S. P. Trubetskoi, Manifesto to the Russian People

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic War, military officers who had been disillusioned by Aleksandr I's about-face on constitutional reform began to set up secret societies and discuss alternatives.  One of the highest ranking was Prince Sergei Trubetskoi, a member of an old noble family and a colonel in the Preobrazhenskii Regiment (created by Peter the Great and one of the Guards units assigned to the Imperial Court).  By temperament a moderate reformer, Trubetskoi was more inclined towards dialog than action and his Union of Salvation was founded as a discussion group.  Despite his misgivings about revolution, including his opposition to regicide, he became leader of the comparatively radical Northern Society and was elected its "dictator" in 1825.  The hastily drafted text below was supposed to have been promulgated on 14 December 1825, in the event of a successful uprising by Society members, and reveals Decembrist goals.   In the event, Trubetskoi failed to appear on the Senate Square with the other would-be revolutionaries and the uprising fizzled.   He was arrested anyway, sentenced to hard labor for life, and transported to the Nerchinsk mines in Siberia.  The sentence was commuted to simple exile in 1836, and in 1856 he was allowed to return to European Russia.

1.   What are the main points of Trubetskoi's proposed Senate Manifesto?  What key grievances does this portion of the document address?

2.  Who were the articles of the proposed Senate Manifesto most likely to appeal to, and why?

3.   What does Trubetskoi charge a hypothetical Provisional Government with doing?

4.  Was Trubetskoi's agenda for the Provisional Government a realistic blueprint for restructuring Russia?  Why?

O God, save Thy people and bless them!  The Senate Manifesto proclaims as follows:

1. Abolition of the former regime.

2. Establishment of a Provisional Government until a permanent one is elected.

3. Freedom of the press, and therefore abolition of censorship.

4. Freedom to all faiths for the performance of public worship.

5. Abolition of the right to own people as property.

6. Equality of all classes before the law, and therefore abolition of military courts and all kinds of judicial commissions; from which all cases will go to the nearest civil courts.

7. Declaration of the right of every citizen to engage in any enterprise of his choice.  Therefore the nobleman, merchant, petty bourgeois, and peasant all have equal rights: to enter the military and civil services; to follow a religious calling; to enter wholesale or retail trade, provided they pay established taxes for such trade; to acquire all kinds of property, such as land and houses in villages and cities; to conclude all kinds of contracts among themselves; and to summon one another to court.

8. Removal of the per capita [poll] tax and arrears.

9. Abolition of monopolies; for instance, those on salt and the sale of alcoholic liquor, etc.; and therefore the institution of free distillation and procurement of salt, with payment commensurate to the quantity of salt and vodka procured.

10. Abolition of recruiting and of military colonies.

11. Reduction of the term of military service for the rank and file, to be followed by equalization of military service for all classes.

12. Retirement without exception for all who have served in the lower ranks fifteen years.

13. Establishment of district, county, provincial, and regional administrations, and of procedures for the election of those members of the administration who must replace all officials previously appointed by the civil government.

14. Public trials.

15. Introduction of juries in criminal and civil courts. There shall be established an Administration of two or three persons, to which all parts of the highest administration shall be subject (that is, all the Ministries, the Council, the Committee of Ministers, the Army, and the Navy --   in brief, the entire supreme executive power, exclusive of the legislative and judicial branches).  The Ministry of Justice shall remain, subject to the Provisional Government, but judgment of cases not decided in the lower courts will remain with the Departments of the Senate for Criminal and Civil cases.  They shall have final jurisdiction, and their members shall remain in office until a permanent government is established.

The Provisional Government is commissioned to carry out:

(1) Equalization of the rights of all classes.

(2) Formation of local district, county, provincial, and regional administrations.

(3) Formation of a National Guard.

(4) Formation of a judicial branch, with juries.

(5) Equalization of recruiting service among all classes.

(6) Abolition of the regular army.

(7) Establishment of procedures for the election of candidates to the House of the People's Representatives, which must ratify the future system of Government and the State Constitution.

(1825)

Translated from S. P. Trubetskoi, Vosstanie dekabristov. Materialy, vol. 1 (Moscow-Leningrad, 1925), 107-108.  Revised (syntax clarification) by Jon Bone.