From Melancholy to Enthusiasm

Abstract This article explores the under-researched theme of enthusiasm in Russian Imperial culture and its role in the Decembrist revolts. Enthusiasm played a crucial role in European history, evolving from religious fanaticism and mental disease to an agent of artistic creativity and liberal politics. The post-Napoleonic era and Romanticism embraced enthusiasm and its counterpart, melancholy, as important drivers of political change. Romantic enthusiasm and melancholy became part of the Decembrist generation’s cultural vocabulary in the early 19th century. Liberal noblemen in the post-1815 Russian Empire experienced political boredom and civic melancholy in response to the socio-political status quo, while the 1820s European revolts showed an alternative mode of action. Relying on a framework from the history of emotions, this article argues that the “first Russian revolutionaries,” the Decembrists, utilized enthusiasm as a political, Romantic, and revolutionary norm in structuring their motivation, secret societies, and the failed 1825 revolts.