Mikhail Miloradovich Count Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich ( ) , spelled Miloradovitch in contemporary English sources ( – ) was a Russian general of Serbian origin , prominent during the Napoleonic Wars . He entered military service on the eve of the Russo - Swedish War of 1788 – 1790 and his career advanced rapidly during the reign of Paul I . He served under Alexander Suvorov during . Miloradovich served in wars against France and Turkey , earning distinction in the Battle of Amstetten , the capture of Bucharest , the Battle of Borodino , the Battle of Tarutino and the Battle of Vyazma . He led the reserves into the Battle of Kulm , the Battle of Leipzig and the Battle of Paris ( 1814 ) . Miloradovich attained the rank of General of the Infantry in 1809 and the title of count in 1813 . His reputation as a daring battlefield commander ( referred to as " the Russian Murat " and " the Russian Bayard " ) rivalled that of his bitter personal enemy Pyotr Bagration , but Miloradovich also had a reputation for being lucky . He boasted that he had fought fifty battles but had never been wounded nor even scratched by the enemy . By 1818 , when Miloradovich was appointed Governor General of Saint Petersburg , the retirement or death of other senior generals made him the most highly decorated active officer of the Russian Army , holding the Order of St . George 2nd class , the Order of St . Andrew , the Order of St . Vladimir 1st class , the Order of St . Anna 1st class , the Order of St . John of Jerusalem and the Order of St . Alexander Nevsky with diamonds . A chivalrous man of boastful and flamboyant character , Miloradovich was a poor fit for the governorship . Vladimir Nabokov called him " a gallant soldier , " bon vivant " and a somewhat bizarre administrator " ; Alexander Herzen wrote that he was " one of those military men who occupied the most senior positions in civilian life with not the slightest idea about public affairs " . When news of the death of Alexander I reached Saint Petersburg , Miloradovich prevented the heir , future tsar Nicholas I , from acceding to the throne . From to , Miloradovich exercised de facto dictatorial authority , but he ultimately recognised Nicholas as his sovereign after the Romanovs sorted out the succession crisis . Miloradovich had sufficient evidence of the mounting Decembrist revolt , but did not take any action until the rebels took over the Senate Square on . He rode into the rows of rebel troops and tried to talk them into obedience , but was fatally shot by Pyotr Kakhovsky and stabbed by Yevgeny Obolensky . Early years . Mikhail Miloradovich was the son of Major General Andrey Miloradovich ( 1726 – 1798 ) . The Russian branch of the Serbian Miloradovich family was established in 1715 , when Mikhail Miloradovich ( the first ) ( Serbian : Михаило Милорадовић , Serbian Latin : Mihailo Miloradović ) , one of three brothers recruited by Peter I to incite rebellion against the Turks four years earlier , fled from Herzegovina to Russia and joined Peter ' s service as a colonel . He was a commander of the Hadiach Regiment . Towards the end of Peter ' s reign he was imprisoned in connection with Pavlo Polubotok ' s treason case , but was spared from further misfortune by Peter ' s death . His grandson Andrey served thirty years in the Russian Army and later moved into civil administration as the Governor of Little Russia and the Chernigov governorate . The family owned lands in the Poltava Governorate ; Mikhail inherited up to fifteen hundred serf s . Mikhail ' s father " enrolled " him in the military in his infancy , and later sent teenage Mikhail to study military sciences in the universities of Königsberg and Göttingen , and in Strasbourg and Metz . According to Nikolai Leskov , the education was superficial : Leskov described Mikhail as a boy of " charming ignorance " who did not even master the French language properly , and said that his French was littered with the " most grave and curious mistakes " ( an anecdote credited him with blending " pittoresque " and " synagogue " into " " pittagogue " " ) . Sixteen - year - old Mikhail returned to Russia in 1787 , joined the army as a praporshchik ( a junior commissioned officer rank ) in the Izmaylovsky Regiment and was soon sent into action in the Russo - Swedish War of 1788 – 1790 . Military career . Italian and Swiss campaigns . Miloradovich did not earn any