“Prison is an honor for me, not a disgrace,
I am in it for a righteous cause,
And why should I be ashamed of these chains,
When I wear them for my Motherland?”
(K. F. Ryleev),
Written in the Alexeevsky Ravelin

200 years ago — December 26 (14), 1825 — saw the first open armed uprising against autocracy and serfdom in Russia.

Decembrists, as a movement, were a consequence of the entire 18th century, which began with the reforms of Peter the Great, followed by a series of palace coups, the brilliance of the nobility, and the poverty of the peasantry. The beginning of the 19th century was marked by a revolutionary wave that started in Paris and engulfed all of Europe.
This wave everywhere undermined feudal orders, the feudal attitude towards people of lower classes, and the caste division itself.

The victory over Napoleon put Russia in a unique situation: on the one hand, it convinced the emperor of the strength of autocracy, making the country the "last bastion of feudalism in Europe"; on the other hand, it awakened unprecedented respect for the victorious people in society and drew attention to their inhumane, almost slave-like situation. This conflict had to be resolved.

History willed that this happened on December 26. On this day, the Senate was going to take the oath of allegiance to him. The conspirators hoped to persuade the senators to renounce this decision and adopt the "Manifesto to the Russian People</b">. This programmatic document envisaged the establishment of a Provisional Government, the abolition of serfdom, and the establishment of democratic freedoms.

Alas, by the time the soldiers of two regiments and the sailors of the Guards Marine Crew under the leadership of the Decembrists marched out onto the Senate Square, the senators had already taken the oath and dispersed.

Government troops were brought in to the square.
Emperor Nicholas I ordered the soldiers to fire on the three thousand-strong crowd of disobedient soldiers and officers with canisters, and two weeks later, the desperate uprising of the Chernihiv regiment in the south was suppressed. The bloody drama ended with the investigation of almost six hundred people involved in the uprising, the execution of five leaders, and exile and deportation to Siberia of twenty-one people involved in the rebellion.

For years, the events of this uprising were shrouded in a veil of silence imposed by the autocracy; relatives of the executed were forbidden to mourn, their graves were hidden, and letters from and to Siberia were censored. It was forbidden to mention the Decembrists in the press.

But this did not help. The uprising shook the Russian Empire and significantly influenced the development of the socio-political life of the state in the second quarter of the 19th century.

So, who were the Decembrists? Were they a first cohort of fighters or rebels?

The revolutionary ideas that dominated their hearts and minds were born shortly after the War of 1812. Having defeated the hordes of Bonaparte, the soldiers and officers triumphantly marched to Paris. But the victors, who were applauded by the world, had to put up with the horrors of serfdom and the servile submissiveness of the tsarist regime.

Georgian cavalrymen, brilliant heroes of military battles, well-educated and highly gifted young people with passionate, noble hearts, who passionately loved their homeland and its suffering people.

They created the first secret revolutionary societies: in 1816 — the "Union of Salvation" , in 1818 — the "Union of Welfare" , then the Southern and Northern Secret Societies, the "Union of United Slavs</b">.

Some of them were supporters not only of the abolition of serfdom, but also of the free transfer of land to the peasants and the establishment of a republic. Such was P. I. Pestel, supported by S. I. Muravyov-Apostol and K. F. Ryleev.
N. M. Muravyov, a representative of a more moderate wing, was a supporter of a constitutional monarchy and the redemption of land holdings into peasant ownership.

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