Henry Middleton and the Decembrist Revolt

Home , Decembrist revolt, Henry Middleton

HENRY MIDDLETON AND THE DECEMBRIST REVOLT

PAUL BUSHKOVITCH Yale University

When the rebellious officers and their troops came out onto the Senate Square around the "Bronze Horseman" in St. Petersburg on 14/26 December, 1825, to overthrow the tsar and establish a constitutional government, one of the eyewitnesses in the crowd was the ambassador of the United States of America, Henry Middleton. Middleton reported on the events and their consequences in some detail over the ensuing months, keeping the Secretary of State, Henry Clay, well in- formed. These reports, briefly summarized in the Papers of Henry Clay and published in excerpts by Marc Raeff in 1953, have never been published in full. They provide insight into the events, the actions of Nicholas I and his government, and Middleton's own attitudes. He was the representative of the world's only major republic at the time of Rus- sia's first attempt to construct a constitutional state and his background is reflected in his reports.1 Henry Middleton (1770-1846) had the distinction of serving longer (1820-1830) than any other American Ambassador to Russia. A South Carolina planter, he came from one of the families of seventeenth century settlers from Barbados, and his grandfather Henry and his father Arthur Middleton (1742-1787) both played important roles in the Amer- ican Revolution and South Carolina politics in the early republic. Arthur Middleton signed the Declaration of Independence for South Carolina, and his son served in the South Carolina legislature and as governor be-

131 fore entering the House of Representatives in 1814. Henry Middleton supported the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson, and on the recommendation of his party's local leader, John C. Calhoun, President James Monroe sent him to St. Petersburg to represent the Unit- ed States. His main business in the Russian capital was the demarcation of US and Russian interests in the Pacific Northwest and to convince the tsar to help persuade Spain to let its colonies in the Western hemisphere gain their independence. He also involved himself in Russia's moves toward war with the Ottoman Empire over the Greek revolt, supporting the tsar in large part out of hostility to British support of the Turks. On his return to America, he arrived just in time for the Nullification crisis in South Carolina, breaking with his erstwhile patron Calhoun to help form a Union party to attempt to prevent the secession of his native state. When this crisis passed, Middleton retired from politics.2 Middleton was no backwoods politician. His father Arthur had been at Cambridge and studied law at the Middle Temple, and after his father's early death Henry was educated by private tutors and spent much of his youth in England. There in 1794 he married Mary Helen Hering (1772-1850), the daughter of an English officer with Jamaican connections, Captain Julines Hering. His brother John Middleton (1785-1849) was something of an artist, publishing a book in England on Roman ruins with his own drawings. The family plantation, Middle- ton Place, on the Ashley River north of Charleston, was one of the most elegant of the South Carolina low country plantations. Henry was also one of the richest men in South Carolina as he owned several hundred slaves, putting him at the top of the plantation elite.3 In St. Petersburg Middleton was a diligent and intelligent diplo- mat, successful in most of his tasks, and reported on them regularly in his dispatches. While the dispatches themselves for the most part described his diplomatic activity, he also enclosed with them large amounts of general information on Russia, its army and its budget and other matters. He also seems to have had an active social life, and made important contacts. Mary Middleton was friends with Speranskii's daughter, Elizaveta Mikhailovna, who had an English mother who had died shortly after her birth. Elizaveta was raised to a large extent by her English grandmother, who had been living in Russia as governess to aristocratic families.4 Thus Mary Middleton found a personable young woman who spoke English for a companion, and Henry Middleton was often present at gatherings with Speranskii himself, returned from exile

132 and provincial governorships to the capital in 1821 and once again an important figure in the government. Speranskii in turn was on close terms with Count Karl Nesselrode, Russia's Foreign Minister from 1816 until 1856, with whom Middleton had continuous formal dealings. Finally, Middleton must have met the young official of the Russian- American Company, Kondratii Ryleev, the Decembrist poet.5 Middle- ton's own papers have not survived, but his daughter Eleanor (1804- 1827) kept a list of her and the family's social engagements for the years 1823-26. Aside from the diplomatic corps and her personal contacts, Eleanor recorded family dinners, excursions, and balls with the many of the Petersburg elite: Count D.A. Gur'ev (Minister of Finance and Nes- selrode's father-in-law), Murav'evs, Bakunins, Sablukovs, Miatlev (Ivan Petrovich?), Prince Kurakin, Count Jean Laval, Count Cherny- shev and Tatishchev (General A.I. Minister of War?), among others.^ The Middletons' Russian contacts included both the court elite and a

i * ^ ife * Jk^t I / ri&H SU^I) I

"A scene taken in St. Petersburg (or, how to waltz without advancing).' - Ink drawing found in the Middleton papers and presumed to have been made by one of Middleton's daughters. (DAMS 11330, Cadwalader Family Papers [1454] Box 546, Folder 6.)

133 broader group of the upper gentry. Henry Middleton was one of many ambassadors to the court of St. Petersburg, men who circulated (with their wives) among the ruling elite of the Russian state and society. He was not the only one with good connections. The French ambassador, Pierre-Louis-Auguste Ferron, count de La Ferronnays (1777-1842), enjoyed the friendship of Nicholas himself. The Austrian ambassador Count Ludwig von Lebzel- tern and Prince G.P. Trubetskoi, one of the leaders of the Northern So- ciety of Decembrists (see below) were married to sisters, and Trubet- skoi was even arrested at Lebzeltern's residence. The dispatches of Ferronnays and Lebzeltern have been long published in full. 7 The Mid- dletons knew Edward Cromwell Disbrowe (1790-1851), the British minister, and his wife Anne, as well as the ambassador, Percy Smythe, sixth Viscount Strangford (1780-1855).8 All these men and their wives were close observers of the court, government, and elite society, and regularly reported on government actions that were supposed to be secret, yet historians have paid little or no attention to them. As Middle- ton's dispatches also demonstrate, these sources deserve scrutiny. Middleton's dispatches to Washington from the time of Alexander I's death to the final sentences, execution, and exile of the Decembrists reflect the events as he perceived them.9 The first report described the succession issue created by Grand Duke Constantine's abdication, and the opinions of the Russian elite on Constantine and Nicholas. His dispatch from the evening of 14 December was cautious, and even though he was an eyewitness to the events, he waited until 21 December/2 Jan- uary to make a full report. He enclosed the official description from the official Journal de Saint-Pétersbourg, but that account mainly described the actions of Nicholas and the government troops, while Mid- dleton devoted his attention to the actions of the rebels. He had a good idea of the general goals of the rebels, and clearly heard some account of the first depositions of the prisoners as the reference to Benjamin Constant demonstrates. His letter of 30 January/11 February refers to the commission examining the rebels, which was supposed to be secret. Middleton never names his sources, but his friendship with the Speran- skii family suggests one source. Speranskii was involved in the investigation behind the scenes and from 1 June served as the head of the special court that condemned the rebels. Middleton received his official information from Nesselrode, but it is not known if he also spoke with him informally. The reports of the other ambassadors describe the for-

