The Decembrists: Senate Square to Siberian Exile

On the morning of 26 December 1825 a group of officers led about 3,000 men onto the square and refused to swear allegiance to the new tsar, Nicholas I. For hours they stood facing loyal troops. Count Miloradovich, sent to talk to them, was shot in the back by Pyotr Kakhovsky while addressing the crowd. At the end of the day Nicholas ordered three artillery pieces to fire grapeshot, and the revolt broke. Today the square is home to the Bronze Horseman statue, and it was once known as Decembrists Square.

Visitor guidance: An open public square; the Bronze Horseman stands at its centre.

While the stand-off continued, a squad of rebel grenadiers led by Lieutenant Nikolay Panov entered the Winter Palace. They failed to seize it and retreated. The palace and its precincts now house the Hermitage Museum.

Visitor guidance: Visit with a Hermitage Museum ticket.

Maria Volkonskaya, wife of the Decembrist leader Sergei Volkonsky, arrived in Irkutsk on the night of 21 January 1827, following her husband east. She was pressed to renounce her title and accept the same terms he had agreed to. Irkutsk went on to become the major centre of intellectual and social life for the exiles, who built wooden houses with ornate carved decoration. Many still survive today among the Soviet-era blocks.

Location precision: The sources describe the city, not one building; the pin marks central Irkutsk.

Visitor guidance: Look for the surviving carved wooden houses in the older parts of the city.

From 1827 several Decembrists were exiled to Chita. In the summer of that year the prisoners were moved to a new prison there, and the wives, Maria among them, relocated to stay close. In 1829 Nicholas I finally allowed couples to live in the same quarters.

Location precision: The prison site is not identified in the sources; the pin marks the city of Chita.

In the summer of 1830 the prisoners were moved to the Petrovsky factory. Maria remembered approaching "an immense building with a red roof in the form of a horseshoe." Through relentless petitions, led by Volkonskaya, the wives won by 1832 a formal cancellation of labor requirements for their men. The exiles received amnesty on 26 August 1856, under Alexander II.

Location precision: The prison building is not located in the sources; the pin marks the town of Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky.