A message about one of the Decembrists in Siberia. What did the Decembrists do during their Siberian exile?

Decembrists in Siberia

Abstract on the discipline “National History”

Introduction

184 years ago an event occurred in Russia that marked a new period in its historical development. The Decembrist uprising began the history of organized revolutionary movement in our country. Devoting my life to the fight for new Russia, the Decembrists at the same time wrote glorious pages in the history of Russian culture. There was not a single area of spiritual life in which the generation of Decembrists would not have made their contribution, where they would not have shown their revolutionary innovation, their irrepressible passion for knowledge, where their struggle against conservative norms that stifled living thought and creative initiative would not have had an effect.

Most of the figures of Decembrism were distinguished by an encyclopedic interest in science, literature, and the arts. The breadth of the Decembrists' outlook is evidenced by their entire heritage - books, articles, letters, memoirs and a large array of not yet published archival materials. Thus, a member of the Northern Society G. Batenkov, an engineer by training, is known as the author of the first Russian book on the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. He also wrote poetry, left articles and notes on issues of philosophy, aesthetics, history, mathematics, and ethnography. Nikolai Bestuzhev, a writer and painter who was interested in many branches of knowledge, considered the desire for universalism to be one of the hallmarks of his generation: he argued that an artist must go beyond the boundaries of his profession, he “must be a historian, a poet, and an observer (that is, researcher)".

But the point is not only that individual Decembrists owned certain works in the field of culture, science, art, and not in their universalism. The Decembrists believed that the possession of knowledge in itself is not the decisive criterion for a person’s social value. The same N. Bestuzhev wrote: “What is the difference between a scientist and an enlightened person? The one that the sciences do honor to the scientist, and the enlightened one does honor to the sciences.”

The Decembrists' attempt to transform Russia through revolutionary means was cut short by the tragic defeat of the uprising in Senate Square. They were not destined to realize grandiose plans reorganization of Russia, to bring their plans to life. But this struggle produced important results. The Decembrists woke up the best minds Russia, its best intellectual forces.

The defeat of the uprising on December 14, 1825 dispelled the hopes of the Decembrists for revolutionary changes in Russia. But, thrown into prison, in hard labor and in exile, they for the most part not only remained faithful to their former convictions, but were also tormented by new questions about the fate of their homeland, and sought to bring it all possible benefit in the most difficult conditions.

At the same time, many of the active participants in the uprising, reflecting on the reasons for the defeat on Senate Square, came to realize the narrowness of the social base of the Decembrist movement and the need to educate the broad masses of the Russian population.

The participants in the speech on Senate Square were also the first historiographers of the Decembrist movement. But the scientific development of the history of Decembrism acquired a wide scope much later, already in Soviet times.

To date, more than 15,000 scientific and popular science works have been published on the history of the Decembrist movement. Among them are the major works of P.E. Shchegoleva, M.V. Nechkina, N.M. Druzhinina, V.A. Fedorov and other scientists, many issues of the Decembrist movement are covered, especially those related to the formation revolutionary ideology Decembrists, preparation of the uprising and trial of the Decembrists.

The views and activities of the Decembrists after the uprising have been less studied. But active work has been carried out on this problem over the past three decades.

In the process of preparation for the 150th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising, along with the continuation of previously begun research on the uprising itself, the trial and investigation, the study of the Siberian period of life and activity of the Decembrists received significant development. A number of new centers for studying the Decembrist movement emerged (Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Ulan-Ude, etc.).

A number of works put forward and develop the idea of a significant evolution of the exiled Decembrists towards educational work among the broad masses of the population.

In this work, I was attracted by the pedagogical, educational, economic and other activities of the Decembrists, who were the founders of the methodology of mutual education in Russia.

Therefore, the purpose of this work is to highlight the activities of the Decembrists during the years of Siberian exile.

To achieve this goal, the following issues are considered:

1. Economic activities of the Decembrists and their connections with the peasantry;

2. Scientific, medical, pedagogical activities;

4. Social circles 30-40's. years in Siberia;

5. The struggle of the Decembrists against administrative arbitrariness;

To solve the problems posed in the work, I used a number of documentary publications and scientific literature on the history of the Decembrist movement, as well as documents and literature about the Siberian period of the life and activities of the Decembrists.

Economic activities of the Decembrists and their connections with the peasantry

Roaring Twenties and Thirties years XIX centuries have not passed without a trace for Siberia. Years of mass political exile - they carried special meaning in the life of Siberian society.

Living mainly by its local interests, defending rights, material well-being, and at times - the struggle for a better future, during this period it began to be drawn into the circle of interests of all-Russian, sometimes world... Uprising on Senate Square; in the south of Russia, the uprising of Poland, the exile and stay of the Decembrists in Siberia among peasant settlements and the simultaneous transfer of large parties of rebel Poles to Siberia - provided rich material that both the urban and rural population of the distant outskirts could not help but think about.

Throughout Siberia, from Berezov, Kondinsk to the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, on the one hand, from the border fortresses with China and Mongolia to Yakutsk and Nizhne-Kolymsk, on the other, places of settlement of the Decembrists were scattered. Not only representatives of the noble families involved in the uprising of December 14-28 were sent to hard labor and exile; Decembrist soldiers, the flesh of the people, were also installed in many villages and hamlets.

The interest shown in the Decembrists by the peasants of Siberia was not temporary, caused by their feverish and mysterious transfer to Siberia. It was supported unconsciously by the government itself, as well as by the many years of life of the peasants with the exiles of their native land.

As soon as some of the Decembrists settle down in the designated place of exile, suddenly a Cossack is sent to strictly supervise them, or a courier arrives and mysteriously takes away either Chernyshev from Yakutsk, or Tolstoy from Tunka, or Krivtsov from Turukhansk. Either on Easter night the gendarmes will descend on Urik and take Lunin away “to face a bullet in Nerchinsk,” or along the entire Lena highway officials on special assignments, or gendarmerie officers, will carry out absurd and general surveys, asking whether the Decembrists are taking any measures towards the uprising , whether they are agitating among the population, etc.

Such facts, breaking the monotonous, gray everyday life of the peasants' economic fuss, produced a certain effect, forced the peasant to create assumptions, to look for the reasons for such strange actions of the authorities. It was clear to the peasant that the exiled Decembrists were apparently feared as people dangerous to the state order. All this forced the villagers to take a closer look at the life of the Decembrists, take an interest in them, and talk about them.

Activities in Siberia were considered by the Decembrists as a responsible and difficult field, worthy of the cause for which their comrades laid down their lives, as direct work among the population, as socio-political service to their Motherland and their people, as preparation for a bright future for Siberia and as a continuation of the fight against serfdom only in other ways, new means developed on the basis of learning lessons from the defeat of the uprising during the period of joint stay in the dungeons.

Based on their general views on Siberia and its development programs, the Decembrists set out to show the population, Siberia and the Russian government what this rich region could give with the reasonable and rational development of its wealth and in what direction they should be used, what sectors of the national economy should be developed in order to raise the productive forces of the region, on which the improvement of the financial situation of the working masses of Siberia depends. What needs to be done so that Siberia can compare and become as developed economically and politically: a country like the United States of America.

During the Casemate period of life, the Decembrists organized the first experimental sites where theory was applied to practice. They managed, despite the short summer, to grow all kinds of vegetables: cauliflower, asparagus, melons, watermelons, artichokes, etc., which were not used among the local population or had a very limited distribution. Moreover, the wives of the Decembrists were actively involved in this activity. Annenkova recalled: “Meanwhile, when we arrived there, none of the residents thought of using all these gifts of nature, no one sowed, planted or even had the slightest idea about any vegetables. This forced me to start a vegetable garden, which I planted near my house. Then others started gardening."

Upon reaching the settlement, the activities of the Decembrists acquired a more multilateral character. Those of them who, even in the dungeon, had chosen agriculture as the subject of their future activity, when they entered the settlement, they began organizing model farms, organizing all kinds of experiments in order “... to reveal,” recalled Zavalishin, “what the region is able to produce if to apply to it a rational system of research and action."

In 1836, a large party of Decembrists was released from the Petrovsky casemate and settled mainly in the villages of Eastern Siberia.

The exiled Decembrists were obliged to “earn food by their own labor” in places of settlement. When they were convinced that the means recommended by the authorities, without the right to leave (without special permission) even for livestock, could not give bread, the Decembrists, like Vedenyapin from Kirensk, Abramov and Lisovsky from Turukhansk, the Bestuzhevs from Selenginsk and others, wrote in letters to the regional authorities and to Nicholas himself they develop the idea that without a land plot it is difficult to lead a “peasant lifestyle”). The government, bombarded with letters from the Decembrists and reports from the regional authorities about the difficult situation of the settlers deprived of land, provided the Decembrists with a 15-acre allotment. Peasant societies, by virtue of the decree of 1835, had to allocate hay and arable land “from the best land dachas” to the Decembrists installed among them.

