Northern Secret Society Северное тайное общество | |
|---|---|
 Executed Decembrists, members of the Northern Society | |
| Supreme Duma members | Nikita Muravyov Nikolay Turgenev Yevgeny Obolensky Sergei Trubetskoy Kondraty Ryleyev Alexander Odoevsky Alexander Bestuzhev |
| Founders | Nikita Muravyov Sergei Trubetskoy |
| Founded | 1821 |
| Dissolved | January 1826 |
| Split from | Union of Prosperity |
| Headquarters | St. Petersburg |
| Ideology | Classical liberalism Constitutionalism Federalism Abolitionism |
| Political position | Centre-left to left-wing |
| Movement | Decembrists |
| Part of a series on |
| Liberalism |
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The Northern Society of the Decembrists (Russian: Северное тайное общество, lit. 'Northern Secret Society') was formed in St. Petersburg after the dissolution of the Union of Prosperity. Its members participated in the Decembrist revolt.
The Northern Society was formed in St. Petersburg in 1822 from two Decembrist groups headed by Nikita Muravyov and Sergei Trubetskoy.
When the Union of Prosperity was dissolved at the Moscow Congress of its leaders in January 1821, it was decided to create a new organization with four boards, one each in Moscow, Petersburg, Smolensk and Tulchin. However, none of them were created. Some future Decembrists, headed by Pavel Pestel, did not recognize the decision of the Moscow Congress and entered the Southern Society in March 1821.[1] In St. Petersburg, the Northern Society appeared, and its organizational structure was formed in 1822. Members of the society were divided into "convinced" (full-fledged) and "agreeable" (unequal). The governing body was the "Supreme Duma" of three people (originally Nikita Muravyov, Nikolay Turgenev and Yevgeny Obolensky,[2] later - Sergei Trubetskoy, Kondraty Ryleyev and Alexander Bestuzhev). At the beginning of 1825, Ryleyev attracted Pyotr Kakhovsky, who was extremely negative towards the Tsarist autocracy.
The guards officers Ivan Gorstkin, Mikhail Naryshkin, and naval officers Nikolai Chizhov, Boris and Mikhail Bodisko also took an active part in the Northern Society.
The program document of the "northerners" was the "Constitution" of Nikita Muravyov.[3]
The Northern Society was committed to more moderate goals than the Southern Society, intending to overthrow the monarchy and proclaim a constitutional state. Other ideas led by, Nikita Muravyov, wanted a constitutional monarchy and a legislature elected on a property-based franchise.[4] However, the influential radical wing headed by Kondraty Ryleyev, Alexander Bestuzhev, Yevgeny Obolensky, Ivan Pushchin shared the ideas of Pavel Pestel's Russian Truth.[5] In 1824, the latter himself came to St. Petersburg to achieve recognition of his program as common to both societies, which caused a revival in the radical wing of the "northerners". Secretly from the moderate leaders of the Northern Society, the St. Petersburg branch of the Southern Society was formed. As a result, an active discussion unfolded, which led to the fact that both of them made concessions: the "northerners" agreed to establish a republic after the coup, and the "southerners" agreed to convene a Constituent Assembly.[6]
Local historian of Yakutia Nikolay Shchukin in his essay Alexander Bestuzhev in Yakutsk quotes the latter's statement:
"[...] the purpose of our conspiracy was to change the government, some wanted a republic in the image of the United States; others a constitutional king, as in England; still others wanted, without knowing what, but propagated other people's thoughts. We called these people hands, soldiers and accepted them into the society only for numbers. The head of the Petersburg conspiracy was Ryleyev."
Members of the Society believed that the land should be divided into:
