Zakhar Grigorevich Chernyshev

Born Dec. 14 (25), 1796; died May 1862 in Rome. Decembrist; count.

Chernyshev joined the Kavalergardy in 1817 and held the rank of rotmistr. In the spring of 1825 he was accepted into the Southern Society’s St. Petersburg council, established in 1823–24 by P. I. Pestel’. In the autumn of 1825 he helped plan an armed uprising and the assassination of the tsar (seeDECEMBRISTS), but he did not take part in the uprising of Dec. 14,1825, since he was on furlough in Orel Province. Arrested there, Chernyshev endured interrogation courageously. He was sentenced to four years at hard labor (commuted to one year) and to exile. In 1829 he was transferred to the Caucasus as a private. He was promoted to officer’s rank in 1833 and retired in 1837. After his rights were restored by amnesty in 1856, Chernyshev moved to Italy.