Volkonskaia Maria

(1806 - 1863) - wife of the Decembrist Prince Sergei Volkonsky voluntarily share with him the link. Daughter of the famous hero of 1812, NN. Rajewski, she was 18, by the will of his father, married General Prince S.G. Volkonskogo, the former is much older than her. Like other wives of the Decembrists, she learned of the existence of a secret society only when the majority of the conspirators had already been in the fortress. The patient, barely recovered from heavy early childbirth Volkonskaia immediately, without hesitation, not only took the side of her husband and his comrades, but also understand what is required of it the voice of duty. When the verdict became known, she decided that she would follow her husband to Siberia, and implemented this decision in spite of all obstacles which proceeded from the family Rayevskys and the Government. "No one (except women) do not dare show participation, say a kind word about relatives and friends ... Some women did not participate in this despicable denial of the family ". It defines the public mood after 14 December Herzen. Nicholas I, immediately after the execution of five of the Decembrists, wrote: "These women I'm most afraid of, but many years later said:" They showed commitment, worthy of respect, especially because so often been examples of the behavior of the opposite ". But in the midst of persecution of the Decembrists, the Emperor was extremely dissatisfied with this devotion. Contrary to the law permitting the wives ssylnokatorzhnyh go behind their husbands, each of them had to seek separate permission, and certainly not allowed to bring children. Volkonskaia addressed a letter directly to the emperor and received his handwritten note, which through the courtesy betrays a threat. Leaving her son with her sister Volkonskogo it in December 1826. our journey. In Irkutsk, the governor met her Tseydlert, who had a secret order "to use all kinds of suggestion and persuasion to the contrary leave for Russia female criminals. Volkonskaia not heed this suggestion and signed the paper, . where it was said: "The wife, . Following her husband and continuing marital relationship with him, . Naturally it would become complicit in the fate and lose its former title, . then there would not otherwise have adhered, . as wife ssylnokatorzhnogo, . and at the same time takes on all transferred, . that this state can be painful, . because even the bosses will not be able to protect her from hourly might be insulting to the people of the depraved, . contemptuous class, . which will be in as if some right to consider his wife a state criminal, . carrying equal with the fate, . a similar ",
. It was in vain intimidation, . as for all time of dvadtsatidevyatiletnego stay in Siberia Volkonskaia if they had been abused, . is not by criminal convicts, . who belonged to the Decembrists and their families with deep respect,
. Much worse than the renunciation of rights was a brief second paragraph of subscription: "Children who take root in Siberia, will go into state factory farmers". But these early heroines of Russian history in the XIX. courage to be neglected and this threat, which, incidentally, has never been enforced. In Nerchinsk from Volkonskaya was selected second subscription, give it to the commandant Nerchinsk plants. He not only defined her meeting with her husband, . but watching her personal life, . read all her correspondence, . had a roster of its property and money, . who gave it as needed, . but not more than first 10000 rubles a year, then this amount slowed to 2000,
. No external difficulties and humiliation could not break the energy, . fed deep religiosity, . heroic sense of duty and consciousness, . that the mere presence of women in cut off from the world of convict wilderness not only gives moral force to their husbands, . but also a sobering effect on the authorities invested with unlimited power,
. Baron Rosen in his notes so characteristic Volkonskaya: Young, slim, a higher than average height, brunette with sparkling eyes, polusmuglym face with a majestic gait, she was our maid epithet of the Ganges. She never showed sadness, more polite to fellow man, but proud and exacting with the commandant and chief of the prison ". Volkonskaia found her husband in Blagodatskoe mine and settled next to him, along with his girlfriend, Princess E. Troubetzkoy, in a small hut. Briskly and bravely they performed their duty to facilitate the participation not only men, but other prisoners. By the end of 1827, Mr.. Decembrists were transferred to Chita, where instead of working in the mines were forced to clean the stables, grist to the mill hand. In 1830, Mr.. they were transferred to the Petrovsky factory, where the purpose for them was built a large fort, they were allowed to settle and their wives. Cells were close and dark, no windows, they hacked after much trouble, on special Highest resolution. But Volkonskaia was glad that I could live there with her husband in their closet, which she adorned, than it could, in the evening gathered, read, argued, listened to music. In 1837, Mr.. Volkonskogo moved to settle in the village Urik, near Irkutsk, and in 1845. he was allowed to live in the Irkutsk. This second half of the links would be much easier to first, if not a constant anxiety for the children. Of the four, born to her in Siberia, survived only a son and daughter, and their upbringing filled her life. In 1847, with the appointment of the governor-general NN. Murav'eva, their situation has improved. Ascending the throne, Alexander II was followed by the amnesty; Volkonskii family returned to. In 1863, Mr.. Volkonskaia died of acquired heart disease in Siberia. After she left a note on the remarkable modesty, sincerity and simplicity of human document. When the son Volkonsky read them in manuscript Nekrasov, poet several times in the night jumping up and saying: "Enough, I can not", - ran to the fireplace and sat down to him, seized his hands behind his head, and wept like a child. Those tears he was able to invest in their famous on the Princess Troubetzkoy and Volkonskaya poems, which brought up several generations of Russian women. Thanks Nekrasov, the pathos of duty and sacrifice, which was full of life Volkonskaya and her friends, forever imprinted in the minds of Russian society. Paintings, . full especially beautiful tragedy, . conversation with the Governor, . Volkonskaya parting with his father, . farewell reception at the Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya in Moscow, . conversations Pushkin, . road meeting, . Finally, . scene in Blagodatskoe mine, . where Volkonskaia, . kneeling, . kisses the shackles on the legs of her husband - all Nekrasov taken directly from life,
. And the words that Nekrasov had put into the mouth of the Princess Troubetzkoy, "but I began to put on his chest, applied to B. Wonder NN. Rajewski, with all the harshness of military discipline man tries to keep her daughter from a trip to Siberia, said before his death, pointing to her portrait: "This is the most amazing woman I knew". It is written in French "Notes" issued by her son with the translation, applications, and commentary (St. Petersburg, 1904). - See. "Notes S.G. Volkonskogo "; In. Pokrovsky "Wives of the Decembrists; P. Shchegolev article in the collection "To the Light". A. Tyrkova.