Decembrists in Siberia - their role in the history of the region and the state

Today it is impossible to imagine the history of Russia without the Decembrists. They were admired by many writers, legends were composed about them, and now it is not always possible to understand whether this or that story is real, or it is just an invention. The history of Siberia in the 19th century is closely connected with the Decembrists. They marked the beginning of the struggle against the feudal-serf system. The fate of the Decembrists was in many ways both tragic, but it became a kind of conductor of revolutionary ideas in the minds of the masses.

The fate of the first convicts

The first Decembrists in Siberia were soon after December 14, 1825, when 110 people, not from the lowest estates, opposed the regime that was in effect at the time. Five of them were executed almost immediately, and some were sentenced to exile and hard labor in Siberia for a period of 2 to 20 years, after which they were not allowed to return back. Other participants in the uprising were demoted to the soldiers and exiled to an indefinite settlement, and still others went to work in the fortress, which in practice turned out to be much worse than hard labor.

Already on July 23, 1826, 8 convicts were sent from the Peter and Paul Fortress. The road to Irkutsk at that time took 37 days and it was necessary to walk the Decembrists. All this time they were chained to a common chain, and each prisoner was assigned his own gendarme. Nevertheless, upon arrival, the Decembrists in Siberia found themselves in relatively good conditions. The thing was that the vice-governor of Gorlov, who was a member of a single Masonic lodge, was worried about them, whence a lot of Decembrists came out. The chains were removed from them, and the security around the house was weakened, that is, the convicts were actually able to communicate freely with those whom they would like to have. Even to serve the hard labor for the first time they did not have to because of the sympathy of the high authorities, but this did not last long, since for the relief the Irkutsk leadership was brought to trial.

Wives of the Decembrists

Special attention should be paid not even by the Decembrists in Siberia, but by their wives, who were ready to give up all the blessings of civilization and abandon the life they led for the sake of loyalty to their husbands. Such actions could not go unnoticed and were perceived in society not only as loyalty to spouses, but also as an act that received a huge response. This led to the fact that Nicholas I tried with all his might to prevent the restoration of families, even forced his wives, for example, Princess Trubetskoi, to move to the position of the wife of a convict and exile, and their children born in Siberia were to become factory peasants.

Life of the Decembrists in penal servitude

Undoubtedly, the Decembrists in exile fell into completely unaccustomed conditions - they had a very hard time because of hard work and very meager food, the jailers were cruel and very regretted that they had to monitor the health of the rebels, and it was impossible to treat them As with the rest, which did not last more than 2 months. In response to bullying the Decembrists in Siberia for the first time in the history of Russia held a revolutionary hunger strike.

Chita fortress

While the first convicts were already in exile, more than 70 people were still in the Peter and Paul Fortress and other similar prisons. Over time, they were transferred temporarily to the Chitigsky prison, where there were only a couple of huts, which caused the Decembrists to live in terrible cramped conditions. But it rallied them and gave them the opportunity to get to know each other, because many of them in general knew each other only haplessly. At this time, they were engaged in earthworks or grinded with rye millstones. The escape failed, and although the prisoners could not have paper and ink, through their wives they contacted the outside world and conducted quite active correspondence.

The unique mission of the Decembrists consisted in the fact that they carried education to the masses, teaching the literacy and sciences of everyone who just wanted to study. At the beginning of the 19th century, the state of education in the Siberian outback was very deplorable, only the fundamentals of subjects were taught, so the arrival of the Decembrists greatly contributed to the popularization of education.