Восстание декабристов

Douglas

POD: Peter Kakhovsky doesn't have a change of heart about assassinating Tsar Nicholas I 26 December 1825. He decides that he will "merely" kill the Tsar, but spare his family.

26 December 1825:
The December Revolution begins in a bloodbath as Nicholas I is killed by a group of grenadiers led by Peter Kakhovsky, while the other Decembrists lead 3.000 troops to the Senate Square and begin to chant "Constantine and Constitution!" Hearing of the Tsar's death, Prince Sergei Trubetskoy arrives at the square and is acclaimed by the troops as "dictator".

In a dramatic scene, Count Miloradovich, the military governor of Saint Petersburg and hero of the Napoleonic Wars, arrives on the scene. The troops grow silent in the presence of the count, who is quite popular among the troops. In the eerie quiet, Prince Trubetskoy rides up to him and the two confer alone for ten minutes. The two nobles then ride to the front of the gathered soldiers.

Trubetskoy points to Count Miloradovich and shouts, "Here is your dictator!" The troops spontaneously burst into cheers. Liberalism, such as it is in Russia, has its first victory, but only time will tell whether it is an ephemeral triumph or the beginning of a new era.
 
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Douglas

December 1825 - February 1826

Messengers sent by Miloradovich to soldiers throughout the kingdom proclaim Constantine as Tsar. Government forces in the Ukraine have already seized many of the plotters, but with Nicholas dead, most of them are quickly released.

In Poland, Constantine receives word that he has been proclaimed Tsar. Horrified at the death of his younger brother, he refuses to retract his abdication from the line of succession and insists that the revolutionaries make Nicholas' six year-old son Alexander Tsar. Further complicating the situation is that the revolutionaries are divided amongst themselves. Many of the southern branch of the Decembrists desire to establish a republic, and they see Constantine's refusal to take the throne as a carte blanche for the disestablishment of the monarchy. However, Count Miloradovich, Trubetskoy, and the majority of the northern revolutionaries are aristocrats, and desire to keep the monarchy, albeit in a less autocratic form. In their opinion, the child-emperor would make the perfect puppet.

Thus Alexander II ascends the throne of the Tsars on 1 February 1826. Perhaps not coincidentally, his father's assassin Khakovsky is found dead several days later in a country village outside of St. Petersburg: it is not difficult to piece together that it was inconvenient for Miloradovich, now Chancellor of the Empire, to have any stigma of regicide to hinder his de facto rule.
 

Douglas

Febuary 1826 - August 1826

The southern, republican Decembrists are livid when they learn that Nicholas' son is on the throne. Led by Pavel Pestel, an officer of the Chernigov regiment, they proclaim a Republican Revolution against Count Miloradovich and the young Tsar from Zhitomir in the Ukraine on 28 February, vowing to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. A hastily assembled army is gathered and begins to besiege Kiev and the monarchist troops there under on 15 March.

The Society of United Slavs, a pro-Polish movement in league with the Republicans, declares the overthrow of the monarchy in Poland and attempts to assassinate Grand Duke Constantine on 5 March. While the plot fails, Constantine foolishly orders harsh and indiscriminate retribution against the Poles, resulting in the shootings of nearly 1.000 innocents in the next month. A general uprising begins on 8 April when Constantine declares martial law and orders the army to fire on protesters in Warsaw; the soldiers refuse, and the local Administrative Council, quickly purged of pro-Russian leaders, calls for a nationalist uprising. Constantine attempts to flee dressed as a woman, but he is captured and imprisoned. A Provisional Government lead by Prince Czartoryski (25 June) is soon sending out military expeditions into Lithuania, Volhynia, and Podolia. Count Miloradovich left Saint Petersburg on 1 July for Smolensk to take personal command of the armies arrayed against the Poles.