134 mal audiences with the tsar, and some coincidences in information sug- gest that Middleton had talked with them as well. Middleton's views of the events are evident from his dispatches. Raeff, Harold Bergquist, and N. N. Bolkhovitinov each devoted a few pages to them, all concurring that he was uncomfortable or even un- sympathetic to the revolt.10 Compared to his fellow diplomats, however, Middleton was quite positive. He did not, like La Ferronnays, speak of the "seduction of constitutional ideas" or the "frightful horrors" that would have resulted from an "infernal enterprise" of "horrible mad- ness" worse than that of Robespierre and Marat.11 Nor did he believe with Lebzeltern (and Metternich) that the revolt was part of a vast pan- European conspiracy, a contagion founded on irreligion.12 Lord Strang- ford thought the events of 14 December were a "horrible plot."13 They all realized almost immediately that it was not just another Russian palace coup but a struggle for liberty and a constitution, but Middleton found nothing terrible in that. His experiences were different, for he was the son of a revolutionary. He recognized that if successful, the revolt might lead to larger upheavals and a peasant revolt. As a wealthy South- ern planter he saw the dangers of instability, but then his father had been a leader, in South Carolina, of a constitutional revolution of slave owners that did not end in massive disorders or slave revolts. Middleton's final judgment seems to have been that Russia was just not ready for change, since the mass of the people were too uneducated, though he believed they had "undoubted rights," a conception his fellow diplomats did not share. He also thought the elite too small and too unwilling to lose the advantages of serving the autocracy. In addition Nicholas clearly impressed him favorably as a personality and ruler, someone capable of keeping the support of the Russian elite. Middleton's sympathy for the rebels was not the result of their admiration for the American republic. Indeed Nikita Murav'ev's constitution would have made Russia into a federal republic composed of numerous derzhavy, obviously a translation of "states" and Ryleev admired George Washington. Mid- dleton, however, seems not to have known all this, for he only cited Eu- ropean precedents for Decembrist ideology.14 Middleton's dispatches are published here in the original punctua- tion and orthography. He emphasized words and phrases by underlining them, a usage preserved here. The many enclosures of official documents are omitted, but may be found in the National Archives filed in order with the dispatches. His initial salutations and signatures have

135 been omitted after the first dispatch. Additional editorial comments are in square brackets

Dispatches of Henry Middleton No. 51 Rec'd 18 March 1826 St. Petersburgh 6/18 Deer. 1825 Sir, The enclosed note from Count Nesselrode will give you the details of the illness and decease of the Emperor Alexander at Taganrog on the 19th November (1st. December New Style.) The news of this event reached St. Petersburgh in the forenoon of 27th November (9th Deer. N.S.) & the Council of the Empire was forth with convened. The President of that body (Prince Lappoukine)15 pro- duced sealed papers which had been deposited with him by the Emper- or to be opened in case of his death. Triplicate copies of these papers had been made out and another of them was deposited in the Cathedral at Moscow. Upon being opened, the contents were found to be (1st) a voluntary renunciation signed by the Grand Duke Constantine on the 14th Janry. 1822, of all right or claim to the throne of Russia, grounded upon his own sense of his insufficiency to govern so great an Empire: & (2dly) the acceptance of this act by the Emperor Alexander, under date of 16th August 1823, together with a manifesto declaring that in consequence of this renunciation, the Grand Duke Nicholas, who stands next after Constantine in the line of succession, should be called to the throne to his exclusion. A Ukase published in the early part of the Emperor Paul's reign, with the signatures of all the members of the Imperial family, regulates the succession to the throne by seniority [primogeniture above] among the males, excluding females. But at the accession of Alexander the oath of allegiance was taken in the ancient form of fidelity & obedience to him and to the successor whom he should designate.16 The question as to the true Heir in the present case, seemed therefore to admit of a doubt, & the Council appear to have been divided in opinion as no doubt they are in wishes from private inclination to one or other of the competitors. In the predicament, the Grand Duke Nicholas, who was present, perceiving that mischief might arise from hesitation, offered

136 himself first to swear allegiance to his brother who was absent & at Warsaw. The example was promptly followed by the Council and Sen- ate, & the heads of the Military & civil departments present. The Regi- ments of the Guards were then paraded in their different quarters & took the oath to Constantine. Orders were dispatched to Moscow, & to the commandants of the different Corps d'Armée to the same effect. During this time the Grand Duke Constantine, who is Commander in Chief of the army in Poland, was in Warsaw, & his younger brother Michael was there also on a visit. Constantine little apprehending any danger in the Emperor's illness, had concealed the news of it from Michael, in order not to interrupt the pleasures of the moment. When he received the account of the Emperor's death, he rushed into Michael's apartment, & exclaiming "Nous sommes perdus, l'Empereur est mort," he sunk into an arm chair where he gave full vent to his grief. A few hours after this, Michael left Warsaw, & arrived here, having apparently the mission to hold conferences with Nicholas & the Empress Moth- er; & he departed again for Warsaw after a stay of 48 hours only. The public remark that he has not taken the oath to either of the competitors, which would seem to indicate that the point in contest between them is not settled. 17 But let not this be misunderstood. The contest appears to consist in each of them deferring to his Brother's claim.

Private - This forbearance shows at least the prudence if not the moderation of the parties. For each of them has numerous adherents, & an army at command, yet it seems likely that the question will be settled à l'aimable. Such a transaction would be new in the History of Russia, & bear testimony to the good sense & good feeling of persons who have so great an interest at stake. A few days must determine which of the competitors will be Emperor. There can be no doubt of the superior popularity of Constantine, especially with the army & public. A few of the courtiers & noblesse incline strongly to Nicholas; & the chief foreign missions here have the same bias. They believe that the present policy will be persisted in by him, while they fear the talent and eccentricity of Constantine. His name too directs men's thoughts toward the capital of Turkey, & his known partiality to the language & to some of the natives of Greece, seems to bode no good to its masters. All classes of People are thronging to the Churches to swear allegiance to Constantine. The soldiers are said to be growing impatient, & suspecting he is not fairly dealt with, talk among themselves of fetching

137 the Emperor from Warsaw "les bayonettes en avant." It is to be hoped & indeed expected that the arrival of the Emperor may speedily put an end to the State of suspense & anxiety visible in every countenance —-1 have the honor to be, Sir, very faithfully, Your obedient servant Henry Middleton * No. 53 Rec'd 18 March [1826] St. Petersburgh 14/26Л Deer. 1825 Having received at a late hour this Evening the enclosed papers no. 1 & 2 from Count Nesselrode, I have barely time to enclose them, by a courier who is to depart immediately from Ld. Strangford for London. There is some discontent displayed by the Guards at the proposed change in the Succession but no doubt all will be settled without much disturbance. * No. 54 Rec'd 9 April [1826] St. Petersburgh 21st Deer. 1825/2d Janry. 1826 I had the honor to address to you, on the evening of the 14*h instant, a short dispatch intended to be forwarded by a courrier then instantly departing for London. The events which had occurred on that day, were not at that time sufficiently understood to admit of any attempt at de- scribing them, had even time been allowed for it. The enclosed documents (a) & (b) received on the 16th & 19th of December, give a correct account of the circumstances which occurred upon the place of the Church of St. Isaac on the 14th and of which I was an eyewitness, i8 It remains for me to add such farther particulars, having relation to this affair, as I have been able to collect from credible sources. It should seem that a band of malcontents, officers & others, had held various meetings for some time past, with a view of effecting some change in the state. The occasion of the change [in the line above] of succession, the oath lately taken to Constantine, and now required to be taken to Nicholas, staggering some consciences, offered a pretext too tempting to be resisted & the party seem to have resolved at once to put their plan into execution. The discontents of the soldiery were fostered, and many recruits obtained among both officers & men. A considerable body of the men of the Regiment of Moscow having resolved to support

