According to legend, the Peter and Paul Fortress is located on an ancient temple - the place of power of the Magi. The choice of the area to begin the foundation of the city was not made by Peter I by chance. The king saw eagles circling over the hill and considered this a good sign. Peter made a fateful decision when the eagles made two circles above the shore.

"Guards" of the Peter and Paul Fortress

The ancient fortress has long gained fame - “ghost fortress”, which I want to talk about.
According to legend, the ghosts of five Decembrists, executed in the summer of 1826, wander here at night. Eyewitnesses spoke of five pale figures in white flowing robes.

Stories about the appearance of ghosts of the Decembrists especially spread in the first years of Soviet power. The “Godless Society” even tried to catch the “obscurantist hooligans disturbing the peace of the working people,” but to no avail. The fighters against obscurantism heard only the sounds of footsteps and sighs, but when they ran to the sound, they found no one.

The ghosts of the Decembrists often appeared on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, as if predicting a coming tragedy for the city.


Execution of the Decembrists. Rice. M. Ancharov

Peter-Pavel's Fortress

Records of witnesses about the execution of the Decembrists have been preserved.
The conspirators were executed by hanging - a humiliating execution worthy of robbers. Before execution, the Decembrists' officer's uniforms were demonstratively torn off and their swords were broken, which indicated demotion before death. By order of Emperor Nicholas I “...tear off uniforms, crosses and break swords, which they then throw into the prepared fire...”



Here is a verbatim description of the execution by a witness:

“...The scaffold was already being built in a circle of soldiers, the criminals were walking in chains, Kakhovsky walked forward alone, behind him Bestuzhev-Ryumin arm in arm with Muravyov, then Pestel and Ryleev arm in arm and spoke to each other in French, but the conversation could not be heard. Passing by a scaffold under construction in close range, although it was dark, it was heard that Pestel, looking at the scaffold, said: “C"est trop” - “This is too much” (French). They were immediately seated on the grass at a close distance, where they remained for the shortest time. According to the recollection of the quarterly overseer, “they were completely calm, but only very serious, as if they were thinking about some important matter.” When the priest approached them, Ryleev put his hand to his heart and said: “You hear how it beats calmly.” ? The convicts hugged for the last time.

Since the scaffold could not be ready soon, they were taken into the guardhouse into different rooms, and when the scaffold was ready, they were again taken out of the rooms, accompanied by a priest. Police Chief Chikhachev read the maxim of the Supreme Court, which ended with the words: “... hang for such atrocities!” Then Ryleev, turning to his comrades, said, maintaining all his presence of mind: “Gentlemen! We must pay our last debt,” and with that they all knelt down, looking at the sky, and crossed themselves.

Execution of the Decembrists. Still from the film

Ryleev alone spoke - he wished for the well-being of Russia... Then, getting up, each of them said goodbye to the priest, kissing the cross and his hand, moreover, Ryleev said to the priest in a firm voice: “Father, pray for our sinful souls, do not forget my wife and bless your daughter "; Having crossed himself, he ascended the scaffold, followed by others, except for Kakhovsky, who fell on the priest’s chest, cried and hugged him so tightly that they took him away with difficulty...

Sundial "Time of the Master" in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The time of a sundial made according to the type of the 18th century differs from a modern one by two hours

During the execution there were two executioners who first put on the noose and then the white cap. They (that is, the Decembrists) had black skin on their chests, on which the name of the criminal was written in chalk, they were in white coats, and there were heavy chains on their legs. When everything was ready, with the pressing of the spring in the scaffold, the platform on which they stood on the benches fell, and at the same instant three fell: Ryleev, Pestel and Kakhovsky fell down. Ryleev’s cap fell off, and a bloody eyebrow and blood behind his right ear were visible, probably from a bruise.

Pushkin and the ghosts of the Decembrists

He sat crouched because he had fallen inside the scaffold. I approached him and said: “What a misfortune!” The Governor-General, seeing that three had fallen, sent adjutant Bashutsky to take other ropes and hang them, which was done. I was so busy with Ryleev that I did not pay attention to the rest of those who had fallen from the gallows and did not hear if they said what something. When the board was raised again, Pestel’s rope was so long that he could reach the platform with his toes, which was supposed to prolong his torment, and it was noticeable for some time that he was still alive. They remained in this position for half an hour, the doctor who was here announced that the criminals had died.”



When the ropes of the three condemned men broke, “You know, God doesn’t want them to die,” people whispered. Usually the criminal was not hanged twice, but the conspirators were not pardoned.
Another witness to the execution, Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s adjutant, said: “The bloody Ryleev rose to his feet and, turning to Kutuzov, said: “You, general, have probably come to watch us die in agony.” When Kutuzov’s new exclamation: “Hang them again quickly,” outraged the calm, dying spirit of Ryleev, this free, unbridled spirit of the conspirator flared up with its former indomitability and resulted in the following answer: “Vile guardsman, tyrant! Give the executioner your aiguillettes so that we don’t die a third time.”


