Russian Civil-Military Relations in Concept of Ukrainian Geopolitics: Part-1

Battle of Waterloo

At the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte suffers his final defeat and two decades of war in Europe come to end. The victorious powers those were led by Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia have been meeting at Vienna to decide the fate of Europe. The frontiers of nations and empires were redrawn while Emperor Alexander of Russia adds “King of Poland” to his list of titles. Emperor Alexander also oversees creation of a “Holy Alliance” to ensure that no more revolutions threaten Europe’s established order. The Russian empire even after many great sacrifices in the wars against Napoleon, have emerged more powerful than ever. However not in everyone in Russia was pleased with the new state of affairs. Those were a group of army officiers dream of a different future for Russia which was consist of a new form of goverment, radical reform even a Russia without a Tsar. 

After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, The victorious powers those were led by Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia have been meeting at Vienna to decide the fate of Europe

Napoleon’s Moscow Expedition:

In 1812, Napoleon had invaded Russia with the largest army of Europe had ever seen. It was a defining moment of his reign. However Napoleon underestimated Russian war time strength.

Four months later after invasion, the remnants of Napoleon army began its famous retreat from Moscow. The Russian army and its “Coalition Allies” then drove Napoleon’s forces back across Europe as fighting giant battle in Germany then finally Russian military forces entered in the streets of Paris itself. French Emperor Napoleon’s abdication was a moment of triumph for Russian Emperor Alexander and for Russian State as well. At this point it should be noted that for many young Russian officiers, they were also an eye opening smart experience. Imperial Russia was an autocracy ruled by an Emperor with no checks upon his power in which there was no political opposition or constitution.

Emperor Alexander I

Under Alexander rule, there was no freedom of speech or right to trial in Russia. Approximately 80 percent of Russians were serfs-peasents with no rights, freedom or hope of improvement in which their status passed down to their children. The inefficiency with certain injustice of a such system was increasingly apparent even to many Russian aristocrats. On the other hand, in Europe serving as officers in the Russian army, they had visited countries where serfdom had already been swept aside by war and revolution where monarchs had granted constitutions that limited their power, protected freedoms and acknowledged the rule of law.

Many Russian military officers were inspired and began to dream of similar reforms in Russia which is interesting that this case by nature were similar to Young Turks of Ottoman Empire was a political reform movement in the early 20th century that favored the replacement of the Ottoman Empire's absolute monarchy with a constitutional government.

They led a rebellion against the absolute rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II in the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. With this revolution, the Young Turks helped to establish the Second Constitutional Era in the same year, ushering in an era of multi-party democracy for the first time in the Ottoman’s history and this case was important to mention when elaborating civil army relations in theoretical level.

On the night of 11th March 1801, Alexander’s father, Emperor Paul was strangled to death by group of disaffected army officers. Alexander succeeded to the throne aged just 23 years old. The ineffectiveness and chaos of his father’s rule had appalled him. The young Alexander displayed a great enthusiasm for reform which was encouraging sign to Russian aristocrats those who wished to see a more modern Russian state. Furthermore in 1803, Tsar Alexander I passed a decree that gave land owners the right to free their serfs. Many people hoped it was a first step towards the abolition of serfdom. 

Michael Speransky:

In 1808, the brilliant and liberal minded Michael Speransky became Alexander’s chief advisor who created a new “Council of State” to advise the Emperor an even began working on a Russian constitution but in 1812, Alexander’s appetite for reform ended abruptly because of the fact that an anti-reform faction led by the Emperor’s sister Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna engineered chief advisor Speransky’s dismissal then Napoleon invaded Russia. In this moment of supreme crisis, Alexander seized by religious fervour a sense of personal mission and national destiny. The burning of Moscow had illuminated Alexander’s soul. In accordance to Tsar Alexander I, “liberal reforms were only the road to anarchy and chaos and they were an intolerable risk to Russia’s holy institutions.”

In 1815, any military officers returning from Europe harbouring hopes of reform were to be severely dissapointed. 