Having received land plots, some of the Decembrists, such as Trubetskoy, immediately returned them to the peasants, drawing up an act of voluntary transfer of the land allocated to them to the peasant society.

In the person of the Decembrists living in the villages and hamlets of Siberia, the peasants saw, first of all, people who, together with the people-plowmen, raised new things in a harsh land, shared with the new settlers his rare joys, and often suffered with him the grief of failures and disappointments that were generously presented his capricious nature.

Spiridov near Krasnoyarsk in the village of Drokino, for example, cultivated several acres of wild, “neglected, one might say abandoned land, such land that some peasants,” he writes to the governor-general, “were amazed at my courage, others argued that my work, efforts, the costs and efforts will be in vain, that such land without special development cannot produce anything, that the sown seeds will either not sprout, or will be crushed by weeds when they sprout. But contrary to all these conclusions, everything sown has sprouted, ripened and been harvested in due time.”

M. Kuchelbecker, living in Barguzin, used all the money sent to him from his relatives to organize the economy and arable farming.

As business leaders, the Decembrists not only raised new ideas and improved agricultural culture, introducing, like the Belyaev brothers in Minusinsk, the sowing of buckwheat and Himalayan barley, not only contributed to the development of peasant farming and increased productivity of peasant labor, but also gave excellent ideas to local authorities in this direction, how, Volkonsky in 1840 asked to be allowed to clear the empty 55 acres for arable land and use it for 40 years. The idea is, of course, not new. Peasants and foreigners throughout Eastern Siberia were allowed to clear and fertilize from “forests and swamps the remaining unused land for arable land and hayfields, with the right of 40-year ownership of such plots.”

The Decembrists, settled in the villages and villages of Eastern Siberia, walking hand in hand with the peasant, discussing with him measures to improve labor productivity, built their well-being, first of all, on agriculture, and mainly some of them lived on it. “I fell in love with arable farming and the land,” Obolensky wrote. Volkonsky devoted himself to agronomy with great zeal.

There were, of course, exceptions. In any Turukhansk, where you can’t live by farming, the Decembrists, like Abramov and Lisovsky, were, apparently, engaged in trade.

That is why the Decembrists, as community farmers, remained deeply in the memory of the peasants. The population of Eastern Siberia remembers very well not only their estates in the villages, but also their allotments. In the Smolensk region, peasants indicated two plots that belonged to Bechasny. One of the plots is called “Dwelling”, there, the peasants said, there was a small house, “dwelling”, the other “Sekletovsky”. Bechasny, as a state criminal, was called “secret” in peasant terminology, hence the “Sekletovsky” site; in Barguzin they indicate Charles Field, where Mikhail Karlovich Kuchelbecker worked. In Bratsk Ostrog - Mukhanov Pad (Mukhanikha), in Ust-Kuda - Olkhonsky tail (Volkonsky), etc.

The capricious nature of Siberia very often joked evilly about the farmer’s economic undertakings, ruining all his calculations. It brought a lot of grief and disappointment to the Decembrists. Their letters to friends and family are full of details of their economic life, hopes and sorrows associated with agriculture. The Decembrists brought with them to the country of exile a sincere desire to be useful to the land that sheltered them, the environment that accepted them.

“The real field of life began with our entry into Siberia, where we are called by word and example to serve the cause to which we have dedicated ourselves.” This purpose of the Decembrists, beautifully formulated by Lunin, with rare exceptions, was adopted by almost all Decembrists. The desire to “serve by word and example” guides the activities of the Bestuzhevs, Thorson, Spiridov, Muravyov-Apostol, Andreev, Belyaevs, Zavalishin and others.

Thorson equipped a small workshop in Selenginsk for preparing agricultural tools. He convinced the peasants of the advantages of the machine. “At the request of the farmers, I decided to build a threshing machine. Due to a shortage of artisans, the work progressed until the end of October, the machine was placed on the river bank for the most convenient delivery of grain. After several trials, when the residents saw the full benefits of its benefits, they began to thresh bread, then people unfamiliar with handling machines were not slow in breaking it.”

While studying the Transbaikal region in a casemate, D.I. Zavalishin accumulated enormous knowledge about its natural resources and opportunities for socio-economic development. Upon leaving the settlement, Zavalishin set the goal of his social activities “...to contribute to the improvement of people by enlightening the mind, elevating morality, and increasing energy in activities for the common good.”

Having received the 15 dessiatines of land allotted to the exiled settler, Dmitry Irinarkhovich created a model farm, from the experience of which he sought to find out “what flows from the constant conditions of the area, and what is a consequence only of ignorance or routine, and therefore can be subject to change.” In practice, he was convinced: despite the fertility of the lands, they need to be fertilized; to control weeds, practice doubling of arable land; the best farming system is multi-field and rotational; To improve the quality of hay, you should mow the grass not after Prokofiev's Day (July 8), as was done, but after Peter's Day (June 29), when the grass is lush and has not yet become covered with rust. Simultaneously with the improvement of arable farming, he practiced breeding a breed of dairy cows. Taking into account climatic conditions, rational farming methods, agrotechnical innovations, and hard peasant labor only for some time allowed Zavalishin to provide his family with the necessary funds. On his farm there were 5 pairs of working oxen, 7 dairy cows, 12 working horses and 40 non-working horses. But Zavalishin’s pride was gardening and horticulture.

Dmitry Irinarkhovich shared his successful experiences in agronomy and gardening with the local population, thereby involving them in the work of raising not only personal farms, but also the productive forces of the region. In the first year of his settlement he wrote out large number seeds and distributed them to the peasants for experiment.

By setting up an exemplary farm, Zavalishin consciously sought to ensure that it would not only ensure his comfortable existence in the settlement, but, mainly, would be useful to the “common cause.” In the process of agricultural practice, spreading literacy, and providing medical care, the Decembrist became closer to the population of the region.

Giving great value trade in the rise of the productive forces of the region, he believed that for its development with China along the Amur and on Far East it is necessary to improve agriculture, cattle breeding, fur trades and reduce the cost of domestically produced goods.

At the other end of Eastern Siberia (near Krasnoyarsk), Spiridov comes to the aid of the peasants in the matter of improving and improving the tools of labor. He not only improves the agricultural tools adopted in the Yenisei province, but prepares new ones, “not commonly used here, but necessary for loosening and smoothing arable lands.”

Andreev, settled in distant Olekma, devotes himself with all zeal to serving the peasant people. He is the first to build a flour mill and wanders along the banks of the Lena in search of millstones. The energetic, enterprising Bechasny was the first to set up a butter churner in the Smolensk region (8 versts from Irkutsk). “They started planting hemp 300 years (?) before him, but he taught how to reap oil from the seeds,” this is what local residents who remembered Bechasny said. He gave seed and money to whoever needed it. Everyone brought hemp seed to him. It also happened that there was a bad harvest or something, whoever didn’t bring seeds, he didn’t oppress.”

Even in Chita and the Petrovsky plant, the Decembrists, while conducting artisanal farming, paid great attention to the cultivation of vegetables. Among them were excellent gardeners. They brought the knowledge and experience of several years to the villages of Eastern Siberia and shared it with the peasants.

The Decembrists ordered garden seeds through their relatives and friends from beyond the Urals, and brought them from the Petrovsky plant; The seeds “collected from the prison bushes” yielded excellent vegetables. With the arrival of the Decembrists, Urik, Ust-Kuda, Khomutovo, Razvodnye, Olonki were covered with beautiful vegetable gardens. “Before the arrival of the Decembrists, there were no traces of large vegetable gardens,” say the peasants of Ust-Kuda. The Decembrists also introduced the peasants to greenhouses, which are now so common in many suburban villages of Siberia.

M.I. set a good example for the population of the northern part of Eastern Siberia. Muravyov-Apostol. Living in Vilyuysk, he takes up gardening and plants potatoes. His experiment was crowned with brilliant success. Things were different with him when it came to sowing millet; Its rapid growth pleased the enterprising owner, but the unexpected frosts played a cruel joke on his idea: the seedlings died.

Having lived a little less than a year in Turukhansk exile - from September 8, 1826 to August 12, 1827, F.P. Shakhovskoy, despite the difficult conditions of exile life, sought to bring all possible benefit to the region that sheltered him, to devote himself to serving the public cause. His energetic nature required active action, so soon after arriving at the place of imprisonment, he became involved in the life of the Turukhansk village. With his valuable agronomic experiments on the acclimatization of vegetable crops, he contributed to the development of agriculture in the region. This work brought the Decembrist closer to the common people, among whom he enjoyed well-deserved respect. Correcting the position of a separate Turukhansk assessor, centurion Sapozhnikov, in one of his reports to his superiors, reported: “I have the honor to report that Shakhovskoy, from the residents, both Turukhansk and those living from Turukhansk up the Yenisei, acquired a special favor with the promise to improve their condition through the cultivation of potatoes and other garden vegetables ( which had never happened before in Turukhansk), foreshadowing to them the cheapness of bread and other things necessary for peasant life.”

