ABSTRACT
Naturally, in Russia it was heretical to assert the metaphysical nature of the Law, to claim that it held sway over even the tsar. Retribution was swift and sure for anyone who dared to speak openly about the government’s abuse of law, or attempted to compare the government’s rhetoric with its reality. Even in exile, Decembrists found supporters for their sympathetic attitudes toward America among Siberian intelligentsia. They even discussed an idea to rename Russian Empire into the United States of Russia. Russia, the backwoods of Europe, could not afford him enough space. The social circle accorded to author by birth and education was exceedingly small. The high society of Moscow and Petersburg was one extended family—dissidents and informers, courtiers and homebodies—constituting a thin layer of the incipient Russian intelligentsia. Political or military coups have succeeded in Russia, both before and after the uprising of December 1825.
