Russia's First Republican is designed to fill a gap in the historiography of the Decembrist movement. The research done in archives and libraries in Russia, the US, and the UK has led to the production of a comprehensive study of Pestel, the political activist and ideologue. It comprises a reconstruction of his formative years, an analysis of his role in the Decembrist secret societies from 1816 to 1825, and an assessment of his ideological contribution to the early nineteenth-century Russian revolutionary movement. Particular attention is paid to his highly original project for a Russian republic, Russian Justice.
Author(s): Patrick O'Meara
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 256
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
A Note on the Text......Page 11
Part I The Formative Years......Page 14
1 The Roots of Decembrism......Page 16
Parentage......Page 22
Childhood......Page 24
At the Corps of Pages......Page 26
3 Military Service......Page 30
In Western Europe......Page 31
At Second Army HQ......Page 33
Colonel of the Vyatka Infantry......Page 42
Family, faith and freemasonry......Page 50
Politics, society and ideology......Page 56
Part II In the Decembrist Secret Societies......Page 62
The Union of Salvation......Page 64
The Union of Welfare in Tulchin......Page 69
St Petersburg meeting: January 1820......Page 74
Moscow Congress, May 1821......Page 79
6 Ideologist of the Decembrist Movement: Russian Justice......Page 85
Genesis and composition......Page 86
Pestel's agenda......Page 92
Pestel's Russian style......Page 97
Assessments of Russian Justice......Page 99
Formation: from the Union of Welfare to the Southern Society......Page 102
Organisation and structures......Page 109
Recruitment......Page 113
Aims of the Southern Society......Page 115
Pestel's influence......Page 119
The liabilities of disunity......Page 127
In St Petersburg......Page 131
Pestel after St Petersburg......Page 134
9 The Polish Connection......Page 137
First contacts with the Polish Patriotic Society......Page 138
Formal negotiations and Pestel's role......Page 142
Last attempts to reach agreement......Page 149
Part III From Aspiration to Retribution......Page 152
10 The Planned Coup d'état and Provisional Government......Page 154
The fate of the imperial family......Page 155
The 'cohorte perdue'......Page 157
The Bobruisk and Belotserkov plans......Page 160
Pestel's role......Page 161
The planned coup......Page 164
The provisional revolutionary government......Page 167
Pestel's 'crisis'......Page 171
Pestel's arrest......Page 174
The 'arrest' of Russian Justice......Page 182
Under investigation......Page 184
Pestel's execution......Page 190
Pestel as revolutionary......Page 198
Settling of accounts......Page 202
Conclusion......Page 204
Notes......Page 209
Bibliography......Page 237
C......Page 242
K......Page 243
N......Page 244
R......Page 245
V......Page 246
Z......Page 247
