MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Alexander I was a busy man, leading an empire at war with the most feared general in the entire world, Napoleon Bonaparte. Since his country had helped the Sixth Coalition battle against the French, Alexander had never taken time to delegate some of his tasks to one of his brothers. It was not until the 20th of August when Mikhail Kutuzov reported to the Tsar about a Circassian revolt that threatened to destabilize Russia’s southern border with the Caucasus Mountains. Immediately, the Tsar rushed back into Russia while he delegated the task of commanding the Russian Army about to participate in an attack on Dresden to his brother Nicholas. However, when Alexander and Nicholas met in liberated Vilnius by the 23rd of August, little did they know that it would be the last time they’d see each other as fate had something else in mind for an optimistic Nicholas. By the time Nicholas arrived on the outskirts of Dresden, the Sixth Coalition was ready to engage the most professional modern forces in the world. The next day when Napoleon arrived unexpectedly in Dresden, Nicholas led an assault upon one of the French infantry divisions. Here, an unexpected tragedy was about to occur. One of Napoleon’s rivals, a certain Jean Victor Marie Moreau, had been present on the outskirts in Dresden while he and Nicholas supervised the ongoing battle. Suddenly, a shell struck close to the pair as they writhed in pain. Moreau was lucky to have survived such a wound, but the man who he had talked to earlier wasn’t as lucky as he was. Whatever happened now, it was up to destiny itself to decide whether the death of Nicholas Pavlovich would lead to a good fortune in the Land of the Tsars or an even worse fortune which would befall upon the Tsar’s potential successor.
A funeral procession for Prince Nicholas Pavlovich happened on the same day Moreau died in September 2nd, 1813. Thousands of Russian soldiers paid tribute to their prince as Alexander himself attended the funeral just days after giving orders to one of his generals who were busy keeping Circassian tribesmen at bay. Buoyed with grief, the younger looking Tsar spent the remainder of his life isolated from his peers. Even some of the ordinary soldiers who had gotten used to seeing their Tsar command them were perplexed at his sudden turn to isolation. On the other hand, one of Alexander’s remaining brothers had pondered on his thoughts about Nicholas’s death. If Alexander were to die soon, then he’d become Tsar of Russia by default. Within the mind of Duke Constantine Pavlovich, from his current divorce to Juliane of Saxe-Couburg to a chance meeting with Joanna Grudzinska in October of 1813, Constantine’s eventual career as Governor of Poland would allow him to witness the harsh reality of the Polish people living under the Russian yoke. In yet another twist of fate, one of the officers serving as an adjutant to Constantine was a promising officer named Pavel Pestel, for whom Constantine would know him as the man who helped him secure his throne. In 1814, Constantine and Mikhail Pavlovich arrived in Berlin to negotiate with the Prussian royal family regarding a potential arranged marriage between the two Royal families. Originally, Nicholas could have married Princess Charlotte, but his untimely death in Dresden had resulted in Constantine's presence instead. As Constantine was still legally married to Julianne of Saxe-Couburg and Mikhail Pavlovich had already married Charlotte of Wurttemberg, Charlotte of Prussia was crestfallen that none of the Romanov brothers were available. It was not until November 9th of 1814 that Julianne was formally summoned to Berlin to finalize her annulment of her marriage to Constantine that Charlotte finally began her courtship with the Grand Duke. The courtship would last for four years as Constantine was given more responsibilities of leading the Russian Army while Charlotte was tutored in the Russian language by Pestel himself. When Nikita Muraviev had joined Pestel with Constantine's entourage in Memel, Prussia by December of 1814, the former had grown increasingly worried about Constantine's romance with the Prussian princess and recalled a story when a Prussian prince had nearly taken Russia on his idol's side during the Seven Years' War. Of course, Muraviev mused about Constantine's possible downfall in the same manner as Peter III but dispelled any doubts that the romantic entourage between Constantine and Charlotte of Prussia was necessary in order to cement a potential alliance between the two countries.
On a normal June summer day in Koenigsberg in 1815, Constantine and Charlotte talked about what they would do after Napoleon was defeated. The news of Napoleon's defeat in Waterloo erupted a mob of cheerful Prussians who celebrated in Koenigsberg. In a victory dinner party at the Koenigsberg castle, Constantine revealed to Charlotte about how some of his own officers had envied the living standards of their enemies. There were talks of emulating such necessary reforms that allowed France to flex her muscles in Europe for the Russian Empire. Charlotte wrote to her brother, the future Kaiser Wilhelm I for whom Prussia would be grateful to have in times of need.
