Crimes and Punishments of Russian Officers at the Time of the Decembrists

Abstract

During the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, military forces of Western European countries transformed into the armies of the modern type, and their officers acquired a professional character. It can be assumed that the of ficers of Russian army of the Decembrist era, formed in a modern way, also represented a class of professional military men. In fact, the General Staff expected responsible actions from the officers in managing the daily life of the lower ranks. But some officers abused discretion and were punished for this. The article analyzes five cases of military trials of officers. In the 1st case, 2 officers left some soldiers to die in the cold weather sometime in March. In the 2nd case, a company commander killed a soldier in self-defense. In the 3rd case, a lieutenant appeared in plain clothes in front of the regiment commander and tried to beat him with a stick. In the 4th case, a company commander lynched a deserter and buried the dead body secretly. In the 5th case, a major frequently was violent to his orderlies. All of these officers were punished and some of them were reduced to the ranks, what is more, some were deprived of the nobility. These cases show that, although the Russian army has already transformed into an element of the state bureaucracy, part of the officers still treated the lower ranks as serfs. The process of professional formation of officers in this period was not yet completed.