138 Constantine, their commanding General Friedricks, & their Colonel Schinschin attempting to oppose their leaving their barracks, were cut down. 19 The Regiment then proceeded to the Great place upon which stands the Statue of Peter the Great. They drew up before the Palace of the Senate, which body they had calculated to find in Session. The object was to have presented to the Senate for signature a Plan of Govern- ment appointing a Regency. This first object was defeated from the circumstances of the members of the Senate being then at the Imperial Palace taking the oath to Nicholas.20 This disappointment occasioned some pause in their operations, & they remained waiting for some time in suspense & doubt what should then be done. They were then joined by a bataillon of the Grenadiers du Corps,21 who on their way from their barracks in the Vassiliostrof, had made an attempt to seize the Fortress by surprise, but failing & finding the gates closed, they passed the Neva upon the Ice, & presented themselves before the great entrance of the Palace Court, where too they were foiled by finding a strong guard. The mutineers were also joined by a body of troops denominated the Marines of the Guard,22 & their numbers then amounted to between 2 & 3,000. Count Miloradowitch, the Military Governor of St. Petersburgh, attempting to prevail with them to return to their obedience, unhappily fell by a Pistol shot fired by an individual in plain clothes.23 The Arch- bishop & and his Clergy in canonicals had in vain endeavoured to prevail with them to take the oath. For the first time in Russia the ministers of Religion were hooted at by the mob.24 The square was then sur- rounded by Troops of the Cavalry, Infantry & Artillery, & all the av- enues to it barricaded. After exhausting all the means of persuasion, without being able to prevail with them to take the oath, the Emperor Nicholas reluctantly authorized using means of coercion, & a dozen dis- charges of Canister Shot, with a charge or two from the Cavalry, dis- persed the Revolters, who took refuge in various courts & buildings from which, in some cases, they were not dislodged & captured without resistance & mutual slaughter. I shall communicate such farther details as may come to my knowledge upon a further occasion. * Rec'd 9 April [1826] Private St. Petersburgh 26 Deer. 1825/7 Janyr. 1826 My mission being brought to a close by the death of the Emperor

139 Alexander, it is necessary I should say that if the President believes that I can be usefully employed here or elsewhere, and should honor me with a new appointment, I feel no disinclination to accept the task. If however I should be continued here, it may be necessary to my pecu- niary concerns (as in that case no outfit is to be expected) to have leave of absence for a few months. The expenses attendant upon this mission exceed at all times the amount of salary (in my case they have been full double that amount), & the mourning for the late Emperor, and the coronation of the new ones, must in some degree still augment them. I should hope that some allowance will be made on this score, which cer- tainly involves the minister in extra expenses, which are by no means personal, but contingent on his station. I shall accordingly in due time insert in my contingent account the items of mourning for my Household, which I have been constrained to give in compliance with universal custom. & I hope that such proceeding will not be considered unwarranted. The event which occurred on the 14th instant shows that danger may sometimes arise from sources where only safety is looked for. The wars waged some years ago in the west of Europe, have put into the heads of many individuals, who were thereby transported into regions theretofore unknown to them, ideas which never before entered a Russ- ian brain. As almost all the civilization of Russia is found in the ranks of the military, the spirit of that Corps is of the highest importance. Rus- sia, it cannot be denied, is no longer what it was under Peter the Great— - All the youth of fortune & education, are still obliged to enter the ser- vice, and often submit with reluctance to the doctrines of passive obedience. Accordingly it has been seen upon this occasion that many of the most ingenuous among them are implicated in the conspiracy. 11 officers of the Chevalier Gardes (the corps which does constant duty at the Palace) are under arrest.25 What the precise object was, is not yet as- certained, but it seems certain that something in the nature of an insti- tute of government was to be attempted. Common report states that a pretended literary society has secretly held its meetings for some years, & has affiliated societies in various parts of the Empire - that literature however was not the real object of the association; that Prince Troubet- skoi, a member of this society, obtained from Benj. Constant,26 when in Paris, a draft of a constitution which it was intended to carry into effect whensoever occasion might offer - that after the death of the Emperor was known here, it was determined to seize the moment when the Im-

140 penal family were depositing his remains in the Fortress, to raise the Constitutional Standard, and insist on the signature of Proclamations to that effect— that the late interregnum of 17 days encouraged the conspirators to attempt the change before the question of the succession to the throne was decided, & before their preparations were complete. It is needless to count how few chances there must always be, in such a state of things as exists here, of succeeding in any national plan of government — while the immediate effect of defeat, must ever be to strength- en the strong & leave the weak still more defenceless. The number of officers & those under arrest is very considerable. A military commission of 5 general officers, presided by the minister of war (Tatistcheff)27 sits nightly in the Fortress for the examination of witnesses & orders have been sent to various parts of the Empire for the arrest of persons said to be implicated. * No. 55 Private & confidential Rec'd 24th May [1826] St. Petersburgh 30th Janry (O.S.) 1826 [February 11,1826] I had the honor in my last to relate to you some of the circumstances which occurred on the 14th of last month, when a portion of the Imperial Guard refused to take the oath to Nicholas 1st upon the ground of supporting the rights of Constantine. This was no doubt the honest intention of many of the persons concerned, but their leaders had other objects in view. At the first rumor of this event, it was believed that it was merely a misunderstanding among the military. Subsequent discoveries have proved that the cause lay deeper than was at first apparent. In order to get a correct notion of the discontents that prevail among some of the Classes of Persons in Russia, it would be necessary to review its history from the time of Peter the Great. But suffice it to remark that many of the nobles cannot brook the insignificancy to which they are condemned by the policy of the Imperial Government; & that this feeling is so strong in the corps generally, that the autocracy must have long 'ere this day been broken down by it, were it not that the Gov- ernment usually finds the means, by gratifying private interest & individual ambition, of absorbing or neutralising all the energies which would otherwise be directed against it. It will not be denied that a reform is become generally necessary