"My dear brother, I have come into the crossroads of destiny with a man who possessed a great concern for his country. I've grown fond of Constantine as a lover, and I'm sure that if we are to marry right now, it should cement the friendship between our kingdom and Constantine's empire. Our great-great-grandfather Frederick had once told our armies to seek and cultivate friendship with the eastern hordes lest we destroy each other entirely. This is it, let us hope for Constantine's proposal of marriage to come and I shall accept it."
The wedding of Constantine and Charlotte took place two years later in 1817 after she formally converted to the Russian Orthodox faith. Many guests were pleased at the joyful celebrations as his brother Mikhail Pavlovich became Constantine's best man. A special regiment was created in Charlotte's honor, the Tsarevna (later changed to Her Majesty) Alexandra Feodorovna's Imperial Guardsmen Brigade, consisted of Russian soldiers who were veterans of the Napoleonic War, many of whom would later be influenced by Pestel's ideas of republicanism. Constantine and Charlotte would later have five children and to everyone's surprise, all of them have survived into adulthood. Here are the list of the children they had:
1) Grand Prince Vladimir Constantinovich (1818-1888): Constantine and Charlotte's eldest son, Vladimir Constantinovich would be known for his compassionate sympathy for the rebellious Poles, having been sent to Poland to complete his education. Before Vladimir's reign would start, he was tutored by Pestel himself, who took upon his own duty to educate the Tsar's children on the benefits of liberty and modernity. Moreover, Vladimir would later enact a policy of benevolent expansion and assimilation on the newly conquered territories in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Vladimir was the only Romanov prince to have held the title of Grand Prince.
2) Grand Duchess Ksenia Constantinovna (1819-1872): The eldest daughter of Constantine and Charlotte. She would be arranged to marry the first King of Greece, and would be renowned for her devotion to increased literate Orthodox nuns.
3) Grand Duke Mikhail Constantinovich (1822-1896): Constantine's second son with Charlotte. He would be known as the man selected to become the King of Hungary. Under Mikhail Constantinovich's rule, Hungary would gravitate towards Russia in the 1848 Revolution while becoming a dominant force in the Balkans. Mikhail Constantinovich would later be credited with codifying Hungary's laws and institutions.
4) Grand Duke Vladislav Constantinovich (1825-1889): The man who would become the King of Poland in 1830 with Constantine himself acting as Crown Regent before his untimely death in 1831, and Charlotte's subsequent role as Crown Regent after her husband's death. He would take the name Wladyslaw V Romanow and emulate some of the Pestelist reforms in Poland, despite being an independent country.
5) Grand Duke Vasily Constantinovich (1826-1872): Although he didn't have any role as an adiminstrator in the Russian Empire, he would be credited with his marriage to an unnamed Swedish princess who would later give birth to Sophia Vasiliyevna, who in turn would marry Prince Gustav, Duke of Uppland and the first elected King of Bulgaria.
Revoltion - What Precisely Led to it?
December was rarely a month for launching revolutions in any place around the world. Yet this unusual series of events resulted in the most unpredictable succession crisis would shake the world to its core. For a land that suffered countless invasions, famines and internal succession crises, Russia was a land in desperate need of chance. After all, most of the Russian soldiers who fought against the forces of Napoleon had witnessed for the first time the evidence of change which brought Europe out of the old ancient regime and through the blood and fire of the French Revolution and into the Napoleonic Age where constitutional and governmental reforms had stabilized Napoleon’s Empire before it collapsed by the combined might of the Coalition powers. However, the Coalition’s attempts to undo the revolution and bring back the old Bourbon regime in France would never work anymore. Russian soldiers who witnessed their enemies’ better government and management of bureaucracy were envied at how most of the ordinary peoples have enjoyed more liberties. Coupled with a more efficient justice system, they compared it to their squalid condition back home. As a result, a group of officers dedicated to replicating Napoleon’s success in Europe in terms of better management of government and acceptance of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’, though with some more, radical proposals on how to change the face of Russia’s behemoth of an empire. Events leading to what is now referred to as Black December, or in contemporary terms, the ‘Decembrist Revolt’ had started as early as 1816 when the Union of Salvation was founded as an organization dedicated to bring change to a Russian state that was still in its autocratic stage. With the Union of Salvation splitting into the aristocratic-dominated Northern Society located in St. Petersburg and a radicalized Southern Society located in the Ukraine. The Northern Society was amazed at how Great Britain was able to introduce a democratic form of government while maintaining its monarchy, while the Southern Society was influenced by the French Revolution and wanted a republican state. With such mutually hostile goals, the Northern and Southern Societies would inevitably clash. However, a meeting in 1821 between Nikita Muraviev (representing the Northern Society) and Pavel Pestel (representing the Southern Society and Constantine’s former adjutant) started a three month planning session on how they should proceed. Pestel may have been an idealist with desires of a republican form of government but at the same time he needed to win the hearts and minds of Russia’s masses. Muraviev on the other hand, wished to preserve the power of the Tsar while democratizing the Russian government. Both factions also started to negotiate with the Polish Underground, which planned to revolt against the Tsarist government in any given moment. The plan was that the Poles would support Pestel and Muraviev’s rebellion against the Tsar, and in return they would give Poland their independence back.
