Russian Civil-Military Relations in Concept of Ukrainian Geopolitics: Part-2
They themselves would be acting in a strong Russian tradition of a palace coups led by army officer to implement dynastic and political change on which the crucial task was to be ready when the moment came.
Russian Civil-Military Relations in Concept of Ukrainian Geopolitics: Part-2
General Alexy Arakcheyev
During the Tsar Alexander I Reign, The “Union of Salvation” soon merged with another secret society which named as the “Order of Russian Knights” to form the “Union of Prosperity” with more than 200 members. Its charter known as the “Green Book” set out how the Union was to be organised. It also spelled out its commitment to educating the public about Enlightenment ideals of virtous and moral citizenship. This was contemplated to generate wider support for reform among Russian’s elite. The leaders of the Union of Prosperity were wise to be wary because of the fact that Tsar Alexander had tightened censorship laws, while allies kept him informed about Russia’s supposedly secret societies. Tsar Alexander’s new closest advisor General Alexy Arakcheyev felt no restraint on this matter. General Arakcheyev had masterminded the organisation of Russian artillery during the Napoleonic Wars who was famed for ruthless efficiency a violent temper and absolute loyalty to the Emperor.
He loathed and damaged almost anything to do with Western Europe. In accordance to him, “You don’t get things done by talking softly in French” he once remarked. Arakcheyev was put in charge of the Emperor’s latest idea which was the so called “military settlements”. The plan was to cut the cost of Russia’s huge army by having soldiers and serfs live side by side in new villages organised like military camps with strict discipline which was a harsh policy even by the standarts of Russian autocracy and led to misery, riots and rising resentment against the regime. Arakcheyev also enforced strict new standarts of discipline and conduct in the army in which the soldiers who had defeated Napoleon were now subjected to endless parades and inspections.
Small infractions were brutally punished which any officers who spoke out on behalf of their men were dismissed. When its come to 1820, a protest by the “Semyonovski Lifeguard Regiment” which was one of the army’s senior units led to even more savage punishments. To the Decembrist leaders, it proved that even elite regiments had fallen out of love with regime. They themselves would be acting in a strong Russian tradition of a palace coups led by army officer to implement dynastic and political change on which the crucial task was to be ready when the moment came. By 1821, the number of new members joining the “Union of Properity” made its founders suspicious of infiltration and discovery therefore they dissolved the Union. In this vein, its most trusted and committed members formed two new group each with around 20 to 30 people in which “Northern Society” was based on in the Russian capital St. Petesburg and was initially more moderate organisation. On the other hand the more radical Southern Society was based in Ukraine where several Decembrist officer were stationed with their regiments. Both societies spent their time holding secret meetings at the apartments of their members where they would stay up late into the night discussing political ideas, reading aloud from banned literature drafting manifestos and resolutions.
The following is the Russian political map in Europe when Decembrist Revolt break out in 19th century.
The Northern Society adopted a draft constitution by Nikita Muravyov as its aims. His moderate document would make Russia a constiutional monarchy but heavily influenced by the United States Constitution. Nikita Muravyov advocated for a division of power between executive, legislature and judiciary with each imposing “checks and balances” on the others. The executive was the Emperor, “Supreme Official of the Russan Goverment” who would command the armed forces, lead foreign policy and had the power to veto legislation. The legislature or assembly composed of a Supreme Duma or Senate together with a House of Representatives. In this point, Serfdom would be abolished and there would be equality before the law and right to vote would be restricted to those who owned a certain amount of property thuse excluding the very poorest Russians. However in 1823, a new member would take the Northern Society in a much more radical direction. 27 year old Kondraty Ryleyev was another war veteran and a famous poet, he was passionate, eloquent and devoted to the cause of revolution. He was known for his satire against the hated General Arakcheyev, secrelty circulating amongst Russian liberals; “All fear, tyrant! For evil and treachery, Thou shalt be condemned by Thy Posterity!”Therefore Kondraty Ryleyev despised monarchy in all its forms. “ There are no good goverments in the world except in America” he declared. He proved a highly influential figure and soon a radical wing of the Northern Society formed around him as taking up the argument for a republican revolution.
The leading figure of the Southern Society based in Ukraine who was Colonel Pavel Pestel. He provided the group with its own constitution in other words “Russkaya Pravda” named as Russian Truth. This lenghty, unfinished treatise was much more radical than Muravyov’s constitution in which there was no place for an Emperor in Pestel’s new Russia. In accordance to him, “the former Supreme Power has already sufficiently proved its hostile feelings towards the Russian People and the current order will cease to exist.” Pestel called for a revolution spearheaded by a Provisional Supreme Council that would impelement gradual but sweeping change in which Serdom would be abolished and land redistributed to the peasants, class privileges abolished by giving vote right to all Russian male citizens.