141 throughout the state, not only on account of the intolerable abuses which exist, but because the doctrines preached up in the west have given an impulse even in Russia towards a better order of things. Yet such is the besotted ignorance prevailing throughout the great mass to whom the physical force belongs, & so glimmering is the intelligence pos- sessed by those who domineer over it, that a struggle between these classes would be truly disastrous in its consequences, & such a cata- strophe should therefore be avoided with the greatest caution, & no measure capable of provoking it be adopted. The Corps de Noblesse (including the military) is the only portion of the population which may be deemed civilized, and of course alone can be considered as an element entering into any political or moral cal- culations. The rest of the mass, or 19/20ths of the whole, is really little more than what it has been harshly denominated "la bète à face hu- maine". Indeed it enjoys no other but a physical existence, & cannot therefore be ripe for the assertion or maintenance of its undoubted rights. It is known that that a spirited memorial claiming certain rights & privileges for the nobles, & numerously signed by them, was presented to the late Emperor by Count Voronzoff in 1817.28 This was quietly laid upon the shelf to be considered at some future time. It is a general belief that the Emperor Alexander had at all times in contemplation a plan for introducing some reforms in the state. The times however had for some years past appeared to him unpropitious. He seems to have been kept in a constant state of alarm by the news of the carbonaro-plots or insurrec- tions abroad.29 At home too he was by no means reassured even by his 800,000 Bayonets. He had known for several years that secret associa- tions were at work organizing revolt in his dominions. A young man who had embarked on a voyage round the world with Lazaroff's expe- dition some years ago, upon arriving in England had a qualm of con- science and wrote to the Emperor a letter putting him upon his guard and giving information which proved true upon examination.30 Several other indications of a similar nature had been given him. At length about the period of his departure for the Southern provinces in Septem- ber last, the plot appears to have acquired maturity, and it is reported to have been the intention of the conspirators to prevent his ever returning to this residence. Agreeing that a change was to be effected by violence, they were much divided in opinion as to the time, manner, & object of it. In fact, three different conspiracies seem to have had a contempora-

142 neous & distinct existence. One of these among the officers of the army of Wittgenstein31, was made known to the Emperor during his last illness at Taganrog, by a letter from General Kisseloff (belonging to the staff of that army), who stated the existence of a plot into which he had entered with a view of turning informer.32 The attendant Physician (Wi- ley) finding one day his patient much affected, inquired what was the matter, & received for answer an intimation that the contents of a letter just received were too horrid to be repeated. The Emperor caused the letter to be resealed, & in that state it was after his decease sent first to Constantine & afterwards to Nicholas. Directly after the receipt of the letter at Taganrog, four persons (suspected assassins) were arrested there by the Emperor's Guard, & by his order, & orders were dispatched to Wittgenstein's army for the arrest of seven Generals or Comman- dants of Regiments under his sign manual.33 It may be well supposed that the malcontents would not lose so fa- vorable an opportunity as offered during the interregnum which succeeded the Emperor's death for forwarding their plans. What these were, is not precisely known. One of their demonstrations was exhibited on the place of St. Isaac on the 14th Ultimo. This coup-de-main was concerted the night before at a supper of at least 50 persons, at Riléioff's, in the Morskoi Street, within 3 doors of the residence of the Military Governor of the City, Miloradovitch, who had not the least suspicion of what was going on, being intimate in that House, & knowing most of the individuals who were present at it. At that supper it is said that an oath was taken to exterminate all the Members of the Imperial Family, unless they consented to accept the Constitution to be proposed to them.34 This cir- cumstance was first made known to General Strekalov, some days after, in a letter from a procureur du Sénat by name Krasnakowski, who had refused to take the oath, but had taken one not to betray the secret.^ An- other levée de boucliers made soon after by a lieutenant colonel Mouravieff, who after proclaiming the "Slavo-Russ-Republic", taking the little town of Vassilkoff (about 35 versts from Kieff) and giving it to pillage, was quickly subdued, according to the statements enclosed, lettered (a.) & numbered 1,2, & 3.36 The folly of such a project can only be justly appreciated by those who are acquainted with the habits & feelings of Russians, who can account for such an act, only by supposing that the perpetrator had gone mad with ambition. For sometime past a Court of Enquiry has been consistently sitting for the examination of Prisoners who have been committed to the

143 Fortress. These have been brought from various parts of the Empire, and are daily increasing in number although many are released after examination. After the examinations are concluded, such of the prisoners as have given contradictory statements will be confronted. This will considerably delay the punishment of such as shall be condemned, as no punishment will take place, until all the confrontations shall be over. The number of Persons who will in all probability be condemned to punishment of some sort or other (not including the Privates who have been marched off by hundreds to remote places) may possibly amount to four or five hundred. The enclosed official document lettered (b.) purports to be a succinct account of the facts developed by these examinations, all tending to prove that certain societies had plotted to effect a radical reform in the State.37 The effect of these discoveries will be to put it in the power of Government to apply what they consider to be, for the time at least, a general corrective to the evil existing, in removing from authority, & punishing all who have in any way exhibited symptoms of discontent. It may therefore be believed, that if in the conflict which has arisen, the autocracy prove triumphant, it will derive a new accession of strength from these occurrences. In this conjuncture it seems natural to inquire whether the reigning Emperor has any idea of yielding to his subjects, or to any portion of them, the rights & privileges which in other Countries are at this time so greedily sought after, and which here afford a pretext for insurrection. In order to solve this doubt completely, it would be necessary to know his private sentiments upon the subject. Of those I am ignorant; but looking to antecedents and probabilities, I should conjecture (although I hope I may be wrong) that the young Emperor will be appalled at the apparent danger & difficulty of the attempt in a nation so utterly opposed to all the forms of liberty from habit & prejudice, and from ignorance incapable of comprehending them. However startling the assertion may appear at first, it can be shown from the victory of the Gov- ernment, that the Grand arcanum Imperii - that which its statesmen have long considered, & do still consider to be its Palladium - that which has in fact founded the Empire - is the doctrine of absolutism: & the opinion is perhaps not erroneous which holds this to be the only principle which can bind together so heterogeneous a mass as is aggre- gated under the sceptre of the Russian autocrat. If it be true that Despotism can never long flourish except in a bar-

144 barous nation, it seems equally certain that no other form but the despotic can maintain itself in the same circumstances. Suffer it then to remark that these, as regards the great mass of the nation, are yet unchanged in Russia. If any feasible means were discoverable whereby the benefits of civil liberty could be immediately secured to the population of Russia, the Emperor Alexander, who is known to have valued the absolute power he swayed only as the means of doing good, would assuredly have attempted it. But such is the force of circumstances, & such the power of surrounding influences, that he was seldom able to carry into effect any reform however inconsiderable in his hereditary dominions. All the persons who have profited, do profit or expect to profit by abuses (and a most numerous class they are) must be enemies to reform. All the superior classes of society too in this country, have confirmed habits of dom- ination, as difficult to break, but not more so, than the correspondent habits of slavish obedience in the inferior. Whether or not it was from a just view & experience of the difficulties to be encountered in all at- tempts at reform, the fact is certain, that the late Emperor's inclination towards liberalism had very much diminished of late years. His attempt too at giving a Constitution to Poland seems to have succeeded so little to his expectation, that there appeared latterly very little disposition in him to perfect his work by putting that constitution into full execution. The last additional act (closing the doors of the legislative chambers) looked very like a desire of undoing what had been already effected.38 Great allowances ought however to be made for the influence of the neighbouring Powers, who all seem to have considered the constitu- tions granted to this Country as working their injury, — An inquiry of deep interest to foreign nations is, what are the future prospects of Rus- sia under the autocracy, & will she enjoy an existence sufficiently tran- quil at home to permit her to exercise a commanding influence abroad? — I incline rather to the opinion, that the habit of obedience is so firm- ly established, that but little management is required to keep all in the subjection which is become a kind of second nature. Add to this that it seems most natural that the present body of the Nobility should incline to bear with the autocracy placed above it, in order to enjoy the benefits of the servage beneath it. While on the other hand the Crown, however disposed, from many considerations both moral & political, to elevate the condition of the serf, will yet be careful not to do anything which shall tend to change the relation by means of which the autocracy is ren-

