After the suppression of the uprising of the nobles on December 14, 1825, the eleven wives of the Decembrists went after their husbands to a distant Siberian exile. Not everyone managed to wait for the amnesty announced after 30 years. The names of these selfless Russian women forever remained in the memory of their contemporaries and descendants.
Their names went down in history
On December 14, 1825, an organized uprising of the nobles against the tsarist autocracy took place in St. Petersburg. After its suppression, five of the organizers were hanged, the rest were sent to hard labor in Siberia or demoted to soldiers. The wives of eleven Decembrists went after them to Siberian exile, parting with their relatives and having lost all property and civil rights. Here are their names: Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, Alexandra Grigoryevna Muravyeva, Polina (Praskovya) Egorovna Gebl-Annenkova, Camilla Petrovna Ivasheva, Alexandra Ivanovna Davydova, Alexandra Vasilyevna Entaltseva, Elizaveta Petrovna Naryshkina, Anna Vasilievna Roznaevna Natalia Vasilyevna Roznina, Natalya Vasilyevna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Rosalyevna Natalyevna, Vasilyevna Dmitrievna, Natalya Vasilyevna, Anna Vasilyevna, Vasilyevna Roznaevna Kazimirovna Yushnevskaya. After the decree on amnesty issued on August 28, 1856, only five returned from their husbands, three returned as widows, and three died in Siberia.
The first "Decembrists"
Maria Volkonskaya is the daughter of the illustrious General Raevsky, maternal great-granddaughter of Lomonosov, one of the most beautiful and educated women of her era, Pushkin's muse. She was younger than the other wives of the Decembrists: when Maria Raevskaya married Sergey Volkonsky in January 1825, he was 37 and she was 19 years old. The scene of the meeting between Maria Volkonskaya and her husband at the Blagodatsky mine, described by Nekrasov, is widely known when she knelt down and kissed his shackles.
Ekaterina Trubetskaya was born in a very rich family of a French emigrant, received an excellent education. Their marriage to Sergei Trubetskoy was very happy, but childless. Unlike Volkonskaya, Trubetskoy was aware that her husband was in a secret society. She was the first of the Decembrists' wives to receive permission to go to Siberia. In Chita, the Trubetskoys, after 9 years of barren marriage, gave birth to their first child. Ekaterina Ivanovna died in Irkutsk, only 2 years before reaching the amnesty.
The universal favorite was Alexandra Muravyova. It was with her that Pushkin sent the Decembrists his poetic message: "In the depths of Siberian ores …" Unfortunately, Alexandra died when she was only 28 years old. Her husband, Nikita Muravyov, turned gray at 36 years old - on the day of the death of his beloved wife.
Such similar and different fates
In many ways, the fates of Polina Goble-Annenkova and Camilla Ivasheva are similar. Both were French by nationality, both served as governesses in the families of their future husbands, both were married to them already in Siberia. Only Pauline managed with her husband to wait for the amnesty and return from exile, and Camilla died in Siberia at 31 years old.
The fate of other "Decembrists" was different in different ways. Alexandra Rosen, Elizaveta Naryshkina and Natalya Fonvizina after the amnesty returned from exile with their husbands, Alexandra Davydova, Alexandra Entaltseva and Maria Yushnevskaya returned already widowed. But whatever the ending of life of each of them was, all these women deserved the great respect of contemporaries and the grateful memory of their descendants.
Related article
Anastasiy Kuzmin: biography, creativity, career, personal life
