The name of Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky is associated with the Decembrist movement. He is even called the first Decembrist. His activities as a revolutionary were declassified by the authorities four years before the Decembrist uprising in 1825.
Raevsky VF became, in fact, the first victim of political persecution by the tsarist government. He is also known as a brave warrior who participated in the war of 1812, a poet and a talented publicist. Today we will talk about the biography of Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky.
Begin biography
He was born in the family of a landowner, a former major with an average income in 1795 in Staroskolsky district, in the village of Khvorostyanka. Previously, it was the Kursk province, and now it is the Belgorod region.
Raevsky began his studies in 1803 at the Noble Boarding School, which was located at the Moscowuniversity. He continued to study in 1811 in St. Petersburg in the Noble Regiment, which included the second cadet corps.
While studying in Moscow, his classmates were N. I. Turgenev, who later became the Decembrists, I. G. Burtsov, N. A. Kryukov. Alexander Griboyedov, the future author of the famous satirical comedy Woe from Wit”, diplomat, poet and composer. In the St. Petersburg period, a fellow student of Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky was the future Decembrist Batenkov G. S.
The two young men who became friends at an early age awakened feelings of hatred for despotism, the desire for liberty. They began to dream of freedom, condemned tsarism, discussed “free ideas” with each other, dreaming of “putting them into action” when they were adults.
Participation in the War of 1812
After graduating from the cadet corps, in May 1812, seventeen-year-old Vladimir, with the rank of ensign, was sent to serve in the artillery, in the twenty-third brigade.
Here are some highlights from his biography of this period.
- He participated in many battles, including in Borodino. After the battle, he was handed a sword made of gold, on which there was an inscription: "For courage." And also Raevsky was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree.
- In October 1812, a battle took place near Vyazma, for the difference in which Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky received the rank of second lieutenant.
- Already in April of the following year, he became a lieutenant for many distinctions during military operations.
- In November 1814, Raevsky V. F. ended the war in Poland with the rank of staff captain.
Secret circle member
The further fate of Raevsky was as follows:
- In 1815-1816, he was adjutant to the commander of the artillery unit of the 7th infantry corps stationed in Kamenetz-Podolsk. There he became a member of a secret circle of officers.
- Upon returning from foreign campaigns, in January 1817, he was retired, which lasted a year and a half. The resignation was due to the fact that the Arakcheev order existed in the army - endless parades on the parade ground, drill, cruelty towards soldiers, constant checks, which the future Decembrist Raevsky was very tired of.
- During this period, several poetic works were written, including two songs: "The Song of the Warriors before the Battle", "The Song of the Warriors before the Battle".
Joining the Decembrist Society
During this period, the socio-political views of Vladimir Fedoseevich were fully formed. He was a well-educated person in the field of history, knew literature very well, loved and knew Russian folk literature.
A year and a half after his retirement, in 1818, at the insistence of his father, he again went into military service, but already in the infantry. VF Raevsky was sent to the second Southern Army, which was located in Bessarabia. He ended up in the sixteenth division, where he was soon appointed as commander of another future Decembrist, General Orlov M. F.
In 1820, Vladimir Fedoseevich joins a secret society in Chisinau called the Union of Welfare. It was formed in 1818 on the basis of another, dissolved society ("Union of Salvation"), and consisted of about 200 people, mostly nobles. Its goal was the destruction of autocracy and serfdom, the introduction of constitutional government. Moreover, it was planned to achieve this by relatively peaceful means. Raevsky was one of the leaders of the Bessarabian group of Decembrists.
Soon he joined the Southern Secret Society, which was formed in March 1821 on the basis of one of the departments of the "Union of Welfare" (Tulchinskaya), headed by a directory consisting of three people: Pestel P. I., Muravyov-Apostol S. I., Yushnevsky A. P.
Revolutionary propaganda activities
Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky launched a wide range of activities related to revolutionary propaganda. He was a teacher of history, geography and literature at the Lancaster divisional school, while using classes to educate soldiers in the field of politics.
Raevsky revealed to the soldiers the ideas of the equality of all people, their freedom. He told them about the events of the French Revolution that took place in the 18th century, about the Spanish revolutionary events. And also Vladimir Fedoseevich enlightened his students on the basics of constitutional government, earning the reputation of an “unbridled freethinker” from high authorities.
Influence on Pushkin
At the very beginning of the 1820s, Raevsky created wonderful examples of journalistic articles, such as "On the Soldier" and "On the Slavery of the Peasants." They were distributed among soldiers and officers, clearly demonstrating the views of a fiery revolutionary.
During this period, Vladimir Raevsky met with A. S. Pushkin. The great poet was attracted in the future Decembrist by such remarkable features as charm, education, intelligence, adherence to principles and a clear expression of the revolutionary mood.
According to the researchers, the freedom-loving views of the “sun of Russian poetry” on the historical process, set out more than once in his works, were to a certain extent formed under the influence of the first Decembrist, Raevsky.
The activities of the first freethinker and the destroyer of army discipline, as they called him at the top, have long been subjected to surveillance by military agents. A. S. Pushkin managed to warn him of the imminent danger, and Raevsky was able to destroy many important papers that could declassify the secret society.
Arrest and sentence
Raevsky was arrested in February 1822, accused of revolutionary propaganda among the cadets and soldiers, although there was no direct evidence. He was imprisoned in a fortress in Tiraspol, but did not name any of his accomplices during interrogation. Here appeared the program verses of Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky: “To friends in Chisinau”, “A singer in a dungeon”, in them he reported, including about his inherent “marble patience”.
In 1823 he was sentenced to death, but thenthe verdict was cancelled. After the failure of the Decembrist uprising, he was brought to the investigation in this case, but even then they did not break his will.
Settlement and amnesty
Raevsky spent almost six years in solitary confinement, after which he was deprived of his noble rank, all distinctions and sent to a settlement in Siberia, in the village of Olonki, Irkutsk region. But that didn't break him either. He began to engage in agriculture, trade in grain, contracts, married a local peasant woman who bore him nine children. They all managed to get an education.
VF Raevsky did not leave the cause of public education even in the Siberian wilderness. Although economic activity distracted him from poetry, his best poems were written here: "Thoughts" and "Death Thought".
In 1856, the Decembrists were amnestied, but Raevsky did not take advantage of this circumstance and remained forever in Siberia. Indeed, in European Russia there were all the same orders against which he fought, but here he felt freer. Vladimir Fedoseevich Raevsky passed away in 1872.
