Union of Salvation () is a 2019 Russian war epic period adventure film directed by Andrei Kravchuk, written by Nikita Vysotskiy and Oleg Malovichko, and produced by Konstantin Ernst. The film was created in collaboration with the Cinema Direction Studios with Mosfilm Studios and Lenfilm with the support of the Russian state Cinema Foundation.
The story is about veterans of the French invasion of Russia of 1812, who conspired to install Konstantin Pavlovich as the new tsar of the Russian Empire, transform Russia into a constitutional monarchy and abolish serfdom. In Imperial Russia in 1816, several officers of the Russian Imperial Guard founded a society known as the Union of Salvation. They led a revolt in Saint Petersburg in December 1825, when about 3,000 officers and soldiers refused to swear allegiance to the new Tsar Nicholas I. This group of conspirators ended up leading the Decembrist revolt. The revolt incorporated elements of the Life-Guards Moscow Regiment, Grenadier Life Guards Regiment, and Naval Equipage of the Guard.
The film shows in detail both the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square in Saint Petersburg and the uprising of the 29th Chernigov Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army, stationed in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire.
According to the website of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, the picture's budget in 2016 was estimated at 700 million rubles. Production of the film got underway in 2017 when Cinema Direction Studios began gathering staff to produce the film. Principal photography began in January 2018, in Saint Petersburg and in Belgorod Oblast.
Union of Salvation was released in the Russian Federation by 20th Century Fox CIS (through Buena Vista International) on December 26, 2019, in 2D, Atmos.
Plot In 1808, Emperor Napoleon I visits a boarding house in Paris, where he is presented with a cadre of promising students. One of the students, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, the son of a Russian diplomat, impresses him with his liberal views.
In March of 1814, the Imperial Russian Army has just captured Paris and is celebrating the defeat of Napoleonic France. During the review of the Life Guards of the Semyonovsky Regiment by Tsar Alexander I, the guard officers–among them Muravyov-Apostol - offer to drink champagne with him in honor of their victory but the sovereign refuses.
In 1820, Muravyov-Apostol is growing increasingly disillusioned with Tsarist autocracy and has associated himself with liberal personalities in Saint Petersburg including the poet Kondraty Ryleyev, energetic republican Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, distinguished veteran Pavel Pestel, and Prince Sergey Trubetskoy. While attending a theater play hosted by Governor-General Mikhail Miloradovich, Muravyov-Apostol and his fellow officers are forced to leave early due to a sudden riot by the Semyonovsky Regiment. Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin pacify the furious soldiers who are aggrieved by frequent corporal punishment and excessive drill. Despite this, the Tsar's punishments are harsh - Trubetskoy is retained due to being uninvolved while the others are demoted, dismissed, and/or transferred to Little Russia.
In the Kiev Governorate, Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin are embedded into the 29th Chernigov Infantry Regiment and later meet with Pestel and other fellow officers and veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. Pestel attempts to recruit Muravyov-Apostol into a plot to assassinate the Tsar during his review of the troops and then subsequently march on St. Petersburg. To cover up the diversion of regimental funds into the plot, Pestel forces Captain Arkady Mayboroda at gunpoint to sign a receipt stating that the latter borrowed the missing amount from the regimental treasury for private use. However, Mayboroda sends a letter to Alexander, alerting him of the conspiracy. The Tsar, himself striving for reform, keeps the conspiracy under wraps and cancels the review. The conspirators get off with an unspoken warning.
Alexander later confides in his younger brother Nicholas that he would be the new successor instead of his older brother Constantine who expressed no desire to rule. This arrangement is kept secret.
By 1825, the reformist officers - now including Prince Yevgeniy Obolensky, retired lieutenant Pyotr Kakhovsky, Captain Mikhail Bestuzhev, and Lieutenant Nikolai Panov - have established secret groups in St. Petersburg to push for radical change in Russia. Despite their shared goals, Ryleyev and Trubetskoy fall out with Pestel over how to carry out their plans. In Kiev, Muravyov-Apostol begins swaying the Chernigov Regiment to his cause including elevating a disgraced grenadier to the rank of major much to the consternation of his fellow officer Colonel Gustav Gebel.
Later that year, Alexander dies. His death triggers a crisis as Constantine is publicly acknowledged as the new Tsar. Miloradovich, fearing political unrest, pressures Nicholas to swear allegiance to Constantine despite the secret change in succession. Mayboroda's letter is discovered among Alexander's notes, fully exposing the conspiracy of the reformists and leading to mass arrests. Pestel, frustrated and ill, burns all his incriminatory documents and then allows himself to be arrested.
Ryleyev learns from his associate Count Nikolay Mordvinov about the imperial succession crisis. Ryleyev then informs Trubetskoy and the rest of the reformists. Impatient and restless, they decide to instigate a revolution by exploiting the dynastic confusion of the interregnum following Alexander's death.
On the morning of December 14, the day of Nicholas's accession to the throne, the Moscow Life Guards Regiment - led by Obolensky, Panov, Kakhovsky, and Bestuzhev - marches to Senate Square declaring their allegiance to Constantine and calling for a constitution. They prepare to attack the Senate which has sworn allegiance to Nicholas. Miloradovich attempts to persuade the soldiers to return to their barracks. He almost succeeds in swaying the troops only to be shot by Kakhovsky and then fatally bayonetted by Obolensky. Nicholas rushes to the square where he is jeered at by the crowd and fails to prevent more troops from defecting. Realizing the stubbornness of the rebels, Nicholas orders Aleksei Orlov's loyalist Horse Guards to disperse them. Orlov's attack fails.
