The Praetorian Option 257
the excessive influence wielded by Alexander's favourite, A. A. Arakcheyev.
The lattci's icmaikable unpopularity w·as due not merely Lu his personai short-
comings, or even to his exceptional position: he was also seen as an admin-
istrator, a 'chair-borne general' who had failed to distinguish himself during
the war yet presumed to bully those who had. In truth Arakcheyev became
something of a scapegoat. Although ethnically Russian, he was a 'Gatchina
man' and so could readily be identified with the aliens in the army's upper
echelons (and at court) who were an obvious target for nationalistic resent-
ment. Critics also held that the tsar was too generous towards his non-Russian
(especially Polish) subjects, and that he spent too much time on European
affairs, which necessitated his presence abroad, instead of settling the serious
problems that beset his own long-suffering people. 38
In this way the army's injured pride merged with a now greatly enhanced
Great Russian national consciousness. This sentiment seems to have been more
important than the constitutionalism and the concern for social reform that
were stressed by earlier historians, particularly those who wrote in the late
Imperial era. 'Decembrism' was less a political ideology than a state of mind.
This fact was reflected in its chequered organizational history. We shall con-
sider this in the light of the participants' military situation and experience.The first groups to take shape were officers' artels, that is, associations of
friends in the same unit who would share living expenses and enjoy each
other's company when the day's work was done. One of these, in the Izmay-
lovsky guards regiment, is said to have possessed a well-stocked library
(presumably distinct from that of the unit-for several guards regiments now
possessed such facilit~s).^19 Another artel, in the Semenovsky regiment, at one
time had as many as 20 members.^40 A third group, which developed out of this
one, emerged in 1814 among officers of the General Staff. It acquired a high-
sounding name, the 'Holy Artel', which reflected its members' masonic con-
nections. It included at least two, and perhaps three, brothers: sons of a
remarkable but little-studied individual, Major-General Nikolay Nikolayevich
Murav'yev (1768-1840). It was he who founded the Column-Leaders' school
referred to above. He did so with the aid of two other senior members of his
clan: Mikhail Nikitich Murav'yev (1757-1807), who as Alexander I's ex-tutor
and a former curator of Moscow University had considerable leeway in educa-
tional matters, and Nikolay Mikhaylovich Murav'yev, who offered the
premises. No less than 24 future 'Decembrists' attended this school, among
them three of Nikolay Nikolayevich's four sons (Aleksandr, Nikolay, and
J8 Shil'der, Aleksandr I, iv. 92-6; McConnell, Alexander/, p. 153; N. M. Karamzin, 'Opinion
of a Russian Citizen' (1819), translated in J. L. Black, Essays on Karamzin, The Hague and Paris,
1975, pp. 193-6.
l9 Gangeblov, 'Kak ya popal', p. 190; Zavalishin, Zapiski, p. 50; for the library in the guards
general staff, set up by Sipyagin: D[ubrovin], 'Vel. Knyaz',' p. 102.
40 Yakushkin, Zapiski, p. 9; Nechkina, 'Svyashch. artel'', p. 166; id., Dviz:.heniye, i. 121.