In 1825, in the south of the country, the situation reached armed riots, namely, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. The companies of the Chernigov regiment (there were six of them), after the release of Muravyov-Apostol, entered the White Church. However, they were overtaken by horse artillery. Muravyov's order to go forward without firing a shot (in the hope that the government would go over to his side) was not crowned with success. The Chernigov regiment did not expect that everything would happen just like that. Their confusion and took advantage of the government troops.
Who headed: Sergey Muraviev-Apostol.
As you know, on the eve of this event, a Decembrist uprising was organized on Senate Square in St. Petersburg.
Chronology of events
The organizer of the events of late December-early January was the Southern Society. After the events of December 14, the regiment commander ordered the arrest of Muravyov-Apostol, who was directly in touch with the speakers. But on December 29, officers Plekhanov, Solovyov, Sukhinov and Shchepillo released the prisoner. It happened in a village called Trilesy. However, they simply did not succeed in doing their job, they attacked and even tried to destroy Gebel, the colonel, the regiment commander.
Gebel, who was not going to release the Muravyovs and explain the reasons for the arrest, was stabbed to death with bayonets and badly wounded in the stomach. But the colonel was still saved from the Decembrists.
Already on December 30, the rebels were in Vasilkov. There they took possession of the arms supplies and all the monetary funds of the regiment. The amount was rather big - about ten thousand rubles in securities and seventeen thousand in silver coins.
The next day Motovilovka was occupied by the Decembrists. The Orthodox catechism compiled by Muravyov-Apostle and Bestuzhev-Ryumin was announced there. In the village, the Decembrists often robbed local residents... In addition, the rank and file became increasingly drunk. On January 1, the rebels left Motovilovka.
After the departure of their Vasilkov, the companies planned to get to Zhitomir. There they wanted to reunite with members of the Society of United Slavs. However, realizing that the enemy (the government's army) has a huge superiority over them, the Decembrists decided to turn to Bila Tserkva (a city eighty kilometers from Kiev). In addition, more and more deserters appeared among the rank and file.
Finally, on January 3, 1826, near Ustimovka, the Decembrists were defeated by the government's army. Muravyov-Apostol himself ordered his men to go forward, literally "to death," without firing. The enemy's cannons exterminate the rebels before our very eyes, significantly reducing the size of the army. The head of the uprising was also wounded.
Punishment and retribution
Muravyov-Apostol was arrested, as were 895 soldiers and six officers. About a hundred soldiers were corporally punished, and eight hundred were exiled to the Caucasus. Sergei Muravyov-Apostol was executed on July 13, 1826. When hanging, his body fell off the loop, so he had to hang it again. By the way, it is a mistake to think that it is impossible to carry out the death penalty a second time.
Reasons for the defeat of the Decembrists
- Lack of clear goals and objectives. This is confirmed by their irrational route. Not reaching one goal, the army of Muravyov-Apostol passed on to others.
- In addition, many of the participants in the uprising did not realize what was required of them, and they even fell into the ranks of the rebels by accident. They were lured with money, forcibly, fraudulently, promises of a better life.
- Drunkenness and robbery prevailed in the ranks of the Decembrists. They stole vodka, money and even clothes of ordinary residents.
- Also, the rank and file did not have respect for the leaders of the uprising. This can be seen especially clearly in the latest events, on the third of January.
After all the events, the Chernigov regiment was reorganized. Thus, the Decembrists did not manage to achieve the abolition of serfdom and the autocratic system.
The uprising of the Chernigov regiment.
One of the two uprisings of the Decembrist conspiracy, which occurred after the Decembrists' speech on Senate Square in St. Petersburg on December 14 (26), 1825. It took place on December 29, 1825 - January 3, 1826 (January 10-15, 1826) in the Chernigov regiment, quartered in the Kiev province.
