INSTRUCTIONS AND PROPHECIES OF THE Blessed MOTHER ALIPIA GOLOSEEVSKY, Kyiv...
On December 14, 1825, the first uprising in the history of Russia, organized by revolutionary nobles, takes place on Senate Square in St. Petersburg. They oppose the autocracy of the king.
Despite the fact that it was immediately suppressed, the punishment for such a trick was more than harsh: five organizers were hanged, and the remaining eleven people were exiled to Siberia for hard labor. In essence, this meant civil death.
According to the tsar, the rebels should not easily get lost in the snowy expanses of the country, but also disappear there forever, having lost contact with relatives and friends. However, this plan failed: the women, who followed their husbands, literally “destroyed” it.
There were eleven of them, the same number as the surviving revolutionaries. Most of them were princesses, but among them were also noble persons. Alexandra Entaltseva, Alexandra Davydova, Polina Goble, Maria Volkonskaya, Ekaterina Trubetskaya, Alexandra Muravyova, Elizaveta Naryshkina, Anna Rosen, Camilla Ivasheva, Natalya Fonvizina and Maria Yushnevskaya.
The thorny path to a spouse
Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya, nee Countess LavalToday it is difficult to say what guided the representatives of the weaker sex who decided on this act. The authorities did not like this decision, and they tried in every possible way to restrain these desperate impulses to reunite with their spouses.
The first to obtain permission was Princess Trubetskaya. And this despite the fact that, on the personal order of the tsar, she was kept in Irkutsk for almost six months. And all this time they tried to dissuade the woman from going to her husband.
It is impossible to speak unambiguously about boundless love or support for the spouse's political beliefs. After all, marriages of convenience were frequent among the nobles, and even without the participation of the young. For example, Princess Maria Volkonskaya, before her husband's exile to Siberia, did not get along well with him at all. Although it could not do without romantic feelings.
Princess Maria Volkonskaya The first thing the wives of the Decembrists faced was deprivation of their position in society. Royal favors no longer extended to them. In Siberia, they turned into the wives of "convicts", that is, like their spouses, they were limited in civil rights. Complete obscurity: no one could guarantee respect for women.
The second, and perhaps the most difficult test for mothers, is separation from children. They were strictly forbidden to be taken out. For example, Maria Yushnevskaya had to wait almost four years for permission. And this despite the fact that her daughter from her first marriage at that time was already quite old.
Maria Yushnevskaya Before leaving, the children had to be attached to relatives. Here we should pay tribute to the Russian intelligentsia: at a difficult moment for the wives of the Decembrists, they accepted their children almost unconditionally. They were given a decent education, providing everything necessary. But the heart of any mother still extremely hard to endure such a separation.
Alexandra Davydova had to leave six children. And in order to congratulate them on the holidays, she had to send letters to children for almost six months. About how they grew up, the princess could only judge by the sent children's portraits.
"What heroines? It was poets who made heroines out of us ... "
The wedding of the Decembrist Ivashev at the Petrovsky Factory, 1900. Photo: Nikolai Polyansky Going for their spouse, the wives understood one thing - it would be very difficult. But they didn't even know how much. Many ladies, pampered by domestic servants, have never cooked food. Moreover, they even dressed with the help of governesses.
Women had to go fetch water, chop wood and make a fire. If we talk about cleaning vegetables, which many, in principle, coped with, then cutting poultry for the majority was impossible.
For example, in the inventory of the property of Elizaveta Naryshkina, one could find many items that were “important” in her opinion. This list barely fit on three sheets: 30 pairs of gloves, 30 peignoirs, 10 pairs of stockings, 2 veils, and so on. Interestingly, she did not even forget to take a copper samovar with her. But whether it was possible to bring it to its destination and whether the lady knew how to use it - these are questions that can hardly be answered unambiguously.
Elizaveta Petrovna Naryshkina Perhaps, from the point of view of today's tests, these "Siberian" difficulties can be overcome. Many of the wives of the Decembrists did not consider themselves heroines, as the high society of Russia insisted on this. For example, Alexandra Davydova, returning from Siberia, once said:
"What heroines? It was poets who made heroines out of us, and we just went after our husbands ... ”
It was especially difficult for the first who literally broke through into Siberia: Trubetskoy and Volkonskaya. The state allocated 20 rubles a month for the maintenance of their husbands. Moreover, these amounts were allocated personally by Nicholas I. Women had to report monthly on their expenses, that the money was not spent "on excessive relief of the plight of prisoners." To transfer things to their husbands, Trubetskoy and Volkonskaya had to buy security. But the only thing that was at least somehow allowed was to feed their spouses.
ladies street
Ladies street, Chita It became much easier after moving to the Petrovsky prison. For the wives of the Decembrists, small houses were equipped there. They made up a whole street, which later received the name Damskaya*.
After that, all that was left to do was to get things going. But this was also very difficult to do, since everything had to be “written out” from the capital, ordering through relatives. Very often parcels were delayed for many months.
And, of course, they gave birth and raised children. The wives of the Decembrists helped their husbands, after leaving hard labor, to engage in agriculture and open their own businesses. Men had to remember the specialties acquired in the “past life”.
Today, the debate about who these women are and why they needed it flares up more violently than in the past. But it is definitely impossible not to admire the greatness of their disinterested spiritual generosity.
*It is interesting: According to the dictionary of V. Dahl, a lady is a woman of the upper classes, mistress, mistress, noblewoman. He also adds that she can be a court lady, a dignitary, an official of the court, an employee. According to S. Ozhegov's dictionary, a lady is a woman from the intelligentsia, usually wealthy urban circles. But even in the dictionary there is a note that this is an outdated definition.
Hence the name of the street - Ladies. It was the first street where the houses were ordered, not chaotic. In addition, as local historians note, it was not just the residence of "refined secular ladies", but also the cultural center of the future city. It is clear that even before their arrival, women lived in Transbaikalia, but they were their own women and girls, but there were no ladies. Later, a street with the same name appeared in Petrovsky Zavod.
Direct speech
From a letter from Ekaterina Trubetskoy to her husband in the Peter and Paul Fortress:
“I really feel that I can’t live without you. I am ready to endure everything with you, I will not regret anything when I am with you. The future doesn't scare me. I will calmly say goodbye to all the blessings of the world. One thing can please me: to see you, share your grief and devote all the minutes of my life to you. The future sometimes worries me about you. Sometimes I am afraid that your hard fate will not seem to you beyond your strength ... But for me, my friend, everything will be easy to bear with you together, and I feel, every day I feel more strongly that no matter how bad it is for us, from the depths of my soul I will bless my lot if I'm with you."
“My friend, be calm and pray to God!.. My unfortunate friend, I have ruined you, but not with evil intent. Do not grumble at me, my angel, you alone are still tying me to life, but I am afraid that you will have to drag out an unhappy life, and perhaps it would be easier for you if I were not there at all. My fate is in the hands of the sovereign, but I have no means to convince him of sincerity. The sovereign stands next to me and orders me to write that I will be alive and well. God save you my friend. I'm sorry".
Your eternal friend Trubetskoy.
On December 14, 1825, on Senate Square in St. Petersburg, the first organized demonstration of revolutionary nobles in the history of Russia against the tsarist autocracy and arbitrariness took place. The uprising was put down. Five of its organizers were hanged, the rest were exiled to hard labor in Siberia, demoted to soldiers ... The wives of eleven convicted Decembrists shared their Siberian exile. The civil feat of these women is one of the glorious pages of our history.