Nicholas then orders for artillery to fire grapeshot/canister shots on the revolting regiments. Many rebel soldiers are killed and the remaining spontaneously flee to the frozen-over Neva River. On the Neva, Bestuzhev and Panov manage to reorganize their units; the rebel soldiers line up in formation on the ice so as to attempt to capture the Peter and Paul Fortress and seize its arsenal. In response, Nicholas has the artillery fire on the ice instead of directly at the rebels. Many more soldiers and officers are either killed by shrapnel or drown in the freezing Neva. Trubetskoy and Ryleyev, who have been observing the events from the crowds, leave shaken and horrified.
Meanwhile, in Kiev, Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin mobilize the Chernigov Regiment to march on St. Petersburg to assist in the coup, unaware of the actual events that have transpired. They attempt to arrest Gebel but he resists and is repeatedly stabbed by both Muravyov-Apostol and Bestuzhev-Ryumin.
The following January, the Chernigov Regiment is intercepted in Rzhevsky by loyalist troops equipped with artillery. Muravyov-Apostol, realizing that the coup has failed, takes the regimental banner and marches alone to negotiate. His actions inspire his subordinate officers to advance against the loyalists, prompting the loyalists to attack. Muravyov-Apostol is wounded by artillery as loyalist cavalry charge the Chernigov Regiment.
In the wake of the failed uprising, Trubetskoy is personally admonished by Nicholas. Ryleyev, facing arrest, is rebuked by Mordvinov but he remains defiant in his beliefs.
In the summer of 1826, the five leaders of the uprising–Kakhovsky, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Muravyov-Apostol, Ryleyev, and Pestel - are taken out to be hanged. Some of the ropes snap, causing three of the condemned to fall violently onto the ground. As the executioners scramble to hang them again, a bloodied Muravyov-Apostol imagines an alternate version of the meeting with Alexander I wherein the late Tsar agrees to drink champagne with his guards.
Cast Most of the male performers with speaking parts in the cast played characters in the military, in particular the Imperial Russian Army. The female speaking parts represented Russian women in the nobility and royal family. + Cast Performer Role Leonid Bichevin Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, a podpolkovnik of the Chernigov Regiment revolt Maksim Matveyev Prince Sergei Trubetskoy, a polkovnik of the guard, duty officer of the General Staff Pavel Priluchny Pavel Pestel, a polkovnik, commander of the Vyatka Regiment Ivan Yankovsky Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, a podporuchik in the Chernigov Regiment Anton Shagin Kondraty Ryleyev, poet, journalist Ivan Kolesnikov Emperor of All Russia Nicholas I Aleksandr Domogarov Count Miloradovich, military governor-general of Saint Petersburg Igor Petrenko Baranov, a demoted major, grenadier of the Chernigov Regiment Artarmon Muravyov, a polkovnik, commander of the Akhtyr Hussars Vitali Kishchenko Emperor of All Russia Alexander I Aleksei Guskov Prince Aleksei Scherbatov, the general of the lnfantry of Kiev Sergey Koltakov Count Nikolay Mordvinov, a senator Aleksandr Ustyugov Prince Alexey Orlov, a general-adjutant, commander of Life Guard Horse Regiment Vladislav Vetrov Gustav Gebel, a podpolkovnik, commander of the Chernigov Regiment Alexander von Benckendorff, a general of the cavalry Artyom Tkachenko Amphelt, a polkovnik Efim Petrunin Ivan Sukhinov, a poruchik of the Chernigov Regiment Pavel Barshak Baron Veniamin Solovyev, a stabs-kapitan of the Chernigov Regiment Kirill Kuznetsov Mikhail Dipillo, a poruchik of the Chernigov Regiment Anton Feoktistov Anastasi Kuzmin, a poruchik, commander of the 5th Musketeer Company of the Chernigov Regiment Andrey Martynov Hippolyte Muravyov-Apostol, a praporshchik of the quartermaster Sergey Agafonov Pyotr Kakhovsky, a retired poruchik Dmitriy Lysenkov Prince Yevgeny Obolensky, a poruchik of the Life-Guard Finlands Regiment Baron Peter Frederiks, a major general, the Active Privy Councillor Aleksei Yushnevsky, a quartermaster general of the 2nd army, the Active State Councillor Chistov, a major of the Chernigov Regiment Arkady Mayboroda, a captain of the Vyatka Regiment Ivan Dibich, a general-adjutant. Chief of General Staff Building Alexander Chernyshev, a general-adjutant Vasily Mikulin, a polkovnik Kirill Zaytsev Mikhail Bestuzhev, a stabs-kapitan in the Life-Guards Moscow Regiment Yuri Borisov Anton Arbuzov, a leytenant of the Naval Equipage of the Imperial Guard Aleksandr Metyolkin Nikolai Panov, a poruchik of the Life-Guards Moscow Regiment Anton Momot Prince Dmitry Schepin-Rostovsky, a stabs-kapitan of the Life-Guards Moscow Regiment Ilya Bakunin, a praporshchik Aleksey Oding Baron Fedor Geismaer, general of the cavalry Fedor Schwartz, a polkovnik, commander of the Semyonovsky Regiment Sergey Umanov Yevsei, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol's batman Vladislav Reznik Pavel Golenichtchev-Koutouzov, a general Sofya Zaika Anna Belskaya Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė Princess Belskaya, Anna's mother Elena Lotova Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I Marina Konyashkina Princess Ekaterina Trubetskaya Larisa Malevannaya Yekaterina Nelidova
Production Development The film's historical consultant was Oksana Ivanovna Kiyanskaya. The film Union of Salvation is a project of the Direktsiya kino (the main partner of which is state-funded Channel One of Russian television) and the company 20th Century Fox CIS. The project was initially announced in 2013. The script was written by Nikita Vysotskiy, he originally appeared as a director.