There are other versions about Ryleev’s words after falling from the scaffold:
“Despite the fall, Ryleev walked firmly, but could not resist a sorrowful exclamation: “And so they will say that I failed at nothing, not even to die!” According to another version, he said: “Cursed land, where they don’t know how to plot, judge, or hang!”

Nicholas I himself was not present at the execution. Having received a letter about the completed sentence, the emperor wrote to his mother: “I am quickly writing two words, dear mother, wanting to inform you that everything happened quietly and in order: the vile ones behaved vilely, without any dignity.
Chernyshev is leaving this evening and, as an eyewitness, can tell you all the details. Sorry for the brevity of the presentation, but knowing and sharing your concern, dear mother, I wanted to bring to your attention what has already become known to me.”

The wife of Nicholas I, Alexandra Feodorovna, wrote in her diary: “What a night it was! I kept imagining the dead... At 7 o'clock Nikolai was woken up. In two letters, Kutuzov and Dibich reported that everything passed without any disturbances... My poor Nikolai has suffered so much these days!”

The family of the Decembrist Ryleev did not lose the favor of the imperial family. Nicholas I gave the rebel’s wife 2 thousand rubles, and the empress sent a thousand rubles for her daughter’s name day.

According to one of the officers, before the execution Pestel said: “What you sow must come up and will certainly come back later.” If these noble people who dreamed of the “ideal of democracy” knew what exactly would “rise”...

Continuation of the theme of the ghosts of Peter and Paul Fortress

In politics, as in all public life, not moving forward means being thrown back.

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich

The Decembrist uprising on Senate Square took place on December 14, 1825 in St. Petersburg. This was one of the first well-organized uprisings in the Russian Empire. It was directed against the strengthening of the power of the autocracy, as well as against the enslavement of ordinary people. The revolutionaries promoted an important political thesis of that era - the abolition of serfdom.

Background to the 1825 uprising

Even during the life of Alexander 1 revolutionary movements in Russia they actively worked to create conditions that would limit the power of the autocrat. This movement was quite massive and was preparing to carry out a coup at the moment of weakening of the monarchy. The imminent death of Emperor Alexander 1 forced the conspirators to become more active and begin their performance earlier than planned.

This was facilitated by the complex political situation inside the Empire. As you know, Alexander 1 did not have children, which means that difficulty with an heir was inevitable. Historians talk about a secret document according to which the elder brother of the murdered ruler, Konstantin Pavlovich, long ago abandoned the throne. There was only one heir - Nikolai. The problem was that on November 27, 1825, the population of the country swore an oath to Constantine, who formally became emperor from that day, although he himself did not accept any authority to govern the country. Thus, in the Russian Empire a situation arose where there was no actual ruler. As a result, the Decembrists became more active, realizing that they would no longer have such an opportunity. That is why the Decembrist uprising of 1825 happened on Senate Square, in the capital of the country. The day chosen for this was also significant - December 14, 1825, the day when the whole country had to swear allegiance to the new ruler, Nicholas.

What was the plan of the Decembrist uprising?

The ideological inspirers of the Decembrist uprising were the following people:

• Alexander Muravyov - the creator of the union
• Sergei Trubetskoy
• Nikita Muravyov
• Ivan Yakushin
• Pavel Pestel
• Kondraty Ryleev
• Nikolai Kakhovsky

There were other active participants in secret societies who accepted Active participation in a coup attempt, but it was these people who were the leaders of the movement. The general plan of their actions on December 14, 1825 was as follows - to interfere with the Russian armed forces, as well as the authorities state power, represented by the Senate, take the oath of allegiance to Emperor Nicholas. For these purposes, it was planned to do the following: capture the Winter Palace and the entire royal family. This would transfer power into the hands of the rebels. Sergei Trubetskoy was appointed head of the operation.

In the future, the secret societies planned to create a new government, adopt the country's constitution and proclaim democracy in Russia. In fact, the talk was about creating a republic, from which all royal family should have been expelled. Some Decembrists went even further in their plans and proposed killing everyone related to the ruling dynasty.

Decembrist uprising of 1825, December 14

The Decembrist uprising began in the early morning of December 14th. However, initially everything did not go as they planned and the leaders of the secret movements had to improvise. It all started with the fact that Kakhovsky, who had previously confirmed that he was ready to enter Nikolai’s chambers early in the morning and kill him, refused to do so. After the first local failure, a second one followed. This time Yakubovich, who was supposed to send troops to storm the Winter Palace, also refused to do so.