In the same year as the conspirators’ flirtation with the Polish Underground, one of the most ardent reformers named Mikhail Speransky entered the council of state after a brief stint as governor general of Siberia. Upon his appointment into the council of state, Speransky was approached by both Muraviev and Pestel with a tempting but risky offer: if Speransky could join the Union of Salvation and help spur a revolution in Russia, they could appoint him as head of a “Codification Committee”, or a group dedicated to codifying all Russian laws. However, the apparent liberal-minded thinker rejected at first, owing to his downfall under Alexander I and the risk of facing a permanent end of his political career under another Russian tsar. From 1822 onwards, most of the conspirators isolated themselves from their loyalist peers, spending time in libraries and conducting secret rituals that only the highest official of the reunited Union of Salvation would know. Pestel’s followers on the other hand, had retreated into the countryside and began to experience the life of a Russian peasant. Their experiences would later be recorded in Pestel’s book, Emancipation, as details of the peasants’ hardships were explained. ‘Emancipation’ would later serve as the basis for the Pestelist ideology. In December of 1824, exactly a year before the Decembrist Revolt would occur, Pestel wrote on his essay, ‘The Five Stages of the December Manifesto’, giving details on the five phases of Russia’s eventual change into a modern state:
1) Centralization of the State through Popular Support: According to the first stage of Pestelist thought, autocracy could be used as a potent weapon for centralization of the state’s institutions though ordinary masses within Russian society would be given a chance at contributing to their nation’s decision making. Pestel himself would negotiate with the Tsar on what would his role in a Decembrist regime, as long as Pestel doesn't intrude on the affairs of the Imperial family and their decisions, the Tsar would give blessing to whatever ukase Pestel or any other Decembrist would issue in his name.
2) Gradual Isolation from World Affairs in Favor of Consolidation: Muraviev had criticized Pestel for advocating isolationism from Europe since neutrality would have denied the Russian Empire of opportunities for expansion into other lands. Moreover, many of Pestel’s supporters also had concerns for Pestel’s desire for neutrality since they would not be able to intervene in Europe’s affairs, particularly where expansion into the Balkans was concerned. Though Pestel advocated Polish independence, he was also in favor of making Poland an ally since that decision would have placated both the Pan-Slavists and Polish pro-independence figures. Pestel had a good reason to advocate neutrality: European nations like the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia were wary of another Bonapartist regime after Napoleon’s downfall. By proclaiming neutrality, not only was Russia spared from having to commit itself to its erstwhile allies, but it also avoided making enemies too.
3) Military Dictatorship and the Gradual De-Autocraticization: Autocracy would still be prevalent in Russian society, with the nobles holding power. At the same time, Pestel would propose the introduction of the Veche (legislature), Sobor (judiciary) and the Duma (executive branch) as the three core building blocks of the new Russian state. However, Muraviev had once again criticize Pestel of betraying his own beliefs by allowing autocracy to continue but this time Speransky came to Pestel’s defense, stating that autocracy cannot be simply erased by force: it must fade gradually. With a popular election, a charismatic leader could enact a series of ukases with the Tsar’s blessing, promoting social welfare, progress and equality. This is where Pestel’s motivation with regards to the serfs came in. It was said from the beginning that the emancipation of the serfs had been the main goal of the Decembrist Revolution.