In 1825, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya turned 20 years old. The daughter of the illustrious hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General Raevsky, the beauty sung by Pushkin, the wife of Prince Major General Volkonsky, she belonged to a select society of people outstanding in mind and education. And suddenly - a sharp turn of fate.
In early January 1826, Sergei Volkonsky stopped by for a day in the village to his wife, who was expecting her first child. At night, he kindled a fireplace and began to throw sheets of paper covered with writing into the fire. To the question of a frightened woman: "What's the matter?" - Sergey Grigoryevich threw: - "Pestel is arrested." "For what?" - there was no answer ...
The next meeting of the spouses took place only a few months later in St. Petersburg, in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the arrested Decembrist revolutionaries (among them were Prince Sergei Volkonsky and Maria Nikolaevna's uncle Vasily Lvovich Davydov) were waiting for the decision of their fate ...
There were eleven of them - women who shared the Siberian exile of their Decembrist husbands. Among them are the humble, like Alexandra Vasilievna Yontaltseva and Alexandra Ivanovna Davydova, or Polina Gebl, the bride of the Decembrist Annenkov, who was severely impoverished in her childhood. But most of them are Princesses Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya and Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya. Alexandra Grigoryevna Muravieva is the daughter of Count Chernyshev. Elizaveta Petrovna Naryshkina, nee Countess Konovnitsyna. Baroness Anna Vasilievna Rosen, the general's wives Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina and Maria Kazimirovna Yushnevskaya belonged to the nobility.
Nicholas I granted everyone the right to divorce her husband - a "state criminal". However, women went against the will and opinion of the majority, openly supporting the disgraced. They renounced luxury, left children, relatives and friends and went after the husbands they loved. Voluntary exile to Siberia received a loud public response.
Today it is difficult to imagine what Siberia was in those days: the “bottom of the bag”, the end of the world, far away. For the fastest courier - more than a month of travel. Off-road, river floods, snowstorms and chilling horror of Siberian convicts - murderers and thieves.
The first - the very next day after the convict husband - Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya set off. In Krasnoyarsk, the carriage broke down, the escort fell ill. The princess continues on her way alone, in a tarantass. In Irkutsk, the governor intimidates her for a long time, demands - once again after the capital! - a written renunciation of all rights, Trubetskaya signs it. A few days later, the governor announces to the former princess that she will continue her journey "on the tightrope" along with the criminals. She agrees...
The second was Maria Volkonskaya. Day and night she rushes in a wagon, not stopping for the night, not having lunch, being content with a piece of bread and a glass of tea. And so for almost two months - in severe frosts and snowstorms. She spent the last evening before leaving home with her son, whom she had no right to take with her. The kid played with a large beautiful seal of the royal letter, in which the highest command allowed the mother to leave her son forever ...
In Irkutsk, Volkonskaya, like Trubetskaya, faced new obstacles. Without reading, she signed the terrible conditions set by the authorities: the deprivation of noble privileges and the transition to the position of the wife of a convict, limited in the rights of movement, correspondence, disposal of her property. Her children, born in Siberia, will be considered state peasants.
Six thousand miles of the way behind - and the women in the Blagodatsky mine, where their husbands mine lead. Ten hours of hard labor underground. Then a prison, a dirty, cramped wooden house with two rooms. In one - runaway criminal convicts, in the other - eight Decembrists. The room is divided into closets - two arshins long and two wide, where several prisoners huddle. A low ceiling, you can't straighten your back, the pale light of a candle, the ringing of shackles, insects, poor food, scurvy, tuberculosis and no news from outside ... And suddenly - beloved women!
When Trubetskaya, through a crack in the prison fence, saw her husband in shackles, in a short, tattered and dirty sheepskin coat, thin, pale, she fainted. Volkonskaya, who arrived after her, was shocked, knelt down in front of her husband and kissed his shackles.
Nicholas I took away all property and inheritance rights from women, allowing only beggarly living expenses, in which women had to report to the head of the mines.
Negligible sums kept Volkonskaya and Trubetskaya on the verge of poverty. They limited their food to soup and porridge, they refused dinners. Dinner was prepared and sent to the prison to support the prisoners. Accustomed to gourmet cuisine, Trubetskaya at one time ate only black bread, washed down with kvass. This spoiled aristocrat walked in frayed shoes and froze her feet, as she sewed a hat from her warm shoes to one of her husband's comrades to protect his head from debris falling in the mine.
Hard labor no one could calculate in advance. Once Volkonskaya and Trubetskaya saw the head of the mines, Burnashev, with his retinue. They ran out into the street: their husbands were being led under escort. The village resounded: “The secret ones will be judged!” It turned out that the prisoners went on a hunger strike when the prison overseer forbade them to communicate with each other and took away the candles. But the authorities had to give in. The conflict this time was resolved peacefully. Or suddenly, in the middle of the night, shots raised the whole village to their feet: criminal convicts tried to escape. Those caught were beaten with whips to find out where they got the money to escape. And Volkonskaya gave the money. But no one betrayed her under torture.
In the autumn of 1827, the Decembrists from Blagodatsk were transferred to Chita. There were more than 70 revolutionaries in the Chita prison. The tightness, the shackle ringing irritated the already exhausted people. But it was here that a friendly Decembrist family began to take shape. The spirit of collectivism, comradeship, mutual respect, high morality, equality, regardless of the difference in social and material status, dominated this family. Its connecting rod was the holy day of December 14, and the sacrifices made for it. Eight women were equal members of this unique community.
They settled near the prison in village huts, cooked their own food, fetched water, stoked stoves. Polina Annenkova recalled: “Our ladies often came to see me how I was preparing dinner, and asked them to teach me how to cook soup. then concoct a pie. When I had to peel a chicken, they admitted with tears in their eyes that they were jealous of my ability to do everything, and bitterly complained about themselves for not knowing how to take on anything.
Visits with husbands were allowed only twice a week in the presence of an officer. Therefore, the favorite pastime and the only entertainment for women was to sit on a large stone in front of the prison, sometimes to exchange a word with the prisoners.
The soldiers rudely chased them away, and once hit Trubetskaya. The women immediately sent a complaint to Petersburg. And since then, Trubetskaya defiantly arranged whole “receptions” in front of the prison: she sat down on a chair and talked in turn with the prisoners who had gathered inside the prison yard. The conversation had one inconvenience: it was necessary to shout rather loudly in order to hear each other. But how much joy this brought to the prisoners!
Women quickly became friends, although they were very different. Annenkov's bride arrived in Siberia under the name of Mademoiselle Pauline Goble: "by royal grace" she was allowed to join her life with the exiled Decembrist. When Annenkov was taken to the church to get married, the shackles were removed from him, and upon his return they put them on again and took him to prison. Polina, beautiful and graceful, was seething with life and fun, but all this was like an outer shell of deep feelings that forced the young woman to abandon her homeland and independent life.
The common favorite was the wife of Nikita Muravyov - Alexandra Grigorievna. None of the Decembrists, perhaps, received such enthusiastic praise in the memoirs of the Siberian exiles. Even women who are very strict towards the representatives of their sex and as different as Maria Volkonskaya and Polina Annenkova are unanimous here: - “Holy woman. She died in her post."
Muravyova became the first victim of the Petrovsky Plant, the next place of hard labor for revolutionaries after Chita. She died in 1832 at the age of twenty-eight. Nikita Muraviev became gray-haired at thirty-six - on the day of his wife's death.
Even during the transition of convicts from Chita to the Petrovsky plant, the women's colony was replenished with two voluntary exiles - the wives of Rosen and Yushnevsky arrived. And a year later - in September 1831, another wedding took place: the bride Camille Le Dantu came to Vasily Ivashev.
The Decembrist women did a lot in Siberia. First of all, they destroyed the isolation to which the authorities condemned the revolutionaries. Nicholas I wanted to force everyone to forget the names of the convicts, to get rid of them from memory. But then Alexandra Grigorievna Muravyova arrives and passes through the prison bars to I. I. Pushchin the poems of his lyceum friend Alexander Pushkin.
Relatives and friends write to prisoners. They are also forbidden to answer (they received the right to correspond only with access to the settlement). This was reflected in the same calculation of the government to isolate the Decembrists. This plan was destroyed by women who connected the prisoners with the outside world. They wrote in their own name, sometimes copying the letters of the Decembrists themselves, received correspondence and parcels for them, subscribed to newspapers and magazines.
Every woman had to write ten or even twenty letters a week. The load was so weighty that there was no time left sometimes to write to my own parents and children. “Do not complain about me, my kind, priceless Katya, Liza, for the brevity of my letter,” Alexandra Ivanovna Davydova writes to her daughters left with relatives. time for these few lines."
While in Siberia, women waged an unceasing struggle with the St. Petersburg and Siberian administrations for easing the conditions of imprisonment. They called the commandant Leparsky a jailer to his face, adding that not a single decent person would agree to accept this position without striving to alleviate the plight of the prisoners. When the general objected that he would be demoted to the soldiers for this, they, without delay, answered: - "Well, become a soldier, general, but be an honest person."
The old contacts of the Decembrists in the capital, the personal acquaintance of some of them with the tsar, sometimes kept the jailers from arbitrariness. The charm of young educated women happened to tame both the administration and the criminals.
Women knew how to support the downhearted, to calm the excited and upset, to console the distressed. Naturally, the unifying role of women increased with the advent of family hearths (since the wives were allowed to live in prison), and then the first "convict" children - pupils of the entire colony.
Sharing the fate of the revolutionaries, celebrating “the holy day of December 14” with them every year, women approached the interests and deeds of their husbands (which they were not aware of in a past life), becoming, as it were, their accomplices. “Imagine how close they are to me,” wrote M. K. Yushnevskaya from the Petrovsky Plant, “we live in the same prison, endure the same fate and amuse each other with memories of our dear, kind relatives.”
The years in exile dragged on slowly. Volkonskaya recalled: “At the first time of our exile, I thought that it would probably end in five years, then I told myself that it would be in ten, then in fifteen years, but after 25 years I stopped waiting, I only asked God one thing: to bring my children out of Siberia.”
Moscow and Petersburg became more and more distant memories. Even those whose husbands died were not given the right to return. In 1844, this was denied to the widow of Yushnevsky, in 1845 - to Yentaltseva.
More and more parties of exiles came from beyond the Urals. 25 years after the Decembrists, the Petrashevites were taken to hard labor, including F.M. Dostoevsky. The Decembrists managed to get a meeting with them, to help with food and money. “They blessed us on a new path,” Dostoevsky recalled.
Few Decembrists lived to see the amnesty that came in 1856 after thirty years of exile. Of the eleven women who followed their husbands to Siberia, three remained here forever. Alexandra Muravieva, Kamilla Ivasheva, Ekaterina Trubetskaya. The last to die in 1895 was ninety-three-year-old Alexandra Ivanovna Davydova. She died, surrounded by numerous offspring, respect and reverence of all who knew her.
“Thanks to the women: they will give a few beautiful lines of our history,” said a contemporary of the Decembrists, the poet P.A. Vyazemsky, having learned about their decision.
The names of the wives of the Decembrists in the distant 1826 knew the entire Moscow world. Their fates became the subject of discussion and sympathy. Eleven women sacrificed everything, giving up their usual blessings, in order to share the sad fate of their beloved.
In 1871, the poet Nikolai Nekrasov wrote the poem "Russian Women" - the wives of the Decembrists Trubetskoy and Volkonsky became the main characters of the work. In those years, the institution of the family was of great importance in society. Even without sharing political views and, perhaps, somewhere condemning the act of their chosen ones, women followed their husbands, leaving the most precious thing - their children. So strong was the faith in marriage, family and God.
These stories are worthy of attention, we have a lot to learn from these fearless women! Nekrasov and the wives of the Decembrists lived at about the same time. This made it possible for the poet to describe the stories of unfortunate women so poignantly. What awaited them on the road? How hard did they part with loved ones? What fate awaited them ahead? Nekrasov will tell about the feat of the wives of the Decembrists, revealing in two stories - Ekaterina Trubetskoy and Maria Volkonskaya - the whole horror of getting to know the harsh north and the endless pain of parting with loved ones.
History of December
After the reign of Alexander I, which lasted 24 years, in 1825 his younger brother Nicholas came to power. The oath was scheduled for December 14, 1925. On this day in the capital of the Russian Empire - St. Petersburg - there was an attempted coup d'état. After the long reign of Alexander the Blessed, Russia, tired of endless wars, wanted peace and tranquility.
The uprising was organized by a group of like-minded nobles, most of whom were guards officers. The main goal of the rebels was the liberalization of the Russian socio-political system: the establishment of a provisional government, the abolition of serfdom, the equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms (press, confession, labor), the introduction of a jury, the introduction of compulsory military service for all classes, the election of officials, changing the form of government to a constitutional monarchy or a republic. Despite a rather long preparation, the uprising was immediately suppressed.
In July 1826, five conspirators and leaders of the Decembrist uprising were hanged on the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress: K.F. Ryleev, P. I. Pestel, SI. Muraviev-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky. The remaining eleven like-minded people were exiled to Siberia. It was for them that their wives went into exile.
Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya, born Countess Laval, was born in St. Petersburg in 1800. Father Ivan Stepanovich was an educated and wealthy French emigrant who came to Russia during the French Revolution. In the capital, he met his wife, Countess Alexandra Grigorievna, heiress of millions from a very wealthy St. Petersburg family. In marriage, they had two daughters, Ekaterina and Sophia. The Laval couple gave their children an excellent education, surrounding the little ones with luxury and the most qualified teachers.
Naturally, Catherine never needed anything, was far from cooking and household chores, surrounded from childhood by servants, she could not always even dress herself.
Wealth, shine! high house
On the banks of the Neva
Staircase upholstered with carpet
Lions in front of the entrance
The magnificent hall is elegantly decorated,
The lights are all on fire.
The Laval family spent a lot of time in Europe, where in 1819 Catherine met Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, who at that time was 29 years old. Educated, wealthy, a veteran of the war with Napoleon, Colonel Trubetskoy was a very enviable groom. The young people fell in love and got married in 1820.
The young wife had no idea that her husband had been preparing an uprising with his associates for several years now. Catherine was more concerned about the absence of children in their family, whom she really wanted.
It is the first part of this poem by Nekrasov that is dedicated to the wife of the Decembrist Trubetskoy. After the events of December 14, Catherine was the first to put forward a desire to follow her husband to hard labor. For a long 6 months, Tsar Nicholas I himself, by his decree, tried to restrain the impulses of a woman distraught with grief.
