The problem of the motive of the Decembrist uprising through the prism of the ethics of Russian history: justice

The article examines the problem of an adequate assessment of the actions of the Decembrists in the Russian literature and public opinion of Russians. It is proved that from the point of view of the economic determinism of history, the actions of the Decembrists look ridiculous and suicidal. It is no accident, therefore, that the absolute majority of pre-revolutionary authors negatively assessed the Decembrist uprising. In the Soviet period, historians did not even ask about the motives that motivated the Decembrists in the uprising and their willingness to sacrifice themselves. Since historians of the Soviet period could not consider history from the point of view of ethics, but only from the standpoint of the Marxist theory of the economic predestination of the historical development of all countries, they did not raise the question of the motives of the Decembrists' actions. As a result, they did not give an ethical assessment to their movement. The article concludes that an adequate assessment of the Decembrist movement can be given only through its analysis from the point of view of the ethics of Russian history. Based on the research of scientific works and memoirs of the Decembrists, it is concluded that the motive of the Decembrist movement, which prompted its participants to sacrifice themselves, was the ethical principle “the good of my neighbor is higher than my good”. The manifestation of this principle was based on such an ethical category of Russian history as justice