Decembrist Women were the wives, fiancées, sisters, and mothers of Decembrist rebels sentenced to forced labor who voluntarily accompanied them to exile in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Voluntary exile

The Supreme Criminal Court convicted 121 Decembrists, of whom 23 were married, all officers, with 15 from the high-ranking military. Three bore princely titles ( S. G. Volkonsky, S. P. Trubetskoy, F. P. Shakhovskoy), and two had

baronial Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knight ...

titles ( A. E. Rosen and V. I. Shteyngel). Some Decembrists had close ties to the imperial court. Upon moving to Siberia, Decembrist women, like their husbands, lost noble privileges and were treated as wives of

convicts A convict is "a person found Guilt (law), guilty of a crime and Sentence (law), sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a commo ...

: they faced restrictions on travel, communication, and property rights. Decembrist wives were prohibited from taking their children, and returning to

European Russia European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...

was often restricted, even after their husbands' deaths. Overcoming numerous obstacles, the first women to reach the

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...

mines in 1827 were Maria Volkonskaya, Alexandra Muravyova, and Ekaterina Trubetskaya. Between 1828 and 1831, others joined them at Petrovsky Zavod and Chita: * fiancée of Ivan Annenkov - Pauline Gueble, * fiancée of Vasily Ivashov - Camilla Le Dentu, * wife of

Vasily Davydov Vasily Vasilovich Davydov (31 August 1930 – 19 March 1998) was a Russian psychologist who led the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education. In 1958 he joined Georgy Shchedrovitsky in founding the Commission for The Study of T ...

- Alexandra Davydova, * wife of Andrei Yentaltsov - Alexandra Yentaltsova, * wife of Mikhail Naryshkin - Elizaveta Naryshkina, * wife of Andrei Rosen - Anna Rosen, * wife of Mikhail Fonvizin - Natalia Fonvizina, * wife of Aleksei Yushnevsky - Maria Yushnevskaya, * sister of

Nikolay Bestuzhev Nikolay Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (Russian: Николай Александрович Бестужев; 13 April 1791, Saint Petersburg – 27 May 1855, Novoselenginsk) was a Imperial Russian Navy, Russian Navy officer, writer, inventor and portra ...

- Elena Bestuzheva Many Decembrist women were denied permission to join their relatives in Siberia. The mother of the Bestuzhev brothers, for instance, petitioned with her daughters to join her sons in

Selenginsk Selenginsk (; , ''Selengyn'', , ''Selenge'') is an types of inhabited localities in Russia, urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Kabansky District of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located at the head of the Selenga River delta about ...

, but Emperor Nicholas I denied her request. After her death in 1844, her daughters were finally granted permission to travel to Siberia.

Legacy

The Decembrist wives were the subject of the poem '' Russian Women'' by

Nikolay Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov ( rus, Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈkrasəf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Alexeyevich_Nekrasov.ogg, – ) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publ ...

, originally titled "Decembrist Women." In 2008, a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

to eleven Decembrist wives was erected in a park near the historic Zavalnoye Cemetery in

Tobolsk Tobolsk (, ) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1587, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and was the historic capita ...

. On September 12, 2011, a monument to Decembrist wives was unveiled in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

. The story of the Decembrists and their wives was also portrayed in the 1975 Soviet film ''

The Captivating Star of Happiness ''The Star of Captivating Happiness'' () is a 1975 Soviet historical romance. The title is an allusion to a line from the poem '' To Chaadayev'' by Alexander Pushkin. It is a drama with the dedication "to the women of Russia". Plot The story is ...

''.

References

{{Reflist

Sources

* Pavlyuchenko, E. A. ''In Voluntary Exile''. Moscow: Nauka, 1986. * Silberstein, I. S. ''The Decembrist Artist Nikolai Bestuzhev''. Moscow: Izobrazitelnoe Iskusstvo, 1988. * ''Notes of Princess Volkonskaya''. Chita, 1991.
A. E. Rosen. Memoirs of a Decembrist. Chapter Eight.

External links

Decembrists in Ukraine: Research and Materials / Compiled by G. D. Kazmirchuk, Yu. V. Latysh; Scientific Editor, Prof. G. D. Kazmirchuk. Vol. 7. Kyiv, 2013. 440 pages.
* Encyclopedic Dictionary ''History of the Fatherland from Ancient Times to the Present Day'' by Boris Yurievich Ivanov * ''The Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' Decembrist revolt Decembrists