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The Decembrist Conspiracy through British Eyes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

David M. Lang
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Extract

The activities of secret revolutionary societies in the Russian Army towards the close of the reign of Alexander I, the abortive mutiny of December, 1825, and the subsequent collapse and repression of the movement, are among the best-known episodes of modern Russian history. Although a great deal has been written about the conspiracy itself, considerably less is known about its effect on the course of Russian diplomacy and the impression which it made upon foreign observers at the time. Therefore, it may not be without interest to read the reports, most of them hitherto unpublished, of a British diplomat, who witnessed the uprising and its consequences in Russian internal and foreign policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1949 , pp. 262 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1949

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References

1 Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, Sixth Viscount Strangford (1780-1855), served as Envoy to Portugal and Brazil (1806-15), Ambassador to Sweden (1817-10), Turkey (1820-24), Russia (1825-26) and Brazil (1828). He was a poet of some talent, and a Tory in politics. For historical parallels in the French and Austrian press to those English accounts of the Decembrist conspiracy, see Tarle, E., “Imperator Nikolaj I i francuzskoe obščestvennoe mnenie,” Zapad i Rossija(Petrograd, 1918), pp. 32–34 Google Scholar. See also “Les Rapports de l'ambassade de France à Saint-Pétersbourg sur la conjuration des De'cabristes,” Le Monde Slave, 1925, No. 12; “Les rapports de l'ambassade d'Autriche à Saint-Pétersbourg sur la conjuration des Décabristes,” Le Monde Slave, 1926, Nos. I, II and III.

2 British Foreign Office Records, F. O. 65/149. No. 15. (This volume contains the original dispatches as actually sent and received at the Foreign Office. These often differ slightly from the fair copies entered in the Embassy Letter Book, Vol. F.O. 182/2. In most cases the former version has been adopted, except where hasty copying has resulted in obvious omissions or errors. The spelling and punctuation of the originals are preserved.)

3 The victims were Major-Generals Šenšin and Frederiks of the Moscow Regiment. Their wounds, however, were not fatal.

4 Strangford to Canning. No. 18. December 15/27, 1825.

5 Strangford to Canning. No. 19. December 16/28, 1825.

6 Aleksandr Ivanovič Odoevskij (1802-39) and Evgeny Petrovič Obolenskij (1796- 1865).

7 Aleksandr Ivanovič Jakuboviˇ (1792-1845).

8 This communiqué is given in full in Lettres et Papiers du Chtmcelier Comte de Nesselrode, Vol. VI (Paris, n.d. [1908]).

9 F.O. 182/2, p. 50. No. 20. This part of Strangford's dispatch appears not to have been included in the final version as sent to the Foreign Office.

10 F.O. 65/149. No. 21. December 19/31, 1825.

11 Aleksandr Mikhajlovič Bulatov (1793-1826). He died soon afterward, in a state of raving lunacy.

12 F.O. 65/157. Strangford to Canning. No. I. December 23, 1825/January 4, 1826.

13 Ibid., No. 2, December 23, 1825/January 4, 1826.

14 An account of these projects is given by Semevskij, V. I. in his book, Političeshe i obščestvennie idei Dekabristov (St. Petersburg, 1909)Google Scholar.

15 Strangford to Canning. No. 8. January 5/17, 1826. An extract from this dispatch is given by de Fonblanque, E. B. in Lives of the Lords Strangford (London, n.d. [1877]), p. 155 Google Scholar.

16 F.O. 65/157. No. 9. January 5/17, 1826.

17 Russian Ambassador to the French Court.

18 In a letter to Sir Charles Bagot, H. M. Ambassador at The Hague, Strangford humorously remarked that the French Ambassador very likely had a third set in his pocket—for Nicholas's younger brother, the Grand Duke Michael Pavlovič. (Bagot, J., George Canning and His Friends (London, 1909), II, 326-27)Google Scholar.

19 In a well-known history of Russia, the name of this individual is oddly given as Šervud. ( Milyukov, , Seignobos and Eisenmann: Histoire de Russie, [Paris, 1932], II, 687 Google Scholar).

20 Strangford to Canning. No. 14. January 10/22, 1826.

21 These “horrors” later appear to have proved greatly exaggerated.

22 Strangford to Canning. No. 17. January 23/February 4, 1826.

23 Strangford to Canning. No. 24. January 23/February 4, 1826.

24 Strangford to Canning. No. 23. January 23/February 4, 1826.

25 F.o. 65/153. Canning to the Duke of Wellington. No. 2. February 10, 1826.

26 F.O. 65/161.

27 Strangford to Canning. No. 42. March 23/April 4, 1826.

28 F.O. 65/162.

29 Strangford to Canning. No. 74. June 18/30, 1826.

30 Later Sir Edward Cromwell Disbrowe, G. C. B. (1790-1851). His daughter's book, Old Days in Diplomacy; Recollections of a Closed Century, by C. A. A. Disbrowe (London, 1903), contains further first-hand accounts of the Decembrist rising and its consequences.

31 Rapport de la Commission d' Enquête, “De la Typographie de Pluchart,” St. Petersburg, May 30, 1826.

32 F.O. 65/158. Disbrowe to Canning. No. 4. June 24/July 6, 1826.

33 Disbrowe to Canning. No. 9. July 13/25, 1826.

34 Disbrowe to Canning. No. 24. August 3/15, 1826.