In the person of the exiled Decembrist, Turukhansk residents met a humane and sympathetic person who took the joys and sorrows of the people around him to heart. Of the 400 rubles sent to him by Princess Shakhovskaya, he paid an arrears of 370 rubles for the peasants who suffered from crop failure. This act caused dissatisfaction with the local administration.M. Bogdanov, analyzing the “Notes” of F.P. Shakhovsky, concluded that the author saw in the indigenous population of Siberia “not wild foreigners, but the same people as Europeans, with the only difference that at that time they still lacked general cultural development and free national self-determination,” and that “the ability the rise of one or another people to the heights of universal human culture depends not on biological characteristics, but on the conditions of its historical development."

Simultaneously with the improvement of arable farming, the Decembrists (Zavalishin, Bestuzhevs, Naryshkin, etc.) were engaged in breeding a more productive breed of dairy carpets, horses and fine-wool sheep. Experiments on breeding merino sheep were carried out by an established company in the village of Bureti (Bodayskaya volost, Irkutsk district) and in Minusinsk. Since in both places there was no person who was well acquainted with sheep breeding, the chairman of the Council of the Main Directorate of Eastern Siberia asked Governor General Lavinsky to transfer M. Kuchelbecker from Barguzin to Buret and allow both him and Belyaev to join a merino breeding company in Eastern Siberia. Lavinsky looked at the matter from a different point of view. He did not find it convenient to allow state criminals to engage in “such activities that could open up for them connections with many people” and, away from police supervision, perhaps influence peasants who became interested in a new business.

The Decembrists went further and drew the peasants into occupations that were new to them. The peasants perfectly took into account the importance of new subsidiary trades in their economy and, seeing in the Decembrists people of broad initiative, they tried to work with them together. Attempts by the Decembrists to introduce new crafts among the peasantry were often frustrated by the resistance of the authorities.

But, despite the government introducing more and more restrictions and restrictions, the Decembrists did not stop their activities and their influence on Siberian society and the affairs of the region increased every year and grew in direct proportion to Nicholas’s activities. His plan - to isolate "state criminals" from the working masses and wall them up in the Siberian deserts - could never be fully realized.

The Decembrists tried to develop an interest in the public among peasants. M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, seeing that the cemetery adjacent to the village (Vilyuisk) is not fenced, that not only domestic animals, but also wild animals, hiding in the neighboring taiga, suggested that the peasants work together to build a strong log fence.

The interests of village safety in terms of fire safety were placed in the foreground by the Decembrists. V.M. Divorce and M.K. Yushnevskaya used their own funds to build a fire tower, where all the tools necessary to extinguish the fire were stored. The rope from the bell that hung on the tower was led to the Yushnevskys’ house.

The Siberian village amazed the Decembrists with its complete lack of vegetation. This reflected the centuries-old struggle of the peasant explorer with the taiga. While renovating the village, he cut down the forest in the area and did not leave a tree near his house. Decembrists; Having settled in the village and built houses, they first of all convinced the peasants of the benefits of growing gardens. Beautiful gardens are planted in Urik Lunin. Muravyov, in Omsk - Trubetskoy; in Olonki, the garden planted by Raevsky is still preserved. Old people also remember how the Decembrists “washed the paths for women to sweep in these gardens,” they remember that “the paths were strewn with yellow sand.” Living among the peasants, the Decembrists did not emphasize their cultural superiority over them. Most of them, living in villages and hamlets of Siberia, did not differ in costume from peasants. Erman, going to the Lena for scientific purposes, having met V.F. Raevsky in Irkutsk, mentions in his work about his peasant clothes, Mukhanov - he even submitted an application to his superiors for permission to transfer to the category of state peasants.

In this mood, the Decembrists did not neglect the ancient customs that prevailed in this or that village, and, taking an active part in the life of the peasants, carefully studied peasant life, morals and customs. Falenberg's wedding, for example, took place in full compliance with local customs.

The peasantry saw in the Decembrists not only inventors who gave them a threshing machine, an improved plow, not only bearers of knowledge and experience, which they disinterestedly shared with the farmer, but also people who valued the person in the peasant first of all and considered it not shameful for themselves not only to become friends with the plowman , but also to join his family, to become related.

IN the latter case One cannot fail to note the marriage to peasant women, foreigners, and Cossack women. Bechasny, Frolov, Ivanov, Kryukov, Raevsky, Falenberg, Lutsky and others - join their fate with peasant girls. The marriage of the Decembrists to peasant women cannot be considered the result of the inevitable need to have only a “housekeeper” in the person of a peasant wife, on whose shoulders the running of the household could be entrusted. True, having acquired houses and increased plowing, the Decembrists needed female labor, reliable assistants and friends, but the latter choice was dictated not so much by necessity and economic considerations, but by the desire of the heart.

It would be a big mistake, of course, to paint the relationship between the peasants of Siberia and the Decembrists who lived among them in the tones of a peaceful rural idyll; it would also be a mistake to assert that during the thirty-year stay of the Decembrists in the rural wilderness they had clashes only with representatives of the village elders who oppressed the peasants, yes with world-eating fists. The Decembrists also had clashes with the ordinary peasantry. We have documented facts of the collision. For example, Frolova with the Sorokovsky peasants. The confrontation, which ended in beatings, was the subject of legal proceedings. M.N. died from beatings and poisoning in the village of Kabansk. Glebov. The culprits of his death turned out to be the non-commissioned officer of the stage team I. Zhukov and the peasant daughter Natalia Yuryeva. Andreev and Repin died a violent death in the upper reaches of the Lena, in Manzurka, when they burned down in the house of a peasant with whom they stayed for the night.

The Decembrists in the Siberian wilderness were considered landowners, rich people, “they had stacks of money,” the peasants say. Perhaps thirst easy money prompted the peasants where Andreev and Repin stayed for the night, having robbed them, to finish with them and set fire to the house in order to cover up the traces of the crime.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution

Higher professional education

"Siberian State Industrial University"

Department of History

Decembrists in CIberia

student group GG-13

Antoshechkina Ekaterina

Scientific supervisor:

Chukhlantsev A.M.

Novokuznetsk 2013

Introduction

Chapter 1. Formation of the worldview of the Decembrists

1.2 Living conditions in Siberia

Chapter 2. Main directions of activity of the Decembrists in Siberia

2.1 Educational activities of the Decembrists in Siberia

2.2 Wives of the Decembrists and their activities

Conclusion

References

Introduction

Decembrists, leaders of the Russian liberation movement of the first quarter of the 19th century. The movement arose among educated noble youth who were influenced by European social thought, ideas of French encyclopedists and the Great french revolution. The defeat of the uprising on December 14, 1825 dispelled the hopes of the Decembrists for revolutionary changes in Russia. But, thrown into prison, in hard labor and in exile, they for the most part not only remained faithful to their former convictions, but were also tormented by new questions about the fate of their homeland, and sought to bring it all possible benefit in the most difficult conditions. worldview decembrist siberia activities

Exile to Siberia for hard labor and eternal settlement doomed the Decembrists to political and often physical death. Everything was designed to ensure that those isolated from cultural centers, deprived of necessary cultural food, including books, without the right to publish their scientific and literary works highly educated people will inevitably be doomed to “moral numbness” and spiritual death. These plans were not destined to come true.

All their activities were devoted to future socio-economic, political and cultural transformations of society, regardless of whether it concerned medical care for the local population, or the promotion of music, painting, etc.

To date, more than 15,000 scientific and popular science works have been published on the history of the Decembrist movement. Among them are the major works of P.E. Shchegoleva, M.V. Nechkina, N.M. Druzhinina, V.A. Fedorov and other scientists, many issues of the Decembrist movement are covered, especially those related to the formation of the revolutionary ideology of the Decembrists, the preparation of the uprising and trial of the Decembrists.

A major generalizing study about the Decembrists and their era is undoubtedly the two-volume monograph by M.V. Nechkina “The Decembrist Movement”, published in 1955. The main task of the monograph, as defined by its title, was to directly study the Decembrist movement, its roots, to find out how its ideology developed, how the change from one Decembrist organization to another took place, how An uprising was prepared and carried out.

Chapter 1. Formation of the worldview of the Decembrists

The origins of the formation of the worldview of the Decembrists are complex and diverse.

Most of the future Decembrists were born at the turn of the new century: in last decade XVIII century, or in the first years of the XIX century.

All Decembrists (exceptions are extremely rare) were nobles by origin, belonging to the privileged class of the then serf Russia. Many diverse phenomena of Russian life from childhood flowed through their consciousness and were perceived by them: the life of a lordly estate, noble estate, original homeschooling, admission to an educational institution.

The Decembrists grew up for the most part in wealthy noble families, where they could constantly observe the sharp difference between the position of the landowner and the peasant, the master and the servant.

