The Russian Empire
CHAPTER 20, PART 7
Tsar Konstantin the Uncrowned
When Konstantin heard the news of the coup, he was not pleased. Despite being praised as a liberal, he never was one. True, Konstantin was not an iron handed traditionalist like his brother, but he was neither the blue eyed reformist as Alexander was in his youth. Konstantin was the middle; he was a bright intellectual, bound to sudden mood swings, called a boundless romantic by Pushkin. He was a good tactical commander, popular with the troops. But his merits stopped there. He never took an interest in politics or ruling nor did he want to. He was perfectly content with his position and was terrified of taking power, especially after the murder of his father, Pavel. In short, he had the potential of being a perfect figurehead, as long as he didn’t rule.
Therefore it is not surprising that upon hearing the news of the coup, Konstantin was furious. After all, the conspirators imprisoned his brother, took the capital, and claimed that it was all in his name. Outraged Konstantin was now faced with a choice - He could abandon the Prussian front and return to St. Petersburg where he could eliminate the Novembrists and free his brother. However, he knew full well that it would mean abandoning the front and leaving the Prussians to roam free in the countryside, potentially even encircling and destroying the entire southern army. Moreover, he could not ignore the true strength of the conspirators, after all, if they could take power that easily, they could easily infiltrate the entire army and possibly even the entire high command. He could feasibly win, indeed, but at what cost? A civil war in the middle of a war that they were losing? That would not do. So what else was possible? Konstantin could denounce the conspirators personally or through a letter, taking away their legitimacy and turn most of the public against them, but what would be their response? Konstantin ignored their intentions and supposed morals - they could take the life of his dear brother as retribution or even try to abolish the Monarchy entirely. No, that was too risky as well. Konstantin could on the other hand accept it - as much as he hated the idea, he could declare himself to be the monarch, take the crown and make bread with the reformists. But that was too much for him; they imprisoned his brother, violated the sanctity of the Tsar’s authority, ignored his will and used his name to justify their barbary. No, a compromise was impossible.
And so, with a similar thought pattern in his mind, Konstantin arrived at the only solution that seemed logical to him - willful ignorance. Konstantin would not acknowledge, nor deny his title as the Emperor of all of Russia, he would ignore all decisions coming from the Novembrists yet he would not directly oppose them. He would simply concentrate himself on the matters of war and deal with the traitors at a later date.
But who were the traitors' leaders? As mentioned previously, the Novembrists were divided in their ideas, yet they did manage to agree on choosing a cadre of leaders which itself was led by Prince Trubetskoy, who quickly laid foundations to a new system of governance based on a constitution made by his close friend, officer Muravyov. This document itself was modeled upon the english system of a constitutional monarchy. A separation of powers would be created: with a bicameral independent legislative Parliament (a veche) being on par with the Emperor, who would still hold the executive power. At least, that was the plan.
In reality, with the Emperor being absent, the new regime found itself without a leader. Therefore a new temporary body was created: the “Vsenarodni Sobor”, or the National Assembly (a name which harkens back to the Zemsky Sobor of the old Tsardom). This Assembly would elect a temporary Grand Knyaz of the Assembly that would rule in absentia of the Tsar (though according to the new laws, his decisions could be overruled by both the Tsar and the Assembly). Unsurprisingly, Trubetskoy became the new Grand Knyaz.
The new government got to work: the first law to be passed was the official abolition of Serfdom, no more would the peasants of Russia be slaves of the nobles. The following laws were just as ambitious: freedom of speech, equality under the law, limited land redistribution. While the detractors would call them radically revolutionary, the Novembrists themselves claimed to act in the spirit of the Speransky’s reforms which were still enforced in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Of course, despite claiming to be national, said laws were only applied to territories that were under control of the Novembrists, namely St Petersburg and its surroundings. Other parts of the Empire ignored it or were too preoccupied with the war to truly pay attention to the Sobor’s decrees. Namely, the Moscow Governor Scherbatov decided to ignore St. Petersburg decrees and continue assembling the new army.
