Decembrists

Decembrists, name applied to Russian officers who led a mutiny in December 1825. Members of various revolutionary groups influenced by Western and liberal ideas, the Decembrists tried to prevent the accession to the throne of Grand Duke Nicholas after the death of his eldest brother Tsar Alexander I, favoring instead Nicholas's brother Constantine and a constitutional monarchy. Their uprising was quickly suppressed, and several of them were executed. The Decembrists were regarded as martyrs by later Russian revolutionaries.