The wives of the Decembrists. Russia - 1.

The expression Decembrist's wife is a Russian symbol of the devotion of a wife to her husband.

Yekaterina Trubetskaya (1800 - 1854).
Jekaterina Trubetskaja.
Екатерина Ивановна Трубецкая (урожд. гр. Лаваль). / Портрет неизвестного художника.

Maria Volkonskaya (1805 - 1863).
Maria Volkonskaja.
Мариа Николаевна Волконская (урожд. Раевская). / Акварель декабриста Н. А. Бестужева.

Maria Volkonskaya and Sergey Volkonsky in the jail (1830s).
Maria Volkonskaja Sergey Volkonskiga vangikambris nr 54 Petrovski tehase vanglas 1830. aastatel.
М. Н. Волконская с С. Г. Волконским в его камере 53 в тюрьме Петровского завода. / Акварель М. К. Юшневской, Петровский завод, начало 1830-х годов.

Praskovya (Polina) Annenkova (Pauline Gueble, 1800 - 1876).
Praskovja Annenkova, sünd. Pauline Gueble).
Прасковья (Полина) Егоровна Анненкова (урожд. Гёбль). / Акварель декабриста Н. А. Бестужева.

* Postcards from the set "Heroic wives of the Decembrists" (16 postcards). 1975.
* Postkaardikogumik "Kangelaslikud naised. Dekabristide naiste portreed". 1975.
* Подборка открыток "Героические женщины. Портреты декабристок" (16 открыток). 1975.

My collection.

* On December 14, 1825 ((26 December New Style) in St. Petersburg on the Senate Square there was the first in the history of Russia organized action of gentry revolutionaries against the tsarist autocracy and tyranny - The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising (Russian: Восстание декабристов). These were the senior officers of the tsarist army. The rebels were called the Decembrists (Dekabristy, Russian: Декабристы). The revolt was suppressed. Five leading Decembrists (Pyotr Kakhovsky, Pavel Pestel, the poet Kondraty Ryleyev,Sergey Muravyov-Apostol and Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin) were hanged, others were sent to hard labor in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Far East.

Eleven wives of the Decembrists prisoners shared their Siberian exile of theirs own free will. Among them - not noble, like Alexandra Yentaltseva and Alexandra Davydova, or lived in severe poverty in childhood Pauline Gebl, the bride of Decembrist Annenkov. But the most part of them belonged to the nobility: Princesses Maria Volkonskaya and Catherine Trubetskaya, Alexandra Muravyeva - the daughter of Count Chernyshev, Elizabeth Naryshkina, nee Countess Konovnitsyna, Baroness Anna Rosen, the general's wives Natalya Fonvizina and Maria Yushnevskaya.

Yekaterina Trubetskaya was the first of all wives to leave for Siberia (in July 1826). Her marriage to prince Sergey Trubetskoy was solid and unshakable until the end. They had 5 children in exile. Ekaterina died from cancer before amnesty even took place.

The most famous of these women was Maria Volkonskaya - beautiful, highly cultivated, daughter of famous general Raevsky married to Sergei Volkonsky.

There was another remarkable woman Pauline Gueble (Polina or Praskovya Annenkova). She was a 30 year-old French woman, who did not even speak Russian. Pauline came to Russia to open a dress making business. She met and fell in love with Ivan Annenkov. Pauline was determined to follow her love. The permission from the tsar was very hard to obtain. Eventually Ivan and Pauline married in Siberia.