People respond to adversity in different ways. Some simply give up, others cope the best they can, but a few special individuals turn their adversity into opportunity. Such is the example of Maria Volkonskaya, wife of Prince Sergei Volkonsky, one of the leaders of the ill-fated 1825 uprising against the Tsar of Russia. The Volkonsky story is now immortalized in the Decembrist Museum, previously their home-in-exile in Irkutsk, Siberia.

In 1825 Russia was emerging from a victorious war against Napoleon. Groups of officers returning home were excited by many of the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution that they had witnessed abroad. They hoped to apply the concepts of “Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité” to their own country by abolishing serfdom and establishing a government of representative democracy.

Their ill-conceived and poorly led uprising on 14 December was quickly put down by Tsar Nicholas I. Over 3,000 soldiers were arrested, five were hanged and over 120 (including eight prominent members of the aristocracy) were sent to Siberia where they joined the thousands of exiles providing cheap labor for the government. Amongst the eight was Prince Sergei Volkonsky, a member of one of Russia’s oldest noble families, a close confidant of the Tsar, whose mother Princess Alexandra, was Mistress of the Robes to the Dowager Empress.

In Russian, the term “Decembrist wife” refers to the devotion of a wife to her husband. It was coined for Maria Volkonskaya and the wives of those exiled by the Tsar. In a show of loyalty to their husbands, these women renounced all their possessions, their titles and even their children, to follow their husbands to the depths of Siberia, near Lake Baikal, over 3,000 miles from St. Petersburg. They lived in exile for over 28 years.

With her husband initially working and living in the salt mines, Maria established herself in Irkutsk, a backward, wild town which had little in common with the sophistication of St. Petersburg. Not one to wallow in her sorrow, she and her fellow Decembrist wives turned their attention to ‘civilizing’ Irkutsk.

They opened schools and hospitals; edited newspapers; set up social welfare systems. Prohibited from attending social events in the town, they organized concerts, balls and poetry readings in their homes. An invitation to the Volkonsky house was an entrée into a world of sophistication. The impact on society in Irkutsk was tremendous, prompting Anton Chekov to call it “The Paris of Siberia” when he visited at the turn of the century.

As you walk around the former Volkonsky home in Irkutsk (known as the Decembrist Museum), you can almost feel Maria’s presence. The traditional Siberian wooden two-story house has been restored to its original condition and is filled with her possessions and her spirit. Two staircases link the floors, the rooms of which are connected in a circular pattern by doors. Rich, colorful wallpaper covers all the walls, an antidote to the grayness of the winter. On the second floor, there are two boudoirs, one for Maria and one for her daughter, Elena, born in Siberia. (The Volkonskys also had a son, Mikhail, born in Siberia)

Nearby a large cozy library with an enormous fireplace houses thousands of books sent to the Volkonskys by family and friends. It seems the ideal place to spend cold Siberian winter nights. At the top of the stairs is Maria’s winter garden, filled with plants, including small palm trees, that would not survive the brutal Siberian winter.

Everywhere there is music. An Italian music box, sent to Maria from her family to help ease her isolation, sits on a side table. Nearby a pyramidal piano is perched against a wall. You can imagine the Volkonsky children sitting on the bench learning their music. Downstairs is a richly decorated living room with an 1831 Lichtenthal piano, a gift from Maria’s brother, Alexander, which traveled across Russia to Irkutsk on a cart. It was in this room that Maria held her musical and literary salons.

With candles flickering in their holders, we attend a reenactment of a “Soirée” in Maria Volkonskaya’s salon, complete with a concert on the Lichtenthal piano and a champagne toast. If you close your eyes you can almost imagine Maria mingling with her guests, enjoying the world which she had created for her family and herself, surviving and even thriving, a woman who stared extreme adversity in the face and made such an impact on the society of her time.

IF YOU GO
The Decembrist Museum is located at 10 Volkonsky Lane in Irkutsk. It is open from 1000 to 1800 from Tuesday to Sunday.

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