This article is about the failed Russian revolt. For the Portland, Oregon-based band, see The Decemberists.

The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising was attempted in Imperial Russia by army officers who led about 3,000 Russian soldiers on December 14 (December 26 New Style), 1825. Because these events occurred in December, the rebels were called the Decembrists (Dekabristy, Russian: Декабристы). This uprising took place in the Senate Square in St. Petersburg. In 1925, to mark the centenary of the event, it was renamed as Decembrist Square (Ploshchad' Dekabristov, Russian: Площадь Декабристов).

Historians have generally agreed that a revolutionary movement was born during the reign of Alexander I. Young officers who had pursued Napoleon into Western Europe came back to Russia with revolutionary ideas, including human rights, representative government, and mass democracy. The intellectual Westernisation that had been fostered in the 18th century by a paternalistic, autocratic Russian state now included opposition to autocracy, demands for representative government, calls for the abolition of serfdom, and, in some instances, advocacy of a revolutionary overthrow of the government. Officers were particularly incensed that Alexander had granted Poland a constitution while Russia remained without one. Several clandestine organizations were preparing for an uprising when Alexander died unexpectedly in 1825.

Following his death, there was confusion about who would succeed him. Alexander I died having left no direct heir to the throne. According to the house law, his brother Constantine Pavlovich should have become emperor, but he had abdicated in favor of his younger brother Nicholas I. In 1822, Alexander had signed a declaration to the effect that Nicholas would take the throne upon his death. This document was seen by few until the death of Alexander, whereupon Nicholas accepted the throne.

A group of officers commanding about 3,000 men refused to swear allegiance to the new tsar, Nicholas I, proclaiming instead their loyalty to the idea of a Russian constitution. Nicholas sent the military hero Count Miloradovich, greatly respected by the officers, to pacify the rebels. While delivering a speech, Miloradovich he was shot dead by the officer Peter Kakhovsky. When the rebellion was over, the latter was executed by hanging together with four other leading Decembrists: Pavel Pestel, responsible for polticial theories of the Decembrists and a project of Russian constitution, the poet Konstantin Ryleev, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin. Other Decembrists were exiled to Siberia and the Far East.

To some extent, the Decembrists were in the tradition of a long line of palace revolutionaries who wanted to place their candidate on the throne. But because the Decembrists also wanted to implement a liberal political program, their revolt has been considered the beginning of a revolutionary movement. The uprising was the first open breach between the government and liberal elements, and it would subsequently widen.

The revolt suffered from poor organization and lack of focus. For example, the organizing generals had the mob under their influence chant "Constantine and Constitution" while rioting, but many of them, when questioned, professed to believe that "Constitution" was Constantine's wife.

Wives of many Decembrists followed their husbands into exile. Since this time the expression Decembrist wife is a Russian symbol of the devotion of a wife to her husband.

External link

• Decembrist exile in Irkutsk (http://www.nomadom.net/russia/decembrists.htm)

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