Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

power, not less physical force would be required than for abolishing it altogether. And although he expressed himself with such caution—a caution interpreted as tergiversation by the Commission of Inquiry

him. Alexander Murawieff left the society. The members of the Alliance of Well-Being murmured. The Society of the North began to fear the ambition of Pestel.

"The Society of the North," as it was called-wished for a monarchical constitutional government. "The Society of the South" desired a federative republic composed of the various provinces of Russia. The Society of the South had at its head a man who pos--he was at last understood: and some men feared sessed an eminent intellect, a courage ready to face every danger, an unshakable energy, and a boundless ambition—namely, Paul Pestel. His truly superior mind had understood that a representative government is only solid and durable when it is so directed as to develop the well-being of the masses. While the members of the Society of the North, though rejecting the odious principle of serfdom, had no fixed ideas as to how the manumission of the serfs should be wrought, Pestel had induced the Society of the South to decide that the serfs should be emancipated with a grant of freehold land. This idea, which to-day is admitted in Russia by all those who wish for serious, not for fictitious reforms, was during the lifetime of Pestel, forty years ago, an innovation of astonishing boldness.

These words, written in 1860 by a Russian author who himself belongs to the moderate constitutional party, are a testimony in honor of Pestel which those may reflect upon who believe that Alexander II. was the initiator of the emancipation idea.

Before Prince Dolgorukoff, Alexander Herzen had written the following, in 1858, on Pestel:

From the day that he had entered the society he became its center, its soul. Thanks to him, the vague aspirations and liberal tendencies obtained an aim, a practical determination. His great figure dominates over the whole conspiracy; it is a great figure even in the venomous accounts of the Commission of Inquiry. An ardent republican and determined revolutionist, he imposes and precipitates nothing. He acts with admirable prudence and reserve. He only seeks to better organize the association. He gives it regulations, and centralizes it. Knowing well the still timid conscience of those generous youths who are full of devotion, but scarcely imbued with ripe political ideas, he grants to them that the great thing would be to restrict the arbitrary power of the Czar. In the fragments of his conversation with others-as quoted by the Inquiry-it is impossible not to admire his tact and the richness of his resources. Conceding to some that a constitution on the English pattern would be very good, he, as soon as an interlocutor expresses a doubt, adds that, for his own part, he would prefer the American Constitution, which, he says, would be good for everybody, and not only " for lords and merchants." However, he thinks that if a charter could be imposed upon the Emperor, this would be a considerable progress. Then, in a few words, he refers, among the possible contingencies, to the Emperor's death. He doubts the possibility of forcing, by the sole pressure of public opinion, an absolute ruler to cede a portion of his power. He shows that by physical force alone this could be done, and that, in order to limit his

This was before the dissolution of the original society in 1821. After its reorganization, Pestel increased his activity with the most ardent conspiratory zeal. At St. Petersburg, the reconstructed society had at first Prince Trubetzkoi at its head; then Nicholas Murawieff and Prince Obolenski. It may be mentioned, incidentally, that the Trubetzkois and the Obolenskis are among those families who derive their origin from the once ruling house of Rurik, the Germanic founder of the empire. In the south, Pestel had the chief influence. Over and over again he insisted on the necessity of emancipating the peasants with a grant of land. Only in this way, he said, the revolution could be successfully accomplished.

XI.

BESIDES the occult associations mentioned, there was one, called "The United Slavs," which in Russia had for its leading spirit Sergius Murawieff - Apostol. Another secret league having been accidentally discovered in Poland by Bestujeff-Rumin, a member of Pestel's society, it was decided to establish a connection between the Russian and Polish men of progress.

the Russians should acknowledge the indepenThe agreement made was to the effect that dence of the Kingdom of Poland, as established in 1815, as well as of those Polish provinces in Russia which had not yet been quite Russified. The Polish society promised to bring about an insurrection as soon as a rising should be begun in the Second Russian Army, and to effect the arrest of the Grand Duke Constantine, the Governor of Poland. The proclamation of the republic in Poland was among the conditions laid down by Pestel. But the Polish confederates, in whose name Krijanowski, Grodetzki, and Karkoski acted, refused to prejudge the question of the form of government. Nor would they engage themselves to proceed to the more extreme which are said to have been insisted upon by the measures against the Grand Duke Constantine Russian conspirators. These extreme measures, it is alleged, referred to the taking of the Grand Duke's life.

