Decembrist Revolt

In December 1825 Russian army officers staged the first organized armed uprising against autocracy in Saint Petersburg, setting a template for later revolutionaries.

Overview

Officers who had seen constitutional Europe during the Napoleonic wars founded secret societies, the Northern and Southern unions, with programs ranging from constitutional monarchy to a republican Abolition of serfdom. On the day Nicholas I took the oath, about three thousand soldiers of the guard gathered at Senate Square refusing allegiance to the new tsar and demanding a constitution. Leaderless, poorly organized, and unwilling to strike first, they were dispersed by artillery fire. The southern society rising was crushed within weeks. Five leaders were hanged and more than a hundred exiled to Siberia. The Decembrists failed, but their example inspired generations of Russian radicals from Herzen to Lenin.