After the suppression of the uprising of the nobles on December 14, 1825, eleven wives of the Decembrists followed their husbands into distant Siberian exile. Not everyone managed to wait for the amnesty announced after 30 years. The names of these selfless Russian women will forever remain 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 organizers were hanged, the rest were exiled to hard labor in Siberia or demoted to soldiers. The wives of eleven Decembrists followed them into Siberian exile, having parted with their relatives and deprived of all property and civil rights. Here are their names: Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, Alexandra Grigorievna Muravyova, Polina (Praskovya) Egorovna Gebl-Annenkova, Camilla Petrovna Ivasheva, Alexandra Ivanovna Davydova, Alexandra Vasilievna Entaltseva, Elizaveta Petrovna Dmitriy Naryshkina, Anna Vasilya Fonyshkina Kazimirovna Yushnevskaya. After the decree on amnesty, issued on August 28, 1856, only five returned from exile with their husbands, three returned as widows, and three died in Siberia.
The first "Decembrists"
Maria Volkonskaya is the daughter of the famous General Raevsky, Lomonosov's maternal great-granddaughter, 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 in January 1825 married Sergei Volkonsky, he was 37, and she was 19 years old. The scene of the meeting of Maria Volkonskaya with her husband at the Blagodatsky mine described by Nekrasov is widely known, when she knelt down and kissed his shackles.
Ekaterina Trubetskaya was born into a very wealthy French émigré family and received an excellent education. Their marriage to Sergei Trubetskoy was very happy, but childless. Unlike Volkonskaya, Trubetskoy knew that her husband was in a secret society. She was the first of the wives of the Decembrists to receive permission to go to Siberia. In Chita, the Trubetskoys, after 9 years of fruitless marriage, had their first child. Ekaterina Ivanovna died in Irkutsk, only 2 years before the amnesty.
Alexandra Muravyova was the general favorite. It was with her that Pushkin sent his poetic message to the Decembrists: "In the depths of Siberian ores …" Unfortunately, Alexandra died when she was only 28 years old. Her husband, Nikita Muravyov, turned gray at the age of 36 - on the day of the death of his beloved wife.
Such similar and different destinies
In many ways, the fates of Polina Gebl-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 Polina managed to wait for the amnesty with her husband and return from exile, and Camilla died in Siberia at the age of 31.
The fates of other "Decembrists" also developed differently. After the amnesty, Alexandra Rosen, Elizaveta Naryshkina and Natalya Fonvizina returned from exile with their husbands; Alexandra Davydov, Alexandra Entaltseva and Maria Yushnevskaya returned already widowed. But whatever the ending of the life of each of them, all these women have earned the great respect of their contemporaries and the grateful memory of their descendants.
