“I am willing to sacrifice myself with pleasure
for the good and welfare of Russia”.
M. Muravyov
220 years ago, on October 12, 1796, Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky was born. Russian statesman, one of the most hated figures for Polish separatists and Russian liberals of the 19th century, Marxists of the 20th century and modern Nazi nationalists in the lands of Western Russia (Belarus). Muravyov-Vilensky was labeled as "cannibal", "hangman", accusing him of brutally suppressing the Polish uprising of 1863. However, with an objective study of the figure of Mikhail Muravyov, it becomes clear that he was one of the largest statesmen of the Russian Empire, a patriot who did a lot to strengthen the country.
early years
The count came from the ancient noble family of the Muravyovs, known since the 15th century, which gave Russia many prominent figures. The famous Decembrist Sergei Muravyov-Apostol also originated from one branch of the same kind. It is interesting that Mikhail himself, who was later dubbed the "hangman", was also related to the "Union of Prosperity." He was a member of his Root Council and one of the authors of the charter of this secret society. This detail of his biography, however, he always treated with shame, considering his participation in secret societies a mistake of youth.
Mikhail received a good education at home. Father Nikolai Nikolayevich Muravyov was a public figure, the founder of the school of column leaders, the graduates of which were officers of the General Staff. The mother of Mikhail Muravyov was Alexandra Mikhailovna Mordvinova. The Muravyov brothers also became famous personalities.
In 1810, Muravyov entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University, where, at the age of 14, with the help of his father, he founded the Moscow Society of Mathematicians, whose goal was to spread mathematical knowledge in Russia through free public lectures on mathematics and military sciences. He gave lectures on analytical and descriptive geometry, which were not taught at the university. On December 23, 1811 he entered the school of the column leaders. He was appointed superintendent of the column leaders and a teacher of mathematics, and then an examiner at the General Staff.
His studies were interrupted by the Patriotic War. In April 1813, the young man went to the 1st Western Army under the command of Barclay de Tolly, stationed in Vilna. Then he was at the disposal of the Chief of Staff of the Western Army, Count Bennigsen. At the age of 16, Mikhail almost died: during the Battle of Borodino, his leg was damaged by an enemy core. The young man was one of the defenders of the Raevsky battery. They managed to save the leg, but from that time on, Mikhail walked, leaning on a cane. For the battle he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree with a bow.
At the beginning of 1813, after recovering, he again went to the Russian army, which at that time was fighting abroad. He was with the chief of the General Staff. He took part in the Battle of Dresden. In March 1813 he was promoted to second lieutenant. In connection with the deterioration of his health in 1814 he returned to St. Petersburg and in August of the same year he was appointed to the General Staff of the Guards.
After the war with the empire of Napoleon, he continued his military service. In 1814-1815. Muravyov twice went on special assignments to the Caucasus. In 1815 he returned to teaching at the school of column leaders, which was led by his father. In 1816 he was promoted to lieutenant, in 1817 - to staff captains. Participated in the activities of secret societies so-called. "Decembrists". After the performance of the Semyonovsky Life Guards regiment in 1820, he retired from secret activities. In 1820 he was promoted to captain, later transferred to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the emperor's retinue in the quartermaster's department. At the end of the year, he retired for health reasons and settled on his estate in the Smolensk province. Here he showed himself to be a zealous and humane landowner: when famine came to the Smolensk lands, for several years he organized a free canteen for his peasants, where he fed up to 150 peasants daily. Thanks to his activity, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also provided assistance to the peasants of the province.
Muravyov was arrested in connection with the Decembrists' case and even spent several months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, military merits saved the young man from trial and imprisonment - by the personal order of Tsar Nicholas I, he was fully acquitted and released. The emperor's mercy touched Michael to the depths of his soul. From an ardent youth who dreamed of the revolutionary transformation of Russia, he turned into a fierce and intelligent defender of the royal throne. However, participation in secret societies was not in vain for Mikhail: thanks to his conspiratorial experience and deep knowledge of the psychology of conspirators, he became the most dangerous enemy for various kinds of secret societies and movements. This is what will later enable him to successfully fight against Polish separatism.