And therefore, during the investigation, the Decembrists named Russian feudal reality itself in all its extremely unsightly manifestations as one of the reasons that prompted them to rebel against the autocracy. The “freethinking” of the Decembrists arose primarily as a protest younger generation advanced nobility against the arbitrariness of the autocracy, the dominance of the bureaucratic bureaucracy, the oppressed, powerless situation masses, especially the serf peasantry.

It should also be noted high level education of future Decembrists. Some of them studied at Moscow University, others at the Moscow School of Column Leaders (the future Academy General Staff), the third - at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

The forbidden book of the great Russian writer of the 18th century A.N. Radishchev, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” had a huge influence on the formation of the educational views of the Decembrists. The cruel pictures of serfdom and autocracy, which outraged Radishchev’s soul, coincided with the reality that surrounded the young men.

But, of course, the matter was not limited to reading prohibited Russian books. From the West, the works of philosophers and educators penetrated more freely - even into the libraries of their grandfathers and fathers. Books by the French luminaries of freedom - Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, D'Alembert, Montesquieu - especially often fell into the hands of progressive youth... They were read in the original: knowledge French was mandatory for everyone educated person in Russia.

The Patriotic War of 1812 also had a huge influence on the formation of the liberation ideas of the Decembrists, which caused an unprecedented patriotic upsurge of the entire Russian society. The Decembrists called themselves “children of 1812” and more than once emphasized that 1812 was the beginning of their movement. Among the participants in this war are more than a hundred future Decembrists; 65 of those whom the authorities would call “state criminals” in 1825 fought to the death with the enemy on the Borodino field. It is known that the victory of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812 had not only military significance, but had a huge impact on all aspects of social, political and cultural life countries, contributed to the growth national identity, gave a powerful impetus to the development of advanced social thought in Russia. The Decembrists were the first to point out folk character this war. It was the war of 1812 that deeply and acutely raised before the future Decembrists the question of the fate of the homeland, the ways of its development, and revealed the enormous possibilities of the Russian people, who, as they believed, sooner or later must find the strength to liberate themselves from internal tyranny - to throw off the yoke of serfdom. .

During 1812 - 1815, the future Decembrists witnessed events of world significance; they observed how easily thrones were destroyed or recreated, and old orders were broken. This inspired them with hope for the possibility of revolutionary changes in Russia.

Decembrists - participants Patriotic War In 1812, they hoped that the great feat of Russia would awaken the younger generation to a new life, that Alexander I would carry out the expected reforms, that new broad opportunities would open up for both political changes and cultural development. But the opposite happened: the enslavement of the peasants did not weaken, Arakcheevism flourished, censorship and persecution of free-thinking writers and scientists intensified. A small part of society protested, and a very small part entered into an active fight against the reaction.

One of the government measures after the War of 1812 was the unification of “spiritual affairs and public education” in one ministry headed by Prince Golitsyn. But in fact, this ministry deliberately slowed down the spread of scientific knowledge in the country, fearing that this could lead to “harmful consequences for the existing order of things.”

Immediately after the end of the war, the reaction hit educational institutions with full force. Special government instructions provided for teaching only those sciences that “do not separate morality from faith.” The country's largest universities (St. Petersburg, Kazan, etc.) were subjected to a devastating defeat. Progressive-minded professors and genuine scientists were expelled, and police surveillance was established over educational institutions.

December 14, 1975 significant date in the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia - the 150th anniversary of the very day when “the best people from the nobility” spoke out against the Russian autocracy and serfdom.

The day of December 14th truly became an era, and the first Russian revolutionaries, who set the goal of destroying the autocracy in Russia, entered the history of the revolutionary movement under the name DECEMBRISTS.

The interrogations of the revolutionary nobles were conducted personally by Emperor Nicholas I. The first to appear before him was the “man in a tailcoat,” a retired lieutenant, one of the leaders of the uprising, “a fiery admirer of goodness” - Kondraty Ryleev.

The newly-crowned tsar tried in vain to explain the Decembrist movement as “a conspiracy of a bunch of villains.”

This “handful” was too large to announce the names of the “conspirators” in the newspaper. People appeared before the king, united general idea revolution. Russian reality was the soil on which revolutionary ideas grew. The Decembrists spoke openly about this during interrogations.

The Decembrists actually named the names of the great French educators, English economists, German philosophers, and gave examples from the works of the greatest thinkers ancient world, but the overwhelming majority of them named, first of all, the name of the first Russian revolutionary Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev. The investigative commission, and with it the Tsar, became convinced of how deeply Radishchev’s freedom-loving, anti-serfdom ideas had penetrated into the consciousness of advanced Russian society.

The Patriotic War of 1812, when the Russian people overthrew and drove away the Napoleonic hordes, showed the strength of the Russian people and at the same time exposed the ulcers of the monarchy even more sharply. Europe had already thrown off the yoke of absolutism, but in Russia despotism, lawlessness and the arbitrariness of serfdom still reigned.

“Did we buy primacy between nations with blood so that we could be humiliated at home?” asked yesterday’s war hero Alexander Bestuzhev.

Emperor Alexander I threw off the mask of a liberal, an “enlightened monarch” and introduced into law exhausting parade drills, military settlements, and became the founder of the Holy Alliance - military-police international organization aimed at suppressing the revolutionary movement in Europe.

In contrast to this, advanced Russian officers created the “Union of Salvation”, having already developed a plan to kill the Tsar in 1816. This plan was proposed and undertaken to be carried out by Mikhail Lunin, whom Herzen called “one of the finest minds and the most delicate." An aristocrat, heir to a huge fortune, Lunin said: "Only one career is open to me - the career of freedom." Pushkin dedicated the lines to him: "Friend of Mars, Bacchus and Venus, here Lunin boldly proposed his decisive measures."

Sergei Muravyov, who at first warmly approved of Lunin’s plan, later came to a different conclusion: a small group of people, even if they managed to put an end to the tsar, were unable to change the state and social system of Russia. A new organization, the Union of Welfare, was created (1818-1821).

The massacre of soldiers of the Semenovsky Guards Regiment in St. Petersburg in 1820 alerted members of the Union of Welfare. The reason for the reprisal was the collective protest of the soldiers against the abuse of them by the regiment commander. In reality, Emperor Alexander was only looking for a reason to disband the regiment, to massively punish the soldiers, to demote large group officers who too openly launched educational conversations and “harmfully influenced the mentality and discipline of the lower ranks.” In order not to fail the work that had been started, a decision was made in 1821 on the imaginary dissolution of the widely spread, essentially semi-legal “Union”. It was necessary to clear ourselves of random people. New secret societies arose, independently of each other: “Northern”, “Southern”, “United Slavs”. The "Slavs", having familiarized themselves with the program documents of the "southerners" - the "State Testament", extracts from "Russian Truth", written by Pestel - unconditionally accepted their program and tactics. The “northerners” were slow to unite, although they agreed with the timing of the uprising: January 1826, or more precisely, the time when Pestel’s regiment would go on guard, which would allow them to immediately capture the army headquarters. At the same time, an uprising will rise in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Sudden death Alexander I and the subsequent period of “interregnum” were pushed forward by events: the “northerners,” without informing other societies, decided to act independently - on the day of the oath to the new Tsar, Nicholas I, December 14, 1825, not knowing that the day before they had already been arrested Pestel and almost the entire Tulchinsky administration of the Society of "Southerns".

On July 13, 1826, five heroes - Pestel, Ryleev, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky - were executed.

The official press spoke only of “a pitiful bunch of conspirators, adventurers, opera villains.” It was forbidden to mention even with abusive epithets real names "the best people from the nobles."

The investigation into the Decembrist case was conducted secretly, through two channels: the Investigative Commission of the Senate and the Military Collegium, where thousands of “lower ranks” and hundreds of officers were involved. Except short messages in the official press about “a handful of conspiratorial officers and several vile-looking people in tailcoats,” the public in Russia, and in Europe in particular, knew nothing significant.

1.2 Living conditions in Siberia

In total, 124 members of the Decembrist organizations were sent into Siberian exile, 96 of them to hard labor, the rest to permanent settlement. 113 of those exiled to Siberia belonged to noble class and only 11 (peasant Duntsov-Vygodovsky and ten lower ranks) - to the tax-paying estates. Among the Decembrists, eight people were holders of a princely title, whose pedigree went back to either the legendary Rurik or the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (Baryatinsky, Volkonsky, Golitsyn, Obolensky, Odoevsky, Trubetskoy, Shakhovskoy and Shchepin-Rostovsky). Count Chernyshev belonged to a family descended from one of the favorites of Peter 1. Four more (Rosen, Soloviev, Cherkasov and Steingeil) had a baronial title. Since military service was considered the main and honorable duty of the nobility, 113 exiles “ noble revolutionaries"were military. Only six people served in the civil department, and five were retired. Among the military, three had the rank of general. The oldest of the involuntary Siberians, Gorsky, was 60 years old, the youngest, Tolstoy, was 20.

The Decembrists served hard labor in the Blagodatsky mine, Chita and Petrovsky Plant. Having gathered more than 70 “friends of December 14” in one place, Nicholas 1 sought, first of all, to ensure strict supervision and their complete isolation. The arrival of the wives and brides of the Decembrists in Siberia destroyed the isolation of the Decembrists, since, unlike their husbands, they retained the right to correspond with family and friends and became voluntary secretaries of the prisoners.

The Irkutsk colony was one of the most numerous: the Volkonsky, Muravyov, Lunin, Wolf, Panov families lived in Urik, the Poggio and Mukhanov brothers lived in Ust-Kuda, the Trubetskoys and Vadkovskys in Oeka, the Annenkovs and Gromnitskys in Belsk, the Raevskys in Olonki, and the Raevskys in Malo. - Divorce - Yushnevsky, Borisov brothers, Yakubovich and Muravyov, in the Smolensk region - Beschasnov.

Among the Decembrists, Muravyov became the first Irkutsk resident. Sentenced to exile to Siberia without deprivation of ranks and nobility, he was first appointed mayor to Verkhneudinsk, and in 1828 transferred to Irkutsk. Under his leadership, the city center was landscaped, planked sidewalks were laid, “Moscow festivities in carriages around the swings” were instituted on the Angara embankment, and order, ensured by the police, headed by the exiled mayor, was noted even in gendarmerie reports. His house on Spasskaya Square became the center of the city’s cultural life. Musical evenings, poetry evenings and lectures were held here.

The life of the Decembrists was determined by numerous instructions. They were forbidden to leave their settlements for more than 30 miles without permission from their superiors; all correspondence with relatives was to be conducted through the office of the Governor General and the III Department; “so that with excess wealth” they “do not forget about their guilt,” the pursuit of any craft was strictly regulated and those that could ensure their material independence were rejected. With rare exceptions, “state criminals” were prohibited from joining public service, as well as engage in socially significant activities, for example, pedagogy. However, most of them shared the opinion of Lunin, who asserted: “Our real life’s journey began with our entry into Siberia, where we are called to serve by word and example the cause to which we have dedicated ourselves.”

Raevsky not only opened a school for children and adults in the village of Olonki, but used his own money to invite a teacher and write out teaching aids, and offered to use his house in the Tikhvin parish of Irkutsk for classes at an educational institution for girls - the Medvednikova Orphanage. Private pedagogical activity Borisov, Yushnevsky and Poggio were involved.

In 1836, on the recommendation of Governor General Bronevsky, “due to the lack of medical officials in the region,” it was allowed medical practice Wolf. Confidence in the exiled doctor was so great that representatives of the “Irkutsk elite” - rich merchants, officials and even the governor - resorted to his services. Provided medical care Muravyov was also in need: the former hussar colonel turned out to be a “successful tooth grinder.” And Maria Volkonskaya and Ekaterina Trubetskaya received medicines with almost every parcel to distribute to sick fellow villagers.

In Siberia, the Decembrists found themselves closely associated with the peasantry. Each settler was allocated 15 acres of land, “in order to earn food for himself through his labors,” but the Muravyov brothers and Sergei Volkonsky leased additional plots on which they set up a farm using hired labor. The initially wary attitude of local residents towards “state criminals” quickly gave way to friendly and trusting, which was greatly facilitated by their sincere interest in the affairs of those around them, their willingness to help, and participation in the life of the village to which they were assigned. They attended the weddings and name days of their neighbors and did so respectfully, observing the customs accepted by the owners. Babies were baptized and their future fate was monitored. Some of the Decembrists married local girls.

A magazine artel operated, new literature was sent to the most remote corners of the region. Pushchin, who took on the duties of manager of the general Decembrist artel, found funds to help the poor. Among those who constantly made contributions to the general fund were Volkonsky and Trubetskoy. The children of their comrades - Kuchelbecker's daughters and Kuchevsky's son - found shelter in the Trubetskoys' house.

For many, Siberia has become the last refuge - a lifelong journey. “We are seriously beginning to populate Siberian cemeteries,” Pushchin wrote with sadness. The last shelter was found in the Irkutsk land by Poggio, Panov, Mukhanov and Ekaterina Trubetskaya with their children Sofia, Vladimir and Nikita. Andreev and Repin died in a fire in Verkholensk. In 1843, after a short illness, Muravyov, “who cost an entire academy,” died. Gromnitsky died in the Usolye infirmary after a serious illness.

After thirty years of exile in Siberia, the Decembrists became close to their new homeland. Leaving it, many of them, like Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina, bowed to Siberia “in gratitude for its bread and salt and hospitality.” The “forgiveness” that finally came evoked an ambivalent feeling among the Decembrists: they wanted to return to their native places, see their remaining loved ones, get acquainted with the younger generation, and it was a pity to part with an albeit modest, but well-established way of life, an established circle of friends; they were also outraged by the distrust of the new monarch, who placed returning old people under police supervision.

Chapter 2. Main directions of activity of the Decembrists in Siberia

2.1 Educational activities of the Decembrists in Siberia

The Decembrists began to actively prepare for educational activities in Siberia, being prisoners of the Petrovsky casemate in the Petrovsky “convict academy”. They intensively engaged in self-education, shared knowledge with each other in various branches of science, and already at that time were looking for opportunities to educate the younger generation. Thanks to perseverance, they managed to open a school for the children of local residents. The school operated for 8 years, until the Decembrists left for settlement. Education in the casemate school was strictly differentiated: some children were prepared for higher educational institutions, others for district schools, others were taught elementary literacy and all - crafts. The training was so successful that the students of the Decembrists even entered the Mining Institute, the Academy of Arts, and the St. Petersburg Technological University.

Characteristic feature Siberia was that it was the region of lower educational institutions. But even schools that provided the most basic knowledge were clearly not enough to satisfy the need for children's education. Therefore, Siberians preferred to educate their children privately rather than send their children to city schools, sometimes located tens or hundreds of kilometers away: it was much cheaper, and the children, as auxiliary labor, remained at home.

Upon leaving the settlement, “state criminals” were allowed to engage in agriculture, trade and crafts, medical practice, but it was strictly forbidden to educate children, since the government feared, and not without reason, their influence on the younger generation. However, the Decembrists looked for ways to circumvent such prohibitions and almost all of them were engaged in teaching activities. At the same time, they not only continued the teaching practice of exiles that had previously existed in Siberia, but raised it to a higher level: they created textbooks and teaching aids, developed and introduced new progressive teaching methods.

Thus, M.I. Muravyov - the Apostle, who arrived in Vilyuisk in 1828, began setting up a school for children of different classes and nationalities. The Decembrist taught them reading, writing and arithmetic, and in the absence of satisfactory textbooks he himself compiled several teaching aids.

Widely launched educational activities with access to the settlement D.I. Zavalishin - former teacher Cadet Corps (1821 - 1823). His social activity is largely due to Transbaikalia with the opening of a number of rural parish schools, the resumption of work in Chita of Cossack and soldier schools, closed due to a lack of textbooks: the Decembrist supplied them at his own expense teaching aids and worked as a teacher there.

The Decembrists believed that skilled labor, along with education, plays an important role in improving the well-being of the people, so they attached great importance to the labor education of students.

Brothers N. and M. Bestuzhev, even when organizing the casemate school for the children of employees and craftsmen of the Petrovsky plant, were the initiators labor training children. They taught their students to work and order, without distinguishing them by origin.

I.D. Yakushkin, like other Decembrists, significantly expanded his education at the “convict academy”. Having left the Petrovsky casemate and settled in 1836 in Yalutorovsk, Tobolsk province, he paid a lot of attention to self-education, especially in the field natural sciences, and was looking for an opportunity to begin to implement his pedagogical ideas and educational plans, which stemmed both from the programmatic ideas of the Decembrists and from his personal inclinations. Soon he managed to circumvent the ban on teaching. The young Archpriest S.Ya. Znamensky, an acquaintance of the Tobolsk Decembrists, a fairly educated and progressive-minded person for his time, was transferred to Yalutorovsk.

The issue of women's education, put on the agenda by progressive thought in Russia, also worried the Siberian public. However, the resistance of conservative forces was so great that in the first quarter of the 19th century not a single girls' school was opened. The number of girls who studied together with boys in separate parish and district schools was calculated in just a few. And only in the second quarter of the 19th century, already largely under the influence of the Decembrists, several women’s educational institutions appeared in Siberia: Medvednikova’s Orphanage and the Institute for “maidens of noble and spiritual rank in Irkutsk. According to A. Sablin, no more than 150 people studied in educational institutions.

