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arrangement was not widely publicized. The
Northern Society seized on the confusion and
the belief that Constantine was a more likely lib-
eral reformer to launch an armed rebellion on
Senate Square in St. Petersburg that was sup-
ported by 3,000 soldiers and sailors. Hastily
planned and poorly coordinated, the St. Peters-
burg revolt and a related one in the Ukraine
were both easily suppressed. In the criminal case
that ensued, 36 conspirators, most of them mem-
bers of aristocratic and well-to-do families, were
sentenced to death. After further review, the
new czar Nicholas I approved the executions of
only five (including Pestel and Ryleev), while 88
conspirators were sentenced to hard labor in
Siberia and 14 were sentenced to settlement in
Siberia. Throughout his long reign Nicholas
refused to commute the sentences of the exiled
Decembrists. Only in 1856, after his death, did his
son,
ALEXANDER II
, issue a full amnesty to the sur-
viving Decembrists in Siberia. Considered to have
been the first of a long line of Russian revolution-
aries, the Decembrists were regarded as revolu-
tionary martyrs by later generations. After the
OCTOBER REVOLUTION
, the site of their rebellion,
centrally located in St. Petersburg (Leningrad, in
Soviet Times) was renamed Decembrists' Square.
family fortune through landholding and by
building factories in the region of the Urals. By
the late 18th century the Demidovs controlled
about 40 percent of Russia's output of cast iron.
During
CATHERINE II
the Great's reign the family
founded a school of commerce that was initially
attached to the Moscow orphanage. By the early
19th century, the Demidovs became important
benefactors of the arts and sciences, with contri-
butions that ranged from the promotion of scien-
tific education in Moscow to the establishment of
an annual prize in literature.
Denikin, Anton Ivanovich
(1872-1947)
general
The most important of the White commanders
during the Russian civil war, Denikin was a rarity
in the imperial army, an officer of humble back-
ground who had risen to divisional commander
on the eve of World War I. Denikin joined the
army in 1887, graduated from the General Staff
Academy as an infantry officer, and fought in the
RUSSO
-
JAPANESE WAR
. He fought with bravery and
distinction during World War I with the South-
ern Army. This and the democratic opportunities
provided by the Russian army to men of nonno-
ble background after the
FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
ensured his rapid promotion in 1917. By August
1917 he had become commander in chief of the
Southwest Army Group. Imprisoned by
KEREN
-
SKY
's Provisional Government after his support of
General
KORNILOV
's march on Petrograd, Denikin
escaped in October 1917. He joined the Volun-
teer Army being formed in southeastern Russia
by Generals
KORNILOV
and
ALEKSEEV
, in opposi-
tion to the Bolshevik government. By October
1918, after the deaths of Kornilov and Alekseev,
Denikin was in sole charge of the Volunteer
Army. His troops' victories in the north Cauca-
sus and
COSSACK
defeats in the Don region
allowed Denikin to emerge as the commander in
chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia
(AFSR), with authority over the Volunteer Army
and Cossack forces. In the summer of 1919, his
troops mounted an offensive on Moscow that
Demidov family
A Russian business dynasty whose fortune was
first made in the field of metallurgy in the 18th
century, the Demidov family grew in influence
and prestige over the next century. The founder
of the dynasty was Nikita Demidovich Antufyev
(1656-1725), a serf and blacksmith from the Tula
region. By the end of
PETER I
the Great's reign,
Antufyev, who in 1702 had adopted the surname
Demidov and is generally known as Nikita Demi-
dov, had turned the iron foundry in Tula into one
of the great centers of weapons production in
imperial Russia. He also established foundries in
the Ural Mountains region. As a reward for his
efforts, Peter granted him noble status in 1720 as
well as large estates. Nikita Demidov's son Akinfy
Nikitich Demidov (1678-1745) expanded the
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