Pushkin was exiled from St. Petersburg in 1820 after his “Ode to Liberty” angered Tsar Alexander I. Men at court who respected Pushkin were able to sway the Tsar from sending him to Siberia, so the young poet was sent away to southern Russia for “government service,” where he spent most of his time in Kishinev and Odessa. Upon his arrival to the region where he was to serve his time, Pushkin fell ill. The man in charge, General Inzov, showed kindness and understanding to Pushkin and allowed him leave from serving his sentence where he stayed under the care of another general, Raevsky, and lived as a member of the family. Here Pushkin experienced “three of the most memorable and significant months of his life,” (Vickery 33), in which the beautiful Caucasus scenes inspired his poetry and he came to read Byron who influenced his writings tremendously. When it was finally time to return to Petersburg in 1824, some of his intercepted correspondence indicated that Pushkin had yet to learn from his evil revolutionary tendencies, and was thus sent to his parents’ estate in Mikhailovskoe in the North under house-arrest. He was there for two years.
Between his graduation in 1817 and his exile in 1820, Pushkin remained very close to many of the leaders in the Decembrist movement. He attended political sporys and continued to write very liberal poetry. But during his exile, his personal commitment to the revolutionary sentiments of the Decembrists became more reserved. He felt unsure that an uprising would necessarily lead to any regime change since it was to be solely initiated by the enlightened aristocratic class. Without a mass of people, a revolution of limited numbers, Pushkin believed, would be crushed easily. The only solution to increase numbers would be to gain the support of the peasantry, and this would certainly cause a “blood-bath” (Driver 36) by the ignorant but impassioned lower class. Pushkin’s doubts encompassed three aspects: concern for revolution’s viability, doubts that there was a real desire to fight oppression, and a concern for what the resulting governing power would bring.
But Pushkin would soon find out that his qualms about the inevitable uprising were well-supported. On December 14, 1825 the country was to take a vow of allegiance to their new Tsar, Nicholas I. But a revolt began instead. About 3,000 men lined up in the Senate Square, calling for Constantine (next-in line to the throne) and stood ready to fight. In Marc Raeff’s historical documentary The Decembrist Movement he says “In retrospect it is quite clear that the conspirators…had no chance of success, for their plans had been poorly laid and their leadership was found wanting,” (Raeff 2). The Decembrists had been conspiring towards revolution for some time but were waiting for an opportunity to carry out their plan, and implement their ideals of freedom and enlightened rule. During their revolt they called for the self-renounced Constantine mainly because they simply did not want Nicholas to rule, since his persistent presence in Petersburg gained him the reputation of a harsh despot. Nicholas retaliated, knowing full well that he had superior artillery and numbers, and almost immediately the Decembrist Uprising was quelled.
Pushkin was still under house-arrest in Mikhailovskoe at the time of the uprising. Although he no longer held the same convictions about the Decembrists’ cause as he once had, Pushkin still would have fought if he had been there, simply out of loyalty to his friends. He was spared another exile, this time to Siberia, for not being a part in the uprising. However, he was implicated in the conspiracy since his liberal poetry had been circulated throughout the Decembrist revolutionary circles. Therefore, Nicholas became Pushkin’s personal censor and Pushkin’s thereafter took a much more apolitical tone in his writing, at least superficially. Some people felt that Pushkin’s submission to the emperor was an act of betrayal to the Decembrists’ cause. But Pushkin’s sympathies for the movement did not cease, his convictions simply became more moderate.
Pushkin was not necessarily opposed to all the ideals of the Decembrist movement per say. Indeed, the Decembrist movement encompassed a confused set of political opinions—the revolutionaries “varied greatly in their political convictions and strategies, (Sandler 2). In many ways, Pushkin’s own confused convictions and loyalties mirrored the contradictions inherent in the movement.