Despite the obstacles of local authorities, the Yalutorov Decembrists managed to open a school for girls on July 1, 1846, called the “theological parish school for girls of all classes.” Its ideological leader was also D.I. Yakushkin, and the same sexton Sedachev was formally listed as the teacher. The wife of the Decembrist A.V. Entaltseva and students of I.D. Yakushkin A.P. Sozonovich and O.N. Balakshina were recruited to work at the school.

The activities of the exiled Decembrists covered all aspects of social life in Siberia, involving representatives of local society. In an environment of constant police surveillance, unable to speak in the central periodical press, the Decembrists supported Siberian writers in their intention to publish their own magazines and newspapers. The Decembrists did everything to awaken interest in political and cultural life not only among the Siberian urban intelligentsia, but also among the rural population.

One of the beneficial influences of the Decembrists on Siberian society was their restraining influence on the local administration. Under the Decembrists, officials of the administrative apparatus no longer dared to indulge in unlimited arbitrariness. D.I. Zavalishin, settled in Chita, from the beginning of the organization and formation of the Transbaikal region in 1851, received direct participation in the affairs of the region or had one influence or another on them. Through D.I. Zavalishin, many of his comrades, in particular the Bestuzhev brothers, more than once helped peasants who turned to them for advice or help and local residents.

2.2 Wives of the Decembrists and their activities

The Decembrists received a lot of help in hard labor and exile from their wives who went to Siberia to pick up their husbands. There were eleven of them, these heroic women.

On July 24, 1826, the 26-year-old daughter of Count Laval, Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya, left for Siberia from a magnificent mansion on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg. This aristocrat, who grew up in luxury, was the first to follow her convicted Decembrist husband S.P. Trubetskoy to hard labor and exile.

Following her, twenty-year-old Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, daughter famous hero 1812 by General N.N. Raevsky.

A day after her, Alexandra Grigorievna Muravyova, daughter of Count G.I. Chernyshev, went to her husband in Siberia. A.S. Pushkin sent two messages with her to Siberia: one to the Decembrists, “In the depths of the Siberian ores...”, the other to a lyceum comrade, “priceless friend” I.I. Pushchin.

And after them, one after another, the wives of the Decembrists headed along the same endless Siberian highway: E.P. Naryshkina, N.D. Fonvizin, A.I. Davydova, A.V. Entaltseva, M.K. Yushnevskaya and A.V. .Rosen. Among these wonderful women, for example, there were two very young French women. Almost without knowing the Russian language, they went to harsh Siberia to share the fate of those whom they had long loved: Polina Gebl married I.A. Annenkov in hard labor, Camille Le-Dantu married V.P. Ivashev.

In distant Siberia, these fragile-looking women began to build their new lives and, together with the Decembrist convicts and exiled settlers, selflessly bore their cross. Deprived of essentially all rights, the wives of the Decembrists, throughout the long years of their Siberian lives, did not stop fighting together with their husbands against the arbitrariness of officials, for the right to human dignity in conditions of exile, helping those who needed their help. Wives of the Decembrists - daughters of famous noble families- they behaved proudly, freely and emphatically independently in relation to the Siberian authorities, large and small, who not only had to reckon with them, but were also afraid of them.

“The main thing,” wrote I.I. Pushchin from hard labor, “is not to lose the poetry of life, it has supported me so far...” True, not all wives of the Decembrists were destined to see their homeland again and their children and loved ones left at home, but those who returned retained clarity of heart - through many years of suffering, hopes and disappointments, sad memories of the past and painful thoughts about the slipping life...

Nicholas I was not a seer: he could not know the future, and even the saddest prophecy, however, would most likely seem criminal to him. After all, already under his unfortunate great-grandson and namesake Nicholas II, a fleeting and incomprehensible “pot revolution” took place. This is how the monarchists nicknamed the famous Russian February, which ended the Russian autocracy; after all, the initiators of the Russian democratic revolution of 1917 on the streets of St. Petersburg were, again, Russian women, who on one frosty February day put forward demands for “bread and peace” to the sound of emptied pots. This ringing was a farewell for the last Nicholas and a funeral for the Russian monarchy. History has its own logic - in a few months Russia will be proclaimed a republic, many severe trials await it, but all this will happen later, but for now we remember with surprise and proud trembling of our hearts and write meager lines about the heroic noble wives who fulfilled their marital duty before end...

Conclusion

The Decembrists' attempt to transform Russia through revolutionary means was cut short by the tragic defeat of the uprising on Senate Square. They were not destined to realize the grandiose plans for the reconstruction of Russia, to bring their plans to life. But this struggle produced important results. The Decembrists awakened the best minds of Russia, its best intellectual forces.

The Decembrists always considered Siberia an inseparable part of Russia. In their judgments about the distant eastern outskirts, they relied on the then widespread idea in Russian society of Siberia as a harsh land of exile, the population of which is at an extremely low level of economic, cultural and moral development. Therefore, as the main program objectives in relation to Siberia, the Decembrists put forward the democratization of government, the rise of the economic well-being of the “Eastern Siberian peoples” and the promotion of “the softening of harsh morals and the introduction of enlightenment and education.”

The Decembrists would have done much more for the development of education in Siberia if their progressive initiatives had not been opposed by representatives royal authorities. But what they succeeded gives grounds to date it from the beginning of the Decembrists’ exile to Siberia new stage in the cultural life of the region.

References

1. Bakhaev V.B. Social, educational and local history activities of the Decembrists in Buryatia. Novosibirsk, “Science”, 1989.

2. Bestuzhev N.A. Articles and letters. M.: Education, 1988.

3. Volk S.S. Historical views of the Decembrists. M.: Mysl, 1998.

4. Decembrist uprising. Volume 7. M. - L.: Science, 1988.

5. Galaktionov A.A., Nikandrov P.F. Russian philosophy of the 9th - 19th centuries. L.: Leningrad State University, 1989.

8. Druzhinin N.M. Decembrist I.D. Yakushkin and his Lancaster school. In the book: In the hearts of the Fatherland of Sons. Irkutsk, 1985.

10. Notes, articles, letters of the Decembrist I.D. Yakushkin. M.: Knowledge, 1987.

11. History of Siberia. Volume 2. L.: “Thought”, 1988.

12. Illeritsky V.E. Revolutionary historical thought in Russia (pre-Marxist period). M., “Thought”, 1974.

13. Literary heritage of the Decembrists. M., “Science”, 1996.

14. Nechkina M.V. Decembrists. - M.: Nauka, 1989.

15. Social thought in Russia in the 19th century. L., “Science”, 1986.

16. Okun S.B. Exiled Decembrists in Siberia. L., Leningrad State University, 1985.

17. Orlik O.V. Decembrists and European liberation movement. M., “Thought”, 1985.

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Siberia - new America

Siberia became a new field of activity for the exiles with a huge number of opportunities and prospects. In joint correspondence, they often compared this territory with the North American continent and believed that with proper management it could repeat the fate of the United States. So the Decembrist Ivan Pushchin wrote to the director of the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, Engelhard: “Siberia could be separated from the metropolis (Russia) and not need anything - it is rich in the gifts of the kingdom of nature.”

One of the ideologists of the uprising, Nikita Muravyov, believed that Siberia should be organized following the example American states, each of which has a certain independence. The only area of business activity closed to the Decembrists was gold mining. The government did not issue certificates to the exiles and did not allow them to move even a few kilometers away from the place of exile. If the exiled nobles, who had large sums of money with them, received permission to participate in gold mining, which gave huge profits, then the fate of Siberia could have turned out differently.

In his notes from Nikolai, Basargin noted: “The further we moved in Siberia, the more it won in my eyes. The common people seemed to me much freer, smarter, and even more educated than our Russian peasants, and especially the landowners. He understood the dignity of man more, he valued his rights more. Subsequently, I happened to hear more than once from those who visited the United States and lived there that Siberians have many similarities with Americans in their morals, habits and even way of life.”

Brothers Muravyov

Once in exile, brothers Nikita and Alexander Muravyov established business contacts with the Irkutsk banker Medvednikov, and the main gold miner Kuznetsov. The Decembrists were engaged in lending to industrialists, trading in local craft products, beekeeping and gardening, which they especially loved. With the onset of the summer months, Nikita and Alexander spent all their time in the fields they cleared with their own hands, where they grew vegetables.

Having moved closer to Irkutsk, which at that time was the main center of trade between Russia and China, the Muravyovs began lending to Irkutsk businessmen at 8% per annum and using the dividends received to develop their own business. The Muravyovs' mill was a commercial success, which, unlike the Siberian ones, which did not work in winter, operated all year round.

Another thing Nikita and Alexander did was catching and processing omul fish, the main food product of the local population. The profitability of omul was 35% per annum, up to 40% of the profit came from grain trading.

Other projects of the Decembrists

Even before his exile, the Tobolsk nobleman Gavriil Batenkov considered Siberia a reserved land, the development of which was hampered by bribery and the arbitrariness of local authorities. In exile, he was engaged in the design and construction of residential and industrial buildings. He managed to get the land on which Batenkov built a house for himself using advanced technology (a wooden frame with straw mats between them).

