The Decembrist Pavel Pestel: Russia's First Republican

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Pavel Pestel (1793-1826) was the key figure in the Decembrist movement's Ukraine-based Southern Society and author of Russian Justice, Russia's republican manifesto. Already under arrest during the two uprisings of December 1825, he was tried and executed in St. Petersburg for his leading role in the conspiracy behind the unprecedented challenge to Tsarist autocracy.Surprisingly, Pestel has never received the proper scholarly attention he unquestionably deserves, either in Russia or in the West. The Decembrist Pavel Pestel therefore seeks to fill this gap in the literature. Research in archives and libraries in Russia, the USA and the UK has produced this comprehensive study of Pestel, the political activist and ideologue.Focusing particularly on Pestel's highly original republican manifesto, the book analyses his ideological contribution to the nineteenth-century Russian revolutionary movement, provides an account of his formative years and military career, and re-appraises his controversial role in the Decembrist secret societies.