distinction in the war of 1788 – 1790 , but he advanced rapidly in peacetime . A captain of the Guards in 1796 , Paul I regarded him favourably and he was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1797 and major general and chief of the Apsheron Regiment in 1798 . In the same year , he departed to join Alexander Suvorov ' s troops in Italy . He won Suvorov ' s unconditional trust for taking Lecco on the eve of the Battle of Cassano and for commanding the rearguard in the crossing of the Gotthard Pass . At Bassignana he changed three horses killed by the enemy but was not even scratched ; at Altdorf he led assault infantry over a burning bridge . These and similar episodes , true or anecdotal , forged public opinion of Miloradovich as a daring and lucky field commander , an opinion that he himself cultivated for the rest of his life . Miloradovich was adored at home , but the French held a different opinion : Adolphe Thiers described Miloradovich as " a Servian , of brilliant valour , but absolutely destitute of military knowledge , dissolute in manners , uniting all the vices of civilization with all the vices of barbarism " . Paul rewarded Miloradovich with the Order of St . Anne 1st class , the Order of St . John of Jerusalem and the Order of St . Alexander Nevsky . Suvorov , in violation of military codes , transferred Miloradovich from field troops to his staff as a " general in waiting " ; Paul later cited this fact as a pretext to dismiss Suvorov . Friendship between Miloradovich and Paul ' s second son Constantine also dated back to the Swiss campaign . Constantine awarded Miloradovich a gilded sword with an inscription " To my friend Miloradovich " , which Miloradovich had with him on the day of his death . Amstetten and Austerlitz . Miloradovich played a key role in the Battle of Amstetten , where Mikhail Kutuzov ordered his three regiments to take a stand and provide relief for Pyotr Bagration ' s troops . " Above all , skillful maneuvering of the Russian force , including timely arrival of Miloradovich and his intelligent application of the reserve forces at his disposal , prevented the collapse of the rear guard " . The action at Amstetten allowed Kutuzov to break contact with the French and prevented an all - out battle that would have been disastrous for the Russians . Reports of the battle by Miloradovich himself contradict the French accounts and are not corroborated by Bagration ' s laconic report : each side presented their own perspective , and Miloradovich had a particular penchant for glorifying his own actions . His action at Amstetten was rewarded with the Order of St . George 3rd class and promotion to lieutenant general . On November 11 , 1805 Miloradovich attacked the French in the Battle of Dürenstein ( referred to as the Battle of Krems in Russian sources ) , but the French withdrew before his corps could inflict significant damage . The Battle of Austerlitz saw Miloradovich in charge of the Russian part of a Russian - Austrian infantry column ( 2 , 875 out of 11 , 795 men ) , one of the four columns placed on Pratzen Heights , which had been abandoned by the French . Another , larger part of the column was under Austrian command ; the close presence of Kutuzov somewhat mitigated the perils of divided command . Tsar Alexander ordered this column to move before others were deployed ; Kutuzov , unable to oppose the tsar , ordered Miloradovich to advance across the Goldbach Stream to Kobylnice , disregarding enemy action and difficult terrain . Hills and fog obstructed the view , and the column marched straight into the bulk of the French armies . Soult ' s troops mauled the mixed column and Miloradovich retreated . Alexander summoned his brother Constantine for help ( although an alternative account by Bowden and Duffy asserts that Miloradovich contacted Constantine himself ) . Contrary to the popular view that " he was almost the only Russian general who obtained any advantage over the French " at Austerlitz , General Karl Wilhelm von Toll contested Miloradovich ' s actions , asserting that his column was the first to fall back and that it was Bagration , not Miloradovich , who saved the allied troops from annihilation . Russian - Turkish War . The war of 1806 – 1812 began with Russian occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia . After the Turks responded by taking Bucharest , Russian commander - in - chief Johann von Michelsohn