Vladimir Raevsky was sent to the Irkutsk village of Olonkakh, where the nobleman quickly married a local Buryat peasant woman, Evdokia. He taught his wife to write and read, and she bore him 8 children. Raevsky's eldest son in the future became a colonel of the Cossack troops.

The first enterprise of the exiled Decembrist was the transportation of wine from the distillery to the place of its storage and sale. With the proceeds, Raevsky bought a mill, a house in Irkutsk, and on a plot in the village of Olonki he grew melons, watermelons, and tomatoes, which are atypical for Siberia. In addition, he sowed grain, sold and processed grain, and also hired people to work in the mines. Decembrist Yakubovich provided loans to Irkutsk industrialists, and later took the post of chief distiller at the local Aleksandrovskaya factory.

Decembrists agrarians

Despite his noble origin many of the exiles became interested in agriculture. A traveler and descendant of Swedish nobles, Thorson, who was serving exile in Buryatia, taught local residents to read and write and built an advanced machine for threshing grain at that time. Decembrist Zavalishin taught Siberians the culture of agriculture and how to fertilize the soil. The nobleman developed a large farm from scratch, which had 10 cows and 40 horses.

The Decembrist Andreev built a flour mill in Olekma, and Bechasny near Irkutsk built a butter mill that made oil from hemp seeds. Muravyov-Apostol began planting potatoes in Vilyuysk, Shakhovskoy was engaged in experiments on acclimatization of vegetable crops in the difficult Siberian conditions.

The exiles were especially struck by the fact that flowers and gardens did not grow near the houses of local residents. The Decembrists Muravyov-Apostol, Lunin, the Muravyov brothers, Trubetskoy and others planted various trees, and Raevsky’s garden has survived to this day.

ABSTRACT

in the discipline "History"
on the topic “Decembrists in Siberia”

Completed
student of group EUP-121
__________Shcherbakova K.V.
Checked
__________Antidze T.N.

Novokuznetsk

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….…..3

1. Difficulties of life in Siberia……………………….…………………..…………….5

2. The main directions of activity of the Decembrists in Siberia…………….9

3. Wives of the Decembrists and their activities………………………..……………...14

4. Contribution of the Decembrists to the development of Siberia……………………………………..16

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….18

List of references……………………….…………………20

Introduction

Decembrists, legendary founders of the Russian revolutionary movement. The movement arose among educated noble youth, who were influenced by European social thought, the ideas of the French encyclopedists and the Great French Revolution. The defeat of the uprising on December 14, 1825 dispelled the hopes of the Decembrists for revolutionary changes in Russia. But, thrown into prison, in hard labor and in exile, they for the most part not only remained faithful to their former convictions, but were also tormented by new questions about the fate of their homeland, and sought to bring it all possible benefit in the most difficult conditions.

Exile to Siberia for hard labor and eternal settlement doomed the Decembrists to political and often physical death. Everything was calculated on the fact that highly educated people, isolated from cultural centers, deprived of necessary cultural food, including books, without the right to publish their scientific and literary works, would inevitably be doomed to “moral numbness” and spiritual death. These plans were not destined to come true.

To date, more than 15,000 scientific and popular science works have been published on the history of the Decembrist movement. Among them are the major works of P.E. Shchegoleva, M.V. Nechkina, N.M. Druzhinina, V.A. Fedorov and other scientists, many issues of the Decembrist movement are covered, especially those related to the formation of the revolutionary ideology of the Decembrists, the preparation of the uprising and trial of the Decembrists.

From this alone it is clear that the relevance of research into the Decembrist movement has always been considered very high. And in our time, when at first there was some liberation of historical science from the influence of the leading role of the CPSU, and then there was an understanding that the study of history, as it looked in the 90s, does not meet the requirements of balance and objectivity, the relevance of the topic is great. In our time, when disputes on such issues as freedom, revolution, “ special way Russia", studying this most important page national history it is simply necessary to start, as it were, from new positions, from modern ideas. And here it is especially important that the topic of the Decembrists is still not as acute as, for example, the topic of Stalinism, the civil war and the two Russian revolutions. Thanks to this, the study of this particular topic can lead to a relative consensus among representatives of diametrically opposed positions.

Purpose work is to study the life of the Decembrists in Siberia.

To achieve this goal, tasks will be solved consisting of researching the following issues:

1. Conditions (difficulties) of life in Siberia.

2. Activities of the Decembrists.

3. Wives of the Decembrists and their activities.

4. The contribution of the Decembrists to the development of Siberia.

To solve the problems posed in the work, I used a number of documentary publications and scientific literature on the history of the Decembrist movement, especially documents and literature about the Siberian period of the life and activities of the Decembrists.

Living conditions in Siberia

124 members of the Decembrist organizations were sent into Siberian exile, 96 of them to hard labor, the rest to permanent settlement. 113 of those exiled to Siberia belonged to the noble class and only 11 (peasant Duntsov-Vygodovsky and ten lower ranks) belonged to the tax-paying class. Among the Decembrists, eight people were holders of a princely title, whose pedigree went back to either the legendary Rurik or the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (Baryatinsky, Volkonsky, Golitsyn, Obolensky, Odoevsky, Trubetskoy, Shakhovskoy and Shchepin-Rostovsky). Count Chernyshev belonged to a family descended from one of the favorites of Peter 1. Four more (Rosen, Soloviev, Cherkasov and Steingeil) had a baronial title. Since military service was considered the main and honorable duty of the nobility, 113 exiled “noble revolutionaries” were military men. Only six people served in the civil department, and five were retired. Among the military, three had the rank of general. The oldest of the involuntary Siberians, Gorsky, was 60 years old, the youngest, Tolstoy, was 20.

The life of the Decembrists was determined by numerous instructions. They were forbidden to leave their settlements for more than 30 miles without permission from their superiors; all correspondence with relatives was to be conducted through the office of the Governor General and the III Department; “so that with excess wealth” they “do not forget about their guilt,” the pursuit of any craft was strictly regulated and those that could ensure their material independence were rejected. With rare exceptions, “state criminals” were prohibited from entering public service, as well as from engaging in socially significant activities, such as teaching. However, most of them shared the opinion of Lunin, who asserted: “Our real life’s journey began with our entry into Siberia, where we are called to serve by word and example the cause to which we have dedicated ourselves.”

Raevsky not only opened a school for children and adults in the village of Olonki, but used his own money to invite a teacher and pay for teaching aids, and offered to use his house in the Tikhvin parish of Irkutsk for classes at an educational institution for girls - the Medvednikova Orphanage. Borisov, Yushnevsky and Poggio were engaged in private teaching activities.

In 1836, on the recommendation of Governor General Bronevsky, “due to the lack of medical officials in the region,” Wolf was allowed to practice medicine. Confidence in the exiled doctor was so great that representatives of the “Irkutsk elite” - rich merchants, officials and even the governor - resorted to his services. Muravyov also provided medical assistance to those in need: the former hussar colonel turned out to be a “successful tooth grinder.” And Maria Volkonskaya and Ekaterina Trubetskaya received medicines with almost every parcel to distribute to sick fellow villagers.

Irkutsk merchants also showed interest in the Decembrists. A certain independence, opposition to officials, especially visiting ones, “dung”, as they were mockingly called here, an understanding of how useful educated settlers, who also had influential relatives in the capitals, could be for them, as well as the sympathy for the “unfortunate” characteristic of Siberians contributed to rapprochement of the Trapeznikovs, Basnins, Nakvasins with the Decembrists. The brotherhood of the Decembrists that formed during penal servitude did not disintegrate even after its end. Scattered throughout Siberia, they continued to be interested in the fate of their comrades. A magazine artel operated, new literature was sent to the most remote corners of the region. Pushchin, who took on the duties of manager of the general Decembrist artel, found funds to help the poor. Among those who constantly made contributions to the general fund were Volkonsky and Trubetskoy. The children of their comrades - Kuchelbecker's daughters and Kuchevsky's son - found shelter in the Trubetskoys' house.

Activities of the Decembrists in Siberia

The Decembrists began to actively prepare for educational activities in Siberia, being prisoners of the Petrovsky casemate in the Petrovsky “convict academy”. They intensively engaged in self-education, shared knowledge with each other in various branches of science, and already at that time were looking for opportunities to educate the younger generation. Thanks to perseverance, they managed to open a school for the children of local residents. The school operated for 8 years, until the Decembrists left for settlement. Education in the casemate school was strictly differentiated: some children were prepared for higher educational institutions, others for district schools, others were taught elementary literacy, and all were taught crafts. The training was so successful that the students of the Decembrists even entered the Mining Institute, the Academy of Arts, and the St. Petersburg Technological University.

