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Russia: The Wild East

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Factual: History

A history of Russia, written and presented by Martin Sixsmith

Russia: The Wild East: Series 1

Russia: The Wild East: Series 1: Episode 14: Decembrist Revolt

Series 1

Episode 14

Episode 14: Decembrist Revolt

Decembrist Revolt

BBC Radio 4 - Russia: The Wild East, Series 1, Decembrist Revolt

How victory against Napoleon bred further desire for radical reform.

War with Napoleon and exposure to Europe bred further desire for radical reform but change for an autocratic regime is also the moment of greatest danger.

A haunting French lament and readings from Tolstoy's War and Peace underpin Martin Sixsmith's storyline as Napoleon's forces are chased from Russia. This, just like World War Two, was a people's war in defence of the motherland - furious, patriotic, and ultimately successful. The war however, bred further desire for radical change: serfs demanded freedom; peasants demanded the land, and the regular soldiers who pursued Napoleon all the way back to Paris, had seen a world their rulers would prefer them not to see. The discontent and the yearning for change would germinate and spread, before flowering in the most dramatic circumstances. 

After the liberal impulses of his youth, the French invasion and the spread of domestic opposition panicked Alexander I into a dour, slightly paranoid conservatism. The unrest that simmered during his lifetime exploded spectacularly when he died. The Decembrist Revolt over the succession - partly inspired by the American Revolution - demanded a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of serfdom. The uprising seemed to have been a shambolic, if heroic, failure. 

But it was an ominous warning to the new Tsar, Nicholas I, that all was not well in his empire. He responded by reinstating the old Muscovite tradition of absolute autocracy, strengthened the secret police, cracked down on dissent and introduced draconian measures to suppress political opposition. But, the harsh treatment of those who led the revolt - many were sent to Siberia and the five ring-leaders hanged - rallied public opinion to their cause, and in a country where poets have long been venerated as the conscience of the nation, Alexander Pushkin's sympathetic verses about the Decembrists did much to establish them as iconic standard bearers of the will for freedom. 

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking


Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.

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