145 dered so necessary in the State. - To the second part of the enquiry it may be answered, that if Russia enjoy peace within her own dominions, the degree of influence she will exercise abroad, must depend upon the will backed by the ability of those who shall be placed at the head of a nation possessing such vast resources. After all however, it would bespeak some rashness, to confide in any prognostic of tranquility in a nation when under the reign of a Prince like Alexander, various conspiracies were matured undiscov- ered, and thirteen different individuals (most of whom were officers) could be found to volunteer their services to accomplish his destruc- tion^ I fear, Sir, you will consider me as having indulged in this dispatch in speculations which may be unsound, or which at any rate, were un- called for. I know that in general a statement of facts is all that should be permitted in these communications; but at the distance, & in the circumstances I find myself, I conceive a few obvious comments upon passing events will not prove unacceptable. * [No. 56.28 February/12 March 1826. Russia mainly occupied with internal affairs, but the Emperor is said to favor continuing Alexander's policy in regard to the Spanish colonies.]

No. 57 Rec'd 17Л July [1826] St. Petersburgh 30 March/11 April, 1826 Notwithstanding the apprehensions entertained by many persons that the late insurrectionary movements of the Military would be followed up in other quarters, every thing has continued quiet. Plots were spoken of, to break out on occasion of the arrival of the late Emperor's convoy at Moscow; & again at his inhumation in the Fortress here. Some arrestations took place at Moscow, just previous to its arrival there; & it seems there was actually a plan formed for pillaging that City. But 50,000 Troops drawn to that point, kept the populace in awe, & everything passed over quietly. About the same number of Troops are usually quartered in this City & its immediate vicinity. It may well then be supposed that every thing is safe, except from their discontents. These appear to be entirely appeased. The Mutineers have all been marched off to Georgia & other distant points.40 The enclosed document describes the ceremonial of the reception

146 of the mortal remains of the late Emperor at Tzarskoe selo, 25 versts from this residence; & of their successive removal thence to the Palace of Tchesme (about 6 versts from this place) & subsequently to the Met- ropolitan Church of the Virgin of Casan in this City: whence after a lapse of 8 days, they were carried to their final abode in the vaults of the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, in the Fortress, on the 13th instant (March).4i On the 19th (the anniversary of the entry of the Allied Troops into Paris in 1814) there was a grand parade of the guards of near 50,000 men in the place of the Palace, when they were received by the Emper- or in presence of the Duke of Wellington. A distribution of medals, struck in commemoration of the Campaigns against Bonaparte, was made to those officers & soldiers who had crossed the Rhine. Upwards of 9,000 are said to have been given to those present on that day.42 The Emperor appears to gain popularity & to inspire confidence & respect. As every thing depends upon his personal character in this Government of Wills, it becomes essential to study it. As far as can be understood as yet, it gives great hopes that he will disappoint no just expectation. He has had too some severe but salutary lessons in the first days of his reign. The events he has witnessed, & the language he heard from some of the persons under arrest, who have uttered sentiments until now almost unknown in despotic countries, must have suggested se- rious thoughts, & caused a self-examination which cannot fail to be use- ful. He has received many anonymous threatening letters, all which have provoked from him but the observation '4hat they should not have the effect of making him either poltroon or Tyrant." He appears to have seriously set himself to study to understand his position, & to have determined to do all that he can to set matters to rights. He has given much of his attention to the finances of the Empire, & is making great re- trenchments of expense, by discontinuing pensions granted with too liberal a hand by the late Emperor, particularly those paid in foreign countries, of which the number & amount is considerable. Reductions are also intended in the number of Troops kept on foot. Having spoken of this in the presence of the Duke of Wellington who observed that the re- duction if considerable might change the equilibrium in the political balance of Europe "J'aurai toujours," said the Emperor, "six cent mille hommes à la disposition de mes amis, et le double s'il le faut pour com- battre mes ennemis."43 Aware too that one of the great wants of his Em- pire is a good system of laws, he has placed himself at the head of the

147 commission of legislation, which had done nothing for the last 10 or 12 years, & but little since the time of the Empress Catherine, whose regu- lations have become almost all obsolete or inefficient.44 [Middleton concludes with a paragraph on Russian-Ottoman relations.] * [Despatches 58-61 report on the issues of the Spanish American colonies and Russian reactions to the Greek revolt against the Ottoman Empire.] * No. 62 [no date of receipt] St. Petersburgh 17/29 My 1826 At the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I herewith trans- mit two copies of the French translation of the "Report" of the Court of Inquiry instituted in consequence of the events of the 14th December last. It is a concise statement drawn from the written depositions of the persons arrested upon charges of being implicated in treasonable prac- tices - depositions, some which are said to exceed 100 pages in folio, & several of them in French, the authors declaring that they had not a suf- ficient knowledge of their native language (the Russian) to enable them to write in it. I have now to add that five of the principal conspirators underwent capital punishment by the gallows on the 13th instant, and one hundred and thirteen others have been publicly degraded, and are sentenced to hard labour & banishment for different terms, the lists of which will be found annexed to the report, together with a Ukase of the Emperor mit- igating in some degree the severity of the punishment to be inflicted.45 (Private) - In addition to the very natural impulses of a good heart, many special considerations weigh with the Emperor to incline him to be merciful upon this occasion, & a hope is entertained that on his coronation, he will still farther soften the sentences.4^ The whole affair sprung out of certain societies which in their origin had the most laud- able objects in view, intending to accomplish reforms in the State with the approbation of the Government. It is well known that the late Em- peror was in his early days a great partisan of reform and of liberal prin- ciples in Government; and it is recollected that at times he would seem even to reproach his nation with its insensibility to its rights & interests, repeating a Russian proverb "How shall the nurse know that the babe wanteth the breast, unless it cryeth"47 inciting thereby his subjects to

148 enquire what are the rights of a nation & how its interests are best pro- moted. If at a later period he took measures to stifle all enquiry, it was done by foreign instigation, which had filled him with fears of the dangers of innovation. As an additional claim to mercy, it appears to be agreed on all parts that many of the persons implicated in the conspiracy were not bloody minded men, but enthusiasts who sought after an ideal perfection. Their standing connected too with some of the first families in the country, makes it still more desirable they should be dealt tenderly with. I think it may safely be affirmed that the troubles which broke out at the commencement of this reign are to be considered as completely terminated. The general feeling, as far as there is any, is with the Gov- ernment, and decidedly against the innovators. The Emperor has given proof that he possesses both energy & moderation, his popularity is daily encreasing, and he bids fair to secure to himself & to his subjects, the greatest portion of good of which the system is susceptible.