4) Transition into a Constitutional Monarchy: After a possible ‘Spring’ in which the ordinary masses would demand an end to the dictatorship, Pestel assumed that another revolution would become a protracted conflict in which the reactionaries and conservatives would form an alliance to reverse the Pestelist reforms, leading the liberals, reformers and radicals to bond together in order to stop the counter coup. The Tsar would retain his roles in a constitutional monarchy, but a Prime Minister would be elected from among the potential candidates. Muraviev had proposed this stage as the final phase of the Decembrist Revolt’s main goals but for Pestel, the fifth and most important phase is important.
5) Transformation into a Republican State: Upon a referendum on the status of the monarchy, Pestel also assumed that the ordinary masses will demand for the end of the monarchy and the start of Russia as a republic. In this phase, Muraviev gives his final criticism against Pestel, chastising him for excessive optimism and faulty assumption on what the masses want. Though the Decembrists had been inspired by the model government of the United States, their differences between Muraviev’s desire for constitutional monarchy and Pestel’s radical thoughts on republicanism precisely led to the Union of Salvation’s split in the first place. Pestel’s assumption on a second revolution within the Pestelist stages proved to be correct: there would be a civil war between Muraviev’s pro-monarchists and Pestel’s pro-republican faction.
A year had passed since the Decembrist Manifesto was published and Alexander had died of his illness in Taganrog back in November of 1825. With Constantine selected as Alexander’s successor, the Decembrists decided to wait until Constantine himself would make a move. Should he decline the throne and allow the youngest son, Mikhail Pavlovich to reign, it would be both Pestel and Muraviev that will force the surviving Tsarevich to take the throne. In December 1st, 1825, Constantine returned to St. Petersburg and was about to renounce his claims on the throne in order to marry his Polish lover when Pestel arrived in the Winter Palace and spoke to him. This conversation was recorded in Pestel’s own journal and would serve as a reminder of his role in convincing Constantine to accept the crown. On December 7th, 1825, Constantine agreed to become the Crown Regent while his son and heir Vladimir Constantinovich would become the Tsar of Russia and will rule on his own when he reaches the age of 18. On one side, a few Poles were hesitant in launching their revolt but when Constantine recognized Congress Poland as an independent nation but firmly allied with Russia, they celebrated with joy as they managed to regain their freedom, but they were crestfallen at the prospect of becoming a Russian puppet state. To the relief of many Poles, Constantine promised to appoint one of his other children as the new King of Poland in the future. Although autocracy was still dominant in Russian society, Pestel knew that he had to use autocratic measures as the first stage in revolutionizing the Russian Empire. The world would never be the same once again after Pestel’s successors would finish what he started.
Pavel Pestel, who would eventually become the architect of the Pestelist ideology in Russia. His Decembrist Manifesto thesis would later become a model for aspiring nations seeking modenization.
A funeral procession for Prince Nicholas Pavlovich happened on the same day Moreau died in September 2nd, 1813. Thousands of Russian soldiers paid tribute to their prince as Alexander himself attended the funeral just days after giving orders to one of his generals who were busy keeping Circassian tribesmen at bay. Buoyed with grief, the younger looking Tsar spent the remainder of his life isolated from his peers. Even some of the ordinary soldiers who had gotten used to seeing their Tsar command them were perplexed at his sudden turn to isolation. On the other hand, one of Alexander’s remaining brothers had pondered on his thoughts about Nicholas’s death. If Alexander were to die soon, then he’d become Tsar of Russia by default. Within the mind of Duke Constantine Pavlovich, from his current divorce to Juliane of Saxe-Couburg to a chance meeting with Joanna Grudzinska in October of 1813, Constantine’s eventual career as Governor of Poland would allow him to witness the harsh reality of the Polish people living under the Russian yoke. In yet another twist of fate, one of the officers serving as an adjutant to Constantine was a promising officer named Pavel Pestel, for whom Constantine would know him as the man who helped him secure his throne. In 1814, Constantine and Mikhail Pavlovich arrived in Berlin to negotiate with the Prussian royal family regarding a potential arranged marriage between the two Royal families. Originally, Nicholas could have married Princess Charlotte, but his untimely death in Dresden had resulted in Constantine's presence instead. As Constantine was still legally married to Julianne of Saxe-Couburg and Mikhail Pavlovich had already married Charlotte of Wurttemberg, Charlotte of Prussia was crestfallen that none of the Romanov brothers were available. It was not until November 9th of 1814 that Julianne was formally summoned to Berlin to finalize her annulment of her marriage to Constantine that Charlotte finally began her courtship with the Grand Duke. The courtship would last for four years as Constantine was given more responsibilities of leading the Russian Army while Charlotte was tutored in the Russian language by Pestel himself. When Nikita Muraviev had joined Pestel with Constantine's entourage in Memel, Prussia by December of 1814, the former had grown increasingly worried about Constantine's romance with the Prussian princess and recalled a story when a Prussian prince had nearly taken Russia on his idol's side during the Seven Years' War. Of course, Muraviev mused about Constantine's possible downfall in the same manner as Peter III but dispelled any doubts that the romantic entourage between Constantine and Charlotte of Prussia was necessary in order to cement a potential alliance between the two countries.
