Chernigov Regiment revolt

Background

The trouble began when the Semenovsky Regiment was broken up in 1820 after a single act of defiance. Its officers, including Alexander Vadkovsky and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, were sent down to army units in Ukraine. The following year, radical Decembrist Pavel Pestel was posted to Tulchyn. Together with the exiled officers, he formed a secret society of unhappy army men.

That same year it split from the Northern Decembrists and became the Southern Society, though Pestel managed to reunite them by 1823. A separate group, the United Slavs, worked alongside the Southern Society in Ukraine. The Chernigov Regiment was stationed in the Kiev Governorate, with its headquarters in Vasylkiv. Its companies were spread out in villages along the Kamyanka River, and the soldiers lived in peasant huts.

This let the Decembrists approach them one by one without drawing attention, but it also made it impossible to gather the whole regiment quickly. Colonel Goebel, the regimental commander, knew nothing of the plot. His second-in-command, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, was Pestel’s deputy. Company commanders Veniamin Solovyov, Anastasy Kuzmin, and Mikhail Schepilo belonged to the United Slavs. Rebel officers had also infiltrated nearby regiments, but not as deeply.

Outbreak

Alexander's death forced the Decembrists to act immediately. On December 14, 1825, they launched a coup in Saint Petersburg that failed with 1,271 lives lost. Diebitsch arrested Pestel on December 13. The Decembrists in Ukraine panicked but did not act until news of the failed revolt reached them ten days later.

On December 26, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol left Vasylkiv to meet general Loggin Rot and Bestuzhev-Ryumin in Zhitomir. He barely escaped an arrest warrant delivered to Vasylkiv the next day. Bestuzhev-Ryumin warned him of a manhunt. The two conspirators were put back by Artamon Muravyov's refusal to join.

An arrest party caught them in Trylisy on December 28. Kuzmin, Schepilo, Solovyov and Sukhinov then settled for open revolt. They freed Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin; colonel Goebel was injured but survived. Soldiers of the 5th company supported their officers, and Muravyov-Apostol declared an open revolt, telling soldiers it was anti-monarchist. They marched to Kovalivka and absorbed the 2nd company. On December 30 the vanguard reached Vasylkiv.

Defeat

On December 31, 1825, the Chernigov Regiment left Vasylkiv for Brusyliv. In Motovylivka, Muravyov-Apostol learned that the Alexopol Regiment refused to join, making westward movement useless. He ordered an overnight stop and evaluated alternatives, settling on Bila Tserkva, where his lieutenant Vadkovsky had influence. He did not know Vadkovsky was already arrested and the government had moved the 17th Jägers away.

The stopover demoralized both men and officers; several officers deserted. Soldiers harassed local Jews. The United Slavs incited Ukrainian peasants, but this could not compensate for lack of strategy. On January 1, Muravyov-Apostol led the regiment south to Bila Tserkva.

By January 2 they reached Polohy, where scouts reported the 17th Jägers had relocated to Skvira. The rebels turned north-west through the Kamyanka valley. More officers deserted. On January 3, halfway between Ustimivka and Kovalivka, the rebels met government troops led by Friedrich Caspar von Geismar with 400 hussars and two cannon.

Artillery quickly brought them to submission. Muravyov-Apostol was wounded; 869 rebels surrendered without resistance. Rebels lost 60 soldiers, three officers and twelve civilians. Ippolit Muravyov-Apostol and Anastasy Kuzmin shot themselves.

Punishment

After the revolt, loyalists arrested the officers involved, including those who deserted in Motovylivka. More arrests followed as prisoners in Saint Petersburg reported connections. On July 9, 1826, the court pronounced its statement. Of 121 prisoners found guilty, 61 belonged to the Northern Society and 60 to the Southern Society and United Slavs.

Thirty-six were sentenced to death; Nicholas commuted most sentences inconsistently. Five were hanged, including Sergey Muravyov-Apostol and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin. Others received sentences from demotion to life in Siberia. In 1828, Ivan Sukhinov was indicted for an attempted prison riot and committed suicide.

Prosecution of ethnic Russian nobles by a government party led by ethnic Germans gave rise to rumours of a German conspiracy. Enlisted soldiers were punished on site. A commission in Bila Tserkva reviewed 987 cases, finding 51 innocent. 106 men were run through the gauntlet; three died. The rest were transferred to the Caucasian War.

Chaplain father Daniel was detained, stripped of nobility and clerical title, and sent to Babruysk fortress; he was granted amnesty and a pension in 1858.