While Chancellor Miloradovich has the support of most of the generals of the empire, thanks to his close relations with them, Lieutenant General Baron von Diebitsch had been very loyal to Nicholas, and takes the opportunity of Miloradovich's departure to free the royal family from their "gentle imprisonment" and take them to Moscow on 2 August, declaring that the Count was removed from his position, and was a traitor to the Tsar. Soon a small but dedicated conservative opposition has fortified itself in Moscow.

Russia was in a state of turmoil; could any faction re-unite the country?
 
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HurganPL

Banned
Decembrists would go into conflict with Poles sooner or later. For all their talk about "liberalism" they didn't see Poland as anything other then Russian possesion. That is why in OTL Polish revolutionaries didn't establish any serious links with them.
 

Douglas

August 1826 - February 1827

While Miloradovich's position seems precarious, he is supported by the majority of the army; only this prevents a total collapse of the state. On 10 August Miloradovich leaves Smolensk and marches on Moscow with several thousand troops, where he arrives on 9 September. In a skirmish outside of the city Baron von Diebitsch is killed by a lucky sniper on 16 September, and without his guidance the city is surrendered on 22 September. The royal family is escorted back to Saint Petersburg, where they are kept under a very close watch. The young Tsar is afflicted by pneumonia, and for several months it appears that he may die; however, he survives and is well on his way to recovery by the end of 1826. Alexander will remember this near-death experience in his later years as being a direct result of the Liberals' interference in the government.

The siege of Kiev is broken in late August by the efficient efforts of Lieutenant General Count Fabian von Osten-Sacken, who proceeds to take Zhitomir (19 September) and, after bloody street fighting with the last of the Republicans, Tulchin. Pavel Pestel is captured alive, and receives the dubious honor of being the last known Russian to be executed by quartering. The Republicans are completely exterminated.

While Miloradovich and his supporters have succeeded in ending the threats of the conservatives and the radical liberals, Poland is another case. Prince Czartoryski has achieved multiple victories over the Russian forces arrayed against him, and has advanced to the walls of Vilnius and Minsk. A huge army under the command of Field Marshal Peter Wittgenstein numbering 220.000 is assembled in Vitebsk and Smolensk over the winter to deal with Poland. Czartoryski's army, swelled by Lithuanian recruits to 110.000, faces off against the Russian army at the bloody Battle of Troki (26-28 February). The Poles win a tactical victory, but are forced to retreat back towards Poland. 16.000 soldiers are killed or wounded, including Prince Czartoryski, who fell to a sniper's bullet; the Russians lose 25.000 men. The prince had desired to retreat, but pressure from the Provisional Government and the locals to defend Lithuania forced him to do battle with a far superior force. He is replaced in the command by Józef Chłopicki.
 
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Douglas

HurganPL said:
Well in OTL the Polish army of Congress Poland had circa 100,000 soldier on its own.
Click to expand...

I'm using Wikipedia, and it says 70.000, not that I particularly trust it. :eek: However, this is after several months of war, and the Poles have sent out expeditions into Volhynia and Podolia, as well as besieging Vilnius and Minsk. Sieges can use up a lot of men, the winter probably made it necessary for some to go home, and there is garrison duty to look to as well.
 

HurganPL

Banned
February 1831-50.000, increased to over 100.000
during Uprising according to my history book. Russia sent first 100,000 then increased to 200,000 soldiers to crush it-Polish army was well trained and had good generals.
 

Douglas

HurganPL said:
February 1831-50.000, increased to over 100.000
during Uprising according to my history book. Russia sent first 100,000 then increased to 200,000 soldiers to crush it-Polish army was well trained and had good generals.
Click to expand...

The results have been edited now.
 

Borys

Banned
Ahoj!
fenkmaster said:
Febuary 1826 - August 1826

The Society of United Slavs, a pro-Polish movement in league with the Republicans, declares the overthrow of the monarchy in Poland and attempts to assassinate Grand Duke Constantine on 5 March.
Click to expand...
GROAN - those cretins again ...
Borys
 
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