1820-1830s
After his release, Mikhail was again enlisted in the service with a definition in the army. In 1827, he presented the emperor with a note on the improvement of local administrative and judicial institutions and the elimination of bribery in them, after which he was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Knowing Muravyov well as a zealous owner, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Count Kochubey, appointed him vice-governor in one of the most problematic provinces of Russia - Vitebsk, and two years later - in Mogilev. In these provinces, which were once part of the Commonwealth, the Russian population predominated. However, the Polish nobility and Catholic clergy constituted the dominant social group that determined the cultural and economic development of the Northwest region. The Poles, although they became part of the Russian Empire, retained the hope of restoring Polish statehood (with the inclusion of Western and southern Russian lands) and did everything to pollinate the Russians.
Muravyov from the very beginning showed himself to be a real Russian patriot, defending the Western Russian population both from the brutal exploitation of the Polish masters and from their forcible conversion to Catholicism. He also opposed the domination of the anti-Russian and pro-Polish element in the state administration of all levels of the region (the Poles for centuries assimilated the social elite of the Russians and did not allow the Russian majority to education and the system of government). The count clearly saw what the Polish gentry was dreaming of: to tear the West Russian population away from the general Russian culture, to raise a population that would consider Poland their homeland and be hostile to Russia.
Therefore, Muravyov tried to change the system of training and education of future officials. In 1830, he submitted a note on the need to expand the Russian education system in educational institutions of the Northwest Territory. On his submission, in January 1831, an imperial decree was issued abolishing the Lithuanian Statute, closing the Main Tribunal and subordinating the inhabitants of the region to general imperial legislation, introducing the Russian language in court proceedings instead of Polish. In 1830, he submitted to the emperor a note "On the moral situation of the Mogilev province and on the methods of rapprochement thereof with the Russian Empire", and in 1831 - a note "On the establishment of a decent civil administration in the provinces returned from Poland, and the destruction of the principles that most served to alienate from Russia ". Proposed the closure of the Vilnius University as a stronghold of Jesuit influence in the region.
However, the most radical measures proposed by the count were not implemented by the government. Apparently in vain. So, the Vilnius University was never closed. When the Polish uprising of 1830-1831 began, Muravyov took part in its suppression with the rank of Quartermaster General and Chief of Police under the Commander-in-Chief of the Reserve Army, Count P. A. Tolstoy. After the suppression of the uprising, he was engaged in the conduct of investigative cases over the rebels and the organization of civil administration.
In 1831 he was appointed governor of Grodno and promoted to major general. As governor, Muravyov earned himself a reputation as a "truly Russian person" and an uncompromising fighter of sedition, an extremely strict administrator. He made every effort to eliminate the consequences of the uprising of 1830-1831. and for this he carried out an active Russification of the region. That is, he tried to destroy the negative consequences of the centuries-old Polish occupation of Russian lands.
Muravyov sent to hard labor the fanatical prince Roman Sangushko, who had betrayed his oath, and the influential teacher of the Grodno Dominican gymnasium, priest Candid Zelenko. The case ended with the abolition of the Grodno Dominican monastery with the existing gymnasium. In April 1834, in the presence of the governor, the grand opening of the Grodno gymnasium took place, where Russian teachers were appointed. Muravyov also conducted church work, teaching the Uniate population to "return to the fold of the Orthodox Church."
It was during this period that the myth of "Muravyov the Hanger" was born. And the reason for it was given by a real historical anecdote. Allegedly, during the meeting of the Count with the Polish gentry, they tried to reproach Mikhail Nikolaevich with his relationship with the famous Decembrist: "Are you a relative of the Muravyov who was hanged for rebellion against the Emperor?" The count was not at a loss: "I am not one of those Muravyovs who hang, I am one of those who hang themselves." The evidence of this dialogue is not entirely reliable, but the liberals, retelling this historical anecdote, called the count a "hangman."
Further service. Minister of State Property
Later, Mikhail Nikolaevich held various positions. By decree of Nicholas I of January 12 (24), 1835, he was appointed military governor of Kursk and Kursk civil governor. He served in this post until 1839. In Kursk, Muravyov has established himself as an implacable fighter against arrears and corruption.
The philosopher Vasily Rozanov noted with surprise the image that Muravyov left in the people's memory: “I always amazed that wherever I met (in a remote Russian province) a petty official who served in the North-West Territory under Muravyov, despite many years that have elapsed since this service, the most vivid memory of him was kept. Invariably on the wall - his photograph in a frame, among the closest and dearest faces; Will you speak: not only reverence, but some kind of tenderness, quiet delight glows in the memories. I have never heard of anyone else from subordinate little people reviews, so few divided, so unanimous not in the sense of only judgments, but, so to speak, in their timbre, in their shades, intonations."
