The Transition Process and Periodical Feature in the Decembrist Myth

This study deals with the Decembrist Myth as a research theme in order to reflect on the significance of this important historical event, with seeing the 200th anniversary of the Decembrist revolt this year. The following are the results that were elicited in the wake of examining to divide the transition process of this myth into five periods. In the Decembrist Myth, a myth creator by each period is selected as a specific individual. In this regard, it is differentiated from an existing spontaneous myth. In the first period that was begun from 1825, a leading role was played by a negative interpretation of the revolt that was announced in the official position of the Tsar regime. On the other hand, the myth of A. Herzen's romantic hero in the second period, which is the era of a great reform carried out by Alexander II, presented an ideal human model to the raznochintsy intelligentsia, thereby having formed a positive public opinion about Decembrist's achievements. In the third period, the time is coexisted Lenin's Revolutionary Myth continuing the tradition of Herzen, along with the liberal interpretation that was caused by an effort to dig into the historical truth, in addition to the development in the Decembrist Studies based on the excavation of historical materials. In the fourth period entering the Soviet era after the Russian Revolution, Lenin's revolutionary myth seizes hegemony for a long time even if having been ever put at the center of the controversy due to a class debate. In the last period up to the present from Perestroika, an attempt to break up the conventional mythological system is being made in many ways.