Everything appeared now ready for decisive action. Colonel Pestel was at the head of a regiment whose men were considered to be entirely under his influence, whithersoever he might lead

them. As the whilom adjutant of Marshal Wittgenstein, he had great opportunities of forming good acquaintances with officers of rank. The Intendant-General of the Second Army, Yushneffski, and two active generals, friends of his, Von Viesen (of German extraction, like Pestel) and Prince Sergius Volkonski, were at one with him in the desire of overthrowing autocracy. Then there were, in the Society of the South, six colonels and two lieutenant-colonels, Sergius and Matthew Murawieff, among the leading members of the conspiracy.

A number of officers could be reckoned upon. Besides, it would not have been difficult, through the members of the League, to seize the regimental chests, the papers of the Staff, the Intendance, and the Chancelry of the Marshal. Pestel's plan was, to wait for the day when Alexander I., who was at Taganrog, would be present at the manœuvres, and then to act. On that day, Prince Wittgenstein, the higher generals, and the Czar himself were to be arrested. The fortress of Bobruisk was to be occupied. Then the events to be brought about by the friends at St. Petersburg and at Warsaw were to be waited for.

In the capital, the Society of the North was to give the signal for the rising through the Imperial Guards. That society had among its members some officers of rank-foremost among them, Prince Trubetzkoi, Colonel Mitkoff, and Captain Nicholas Murawieff, as well as Prince Obolenski, Bestujeff, and other men of influence and daring. Among the highest nobility, in the upper ranks of the civil administration, even in the immediate vicinity of the Court, there were associates of the conspiracy. At Moscow, the chief of the Chancelry of Prince Gallitzin; at St. Petersburg, a close friend of Count Miloradowitch, the GovernorGeneral of the town, were affiliated to it. All the movements of Government could therefore be easily watched.

Unfortunately, no full agreement was arrived at between the Societies of the North and the South, even in the reconstructed state of the former. In 1824 Pestel went to St. Petersburg in order to effect a thorough understanding and a full amalgamation of the several leagues under one direction. This was with difficulty attained. At the same time, the men of the North shrank from adopting his plans of action, which they declared to be too violent. There were in the North few adherents of Pestel's democratic views. Almost all the members there desired constitutional government under a monarchy. However, a number of these promised that if the Czar could not be made to accept a charter, they would go over to the democratic side, and that in this case nothing was left but to banish the imperial family from Russian soil. Still, with all

these words of promise to the ear, they were loath to agree to a programme of immediate revolution.

Not having fully succeeded in his endeavor to bring about unity of purpose, Pestel suggested that a general meeting of the delegates of the various societies should be held in 1826-under condition that action should then not be delayed any longer. He thereupon went back to the south.

Meanwhile, secret denunciations had reached the Emperor at Taganrog. The Czar, ill, and in a melancholy mood, had not sufficient energy to proceed to a strong and sweeping measure. Yet, one of the conspirators, Colonel Schweikoffski, was suddenly removed from his regiment without a cause being publicly assigned. Suspicion was at once aroused by this act among the members of the League. For a moment, Schweikoffski thought of raising immediately the standard of insurrection, in order to forestall the danger that seemed to threaten them. The Report of the Judicial Inquiry asserts even that Schweikoffski proposed sending men to Taganrog to take the life of the Emperor. When the question is of being killed or of killing, scruples otherwise strong quickly vanish away. Colonel Artamon Murawieff is said to have offered himself for the deed. Bestujeff declared that he could find for that task fifteen men among "The League of the United Slavs." The Report adds that the project was in the end abandoned.

This question of tyrannicide had gradually forced itself into the foreground in the secret meetings. The Report of the Judicial Inquiry alleges that it was mooted by some members as early as 1817, but that others repelled these ideas. Of Colonel Pestel it is asserted that he remarked to one of the Murawieffs that one of the first things to be done was to "get rid of the imperial family"; to which Murawieff is said to have replied that "he regarded such a plan as wholly barbarous and unfeasible."