Further Muravyov continued to serve the empire in various posts. In 1839 he was appointed director of the Department of Taxes and Duties, since 1842 he was a senator, privy councilor, manager of the Land Survey Corps as chief director and trustee of the Constantine Land Survey Institute. In 1849 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Since 1850 - Member of the State Council and Vice-Chairman of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Since 1856, General of Infantry. In the same year, he was appointed chairman of the Department of Appanages of the Ministry of the Court and Appanages, since 1857 - Minister of State Property.
In these positions, he made expert audit trips, in which he was characterized by a tough, principled and incorruptible official. Developed the question of the abolition of serfdom. At the same time, the period of his activity is assessed by liberal researchers as extremely reactionary due to the fact that the minister sharply opposed the emancipation of the peasants in the version of Rostovtsev-Solovyov and became "the evil genius of the emancipation of the peasants", received the label "conservative and serf-owner." At the same time, Muravyov was not afraid to oppose the policy of Alexander II. As noted by the historian II Voronov, "throughout 1861, the tension between Alexander II and MN Muravyov only grew, and soon the emperor essentially accused the minister of covertly opposing his policy on the peasant question."
Although the bottom line is that the minister conducted an unprecedented audit and personally traveled all over Russia, checking subordinate institutions. An official who served then with Muravyov recalled: "Our revision trip across Russia was more like an invasion than an audit." As a result of the trip, a note "Remarks on the procedure for the liberation of peasants" was drawn up. Muravyov noted that before the emancipation of the peasants it is necessary: 1) to carry out an administrative reform on an all-estate basis; 2) the state must intervene in the process of stratification of the village, study it, put it under supervision; 3) it is necessary to overcome the technical and agronomic backwardness of Russian agriculture before the reform. The count proposed plans for broad reforms, modernization without Westernization.
Thus, Muravyov viewed the abolition of serfdom as part of a broader problem - the intensification of agricultural production, modernization. And the liberal part of the government, headed by Alexander II, considered the issue of abolishing serfdom as a “holy cause,” that is, an ideological issue. Muravyov understood that the serf issue is associated with a host of problems, and everything needs to be calculated, measures must be taken to develop agriculture. As a consequence, it turned out that he was right when serious imbalances in the development of the national economy of the empire appeared, associated with the active introduction of capitalist relations in a feudal, in fact, country. And by abolishing the patriarchal serfdom, already dying off naturally, the government faced a host of other problems - the land issue, the technical and agronomic backwardness of agriculture, the transformation of a significant part of the peasants into a marginal proletariat, falling into bondage to the capitalists, etc.
Muravyov's resistance to Alexander's liberal course led to the fact that in 1862 he left the post of Minister of State Property, and the post of Chairman of the Department of Appanages. Officially due to poor health. Muravyov retired, planning to spend the last years of his life in peace and quiet.
Governor General of the Northwest Territory
However, Russia still needed Muravyov. In 1863, a new Polish uprising began: the rebels attacked the Russian garrisons, the crowds smashed the houses of the Russian inhabitants of Warsaw. Marxist historians will represent all this as a struggle for national self-determination. But in reality, the Polish "elite" set the goal of restoring the former territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, from "sea to sea", intending to tear away from Russia not only Polish lands, but also Little Russia-Ukraine and Belarus. The uprising was prepared by the constant separatist sentiments of the Polish and Polonized nobility and intelligentsia and became possible thanks to the inconsistent policy of St. Petersburg in the region. The "Polish mine" was laid by Alexander I, who gave the Polish elite wide benefits and privileges. In the future, St. Petersburg did not neutralize this "mine", despite the uprising of 1830-1831. The Polish "elite" planned to restore the state with the help of the West, while maintaining the domination of the gentry and the Catholic clergy over the masses (including the Western Russian population). Therefore, most of the common people only lost from this uprising.
And the British and French press in every possible way extolled the Polish "freedom fighters", the governments of the European powers demanded that Alexander II immediately give freedom to Poland. In April and June 1863, England, Austria, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Sweden and the Vatican in a harsh manner demanded that St. Petersburg make concessions to the Poles. A political crisis arose that went down in history as the "military alert of 1863". In addition, the threat of a crisis has arisen in Russia itself. In many St. Petersburg and Moscow salons and restaurants, the liberal public openly raised a toast to the successes of the "Polish comrades." The expansion of the uprising was also facilitated by the very liberal and benevolent policy of the governor in the Kingdom of Poland, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and the governor-general of Vilna, Vladimir Nazimov. Both delayed the introduction of a state of emergency and the use of military force, eventually reaching the point that the rebellion had already covered the whole of Poland and spread to Lithuania and Belarus.
