Russia's First Revolutionaries: The Decembrists

[dexter]

This is the story of the Decembrists, a group of young Russian aristocrats and army officers, including decorated veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, who returned home after the conflict hoping Russia would embark on a course of modernising reform. Instead, Emperor Alexander turned his back on the liberal ideals of his youth. He opposed all attempts to reform Russia's autocratic government, or end its brutal system of serfdom. The Decembrists, organising themselves into secret societies and publishing their own draft constitutions for a future Russia, decided that the only way forward was by revolution.

 

[dexter]

This is the story of the Decembrist revolt of 1825, in which a group of army officers tried to change the course of Russian history by overturning the country's traditional systems of autocratic government and serfdom. In St.Petersburg, the chaos of the interregnum following Emperor Alexander's death was exploited by the Decembrists, who attempted to launch a military coup. While in Ukraine, the Decembrists' Southern Society planned its own military revolt. This video follows the course of both risings, the aftermath, and how future Russian reformers and revolutionaries viewed the Decembrist revolt.