The uprising was organized by the Southern Society. After the news of the uprising in St. Petersburg, the regiment commander ordered the arrest of Lieutenant Colonel SI Muravyov-Apostol, associated with the conspirators. On December 29, officers of the regiment Kuzmin, Solovyov, Sukhinov and Schepilla freed Muravyov-Apostol in the village of Trilessy and on the next day, December 30, entered the city of Vasilkov, where they seized all the weapons and the regimental treasury. On December 31, before the formation, the "Orthodox Catechism" was read out - a proclamation of the rebels, drawn up by Muravyov-Apostle and MP Bestuzhev-Ryumin.
From Vasilkov, the rebels moved to Zhitomir, trying to unite with the units where the members of the Society of United Slavs served, but avoiding collision with superior forces government troops turned to the White Church. At Ustimovka on January 3, 1826, they were defeated by government troops; Sergei Muravyov-Apostol was seriously wounded, and his brother Ippolit shot himself, Kuzmin and Shchepilla were killed in the battle, 895 soldiers and 6 officers were taken prisoner.
The Supreme Criminal Court determined that Sergei Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin, "taken with arms in hand", should be hanged (the sentence was carried out in St. Petersburg on July 13 (25), 1826, together with them, the leaders of the Northern Society, Ryleev and Kakhovsky, were executed by hanging. as well as the head of the Southern Society Pestel), officers Solovyov, Sukhinov, Bystritsky and Mozalevsky were sentenced to life imprisonment. Over the graves of the perished Ippolit Muravyov-Apostol, Kuzmin and Shchepilla were not ordered to erect monuments, but instead their names were nailed to the symbolic gallows. 100 people from soldiers and lower ranks were subjected to corporal punishment, 805 people were transferred to the Caucasus.
After the uprising, the regiment was reorganized.
Subsequently, a number of participants in the uprising led a conspiracy in the Zerentui penal servitude (Zerentui conspiracy).
Pushkin planned a story about the uprising, wrote a short prologue about a warrant officer going "to V. (Vasilkov) in May 1825 (the text is known as "Notes of a Young Man"). God forbid us to see the Russian rebellion senseless and merciless
god forbid us to see the Russian rebellion senseless and merciless
Literature
· Andreeva L. The uprising of the Chernigov regiment. (Decembrists in Ukraine). - "Flame", Kharkov, 1925,
· N. M. Druzhinin The uprising of the Chernigov regiment // Essays on the history of the Decembrist movement. Political Literature Publishing House, 1954.
· Oksana I. Kiyanskaya Southern riot. Uprising of the Chernigov Infantry Regiment December 29, 1825 - January 3, 1826 Publishing House of the Russian State humanities University1997 ISBN 978-5-7281-0004-1
· The uprising of the Chernigov regiment in the testimony of the participants. - magazine Red Archive. 1925.
For a long time in the official Soviet historiography the view of the Decembrists was held as the first noble revolutionaries who deliberately decided to change the state system of Russia by armed means. And only today, with a careful and impartial reading of archival materials, it becomes clear that the collective image of "knights without fear and reproach" needs serious correction. The mutiny of the year on Senate Square in St. Petersburg was certainly the culmination of a conspiracy. The performance of the Chernigov regiment remained in its shadow.
The uprising of the Chernigov regiment: causes and consequences
The Chernigov regiment was stationed in the Kiev province. She herself was in the field of attention of the Southern Society of Decembrists. The news of the defeat of the rebellion on December 14 reached the southerners by the end of the year. Lieutenant Colonel S.I.Muraviev-Apostol was one of the most authoritative leaders of the Southern Society - especially after the arrest of the leader of the southern people, P.I. Pestel. The regiment commander G. Gebel ordered the arrest of Muravyov as a figure directly associated with the capital's conspirators. However, in the village of Trilesy, where the arrested person was temporarily placed, several officers made a successful attempt to free their beloved commander.
The very next day, the companies led by Muravyov entered the city of Vasilkov, seizing weapons and the regimental treasury. Another day later, the soldiers are voiced by the so-called. "Orthodox Catechism". Muravyov is composing this revolutionary proclamation together with his colleague - M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin. The further trajectory of the regiment's movement is first towards Zhitomir, then towards Bila Tserkva. They had to maneuver, trying to avoid a direct military clash with many times superior government forces.