In the conditions of the crisis, a decisive and knowledgeable person in the north-western region was needed. The emperor replaced the inactive Governor-General Vladimir Nazimov with Count Muravyov. An elderly count, appointed commander of the troops of the Vilnius military district, who could no longer boast of good health, but worked day and night to suppress the uprising in as many as six provinces, coordinating the work of civilians and the military. The historian EF Orlovsky wrote: “Despite his 66 years of age, he worked up to 18 hours a day, receiving reports from 5 o'clock in the morning. Without leaving his office, he ruled 6 provinces; and how skillfully he managed!"
Muravyov used effective counter-guerrilla tactics against the rebels: detachments of light cavalry were formed, the deputy commanders of which were representatives of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes. The detachments had to constantly maneuver in the territory allocated to them, destroying the separatist detachments and maintaining the legitimate authority. The commanders were ordered to act "decisively", but at the same time "worthy of a Russian soldier." At the same time, the count deprived the rebels of the material and financial base: he imposed high military taxes on the estates of the Polish gentry and confiscated the property of those of them who were seen supporting the separatists.
Muravyov began to consider the requests of those employees of Polish origin who, under the former governor-general, expressed a desire to resign. The problem was that even before his appointment, most of the Polish officials, in order to intensify the turmoil, submitted their resignations. Muravyov immediately and decisively removed the saboteurs from their posts. After that, dozens of Polish officials began to appear to Mikhail Nikolaevich and ask for forgiveness. He forgave many, and they energetically helped him to pacify the rebellion. At the same time, all over Russia, people were invited to the "ancient Russian land" to work in public places. These measures relieved the state institutions of the Northwestern Region from Polish influence. At the same time, the governor opened wide access to positions in various fields for the local Orthodox population. Thus began the Russification of the local administration in the Northwest Territory.
Muravyov also showed exemplary cruelty towards the instigators of the uprising. The toughness with which the count set about suppressing the uprising actually helped to avoid the much greater blood that was inevitable when the uprising expanded. To intimidate the hesitant, the count used public executions, which forced the liberals to attack the count even more violently in the press. And this despite the fact that only those who shed blood with their own hands were subjected to executions! The count himself explained his actions as follows: “No strict, but just measures are not terrible for the people; they are disastrous for criminals, but pleasing to the masses of people who have preserved good rules and want the common good. " “I will be merciful and fair to honest people, but strict and merciless to those who will be caught in sedition. Neither the nobility of origin, nor dignity, nor connections - nothing will save the seditious from the punishment he deserves."
In total, 128 war criminals and major organizers of extremist activities (according to other sources - 168) were executed, while about 1,200 Russian officers and soldiers were killed at their hands, while in general, the number of victims of the uprising, according to some sources, reached 2 thousand people. According to various estimates, 8-12 thousand people were sent into exile, prison companies or hard labor. Basically, these were direct participants in the uprising: representatives of the gentry and the Catholic clergy. At the same time, out of a total of about 77 thousand insurgents, only 16% of their participants were subjected to various kinds of criminal punishments, while the rest managed to return home without suffering punishment. That is, the imperial authorities acted rather humanely, punishing mainly the instigators and activists.
After Muravyov published an appeal to all the rebels, urging them to voluntarily surrender, those in the thousands began to appear from the forests. They took a "cleansing oath" and let them go home. The fire of the dangerous uprising, which threatened with international complications, was extinguished.
Arriving in Vilna, Tsar Alexander II himself saluted the count at the review of the troops - none of his entourage had ever received this! The liberal Russian public (whose actions eventually led to February 1917) tried to spit on the great statesman, calling the count a "cannibal". At the same time, the governor of St. Petersburg Suvorov and the Minister of Internal Affairs Valuev, who accused Muravyov of cruelty and even covered up individual extremists, stood at the head of the enemies of Count Vilensky. But the Russian people, through the mouth of the first national poets F. I. Tyutchev, P. A. Vyazemsky and N. A. Nekrasov, praised Muravyov and his deeds. Nekrasov, referring to Russia and referring to Muravyov, wrote: “Behold! Over you, spread your wings, Archangel Michael hovers!"
Thus, Mikhail Muravyov suppressed the bloody rebellion and saved thousands of civilian lives. At the same time, no one did so much to free the Russian peasants from the gentry oppression.