dispatched Miloradovich to intervene . Miloradovich captured Bucharest on December 13 without significant resistance from the Turks and was rewarded with a golden sword with diamonds " " For the taking of Bucharest " " . The Turks , manipulated by the French envoy Sébastiani , did not declare war until five days later . No large - scale action followed . In May 1807 Miloradovich tried to capture Giurgiu , but failed and fell back to Bucharest . On June 2 , 1807 he redeemed himself by checking the Turkish advance at Obilesti . The years 1808 and 1809 did not see any remarkable action either , but were marked by a dual intrigue among top Russian generals ; at the top level , Mikhail Kutuzov was in conflict with Alexander Prozorovsky , while below them burned a feud between Miloradovich and Pyotr Bagration . Bagration temporarily succeeded Prozorovsky as commander - in - chief , but later both Miloradovich and Bagration lost their commands . At the beginning of 1810 Alexander recalled Miloradovich from front - line duty and tasked him with assembling a new army in Belarus . In April 1810 Miloradovich was appointed Governor of Kiev but soon tended his resignation . He was officially discharged in September 1810 but was called back into service in November , again as Governor of Kiev . Napoleon ' s invasion of Russia . At the beginning of the 1812 campaign , Miloradovich was tasked with assembling and training volunteer militia troops in the hinterland ; he returned to action on the eve of the Battle of Borodino with 14 , 600 militiamen . Kutuzov appointed Miloradovich commander of front - line forces of the right ( northern ) flank , comprising Baggovut ' s Second Infantry Corps and Ostermann - Tolstoy ' s Fourth Infantry Corps . The battle plan required Miloradovich to protect the old Smolensk - Moscow road . On the day of the battle , , Kutuzov realised that enemy action was concentrated against his center and left flank and , at about 9 a . m . , he ordered Miloradovich to march to the south and attack the French left flank . Riding in advance of his troops , Miloradovich was caught up in the heat of the battle for Semyonovskoe and , together with Barclay de Tolly , Yermolov and Rayevsky , sought refuge in the defences of the Fourth Division . Between 10 a . m . and 12 noon his troops took a stand in the center of the Russian line and held off French attacks , with Baggovut ' s corps seeing critical action around noon , and Ostermann ' s corps around 4 p . m . By the end of the battle , the French succeeded in forcing the Russians from their defences , and Miloradovich ' s troops fell back to the same Smolensk road from where they had started . Baggovut took a stand there and held the road until nightfall against ferocious attacks by Polish cavalry . After the battle , Miloradovich took command of the rearguard , sheltering Kutuzov ' s army from the advancing French . Enemy pressure prevented him from attending the Council in Fili that decided to surrender Moscow . Miloradovich , acting on behalf of Kutuzov , made a deal with Murat : if the French wanted Moscow intact , they had to allow Miloradovich free passage to the east , or face stubborn urban warfare . Hereford George wrote that " Murat apparently deemed it beneath his dignity to confer with a mere general " and that he left the talks to Sébastiani . According to Fyodor Glinka , however , Murat and Miloradovich negotiated directly with each other prior to the surrender of Moscow ; Miloradovich contacted Sébastiani only after the French took Moscow and their cavalry engaged the Russian rear . Sébastiani honoured the accord , called back the cavalry and allowed the safe retreat of two Russian regiments trapped between advancing French columns . Temporary loss of contact between Murat and the Russian rearguard allowed Kutuzov to make a westward turn : Murat kept on advancing south - east towards Bronnitsy while Kutuzov marched in the opposite direction . On , Kutuzov took defensive positions at Podolsk and dispatched Miloradovich to take position in front of the advancing French , 12 kilometers to the east . Four days later , Murat engaged Miloradovich and forced him to fall back to Krasnaya Pakhra ( deliberately setting a trap , according to Glinka ) . Miloradovich barely escaped death or captivity when his headquarters were raided by French cavalry scouts on . On , Miloradovich successfully counterattacked Murat ' s corps