At one of the meetings the question was raised openly as to what was to be done with the imperial family in case of success. Banishment and imprisonment were in turn proposed. Pestel, having listened to the various speakers, is alleged to have remarked that in destruction alone there was safety. Others rejected the notion as a horrible one. "I know well that it is," he is stated to have replied. The vote being taken, the majority were for him, but only a majority of six. Again, he is asserted to have declared that "we must make the house clean," and that his project was to seize, by a surprise, the whole imperial family; to seize also the members of the Senate and the Synod, to force them to proclaim a new Government in the republican sense; to declare all higher officials and army leaders who

were not members of the secret society dismissed from their functions; and to replace them by members of the society.

These statements are repeated, without any depreciatory remark, by later Russian writers favorable to the cause of the so-called Decembrists of 1825. The mouths of the chief men of the conspiracy having been closed through death on the gallows, it is difficult to discover the real truth.

In the nature of things-however opinions in the abstract may differ as to the legitimacy of tyrannicide-such views and intentions will always come up whenever men, driven to despair by a blood-stained cruelty, have to do battle, single-handed, against a thrice-armed oppres

sion.

XII.

THE year 1826 having been fixed for the revolutionary rising by secret agreement, the leagues did not stir after Schweikoffski's suspicious removal from his post. Suddenly, however, Alexander died at Taganrog, on December 1, 1825. Pestel's plan was thus once more thrown out of gear.

The death of the Czar happened, nevertheless, under circumstances which in a certain measure favored the action of the members in the north. Had their measures been but better planned, Russia might, since 1825, have enjoyed at last representative government. A doubt which arose as to who was to succeed to the throne came to the aid of the friends of progress in the capital. Alexander had secretly changed the order of succession-with the consent, it is true, of the presumptive heir, but without designing to make the fact known to the millions whose duty he thought it was always to obey, and whom he did not therefore think it necessary to inform of what had been resolved upon as regarded their future ruler. Great was the astonishment when, after Alexander's death, it was suddenly asserted that not Constantine, the eldest born, but Nicholas, had, by a decree until then hidden, been designated Czar of all the Russias. Men most devoted to the Crown were for several days puzzled as to whom they were to consider the rightful heir. Nicholas in person added to the confusion by at once declaring himself in public his eldest brother's subject.

In the memoir* which the present Czar has ordered to be published from notes of the Emperor Nicholas, and from the recollections of several members of the imperial family, it is

* "Die Thronbesteigung des Kaisers Nicolaus I. von Russland im Jahre 1825. Nach seinen eignen Aufzeichnungen und den Erinnerungen der kaiserlichen Familie auf Befehl Sr. Majestät des Kaisers Alexander II.," herausgegeben von Baron M. von Korff, Berlin, 1857.

stated that immediately after the arrival of the news of Alexander's death, he (Nicholas), accompanied by Count Miloradowitch, AdjutantGeneral Prince Trubetzkoi, Count GolanishtcheffKutusoff, and others, went to the great Court Church, and there took the oath of homage to his brother Constantine, whom he assumed to be the Emperor now, according to dynastic law. His example was followed by those who accompanied him, and by other chief personages that happened to be in the palace. From the church the Grand Duke went back to the Dowager Empress to inform her of his act.

[ocr errors]

'Nicholas!" she exclaimed, "what have you done? Do you not know, then, that there is an act which appoints you heir-presumptive?"

In his memoir he professes to have “then heard for the first time in a positive form " of the existence of this act. The words "in a positive form" are, however, a noteworthy qualification.

Matters were thus complicated enough. They became still more so when the Grand Duke Nicholas resolved-probably for the sake of his own personal safety-upon asking his brother to repeal his renunciation of the crown. This was a strange step, almost incomprehensible when we remember the ambitious and arbitrary character of Nicholas; but perhaps he was afraid of suddenly being met by a strong Constantine party which might deal with him as other Russian princes had before been dealt with by conspirators at court. Be that as it may, he thought it advisable to exhibit some hesitation. Communication in those days, when there existed neither railways nor telegraphs, was difficult. It had taken ten days before the news of Alexander's death reached St. Petersburg. Fifteen days more were consumed by correspondence between the two brothers, one of whom was at St. Petersburg, the other at Warsaw. Nicholas had taken the oath to Constantine! Constantine had taken the oath to Nicholas ! Probably each mistrusted the other. In the Imperial palace there reigned the greatest consternation. The Grand Duke Michael went post-haste from St. Petersburg to Warsaw, and thence back again, in order to clear up the mystery. Public opinion, in the mean time, was utterly unsettled. All this was calculated to help the patriotic conspirators.

