But the general excitement was diminished by whispers that Tsar Alexander was no longer enthusiastic for constitutions and liberty. That his sister Ekatarina had given him a secret memorandum from the conservative historian Karamzin, and the tsar now shunned European reforms for Russia. The details were hushed and vague (no one else had seen Karamzin’s memorandum), but it was whispered that there would not be representative government or widespread freedom for the serfs. The country would once more invest all in the tsar, nationalism, and the church.

Prince Andrei, who never liked soirées and always regretted having come at all, felt anger rise in his soul at these rumors and anger that the late Field Marshal Kutuzov was still being criticized by these same bureaucrats for having abandoned Moscow to fire (what choice did he have?). The officers were never asked their thoughts and opinions about the future of a Russia they loved, whose place in history as the empire that conquered Napoleon had come about by their bravery.

For the passionate Pestel these rumors were even worse, an unacceptable affront. He turned his head away from conservative diplomats as if to spit, whispering to Prince Andrei privately and with exasperation, “How can nothing change? How can ideas of constitutions and freedom for the serfs stop at the Russian border?”