10 Dec 1865
The 76-year-old prince passed away Sergei Volkonsky — a hero of the war of 1812. The only combat general among the Decembrists — the oldest and most famous.
There are sins for which it is impossible to justify oneself: these are the sins of which one is not guilty.
Born in 1788 Chernigov province. Belonged to the clan Rurikovichs.
Her father was the Orenburg Governor-General and a member of the State Council. Her mother was a lady-in-waiting to the Empress.
He began his service as a lieutenant in the prestigious Cavalry Guards Regiment. He distinguished himself at 18 during the war with Napoleon in Europe (1806-1807), was wounded.
From the very first day, I became accustomed to the smell of enemy gunpowder, the whistle of cannonballs, grapeshot, and bullets, the gleam of attacking bayonets and the blades of white weapons. I became accustomed to everything that comes with combat, so that subsequently neither danger nor hardships weighed on me.
For participation in the Turkish campaign of 1810-1811 he received from Alexander I A golden sword. During the Patriotic War, he served as his aide-de-camp—the Tsar called him "Monsieur Serge." He commanded a partisan detachment and captured a French general, 17 officers, and about 700 soldiers.
At 24, he became a major general and participated in foreign campaigns, where he encountered liberal ideas. He returned as a knight of four Russian and five foreign orders, but out of modesty, he never removed his cloak in public.
Despite his brilliant military career, until the age of 31 – when he met the Decembrists – he had a reputation as a “naughty boy” and a “rake”.
It was a time when the overcoat and sunflower seeds reigned
In 1819 he met 26-year-old Pavel Pestel. He joined the Union of Welfare and became a member of the Southern Society. He helped prepare the revolution and agrarian reform in Russia: had it succeeded, he would have lost 20 of his serfs.
I realized that devotion to the fatherland should lead me out of the stuffy and colorless life of a zealot of marching and servile courtiership onto the noble path of civil activity.
He supported the idea of a republic and the "extermination of all members of the imperial family." He used his agents in the army and at court, and hacked government correspondence. This was no secret to the Tsar: during one of his reviews, Alexander I advised the prince to focus not on "governing" the Russian Empire, but on his own brigade.
In 1825, he served in the Kyiv Governorate and was a member of the Southern Society. He was the first to receive news of Emperor Alexander I's illness, and he reported it to Pavel Pestel. Together, they drew up a plan for the "January 1st" attack: Pestel's Vyatka Regiment would arrest the army command and begin a march on St. Petersburg, while Volkonsky's 19th Infantry Division would join them.
However, after Pestel's arrest, the prince did not dare act alone. In January 1826, he was arrested for rebellion. During interrogation, the emperor Nicholas I called him a "stuffed fool," a "liar and a scoundrel."
He was stripped of all his noble titles and sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to 20 years of hard labor. His sentence was eventually reduced to 10. He served his sentence in Transbaikalia, where he worked in a mine for over a year.
I am always under the strictest supervision, the measures of which are stricter than during my imprisonment in the [Peter and Paul] Fortress
Princess Maria Volkonskaya She was one of the first to follow him into exile, leaving behind her son, who was born 5 days before his father’s arrest and died 2 years later.
The location would have been beautiful if the forests for 50 miles around had not been cut down for fear that escaped convicts might hide in them.
(from the wife's diaries)
After finishing his hard labor, he lived with his family in Irkutsk. He grew vegetables and fruits in greenhouses, helped the poor, and was friends with local farmers.
In 1856, he returned to Moscow. He remained true to his convictions until the end of his life. He greeted the abolition of serfdom with delight and tears, although he was dissatisfied with the emancipation of landless peasants.