would later call Russkaya Pravda (Русская правда) and which would be adopted as a political program. The second edition of the Russkaya Pravda manifested further democratization of Pestel's views. It demanded immediate emancipation of the Russian serfs with their land, limitations of the right to landownership, creation of public and private land-funds, elimination of class privileges, and the granting of political rights to males over 20 years of age. Pestel was a staunch advocate of a republic and of state centralization. According to his summary of the Russkaya Pravda called "Constitution. State precept" (Конституция. Государственный завет), a one-chamber People's Veche (Народное вече) would become Russia's legislative body. A Sovereign Duma (Державная дума) was pronounced the executive branch. A Supreme Sobor (Верховный собор) was given judicial powers. In 1825 Pavel Pestel conducted negotiations with the , discussing the possibility of joint revolutionary actions. On 13 December 1825 (the day before the Decembrists came out in open revolt in Saint Petersburg) Pavel Pestel was arrested in Tulchin (in Podolia) in relation to an attempt to assassinate Emperor Nicholas I. He gave evidence against many Decembrists "to save their names for history" and they were detained because of him. But he did not know the real history of the Decembrist societies. For example, there is an opinion now, that just the Ordain of Russian knights, linked to Alexander von Benckendorff, was the main secret organization and not Pestel's Salvation Union. His and Bestuzhev-Ryumin's evidence had the effect of encouraging the members of the Trial Committee (some of them relatives of Decembrists or even the members of secret societies) to hang Pestel and Bestuzhev-Ryumin to stop their evidence. He was hanged with four other Decembrists in the Peter and Paul Fortress a few months later. Descendants Descendants of Pestel's family live in Australia and Great Britain. See also: Richard Pestell References External links Russkaya Pravda - project of Constitution by Pavel Pestel - in Russian Pestel, Pavel. Encyclopedia of Ukraine 1793 births 1826 deaths Executed people from Moscow Decembrists People executed by the Russian Empire by hanging Executed Russian people 19th-century executions by the Russian Empire People from the Russian Empire of German descent Russian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress