Sergey Muravyov-Apostol
Encyclopedia
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 Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
, one of the organizers of the Decembrist revolt
Decembrist revolt
The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
. He was the brother of other Decembrists Ippolit Muravyov-Apostol and Matvey Muravyov-Apostol. He was also the cousin of Decembrists Nikita Muravyov and Artamon Muravyov.
Biography
Sergey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol was born to a family of a Russian diplomat Ivan Muravyov-ApostolIvan Muravyov-Apostol
Ivan Matveyevich Muravyov-Apostol was a Russian statesman and writer.Ivan Muravyov-Apostol came from an old notable family. His father was a military engineer Matvei Muravyov and his mother was Elena Apostol, granddaughter of a Ukrainian hetman Danylo Apostol)...
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...
on October 9 N.S. 1796 (some other sources state November 2, 1795). He spent his childhood in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, then graduated from Saint Petersburg Institute of Road Engineers (Петербургский Институт Инженеров Путей Сообщения), then served in the Russian Army.
He was a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812. He took part in the battle of Vitebsk
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
, the battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
, the battle of Tarutino
Battle of Tarutino
The Battle of Tarutino was a part of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The battle is sometimes called the Battle of Vinkovo or the Battle of Chernishnya after the local river. Many historians claim that the latter name is more fitting because the village of Tarutino was 8 km from the described events...
, the Battle of Maloyaroslavets
Battle of Maloyaroslavets
The Battle of Maloyaroslavets took place on 24 October 1812, between the Russians, under Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, and part of the corps of Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson, under General Alexis Joseph Delzons which numbered about 20,000 strong.-Prelude:On 19 October, Napoleon...
, the battle at the crossing of the Berezina river
Berezina River
The Berezina is a river in Belarus and a tributary of the Dnieper River.The Berezina Preserve by the river is in the UNESCO list of Biosphere Preserves.-Historical significance:...
(for which he was awarded the golden sword for bravery), the Battle of Nations at Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, and the battle for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(for which he was awarded with the Order of St. Anna
Order of St. Anna
The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
, second degree).
After the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
he was a poruchik
Poruchik
Poruchik was a military rank in several Slavic countries, such as the Russian Empire and the Republic of Poland, equivalent to Lieutenant. "Poruchik" means "messenger", "officer for orders". This is a Slavic copy of the term "Lieutenant" .In Russia this rank was first introduced in Strelets New...
, later captain of Russian Guards
Russian Guards
Guards or Guards units were and are elite military units in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to the retinue of a knyaz of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streltsy, the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550...
, Semenovsky regiment
Semenovsky Regiment
Semenovsky Life-Guards Regiment was one of the two oldest guards regiments of the Imperial Russian Army.- History :...
. After the uprising of the Semenovsky regiment in 1820 he transferred as a Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
to Poltava
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
regiment, in 1822 to Chernigov regiment.
Between January 2, 1817 and December 22, 1818 he was a Freemason, a member and a ritual-keeper of Lodge Three Virtues. He was one of the founders of pre-Decembrist secret societies 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...
(member of Moscow conspiracy of 1817) and Union of Welfare (member and the keeper of Korennoy Soviet). One of directors of Decembrist's South Society
South Society
The South Society , was the largest literature and poetry organization during the late Qing Dynasty China and the early period of the Republic of China....
(head of Vasilkovskaya Uprava). He was the coordinator of correspondence between the South Society and the pro-Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Society of United Slavs. Sergey was the author of the Decembrist's Сatechesis and a very articulate supporter of establishing a 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 abolishing serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
in Russia.
In 1825, he led the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. He was arrested on December 29 O.S. 1825, then freed by his fellow officers, and led an insurgency against government forces on January 3 O.S. 1826, was critically wounded by canister shot
Canister shot
Canister shot is a kind of anti-personnel ammunition used in cannons. It was similar to the naval grapeshot, but fired smaller and more numerous balls, which did not have to punch through the wooden hull of a ship...
. According to the legend, his wounds prevented him from staying in the saddle. So he ordered to be fastened to his horse by ropes so as to lead the desperate cavalry attack on the government artillery battery. The attack was unsuccessful and he was captured.
On January 20 he was delivered to 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...
. He was one of the five sentenced to quartering
Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III and his successor, Edward I...
, but later this sentence was replaced with hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. He was executed in 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:...
on July 25, 1826 and interred with the rest of the five in a secret grave on Goloday Island
Goloday Island
Dekabristov Island , known before 1926 as Goloday Island is an island in Vasileostrovsky District of Saint Petersburg, Russia, to the north of Vasilievsky Island, separated from it by Smolenka River ....
in Saint Petersburg.
External references
- Biography of Sergey Muravyov-Apostol - in Russian