Sergey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol (russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Муравьёв-Апо́стол) ( – ) was a

Russian Imperial The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and one of the organizers of the

Decembrist revolt The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...

.Материалы следственного дела С. И. Муравьёва-Апостола
/ref> He was one of five Decembrists executed for their roles in attempting to reform the Russian autocracy towards a constitutional form of government.Материалы следственного дела С. И. Муравьёва-Апостола
/ref>

Early life and military career

Sergei was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, the fourth son of Russian diplomat Ivan Muravyov-Apostol. His mother, Anna, was the daughter of a Serbian general, Simon Crnojević. Four of his relatives also became Decembrists: his brothers Ippolit Muravyov-Apostol and Matvey Muravyov-Apostol and his cousins

Nikita Muravyov Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov (russian: Никита Михайлович Муравьёв) ( – ) was an Imperial Guards staff officer and plotter in what led to the Decembrist revolt of 1825. Muravyov was active in a number of proto-Decem ...

and Artamon Muravyov.Материалы следственного дела С. И. Муравьёва-Апостола
/ref> Sergei spent his childhood in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, then graduated from the Saint Petersburg Institute of Road Engineers before joining in the Russian Army. DecembristsExecutionPlaque

He was a veteran of the

Patriotic War of 1812 The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...

. He took part in the Battle of Vitebsk, the

Battle of Borodino The Battle of Borodino (). took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon ...

, the

Battle of Tarutino The Battle of Tarutino (russian: Тарутинo) was a part of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. In the battle Russian troops under the command of Bennigsen defeated French troops under the command of Joachim Murat. The battle is sometimes cal ...

, the

Battle of Maloyaroslavets The Battle of Maloyaroslavets took place on 24 October 1812 as part of the French invasion of Russia. It was Kutuzov's decisive battle to force Napoleon to retreat northwest over Mozhaisk to Smolensk on the devastated route of his advance with ...

, the

Battle of Berezina The Battle of (the) Berezina (or Beresina) took place from 26 to 29 November 1812, between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under Field Marshal Wittgenstein and Admiral Chichagov. Napoleon was retreating back toward Poland ...

(for which he was awarded the Golden Sword for Bravery), the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

(1813), and the Battle for Paris (1814), for which he was awarded the

Order of St. Anna The Imperial Order of Saint Anna (russian: Орден Святой Анны; also "Order of Saint Anne" or "Order of Saint Ann") was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holst ...

, second degree.Материалы следственного дела С. И. Муравьёва-Апостола
/ref> After the

Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

he served as a

poruchik The rank of lieutenant in Eastern Europe ( hr, poručnik, cs, poručík, pl, porucznik, russian: script=latn, poruchik, sr, script=latn, poručnik, sk, poručík) is one used in Slavophone armed forces. Depending on the country, it is either ...

, and later as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the

Russian Guards Guards (russian: гвардия) or Guards units (russian: гвардейские части, ''gvardeyskiye chasti'') were elite military units of Imperial Russia prior to 1917–18. The designation of Guards was subsequently adopted as a distin ...

Semyonovsky Regiment The Semyonovsky Lifeguard Regiment (, ) was one of the two oldest guard regiments of the Imperial Russian Army. The other one was the Preobrazhensky Regiment. In 2013, it was recreated for the Russian Armed Forces as a rifle regiment, its na ...

. After the uprising of the Semyonovsky regiment in 1820 he transferred as a

to the

Poltava Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...

regiment, and in 1822 to the

Chernigov Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative ...

regiment.

Decembrist Uprising

In 1817 and 1818, he was a

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, a member and a ritual-keeper of the "Three Virtues" Lodge. He was one of the founders of pre-Decembrist secret societies

Union of Salvation The Union of Salvation ( rus, Союз спасения, Sojuz spasenyja), formed in 1816, also known as the Society of True and Loyal Sons of the Fatherland (russian: Общество истинных и верных сынов отечеств� ...

and

Union of Welfare The Union of Prosperity (, or Soyuz blagodenstviya) or Union of Welfare was a larger secret society of the Decembrists, established in early 1818 on the basis of the dissolved Union of Salvation and contained the literary society, the Green Lamp. ...

, and a director of the Decembrist Southern Society. He was the coordinator of correspondence between the Southern Society and the pro-

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Society of United Slavs A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

. Muravyov-Apostol was the author of the Decembrists ''Сatechesis'' and a very articulate supporter of establishing a

republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

and abolishing

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

in Russia.Материалы следственного дела С. И. Муравьёва-Апостола
/ref> In 1825, he led the uprising of the Chernigov regiment. He was arrested on then freed by his fellow officers. He led an insurgency against government forces on , when he was critically wounded by a

canister shot Canister shot is a kind of anti-personnel artillery ammunition. Canister shot has been used since the advent of gunpowder-firing artillery in Western armies. However, canister shot saw particularly frequent use on land and at sea in the various ...

. According to the legend, his wounds prevented him from staying in the saddle. So he ordered to be fastened to his horse by ropes so as to lead the desperate cavalry attack on the government artillery battery. The attack was unsuccessful and he was captured. He was delivered to Saint Petersburg and was one of the five Decembrists sentenced to quartering, but later this sentence was replaced with

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

. He was executed in

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s i ...

on . He was interred with the other four in a secret grave on

Goloday Island Dekabristov Island (russian: остров Декабристов, lit=Decembrists Island), known prior to 1926 as Goloday Island (остров Голодай – possibly a corruption of a British merchant name Halliday) is an island in Vasileost ...

, though some conspiracy theorists believed that the men were not hanged but put on the island to starve. In the Soviet era, the island was renamed "Decembrists' Island" in memory of the executed men.

References

External links

Biography of Sergey Muravyov-Apostol
- in Russian {{DEFAULTSORT:Muravyov-Apostol, Sergey 1796 births 1826 deaths Military personnel from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Decembrists Russian Freemasons Russian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress People executed by the Russian Empire by hanging Executed Russian people 19th-century executions by the Russian Empire

Early life and military career

Decembrist Uprising

See also

References

External links