Impact Of The Decembrist Uprising: The First Russian Revolution

When a discussion of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia occurs, the most common argument one hears is that the Russian winter was the only reason Russia defeated France. However, this is an incorrect idea. Russia defeated France because of its superior military and a strategy that forced Napoleon to fight on Russian terms. The Napoleonic Wars were a great achievement for Russia and led to a period of Russian power in European military and economic affairs. The Napoleonic Wars had tremendous short and long-term impacts on Russia including directly causing the Decembrist Uprising, which was the crux of Nikolai I’s reign. There were many immediate ramifications, both politically and socially, of the Napoleonic Wars. The war ignited a sense of nationalism among the people, something that Napoleon did not expect. Tsar Aleksandr I wrote an appeal to the people in July of 1812, on the eve of Napoleon’s invasion. He reached out to all groups, pleading, “…we call on all our

It was the first semi-organized revolution promoting a change to increased freedom and liberalization. It was the first uprising in which the people involved desired an overthrow of the Tsarist system. Despite its failure, the Decembrist Uprising had an incredible impact on the current and future generations. As Evtuhov and Sites point out, “Contemporary gentry society was horrified by the execution and exile of the flower of its youth…” It created a public desire for change. The work of famous poet Aleksandr Pushkin shows this perfectly. In a poem he wrote in remembrance of the Decembrists, Pushkin comforts the Decembrists in exile: “Then the heavy chains will fall, The dungeons will crumble; And freedom will greet you at the gate, And brothers will give you back the sword.” This is a call to future revolution in the context of the first, albeit unsuccessful,