The Northern and Southern Societies remained in close contact despite major differences of opinion between both societies. What’s more was that they felt themselves to be step with a “sprit of the age” as revolutions and conspiracies spread across Europe such as Spanish Revolt in 1820, Cato Street Conspiracy 1820, Greece Revolt against Ottoman Empire in 1821. Such events reaffirmed their conviction that change in Russia must come from direct action which is a coup d’etat or revolution.
In 1825, Pavel Pestel learned that the Emperor Alexander and his entourage would travel to Ukraine to inspect troops. Pestel formed a plan to assasinate the Emperor and launch a military coup to establish a Russian republic for this purpose the date was set on 12th March 1826. After urgent communications with the Northern Society, Ryleyev’s faction agreed to launch a simultaneous uprising in the capital St. Petesburg but in December unexpected news threw all their plans into disarray which Tsar Alexander himself become seriously ill and Emperor Alexander died aged on 47 years old.
The Decembrist Revolution Attempt:
Alexander’s sudden death was a shock to all Russia therefore the Decembrist had agreed that the best time to force political change was at the sucession of a new Tsar. Three years before his death, Alexander signed a secret document making his younger brother who was Grand Duke Nicholas as his heir. Meanwhile the Decembrist in St Petesburg were meeting daily in which the chaos of the interregnum provides perfect cover for them. They recruit more officiers to their cause, sound out the rank and files, work out who can be relied on and who can not. That December, rumors, confusion and fake news swirl around Russian capital and Grand Duke Nicholas knows he is not popular with the troops.
Grand Duke Nicholes received intelligent news that unknown army officers are actively conspiring against him finally he decides to act first to which in the early hours of 14th December 1825. Nicholas declares himself Emperor of Russia therefore he will require an oath of loyalty from all military officials and troops in St. Petesburg. The Decembrist know that if the troops swear that oath their cause will lost. There might not be another opportunity like this in decades. 14th December becomes do or die for the revolutionaries and before the day is out, the streets of Russian capital will run with bloodshed.
There have been two successful coups d’état since the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917. Those were the overthrow of Stalin’s terrified secret police chief Lavrenti Beria in June 1953 and the ouster of Communist Party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev in October 1964.
Lavrenti Beria, Stalin’s Secret Police:
Lavrenti Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after the war. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, he was responsible for organizing purges such as the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and officials. After the war, Beria organised the communist takeover of the state institutions in central and eastern Europe. His ruthlessness in his duties and skill at producing results culminated in his success in overseeing the Soviet atomic bomb project. Stalin gave it absolute priority, and the project was completed in under five years. A coup d'état by Nikita Khrushchev, with help from Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, removed Beria from power in June 1953.
After being arrested, he was tried for treason and other offenses, sentenced to death, and executed on 23 December 1953. During his trial, and after his death, numerous allegations arose that Beria had been a serial rapist and serial killer. Aside from the execution of Beria and six of his associates, these coups were relatively bloodless. In both cases, the support of the security services and the Soviet military were crucial to their success. After Stalin’s death in March 1953, Beria’s fellows led by Khrushchev, became alarmed over his increasing power and his anti-Stalinist policies. But getting rid of Beria was a challenge, because he headed the powerful Ministry of Internal Affairs which combined both the regular police and the security services. The plotters were able to rely on Soviet military leaders, including Defense Minister Nikolai Bulganin and Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who had a deep animosity toward Beria and Military of Internal Affairs for support in arresting an unsuspecting Beria at a hastily convened leadership meeting.
Beria and the others were tried by a "special session" of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union on 23 December 1953 with no defense counsel and no right of appeal.
Beria was found guilty of:
Treason
It was alleged that he had maintained secret connections with foreign intelligence services. In particular, attempts to initiate peace talks with Adolf Hitler in 1941 through the ambassador of the Kingdom of Bulgaria were classified as treason, though Beria had been acting on the orders of Stalin and Molotov. It was also alleged that Beria, who in 1942 helped organise the defence of the North Caucasus, tried to let the Germans occupy the Caucasus. Beria's suggestion to his assistants that to improve foreign relations it was reasonable to transfer the Kaliningrad Oblast to Germany, part of Karelia to Finland, the Moldavian SSR to Romania and the Kuril Islands to Japan also formed part of the allegations against him.
Terrorism
Beria's participation in the purge of the Red Army in 1941 was classified as an act of terrorism.
Counter-revolutionary activity during the Russian Civil War
In 1919, Beria worked in the security service of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Beria maintained that he was assigned to that work by the Hummet party, which subsequently merged with the Adalat Party, the Ahrar Party, and the Baku Bolsheviks to establish the Azerbaijan Communist Party.
Beria and the others were tried by a "special session" of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union on 23 December 1953 with no defense counsel and no right of appeal.