On a normal June summer day in Koenigsberg in 1815, Constantine and Charlotte talked about what they would do after Napoleon was defeated. The news of Napoleon's defeat in Waterloo erupted a mob of cheerful Prussians who celebrated in Koenigsberg. In a victory dinner party at the Koenigsberg castle, Constantine revealed to Charlotte about how some of his own officers had envied the living standards of their enemies. There were talks of emulating such necessary reforms that allowed France to flex her muscles in Europe for the Russian Empire. Charlotte wrote to her brother, the future Kaiser Wilhelm I for whom Prussia would be grateful to have in times of need.
"My dear brother, I have come into the crossroads of destiny with a man who possessed a great concern for his country. I've grown fond of Constantine as a lover, and I'm sure that if we are to marry right now, it should cement the friendship between our kingdom and Constantine's empire. Our great-great-grandfather Frederick had once told our armies to seek and cultivate friendship with the eastern hordes lest we destroy each other entirely. This is it, let us hope for Constantine's proposal of marriage to come and I shall accept it."
The wedding of Constantine and Charlotte took place two years later in 1817 after she formally converted to the Russian Orthodox faith. Many guests were pleased at the joyful celebrations as his brother Mikhail Pavlovich became Constantine's best man. A special regiment was created in Charlotte's honor, the Tsarevna (later changed to Her Majesty) Alexandra Feodorovna's Imperial Guardsmen Brigade, consisted of Russian soldiers who were veterans of the Napoleonic War, many of whom would later be influenced by Pestel's ideas of republicanism. Constantine and Charlotte would later have five children and to everyone's surprise, all of them have survived into adulthood. Here are the list of the children they had:
1) Grand Prince Vladimir Constantinovich (1818-1888): Constantine and Charlotte's eldest son, Vladimir Constantinovich would be known for his compassionate sympathy for the rebellious Poles, having been sent to Poland to complete his education. Before Vladimir's reign would start, he was tutored by Pestel himself, who took upon his own duty to educate the Tsar's children on the benefits of liberty and modernity. Moreover, Vladimir would later enact a policy of benevolent expansion and assimilation on the newly conquered territories in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Vladimir was the only Romanov prince to have held the title of Grand Prince.
2) Grand Duchess Ksenia Constantinovna (1819-1872): The eldest daughter of Constantine and Charlotte. She would be arranged to marry the first King of Greece, and would be renowned for her devotion to increased literate Orthodox nuns.
3) Grand Duke Mikhail Constantinovich (1822-1896): Constantine's second son with Charlotte. He would be known as the man selected to become the King of Hungary. Under Mikhail Constantinovich's rule, Hungary would gravitate towards Russia in the 1848 Revolution while becoming a dominant force in the Balkans. Mikhail Constantinovich would later be credited with codifying Hungary's laws and institutions.
4) Grand Duke Vladislav Constantinovich (1825-1889): The man who would become the King of Poland in 1830 with Constantine himself acting as Crown Regent before his untimely death in 1831, and Charlotte's subsequent role as Crown Regent after her husband's death. He would take the name Wladyslaw V Romanow and emulate some of the Pestelist reforms in Poland, despite being an independent country.
