Kondraty Ryleyev - Arrest and Execution

Arrest and Execution

On the night of December 27 (December 15 O.S.), 1825, Ryleyev was arrested for his role in the uprising, and charged with treason and attempted regicide. Along with four other Decembrists, judged to be the leaders of the rebellion, Ryleyev was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. The method of execution was changed to hanging after the Tsar refused to confirm the verdict, returning it for further deliberation.

During the many interrogations that followed his arrest, Ryleyev, unlike most of his fellow conspirators, never implicated anyone else in the rebellion. Ryleyev then went one step further, pleading with the Investigation Committee in April 1826, to execute him alone for the revolt, stating:

If an execution is needed for the good of Russia, I am the only one who deserves it. I have long prayed that it will stop at me, and that the others will be returned by God's mercy to their families, their fatherland, and their noble Tsar.

The date of execution was set for July 25 (July 13 O.S.), 1826. When the executioner attempted to hang the five men, three of them, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky, and Ryleyev, dropped through the trapdoor only to have the rope around their necks break. Ryleyev supposedly told the crowd watching the execution that Russia was an "unhappy country, where they don't even know how to hang you." Muravyov-Apostol is said to have made a similar exclamation. The Tsar simply ordered more rope, and the execution was carried out not long after the first attempt. Ryleyev died holding a book of Byron's poetry.