A characteristic feature of Siberia was that it was a region of lower educational institutions. But even schools that provided the most basic knowledge were clearly not enough to satisfy the need for children's education. Therefore, Siberians preferred to educate their children privately rather than send their children to city schools, sometimes located tens or hundreds of kilometers away: it was much cheaper, and the children, as auxiliary labor, remained at home.

Upon leaving the settlement, “state criminals” were allowed to engage in agriculture, trade and crafts, and medical practice, but it was strictly forbidden to educate children, since the government feared, and not without reason, their influence on the younger generation. However, the Decembrists looked for ways to circumvent such prohibitions and almost all of them were engaged in teaching activities. At the same time, they not only continued the teaching practice of exiles that had previously existed in Siberia, but raised it to a higher level: they created textbooks and teaching aids, developed and introduced new progressive teaching methods.

Thus, M.I. Muravyov - the Apostle, who arrived in Vilyuisk in 1828, set about organizing a school for children of different classes and nationalities. The Decembrist taught them reading, writing and arithmetic, and in the absence of satisfactory textbooks he himself compiled several teaching aids.

One of the pioneers of using the system of mutual education in Russia, V.F. Raevsky, who lived in the village of Olonki from 1828 until the end of his days, hired a room and a teacher with his modest funds and began to explain to the peasants the benefits of education. However, success did not come to him immediately, since the authorities instilled in the population that literacy causes “clouding of the mind.” However, soon not only children, but also adults began to attend school, which “was surprising at that time.”

D.I. Zavalishin, a former teacher of the Cadet Corps (1821 - 1823), widely launched educational activities with access to the settlement. His social activity largely owes to Transbaikalia for the opening of a number of rural parish schools, the resumption of work in Chita of Cossack and soldier schools, closed due to a lack of textbooks: the Decembrist supplied them with teaching aids at his own expense and worked as a teacher in them.

Brothers N. and M. Bestuzhev, even when organizing the casemate school for the children of employees and craftsmen of the Petrovsky plant, were the initiators of labor training for children. They taught their students to work and order, without distinguishing them by origin.

I.D. Yakushkin, like other Decembrists, significantly expanded his education at the “convict academy”. Having left the Petrovsky casemate and settled in 1836 in Yalutorovsk, Tobolsk province, he paid a lot of attention to self-education, especially in the field of natural sciences, and was looking for an opportunity to begin implementing his pedagogical ideas and educational plans, which stemmed both from the programmatic ideas of the Decembrists and from his personal inclinations. Soon he managed to circumvent the ban on teaching. The young Archpriest S.Ya. Znamensky, an acquaintance of the Tobolsk Decembrists, a fairly educated and progressive-minded person for his time, was transferred to Yalutorovsk.

The archpriest supported I.D. Yakushkin’s idea of organizing a school. Based on the synodal decrees of 1836 - 1837. about the opening of parochial schools and the petition of the Tobolsk Decembrists to the bishop and the governor, in October 1841 he received permission to open a school. The new school was supposed to “prepare “the children of priests and clergy living in the city and surrounding areas for entry into the seminary and at the same time provide the opportunity to study for boys who do not have the right to enter or who, due to their lack of access, do not enter district schools.”

The issue of women's education, put on the agenda by progressive thought in Russia, also worried the Siberian public. However, the resistance of conservative forces was so great that in the first quarter of the 19th century not a single girls' school was opened. The number of girls who studied together with boys in separate parish and district schools was calculated in just a few. And only in the second quarter of the 19th century, already largely under the influence of the Decembrists, several women’s educational institutions appeared in Siberia: Medvednikova’s Orphanage and the Institute for “maidens of noble and spiritual rank in Irkutsk. However, their composition was extremely small. According to A. Sablin, no more than 150 people studied in educational institutions.

The activities of the exiled Decembrists covered all aspects of social life in Siberia, involving representatives of local society. Constant secret connections with Central Russia The Decembrists were able to establish relationships with family and friends with the assistance of friends from the local environment. Such illegal connections were necessary for political exiles for information about events taking place in the country and abroad, for sending literary works, and later for receiving and distributing free publications of A.I. Herzen and other prohibited literature. On the other hand, the progressive circles of Transbaikal society attracted the Decembrists to their progressive endeavors, in particular to cooperation in handwritten and printed publications of the region.

The Decembrists wanted to be useful, active, “and not parasites,” so they asked permission to publish, to which Benckendorff replied: “...I consider it inconvenient to allow state criminals to send their works for publication in magazines, because this will put them in relations inappropriate for their position.” .

In an environment of constant police surveillance, unable to speak in the central periodical press, the Decembrists supported Siberian writers in their intention to publish their own magazines and newspapers.

The idea of creating an almanac with the symbolic name “Zarnitsa” belonged to P.A. Mukhanov. He intended to include in the almanac stories, poems and fables written in prison casemates by P.S. Bobrishchev - Pushkin, A.P. Baryatinsky, V.L. Davydov, F.F. Vadkovsky, V.P. Ivashev and others. But the almanac was never published, and the manuscripts prepared for it were lost.

In subsequent years, a series of handwritten publications appeared in Eastern Siberia: the satirical newspaper of the Siberian writer S.I. Cherepanov in Tunka, “Home Interlocutor” by N.I. Vinogradsky in Irkutsk, “Metlyak” by A.I. Orlov in Verkhneudinsk. In connection with his transfer to Irkutsk, Orlov intended to publish a magazine similar to Metlyak there as well.

The Decembrists did everything to awaken interest in political and cultural life not only among the Siberian urban intelligentsia, but also among the rural population.

One of the beneficial influences of the Decembrists on Siberian society was their restraining influence on the local administration. Under the Decembrists, officials of the administrative apparatus no longer dared to indulge in unlimited arbitrariness. D.I. Zavalishin, settled in Chita, from the beginning of the organization and formation of the Transbaikal region in 1851, took a direct part in the affairs of the region or had one influence or another on them. Through D.I. Zavalishin, many of his comrades, in particular the Bestuzhev brothers, more than once helped peasants and local residents who turned to them for advice or help.

Related information.

In the center of Irkutsk there is a historical and memorial complex “Decembrists in Siberia”. It includes two ancient princely estates that once belonged to Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky and Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy. Both princes took part in the uprising on Senate Square on December 14, 1825, for which they became “state criminals”; both served exile in Siberia. Participants in the uprising, better known in history as the Decembrists, were exiled to Siberia. Eight of them had a princely title. This means that their pedigree began either from legendary Rurik, or from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas. Belonging to the Great Ones Lithuanian princes could boast of Baryatinsky and Volkonsky, Golitsyn and Obolensky, Odoevsky and Trubetskoy, Shakhovskoy and Shchepin-Rostovsky. Among the exiles was Count Chernyshev, who was born into the family of one of the favorites of Peter I. Rosen, Solovyov, Cherkasov and Steingeil had a baronial title. Three exiles received the rank of general before their arrest. The youngest involuntary Siberian Tolstoy was twenty years old at the time of exile, and the oldest Gorsky was 60 years old. The Decembrists received punishment in the form of hard labor at the Blagodatsky mines, in Chita and at the Petrovsky Plant. By order of the tsar, “criminals” were to be kept in complete isolation. But the government did not imagine that love could work miracles. The faithful wives and brides of the Decembrists went to Siberia, breaking the isolation of their loved ones. They became their husbands' secretaries and provided moral support to the convicts. In the link former princes and the counts became skilled tailors and carpenters. And Bestuzhev made an accurate chronometer in prison and painted portraits of his comrades. Thanks to him, we know what the “firstborn of freedom” looked like. Muravyov became the first Decembrist from Irkutsk. Having received exile to Siberia as punishment, Muravyov was not deprived of his ranks or nobility. He was appointed mayor to Irkutsk. The exiled mayor did everything he could to improve the city center. Under him, planked sidewalks were laid, and “Moscow festivities” on the Amur embankment became traditional. All the people of Irkutsk gathered in his house on Spasskaya Square, so the house became the center of the cultural life of the city. In exile, the Decembrists had to live according to numerous instructions, including that they were forbidden to engage in social work, for example, pedagogy. But most of them adhered to the words that Lunin once said: “Our real life’s journey began with our entry into Siberia, where we are called by word and example to serve the cause to which we have dedicated ourselves.” Therefore, the Decembrists had a great influence on the development of culture in Siberia. In this region, young people have a need to study, reading and subscribing to newspapers, magazines, and holding musical and literary evenings have become fashionable. It has become a tradition at the Volkonsky estate to rehearse and perform performances. As time passed, the local population began to treat “state criminals” with special warmth, and the Decembrists, in turn, always provided local residents with all possible assistance. Merchants showed great interest in the exiles. Under the influence of conversations with them and communications, the cultural mores of the merchant class of Siberia changed. Thus, the Decembrists contributed to the formation of traditions of intelligence in Irkutsk and laid certain foundations of spirituality and culture in the city. The Decembrists did a lot to organize expeditions and explore the Amur.