5) Grand Duke Vasily Constantinovich (1826-1872): Although he didn't have any role as an adiminstrator in the Russian Empire, he would be credited with his marriage to an unnamed Swedish princess who would later give birth to Sophia Vasiliyevna, who in turn would marry Prince Gustav, Duke of Uppland and the first elected King of Bulgaria.
Revoltion - What Precisely Led to it?
December was rarely a month for launching revolutions in any place around the world. Yet this unusual series of events resulted in the most unpredictable succession crisis would shake the world to its core. For a land that suffered countless invasions, famines and internal succession crises, Russia was a land in desperate need of chance. After all, most of the Russian soldiers who fought against the forces of Napoleon had witnessed for the first time the evidence of change which brought Europe out of the old ancient regime and through the blood and fire of the French Revolution and into the Napoleonic Age where constitutional and governmental reforms had stabilized Napoleon’s Empire before it collapsed by the combined might of the Coalition powers. However, the Coalition’s attempts to undo the revolution and bring back the old Bourbon regime in France would never work anymore. Russian soldiers who witnessed their enemies’ better government and management of bureaucracy were envied at how most of the ordinary peoples have enjoyed more liberties. Coupled with a more efficient justice system, they compared it to their squalid condition back home. As a result, a group of officers dedicated to replicating Napoleon’s success in Europe in terms of better management of government and acceptance of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’, though with some more, radical proposals on how to change the face of Russia’s behemoth of an empire. Events leading to what is now referred to as Black December, or in contemporary terms, the ‘Decembrist Revolt’ had started as early as 1816 when the Union of Salvation was founded as an organization dedicated to bring change to a Russian state that was still in its autocratic stage. With the Union of Salvation splitting into the aristocratic-dominated Northern Society located in St. Petersburg and a radicalized Southern Society located in the Ukraine. The Northern Society was amazed at how Great Britain was able to introduce a democratic form of government while maintaining its monarchy, while the Southern Society was influenced by the French Revolution and wanted a republican state. With such mutually hostile goals, the Northern and Southern Societies would inevitably clash. However, a meeting in 1821 between Nikita Muraviev (representing the Northern Society) and Pavel Pestel (representing the Southern Society and Constantine’s former adjutant) started a three month planning session on how they should proceed. Pestel may have been an idealist with desires of a republican form of government but at the same time he needed to win the hearts and minds of Russia’s masses. Muraviev on the other hand, wished to preserve the power of the Tsar while democratizing the Russian government. Both factions also started to negotiate with the Polish Underground, which planned to revolt against the Tsarist government in any given moment. The plan was that the Poles would support Pestel and Muraviev’s rebellion against the Tsar, and in return they would give Poland their independence back.
In the same year as the conspirators’ flirtation with the Polish Underground, one of the most ardent reformers named Mikhail Speransky entered the council of state after a brief stint as governor general of Siberia. Upon his appointment into the council of state, Speransky was approached by both Muraviev and Pestel with a tempting but risky offer: if Speransky could join the Union of Salvation and help spur a revolution in Russia, they could appoint him as head of a “Codification Committee”, or a group dedicated to codifying all Russian laws. However, the apparent liberal-minded thinker rejected at first, owing to his downfall under Alexander I and the risk of facing a permanent end of his political career under another Russian tsar. From 1822 onwards, most of the conspirators isolated themselves from their loyalist peers, spending time in libraries and conducting secret rituals that only the highest official of the reunited Union of Salvation would know. Pestel’s followers on the other hand, had retreated into the countryside and began to experience the life of a Russian peasant. Their experiences would later be recorded in Pestel’s book, Emancipation, as details of the peasants’ hardships were explained. ‘Emancipation’ would later serve as the basis for the Pestelist ideology. In December of 1824, exactly a year before the Decembrist Revolt would occur, Pestel wrote on his essay, ‘The Five Stages of the December Manifesto’, giving details on the five phases of Russia’s eventual change into a modern state:
1) Centralization of the State through Popular Support: According to the first stage of Pestelist thought, autocracy could be used as a potent weapon for centralization of the state’s institutions though ordinary masses within Russian society would be given a chance at contributing to their nation’s decision making. Pestel himself would negotiate with the Tsar on what would his role in a Decembrist regime, as long as Pestel doesn't intrude on the affairs of the Imperial family and their decisions, the Tsar would give blessing to whatever ukase Pestel or any other Decembrist would issue in his name.
