The Decembrist Pavel Pestel Also by Patrick O’Meara: K. F. RYLEEV: A Political Biography of the Decembrist Poet SERGEI M. SOLOVIEV, HISTORY OF RUSSIA Vol. 37: Empress Elizabeth’s Reign, 1741–1744(translator and editor) The Decembrist Pavel Pestel Russia’s First Republican Patrick O’Meara © Patrick O’Meara 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-98455-0 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43078-9 ISBN 978-1-4039-3851-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403938510 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O’Meara,Patrick,1947 The Decembrist Pavel Pestel:Russia’s first republican/Patrick O’Meara. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Pestel’Pavel Ivanovich,1793–1826. 2. Decembrists – Biography. 3. Russia – History – Decembrist Uprising,1825.I.Title DK209.6.P42O45 2003 947(cid:2).073—dc21 2003050901 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 To Claire, Stephanie and John who make it all worth while This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix A Note on the Text x Part I The Formative Years 1 1. The Roots of Decembrism 3 2. Education and Upbringing 9 Parentage 9 Childhood 11 At the Corps of Pages 13 3. Military Service 17 In Western Europe 18 At Second Army HQ 20 Colonel of the Vyatka Infantry 29 4. The Political and Social Environment 37 Family, faith and freemasonry 37 Politics, society and ideology 43 Part II In the Decembrist Secret Societies 49 5. Pestel and the Decembrist Movement 51 The Union of Salvation 51 The Union of Welfare in Tulchin 56 St Petersburg meeting: January 1820 61 Moscow Congress, May 1821 66 6. Ideologist of the Decembrist Movement: Russian Justice 72 Genesis and composition 73 Pestel’s agenda 79 Pestel’s Russian style 84 Assessments of Russian Justice 86 7. In the Southern Society 89 Formation: from the Union of Welfare to the Southern Society 89 vii viii Contents Organisation and structures 96 Recruitment 100 Aims of the Southern Society 102 Pestel’s influence 106 8. Pestel and the Northern Society 114 The liabilities of disunity 114 In St Petersburg 118 Pestel after St Petersburg 121 9. The Polish Connection 124 First contacts with the Polish Patriotic Society 125 Formal negotiations and Pestel’s role 129 Last attempts to reach agreement 136 Part III From Aspiration to Retribution 139 10. The Planned Coup d’étatand Provisional Government 141 The fate of the imperial family 142 The ‘cohorte perdue’ 144 The Bobruisk and Belotserkov plans 147 Pestel’s role 148 The planned coup 151 The provisional revolutionary government 154 Pestel’s ‘crisis’ 158 11. Arrest, Investigation and Sentence 161 Pestel’s arrest 161 The ‘arrest’ of Russian Justice 169 Under investigation 171 Pestel’s execution 177 12. Pestel and the Roots of Russian Republicanism 185 Pestel as revolutionary 185 Settling of accounts 189 Conclusion 191 Notes 196 Bibliography 224 Index 229 Acknowledgements My thanks are due to the University of Dublin, Trinity College, for periods of study leave and for funding, particularly to the Trinity Trust and the Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Fund for grants to assist research trips to Moscow and St Petersburg. I am grateful for the visiting scholarships and fellowships I have enjoyed while researching and writing this book at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Washington DC, the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University, Canberra and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. I am immensely grateful, too, to Professor V.A. Fedorov of Moscow State University for encouraging the project in its early stages and to Peter Beevor, Tommy Murtagh and Ewa Sadowska, who generously read entire drafts and made many useful suggestions from which the final version has benefited considerably. Such shortcomings as remain should be debited to my account. Finally, I would like to thank my editor at Palgrave for timing the publication of this book, long in preparation, to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the founding in 1703 of St Petersburg, a city so closely and so poignantly associated with Pavel Pestel and the Decembrists. PATRICKO’MEARA ix