at Chirikovo , taking one general de brigade prisoner . At this point , Kutuzov preferred to retreat further south ; the main army marched to Tarutino , while Miloradovich , now having Ostermann - Tolstoy ' s corps under his command , retreated to a fallback position on the Chernishnya River , 8 kilometers north of Tarutino . Glinka wrote that from to Miloradovich was continuously fighting the French , including four significant battles , and lamented that few of his deeds reached the public eye : " He is not a hero of the " Vedomosti " , but a hero of history and of the future . " During the standoff on the Chernishnya , Miloradovich had another person - to - person negotiation with Murat , while his own camp was filled with masses of French stragglers taken prisoner . Modern Russian historians criticised as indecisive his actions in the Battle of Tarutino ( ) , when poor coordination of Russian columns met its match in poor discipline of the French camp , but to contemporaries like Glinka and William Cathcart the battle was a clear success . After the Battle of Maloyaroslavets , Russian troops split into three pursuit columns , led by Miloradovich , Matvey Platov and Kutuzov himself . Miloradovich marched directly on Vyazma , occupied by four French corps ( Beauharnais , Davout , Ney , Poniatowski ) , while Platov closed in on it from the north . On Miloradovich and Platov agreed to storm Vyazma . The Battle of Vyazma began at dawn of . Miloradovich quickly deployed front - line artillery that withstood Beauharnais ' s counterstrike and forced Davout ' s troops to take cover in the forest . Davout lost two hours taking a detour to reunite with Ney in Vyazma ; at 2 p . m . , when Miloradovich ordered a general assault , the French were already unable to resist . By 5 p . m . Miloradovich took control of the city , capturing French supply trains ( but only three cannons ) . On Miloradovich ' s three corps , marching ahead of the retreating French , took position to the French rear near Krasny . Miloradovich began the three - day Battle of Krasnoi by capturing a large supply train and cutting Ney and Beauharnais off from Napoleon ' s army . The next day , Beauharnais exhausted his troops in a breakthrough and refused Miloradovich ' s invitation to surrender ; at night the decimated remains of his corps escaped through the woods . On Ney made his own unsuccessful attempt to break through Miloradovich ' s defences . Miloradovich again offered honorable surrender , but Ney arrested the messenger and expended his 10th and 11th divisions in a frontal assault . At night his forces of 3 , 000 men escaped over the frozen Dnieper , but only 800 made it to Orsha . Miloradovich missed the opportunity to intercept the French crossing of Berezina by two days . In December 1812 , Alexander awarded Miloradovich the Order of St . George , 2nd class . In line with Kutuzov ' s " December Plan " , Miloradovich led a Russian vanguard due west and took Warsaw on . Campaign of 1813 - 1814 . The appointment of Peter Wittgenstein as commander - in - chief of the united Russian and Prussian armies provoked open hostility from his new subordinates and , at the same time , from his seniors : Miloradovich , Barclay de Tolly , Langeron , Platov and Tormasov . Tormasov refused to obey Wittgenstein altogether and left the army , while Miloradovich stayed and became the " official speaker " for the opposition . The conflict burned until the failures at Lutzen and Bautzen compelled Wittgenstein to resign his command . Miloradovich ' s own record in May 1813 was mixed : at Lutzen his corps of 12 , 000 men arrived too late to influence the outcome . In the following week he covered the retreat to the Elbe . Thiers wrote that the French " made him pay dearly for his useless boast " ( his resolve to defend a certain position ) . Cathcart praised his skillful rearguard action but noted that by May 12 his corps had shrunk to about 10 , 000 . At Bautzen , Miloradovich managed to push Oudinot out of Tronberg , but the battle as a whole remained a French victory . Miloradovich and Constantine spent the remainder of the war , almost a year , in close cooperation and proximity as chiefs of infantry and cavalry reserves . In August 1813 , after expiry of the Truce of Pläswitz , Miloradovich led the reserve force of 24 , 000 Guards and Grenadiers into Bohemia and Constantine followed him with 11 , 000 " splendid cavalry " and artillery . Together with Barclay ' s headquarters , they formed one of four allied columns that converged on Dresden but had not been brought into the action of the Battle of Dresden . Three days later they were employed against Vandamme in the Battle of Kulm , a " fortunate victory that conferred advantages beyond all calculations " . On the eve of the Battle of Leipzig the forces of Miloradovich and Constantine , stationed near Margeborn , formed the reserve of the coalition army . In December 1813 they crossed the Rhine and headed into France . Miloradovich ' s actions in 1813 were rewarded with the Order of St . Andrew , the title of count and the right to wear Alexander ' s insignia on his shoulder , the first such honor ever granted in Russia . Miloradovich concluded the campaign of 1814 , his last one , in Paris . After General Gorchakov ' s infantry overran the French defensive artillery , Miloradovich was the one to bring in twenty howitzer s and open fire at the city . Governor of Saint Petersburg . After the Treaty of Fontainebleau Alexander appointed Miloradovich commander of the Russian Imperial Guard ; in 1818 Miloradovich became Governor of Saint Petersburg , assuming command of all the troops , police and civil administration of the imperial capital . He had the unconditional trust of Alexander , who could hardly have found a worse candidate for the job . As chief of police , Miloradovich controlled political surveillance and investigation in Saint Petersburg , but the events of 1825 demonstrated that he ultimately failed to respond to the real threat : he dismissed the evidence against the Decembrists , saying " It ' s all stuff ; leave these young blockheads alone to read to each other their trash of miserable verses . " His affection for the arts and his ex officio duty as a censor at the peak of the Golden Age of Russian Poetry resulted in frequent contacts with authors and actors , and , apart from his death and his actions during the disastrous flood of 1824 , his administration was remembered largely through anecdotes and artists ' memoirs of varying reliability . This was not uncommon for Russian commanders ; Nikolay Raevsky said " They [ the writers of his time ] turned me into a Roman , Miloradovich into a great man , Wittgenstein into the saviour of the fatherland , and Kutuzov into Fabius . I am not a Roman , and neither are these gentlemen . " Alexander Herzen who met Miloradovich in early childhood and fondly remembered him as a storyteller " with the greatest vivacity , with lively mimicry , with roars of laughter " ridiculed Miloradovich as an administrator yet called him " a warrior poet who understood poetry . . . grand things are done by great means . " Herzen ' s memoirs provide a number of anecdotes about Miloradovich the administrator ( none of which could have been witnessed by the narrator ) . In 1820 Miloradovich interrogated Alexander Pushkin on suspicion of political propaganda . Pushkin ' s name had already become a blanket cover for all kinds of incendiary pamphlets and he was desperate to clear himself of dangerous misattributions . Pushkin said that he burned his " contraband poems " and recited some from memory . Miloradovich said " Ah , c ' est chevaleresque " , dismissed the charges and sent Pushkin on a well - paid tour of the south . Vladimir Nabokov noted that all of Pushkin ' s influential friends could not have saved him had it not been for Miloradovich ' s " amiable conduct of the whole affair " . There was a rumor that Pushkin was flogged on orders of Miloradovich , who fought a duel with at least one person who repeated it . Author and publisher Nikolai Grech recounted another , less inspiring episode : in 1824 Miloradovich vigorously investigated an alleged breach of censorship rules at a printshop owned by Grech and Bezacque . Fifteen years earlier , when Miloradovich and Pyotr Bagration had a feud , Bezacque was Bagration ' s secretary and apparently became a lifelong enemy of Miloradovich . Grech easily refuted " factual evidence " and could have escaped unharmed , but Miloradovich brought his belated revenge down on Grech , inflicting on him a full police and court inquiry that dragged on until 1828 . Miloradovich probably did not realise that the whole case was set up by Aleksey Arakcheyev and Mikhail Magnitsky to unseat Alexander Golitsyn . The lifestyle of the " bizarre administrator " was just as bizarre . Miloradovich lived alone in a luxurious apartment " in complete disarray coupled with the most exquisite taste " , without a single bedroom ; " I spend the night where I feel like " , he used to say . Family fortune and rewards from the tsar could not match his spending , and he sold off most of his lands and serfs . Posthumous sale of his remaining estate barely covered his debts . Theatre and sexuality . In 1821 , theatre managers Apollon Maikov and Prince Alexander Shakhovskoy allegedly tried to manipulate Miloradovich to overthrow the stern and frugal director of imperial theatres , Prince Tyufyakin . Miloradovich lent them support and then himself " grabbed both the power and the purse strings " ; Miloradovich , Maikov and Shakhovskoy became a " committee of three formidable officials " that governed the everyday life of the imperial theatres . The change coincided with rumours of Shakhovskoy ' s trafficking in actresses ; the death of Miloradovich and the ascension of Nicholas I ended Shakhovskoy ' s career . The private life of Miloradovich , who never married and had no offspring , has been a controversial subject . Contemporaries condemned him for a desire " to create his own harem in the theatre school " that allegedly became a reality with the aid of Shakhovskoy and Maikov . According to these sources , Miloradovich " had a weakness for women " and regularly spent evenings in the company of Shakhovskoy and female trainees of his theatre school ; the chosen favorites then enjoyed the general ' s benevolence after graduation . Catherine Shuler noted that the appetites of Miloradovich and other dignitaries could be the cause of high " traffic in women " on stage and that " the resemblance between serf actresses and imperial actresses is surely not coincidental " . Alexandra Kolosova , in 1822 , was the first actress to break the ring and flee to Paris ; upon return to Saint Petersburg she sought protection from Alexander , but Miloradovich had her arrested for twenty - four hours for turning down " the most insignificant role " offered to her . Miloradovich had lead actor Vasily Karatygin arrested for similar insubordination ; when the prisoner ' s mother pleaded for mercy , Miloradovich responded : " I only like comedy onstage . I ' ve seen blood , madam , tears don ' t move me " . Vladimir Bryukhanov suggested that Miloradovich was homosexual , disregarding or dismissing evidence to the contrary , such as the memoirs of Nadezhda Durova . ( Durova , disguised as a young man , was aide to Miloradovich in 1810 and later wrote about his affairs with women and their influence on the general ' s demeanor and on his relationships with subordinate officers . ) The standard version of events holds that his last passion was ballerina Yekaterina Teleshova , who earlier had an affair with Alexander Griboyedov , a diplomat " too short of money to be a long - term rival to the general " ( In 1825 , Griboyedov wrote " . . . Miloradovich , that boastful idiot whom Shakhovskoy grovels to and idolises . They are both cattle . " ) . Allegedly , the news of the Decembrist revolt caught the general unawares in Teleshova ' s bedroom and he hurried into the action with his pants undone . Interregnum . In the summer of 1823 , Alexander I issued a secret manifest excluding Constantine from the order of succession and making Nicholas heir presumptive to the throne . Historians argue as to whether or not Miloradovich had been formally made aware of Alexander ' s decision . Only three men – Aleksey Arakcheyev , Alexander Golitsyn , and Archbishop Filaret – definitely knew the contents and whereabouts of the manifest ; neither Constantine nor Nicholas knew the whole story . On , when news of Alexander ' s death in Taganrog reached Saint Petersburg , Miloradovich bullied Nicholas into pledging allegiance to Constantine , who was then living in Warsaw as viceroy of Poland . Golitsyn arrived at the palace later and announced the terms of Alexander ' s manifest , but Miloradovich persuaded the State Council that Nicholas was aware of it and that his pledge of allegiance to Constantine was effectively an act of abdication . Miloradovich then sent a messenger to Moscow with two instructions : to pledge allegiance to Constantin and to keep the original of Alexander ' s manifest secret and locked away . Faced with the question , " What if Constantine holds to his resignation ? " , Miloradovich allegedly