#decembrists

Sergey Muravyov-Apostol :) CLICK READ MORE TO SEE THE SKETCH WITH JUNOT!!!

Will it be finished? WIP

'The first Russian secret society, the Union of Salvation, began with a restrictive and nonimperial concept of the nation: its initial aim was "resistance to the Germans in the Russian state service." However, it soon broadened its agenda and turned to promoting the "welfare of Russia" by advancing the idea of regulating serfdom, or possibly abolishing it and transforming the autocracy into a constitutional monarchy. This was the first time a political movement had been created in Russia with such an ambitious aim, and how it was to be accomplished was never really settled. To give the movement's ideas wider currency, the Union of Salvation turned itself into the Union of Welfare, with a public arm devoted, like the masons, to philanthropy, education, justice, and morality. These were laid out in a Green Book, which bound every member to seek public office if possible, but in any case to promote the aims of the union through personal example, practical activity, and the denunciation of official abuses. Members were required to be male, Christian, nonserf, and Russian. The exclusion of serfs was characteristic … the Union was unambiguously elitist, as its concept of citizenship implied. The Green Book did not recommend freeing the serfs, merely treating them humanely on the grounds that "subordinates are also people." The members of the Union later became known as Decembrists, because of the attempted coup in 1825 which grew out of their activity. But most of them, even those in its secret wing, had no definite political strategy in mind. For the most part, if they took its ideals seriously, they did so by trying to live out its precepts in everyday life. As Iurii Lotman has shown, they were trying to overcome the duality which existed between the Enlightenment culture in which they had been educated and the reality of life at court and on their estates, where most relationships were unadornedly hierarchical. They did not so much reject social etiquette as try to behave as if they really felt the sentiments normally expressed only for convention's sake. Many of them rejected the prevailing patriarchal notions of family life, seeing marriage not mainly as a means of perpetuating the rod (kin), but rather as a partnership of two equal adults joined by mutual affection and committed to the humane upbringing of children. In reaction against hierarchy and frivolity, they practiced an intense cult of sincerity and friendship among equals. The poet Aleksandr Pushkin grew up in this environment, and although he was never a Decembrist himself, his early poetry celebrated precisely those ideals. They were part of the atmosphere in which young nobles lived; the main significance of the movement was that its members tried to practice them consistently even in a discouraging environment.'

Во глубине сибирских руд Храните гордое терпенье, Не пропадет ваш скорбный труд И дум высокое стремленье.

Несчастью верная сестра, Надежда в мрачном подземелье Разбудит бодрость и веселье, Придет желанная пора:

Любовь и дружество до вас Дойдут сквозь мрачные затворы, Как в ваши каторжные норы Доходит мой свободный глас.

Оковы тяжкие падут, Темницы рухнут — и свобода Вас примет радостно у входа, И братья меч вам отдадут.