Members of a Russian revolutionary society, the Northern Society. A group of Russian army officers, influenced by French liberal ideas, combined to lead a revolt against the accession of Nicholas I in 1825. Some of their supporters proclaimed their preference for a republic, others for Nicholas’s eldest brother Constantine, in the hope that he would be in favour of constitutional reform and modernization. A few Guards regiments in St Petersburg refused to take an oath of allegiance to Nicholas and marched to the Senate House, where they were met by artillery fire. Betrayed by police spies, five of their leaders were executed, and 120 exiled to Siberia. The Decembrists’ revolt profoundly affected Russia, leading to increased police terrorism and to the spread of revolutionary societies among the intellectuals.