Anti-riot specialist returned from retirement twice
Those who yesterday were called the stranglers of freedom, executioners and royal satraps, today are remembered with a kind word. One of these is Mikhail Nikolaevich Muravyov, known to the older generation from school history books as a hanger.
His youth was typical of his time. Was born in the capital. Since childhood, he was fond of military and exact sciences, showing hefty abilities. He took part in the Patriotic War. In the Battle of Borodino, he was severely wounded in the leg, after which he limped all his life. For that battle he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree with a bow. He returned to the active army, took part in the Foreign campaign. Having retired for health reasons, he settled in the Smolensk province. During a two-year crop failure, he opened a charitable canteen at his own expense, organized an appeal of local nobles to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count Kochubei, with a request for help to the peasants.
In his youth, together with his older brothers Alexander and Nikolai, the future military governor of the Caucasus, he was fond of liberal ideas, was close to the Decembrists. In January 1826, he was arrested, was under investigation, but soon acquitted and, on the personal order of the sovereign, returned to the army.
He presented the emperor with a note "on improving local administrative and judicial institutions and eliminating bribery in them", with which Nicholas I fought decisively, after which he was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And soon he was appointed governor in Vitebsk, then Mogilev provinces, where, having become by that time a convinced conservative, he actively fought against Catholicism and gentry influence. The uprising in Poland in 1830 strengthened Muravyov in his understanding of the main threats. At the same time, he holds the post of Quartermaster General and Chief of Police under the Commander-in-Chief of the Reserve Army, takes part in the defeat of the Buzoters in the Vitebsk, Minsk and Vilna provinces.
Of those that hang
In the midst of the mutiny, Muravyov was appointed as the civil governor of Grodno and soon promoted to major general. By that time, he had gained a reputation as an uncompromising fighter of sedition, a strict administrator. He exiles the participants in the uprising to Siberia, regardless of genealogy, closes free-thinking educational institutions and churches, does not hesitate to pass death sentences. On the other hand, he shows concern about the state of affairs in the fairly Polonized region of Russian culture, language, spirit, cares about the needs of the Orthodox Church, supporting the initiatives of the local metropolitan.
And in St. Petersburg, Muravyov has more and more ill-wishers from among the liberals and polonophiles. They intrigue against the emperor's loyal servant, who eventually transfers the general to Kursk. The successes achieved here in the fight against arrears and covetousness attract the attention of the sovereign, and Muravyov is called to the capital, where he alternately holds the posts of director of the Department of taxes and fees, senator, manager of the Landmark Corps. Receives the civilian rank of Privy Councilor, followed by the rank of Lieutenant General. Since January 1 (13), 1850 Muravyov is a member of the State Council.
Soon after the accession to the throne of Alexander II, he received another military rank and was appointed Minister of State Property. He was remembered by his contemporaries for his adherence to principles and incorruptibility. Being in a venerable age and high ranks, he liked to walk through the market, public places under the guise of a simple man in the street, getting information about the uncleanliness of officials and other outrages, which made the scammers fearful: "Here comes the damned ant and drags you into his hole." And when glamorous enemies tried to pry him, interested in the juicy details of the Decembrist period of his life, he answered without embarrassment: “I am not one of those Muravyovs who are being hanged. I am one of those who hang themselves."
Tsar Liberator and Conservative General
However, Alexander II did not like Muravyov. The general, in opposition to the tsar-liberator, advocated a gradual change in the serfdom, for which he received the stigma "Conservative" in liberal circles close to the monarch. The tension in the relationship reached its climax by 1861. The result is resignation.
But Muravyov did not stay in it for long. In 1863, another rebellion broke out in Poland, which was ambiguously perceived not only in Europe, but also in Russia. For example, the London prisoner Herzen, on the pages of the Kolokol, published by him, urged Russian officers "to go on trial to prison companies, to be shot, raised on bayonets, but not to raise weapons against the Poles." The rebellion was facilitated by the very liberal policy of the governor in the kingdom of Poland, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and the governor-general of Vilna, Vladimir Nazimov. Both hesitated to declare the state of emergency. Frightened by the scale of the rebellion that spread to the western regions of Russia, the emperor remembered loyal subjects capable of acting decisively. At the audience on his appointment to the post of the Vilna, Grodno and Minsk governor-general, commander of the Vilna military district with the authority of the commander of a separate corps, Muravyov said: "I am gladly ready to sacrifice myself for the good and good of Russia."
Despite his 66, he cheerfully got down to business, starting with personnel changes. Muravyov's approach was that the harder he tackled the suppression, the sooner and with fewer victims he would solve the problem. By his order, the estates of the Polish landowners, who were noticed in active support of the rebels, were taken away in favor of the state. As a result of these actions, it was possible to deprive the rebels of financial support.
Muravyov also used intimidation measures - public executions, to which, however, only the irreconcilable and those guilty of murders were subjected. In total, 128 people were hanged, from 8,200 to 12,500 were sent into exile, prison companies or hard labor. Of the approximately 77,000 insurgents, only 16 percent have been subjected to various kinds of criminal punishment. At the same time, the rebels executed several hundred civilians, 1174 Russian soldiers and officers were killed or disappeared.
Muravyov's successes, despite the stream of criticism from the liberal St. Petersburg salons, made a great impression in Russia. Showered with blessings, including the count's title with the right to be called Muravyov-Vilensky, he submits his resignation in full awareness of his duty.
As it turned out, not for long. In April 1866, an attempt was made on Alexander's life. The shooter, student Karakozov, was detained. The investigation was entrusted to Count Muravyov-Vilensky. A seriously ill 70-year-old man honorably fulfills the tsar's last assignment: the terrorist was sentenced to be hanged. Several officials, indirectly guilty of the terrorist attack, have lost their posts. Before the execution of the sentence, Muravyov did not live for several days, having died on August 31 (September 12), 1866. He was buried at the Lazarevskoye cemetery. Alexander II accompanied his subject to the very grave.
Herzen spoke about the death of the count in his own style: "The vampire that fell off the chest of Russia suffocated." Fedor Tyutchev responded with an epitaph:
On his coffin
We are instead of all the wreaths
put simple words:
He would not have many enemies, Whenever it’s not yours, Russia.
