Pavel Pestel
Encyclopedia
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Pavel Ivanovich Pestel ' onMouseout='HidePop("34776")' href="/topics/Moscow">Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
– in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
and ideologue of the Decembrists.
In 1805-1809, Pavel Pestel studied in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. In 1810-1811, he was a student at the Page Corps
Page Corps
Page Corps was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service....
, from which he would graduate in the rank of praporshchik
Praporshchik
Praporshchik is a rank in the Russian military.-Imperial Russia:Praporshchik was originally a name of a junior commissioned officer rank in the military of the Russian Empire equivalent to ensign...
. Pestel was then sent to the Lithuanian Regiment of the Leib Guard. He took part in the Patriotic War
Patriotic War
Patriotic War may refer to one of the following wars.*Patriotic War of 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia*Great Patriotic War, the war between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II...
of 1812 and foreign military campaigns of 1813-1814. In 1821, Pestel was appointed commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
of the Vyatka Infantry Regiment quartered in Tulchin, where the enlightened general Pavel Kiselyov
Pavel Kiselyov
Count Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselyov or Kiseleff is generally regarded as the most brilliant Russian reformer during Nicholas I's generally conservative reign.- Early military career :...
welcomed liberal-minded officers.
In 1816, he became a member of the Union of Salvation
Union of Salvation
The Union of Salvation , also known as the Society of True and Loyal Sons of the Fatherland since 1817 was the first secret political society of the Decembrists.The Union of Salvation was founded in 1816 at the initiative of Alexander Nikolayevich Muravyov by a group of young...
and one of the authors of its charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
. In 1818, Pestel organized a secret society called the Union of Prosperity
Union of Prosperity
The Union of Prosperity was a secret society of the Decembrists, established in early 1818 on the basis of the dissolved Union of Salvation.The members of the Union of Prosperity included Alexander Nikolayevich Muravyov, Nikita Muravyov, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, Matvei Muravyov-Apostol, Pavel...
. He managed to make all the society members agree on the republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
program of the Union, thereby laying the foundations for the republican traditions in the Russian emancipation movement. At the same time, Pavel Pestel spoke in support of regicide
Regicide
The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...
and physical removal of all the members of the royal family. In March 1821, he established and became the leader of the Southern Society of the Decembrists. Pestel advocated the merge of the Northern Society of the Decembrists with the former and even went to Petersburg in 1824 to try and make that happen.
Starting in 1821, Pavel Pestel worked on a project of social and economic reforms
Reform movement
A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, which he would later call Russkaya Pravda (Русская правда) and which would be approved as a political program. The second edition of the Russkaya Pravda manifested further democratization of Pestel’s views. It demanded an immediate emancipation of the Russian serfs
Russian serfdom
The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants, the term for an unfree peasant in the Russian Empire, krepostnoi krestyanin , is translated as serf.-...
with their land, limitations of the right to landownership, creation of public and private land funds, elimination of class privilege
Privilege
A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. It can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a privilege is conditional and granted only after birth...
s, and concession of political rights to males over 20 years of age.
Pestel was a staunch advocate of the republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
and state centralization. According to his summary of the Russkaya Pravda called "Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
. State precept" (Конституция. Государственный завет), a one-chamber People's Veche
Veche
Veche was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.In Novgorod, where the veche acquired the greatest prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde.-Etymology:...
(Народное вече) was to become the legislative body. Sovereign Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
(Державная дума) was pronounced the executive branch. Supreme Sobor
Sobor
A sobor is a council of bishops together with other clerical and lay delegates representing the church as a whole in matters of importance...
(Верховный собор) was given the judicial powers. In 1825, Pavel Pestel conducted negotiations with the Polish Patriotic Society, discussing the possibility of joint revolutionary actions.
On December 13, 1825, Pavel Pestel was arrested in Tulchin. He was hanged with four other Decembrists in the Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...
a few months later.