Oh! Do you live in a country like this
Where is the air in people
Not by ferry - ice dust
Coming out of the nostrils?
Where darkness and cold all year round,
And in brief heats -
Non-drying swamps
Bad couples?
Yes ... a terrible edge!
From there, the forest beast also runs away,
When a hundred-day night hangs over the country...
But Catherine was adamant. Nekrasov's lines very realistically depict the experiences of the girl, although the poem about the wives of the Decembrists was written after all the events in 1871.
Oh!.. Keep these words
You are better for others.
All your tortures won't extract
Tears from my eyes!
Leaving home, friends,
beloved father,
Taking a vow in my soul
Fulfill to the end
My duty - I will not bring tears
To the cursed prison
I will save pride, pride in him,
I will give him strength!
Contempt for our executioners,
Consciousness of being right
We will be a faithful support.
Ekaterina Ivanovna saw her husband only in 1927, having accepted all the conditions regarding the wives of exiled convicts. The woman had to give up all noble privileges and her millionth fortune.
Sign this paper!
What are you?... My God!
After all, it means to become a beggar
And a simple woman!
Everything you say "I'm sorry"
What was given to you by your father
What to inherit
Should be to you later!
property rights,
lose the rights of the nobility!
So, after all the trials, in 1830, the first daughter of Alexander was born to the Trubetskoys. At the end of 1839, Trubetskoy served hard labor, and the whole family settled in the village of Oek. By that time, the family already had five children. Six years later, the family was given permission to settle in Irkutsk, where they had two more children.
Trubetskaya performed a truly heroic deed for her time. The torment she experienced when she parted with her father, the severity of the road to her destination, which took more than three months, the loss of all titles and material wealth, all this will be very accurately described by Nekrasov in his poem "Russian Women" and will talk about how the wives of the Decembrists survived in Siberia.
Ekaterina Ivanovna died in Irkutsk at the age of 54 from cancer. Her husband will outlive her by 4 years. By this time, they will have four children out of seven born.
Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya was the second of the Decembrists who followed her husband into exile. Like the previous heroine, Maria was from a noble Raevsky family. The granddaughter of Lomonosov himself, she was familiar with Pushkin, was the daughter of the hero of the war of 1812, Nikolai Raevsky. The girl grew up in wealth and luxury.
We lived in a big suburban house.
Having entrusted the children to an Englishwoman,
The old man was resting.
I learned everything
What a rich noblewoman needs.
And after school I ran to the garden
His father listened to him willingly ...
Masha was very educated, fluent in several languages, played the piano beautifully, had a wonderful voice.
In August 1824, Maria met Prince Sergei Volkonsky. This marriage was concluded, rather, by calculation than by love: the father decided that it was time for his daughter to get married. In any case, family life did not last long: after 3 months, Volkonsky was arrested. Maria was already pregnant.
While the lawsuits lasted, Mary was kept in the dark. After the birth of her son and the sentencing of her husband, the desperate woman decided to follow her husband to Siberia, but met with a strong protest from the authoritarian father. However, this did not stop the girl, and, leaving her son with her family, she went to Irkutsk. The most difficult parting with the baby will be described by Nekrasov in a poem dedicated to the wives of the Decembrists.
I spent the last night
With baby.
Bending over my son
The smile of a little native
I tried to remember;
I played with him
The seal of the fatal letter.
She played and thought: “My poor son!
You don't know what you're playing!
Here is your fate: you will wake up alone,
Unhappy! You will lose your mother!
And in grief falling on his little hands
Face, I whispered, sobbing:
"I'm sorry that you, for your father,
My poor, I must leave ... "
Your heart breaks when you read Nekrasov's lines...
But, having signed the same conditions as Trubetskaya, for the wives of convicts, the wife of the Decembrist Volkonskaya suddenly lost everything. Heavy lonely everyday life began, which overshadowed the news of the death of his son, and then his father. What this woman experienced is impossible to imagine, because she saw her husband only in 1829. The description of this touching meeting will end Nekrasov's poem dedicated to the wives of the Decembrists.
And then he saw, he saw me!
And he stretched out his hands to me: "Masha!"
And he became, exhausted as if, far away ...
Two exiles supported him.
Tears flowed down his pale cheeks,
The outstretched hands trembled...
In 1830, a girl, Sophia, was born to the family, but she died immediately. Only the birth of her second son in 1832 brought Mary back to life. Three years later, the husband was released from factory work, at the same time the second daughter, Elena, was born to the Volkonskys.
Sergei Grigorievich was engaged in agriculture, Maria - in the education of children and creativity. The wives of the Decembrists in Siberia did not sit idle.
In 1856, the Volkonskys returned to Moscow, where they tried to establish a secular life, traveled a lot with their children and grandchildren. But the health undermined by the north did not allow to fully enjoy life. At the age of 59, Maria died from a long illness. Two years later, Sergei Grigorievich also died.
During her short life, Alexandra managed to share the fate of her husband in Siberia and give birth to six children!
Alexandra was a recognized Petersburg beauty. Acquaintance with the captain of the Guards General Staff Nikita Mikhailovich Muravyov led to the wedding in 1823. At the time of her husband's arrest, Alexandra was already expecting her third child. In 1826, Alexandra Grigorievna followed her husband, leaving three small children in the care of her mother-in-law.
What crazy love and dedication motivated a woman to rush into this difficult journey, leaving behind three children? Nekrasov and the wives of the Decembrists lived in Tsarist Russia - this allowed the poet to accurately describe the nature of women, the harsh Siberian reality and the kindness of the Russian people.
The moon floated among the skies
No glitter, no rays
To the left was a gloomy forest,
To the right is the Yenisei.
Dark! Towards not a soul
The coachman on the goats was sleeping,
Hungry wolf in the wilderness
groaned piercingly,
Yes, the wind beat and roared,
playing on the river,
Yes, a foreigner sang somewhere
In a strange language
Severe pathos sounded
unknown language
And more heartbreak,
Like a seagull crying in a storm...
The girl was destined to survive the painful journey to the place of her husband's hard labor, all the hardships of life in Siberia, and at the same time give birth to three more children there! In exile, she receives terrible news: in St. Petersburg, her son dies, followed by her beloved mother, and then her father. But the troubles do not end there: soon two daughters, born already in Siberia, die. Such unthinkable suffering could not but leave a mark on a woman who was once bursting with health and youth.
In 1932, at the age of 28, she died of a cold. Her husband Nikita Mikhailovich will outlive his wife by 11 years.
Jeanette-Polina Goble lived a long life, of which she left 30 years in Siberia. Arriving in 1823 to work in Moscow from France, she accidentally meets the future Decembrist Ivan Annenkov. The love that flared up between young people gives impetus to the young milliner to follow her husband after an unsuccessful uprising. In marriage, the couple has 18 children, of which only seven will survive.
Polina and Ivan had a truly amazing love. Until her last days, she looked after her husband like a child, and until her death she did not take off the bracelet cast by Nikolai Bestuzhev from her husband's shackles. After Paul's death, Ivan Alexandrovich fell into a deep depression and died a year later.
Anna Rosen
Anna Vasilievna Malinovskaya had noble roots, an excellent education and a cheerful disposition. She was the last of the Decembrist wives who followed her husband to Siberia. It was hard to part with her five-year-old son Eugene, whom she would be destined to see only after 8 years.