2) Gradual Isolation from World Affairs in Favor of Consolidation: Muraviev had criticized Pestel for advocating isolationism from Europe since neutrality would have denied the Russian Empire of opportunities for expansion into other lands. Moreover, many of Pestel’s supporters also had concerns for Pestel’s desire for neutrality since they would not be able to intervene in Europe’s affairs, particularly where expansion into the Balkans was concerned. Though Pestel advocated Polish independence, he was also in favor of making Poland an ally since that decision would have placated both the Pan-Slavists and Polish pro-independence figures. Pestel had a good reason to advocate neutrality: European nations like the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia were wary of another Bonapartist regime after Napoleon’s downfall. By proclaiming neutrality, not only was Russia spared from having to commit itself to its erstwhile allies, but it also avoided making enemies too.
3) Military Dictatorship and the Gradual De-Autocraticization: Autocracy would still be prevalent in Russian society, with the nobles holding power. At the same time, Pestel would propose the introduction of the Veche (legislature), Sobor (judiciary) and the Duma (executive branch) as the three core building blocks of the new Russian state. However, Muraviev had once again criticize Pestel of betraying his own beliefs by allowing autocracy to continue but this time Speransky came to Pestel’s defense, stating that autocracy cannot be simply erased by force: it must fade gradually. With a popular election, a charismatic leader could enact a series of ukases with the Tsar’s blessing, promoting social welfare, progress and equality. This is where Pestel’s motivation with regards to the serfs came in. It was said from the beginning that the emancipation of the serfs had been the main goal of the Decembrist Revolution.
4) Transition into a Constitutional Monarchy: After a possible ‘Spring’ in which the ordinary masses would demand an end to the dictatorship, Pestel assumed that another revolution would become a protracted conflict in which the reactionaries and conservatives would form an alliance to reverse the Pestelist reforms, leading the liberals, reformers and radicals to bond together in order to stop the counter coup. The Tsar would retain his roles in a constitutional monarchy, but a Prime Minister would be elected from among the potential candidates. Muraviev had proposed this stage as the final phase of the Decembrist Revolt’s main goals but for Pestel, the fifth and most important phase is important.
5) Transformation into a Republican State: Upon a referendum on the status of the monarchy, Pestel also assumed that the ordinary masses will demand for the end of the monarchy and the start of Russia as a republic. In this phase, Muraviev gives his final criticism against Pestel, chastising him for excessive optimism and faulty assumption on what the masses want. Though the Decembrists had been inspired by the model government of the United States, their differences between Muraviev’s desire for constitutional monarchy and Pestel’s radical thoughts on republicanism precisely led to the Union of Salvation’s split in the first place. Pestel’s assumption on a second revolution within the Pestelist stages proved to be correct: there would be a civil war between Muraviev’s pro-monarchists and Pestel’s pro-republican faction.
A year had passed since the Decembrist Manifesto was published and Alexander had died of his illness in Taganrog back in November of 1825. With Constantine selected as Alexander’s successor, the Decembrists decided to wait until Constantine himself would make a move. Should he decline the throne and allow the youngest son, Mikhail Pavlovich to reign, it would be both Pestel and Muraviev that will force the surviving Tsarevich to take the throne. In December 1st, 1825, Constantine returned to St. Petersburg and was about to renounce his claims on the throne in order to marry his Polish lover when Pestel arrived in the Winter Palace and spoke to him. This conversation was recorded in Pestel’s own journal and would serve as a reminder of his role in convincing Constantine to accept the crown. On December 7th, 1825, Constantine agreed to become the Crown Regent while his son and heir Vladimir Constantinovich would become the Tsar of Russia and will rule on his own when he reaches the age of 18. On one side, a few Poles were hesitant in launching their revolt but when Constantine recognized Congress Poland as an independent nation but firmly allied with Russia, they celebrated with joy as they managed to regain their freedom, but they were crestfallen at the prospect of becoming a Russian puppet state. To the relief of many Poles, Constantine promised to appoint one of his other children as the new King of Poland in the future. Although autocracy was still dominant in Russian society, Pestel knew that he had to use autocratic measures as the first stage in revolutionizing the Russian Empire. The world would never be the same once again after Pestel’s successors would finish what he started.
Pavel Pestel, who would eventually become the architect of the Pestelist ideology in Russia. His Decembrist Manifesto thesis would later become a model for aspiring nations seeking modenization.
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