It was too late to retreat. Early in the morning, the Decembrists sent their agitators to the barracks of all capital units, who called on the soldiers to go out to Senate Square and oppose the autocracy in Russia. As a result, it was possible to bring to the square:

• 800 soldiers of the Moscow Regiment
• 2350 sailors of the Guards crew

By the time the rebels were brought to the square, the senators had already taken the oath to the new emperor. It happened at 7 o'clock in the morning. Such haste was necessary because Nicholas was warned that a major uprising was expected against him in order to disrupt the oath.

The Decembrist uprising on Senate Square began with the fact that the troops opposed the candidacy of the emperor, believing that Constantine had more rights to the throne. Mikhail Miloradovich personally came out to the rebels. This is a famous man, General Russian army. He called on the soldiers to leave the square and return to the barracks. He personally showed a manifesto in which Constantine renounced the throne, which means that the current emperor has all the rights to the throne. At this time, one of the Decembrists, Kakhovsky, approached Miloradovich and shot him. The general died that same day.

After these events, the Horse Guards, commanded by Alexey Orlov, were sent to attack the Decembrists. Twice this commander tried unsuccessfully to suppress the rebellion. The situation was aggravated by the fact that ordinary residents who shared the views of the rebels came to the Senate Square. In total, the total number of Decembrists numbered several tens of thousands. There was real madness going on in the center of the capital. The tsarist troops hastily prepared crews for the evacuation of Nicholas and his family to Tsarskoye Selo.

Emperor Nicholas hurried his generals to resolve the issue before nightfall. He was afraid that the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square would be taken up by the mob and other cities. Such mass participation could cost him the throne. As a result, artillery was brought to Senate Square. Trying to avoid mass casualties, General Sukhozanet gave the order to shoot with blanks. This did not give any results. Then the Emperor of the Russian Empire personally gave the order to shoot with combat and grapeshot. However, at the initial stage this only aggravated the situation, as the rebels returned fire. After this, a massive attack was carried out on the area, which sowed panic and forced the revolutionaries to flee.

Consequences of the 1825 uprising

By the night of December 14, the excitement was over. Many of the uprising activists were killed. Senate Square itself was littered with corpses. State archives provide the following data on those killed on both sides that day:

• Generals – 1
• Staff officers – 1
• Officers of various ranks – 17
• Life Guard soldiers - 282
• Ordinary soldiers – 39
• Women – 79
• Children – 150
• Ordinary people – 903

The total number of victims is simply enormous. Never before has Russia seen such mass movements. In total, the Decembrist uprising of 1805, which took place on Senate Square, cost the lives of 1,271 people.

In addition, on the night of December 14, 1825, Nicholas issues a decree on the arrest of the most active participants in the movement. As a result, 710 people were sent to prison. Initially, everyone was taken to the Winter Palace, where the emperor personally led the investigation into this case.

The Decembrist uprising of 1825 was the first major popular movement. Its failures lay in the fact that it was largely spontaneous in nature. The organization of the uprising was weak, and the involvement of the masses in it was practically non-existent. As a result, only the small number of Decembrists allowed the Emperor to suppress the rebellion in a short time. However, this was the first signal that there was an active movement against the government in the country.

Grant life, after deprivation of ranks and nobility, banish forever to hard labor. Leave him in hard labor for 20 years, and then be sent to settle in Siberia. IN modern Garden Decembrists at 30 Kim Ave., on Decembrist Island there is a memorial sign to the Decembrists.

The Decembrist uprising is an unprecedented phenomenon not only in Russian history, but also in world history. The main thing that causes misunderstanding in the actions of the Decembrists so far is that they (not one of them) laid claim to power. Thus, he deprived the Decembrists sentenced to death of the right to execution.

Southern Society of Decembrists

All the Decembrist prisoners were taken to the courtyard of the fortress and lined up in two squares: those belonging to the guards regiments and others. More than 120 Decembrists were exiled for various periods to Siberia, to hard labor or settlement. But at the same time, he petitioned for relief of the fate of other arrested Decembrists. He conducted propaganda among soldiers, being one of the leaders of the Decembrists. The future Decembrist received a good home education, entered service as a cadet in the Cavalry Guard Regiment, and in 1819 he was transferred to the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, where he was promoted to lieutenant ensign.

Leaders of the Decembrists: 1. Pavel Ivanovich Pestel

He was buried along with other executed Decembrists on the island. Going hungry. As for torture, it was not used against the Decembrists. In the first half of the 19th century, it was believed that those executed were buried on Goloday Island, which is now called Decembrist Island. There were many other people who indicated Golodai as the final resting place of the Decembrists. Information about the location of the Decembrists’ grave is available in the diaries of Pushkin’s friend Zhandre.

