Destructive Doctrines

This article examines the relationship between conspiracy theories and security decision-making in imperial Russia. Under Alexander I , the meta-narrative about the conspiracy of secret societies, such as the Freemasons and the Illuminati, assumed a dominant position in governmental discourse. From the idea of the pan-European revolutionary upheaval, it soon evolved into the concept of a Western plot against Orthodox Russia. After the Decembrist Uprising, this trope became a key perceptual framework within which tsarist officialdom shaped state policy. While the secret police of Nicholas I avoided excessive conspiracy fantasizing, instead reaffirming the image of the virtuous Russian metropole, the functionaries of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and powerful regional administrators like the Polish Viceroy Prince Ivan Paskevich and the Ukrainian Governor-General Dmitrii Bibikov exaggerated fears of revolutionary subversion to justify the expansion of the security apparatus. The article demonstrates the long-lasting impact of the Decembrist conspiracy on the Russian bureaucratic mentality.