray and arresting the leaders. Although most of the Decembrists were banished to Siberia, five, including Pestel and Muraviev, were executed.

 

Martyrs of a Cause

 

In her book on Mikhail Bakunin, [1] Aileen Kelly refers to the memoirs of Alexander Herzen, the “father of Russian Socialism.” In the memoir, Herzen relates that he was fourteen when Pestel and the other leaders were executed. The impression on him was to act out Schiller’s Don Carlos with his cousin. Far from ending a movement, the repressive policies of Nicholas I, the “Iron Tsar,” forced revolutionary sentiment underground. The Decembrists bred a progeny of future radicals that identified with these early Russian Jacobins.

 

[1] Aileen Kelly, Mikhail Bakunin: A Study in the Psychology and Politics of Utopianism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987) p.9ff.

 

Other Sources:

 

Imperial Russia: A Source Book, 1700-1917, Basil Dmytryshyn, editor (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1967)

 

Adam B. Ulam, Russia’s Failed Revolutions: From the Decembrists to the Dissidents (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1981)