NOTES

1 National Archives, Record Group 59, Dispatches of United States Ministers to Russia, vols. 10-11; Marc Raeff, "An American View of the Decembrist Revolt," Journal of Modern History 25, no. 3 (1953), 286-93; James R Hop- kins, Mary M.W. Hargreaves, eds., Papers of Henry Clay, 11 vols. (Lexing- ton, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1959-92), vol. 4 (1972), 923- 24,934,950; vol. 5 (1973), 2,14,96,163,230, 368,386,408,432, 543,578. 2 Dean Fafoutis, "Middleton, Henry," American National Biography (online: New York- Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999-). The fullest account of Middleton's ambassadorship is Harold Edward Bergquist, Jr., "Russian- American Relations, 1820-1830: The Diplomacy of Henry Middleton, American Minister at St. Petersburg" (Ph.D. diss., Boston Univ., 1970); Idem, "Russo-American Economic Relations in the 1820s: Henry Middleton as a Protector of American Economic Interests in Russia and Turkey," East European Quarterly 11 (1977): 27-41; Idem, "Henry Middleton and the Ar- bitrament of the Anglo-American Slave Controversy by Tsar Alexander I," South Carolina Historical Magazine 82 (1981): 20-31; and Idem, "Henry Middleton as Political Reporter: The United States, the Near East, and East- ern Europe, 1821-1829," The Historian 45 (1983): 355-71. For Russian- American relations see N.N. Bolkhovitinov, Russko-amerikanskie otnosheniia 1815-1832, Moscow, 1975 and Norman E. Saul, Distant Friends: the United States and Russia 1763-1867 (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1991).

149 3 Bergquist, "Diplomacy," 19, 22-23; Eliza Cope Harrison, Best Companions: Letters of Eliza Middleton Fisher and Her Mother, Mary Hering Middleton, From Charleston, Philadelphia, and Newport, 1839-1846, Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2001, 3-13, 502-03. In 1860 only eight men in South Carolina, of the 1,197 slave owners with at least fifty slaves, had more than five hundred slaves: Walter Edgar, South Carolina: a History (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), 311. Owners with more than two hundred slaves in the whole South in 1858 comprised only 0.1% of slaveowners, while in Russia 3.6% of serf- owners had more than five hundred. The Russian elite was much larger and richer than Middleton, but by the standards of the American South and his home state, he was at the top of the hierarchy: Peter Kolchin, Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- versity Press, 1987), 54; and I.D. Koval'chenko, Russkoe krepostnoe krest'ianstvo v pervoi polovine XlXveka (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovsko- go universiteta,1967), 58-59. 4 Saul, Distant Friends, 94-95. Saul identified Mary Middleton's friend as "Mrs. Speransky," but Speranskii's wife had died in 1798, shortly after the birth of her daughter Elizaveta, who lived with her father in the 1820s and served as his hostess even after her marriage to A. A. Frolov-Bagreev: Marc Raeff, Michael Speransky: Statesman of Imperial Russia 1772-1839, 2d ed., (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969), 20-21; M. Korf, Zhizn 'grafa Speran- skogo, 2 vols. St. Petersburg, 1861; I, 67-87, П, 275-83. Mary Middleton's letter to her sister-in-law, Septima (Mrs. Henry) Rutledge of Oct. 12,1821 is clear: "We have just become acquainted with Mile Speransky a very favourable specimen of the Russia lady," who had English "with the greatest propriety & even elegance" and an unusual knowledge of European literature. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Cadwalader collection (1454), Se- ries (Fisher), box 547, folder 9. 5 Raeff, Speransky, 310; Korf, Zhizn', II, 288-96 ; N.N.Bolkhovitinov, Istoriia Russkoi Ameriki, 3 vols, (Moscow, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, 1997-99), vol. 2,1999, 265, 399-433.. 6 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Cadwalader collection (1454), Series 9 (Fisher) box 546, folder 6. 'Nicolas P. Wakar, "Les rapports de l'ambassade France à Saint-Pétersbourg sur la conjuration des Décabristes, Le Monde Slave, no. 12, (1925), 447-58; [idem] "Les rapports de l'ambassade d'Autriche à Saint-Pétersbourg sur la conjuration des Décabristes," Ibid., no. 1 (1926), 89-124; no. 2 (1926), 293-315; no. 3 (1926), 448-470; Constantin de Grunwald ed., "Russie et Autriche," Ibid., no. 2 (1938, 251-66; no. 3 (1938), 444-63; no. 4 (1938), 87-143; no. 5 (1938), 292- 316; no. 6 (1938), 466-73; Velikii kniaz' Nikolai Mikhailovich, Doneseniia avstriiskogo poslannika pri Russkom dvore Lebtsel 'terna za 1816-1826 gg. (St.

150 Petersburg, Ekspeditsiia zagotovki gosud. bumag, 1913). Russian translations of these reports: Gennadii Nevelev, Dekabristskii kontekst: dokumenty i opisaniia, S. Peterburg, 2012,65-227. On Lebzeltern and Trubetskoi see S. V. Mironenko, Dekabristy: biograficheskii spravochnik: (Moscow: Nauka, 1988), 178. Middleton also had official contact with Count Laval, the father of Lebzeltern's and Trubetskoi's wives: Bolkhovitinov, Russko-amerikanskie otnosheniia, 518. 8 Excerpts from Strangford and Disbrowe's dispatches in: David M. Lang, "The Decembrist Conspiracy through British Eyes," American Slavic and East European Review 8, no. 4 (December 1949), 262-74. Anne Disbrowe's correspondence: C.A.A. Disbrowe, Old Days in Diplomacy: Recollections of a Closed Century (London: Jarrold and Sons, 1903), 89-114. See also Nevelev, Kontekst, 229-51. 9 The literature on the Decembrists is enormous. In English the only survey is Anatole G. Mazour, The First Russian Revolution (Stanford, Califonia: Stanford University Press, 1961; originally 1937). Other works include M.V. Nechkina, Dvizhenie Dekabristov, 2 vols. (Moscow, Izdatel'stvo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1955); N.M. Druzhinin, DekabristNikita Murav'ev, Moscow, 1933, reprinted in idem, Revoliutsionnoe dvizhenie v Rossii XIX veka, (Moscow: Nauka, 1985); Patrick O'Meara, K.F. Ryleev: a Political Bi- ography of the Decembrist Poet (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univer- sity Press, 1984): O.I. Kiianskaia, Iuzhnoe obshchestvo dekabristov (Moscow, RGGU, 2005); and Julie Grandhaye, Décembristes: une généra- tion républicaine en Russie autocratique (Paris: Sorbonne, 2011). The basic documents from the government investigation are in Vosstanie Dekabristov, 21 vols., Leningrad-Moscow, 1925-2001 (hereafter VD). 10 Raeff, "American," 287; Bergquist, "Diplomacy", 672-83; Bolkhovitinov, Russko-amerikanskie otnosheniia, 515-520. и Wakar, "Rapports...France," 454, 461. 12 Grunwald, "Russie et Autriche," Le Monde Slave 4 (1938), 95, 97, 106-07. 13 Lang,"Decembrist Conspiracy," 269. 14 Druzhinin. Dekabrist, 64, 141; Bolkhovitinov, Russko-amerikanskie otnosheniia, 492-523; and idem, "The American Revolution and the Russian Empire," The Impact of the American Revolution Abroad (Washington, DC, 1976), 90-94; Nechkina, Dvizhenie, I, 266, II, 45. is Prince Petr Vasil'evich Lopukhin (1753-1827), Chairman of the Council of State ("Council of the Empire") 1816-1827. 16 Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii, Pervoe sobranie, vol. 26, 583- 84 (no. 19779). Middleton's information was correct, though he obviously was not in Russia in 1801 nor had he any way of knowing the older forms of the oath to the new sovereign on his own. Clearly he had a very good in- formant on Russian law.

