| To the 175th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Nicholas the First There are still twelve days until the “real” anniversary of the uprising on Senate Square, but it is better to forget about changing the calendar: the phrase “December fourteenth” carries too powerful a symbolic charge. It seems like everyone knows something about this day.
In “Fallen Leaves” Rozanov grumbled: “And they write and write the history of this buffoonery. And memoirs, and all sorts of peacock feathers. And Nekrasov with “Russian women”. And Tolstoy - we will add - with his “Decembrist” plans and epilogue “War and Peace.” And the entire tradition of Russian free-thinking from Herzen and Ogarev to Merezhkovsky and Gippius. It was like this for a long time, but not always.
In the summer of 1826, Tyutchev wrote: O victims of reckless thought, / You hoped, perhaps, / That your blood would become scarce, / To melt the eternal pole! / Barely, smoking, it sparkled / On the centuries-old mass of ice, / The iron winter died - / And there were no traces left. An acquaintance and relative of many conspirators, a witness to fatal events (on December 14 the poet was in St. Petersburg), a professional politician and a sensitive historical thinker, Tyutchev is convinced: there was no “event”, the omnipotence of the Russian “winter” is unshakable.
Something similar can be heard in the legendary remarks of the rebels themselves. “We breathe freedom” - now and only now. Exaltation implies defeat. An experienced military man, “dictator” Prince Sergei Trubetskoy already understood in the morning: the plan had failed, there were not enough troops, it must stop - the word “dare!” outweighed it. By the way, Trubetskoy was reproached for “treason” by later historians and poets who glorified the sacrificial choice (Galich’s famous “Can you go out to the square?”), and not by his “fellow businessmen”, who later recalled with pleasure the December day and the words “Oh, how gloriously we will die.” !"
They saw death and glory ahead. According to relatively reliable information, 1,271 people died on December 14. The majority were not even among the “rebellious” soldiers and sailors, but among the “rabble” - 903 people (in addition, “minors” - 19; “females” - 9). None of the members of the Secret Society lost their lives that day. (Ryleev and Kakhovsky will be hanged; first, the distraught Colonel Bulatov, who was involved in the conspiracy late and by accident and evaded command of the rebels on December 14, will commit suicide in the Peter and Paul Fortress.) “Civil death” canceled the hope for glory. The authorities built their own version.
On December 15, the newspapers reported: “The incidents of yesterday are, without a doubt, sad for all Russians and should have left sorrowful feelings in the soul of the Sovereign Emperor. But everyone who witnessed the actions of our Monarch on this memorable day, His magnanimous courage, striking, did not changeable composure, which all the troops and all their leaders marvel at with delight;
There are still twelve days until the “real” anniversary of the uprising on Senate Square, but it is better to forget about changing the calendar: the phrase “December fourteenth” carries too powerful a symbolic charge. It seems like everyone knows something about this day.
In “Fallen Leaves” Rozanov grumbled: “And they write and write the history of this buffoonery. And memoirs, and all sorts of peacock feathers. And Nekrasov with “Russian women”. And Tolstoy - we will add - with his “Decembrist” plans and epilogue “War and Peace.” And the entire tradition of Russian free-thinking from Herzen and Ogarev to Merezhkovsky and Gippius. It was like this for a long time, but not always.
In the summer of 1826, Tyutchev wrote: O victims of reckless thought, / You hoped, perhaps, / That your blood would become scarce, / To melt the eternal pole! / Barely, smoking, it sparkled / On the centuries-old mass of ice, / The iron winter died - / And there were no traces left. An acquaintance and relative of many conspirators, a witness to fatal events (on December 14 the poet was in St. Petersburg), a professional politician and a sensitive historical thinker, Tyutchev is convinced: there was no “event”, the omnipotence of the Russian “winter” is unshakable.
Something similar can be heard in the legendary remarks of the rebels themselves. “We breathe freedom” - now and only now. Exaltation implies defeat. An experienced military man, “dictator” Prince Sergei Trubetskoy already understood in the morning: the plan had failed, there were not enough troops, it must stop - the word “dare!” outweighed it. By the way, Trubetskoy was reproached for “treason” by later historians and poets who glorified the sacrificial choice (Galich’s famous “Can you go out to the square?”), and not by his “fellow businessmen”, who later recalled with pleasure the December day and the words “Oh, how gloriously we will die.” !"
They saw death and glory ahead. According to relatively reliable information, 1,271 people died on December 14. The majority were not even among the “rebellious” soldiers and sailors, but among the “rabble” - 903 people (in addition, “minors” - 19; “females” - 9). None of the members of the Secret Society lost their lives that day. (Ryleev and Kakhovsky will be hanged; first, the distraught Colonel Bulatov, who was involved in the conspiracy late and by accident and evaded command of the rebels on December 14, will commit suicide in the Peter and Paul Fortress.) “Civil death” canceled the hope for glory. The authorities built their own version.
On December 15, the newspapers reported: “The incidents of yesterday are, without a doubt, sad for all Russians and should have left sorrowful feelings in the soul of the Sovereign Emperor. But everyone who witnessed the actions of our Monarch on this memorable day, His magnanimous courage, striking, did not changeable composure, which all the troops and all their leaders marvel at with delight; Andrey NEMZER |
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