In 1862, after an amnesty was declared for all Decembrists, St. Petersburg Governor-General Suvorov decided to ennoble the famous grave. In June 1917, Petrograd newspapers exploded with headlines: “The grave of the executed Decembrists has been found!” The newly created Society for the Memory of the Decembrists in Petrograd made a similar request to him.

According to members of the Decembrist Memory Society, the best preserved skeleton in military uniform belonged to Colonel Pestel. From the stories of contemporaries it was known how the Decembrists were executed and buried.

For almost 200 years, the Decembrist uprising has attracted the attention of historians. A huge number of scientific articles and even dissertations have been written on this topic. What explains this interest?

Anna Akhmatova showed another interest in the grave of the Decembrists. Akhmatova believed that Pushkin depicted in these lines the island of Goloday, where the bodies of the Decembrists were secretly buried. Nevelev decided that Pushkin here displayed “historical information about the execution of the Decembrists.”

Convinced that he was right, Nevelev suggested that among many other drawings by Pushkin there was probably also an image of the grave of the Decembrists. Leningrad poet Chernov decided in 1987 to find the grave of the executed Decembrists, guided by the instructions of Pushkin (or rather, Akhmatova and Nevelev).

so Miloradovich was

It became clear that there was a cemetery here, and the discovery of five coffins (according to the number of executed Decembrists) in 1917 was purely an accident. Opposite Decembrist Island, on the banks of the Smolenka River, there is the Orthodox Smolensk cemetery - one of the oldest in St. Petersburg. As for the homosexuality of Muravtev-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin (they were a couple), it is well known, it is in the memoirs of the Decembrists and in the testimony to the investigation. 5 people (leaders) were executed, shameful for officers. Decembrist participants were exiled to Siberia, some were shot in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

This was the condition of their activity. But two of them participated in Patriotic War 1812, had wounds and military awards - and now they were sentenced to a shameful death on the gallows.

The Decembrist sailors were taken to Kronstadt and that morning the sentence of demotion was carried out on them on the flagship of Admiral Krone. The execution took place on the night of July 25, 1826, on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress. During the execution, Ryleev, Kakhovsky and Muravyov-Apostol fell from their hinges and were hanged a second time.

He was arrested on the road to Tulchin after the uprising on December 14, 1825, and was imprisoned Peter and Paul Fortress and after 6 months he was sentenced to quartering, replaced by hanging. At a meeting on December 13, 1825, at Ryleev’s, he was assigned the murder of Nicholas I (since Kakhovsky did not have his own family), but on the day of the uprising he did not dare to commit this murder. He was a member of the “Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature” and was the author of the famous satirical ode “To the Temporary Worker.”

Born in St. Petersburg and was the fourth child in the family of a famous writer of that time and statesman THEM. Muravyov-Apostol. In 1820, the Semenovsky regiment, in which Muravyov-Apostol served, rebelled, and he was transferred to the Poltava, then to the Chernigov regiment as a lieutenant colonel.

He was taken prisoner, seriously wounded. Sentenced to death and hanged on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Under the bas-relief on the monument there is an inscription: “At this place on July 13/25, 1826, the Decembrists P. Pestel, K. Ryleev, P. Kakhovsky, S. Muravyov-Apostol, M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin were executed.”

Preparing for the uprising

At the conclusion of its activities, the court decided on sentences for each defendant, which were submitted for the Highest approval. Instead of the painful death penalty by quartering, as determined by the Court, he should be hanged for his grave crimes. Prince Meshchersky, Alexander Petrovich, a warrant officer, fled soon after the start of the uprising and reported to his superiors. Petin, Vasily Nikolaevich - appeared in Kyiv, declaring that he had fled from S.I. Muravyov-Apostol.

Re: Two fagots, a murderer, an embezzler and a coward.

Sentenced to imprisonment in a fortress for 6 months, followed by assignment to military service. Kondraty Ryleev, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin did not renounce either their convictions or their role in organizing the uprising. Although his statements are known about how bitter and offensive it was for him to listen to confessions of treason to the Fatherland from representatives of the Russian elite - officers who bravely fought against Napoleon. And the tsar participated in the process in order to be sure: the materials that were brought to him for approval were not manipulated or falsified.

But at that time this was a common practice throughout Europe. On July 13, 1826, Ryleev, Pestel, Kakhovsky, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Muravyov-Apostol were hanged in the courtyard of the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The hypothesis that they could be buried on this island was put forward during the years of perestroika by the writer Andrei Chernov.

