Pestel and the Northern Society

Abstract

Following the closure of the Union of Welfare in 1821 there emerged, as already discussed, the Northern and Southern Societies. The names of these groups, which were coined by the Decembrists themselves, refer to their location in St Petersburg and Tulchin respectively. Pestel always regarded two separate societies as a nuisance dictated by geography to be mitigated as speedily as possible by organisational initiatives and the bilateral adoption of a concerted political programme and a united plan of action. He remarked to the Investigating Committee that he regarded the two societies essentially as one ‘because they both represent the continuation of the Union of Welfare’. He claimed to have found support for this view during his stay in St Petersburg in 1824, members of the Northern Society generally considering ‘our two regional bases (okrugy) as sections of one and the same society’. He told Bestuzhev- Ryumin that he always had been convinced that ‘without the Northern base’ it would be impossible to take direct action. Nevertheless, Pestel’s own testimony reveals that the two societies were – and remained – completely separate and that, in spite of his best efforts, there was no unanimity of aim, operation or structure.KeywordsSecret SocietyEuropean HistorySecret OrganisationOrganisational InitiativeSeparate SocietyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.