The history of Russia knows many amazing women, whose names have remained not only on the pages of boring textbooks, but also in the memory of the people. One of them is Maria Volkonskaya. She is the great-granddaughter of M. V. Lomonosov, the daughter of a war hero of 1812 and the wife of a Decembrist.
Princess Maria Volkonskaya: short biography
January 6, 1807 General Nikolai Raevsky and his wife Sophia had a daughter, Masha. The family was large (six children) and friendly, despite the hot-tempered nature of the mother and the severity of the father. The sisters loved to play music, and Maria sang beautifully, and there were often guests in the house. Including A. S. Pushkin, who even for some time was in love with the sixteen-year-old Masha.
In the winter of 1825, Maria is married to 37-year-old Prince Sergei Volkonsky. Not out of love, but not by force.
She rarely saw her always busy husband, she even gave birth to her first child away from her husband. And she learned about the participation of the prince in the conspiracy after the failed uprising. After the trial of her husband, Maria Volkonskaya obtained permission to follow him toSiberia. This act was not accepted by her family, but over time, even the harsh father treated him with understanding.
Accompanying her husband to various prisons, Maria Nikolaevna lived at the Blagodatny mine, in Chita, at the Petrovsky plant and Irkutsk, having lost several children in these wanderings.
Brought up in a prosperous and we althy family, Princess Maria Volkonskaya, the wife of a Decembrist, courageously endured the hardships of the life of convicts, never complained, supported her husband and raised her children. Those who survived.
30 long years she spent with her husband in Siberia and returned home only in 1855. In 1863, Maria Nikolaevna died of heart disease on her daughter's estate in the village of Voronki, and a year later her husband was buried next to her.
Steel like character
Princess Maria Volkonskaya is one of those strong and unbending personalities who never cease to amaze and inspire respect even after centuries. Her character is distinguished by a strong will and the desire to follow her ideals without bowing to anything.
Growing up in greenhouse conditions, under the wing of a stern but caring and loving father, Maria Nikolaevna, finding herself in emergency circumstances, did not reconcile herself, did not obey the opinion of the world and the will of her relatives.
Having learned about her husband's arrest, Maria, who had just recovered from a difficult birth, categorically rejected her father's proposal to dissolve the marriage with the prince and went to St. Petersburg, hoping to see her husband. All her relatives prevented this, and letters to her husband were intercepted and opened. Several times brother Alexander tried to take her away fromPetersburg, but Volkonskaya left only when her son fell ill.
And after the trial, at which Prince Volkonsky was sentenced to exile and hard labor, Maria turns to the king with a request to allow her to accompany her husband. And when permission was obtained, neither the threats of her father nor the curse of her mother deterred her. Leaving her firstborn with her mother-in-law, Volkonskaya leaves for Siberia.
It was a real struggle that an 18-year-old girl waged for the right to be with her husband not only in joy, but also in sorrow. And Maria Nikolaevna won this fight, despite the fact that even her mother turned away from her, who did not write a single line to her in Siberia. And if Nikolai Raevsky at the end of his life was able to appreciate the act of his daughter, then her mother never forgave her.
In the depths of Siberian ores…
Now it's hard to even imagine how you can travel hundreds of miles in the winter in a wagon. But Volkonskaya was not frightened either by frost, or miserable inns, or meager food, or the threats of the governor of Irkutsk, Zeidler. But the sight of her husband in a torn sheepskin coat and chains shocked, and Maria Nikolaevna, in a spiritual outburst, kneels before him and kisses the shackles on his legs.
Earlier than Volkonskaya, Ekaterina Trubetskaya came to Siberia to her husband, who became Maria's older friend and comrade-in-arms. And then 9 more wives of the Decembrists joined these two women.
Not all of them were of noble birth, but they lived very friendly, and the noblewomen eagerly learned the wisdom of life from commoners, because often they did not know how to do the most elementary things - bake bread or cooksoup. And how later the Decembrists rejoiced at the cooking of their wives, whom the heat of the soul of these women warmed and supported.
In the recent past, the pampered aristocrat Maria Volkonskaya managed to win the love of even local peasants and ordinary convicts, whom she helped, often spending her last money.
And when the exiles were allowed to move to Irkutsk, the Volkonsky and Trubetskoy houses became real cultural centers of the city.
At the call of the heart or at the behest of duty?
There are many articles and books dedicated to this amazing woman, who was not only the youngest among the wives of the Decembrists, but also one of the first who decided on such an extraordinary act at that time. However, not only this is interesting for Maria Volkonskaya, whose biography still attracts the attention of researchers.
There is a widespread opinion that Maria Nikolaevna did not love her husband. Yes, and could not love, because before the wedding she was barely acquainted with him, and after a year she lived with the prince for three months at most, and even then she rarely saw him.
What, then, prompted Volkonskaya to sacrifice her well-being and the lives of her future children? Only a sense of duty to a spouse?
There is another point of view. Maria Volkonskaya, if she did not love her husband at first, then respect and even admiration for him grew into love. In the words of Shakespeare: "She fell in love with him for torment …"
And perhaps the well-known culturologist Y. Lotman is right, who believed that the wives of the Decembrists are refined ladies,who grew up on love stories and dreamed of exploits in the name of love - this is how they realized their romantic ideals.
Notes of Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya
Upon her return home, Princess Volkonskaya spoke about her life in Siberia in Zapiski. They were written in French and were intended exclusively for son Michael.
After the death of his mother, he did not immediately decide to publish them, but nevertheless translated into Russian and even read excerpts to N. A. Nekrasov. The recordings made a very strong impression on the poet, he even cried, listening to the life of convicts and their wives.
"Notes" were published in 1904 in the best printing house in St. Petersburg - on expensive paper with engravings and phototypes.
Assessment of contemporaries and descendants
The actions of the Decembrists, who decided to oppose the royal power consecrated by traditions, can be treated differently. But the deed of 11 of their wives, who followed their convicted husbands to distant and terrible Siberia, is certainly worthy of respect.
Already in the 19th century, progressive members of society endowed these women with almost the halos of saints. N. A. Nekrasov dedicated his poem “Russian Women” to them, in which the real events described by Maria Volkonskaya were reflected.
In the 20th century, scientific and artistic books were written about the wives of the Decembrists, films were made, monuments were erected to them, for example, in Chita and Irkutsk.
Maria Volkonskaya, whose biography is reflected in the Notes, and to this day remains the brightest figureamong the wives of the Decembrists due to their youth and surprisingly strong whole character.