As soon as you get to the seaside, there it is. This is where they were all buried. And if ordinary people went in crowds to the burial place of the Decembrists, then the relatives of those executed even more so. Ryleev’s widow often came to her dear grave. Bibikova, the sister of the executed Decembrist Muravyov-Apostol, asked to give her the corpse of her brother, to which Nicholas I responded with a decisive refusal.

A monument was erected at the site of the death of the Decembrists. But who knows where the grave of the five executed Decembrists is located? For example, the Decembrists Zavalishin and Stein-gel knew that the bodies of their dead comrades “... the next night were secretly taken to Goloday Island, and buried there secretly.”

190 years ago, Russia experienced events that, with a certain convention, can be considered an attempt to carry out the first Russian revolution. In December 1825 and January 1826, two armed uprisings took place, organized by the Northern and Southern secret societies Decembrists.

The organizers of the uprising set themselves very ambitious goals - to change political system(replacement of autocracy with a constitutional monarchy or republic), creation of a constitution and parliament, abolition of serfdom.

Until that moment, armed uprisings were either large-scale riots (in terminology Soviet period — peasant wars), or palace coups.

Against this background, the Decembrist uprising was political event of a completely different nature, hitherto unprecedented in Russia.

The large-scale plans of the Decembrists crashed into reality, in which the new emperor Nicholas I managed to firmly and decisively put an end to the action of the fighters against the autocracy.

As you know, a failed revolution is called a rebellion, and its organizers face a very unenviable fate.

A new court was established to consider the “case of the Decembrists”

Nicholas I approached the matter carefully. By decree of December 29, 1825, a Commission was established to investigate malicious societies under the chairmanship of the Minister of War Alexandra Tatishcheva. The manifesto of June 13, 1826 established the Supreme Criminal Court, which was supposed to consider the “case of the Decembrists.”

About 600 people were involved in the investigation of the case. The Supreme Criminal Court sentenced 120 defendants in 11 different categories, ranging from the death penalty to deprivation of ranks and demotion to soldiers.

Here we must keep in mind that we are talking about nobles who participated in the uprising. Soldiers' cases were considered separately by so-called Special Commissions. According to their decision, more than 200 people were subjected to being marched through the gauntlet and other corporal punishment, and more than 4 thousand were sent to fight in the Caucasus.

“Guning” was a punishment in which the condemned man walked through the ranks of soldiers, each of whom struck him with a spitzruten (a long, flexible and thick rod made of willow). When the number of such blows reached several thousand, such punishment turned into a sophisticated form of death penalty.

As for the Decembrist nobles, the Supreme Criminal Court, based on the laws Russian Empire, handed down 36 death sentences, of which five included quartering, and another 31 included beheading.

“An exemplary execution will be their just retribution”

The emperor had to approve the verdicts of the Supreme Criminal Court. Nicholas I commuted the punishment for convicts in all categories, including those sentenced to death. The monarch spared the lives of everyone who was supposed to be beheaded.

It would be a gross exaggeration to say that the Supreme Criminal Court decided the fate of the Decembrists independently. Historical documents, published after February 1917, show that the emperor not only followed the process, but also clearly imagined its outcome.

“As for the main instigators and conspirators, an exemplary execution will be their fair retribution for the violation of public peace,” Nikolai wrote to the members of the court.

The monarch also instructed the judges on exactly how criminals should be executed. Nicholas I rejected quartering, as provided for by law, as a barbaric method, unbecoming European country. Execution was also not an option, since the emperor considered the convicts unworthy of execution, which allowed the officers to maintain their dignity.

All that remained was hanging, to which the court eventually sentenced the five Decembrists. On July 22, 1826, the death sentence was finally approved by Nicholas I.

The leaders of the Northern and Southern societies were subject to the death penalty Kondraty Ryleev And Pavel Pestel, and Sergey Muravyov-Apostol And Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who directly led the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. The fifth person sentenced to death was Pyotr Kakhovsky, who mortally wounded the Governor General of St. Petersburg on Senate Square Mikhail Miloradovich.

Inflicting a mortal wound on Miloradovich on December 14, 1825. Engraving from a drawing owned by G. A. Miloradovich. Source: Public Domain

The execution was carried out on sandbags

The news that the Decembrists will ascend the scaffold, for Russian society came as a shock. Since the time of the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna Death sentences were not carried out in Russia. Emelyan Pugacheva and his comrades were not taken into account, since we were talking about rebel commoners. The execution of nobles, even if they had encroached on the state system, was an extraordinary event.

The accused themselves, both those who were sentenced to death and those who were sentenced to other types of punishment, learned about their fate on July 24, 1826. In the house of the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress, judges announced sentences to the Decembrists, who were brought from the dungeons. After the verdict was announced, they were returned to their cells.

