One of the five executed on the crownwork of the Peter and Paul Fortress was a Russian nobleman P. G. Kakhovsky. But it so happened that in relation to many Decembrists, and even to those who shared his sad fate of those sentenced to death, he stands somehow completely apart.
There is evidence that just before the execution, four others embraced as brothers, and he stood aside. There are records that the same Ryleev slandered him during interrogations - there is no direct evidence regarding who in that bloody mess on Senate Square mortally wounded Miloradovich, but several former "comrades" pointed to the retired lieutenant. Who is he?
Kakhovskie in Russian service
Kakhovsky Petr Grigoryevich (1797-1826), born in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, Smolensk province, is a descendant of two rather ancient families. On the paternal side, he belongs to the Nechuy-Kakhovsky. Representatives of this family areimmigrants from the Czech Republic and Poland, some of whom in the middle of the XVII century went to the service of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. They served the Romanovs faithfully, and there was no war in which representatives of this kind would not participate - they distinguished themselves near Narva, in the Seven Years' War and the annexation of Crimea, during the assault on Izmail and in the Swiss campaign of Suvorov. One of them, namely Alexander Kakhovsky, was the adjutant of Generalissimo A. V. Suvorov. For his courage, Mikhail Kakhovsky was awarded the weapon "For Courage". Two Kakhovskys with the rank of generals took part in the wars with Napoleon.
Royal blood
Mother Nimfodora Mikhailovna belonged to the Smolensk branch of the Olenins. An interesting fact is the legend that the reindeer come from the royal family of the O'lanes, who once ruled in Ireland.
When fighting for the crown, the son of the king threw his sister into a cage with wild animals, which took pity on the beauty, and on the back of a bear she moved to France. The legend is reflected in the emblem of the Olenins, in the center of which is a princess on the back of a bear.
Out of court
Thus, it can be argued that Kakhovskiy Pyotr Grigoryevich, by his origin, belonged to the “glorious Russian surnames”. And his blood is no less blue than that which flowed in the veins of the Golitsyns, Trubetskoys, Volkonskys and Obolenskys, whose representatives also took part in the December Uprising. However, they treated Kakhovsky as a stranger and even shunned him. The reason for this was obviouslyhis extreme poverty, and his direct, ardent disposition.
Degraded to privates
Education Kakhovsky Petr Grigorievich received quite a decent education - The noble boarding school at Moscow University was a closed educational institution for boys from noble families of Russian nobles. Yes, and the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment, at the origins of which was the legendary P. I. Bagration and where Kakhovsky entered as a cadet, was prestigious.
But the young man behaved so frivolously that, by the personal order of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, he was demoted to the rank and file, because he showed laziness in the service, and behaved noisily and obscenely in decent houses, and did not pay to the confectionery shop.
Smart military
A gambler and rowdy in 1816, by decision of the Governor-General Zhemchuzhnikov, was sent to the 7th Jaeger Regiment in the Caucasus. And here Kakhovsky Petr Grigorievich quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant (1821). However, this year, due to illness, he was sent on a three-month vacation to his native Smolensk province. Then he retires due to illness.
Poor, therefore unloved
There is a lot of evidence that Kakhovsky was a very lonely person and he had no friends, but he went to the Caucasus for treatment with Major General Svechin, and he became friends with Ryleyev very quickly and strongly. Obviously, natural openness and directness, erudition and erudition (he was very fond of the democracy of ancient Greece and Rome) first attracted people, and then tired. And the "big love" that the future experiencedthe Russian revolutionary, if such a term is applicable to the Decembrists at all, also began with an enthusiastic mutual attraction.
But the summer ended, and 18-year-old Sofya S altykova, who wrote to a friend that she fell in love with this man with a heart as pure as a crystal, with all her soul, in St. Petersburg and did not want to know him, and did not let him into the house. Later, she will become the wife of Baron Delvig.