151 Щ Middleton's account of these events is very close to that of Baron M.A. Korf s later history of the events written for the imperial family from his own mem- ory and internal documents and published in 1857: M.A. Korf, Vosshestvie na prestol imperatora Nikolaia 1-go, reprinted in E.L. Rudnitskaia, A.A. Tartakovskii, 14-go Dekabria 1825 goda i ego istolkovateli (Gertsen i Oga- rev protiv Barona Korf a) (Moscow: Nauka, 1994), 227, 244. Lebzeltern gave a very similar account in his report to Metternich: Doneseniia, 199-205 (letter of 1/13 December, 1825). is Middleton was not the only foreigner in the crowd on the square. The Eng- lish traveler Charles Earle and Lord Strangford were also present: M.V. Nechkina, Den' 14 dekabria 1825 goda (Moscow, Mysl', 1975), 202; Mrs. C.W. Earle, A Third Pot-pourri (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1903), 364- 67: Lang, "Decembrist Conspiracy," 263. Lebzeltern was ill at home. 19 The commander of the Moscow Guards Regiment, baron RA. Fredericks and the regiment's brigade commander V.I. Shenshin were both wounded but survived: Korf in 14 Dekabria, 265; Nechkina, Den', 152; and G. S. Gabaev, "Gvardiia v dekabrskie dni 1825 g.," in A.E. Presniakov, 14 dekabria 1825 goda (Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1926), 173, 175-177. 20 On the Senate and provisional government in the plans of the Decembrists: Nechkina, Dvizhenie П, 235-39. 21 Leib-gvardii Grenaderskii polk. Its barracks were not on Vasil'evsky Island but on the northeast corner of the Petersburg Side at the confluence of the Karpovka and the Bol'shaia Nevka. Otherwise Middleton's account is ac- curate: Gabaev, "Gvardia," 177-78. 22 Gvardeiskii morskoi ekipazh: Gabaev, "Gvardiia," 178-179. 23 General M.A. Miloradovich (1771-1825), military governor of St. Peters- burg, was shot by P.G. Kakhovskii (1799-1826). 24 Serafim (Glagolevskii, 1763-1843), metropolitan of St. Petersburg 1821- 43, accompanied by Metropolitan Evgenii (Bolkhovitinov) of Kiev (1767- 1837): Nechkina, Dvizhenie II, 299-302. In fact the Moscow mob killed Metropolitan Amvrosii in 1771 during a rebellion. 25 Kavalergardskii polk: Gabaev, "Gvardiia," 184. 26 Prince S.P. Trubetskoi (1790-1860), colonel of the Preobrazhenskii guards, had been chosen to assume the role of dictator but failed to appear on the Senate Square at the moment of the revolt. Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), the best known leader of the liberal movement in France, was indeed well known to the Decembrists, who read his work and that of other French liberals. The investigation commission after the revolt regularly asked the prisoners about their relations with Constant (and other French liberals). Trubet- skoi said (15 February 1826) that in Paris he spent his time on courses in the natural sciences, not politics, and never met Constant. On December 19-24,

152 1825, Ryleev admitted only to reading his works in Paris in 1814-15, as did Prince E.P. Obolenskii about the same time: VD I, 1925, 57, 156, 226. The story about sending him the proposed constitution seems to have come from the deposition of Horse Guards cornet RR Barykov, who claimed on 15-18 December to have heard from A.R Vadkovskii, a second lieutenant of the seventeenth Jaeger regiment, that Constant was making a constitution for Russia. Vadkovskii denied saying this but believed that the Russian secret societies had contact with French counterparts: P.V. IP in, Novoe о dekabristakh (St. Petersburg: Nestor-istoriia, 2004), 50-51; VD VIII, 1925, 28-29, 49-50; XI, 1954,189-236. Vadkovskii, a member of the Southern Society, was not a major figure in the movement. On the Decembrists and French liberalism see Druzhinin, Dekabrist, 143-56; Franco Venturi, "Destutt de Tracy and the Liberal Revolution," in idem, Studies in Free Russia, trans. Fausta Segre Walsby and Margaret O'Dell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 59-93, and V.S. Parsamov, Dekabristy iFrantsiia (Moscow: RGGU, 2010). 27 General A.I. Tatishchev (1763-1833), Minister of War (1823-27), Chairman of the Investigation Commission in 1826. 28 Middleton confused the Novosil'tsov constitutional project with count M.S. Vorontsov's project for the emancipation of the serfs: A.V. Predtechenskii, Ocherki obshchestvenno-politicheskoi istorii Rossii v pervoi chetverti XIX veka (Moscow-Leningrad, Izdatel'stvo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1957), 350, 367-424 esp. 382-93; S. V. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy: politich- eskaia bor Ъа v Rossii v nachale XIX v. (Moscow: Nauka, 1989), 125-35, 163-202. He may have gotten this confusion from Nicholas himself via La Ferronnays: Wakar, "Rapports...France," 453. 29 The reference is to the revolutions in Naples (1820-21) and Spain (1820- 23), and to the "carbonari", the secret societies of Italian and French liberal revolutionaries. 30 M.P. Lazarev (1788-1851), Russian naval officer, Admiral (1843) participated in three round the world exploratory voyages, the last in 1822-25 to Sitka and California. Middleton refers to the story of lieutenant D.I. Zaval- ishin, one of Lazarev's officers on this voyage, who did write to the tsar from London, not informing him of the secret societies but proposing to set up one with apparently reformist aims. Tsar Alexander ordered him back to St. Petersburg, but found the plan impractical. The degree of Zavalishin's involvement in the Northern Society is not clear: Mironenko, Dekabristy, 69-70; VD III (1927), 217-403; VHI (1925), 84-5. Zavalishin was not inter- rogated until 2 March 1826, a month after Middleton's dispatch: VD III, 219. 31 General Count Peter Wittgenstein (1768-1843), from 1818 commander of the Second army based at Tul'chin in the Ukraine. The Southern Society of Decembrists consisted mostly of officers in the Second army.

