The Legend of the Tsar and the Decembrist

On September 10, 1856, Major General Alexander Nikolaevich Muravyov was appointed as the governor of Nizhny Novgorod. The biography of the new leader looked quite unusual. He was born in 1792, took part in the Patriotic War at nineteen, and was awarded a mark of distinction for the Battle of Kulm. By the age of twenty-four, he already held the rank of colonel, but in 1816, having become fascinated with foreign ideas, he unexpectedly left military service and, together with Nikita Muravyov, created the first secret society in Russia—the “Union of Welfare.” One step more—and he would have ended up among the Decembrists…