Nikolai Turgenev on the guilt and responsibility of the Decembrists

Abstract. The article is devoted to the discussion in historiography and historical sources of the question of the qualification of the actions of those under investigation after
the speech on Senate Square on December 14, 1825. The article examines the current historiographical discussion about the need for a critical assessment of investigative
and judicial materials as historical sources. The article focuses on an attempt by Nikolai Turgenev, who belongs to the liberal camp of the Decembrist movement, to neutralize the importance of secret societies and their direct connection with the December 14 uprising. It is shown as N.I. Turgenev tried to prove the legal inconsistency of the “Report of the investigative commission” and the further prosecution of the Decembrists by the Supreme Criminal Court. N.I. Turgenev’s criticism was based on his ideas about the necessary normative foundations of justice. A comparison of this criticism and his draft judicial reform of the early 1820s demonstrates that in his assessment of the Decembrist case, N.I. Turgenev proceeded from the requirements of French judicial proceedings that were not relevant to the realities of the Russian legal system in the first quarter of the 19th century. It is concluded that, after reviewing the arguments of N.I. Turgenev. According to Turgenev’s famous book “Russia and the Russians”, the Decembrists disagreed with them, opting for the historical rather than the legal significance of their conviction by the Supreme Criminal Court.

Keywords: Decembrists, Supreme Criminal Court, investigative case, secret society, N.I. Turgenev, justice.