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The year is 1849. The sun has just lifted above the horizon on a hazy December day in St Petersburg. A procession of 23 black carriages is starkly silhouetted against the foot-deep snow, as it comes to a halt in the middle of the large military parade ground known as the Semyonovsky Square. Out of each carriage steps a bewildered prisoner, accompanied by an armed guard. Nearly all are emaciated, dishevelled and unshaven. Looking about them they begin to recognize comrades whom they have not seen for the eight months since their arrest. They are members of a network of reading and discussion groups concerned with radical ideas and, in some cases, with plans to print and disseminate forbidden literature. In the middle of the parade ground is a large wooden platform, near to which are four stakes driven into the ground. After a brief moment in which the prisoners are allowed to greet each other, they are lined up and led past a large contingent of troops to the platform. They are made to stand in two rows as an official passes along the rows, reading out to each man singly the indictment against him and the sentence passed. Although there is some variation in the charge, the same sentence is repeated again and again: "The Field Criminal Court has condemned all to death by firing squad, and on 19 December His Majesty the Emperor personally wrote: "Confirmed.""

DOI: 10.1057/9780230377813_4

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