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Draft:Decembrists' Wives

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  • Comment: Not enough here to satisfy more than a section within the larger article on the revolt. Bkissin (talk) 20:37, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

Maria Volkonskaya (Pushkin museum)
A portrait of Maria Nikolaevna Raevskaya (Mariya Volkonskaya) (by an unknown artist of the first half of the 19th century) From Wikimedia Commons

The Decembrist Revolt of 1825 was a military coup in response to the appointment of Nicholas I as the Russian Tsar. After the revolt, many of the men were sent to Siberia, but many of these men were married, and so many of their wives went along with them.[1] In order to be with their husbands, the Decembrists' wives had to leave everything behind. Including their families, children, lives, and the luxuries they had known for so long. One of the most notable of these wives is Mariya Volkonskaya. Maria was a Ukrainian aristocrat married to Sergey Volkonsky.[2] As a result of women like Mariya Volkonskaya following their husbands into exile, they would be labeled "wives of exiled labor convicts" and would have to suffer the societal ostracization. Once they left for Siberia, they were forbidden contact with their families back home; however, it was not strictly enforced because many women were able to send letters to their homes. [3]

Volkonsky-4 S G
Sergey Volkonsky (1788—1865) Russian General, participant of Decembrist revolt, portrait by George Dawe

References

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  1. ^ Stites, Richard. Review of Wives, Sisters, Daughters, and Workers: A Review Article, by Anatole G. Mazour, Barbara Alpern Engel, Clifford N. Rosenthal, Alix Kates Shulman, Cathy Porter, and Nadezhda Denisovna Karpetskaia. Russian History 3, no. 2 (1976): 237–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24649713.
  2. ^ Sutherland, C. (1984). The Princess of Siberia: The Story of Maria Volkonsky and the Decembrist Exiles. United Kingdom: Methuen. (p 33-35)
  3. ^ Mazour, Gregory (1975). Women in Exile: Wives of the Decembrists. Tallahassee: Diplomatic Press. ISBN 0-910512-19-1.