With her husband, Baron Andrei Evgenievich (von) Rosen, Anna had really tender and deep feelings. Despite all the trials, the Rosen family has maintained tenderness and love for each other for almost 60 years! In marriage, they had seven children, two of whom died in childhood. The Baron survived his wife by only 4 months.
Alexandra Entaltseva
Alexandra Vasilievna Entaltseva was distinguished from her friends in misfortune by the absence of noble origin, titles and wealthy relatives. She grew up an orphan and married early enough. But the marriage did not work out: the young woman left her gambling husband, leaving her little daughter in his care.
Acquaintance with Andrey Vasilyevich Entaltsev, commander of a horse artillery company, turned the fate of an elderly woman upside down. Andrei Vasilyevich was not distinguished by his beauty and cheerful disposition, but he was kind, attentive and caring. Tired of loneliness and dreaming of finding quiet family happiness, Alexandra agrees to marriage, and later goes to Siberia for her husband.
The life of Alexandra Vasilievna did not differ from other women, despite the difference in origin. The feat of the wives of the Decembrists united them in a common misfortune, rallied them and helped them survive in the unusual conditions of the north. Unfortunately, in 1845, her husband died of frequent illnesses. By law, she could not return home to Moscow and had to remain in the north for life. Only in 1856 was she allowed to leave. She returned to her homeland, where she died 2 years later.
Elizabeth Naryshkina
Elizaveta Petrovna Konovnitsyna was the only daughter in the family of a war veteran, General Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn. Elizabeth met her future husband Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin at one of the balls in 1823, being the maid of honor of the Empress. A year later, the couple got married. In marriage, the Naryshkins had a daughter, Natalya, unfortunately, the girl lived only three months and she was destined to become the first and only daughter in the family.
Further events developed rapidly. After the uprising, Mikhail was sentenced to exile in Chita, where Elizabeth went after her husband. The family spent 10 years in exile, then Naryshkin was appointed as a private in the Caucasian Corps, and the family moved to the Tula region.
The Naryshkins, who were amnestied in 1856, lived in Paris for a long time. All this time, the wife was engaged in charity work, compatriots remember her as kind and sympathetic, always ready to help. Elizabeth died and was buried in Moscow, along with her only daughter and husband.
Camille Le Dantu was governess in the family of Major General P. N. Ivashev. The beauty immediately fell in love with the son of the owner Ivan, a cavalry guard officer, 11 years older than her. The girl had to hide her feelings, since an unequal marriage was impossible at that time.
After the arrest of Ivashev, the girl decided to open her feelings to her lover, which shocked not only her chosen one, but also his family. Under the circumstances, the now former governess was allowed to go to Siberia for her love already in the role of a bride, since Vasily Petrovich, although he was surprised, did not object to the marriage. In 1830, the young people met and a week later formalized their relationship in the Volkonsky house. During the nine years of marriage, four children were born in the family, but during the last birth, Camilla died with the baby. Ivan also died a year later.
Alexandra Ivanovna was the most "unpopular" of all the wives of the Decembrists, since she had neither clan, nor status, nor a decent education. She was distinguished by a humble disposition and modesty. The girl was 17 years old when the young 26-year-old Davydov turned the head of the naive Alexandra. For six years of marriage, the couple had 6 children, whom she would have to leave, following her husband to Siberia. The parting was very difficult for the woman, the mother's heart ached, and this pain never subsided.
Later, in exile, the Davydovs will have seven more children, which will make them the largest couple in the settlement. Husband Vasily Lvovich will die in 1855, not having lived a year before the amnesty. Soon after his death, a large family will return to their native lands, where the head of the family, the venerable Alexandra Ivanovna, will live the rest of her life surrounded by loved ones, loving and respecting her children and grandchildren. She will die at the age of 93 and will be buried at the Smolensk cemetery.
Apukhtina Natalya Dmitrievna was of noble origin and grew up as a very pious child. At 19, she married her cousin, Mikhail Alexandrovich Fonvizin, who was 16 years older than her.
There was no crazy love between the spouses, it was rather a profitable marriage than a romantic one. High religiosity pushed the woman to follow her husband and leave two little sons in the care of relatives. Two sons, born already in exile, will die before they have lived even a year. An unfortunate fate will befall Dmitry and Mikhail, who remained in Moscow - they will die at the age of 25 and 26. Faith and disinterested help to those in need will help Natalya survive this loss. In 1853, the Fonvizins returned home, but after exile they lived only a year.
Maria Yushnevskaya
Maria Kazimirovna Krulikovskaya was a Polish woman by origin, she was brought up in the Catholic faith. From her first marriage she left a daughter, who in the future will not be allowed to follow her mother to Siberia. With her husband, Decembrist Alexei Petrovich Yushnevsky, there were no joint children.
In exile, both spouses were engaged in teaching, which remained the main income of Maria Kazimirovna after the sudden death of her husband in 1844. After an amnesty in 1855, the woman returned to the estate in the Kyiv province. She died in Kyiv at the age of 73.
In the capital of the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg, on Senate Square, an uprising of revolutionary-minded nobles took place, which went down in history as the Decembrist uprising. It happened on December 14, 1825. On the same day, the tsarist troops suppressed the rebellions. The main organizers in the amount of 5 people were hanged, 31 people were sentenced to indefinite hard labor, the rest were given milder punishments: demoted to soldiers, put in prison, sent to the active army in the Caucasus.
Many of the rebels had families. Among the wives there were courageous women who went to hard labor for their husbands. They shared with them all the hardships of exile. These women went down in history as wives of the Decembrists.
List of wives of the Decembrists
Volkonskaya Maria Nikolaevna (1805-1863)
Princess, nee Raevskaya. In January 1825 she married Sergei Volkonsky (1788-1865). Her husband participated in the uprising and was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in Siberia. By this time, the wife had already given birth to a boy. After the verdict was passed, she left after her husband, leaving the child with her family.
She lived with her husband at the Blagodatsky mine, in the Chita prison, at the Petrovsky plant in Transbaikalia. In 1837, the couple moved to the village of Urik, 18 km north of Irkutsk. Since 1845, the Volkonskys lived in Irkutsk. The Irkutsk Museum of the Decembrists currently operates in the Volkonsky house. In 1856, after an amnesty, the family moved near Moscow to Petrovsko-Razumovskoye, and also lived in Moscow with relatives.
In exile, Maria Nikolaevna gave birth to 3 children: 1 boy and 2 girls. Of the 4 children, only 2 children survived - the boy Mikhail and the girl Elena. Since 1858, the family lived in the village of Voronki in Little Russia. Volkonskaya died in 1863 from a heart disease.
Annenkova Praskovia Egorovna (1800-1876)
Frenchwoman, daughter of a Napoleonic officer, born Jeanette Pauline Goble. In 1823 she came to Russia and worked as a milliner in the Dyumansi trading house. In 1825 she met Ivan Annenkov (1802-1878) and fell in love with him. After the uprising, he was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor with further lifelong residence in Siberia.
Acquaintance of young people lasted only 6 months. But Goble apparently fell in love with Annenkov, besides, she was pregnant by him. Leaving the born daughter of the future mother-in-law, the woman went to Siberia after her beloved. The couple met in the Chita prison, and on April 4, 1828, the young people got married in the Chita church. At the time of the wedding, the shackles were removed from the prisoner, and then put back on.