Nevertheless, already on January 3, 1826, in the battle near Ustimovka, the regiment was utterly defeated by units loyal to the oath and the new emperor. Muravyov-Apostol was seriously wounded and was captured along with other officers. His brother Hippolytus shot himself to avoid shame. Further investigation showed that Muravyov and other leaders of the uprising did not have a clear plan of action. They persuaded the soldiers to their side by direct deception, but they did not manage to stop drunkenness, looting and desertion in their ranks. At the climax of the battle, the soldiers did not help the wounded commander - on the contrary, they killed his horse with a bayonet so that he could not escape.
Following the results of the investigation, Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin, as well as Pestel, who had been arrested earlier, were sentenced to be hanged along with the two most active leaders of the Northern Society - Ryleev and Kakhovsky. The execution took place at the end of July 1826. The Chernigov regiment was disbanded, most of the soldiers were subjected to corporal punishment, and then transferred to the Caucasus, where at that time the war with the highlanders continued.
- Former officer of the regiment Ivan Sukhinov in 1828 conspired to free the Decembrists, but was exposed and committed suicide.
On December 29, 1825, the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, stationed in the area of \u200b\u200bVasilkov (30 km south-west of Kiev), began. The uprising was led by S.I. Muravyov-Apostol. It began at the moment when members of the Southern Society had already learned about the defeat of the uprising in St. Petersburg, and even earlier (December 13), the leaders of the Southern Society, P.I. Pestel and A.I. Yushnevsky, arrests of other members of the secret society in the south were in full swing.
The uprising began in the village of Trilesy (Kiev province) - one of the companies of the Chernigov regiment was located here. From here S. Muravyov-Apostol went to Vasilkov, where the headquarters of this regiment was and its 5 companies were located. SI Muravyov-Apostol and MP Bestuzhev-Ryumin drew up a revolutionary "Catechism" in advance, intended for distribution in the army and among the people. This document, written in the form of questions and answers, in an intelligible form for the soldiers, argued the need for the abolition of monarchical power and the establishment of republican rule. The Catechism was read to the rebellious soldiers, some copies of it were circulated in other regiments, but its ideas did not find a response among the soldiers' masses. During the week, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol with 970 soldiers and 8 officers of the Chernigov regiment made a raid across the snow-covered fields of Ukraine, hoping to join the uprising of other regiments in which members of the secret society served. However, this hope did not come true. The command managed to isolate the Chernigov regiment, withdrawing from its path those regiments that SI Muravyov-Apostol hoped to join.
At the same time, large forces of troops loyal to the government were drawn to the area of \u200b\u200bthe uprising. Nicholas I entrusted the general command of this operation to his brother Konstantin Pavlovich. When the hope of joining the regiment stationed in the city of Belaya Tserkov collapsed (the regiment was withdrawn from the city), SI Muravyov-Apostol turned his regiment back to the village. Trilesam, hoping to make a throw to Zhitomir. But on the morning of January 3, 1826, when approaching Triles, between the villages of Ustinovka and Kovalevka, the regiment was met by a detachment of government troops and shot with grapeshot, and SI Muravyov-Apostol, wounded in the head, was captured and sent to Petersburg in chains.
After the suppression of the uprising in St. Petersburg and Ukraine, the autocracy fell upon the Decembrists with all ruthlessness. 316 people were arrested (some of them were arrested by accident and released after the first interrogations). All in all, 579 people were involved in the "case" of the Decembrists - this was the number of people who got into the "Alphabet of the members of the malicious society, which opened on December 14, 1825" compiled by the investigation. Many suspects were investigated in absentia; others, who left the secret society or were only formally in it, were left "unattended" by the investigation, but nevertheless included in this black list, which was constantly at hand with Nicholas I.
