State Criminals
This is the first of the fifteen reforms set out in the Manifesto for the Russian People, which was to be enacted if successful: "The present government is abolished. "In trying to overthrow the autocratic regime, the Decembrists decried the legitimacy of the emperor! Nicholas I, very conservative, watches the rebellion in an unprecedented way, and not bloody and expeditious as it was the case in the past: he sanctions, while communicating on its exemplary and fair. Traitors must disappear, but not just anyhow. After a second and brief insurrection (January 1826), what could be called the first public political trial in Russian history opens. A new kind of judicial procedures were introduced, including an independent commission of inquiry and a high court of justice. Eleven categories of punishment were developed, based on the seriousness of the crime and no longer on the social origin of the accused. An "impartial" report was made public in June 1826, translated into several languages, including French, and distributed throughout Europe. So was the verdict. A skillfully orchestrated pastiche: throughout the investigation, in order to obtain confessions, secret imprisonments, disappearances, intimidation attempts and other moral tortures were used
121 deportees
Five Decembrists are executed by hanging, 121 are sentenced to hard labour in Siberia. Troubetskoï is sentenced to life imprisonment; Prince Sergueï Volkonski, the only active general of the cavalry involved, is sentenced to 20 years in prison, and assigned to the Siberian territory for life! At the end of August 1826, the first deportees landed in Irkutsk; their journey from St Petersburg (about 5,500 km) lasted more than a month. They were first sent in haste, then deported more than 1,000 km east of Lake Baikal: to the Nertchinsk katorga
, the Chita iron mines or the Petrovski-Zavod metallurgical complex. Some of them did not survive the conditions of detention, such as A.I. Yakubovich (1792-1845), a former captain in the Dragon Regiment, who was sent to the gold mines of the Yenisei district (Krasnoyarsk krai), who became disabled and went mad with head injuries. Eleven wives will join their beloved. They have signed a deed renouncing their titles, privileges, lavish lifestyle and imperial protection; also their children and any prospect of return. The first to take the long and perilous road to "the land of nowhere" (imagine the journey by car, on horseback, on frozen tracks) is Princess Ekaterina Troubetskaya, then 26 years old. After months of waiting in Irkutsk, victory! She finally obtains the right to visit Blagodatski's silver mine (twice a week, in the presence of an officer). Princess Maria Volkonskaya joins her: the two women settle in an isba and spend a few polar months there, which they occupy, in spite of a very meagre influence and a miserable daily life, to improve the living conditions of their men. In 1832, Ekaterina, who followed her husband on his transfers, had a modest house built in the present-day town of Petrovsk-Zabaïkalski, now transformed into the Decembrists' Museum (km 5 784 of the Trans-Siberian Railway). Nine other wives will choose self-sacrifice. Altruistic? Heroic? Mad as a hatter? Definitely romantic! Know that this unconditional love inspired the popular expression "to be like the wife of the Decembrist".Siberian resort
From 1832 onwards, many insurgents had their sentences reduced. They were allowed to settle in the vicinity of Irkutsk, on the condition that they could live away from society. Dedicated infrastructures were built for them, such as a small wooden church, which has now disappeared, on the site of the present Decembrists' Square. These stateless dignitaries, enlightened men and women, form a kind of Siberian intelligentsia that soon began to shine. Driven by their democratic, even revolutionary ideas, they educate boys and girls. They participated in the modernization of the region: economy, agriculture, medicine, culture... In 1838, the Volkonskis built a charming 18-room mansion, a true social centre. They held literary salons, concerts and balls. The prince was passionate about botany and his garden was reputed to be sumptuous. The Troubetskoi followed in 1845 with their children born in Siberia (Volkonsky and Troubetskoi mansions; period furniture and objects, cultural events and balls of the empire). Ekaterina dies in 1854: she is buried in the cemetery of the Znamensky Monastery (her grave is systematically decorated with flowers). Two years later, when Alexander II, the great reformer, is about to be crowned, the Decembrists are finally pardoned, after 30 years of exile. 19 of them are alive, including Princes Volkonsky and Troubetskoy: they return to European Russia, where they find part of their possessions and their panache of yesteryear. Three Decembrists remained in their land of exile
Posterity
From the influence of the Decembrists? The year 1826 was marked by numerous peasant uprisings. The abolition of serfdom and the end of chores were demanded; the legitimacy of Nicholas I, appointed by his predecessor (and not legitimate heir), was denounced in passing. The idea of avenging the Decembrists made its way: it animated the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), himself condemned in absentia to exile in Siberia, encouraged other attempts at insurrection during the century and did not disappear until after the revolution of 1917. The Decembrists affair inspired many Russian and foreign authors. Leo Tolstoy, among others, wished to devote a novel to it, a project which led him to write War and Peace. Henri Troyat (1911-2007), a French writer of Russian origin, set the romantic saga The Light of the Righteous. Ekaterina Troubetskoï, praised for her extraordinary bravery, also marked her time. She is the heroine of Nikolai Nekrassov's (1821-1877) patriotic poem The Russian Women, published in 1872. Finally, the Soviet film The Star of Wonderful Happiness (1975, a little retro, available online) traces the lives of these wives