Since the autumn of 1830, the couple lived in the Petrovsky factory, since 1835 in the village of Belskoye, Irkutsk province. Then they moved to the county town of Turinsk, Tobolsk province. Since 1839, Annenkov was in the civil service. In 1856 the family was allowed to leave exile. Since they were forbidden to live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, they settled in Nizhny Novgorod. It was in this city that Praskovya Yegorovna died at the age of 76.
Ivasheva Camilla Petrovna (1808-1840)
Governess's daughter, born Camille Le Dantu. The mother served in the Ivashev family, and the daughter saw the son of the owners Vasily Ivashev (1797-1841) and fell in love with him. But Ivashev was a rich nobleman, and the girl was just a servant. Therefore, about any relationship, and even more so about the wedding, and the conversation could not go.
Ivashev did not take part in the uprising itself, but belonged to a society of conspirators. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, which he served in the Chita jail and the Petrovsky factory. But as for Camilla, then, as they say, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped.
The girl expressed a desire to marry the convict. Relatives told Ivashev about this, and he was incredibly surprised and touched by the noble impulse of a young beautiful girl.
In September 1830, Camilla arrived at the Petrovsky Plant. The young people played a wedding, and for a whole month they were allowed to live in a house specially built for the newlyweds. Then the shackles were put on the husband, and he again switched to the position of a convict.
In this marriage, Camilla gave birth to 4 children and 9 years before her premature death was a truly happy woman. In 1832, the term of hard labor was reduced to 10 years. In 1835 the family moved to Turinsk, where Ivashev built a house. Camilla's mother joined the family in 1838. And in December 1839, Camilla herself caught a bad cold. The disease was complicated by premature birth. On January 7, 1840, the woman died at the age of 31. For her husband, this was a terrible grief. He died exactly a year later on the day of the funeral of his beloved wife.
Muravieva Alexandra Grigorievna (1804-1832)
Countess, nee Chernysheva, wife of the Decembrist Nikita Muravyov (1795-1843). Muravyov himself did not take part in the uprising. At this time, he was with his wife in the Oryol province in his estate. But he was arrested as one of the leaders of a secret society and sentenced to 15 years hard labor.
The wife followed her husband to Siberia. She arrived in the Chita prison in February 1827, leaving her parents with 3 children. Alexandra Grigorievna was the first of the wives of the Decembrists, who came to her husband for hard labor. In 1830, she moved after her husband to the Petrovsky Plant. While in Siberia, she gave birth to 3 more children. Living in terrible conditions, she deteriorated her health and died on November 22, 1832. Among the Decembrists, this was the first death.
Muravyova wanted her ashes to rest next to the ashes of her father. But the authorities forbade taking the body of the late countess to Europe. She was buried in Siberian soil, and a chapel was built over her grave.
Naryshkina Elizaveta Petrovna (1802-1867)
Countess, daughter of Minister of War Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn, maid of honor of the imperial court. She married Mikhail Naryshkin (1798-1863) in September 1824. On the occasion of the marriage, the empress gave her maid of honor 12 thousand rubles.
Mikhail Naryshkin did not participate in the uprising, but was a member of a secret society. He was sentenced to hard labor for 8 years. The wife followed her husband to Siberia. Arrived in the Chita prison in the spring of 1827. In 1830 she moved with her husband to the Petrovsky factory. In 1833, the Naryshkin couple moved to the city of Kurgan in the Tobolsk province. Here they had their own home, which became a cultural and educational center.
In 1837, the former colonel Naryshkin was sent as a private to the Caucasus. And the wife with the adopted girl Ulyana left for the Pskov province to visit her relatives. A year later, she moved to the village of Prochny Okop in the Caucasus, where her husband served. In 1844, Naryshkin was resigned and sent for permanent residence in the village of Vysokoye near Tula. There he died in 1863.
After the death of her husband, Elizaveta Petrovna moved to her aunt's estate in the Pskov province. She died at the age of 65 and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow with her husband and daughter, who was born in 1825 and lived only 2.5 months.
Rozen Anna Vasilievna (1797-1883)
Noblewoman, nee Malinovskaya. From the age of 2, an orphan, she was brought up by relatives. She married Baron Andrei Rosen (1799-1884). The wedding took place in April 1825. And in December, her husband took part in the Decembrist uprising. He was sentenced to 6 years hard labor.
Anna came to her husband in Siberia in 1830, leaving her 5-year-old son with her sister. In 1831 she gave birth to her 2nd son already in the Petrovsky factory. In 1832, Rosen's term of hard labor ended, and the family moved to the city of Kurgan, Tobolsk province. Here the family bought a house with money sent by relatives. Anna Vasilievna took up medical practice.
In 1837, the eternal settlement was replaced by military service, and the Rosens moved to Tiflis. In 1839, Rosen was demobilized for health reasons, and he and his family moved to his brother's estate near Narva. In 1856, an amnesty was announced for the Decembrists, and Anna and her husband left for the Kharkov province. The Rosens lived there for the rest of their lives. The wife died at the age of 86, and her husband survived her by only 4 months.
Trubetskaya Ekaterina Ivanovna (1800-1854)
Princess, nee Laval. She married Prince Sergei Trubetskoy (1790-1860) in May 1820. The woman could not get pregnant in any way and even went abroad to be treated for infertility. She gave birth to her first child in 1830. In total, she gave birth to 7 children. The last girl in 1844.
Trubetskoy was one of the key figures of the uprising, but on the decisive day he did not appear on Senate Square. However, this did not save him from 20 years of hard labor and a life-long settlement in Siberia. The wife followed her husband and met him at the Blagodatsky mine in February 1827. Then they lived in the Petrovsky factory, and in 1839 they settled in the village of Oyok, Irkutsk province. In 1845 the family settled in Irkutsk. In October 1854, Ekaterina Ivanovna died of cancer and was buried in the Irkutsk Znamensky Monastery.
Fonvizina Natalya Dmitrievna (1805-1869)
Noblewoman, born Apukhtina. She married in September 1822 Mikhail Fonvizin (1787-1854). He was a cousin to his young wife, was in a secret society, but did not take part in the uprising, since he left the organization back in 1822. However, he was arrested in his family estate and received 8 years of hard labor.
The wife came to her husband in the Chita prison in March 1828, leaving 2 sons to be raised by their mother. In 1830, following her husband, she moved to the Petrovsky prison. She gave birth to 2 children there, but they died at an early age. At the end of 1832, the couple moved to a settlement in Yeniseisk, and in 1835 they moved to Krasnoyarsk. In 1838, the couple was allowed to move to Tobolsk.
In 1853, the Fonvizins were allowed to return from Siberia to Europe. They settled in the Moscow province in the estate of Maryino. At the end of April 1854, Fonvizin died, and his wife became a widow. She moved to Moscow and lived there for some time. In May 1857 she married the Decembrist Ivan Pushchin (1798-1859). He had just left the exile and arrived in St. Petersburg.
But this marriage did not last long. Pushchin died on April 3, 1859. And Natalya Dmitrievna spent her last years in Moscow. By the end of her life, she was paralyzed. She died at the age of 66, was buried in the Intercession Monastery.
Shakhovskaya Natalya Dmitrievna (1795-1884)
Princess, nee Shcherbatova. She married Fyodor Shakhovsky (1796-1829) in November 1819. He was in a secret society, but left it in 1823. However, he was sentenced to 20 years of exile. My wife was expecting her 2nd child at the time.
The husband was exiled to Turukhansk, and in August 1827 he was transferred to Yeniseisk. The wife, having a small child in her arms, could not go to her husband. And he himself categorically objected to this. In 1828, Shakhovsky began to experience mental disorders. Natalya Dmitrievna immediately began to write to all authorities, begging to transfer her husband to Europe, to one of the estates under her personal care.
In the end, the sovereign allowed the exile to be transferred to the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal and kept under arrest. The wife settled nearby and provided her husband with medical care. But he died in May 1829. Natalya Dmitrievna herself died many years later in Moscow. She was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
Yushnevskaya Maria Kazimirovna (1790-1863)
Noblewoman, nee Krupikovskaya. She married Alexei Yushnevsky (1786-1844) in 1812. This was her second marriage. Yushnevsky led the Southern Society of Decembrists. He was sentenced to hard labor for 20 years. In January 1829, the wife followed her husband to Siberia. She lived with him in the Petrovsky factory until 1839 inclusive. Then the couple lived in a settlement in villages near Irkutsk. Engaged in teaching activities.
In January 1844, Alexei Yushnevsky died in the village of Oyok, Irkutsk province. Wife was allowed to return to Europe only in 1855. Maria Kazimirovna died in Kyiv. She had a daughter from her first marriage and had no children from her second marriage.
Yakushkina Anastasia Vasilievna (1807-1846)
Noblewoman, nee Sheremetyeva. Wife of Ivan Yakushkin (1793-1857). The marriage ceremony took place on November 5, 1822. Before the arrest of her husband, she gave birth to one son, and during the investigation of the second. Yakushkin was in a secret society, called to kill the emperor. He was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and eternal settlement.
The wife wanted to follow her husband, but he insisted that she stay in Europe, as she had two small children to raise. Only in 1831 did he agree to the arrival of his wife, believing that the sons had already grown up and could remain in the care of their grandmother.
In 1832, a petition was submitted for Yakushkina to move to Siberia, but the emperor rejected it. The sovereign considered that a woman should be engaged in raising children, and the petition was submitted too late. It used to be that all wives were allowed to follow their husbands into exile, but now you need to think about the younger generation. The same answer was received on the second petition. Never having seen her husband, Anastasia Vasilievna died 11 years before his death. In memory of his wife, Yakushin opened a school for girls in the city of Yalutorovsk, Tobolsk province.
Conclusion
After the trial of the Decembrists, the emperor granted the wives of the convicts the right to divorce their husbands. However, the vast majority of women did not. Noblewomen and aristocrats gave up luxury, left their children with relatives and went to Siberia for their husbands.
All of them were deprived of the nobility and the corresponding privileges. They switched to the position of the wives of exiled convicts. And this provided for restrictions on the rights of correspondence, movement and forbade the disposal of their property. Children born in Siberia were considered state peasants.
However, nothing stopped the courageous women. At the call of the heart, the wives of the Decembrists went to a distant and poorly inhabited region with its frosts and terrible living conditions. It was a great selfless act. It causes sincere admiration and is rightfully considered a feat.
About the wives of the Decembrists.
The author writes: “121 Decembrists were exiled to Siberia for hard labor and settlement. 121 Decembrists - remember this figure! How many wives followed their husbands? 121 exiled Decembrists were followed by only 12 (twelve) women!... At the same time, let me remind you that according to the laws of the Russian Empire, the wife was OBLIGED to follow her husband. In particular, it was indicated that the husband determines the place of residence of the family. That's it!"
I read it and wanted to know in more detail why other wives did not follow their husbands. After all, it’s true: 121 Decembrists and only 12 women ...
And I began to delve into articles, documents, books, memoirs ... And what did I get to the bottom of ...
In total, 19 women left for Siberia, of which 12 were wives (according to other sources - 11 wives), the rest were mothers and sisters. For some reason, they are silent about mothers and sisters ...
Of the 121 Decembrists convicted by the Supreme Criminal Court, only 22 were married. In the Russian noble society of that time, men usually got married somewhere at the age of plus or minus 30 years, and the vast majority of the conspirators at the time of the uprisings (on Senate Square and in the Chernigov regiment) had not yet reached these years, and therefore simply did not have time start your family...
It turns out that out of 22 wives, 10 did not go for their husbands. Why?
The most difficult test for most women was the need to part with children. The authorities categorically did not allow them to travel to Siberia with them. Alexandra Davydova left six children. Maria Volkonskaya, leaving for Siberia to her husband, was forced to leave her infant son Nikolai in the care of her relatives (he died at the age of two). Maria Yushnevskaya had to wait four years for a decision. The thing is that she wanted to take her daughter from her first marriage with her to Siberia. But the officials did not go forward and Yushnevskaya went to fetch her husband alone, leaving her daughter. N.D. Fonvizina, the only daughter of elderly parents (Apukhtins), going to Siberia, left two grandchildren Mitya and Misha, 2 and 4 years old, in their care ... In fact, there were much more such children of the Decembrists. Before leaving for Siberia, only E.I. Trubetskoy, E.P. Naryshkina and K.P. Ivashova...
But the wife of Artamon Muravyov Vera Alekseevna with her sons Leo (died in 1831), Nikita (died in 1832) and Alexander intended to come to Siberia to her convicted husband, but still she could not do this because of the children. Just before leaving, Muravyov wrote to her: “My whole existence lies in you and the children - my love, respect and gratitude to you for your feelings for me, no matter what, cannot be described by me ... I will not fall into despair; if only you would take care of yourself." The couple were not destined to meet. Having outlived her husband for a long time, she concentrated all her worries on her only surviving son ...
Ivan Dmitrievich Yakushkin forbade his wife Anastasia Vasilievna to leave the children and go to Siberia with him, believing that only a mother, for all her youth, could give the children a proper upbringing. Married for passionate love at the age of 16, she wrote to her husband in Siberia: "... you can be happy without me, knowing that I am with our children, and I, even being with them, cannot be happy ...". By the way, Yakushkin's mother-in-law more than once fussed about allowing her daughter and grandchildren to go to Siberia, but received decisive refusals. The wife of the Decembrist herself also made several such attempts. The last time, when her sons were already grown up, she asked to accept her children into the Corps of Pages when they reached the proper age, and she was allowed to go to her husband, which she was refused. The couple did not meet again, but their sons Vyacheslav and Evgeny received a good upbringing and education. Their mother died 11 years before their father. Upon learning of the death of his wife, Yakushkin opened the first school for girls in Siberia in memory of her ...
Here is what the Decembrist Fyodor Shakhovskoy wrote about his wife, who did not go into exile with him: “I left my wife in the village of Orekhovets in a difficult pregnancy with painful seizures - our son Dmitry is with her for six years. If God strengthened her strength and saved her days, but if a terrible misfortune befalls me, and the last consolation disappears in my soul with her life, then my one and last desire will be to know that my son will remain in the hands of her family, like her father. .. notified her of our fate and asked her to order, as soon as possible, to take my estate into custody, due to the infancy of our son, to whom it passes, so that she would be a guardian, and her father, of exemplary and strict honesty and his ardent love for his grandson, will not refuse to be his trustee. This situation, sad and doubtful, is intensified by the distance of 6000 miles separating me from my homeland and my orphaned family. " Sent into exile, Fyodor Shakhovskoy went mad. His wife Natalya Dmitrievna secured his transfer to a remote estate. In the end, the emperor allowed the patient to be transported to Suzdal, to the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, and his wife to settle nearby. Here Natalya Dmitrievna buried her husband two months after her arrival. She died at a ripe old age, eighty-nine years old, alone, outliving not only her husband, but also her son...