After the suppression of the uprising, Muravyov carried out a number of important reforms. The Northwest Territory was inhabited mainly by Russian peasants, over whom the Polish and polonized Russian elite parasitized. The Russian people were left without their nobles, intelligentsia, and priests. Access to education was blocked by the gentry. There were no Russian schools in the Northwestern Territory at that time and, in principle, could not exist, because both the Russian school and the Russian written language of office work were completely eradicated by the Poles back in 1596 upon the adoption of the Brest Union. There were no corresponding textbooks or teachers. Muravyov began to restore the Russianness of the region.
To wrest school instruction from the hands of the Catholic clergy, he was translated from Polish into Russian. Instead of closed gymnasiums, where privileged Poles had studied before, county and folk schools were opened, tens of thousands of textbooks in Russian were distributed in the region, the school ceased to be elitist and turned into a mass one. By the beginning of 1864, 389 public schools had been opened in the Northwestern Territory. All anti-Russian propaganda books and brochures were withdrawn from the libraries of the region. Books on the history and culture of Russia began to be published in large quantities. In all cities of the Northwestern Territory, the Governor-General ordered to replace all signs in Polish with Russian ones, and forbade speaking Polish in public and public places. Muravyov's educational reform made it possible for the Belarusian national literature to emerge. Thus, a real revolution took place in local education. The local school has ceased to be elite and Polish, and has become practically a mass, all-imperial one.
At the same time, Muravyov launched an offensive against Polish landownership, the economic basis of the rule of the Polish gentry. He carried out a real agrarian revolution. He established special verification commissions of officials of Russian origin, endowed them with the right to remake illegally drawn up statutes, to return lands unjustly taken from peasants. Many gentry lost their noble status. The farm laborers and landless allotted land confiscated from the rebellious gentry. His administration explained to the peasants their rights. In the Western Russian lands under Muravyov, a phenomenon unprecedented in the Russian Empire took place: the peasants were not only equal in rights with the landowners, but also received priority. Their plots increased by almost a quarter. The transfer of land from the hands of the rebellious gentry to the hands of the peasantry took place clearly and quickly. All this raised the prestige of the Russian government, but caused panic among the Polish landowners (they were really punished!).
Muravyov also played an important role in restoring the position of Orthodoxy in the region. The authorities improved the material situation of the clergy, endowed them with a sufficient amount of land and government premises. The count convinced the government to allocate funds for the construction and repair of temples. The Governor-General invited educated priests from all over Russia on preferential terms, opened church schools. In central Russia, a large number of Orthodox prayer books, crosses and icons were ordered. At the same time, work was underway to reduce the number of Catholic monasteries, which were strongholds of Polish radicalism.
As a result, in less than two years a huge region was cleared of Polish separatists and revolutionary leaders. The Northwest Territory was reunited with the empire and not only by force, but by strengthening the spiritual institutions of society and gaining the people's trust and respect for the authorities. The Russianness of the region was restored.
Completion of life
In 1866, Muravyov was called up for the last time: he headed a commission to investigate the Karakozov case, thus initiating the fight against revolutionary terrorism. Arguing about the reasons for the terrorist attack, Count Muravyov drew a wise conclusion: “the sad event that took place on April 4 is a consequence of the complete moral depravity of our young generation, incited and directed towards that by the unbridledness of journalism and our press in general,” which “gradually shook the foundations religion, public morality, a sense of loyal devotion and obedience to the authorities. " Thus, Muravyov correctly identified the prerequisites for the future fall of the Russian Empire and autocracy. The moral degradation and westernization of the "elite" of the Russian Empire became the main prerequisite for the fall of the Romanov empire.
Mikhail Muravyov did not have long to live: on September 12, 1866, he died after a long illness. “I was amazed at the rumor about his cruelty, so firm in Russian society itself,” Rozanov writes about him. - He was harsh, rude; was merciless in exactingness; was cool in measures, like the captain of a ship among the mutinous sailors. But "cruel", that is, greedy for the suffering of others? who found pleasure in them?.. He could not be cruel just because he was courageous. " Referring to the words of one of the witnesses of the uprising, Rozanov concluded: “His cruelty is a pure myth, created by him. True, there were abrupt measures, like the burning of the estate, where, with the complicity of its owner, unarmed Russian laborers were treacherously massacred … But as for the executed, there were so few of them that one should be surprised at the art and skill with which he avoided a large number of them ".
Unfortunately, the role of this outstanding Russian statesman has been undeservedly belittled and forgotten. Many of his actions, which benefited the Russian people and the empire, were defamed.