Meanwhile, the authorities were busy with another problem. The absence of the practice of executions for a long time led to the fact that in St. Petersburg there were neither those who knew how to build a scaffold, nor those who knew how to carry out sentences.

On the eve of the execution, an experiment was conducted in the city prison in which a hastily made scaffold was tested using eight-pound bags of sand. The experiments were personally supervised by the new Governor-General of St. Petersburg Pavel Vasilievich Golenishchev-Kutuzov.

Considering the results satisfactory, the Governor-General ordered the scaffold to be dismantled and taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Part of the scaffold was lost along the way

The execution was scheduled in the crownworks of the Peter and Paul Fortress at dawn on July 25, 1826. This dramatic act, which was supposed to put an end to the history of the Decembrist movement, turned out to be tragicomic.

As the head of the control department of the Peter and Paul Fortress recalled Vasily Berkopf, one of the cabbies transporting parts of the gallows managed to get lost in the dark and appeared on the spot with a significant delay.

From midnight in the Peter and Paul Fortress there was an execution of those convicts who escaped execution. They were taken out of the dungeons, their uniforms were torn off and their swords were broken over their heads as a sign of the so-called “civil execution”, then they were dressed in prisoner mantles and sent back to their cells.

Meanwhile, the police chief Chikhachev with an escort of soldiers of the Pavlovsk Guards Regiment, he took five people sentenced to death from their cells, after which he escorted them to the prison camp.

When they were brought to the place of execution, the condemned men saw how carpenters, under the guidance of an engineer, Matushkina They are hastily trying to assemble the scaffold. The organizers of the execution were almost more nervous than the convicts - it seemed to them that the cart with part of the gallows had disappeared for a reason, but as a result of sabotage.

The five Decembrists were seated on the grass, and they discussed their fate with each other for some time, noting that they were worthy of a “better death.”

“We must pay our last debt”

Finally they took off their uniforms, which they immediately burned. Instead, the condemned were put on long white shirts with bibs on which the word “criminal” and the name of the condemned were written.

After this, they were taken to one of the nearby buildings, where they had to wait for the completion of the construction of the scaffold. Communion was given to four Orthodox Christians in the house on death row - a priest Myslovsky, Lutheran Pestel - pastor Rainbot.

Finally the scaffold was completed. Those sentenced to death were again brought to the place of execution. The Governor General was present at the execution of the sentence Golenishchev-Kutuzov, generals Chernyshev, Benckendorf, Dibich, Levashov, Durnovo, Chief of Police Knyazhnin, police chiefs Posnikov, Chikhachev, Derschau, head of the control department Berkopf, archpriest Myslovsky, paramedic and doctor, architect Gurney, five assistant quarter wardens, two executioners and 12 Pavlovian soldiers under the command of the captain Pohlman.

Police Chief Chikhachev read the verdict of the Supreme Court with final words: “Hang for such atrocities!”

“Gentlemen! We must pay our last debt,” noted Ryleev, addressing his comrades. Archpriest Peter Myslovsky read a short prayer. White caps were placed over the heads of the convicts, which caused dissatisfaction among them: “What is this for?”

Execution turned into sophisticated torture

Things continued to go wrong. One of the executioners suddenly fainted and had to be urgently carried away. Finally, drumming began to sound, nooses were placed around the necks of those being executed, the bench was pulled out from under their feet, and a few moments later, three of the five hanged men fell down.

According to the testimony of Vasily Berkopf, the head of the Peter and Paul Fortress's crown guard, initially a hole was dug under the gallows, on which boards were placed. It was assumed that at the moment of execution the boards would be pulled out from under the feet. However, the gallows were built in a hurry, and it turned out that the death row prisoners standing on the boards did not reach the loops with their necks.

They began to improvise again - in the destroyed building of the Merchant Shipping School they found benches for students, who were placed on the scaffold.

But at the moment of execution, three ropes broke. Either the executors did not take into account that they were hanging the condemned with shackles, or the ropes were initially of poor quality, but three Decembrists - Ryleev, Kakhovsky and Muravyov-Apostol - fell into the pit, breaking through the boards with the weight of their own bodies.

Moreover, it turned out that the hanged Pestel reached the boards with his toes, as a result of which his agony stretched out for almost half an hour.

Some of the witnesses to what was happening felt sick.

Muravyov-Apostol is credited with the words: “ Poor Russia! And we don’t know how to hang properly!”

Perhaps this is just a legend, but we must admit that the words were very suitable at that moment.

Law versus tradition

The leaders of the execution sent messengers for new boards and ropes. The procedure was delayed - finding these things in St. Petersburg early in the morning was not such an easy task.