Tsar Alexander I added insult to injury by granting a liberal constitution not to Russia, but his new kingdom which was Poland. Three years later when Alexander raised the possibility of a Russian constitution based on this “Polish experiment” eventhough it proved an empty promise. Idealistic young military officers more alienated than ever, They decided that if the Emperor would not take up their cause, they must act themselves. The began to organize secret societies and to plan a revolution. Many Russian military officers already belonged to a secret society. But in 1816, military officers from Russia’s prestigious guards regiments, based in St. Petesburg formed a new secret society which was the “Union of Salvation”. Four of its founding members would play a leading role in a revolutionary movement that become known as “the Decembrists”. Nikita Muravyov a Captain in the Guards Division Staff aged 31 years old at the time of the Decembrsit revolt. He would draft one of their major plans for constitutional reform.

Nikita Muravyov

Muravyov was active in a number of Decembrist organizations who was among the founders of the Union of Salvation. Nikita Muravyov spoke out for republican government in the Union of Welfare. After the Union of Welfare's 1821 dissolution, Muravyov joined the supreme duma and was a leader in the Northern Society, and was elected to the Southern Society's directory. He wrote a draft constitution for a Russian state, and a tract "Curious Conversation" arguing the need to rise against despotism. Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Muravyov – Apostol aged 30 years old at the time of revolt. Colonel Sergei Muravyov would lead the Decembrist uprising in Ukraine. 

Sergei Muravyov

Sergei Muravyov was born in Saint Petersburg as son of Russian diplomat Ivan Muravyov-Apostol. His mother, Anna, was the daughter of a Serbian general who was Simon Crnojević. Lieutenant Sergei Muravyov led the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. He was arrested on 10 January 1826 then freed by his fellow officers. He led an insurgency against government forces on 20 January 1826, He was delivered to Saint Petersburg and was among of the Decembrists group sentenced to quartering punishment, but later this sentence was replaced with hanging. He was executed in “Peter and Paul Fortress” on 25 July 1826.

Sergei Trubetskoy

Colonel Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, aged 36 years old at the time of the revolt. A war hero from one of Russia’s most distinguished families, Colonel Trubetskoy would be chosen to lead the Decembrist coup in St. Petesburg was declared the group's leader on the eve of the “December 26 (O.S.14 December) uprising in 1825” but failed to appear, and instead sought refuge in the Austrian Embassy. Trubetskoy was one of the founders and leaders of the Northern Society. Colonel Trubestkoy advocated Constitutional Monarchy, but other Decembrists desired revolution, to execute the tsar and establish a republic.  Colonel Trubetskoy was elected "dictator" but did not come to Senate Square, most probably because he expected the revolt to fail. He was arrested the next day at the apartments of the Austrian Empire's Embassy to St. Petersburg. 

Colonel Pavel Pestel

Colonel Pavel Pestel of the Vyatka Infantry Regiment aged 33 years old at the time of revolt who was named as war hero badly wounded at Borodino. Colonel Pavel was a brilliant and one of the most active and radical members of the union. He would argue for the Emperor’s death and creation of a Russian Republic. Pestel became a member of the Union of Salvation and one of the authors of its charter. He managed to make all the society members agree on the republican program of the Union, thereby laying the foundations for the republican traditions in the Russian emancipation movement. At the same time, Pavel Pestel spoke in support of mass repressions, regicide and physical annihilation of all the members of the imperial family initially. In 1818 Pestel joined a more liberal secret society called the Union of Prosperity without regicide plans. In March 1821 he established and became the leader of the Southern Society of the Decembrists. Pestel advocated merging the Norther and Southern Decembristsgroups and travelled to Saint Petersburg to try to unification between Northern and Southern Society. Starting in 1821, Pavel Pestel worked on a project of social and economic reforms in Russia, which he would later call "Russkaya Pravda" and which would be adopted as a political program. The second edition of the “Russkaya Pravda” manifested further democratization of Pestel's views. It demanded immediate emancipation of the Russian serfs with their land, limitations of the right to landownership, creation of public and private land-funds, elimination of class privileges. The day before the Decembrists came out in open revolt in Saint Petersburg Pavel Pestel was arrested in relation to an attempt to assassinate Russian Tsar and Royal Family then Colonel Pestel was hanged with other Decembrists in the “Peter and Paul Fortress” a few months later.