Living for Freedom
1823 and 1824 P. G. Kakhovsky spends in Europe - he is treated in Dresden, lives in Paris for several months, travels around Switzerland, Austria, Italy. And everywhere he could not help but compare feudal Russia with democratic European conquests.
Being a freedom-loving man, he was ready to die for the freedom of citizens and his homeland and someone else's. Kakhovsky returns to St. Petersburg in 1824. He wants to go to Greece to join the ranks of the internationalists fighting for the freedom of this country.
Russian Brutus
But in the capital, he quickly converges with Ryleev, on whose recommendation he joins the Northern Society and becomes an active member of the radical wing. Obviously, he was brought closer, having previously determined this lonely and courageous person for the role of the “Russian Brutus”. And the Russian revolutionary Kakhovsky himself did not shy away from regicide - he considered the monarchy the evil of Russia. There were also volunteers for this role, for example A. I. Yakubovich, but they rather flaunted than went to kill the emperor with conviction.
Kill the king refused
The first idea about the need not only to establish a republican system,but also the destruction of the royal family, expressed as early as 1816 M. S. Lunin. At first he wanted to and even wrote a letter to M. I. Kutuzov with such a proposal - to stab Napoleon by going to him as a negotiator.
The next potential victim was Alexander I, although for personal courage on the Borodino field, where they fought for the "Tsar and Fatherland", the Decembrist Lunin was awarded the golden weapon "For Courage".
& P. I. Pestel was a supporter of the assassination of Nicholas I. But Kakhovsky, a Decembrist brave to the point of recklessness and completely lonely, was assigned to this role, while others had families. When, on the eve of the uprising, Ryleyev handed over the dagger to Kakhovsky, Pyotr Grigoryevich hit the poet in the face. And later he refused the honor shown to him to become a regicide. Obviously, he considered Ryleyev a friend and at the last moment realized that from the very beginning he was always needed only in the role of an appointed "scapegoat".
Doomed to die
Peter Grigoryevich was not afraid to be branded as a murderer - he was mortally offended by the fact that he never acquired real like-minded friends. Kakhovsky, a Decembrist, who was charged with three wounds, two of which were fatal, General Miloradovich and Colonel Styurler died.
As an active participant in the anti-monarchist conspiracy, an active agitator who brought many new members to the Northern Society, Kakhovsky was already doomed, and also these two murders.
The king can be killed, but there is no good governor-general
Governor Miloradovich, one of the leaders of the Russian army, a herowar of 1812, was a favorite of Nicholas I. The fact that he did not deserve death is evidenced by the fact that the Governor-General arrived at Senate Square to persuade the rebels to change their minds. In his suicide letter, Miloradovich asked Nicholas I to release all the serfs belonging to him (1500 souls) to freedom. Which is what was done. Later, even Herzen sympathized with Miloradovich.
And this strange Kakhovsky kills the favorite of the royal family, in any case, everyone pointed to him. Yes, and he behaved during interrogations with the same impudence, and he still wrote letters denouncing the injustice of the autocracy, and he did not bustle before the judges, did not hand over anyone, begging for mercy for himself. The verdict was the death pen alty by hanging. Initially, through quartering, but the king "mitigated" the sentence.
Last gift
Maybe fate in the last weeks of his life had mercy on this man, giving a platonic hobby. The windows of his cell were opposite the windows of the room of the daughter of the commandant of the fortress, Podushkin. They fell in love with each other. Adelaide Podushkina sent him books, which he eagerly read. Watching her from a distance, listening to her sing, was all he could rejoice in these last days.
It was really a gift of fate, and if not for him, Kakhovsky, who did not communicate with any of his former comrades, would have died completely alone, betrayed by absolutely everyone. Even the death pen alty by hanging, which took place on July 25, 1826, turned into a mockery for Kakhovsky - he, Ryleev and Bestuzhev-Ryumin have the ropebroke off, they were hung a second time. True, in some articles, instead of Kakhovsky, the name of Muravyov-Apostol is called.
