Muravev, Artamon Zakharovich

Born 1794; died Nov. 4 (16), 1846, in the village of Malaia Razvodnaia, Irkutsk Province. Decembrist. Educated at Moscow University. Colonel.

Murav’ev served in the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the campaigns of the Russian Army abroad in 1813–14. At the end of 1817 he became a member of the Union of Salvation; later he joined the Union of Welfare and the Southern Society of Decembrists. A supporter of decisive revolutionary action, Murav’ev repeatedly offered to assassinate the tsar and urged an immediate armed uprising. In their plans for a military coup, the Decembrists placed great hopes on Murav’ev, who in 1824 became commander of the Akhtyrka Hussar Regiment. However, in December 1825 Murav’ev began to waver; he rejected S. I. Murav’ev-Apostol’s demand for support of the Chernigov Regiment, which had revolted, and suggested influencing the new tsar by peaceful means. In 1826, Murav’ev was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in Siberia; his sentence was commuted in 1839 to exile.