Society of United Slavs: A view from modern times
Abstract
The article deals with the process of formation and functioning of one of the Decembrist organizations – the Society of United Slavs. Its program stated in the two documents Rules of the United Slavs and Oath of the United Slavs is analyzed. It is shown that the views of the founders and members of the organization were changing according to the situation, especially after the integration with the Southern Society of the Decembrists. It is stressed that the “Slavs” took part in the armed revolt of the Chernigov Regiment against the Russian tsarism in December 1825. The Society of United Slavs appeared in 1823 and functioned on the territory of the Volyn and Kiev provinces. The founders of the organization were the brothers Andrey and Pyotr Borisov and the Polish nobleman Julian Lublinski. The most important distinctive features of the Society of United Slavs were as follows: the proof of necessity to create a federative union (state) of the Slavic peoples; relying on the masses in the protest struggle against the authorities; denial of the dictatorship as a form of state government. However, the ideology of the Society suffered from grave shortcomings. In particular, there were not provided any specific instructions concerning practical realization of the program. This resulted in the fact that many members of the Society got dissatisfied with its work. In the autumn of 1825, the Society of United Slavs merged with the Southern Society of the Decembrists and ceased to be independent. Therefore, they gave up a claim to create a federative union of Slavic peoples. Nevertheless, the “Slavs” contributed to the history of the Decembrist movement
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