responded , " When one has one hundred thousand bayonets in one ' s pocket , it is easy to speak with boldness " . Correspondence between Saint Petersburg and Warsaw took two weeks , during which Miloradovich acted as de facto interrex and regularly assured Nicholas that " everything is quiet " . Constantine firmly refused to reign and blessed his brother ' s accession to the throne , but for a while the hesitant Nicholas took no action . On the morning of , Nicholas received detailed reports of the brewing Decembrist revolt from Diebitsch and Chernyshov , and discussed the matter with Miloradovich and Golitsyn . According to Nicholas himself , the evidence was overwhelming . Miloradovich promised to mobilise all police resources but did nothing or , according to Korf , his " investigations remained completely fruitless . His researches had not discovered one person on whom suspicion could reasonably fall " . The actions of Miloradovich during the interregnum were highly controversial and provoked fringe conspiracy theories placing him at the top of the Decembrist rebel ring . Mainstream historians provide different explanations of his motives , none of which supports the theory of " Decembrist Miloradovich " : Revolt and death . At 8 p . m . on , Nicholas declared himself emperor ; at 7 a . m . the next morning , along with all senior statesmen present in Saint Petersburg , Miloradovich pledged his loyalty to Nicholas ( Korf suggested that Miloradovich recognised Nicholas as early as ) . Once again Miloradovich assured Nicholas that the city was " perfectly tranquil " ; Alexander von Benckendorff other witnesses wrote that he was in his usual boastful , optimistic mood . Three hours later , when Miloradovich enjoyed a breakfast with Teleshova , general Neidhardt reported to Nicholas that the troops were marching towards the palace " in absolute mutiny " . At about noon on Miloradovich , whom nobody had seen since the morning , reported to Nicholas on Palace Square . Witnesses disagree on whether he was mounted or on foot , but all accounts point to his extraordinary excitement and loss of self - control . According to Nicholas , Miloradovich told him : " Сеlа vа mаl ; ils marchent au Senat , mais jе vаis leur раrlеr " ( French : " That is bad ; they are marching toward the Senate , but I will talk to them " ) . Nicholas coldly responded that Miloradovich must do his duty as the military governor and calm his troops down . Miloradovich saluted , turned around , and headed to the barracks of the Mounted Guards . General Orlov of the Mounted Guards pleaded with Miloradovich to stay with the loyal troops but Miloradovich refused to take cover , mounted a horse and rode out to the rows of rebel troops , accompanied either by two aides or only by Bashutsky on foot . Miloradovich harangued the soldiers for obedience , showing Constantine ' s sword " to prove that he would have been incapable of betraying him " . Safonov pointed out that , instead of executing the tsar ' s order to lead the Mounted Guards against the rebels , Miloradovich " disobeyed it in a most incredible way . . . by going into the action alone . " Between 12 : 20 and 12 : 30 Pyotr Kakhovsky shot Miloradovich point - blank in the back ; " the bullet travelling up from below , from the back to the chest , tore the diaphragm , broke through all the parts and stopped beneath the right nipple " . When Miloradovich slumped from his horse to the ground , Yevgeny Obolensky stabbed him with a bayonet . Miloradovich was taken to a nearby house , but by the time the surgeons arrived on the scene the marauders had stripped Miloradovich of his clothes , medals and jewellery . Medics removed the bullet ( it was later delivered to Nicholas ) ; Miloradovich remained conscious and dictated his last will in a letter to the tsar . There were three requests : to send His Majesty ' s regards to his relatives , to grant liberty to his serfs , and to " not forget the old Maikov " . Miloradovich died around 3 a . m . on . After six days of lying in state , he was buried with honours at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra . The investigation of the Decembrist revolt led to the hanging of Kakhovsky and four of his ringleaders ; it did not reveal any illicit connection between the Decembrists and Miloradovich . The second killer , Obolensky , was stripped of his princely title and exiled to Siberia for thirty years .