The Investigative Commission worked in St. Petersburg for six months. Commissions of inquiry were also formed in Belaya Tserkov and at some regiments. It was the first wide political process... 289 people were found guilty, of whom 121 were committed to the Supreme Criminal Court (in total, 173 people were convicted by all courts). Five of those devoted to the Supreme Criminal Court (P. I. Pestel, K. F. Ryleev, S. I. Muravyov-Apostol, M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P. G. Kakhovsky) were put "out of the ranks" and sentenced "to death by quartering", replaced by hanging. The rest are distributed according to the degree of guilt into 11 categories. 31 people of the 1st category were sentenced "to death by beheading", replaced by indefinite hard labor, 37 - to various terms of hard labor, 19 - to exile in Siberia, 9 officers were demoted to soldiers. Over 120 people suffered various punishments on the personal order of Nicholas I, without trial: they were imprisoned in the fortress for a period of six months to 4 years, demoted to the ranks, transferred to the active army in the Caucasus, and put under police supervision. Special judicial commissions, which considered the cases of soldiers who participated in the uprisings, sentenced 178 people to punishment with rods, 23 - to sticks and rods. From the rest of the participants in the uprising, a combined regiment of 4 thousand people was formed, which was sent to the army in the Caucasus.
The first revolutionary action in Russia made a deep impression on the ruling circles of Russia, primarily on Nicholas I himself, who always remembered "my friends of the fourteenth" (meaning the Decembrists). At his coronation, receiving foreign ambassadors, he announced the suppression of the Decembrist uprising: "I think I rendered a service to all governments." The European monarchs, congratulating Nicholas on this "victory", wrote to him that by doing so he "earned ... the gratitude of all foreign states and rendered the greatest service to the cause of all thrones."
The Decembrists, exiled to hard labor and exile, did not betray their convictions; put in "convict holes" outside of political life, they were connected by a thousand threads with Russia, were always aware of all socio-political events both in Russia and abroad. Their contribution to the development of education and culture in general Russian and part of the non-Russian peoples of Siberia was great. This activity of the Decembrists after 1825 is organically included in the socio-political and cultural life Russia in the second quarter of the 19th century. And upon their return from exile after the amnesty, many Decembrists found the strength to actively participate in the social life of the country: they appeared in print with their memories, published scholarly works, participated in the preparation and implementation of peasant and other reforms as members of provincial committees on peasant affairs. world mediators, zemstvo leaders.
In the history of every state there are uprisings and coups. Russia is no exception. The event on Senate Square, which took place on 12/14/1825, is a bright, full of drama performance by the best representatives of the noble military intelligentsia, who consciously decided to go for a coup and change the state system. If almost every person in Russia knows about the events on Senate Square, then little was known about the uprising of the Chernigov regiment, which was a continuation of the Decembrists' performance.
Prerequisites
Revolutionary trends swept across Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. This was facilitated by disappointment in the reign of Emperor Alexander I, as well as the war of 1812, which shook the whole of Russia, rallied the entire people, from the nobility to ordinary peasants. The victorious campaigns in the countries of Western Europe, the acquaintance of the enlightened part of the nobility with the progressive movements of the West caused a double feeling in society.
On the one hand, there is pride in the people and the Fatherland, and on the other, a feeling of awkwardness for serfdom, for the oppression of compatriots, and an awareness of the country's backwardness. The reactionary policy of Alexander I in relation to education in his country, participation in the suppression of revolutions in Europe led the most advanced part of citizens to the idea of \u200b\u200ban immediate need for changes, since serfdom was considered an insult to national dignity.
Establishment of the Northern and Southern Society
What preceded the performance on Senate Square and the uprising of the Chernigov regiment? The very first political secret society was created in St. Petersburg in 1816. 28 people took part in it, including P. Pestel, N. Muravyov and two brothers Muravyov-Apostles. Two years later, a larger organization, the Union of Welfare, was created in Moscow, in which already 200 people were members. Its branches were located in different cities of Russia. The union collapsed due to internal contradictions.
In St. Petersburg N. Muravyov created the Northern Society. In Ukraine, the Southern Society was created, headed by Colonel P. Pestel. The purpose of the societies is the elimination of serfdom and the constitutional restriction of the monarchy, up to the murder of the emperor, arrest royal family and the establishment of the rule of a dictator, who was supposed to appoint Prince Sergei Trubetskoy.
