358 - Nicholas I Letter Signed Ordering the Investigation and Punishment of the 1830 Sevastopol Plague Uprising

Nicholas I Letter Signed Ordering the Investigation and Punishment of the 1830 Sevastopol Plague Uprising Important LS in Russian, signed “Nikolai,” one page both sides, 7.75 x 11, June 25, 1830. Addressed from Alexandria near Peterhof to Count Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, a letter from Emperor Nicholas I concerning the aftermath of the Sevastopol plague riots and confirming Vorontsov's authority to restore order, investigate the uprising, and punish those responsible. In part (translated): “All arrangements, both regarding the quarantine sector and those regarding the city that has risen in revolt, must remain in your complete and sole responsibility. Furthermore, until the complete execution of all measures entrusted to you by previous orders, particularly regarding the prompt investigation of the underlying causes of the aforementioned uprising, the bringing to trial, and the punishment of the guilty parties themselves...acting on the rights as Commander-in-Chief, granted to you by my rescript dated August 1 of the past year, 1829, you will use all possible means for the exact execution of the orders given you, and in doing so, you will justify my expectation: reporting to me without fail on all these successes of your arrangements.” Signed at the conclusion by Nicholas I. In very good condition, with archival tape repairs to the top, reverse, and central fold. The Sevastopol plague uprising erupted from an increasingly severe quarantine regime imposed on the city amid fears of epidemic disease during Russia's war with the Ottoman Empire. Quarantine measures introduced around Sevastopol in 1828 were progressively tightened, and by March 1830 residents of affected districts were forbidden to leave their homes. Combined with food shortages and abuses by quarantine officials, the restrictions produced mounting unrest. On June 3, 1830, the crisis erupted into open revolt, with thousands of residents and sympathetic servicemen taking control of the city and attacking officials and officers. Government troops suppressed the uprising on June 7th, after which a committee overseen by Vorontsov reviewed the cases of roughly 6,000 people; seven were executed as leaders of the uprising, some 1,000 residents and sailors were sentenced to hard labor, and approximately 4,200 civilians were deported to other cities. This letter, dated June 25th, responds directly to a report Vorontsov had sent the Tsar on June 14th and follows the suppression by less than three weeks, placing it in the earliest phase of the punitive response as Nicholas I defined the authority under which the uprising would be investigated and its participants punished. Count Mikhail Vorontsov, the letter's recipient, was Governor-General of Novorossiya and had, as the letter itself states, entered "the temporary office of military governor of Sevastopol," unifying all branches of local administration under his command. Nicholas confirms that an order to this effect had already been communicated to Vorontsov on June 10th through Adjutant General Adlerberg, and that responsibility for both the quarantine administration and the suppression of the revolt was to remain entirely in Vorontsov's hands. The letter further notes that Admiral Alexey Greig and General Count Witte were to remain under Vorontsov's immediate command, with a separate order to follow for Greig directly from the Tsar; Witte is most plausibly identified with Ivan Osipovich Witt, a cavalry general closely associated with Russia's military colonies in the south during this period, though the identification cannot be confirmed with certainty. Nicholas also invokes an earlier rescript of August 1, 1829, granting Vorontsov powers as Commander-in-Chief, authority originally tied to Russia's wartime position against the Ottoman Empire and now explicitly reaffirmed for the crisis at Sevastopol.