The revolutionary sentiments in Russia in the early 19th century led to the Decembrist uprising, which, however, was not successful. Many of them were exiled to remote cities, and it was from this that the expression “Decembrist’s wife“ arose, symbolizing marital fidelity, as brave women, some of the participants in the uprising, voluntarily followed their husbands into exile.

1. The Decembrist uprising took place on December 14th (26th), 1825, and was named after this month.

2. One of the leaders of the Decembrist uprising was the poet Kondraty Ryleev. When arrested, he tried to take all the blame upon himself to ease the fate of his comrades. Like other leaders of the uprising, he was executed.

3. The ideas of the Decembrists, which later became the cause of the uprising, were based on the necessity of abolishing autocracy and serfdom.

4. The majority of the Decembrists were exiled to eastern Siberia. After the amnesty was announced, practically all the revolutionaries returned home alive.

5. Most of the Decembrists belonged to the highest Russian society. They were usually young officers, nobles, offspring of the wealthiest families in the empire. Many nobles who participated in the Decembrist uprising were veterans of the Patriotic War of 1812.

6. The city of Chita, like St. Petersburg, appears as a series of square blocks on the map. This is because the plan for its construction was made by Dmitry Zavalishin, a Decembrist who was in exile there. He based the plan for Chita’s development on the plan of St. Petersburg.

7. The views of the Decembrists were influenced by the works of thinkers such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire.

8. There were eleven famous wives of the Decembrists who followed their husbands into exile. These were courageous women who accompanied their husbands to the harsh expanses of Siberia, despite the fact that the emperor gave them the opportunity for an official divorce from the convicts.

9. Decembrist Alexander Lutsky spent 20 years in exile, attempting 2 unsuccessful escapes. However, upon his release through amnesty, he changed his mind about going back home. This was because the former cadet had already started a family and acquired property.

10. In addition to Siberia, the convicts were also exiled to the North Caucasus. There, they had to serve their exile by serving in the army as rank-and-file soldiers.

11. Many Decembrists were participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. They were mainly officers, both active and former.

12. Five Decembrists were sentenced to death by hanging. During the execution, Muravyov-Apostol, Kakhovsky, and Ryleev slipped out of the noose and were hanged again.

13. For his participation in the Decembrist uprising, Wilhelm Küchelbecker, a close friend of Pushkin with whom he studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, was convicted and exiled.

14. The Decembrist convicts worked in mines, and in 1827, the government, fearing rebellion, gathered them all in the Chita stockade. The prisoners dug ditches, built roads, and lived as one family, with all their belongings and books being communal.