There was one more nuance - the military article of that time prescribed execution before death, but there was also an unspoken tradition according to which the execution was not supposed to be repeated, because this meant that “the Lord does not want the death of the condemned.” This tradition, by the way, took place not only in Russia, but also in other European countries.

Nicholas I, who was in Tsarskoye Selo, could make a decision to stop the execution in this case. From midnight, messengers were sent to him every half hour to report on what was happening. Theoretically, the emperor could have intervened in what was happening, but this did not happen.

As for the dignitaries who were present at the execution, it was necessary for them to complete the matter so as not to pay with their own careers. Nicholas I banned quartering as a barbaric procedure, but what happened in the end was no less barbaric.

Finally, new ropes and boards were brought, the three who fell, who were injured in the fall, were again dragged onto the scaffold and hanged a second time, this time achieving their death.

Engineer Matushkin was responsible for everything

Engineer Matushkin, who was demoted to soldier for poor quality construction of the scaffold, was made the worst offender for all the omissions.

When the doctors confirmed the death of the hanged men, their bodies were removed from the gallows and placed in the destroyed building of the Merchant Shipping School. By this time it was dawn in St. Petersburg, and it was impossible to remove the corpses for burial unnoticed.

According to Chief Police Chief Knyazhnin, the next night the bodies of the Decembrists were taken out of the Peter and Paul Fortress and buried in a mass grave, on which no sign was left.

There is no exact information about where exactly the executed were buried. The most likely place is Goloday Island, where state criminals were buried since the time of Peter I. In 1926, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the execution, Goloday Island was renamed Dekabristov Island, and a granite obelisk was installed there.

In the first quarter of the 19th century. A revolutionary ideology arose in Russia, the bearers of which were the Decembrists. Disillusioned with the policies of Alexander 1, part of the progressive nobility decided to put an end to the reasons, as it seemed to them, for the backwardness of Russia.

The attempted coup that took place in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, on December 14 (26), 1825, was called the Decembrist Uprising. The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, many of them were officers of the guard. They tried to use the guards units to prevent Nicholas I from ascending the throne. The goal was the abolition of the autocracy and the abolition of serfdom.

In February 1816, the first secret political society, the goal of which was the abolition of serfdom and the adoption of a constitution. It consisted of 28 members (A.N. Muravyov, S.I. and M.I. Muravyov-Apostles, S.P.T Rubetskoy, I.D. Yakushkin, P.I. Pestel, etc.)

In 1818, the organization “ Welfare Union”, which had 200 members and had councils in other cities. The society propagated the idea of ​​abolishing serfdom, preparing a revolutionary coup using the forces of the officers. " Welfare Union"collapsed due to disagreements between radical and moderate members of the union.

In March 1821, arose in Ukraine Southern Society led by P.I. Pestel, who was the author of the policy document " Russian Truth».

In St. Petersburg, on the initiative of N.M. Muravyov was created " Northern society”, which had a liberal plan of action. Each of these societies had its own program, but the goal was the same - the destruction of autocracy, serfdom, estates, the creation of a republic, the separation of powers, and the proclamation of civil liberties.

Preparations for an armed uprising began. The conspirators decided to take advantage of the complex legal situation that had developed around the rights to the throne after the death of Alexander I. On the one hand, there was secret document, confirming the long-standing refusal of the throne by the brother next in seniority to the childless Alexander, Konstantin Pavlovich, which gave an advantage to the next brother, extremely unpopular among the highest military-bureaucratic elite, Nikolai Pavlovich. On the other hand, even before the opening of this document, Nikolai Pavlovich, under pressure from the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, hastened to renounce his rights to the throne in favor of Konstantin Pavlovich. After the repeated refusal of Konstantin Pavlovich from the throne, the Senate, as a result of a long night meeting on December 13-14, 1825, recognized the legal rights to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich.

The Decembrists decided to prevent the Senate and troops from taking the oath to the new king.
The conspirators planned to occupy the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace, arrest the royal family and, if certain circumstances arose, kill them. Sergei Trubetskoy was elected to lead the uprising. Next, the Decembrists wanted to demand from the Senate the publication of a national manifesto proclaiming the destruction of the old government and the establishment of a provisional government. Admiral Mordvinov and Count Speransky were supposed to be members of the new revolutionary government. The deputies were entrusted with the task of approving the constitution - the new fundamental law. If the Senate refused to announce a national manifesto containing points on the abolition of serfdom, equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms, and the introduction of mandatory for all classes military service, the introduction of jury trials, the election of officials, the abolition of the poll tax, etc., it was decided to force him to do this forcibly. Then it was planned to convene a National Council, which would decide the choice of form of government: a republic or a constitutional monarchy. If the republican form was chosen, the royal family would have to be expelled from the country. Ryleev first proposed sending Nikolai Pavlovich to Fort Ross, but then he and Pestel plotted the murder of Nikolai and, perhaps, Tsarevich Alexander.

