Děkabristé: hrst souvislostí : k 200. výročí děkabristického povstání (14./26.12.1825)
Decembrists: A Handful of Connections. On the 200th Anniversary of the Decembrist Uprising (14/26 December 1825)

Summary/Abstract: The author of the present article commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising points to some less emphasized aspects of this phenomenon, its roots, its links and connections. It is based on the Patriotic War with Napoleon, when Russian nobles in officer uniforms found themselves on the banks of the Seine face to face with the fading atmosphere of the Great French Revolution. Both basic constitutions—Muravyov’s and Pestel’s—are shown here in the context of Europeanization efforts, but also in the context with the USA in connection with the reception to the War of Independence in Russia at the end of the 18th century, to the Declaration of Independence, to G. Washington, to territorial closeness (California, Alaska). He also draws attention to the internal and external functions of the movement in terms of building a political system that would further develop the expansion of the Russian Empire. Although the Decembrists more or less radically sought changes in the Russian Empire, they were skeptical and showed caution and restraint in their concerns about the consequences of these changes in a multinational, economically unbalanced country with an uneducated population, a generally weak infrastructure, and the danger of crowd psychosis after the fairly recent upheaval during the Pugachev uprising. Based on the literature of Russian life, history, and politics, the author illustrates his theses with the works of A. S. Pushkin, F. I. Tyutchev, the reactions of N. M. Karamzin, and V. A. Zhukovsky, but also in comparison with the reception of the Decembrists in subsequent decades, including the current perception of the movement and uprising in Russia and the world. The Decembrist movement is seen as a manifestation of Russian dualism (between West and East) and as a realization of a phenomenon for which he has used his own term pre-post effect, a special Russian adoption of external stimuli that leads to the opening of new “windows” leading to original development.

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