153 32 Major General P.D. Kiselev (1788-1872), then chief of staff of the Second army. 33 Sir James Wylie (Iakov Vasil'evich Villie, 1768-1854), a Scot trained in Ed- inburgh and Aberdeen was physician to the tsars from 1799 until his death: John B. Wilson, "Sir James Wylie," Oxford DNB online. Middleton here puts several different events together. The letter received by tsar Alexander in Taganrog came from Captain A.I. Maiboroda (died 1844) and was ad- dressed to General I.I. Dibich, the tsar's adjutant. He was not the first informer, the more famous being the Englishman John (Ivan Vasil'evich) Sherwood (1798-1867), a non-commissioned officer (unter-ofitser) in the Third Ukrainian Uhlan regiment, who did write to Wylie in July, 1825: Nechkina, Dvizhenie, П, 195-199. 34 Ryleev's rooms in the building of the Russian-American Company at 72 Moika, near Bol'shaia Morskaia, were the central meeting point for the Northern Society in the days leading up to the uprising. Killing the Imperi- al family was a hotly debated issue in those days and was the focus of the investigation: Nechkina, Dvizhenie II, 225-29, 239-42; Ol'ga Edel'man, Sledstvie po delu dekabristov (Moscow: Modest Kolerov, 2010). 35 Major General A.A. Strekalov (1782-1856) was attached to the person of Nicholas as Grand Duke. "Krasnakowski" should be S.G. Krasnokutskii (1787/8-1840), who was an ober-procuror of the Senate and involved in the plans for the uprising, but did not participate: VD XII, 67-68 (2 January, 1826); Mironenko, Dekabristy, 89. 36 Lieutenant-colonel S.I. Murav'ev-Apostol (1795-1826) of the Chernigov regiment, which he led in revolt on 29 December, 1825/10 January, 1826 to 3/15 January 1826. 37 Nicholas established the "Secret Committee" (Middleton's "Court of En- quiry") to investigate the rebels on 17/29 December 1825 under the chair- manship of General Tatishchev. Other members included Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Prince A.N. Golitsyn (in whose house Middleton rented quarters), the new Petersburg military Governor general P.V. Golenishchev- Kutuzov and a series of adjutant generals: A.I. Chernyshev, V.V. Levashov, A.N. Potapov, Alexander Benckendorf, I.I. Dibich, and V.F. Adlerberg. It lasted until 17/29 June 1826. The number of officers arrested was about five hundred: Nechkina, Dvizhenie II, 394-95; Il'in, Novoe. The proceedings of the Committee are in VD XVI (1986). 38 Alexander ordered the Polish Diet to meet behind closed doors early in 1825: Szymon Askenazy, Rosja-Polska 1815-1830 (Lwów, H. Altenberg, 1907), 104-07; Frank W. Thackeray, Antecedents of Revolution: Alexander I and the Polish Kingdom 1815-1825 (Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1980), 119-122. 39 La Ferronnays gave a similar number: Wakar, "Rapports...France, 462.

154 Cf Nechkina, Dvizhenie 1,177-78. 40 There were in fact rumors of possible disorders in Moscow: N.K. Shil'der, Imperator Aleksandr pervyi, ego zhizn' i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols. (St. Peters- burg: A.S. Suvorin, 1897-98), IV, 436-37. 41 Shil'der, Aleksandr, IV, 437-42. Richard S. Wortman, Scenarios of Power, 2 vols. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995-2000), I, 271-75. 42 N.K. Shil'der, Imperator Nikolai pervyi: ego zhizn' i tsarstovanie, 2 vols. (St. Petersburg: A. S. Suvorin, 1903,1, 408-09. 43 Wellington's mission: Shil'der, Nikolai, I, 400, 407-09, 412-14; Despatch- es, Correspondence, and Memoranda of Field Marshall Arthur, Duke of Wellington, 8 vols. (London: J. Murray, 1867-80), vol. 3, 1867, 54-56, 83- 97,104-08,113-16,142,146-62,164-96, 206-09, 212-15,218-74. The dis- cussion of Russian force reductions is on 190-91, though Wellington did not report these exact words. Apart from the ceremonial aspect, Wellington's mission was primarily devoted to the Greek revolt and its consequences and was one of the main steps leading to the Anglo-Russian-French intervention in the struggle. See H.W.V. Temperley, The Foreign Policy of Canning 1822-27 (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon, 1966, originally 1925), 338-62, 586-94; and Alexander Bitis, Russia and the Eastern Question: Army, Gov- ernment and Society 1815-1833 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 167-176. 44 Korf, Zhizn', II, 310-26; W. Bruce Lincoln, Nicholas I, Emperor and Auto- crat of all the Russias (Bloomington, Indian: Indiana University Press, 1978), 101-103; Richard S. Wortman, "The "Fundamental State Laws' of 1832 as Symbolic Act," Miscellanea Slavica: Sbornik statei к 70-letiiu Borisa Andreevicha Uspenskogo (Moscow: Indrik, 2008), 398-408; Tama- ra Borisova, "Russian National Legal Tradition: Svod versus Ulozhenie in Nineteenth Century Russia," Review of Central and East European Law 33 (2008), 295-341; idem, "Bor'ba za russkoe 'natsional'noe' pravo v pervoi chetverti 19 veka: izobretenie novykh smyslov starykh slov," in Nikolai Koposov (ed.), Istoricheskie poniatiia i politicheskie idei v Rossii (St. Pe- tersburg: Aleteiia, 2006), 123-151. 45 The five Decembrists executed were Ryleev, Murav'ev-Apostol, Kakhovskii, P.I. Pestel' (1793-1826), and M.P. Bestuzhev-Riumin (1801- 1826). Pestel', colonel of the Viatka infantry regiment, was the head of the Southern Society, and was arrested on 13/25 December, the eve of the revolt, in Tul'chin. He was the most radical of the Decembrist leaders, plan- ning for a republic. Bestuzhev-Riumin, second lieutenant in the Poltava infantry, participated with Murav'ev-Apostol in the revolt of the Chernigov regiment. Nechkina, Dvizhenie II, 400-409; Mirononenko, Dekabristy, 22- 23, 141-142; and, О. I. Kiianskaia, Iuzhnyi bunt (Moscow, RGGU, 1997).

155 The proceedings of the court, a different body from the Secret Committee, are in VD XVII (1980). 46 This hope was to a certain extent fulfilled during the coronation on 22 Au- gust/3 September, 1826: Shil'der, Imperator Nikolai, II, 6-7, in the cases of Nikita Murav'ev, Trubetskoi, and Obolenskii: Mironenko, Dekabristy, 120, 131,178. 47 Presumably "Дитя не плачет - мать не разумеет." (My thanks to Nikolai Firtich).

156