On the morning of December 14, 1825, the Moscow Life Guards Regiment entered Senate Square. He was joined by the Guards Marine Crew and the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment. In total, about 3 thousand people gathered.

However, Nicholas I, notified of the impending conspiracy, took the oath of the Senate in advance and, gathering troops loyal to him, surrounded the rebels. After negotiations, in which Metropolitan Seraphim and the Governor-General of St. Petersburg M.A. Miloradovich (who was mortally wounded) took part on the part of the government, Nicholas I ordered the use of artillery. The uprising in St. Petersburg was crushed.

But already on January 2 it was suppressed by government troops. Arrests of participants and organizers began throughout Russia. 579 people were involved in the Decembrist case. Found guilty 287. Five were sentenced to death (K.F. Ryleev, P.I. Pestel, P.G. Kakhovsky, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol). 120 people were exiled to hard labor in Siberia or to a settlement.
About one hundred and seventy officers involved in the Decembrist case were extrajudicially demoted to soldiers and sent to the Caucasus, where Caucasian War. Several exiled Decembrists were later sent there. In the Caucasus, some, with their courage, earned promotion to officers, like M. I. Pushchin, and some, like A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, died in battle. Individual participants in the Decembrist organizations (such as V.D. Volkhovsky and I.G. Burtsev) were transferred to the troops without demotion to soldiers, which took part in the Russian-Persian war of 1826-1828 and Russian-Turkish war 1828-1829. In the mid-1830s, just over thirty Decembrists who served in the Caucasus returned home.

The verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court on the death penalty for five Decembrists was executed on July 13 (25), 1826 in the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

During the execution, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky and Ryleev fell from the noose and were hanged a second time. There is a misconception that this was contrary to the tradition of inadmissibility of the second execution of the death penalty. According to military Article No. 204 it is stated that “ Carry out the death penalty until the end result occurs ", that is, until the death of the convicted person. The procedure for releasing a convicted person who, for example, fell from the gallows, which existed before Peter I, was abolished by the Military Article. On the other hand, the “marriage” was explained by the absence of executions in Russia over the previous several decades (the exception was the executions of participants in the Pugachev uprising).

On August 26 (September 7), 1856, the day of his coronation, Emperor Alexander II pardoned all the Decembrists, but many did not live to see their liberation. It should be noted that Alexander Muravyov, the founder of the Union of Salvation, sentenced to exile in Siberia, was already appointed mayor in Irkutsk in 1828, then held various responsible positions, including governorship, and participated in the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

For many years, and even nowadays, not infrequently, the Decembrists in general and the leaders of the coup attempt were idealized and given an aura of romanticism. However, we must admit that these were ordinary state criminals and traitors to the Motherland. It is not for nothing that in the Life of St. Seraphim of Sarov, he usually greeted any person with exclamations " My joy!", there are two episodes that sharply contrast with the love with which Saint Seraphim treated everyone who came to him...

Go back where you came from

Sarov monastery. Elder Seraphim, completely imbued with love and kindness, looks sternly at the officer approaching him and refuses him a blessing. The seer knows that he is a participant in the conspiracy of the future Decembrists. " Go back where you came from ", the monk tells him decisively. The great elder then leads his novice to the well, the water in which was cloudy and dirty. " So this man who came here intends to outrage Russia “, said the righteous man, jealous of the fate of the Russian monarchy.

Troubles will not end well

Two brothers arrived in Sarov and went to the elder (these were two Volkonsky brothers); he accepted and blessed one of them, but did not allow the other to approach him, waved his hands and drove him away. And he told his brother about him that he was up to no good, that the troubles would not end well and that a lot of tears and blood would be shed, and advised him to come to his senses in time. And sure enough, the one of the two brothers whom he drove away got into trouble and was exiled.

Note. Major General Prince Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky (1788-1865) was a member of the Union of Welfare and Southern Society; convicted of the first category and, upon confirmation, sentenced to hard labor for 20 years (the term was reduced to 15 years). Sent to the Nerchinsk mines, and then transferred to a settlement.

So, looking back, we must admit that it was bad that the Decembrists were executed. It’s bad that only five of them were executed...

And in our time, we must clearly understand that any organization that sets as its goal (openly or hidden) the organization of disorder in Russia, the arousal of public opinion, the organization of actions of confrontation, as happened in poor Ukraine, the armed overthrow of the government, etc. - subject to immediate closure, and the organizers to trial as criminals against Russia.

Lord, deliver our fatherland from disorder and civil strife!