On the 26th of December, 1825, the revolutionary attempt was made in the streets of St. Petersburg. During the preceding days, the members of the Secret League-Prince Trubetzkoi, Ryleieff the poet, Bestujeff, Prince Obolenski, Prince Rostoffski, Kahoffski, and other men of the military and civic class-had repeatedly met in the evening to concert a plan. Young Prince Odoeffski, an officer of the Horse Guards, kept them informed of what occurred at the

palace-even of the very words spoken there. The meetings of the conspirators were stormy, as is usual in moments of supreme danger. The more decided men proposed strong measures calculated to insure success, while others shrank back from what they regarded as cruel violence. Between the 24th and the 25th there was a falling off in the number of those attending the nocturnal assembly. Only seventeen came-but all of them men of energy and influence. This thinning of the ranks, too, is a feature characteristic of all conspiracies just previous to action.

At the house of Prince Obolenski there appeared officers of the various regiments of the Guards as associates of the League. Obolenski announced that, by order of the Directorate, their duty was, on the day fixed for the public ceremony of homage to the new Emperor, to lead as many troops of their regiments as they could to the square before the Senate, and to make them refuse the oath to Nicholas. With the first regiment gained over, other regiments were to be approached. At the same time, the people were to be gathered by drums being beaten throughout the town. This latter proposal was made by Prince Trubetzkoi.

"We are going to meet death," exclaimed young Odoeffski enthusiastically, embracing his friends in Russian fashion; "but what a glorious death it will be!"

Others, of sterner stuff, like Kahoffski, a brooding and rather sinister man, said: "We can not do anything with those philanthropists. The only question now is, to kill!"

"I have passed the Rubicon!" said Bestujeff; “and I shall strike down with the sword all that cross my path!"

It was assumed by the members of the conspiracy that Nicholas, seeing the military revolt before him, would enter into negotiations, perhaps renounce the crown. Thereupon a Provisional Government was to be established, composed of three members. Old Admiral Mordwinoff, one of the most moderate, nay, ultramoderate men, Prince Sergius Trubetzkoi, and a high Church dignitary were to be offered seats in this Government. Colonel Batenkoff was to occupy the post of Chief Secretary. A constitutional monarchy-not a republic-was the aim of the leaders in the capital. There were to be two Parliamentary bodies: an Upper House, whose members were to be appointed for life (Batenkoff was in favor of an hereditary House of Peers), and a House of Commons. The Council of the Empire, as hitherto existing, was to be replaced by a Council of Thirty-six. Elections were to be held for the House of Commons; and Parliament was to frame a constitution and to choose the new sovereign.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

THE day of revolution dawned. Palace conspiracies had formerly been carried out in the dead of night. The New Russia, of which these patriots dreamed, was to be initiated in the light of the sun. This resolution-as most friendly writers aver-became fatal to the movement. "Better," they say, "would it have been had they chosen one of the long wintry nights of St. Petersburg for their bold deed!"

A portion of the Guards, and several companies of the Marine Troops, actually followed their officers to the public place. Count Miloradowitch, an honest, worthy man, who had seen danger on many a battle-field during the Napoleonic wars, and who at first had pledged himself to Nicholas for the security of the town, now hurried to the Czar with the ominous words: "Sire! things are turning out bad! They surround the monument of Peter the Great. But I am going to address them!" In vain was he warned not to expose his life. He answered, "What good would there be in a governor-general if he did not know how to sacrifice his blood in case of need!"

Meanwhile, scenes of riot had been rife among the people. It was not yet a distinct awakening among the enslaved mass, No popular agitators came forward with words of fire on their tongue, or the promise of energetic deeds in their gestures. Yet, somehow, the sluggish soul of that inert multitude felt a sympathetic thrill. General Miloradowitch, seeing the danger, rode toward and addressed the mutinous soldiers who had been drawn into the "Constitutional" movement by the use of "Constantine's" name— words which among the more ignorant served as a helpful confusion. In the midst of his pathetic harangue, the aged warrior all at once sank down on his horse. His outstretched arm fell as if it were of lead. A pistol-shot fired by Lieutenant Kahoffski had mortally wounded him.

Masses of the population suddenly turned up now. St. Petersburg was in commotion. Cries arose for a charter.

Shots were fired at General Woinoff-ay, even, as Baron Korff's publication asserts, against the Emperor Nicholas himself, when he tried to bring back the troops to obedience. In this dangerous crisis, Prince Eugene of Würtemberg displayed, as Russian army-leader, the sternest cour

age. He first advised a cavalry attack. When this proved of no avail, grape-shot was employed against the body of rebel troops that occupied the Senate Square.

Before the word of command to discharge the guns was given, General Suchosannet, at the order of Nicholas, rode toward the insurgent soldiers, offering to spare their lives if they laid down their arms. He was received with the cry, "Have you brought the constitution with you?" and with a volley of shots.

"Your Majesty!" Suchosannet reported, "these madmen call out for a constitution!"

The Emperor, shrugging his shoulders, and raising his eyes to heaven-so he says in his own "Memoir"'-now gave the order to fire, but immediately recalled it. On the final order being given, the gunner did not execute the command! "They are our brethren!" the simple soldier exclaimed. "And if I myself stood before the gun," the officer cried, "and you were ordered to fire, how could you dare to hesitate?"

Upon this the shot was fired. The battle was begun. It ended with the defeat of the insurgents.

[ocr errors]

'The danger," says the "Memoir" published by Alexander II. in 1857, “was obvious. Guards fought against Guards. The Emperor, the only support of the empire, risked his life during several hours. The people were in the utmost excitement, and it was difficult to learn the true state of public feeling. The conspiracy was a fact, but its head and its extent were yet hidden. Everything was still enveloped in impenetrable secrecy; and the whole outbreak might have recommenced any moment. These considerations were far from encouraging; but there was the firmness, the presence of mind of the young monarch, which the officers marveled at, and which inspirited the soldiers. The victory remained with the throne and with loyalty; and the soldiers heartily attached themselves to their new master."

Under this self-praise it is easy to recognize the true situation and the greatness of the perils which surrounded the "only support of the empire"—that is, of the absolutistic form of govern

ment.

The same "Memoir" says that the Czar was not able on that day, from morning till late at night, to partake of any repast, and that he never went to bed during the whole night. He remained up, in uniform, with his sash on; personally examining the chief prisoners that were brought in, receiving reports, and giving orders. The Empress Alexandra Feodorowna had, from the excitement, "lost her voice and all strength." "All the imperial children passed the night in two rooms, as in a bivouac."

XIV.

In the mean while other tragic events occurred in the south.

Pestel, the two Murawieffs, Bestujeff-Rumin, and some others, had been arrested in consequence of the denunciation sent to Alexander at Taganrog. Officers, placing themselves at the head of some companies, hastened to free their comrades-in-arms. In the struggle that ensued, the Lieutenant-Colonel who had effected the ar rest of Pestel and his friends was wounded. The liberated leaders then endeavored a bold stroke. After taking the town of Vasilkoff, they tried to gain over fresh regiments, but were attacked, near Belaja Tzerkoff, by the division of General Geismar. In this battle Sergius Murawieff was one of the first that were wounded and made prisoners, together with his brother Matthias. Another of the Murawieffs fell.

A political catechism had been drawn up for the insurgent troops, in which the democratic form of government was proved to be, according to the teaching of the Old Testament, the only government acceptable to God. This teaching did not make a good impression on the rather bigoted mujik-soldiers. Their resistance, when attacked, was a weak one; a number of them acted treacherously toward their own chiefs. The movement in the south thus quickly collapsed. Moreover, no plan of action had been concerted between the leaders in the north and the south. Pestel's original advice having been disregarded, each section was thrown on its own resources to deal with an unexpected emergency as best it could.

The end was the usual scene of horrors. Pestel, Sergius Murawieff, Ryleïeff, BestujeffRumin, and Kahoffski suffered death on the gallows. Prince Trubetzkoi was, at the prayer of his wife, "pardoned "—that is, transported to Siberia, with eighty-three other leaders. The soldiers of the Guards that had taken part in the rising were sent against the mountain tribes in the Caucasus, and against Persia.

Russia now became once more a prison-house in which utter silence reigned. Only the blows of the knout were heard in the drear solitude. The very groans of the victims seemed to be stifled.

It only remains to say a few words on the bearing of the originators of the December risings, as described in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry.

It has been remarked that the confessions made by these men incriminated them even more than the facts that were proved against them. Were these confessions the result of a sublime heroism in the face of death? or had they been

« AnkstesnisTęsti »