And he was not wrong, for the war waits for no man. After the sacking of St. Petersburg, the Swedish army started a new campaign, landing in the Baltics and setting the countryside aflame. This new threat, both to the Russian Hinterlands as well as Konstantin’s army needed to be stopped, both for strategic reasons and in a spirit of vengeance. In that goal both St. Petersburg and Moscow started preparing a campaign in order to reinforce Konstantin’s army and beat back the Swedish threat. Scherbatov was the first to accomplish this and in the summer of 1824, managed to successfully stop the Swedish expeditionary force, for which he received praise from the Tsar himself.
But luck for the Novembrists seemed to be running out. Exactly a year after the coup, Petersburg experienced the greatest flood in all of its history. The city, still recovering from the Swedish invasion, was once again devastated. In the aftermath of the flood, Trubetskoy decided to temporarily move the Sobor to the ancient city of Novgorod, which was spared from the horrors of war and had a venerable history of Republicanism. Detractors of the new regime would accuse the Novembrists of abandoning the inhabitants of St Petersburg and betraying the Emperor (since the early Tsardom was opposed to Novgorod). This event did little to help the legitimacy of the new regime and the following years would prove to be even more devastating.
In 1825, Scherbatov managed to beat back the Swedish army and was on his way to Poland where he would reunite with Konstantin. In doing so however he also managed to clear an open path to Petersburg, a fact no one missed. While it is improbable that Konstantin would order a march on Petersburg, Trubetskoy nonetheless wisely decided to reinforce the city, and in a spirit of collaboration with the Tsar, sent the newly formed Novembrist regiments, lead by colonel Pestel, a more radical but competent officer, in order to reinforce the Prussian front.
Yet before Pestel could reach his destination, a new threat arose. The Prussians, ever trying to gain an edge, funded Lithuanian rebels within the Russian lands. In late 1825, the perfidious plan bore its fruit when Scherbatov’s army was ambushed near Līksna by Lithuanian insurgents. The story of the Lithuanian rebellion led by Emilia Plater, “The Lithuanian Joan of Arc" is a grand tale on its own, here however we only need to know its impact upon the destiny of Russia. Taken by surprise, Scherbatov's army was forced to retreat towards Smolensk and Konstantin found himself surrounded once again. This also had repercussions on the political level: the Novembrists were laying their reforms upon the tracks spearheaded by Speransky, yet now the only region where said reforms were fully implemented was rebelling against Rodina, proving itself to be the weakest link in the chain. Was it not proof that the grounds of the reforms themselves were rotten, that the structure upon which the reformists were relying was treacherous? The Novembrists were not blind to such accusations and therefore it was in their best interest to quell this revolt.
The year of 1826 would open with actions in Lithuania. Konstantin, surrounded and devoid of supplies, decided to retreat and managed to break through the rebels and secure Minsk. Pestel, having won a few skirmishes against the rebels, considered that move cowardly and instead of linking up with his sovereign decided to surprise the Prussians by assaulting Warsaw. While successful at first, he overextended himself and was crushed by the Prussians. Another humiliating defeat for Russia and another strike against the legitimacy of the Novembrists. Trubetskoy lost his military pawn in the most humiliating way, serving as yet another stain on the Novembrist reputation.
The Prussians, however, were running out of steam. With the French war machine relentlessly pushing through the HRE and the Ottomans signing a peace treaty, Konstantin saw a chance of knocking out the Teutons for good. First, he ordered Scherbatov to encircle and destroy the Lithuanian rebels. After the hinterlands were secured, the Tsar army invaded Prussia, pushing relentlessly into Poland and even reaching Danzig. At Bromberg the final duel between the two black eagles was decided. And while the Russian bear was successful, the Tsar would not live to see it. Perhaps it was fate, or perhaps it was his plan, but during the final hour a rogue bullet hit the uncrowned Emperor in the chest. It was rumored that upon his death, he uttered one last phrase:
“Perhaps my death will be more useful than my life.”
Perchance he was correct.
Bozhe, Tsarya khrani.
