Read Thirteen Years Later Online

Authors: Jasper Kent

Thirteen Years Later

THIRTEEN
YEARS LATER

Jasper Kent

 

Contents
 

Cover

 

Title

 

Copyright

 

Dedication

 

About the Author

 

Also by Jasper Kent

 

Author Notes

 

Map

 

Prologue

 

PART ONE

 

Chapter I

 

Chapter II

 

Chapter III

 

Chapter IV

 

Chapter V

 

Chapter VI

 

Chapter VII

 

Chapter VIII

 

Chapter IX

 

Chapter X

 

Chapter XI

 

Chapter XII

 

Chapter XIII

 

PART TWO

 

Chapter XIV

 

Chapter XV

 

Chapter XVI

 

Chapter XVII

 

Chapter XVIII

 

Chapter XIX

 

Chapter XX

 

Chapter XXI

 

Chapter XXII

 

Chapter XXIII

 

Chapter XXIV

 

Chapter XXV

 

Chapter XXVI

 

Chapter XXVII

 

Chapter XXVIII

 

Chapter XXIX

 

PART THREE

 

Chapter XXX

 

Chapter XXXI

 

Chapter XXXII

 

Chapter XXXIII

 

Chapter XXXIV

 

Chapter XXXV

 

Chapter XXXVI

 

Chapter XXXVII

 

Epilogue

 

Historical Note

 

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781409094739

www.randomhouse.co.uk

TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
A Random House Group Company
www.rbooks.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Bantam Press an imprint of Transworld Publishers

Copyright © Jasper Kent 2010

Jasper Kent has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9780593060650

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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Typeset in 11/15pt Sabon by Kestrel Data, Exeter, Devon. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk.

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

For
H.E.C.

 

Born in Worcestershire in 1968,
Jasper Kent
read natural sciences at Cambridge before embarking on a career as a software consultant. He also pursues alternative vocations as a composer and musician and now novelist.

The inspiration for Jasper’s bestselling début,
Twelve
(and indeed the subsequent novels in
The Danilov Quintet
), came out of a love of nineteenth-century Russian literature and darkly fantastical, groundbreaking novels such as
Frankenstein
and
Dracula
. His researches have taken him across Europe and to Saint Petersburg, Moscow and the Crimea, including three days on a train from Cologne to the Russian capital, following in the footsteps of Napoleon himself.

Jasper lives in Brighton, where he shares a flat with his girlfriend and several affectionate examples of the species
rattus norvegicus
.

 

 

 

 

www.rbooks.co.uk

 

Also by Jasper Kent

TWELVE

 

 

 

For more information on Jasper Kent and his books,
see his website at
www.jasperkent.com

AUTHOR’S NOTES
 

Distances

A verst is a Russian unit of distance, slightly greater than a kilometre.

Dates

During the nineteenth century, Russians based their dates on the old Julian Calendar, which in 1825 was twelve days behind the Gregorian Calendar used in Western Europe. All dates in the text are given in the Russian form and so, for example, the Decembrist Uprising is placed on 14 December, where Western history books have it on 26 December.

Names

Names used are transliterations of the Russian spellings. For historical figures, these transliterations can be unfamiliar to readers used to the more common Western renderings. The main examples are:

Pyotr Alekseevich
– Tsar Peter I (the Great)

Yekaterina Alekseevna
– Tsaritsa Catherine II (the Great)

Pavel Pyetrovich
– Tsar Paul I

Aleksandr Pavlovich
– Tsar Alexander I

Nikolai Pavlovich
– Tsar Nicholas I

Aleksandr Nikolayevich
– Tsar Alexander II

I would like to say a sincere thank you to Mihai Adascalitei for his help with the Romanian language.

Selected Romanov Family Tree

Reigning tsars and tsaritsas shown in
bold
.

Dates are birth–
[start of reign]–[end of reign]–
death.

 
THE DECEMBRISTS
 

On 14 December 1825 (26 December) a crowd of three thousand men – overwhelmingly members of the military – assembled in Saint Petersburg’s Senate Square to oppose the succession of Tsar Nicholas I. The origins of the revolt lay in 1814, when victorious Russian troops, led by Nicholas’ predecessor Alexander, occupied Paris, having pursued the French all the way from Moscow. The nation that they found, even in defeat, seemed to many a utopia of liberty and enlightenment – at least in comparison with their own country. At the same time Alexander, who had once been hailed as a modernizer, began to turn towards more conservative policies. For a decade resentment festered. Revolutionary societies formed and re-formed, but took no action. The death of Alexander, a thousand miles away in Taganrog, was the flashpoint. With confusion as to which of Alexander’s brothers – Constantine or Nicholas – was to succeed, the revolutionaries seized their one, slim chance.

The uprising was quickly suppressed. Loyal troops, at the tsar’s direct orders, opened fire on the rebels, scattering them into flight across the capital. Many were killed and more arrested. Five of the leaders were hanged and a further 284 were exiled to Siberia. Ever after, Nicholas referred to them as ‘
mes amis du quatorze
’. It was only after Nicholas’ death in 1855 that the exiles – those who were still alive – were allowed to return to the west.

In 1925, one hundred years after the uprising, Senate Square was renamed Decembrists’ Square, in memory of that first Russian revolution. In July 2008, the name was changed back to Senate Square.

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