Published: 2011-08-21

Life in exile in the light of Maria Volkonska’s "Memoirs"

Daria Ambroziak Logo ORCID

Abstract

The Decembrist rising holds an important place in the nineteenth century memoiristic writing. This historical event found expression in the memoirs of those partiots who took part in
the 1825 revolutionary upheaval: S. Trubecki, J. Obolenski, A. Muraviov, M. Lunin, N. Muraviov, as well as the women who accompanied them in exile: M. Volkonska, P. Annenkova, O. Ivanova, M. Bryzgalova, O. Balashkina, M. Frantsevaya. Princess Maria Volkonska was one of the first women who followed her exiled husband Sergei Volkonski. Her Memmoirs, written in the second half of the nineteenth century, include an account of her life experiences in Siberian places of exile such as Blagodatsk, Tsita and Piotrovsk. Princess Volkonska as well as other women: A. Muraviova, J. Naryshkina N. Fonvizina and A. Rozen eagerly helped the exiled. Life in exile was a very traumatic experience to the young woman: difficulties in personal contacts with her husband, lack of freedom, homelesness, cold, dirt and poverty. It is important that Princess Volkonska does not complain, but manages to retain her dignity throughout the hardships she has to endure. The subjective account of princess Volkonska’s Memoirs is a valuable record of the time spent in exile, which supplements the memoirs of the exiled Decembrists.

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Citation rules

Ambroziak, D. (2011). Life in exile in the light of Maria Volkonska’s "Memoirs". Rusycystyczne Studia Literaturoznawcze, 21, 11–20. Retrieved from https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/RSL/article/view/14419

Vol. 21 (2011)
Published: 2020-07-15


ISSN: 0208-5038
eISSN: 2353-9674
Ikona DOI 10.31261/RSL

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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