What predetermined the uprising
The main reason for the uprising was the controversial legal situation that arose around the rights to the succession to the throne. Emperor Alexander I was childless. Coming in seniority for Alexander I, Konstantin Pavlovich wrote earlier a renunciation of the throne, which gave the right to his younger brother Nikolai Pavlovich to take the throne. But he was extremely unpopular among the highest nobility, representing the military-bureaucratic elite. Under the influence of the Governor-General of St. Petersburg M. Miloradovich, he writes a rejection of the legacy in favor of his older brother.
12/9/1825 (new style) the people swore allegiance to Constantine, that is, according to the form the Russian Empire received a new emperor, who did not accept the throne, but did not abandon it either. A position called the interregnum was created. Later, Nikolai Pavlovich proclaims himself emperor. A new oath is appointed, which is to take place on December 14, since Constantine again refused to accept the throne.
On the night of 12/14/1825, the Senate recognized the legality of the transfer of the throne to the future Emperor Nicholas I. A new oath was scheduled for the day. The conspirators decide to put their designs into action. But for a number of reasons this did not come true. The uprising in Senate Square was suppressed. All Decembrists were arrested. In addition, more than 600 soldiers and 62 sailors of the rebel regiments were arrested.
Reasons for the uprising of the Chernigov regiment
Having received news from St. Petersburg about the Decembrist uprising, the commander of the Chernigov regiment ordered to take into custody S. Muravyov-Apostol - lieutenant colonel of the regiment, because his connection with the conspirators was well known. It was he who promised to act together with the Northern Society, trying with concrete actions to win over other military units to his side.
Four officers of the Chernigov regiment, members of the "Society of United Slavs", which had previously entered the Southern Society, released him and wounded Colonel Gebel, who ordered his arrest. The question of who would lead the uprising of the Chernigov regiment was not raised. S. Muravyov-Apostol and M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin became its leaders. They also wrote a proclamation bearing the name "Catechism".
Uprising regiment
In the village of Trilesy, where the 5th company of the regiment was located, on December 29, 1825, an uprising of the Chernigov regiment began. In a march, the company moved to the village of Kovalevka to join with another company. Having united, they marched to the city of Vasilkov, where the rest of the regiment were quartered. The city was captured by the rebels, in the hands of the rebels were weapons and regimental treasury.
Then the village of Motovilovka was occupied. It happened on December 31st. The purpose of the regiment was a breakthrough in the city of Zhitomir, where a connection with military units, according to the plan of the rebels, it was they who were supposed to support them, since members of the "Society of United Slavs" served here. But government troops stood in the way, so the rebellious regiment had only one thing left to do - to turn to Belaya Tserkov.
Not all employees supported the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. The grenadier company under the command of Captain Kozlov went to the government forces. At the village of Ustimovka on December 3, 1826, the regiment was fired upon from guns and defeated, 6 officers and 895 soldiers were taken prisoner. S. Muravyov-Apostol, wounded in the head, was arrested. His brother is killed by buckshot.
Reasons for defeat
The date of the uprising of the Chernigov regiment was tentatively set for the summer of 1826. However, the events in St. Petersburg and the arrest of S. Muravyov-Apostol led to the fact that the uprising began earlier than expected.
The uprising of the Chernigov regiment in 1825 was doomed to defeat. The main reason is the complete absence of prerequisites for an uprising. The peasantry, which the rebels intended to liberate, were not ready for changes and did not want them. The military, who dreamed of a constitution only at meetings, could not sacrifice their families, positions and go to the end. The hope that immediately after the uprising, according to the principle of chain reaction, disturbances would begin in other parts of the country was utopia. There were no revolutionary prerequisites. Romantic naivety, political shortsightedness, led to unjustified sacrifices, repression, broken lives.
But nevertheless, pure, honest, noble romantic idealists, the color and conscience of the nation, who the Decembrists really were, changed the consciousness of enlightened people, lit the sparks of the flame that almost 50 years later led to the abolition of serfdom, and 90 years later demolished the autocracy along with its bureaucratic and bureaucratic apparatus.