The wife of the Decembrist Alexander Brigen, Sophia Mikhailovna Brigen, back in 1827 asked permission to come with her children to the place of her husband's settlement. However, she was denied permission to move to Siberia with her children. S. M. Brigen was forced to refuse to move to her husband, since she had no opportunity to leave four children with her relatives ... In anticipation of the family, Brigen built a wooden three-room house in Pelym, where he lived until 1836 ... with his new common-law peasant wife Alexandra Tikhonovna Tomnikova, having given birth to five new children ... They write that in the 50s the common-law wife fell ill with a mental disorder ... The youngest son from this marriage, Nikolai Brigen, took with him from Siberia, and placed two daughters in Turin monastery. After returning, he lived with his youngest daughter from his first marriage in Peterhof from February 1858 ... After the death of Brigen, Nikolai was taken up by N. I. Turgenev ...
The wife of the Decembrist Vladimir Shteingel also stayed with the children, was waiting for her husband from exile and waited for him. The married Baron Shteingel Vladimir Ivanovich himself lived in Ishim in a civil marriage with the widow of a local official. They had two children: Maria and Andrey. The children bore the surname Petrov, later they were given the surname Baronov. After the amnesty, Shteingel went to live with his children, wife and grandchildren in St. Petersburg. He left his illegitimate children and his common-law wife in Siberia... Steingel's wife, who did not follow her husband to Siberia, waited for him - a very old man - after thirty years of separation...
Almost nothing is known about the wife of the Decembrist Ivan Yuryevich Polivanov, Anna Ivanovna, except for the fact that the entire period of arrest and investigation in the case of the Decembrists fell on her first pregnancy, which she experienced very hard for this reason. The only son of the Decembrist, Nikolai, was born in July 1826, shortly after the sentence was passed on her husband, and lost his father at the age of two months. "Contained in the local fortress ... deprived of ranks and noble dignity, Polivanov fell ill with severe nervous convulsive seizures with significant relaxation of the entire corps", sent to the Military Land Hospital - 09/02/1826, where he died. Buried at the Smolensk cemetery. No details of the further fate of the widow of the Decembrist and his son are known to historians ...
Only three wives of the Decembrists took advantage of the royal decree, freeing them from marriage ties. So, the Borozdina sisters (cousins of M. Volkonskaya) Ekaterina and Maria, the wives of V.N. Likharev and I.V. Poggio, as well as the wife of P.I. Falenberg remarried.
As for the stories of the two daughters of the rich and distinguished senator Maria and Ekaterina Borozdin, who lived in Ukraine, these stories are rather complicated.
The eldest daughter - Maria - married against the will of her father to a member of the Southern Society, Joseph Poggio. Papa had several reasons for dissatisfaction - Poggio was a Catholic (interfaith marriages in those days were in principle acceptable, but not particularly accepted), a widower with two children in her arms, and in addition - a member of a secret society. Senator Borozdin was worried about the future of his daughter. Joseph Poggio was arrested in front of his pregnant wife and sent to St. Petersburg for investigation. Maria rushed to her husband, but ... the father again showed concern for his daughter. Convicted in the fourth category, Poggio should have been sent, like the rest of the convicts, to Siberia - and Maria was going to follow her husband. However, thanks to the efforts and connections of father Borozdin, the convict was not sent to hard labor, but was imprisoned alone in the Shlisselburg fortress, where he spent about 8 years. Maria did not know anything about the fate of her husband, knocked around the thresholds of government offices - but silence was her answer. Eight years later, the young woman dried up, retreated. And, taking advantage of the granted right to divorce from a state criminal, she married a second time - to Prince Gagarin. Soon after this, Poggio, who had turned gray early and aged, was released from the fortress and sent, bypassing hard labor, straight to a settlement in the Siberian wilderness ... There is a slightly different version - supposedly Borozdina's father told her that her husband was in the fortress and seriously ill, including scurvy (scurvy), and that he would be immediately transferred to a settlement in Siberia, in more benign conditions for health, if she forgets him and remarries, otherwise he is destined to rot in a fortress. But how it really happened is shrouded in mystery...
An even more complicated story came out with Katenka Borozdina. Katenka was madly in love with the young and ardent Decembrist Mikhail Bestuzhev. The young people loved each other - but in this case, Bestuzhev's parents opposed the marriage - referring to the youth of their son, his low rank and the difficulty of a career for former Semenov officers after the uprising of the Semenov regiment. Long persuasion and correspondence, an attempt to intervene with Bestuzhev's friend, the Decembrist Sergei Muravyov, did not lead to anything, the parents did not give their blessing for the marriage. The lovers parted ... Bestuzhev plunged headlong into preparing an uprising in the south, and the subject of his love, Katenka Borozdina, married a year and a half ... also a Decembrist, a young lieutenant Vladimir Likharev ... When Likharev was also arrested, Katenka was pregnant. Likharev received a short term. Katerina Likhareva did not follow her husband to Siberia, but, using the right to divorce, a few years later she married Lev Shostak a second time. Likharev was not in hard labor for long - already in 1828 he went to the settlement. Having learned about the remarriage of his wife, he, according to eyewitnesses, seemed to have lost his mind, did not find a place for himself. Soon he asked for a private in the Caucasus - and in the battle he laid down his head. They say that in his pocket they found a portrait of a beautiful woman - Ekaterina Likhareva, nee Borozdina, in her second marriage - Shostak ...
Well, the last remaining wife of the Decembrist is not a Decembrist. Wife P.I. Falenberg. In 1825 he married Evdokia Vasilievna Raevskaya. He was arrested on January 5, 1826. Looks like they didn't even last a year. They write that for her sake her husband gave "frank testimony" during the investigation, slandering himself and his friends - and she happily married another ... In the first years of exile, Falenberg, who was all alone, was overcome by severe depression, aggravated by the news about the second marriage of a wife left in Russia. This state of mind persisted until 1840, when Falenberg married the daughter of constable A.F. Sokolova, a simple, illiterate, but kind Siberian. “His wife was a devoted and tender friend, and completely delighted his exile life. She soon mastered all the educated methods and could become on a level with her husband,” A.P. wrote in his memoirs. Belyaev. Marriage, and then the appearance of children, returned vigor and energy to the Decembrist. They lived, however, very poorly. The wife came from a poor family, and Falenberg himself, not receiving any money from his relatives, according to the Decembrist A.P. Yushnevsky, by his marriage "combined two poverty." But despite all the problems, they were together all their lives. They had a son and a daughter. The son served in horse artillery, then taught at one of the Moscow military gymnasiums. Falenberg's daughter, Inna, was married in Kharkov. She died at the age of 32. Her death had such an effect on her father, who was already in very advanced years, that he immediately died after receiving the news. They buried him in Kharkov. After Falenberg's death, his widow moved to Moscow to live with her son... Even if the first wife betrayed her (and can she be considered a wife if they didn't live together for a year?), but the second one was by her side all her life, despite poverty, despite that the husband was considered a state criminal. And for the sake of her husband, she learned both manners, and writing, and reading ...
These are the stories about the failed Decembrists ... I thought ... How many wives of the Decembrists who did not go to Siberia for their husbands are worthy of the condemnation that was splashed out on them on "Maskulist"?
