Nikolay Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (Russian: Николай Александрович Бестужев; 13 April 1791,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 27 May 1855, Novoselenginsk) was a

Russian Navy The Russian Navy is the Navy, naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which had i ...

officer, writer, inventor and portrait artist; associated with the

Decembrist revolt The Decembrist revolt () was a failed coup d'état led by liberal military and political dissidents against the Russian Empire. It took place in Saint Petersburg on , following the death of Emperor Alexander I. Alexander's brother and heir ...

Biography

He was born to a noble family. His father, , was a writer and government councilor. His brothers,

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

, , , and were also writers, military officers and Decembrists. He entered the

Sea Cadet Corps Sea cadets are members of a cadets youth program sponsored by a national naval service, aimed for young people with an interest in waterborne activities and or the national navy. The organisation may be sponsored in whole or in part by the navy or ...

school in 1802 and graduated in 1809. While there, he audited classes taught by

Andrey Voronikhin Andrey (Andrei) Nikiforovich Voronikhin (; 28 October 1759, Novoe Usolye, Perm Oblast – 21 February 1814, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian architect and painter. As a representative of classicism he was also one of the founders of the monume ...

at the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

. In 1810, he became a Lieutenant in the Corps. In 1815, he participated in naval actions in the Netherlands. He was appointed an Assistant Superintendent for the Baltic lighthouse in

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

in 1820.Brief biography
from the ''

Russian Biographical Dictionary The ''Russian Biographical Dictionary'' (''RBD''; ) is a Russian-language biographical dictionary published by the Imperial Russian Historical Society and edited by a collective with Alexander Polovtsov as the editor-in-chief An editor-in-c ...

'' @ Russian Wikisource. Two years later, he reorganized the

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

y department at the Admiralty, for which he was awarded the

Order of Saint Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir () was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine the Great, Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev, Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of ...

, and began writing a history of the fleet.Brief biography
@ Irkipedia. Bestuzhev Mikhail A

In 1824, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander and, shortly after, was named Director of the Admiralty's museum, where he was known as "The Mummy". During this time he also contributed to the journals ''

Polar Star A pole star is a visible star that is approximately aligned with the axis of rotation of an astronomical body; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles. On Earth, a pole star would lie directly overhead when ...

'' (edited by his brother, Alexander) and '' Syn otechestva'' (Son of the Fatherland). He also served with the Bureau of Censorship and, in 1825, became a member of the

Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts The Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (Russian: Императорское общество поощрения художеств (ОПХ)) was an organization devoted to promoting the arts that existed in Saint Petersburg from ...

These achievements were short-lived, however. Since 1824, he had been a member of the "", a secret organization headed by

Kondraty Ryleyev Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev (, , – ) was a Russians, Russian poet, publisher, and a leader of the Decembrist Revolt, which attempted to overthrow the Russian monarchy in 1825. Early life Ryleyev was born in the village of Gatchinsky Distric ...

, and had written a "Manifesto to the Russian People". Following the Decembrist riot on Peter's Square, during which he led a unit of rebellious Naval Equipage of the Guard, he went into hiding but was found and arrested. He was taken to the

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress () is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early ...

and, on 10 July 1826, was convicted of engaging in subversive activities and mutiny. He was sentenced to

katorga Katorga (, ; from medieval and modern ; and Ottoman Turkish: , ) was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoners were sent to remote penal colonies in vast uninhabited a ...

(hard labor) for life.

In Siberia

The following month, he and his brother Mikhail were taken to

Shlisselburg Fortress The Oreshek Fortress (; Schlüsselburg Fortress, ) is one of a series of fortifications built in Oreshek (now known as Shlisselburg) on Orekhovy Island in Lake Ladoga, near the modern city of Saint Petersburg in Russia. The first fortress was bui ...

. In September 1827, they were transferred to Siberia and placed in a special prison at the confluence of the Chita and Ingoda rivers. In 1830, they were moved again, into the town of Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky. In 1832, their sentences were reduced to fifteen years. Shortly after, Nikolay Bestuzhev entered into a common-law marriage and fathered two children, one of whom, Alexey Startsev (1838-1900), became a major figure in the commercial trade between Russia and China. The year 1839 found Nikolay Bestuzhev and his brother Mikhail transferred to Novoselenginsk (in

Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...

), where Nikolay chose to remain, dying there in 1855. Bestuzhevs monument

Despite the harsh conditions, Bestuzhev painted numerous portraits of his fellow Decembrists, the family members who had followed them to Siberia and local villagers; at first in watercolors, later in oils. At the end of his term, he spent 1841 in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, producing portraits of government officials. He was also engaged as a cobbler, lathe-operator and watchmaker. In that capacity, he developed a design for a high-precision

chronometer Chronometer is a name for certain types of clock. It may refer to: * Chronomètre of Loulié, a precursor to the metronome * Chronometer watch, a highly accurate watch * Marine chronometer, a timekeeper used for marine navigation, as in ** Longit ...

based on a "new system" which he never revealed. During the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

of 1853 to 1856, he designed a gun lock. He also made meteorological and astronomical observations, created an irrigation system, bred sheep, found a new coal-deposit and collected Buryat folk-tales. In 1973, playwright wrote a drama about Bestuzhev called ''Гражданин России'' (A Citizen of Russia). The 1990 feature-length film, ' (No Foreign Land) is based on the Bestuzhevs' life in Siberia. Directed by , it stars as Nikolay Bestuzhev.''No Foreign Land''
@ TV Kultura.

Available writings

* Mark Azadovsky (ed.), ''Воспоминания Бестужевых'' (memoirs), "Literary Monuments" series,

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

, 1951, reissued 2005 (896 pgs.) * S. F. Koval (ed.), ''Сочинения и письма'', (writings and letters), Decembrist Memorial Museum, Irkutsk, 2003 * Bayr Dugarov (ed.), ''Гусиное озеро: статьи, очерк'' (Goose Lake; ethnographic writings), Buryat Publishing House, 1991 * ''Опыт истории Российского флота'' (History of the Russian Navy),

Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding The Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, NUS, in Mykolaiv is a higher education institution which trains specialists for the shipbuilding and allied industries of Ukraine. The university is named after Russian admiral Stepan Mak ...

, 1961

Selected portraits

File:FonvizinM6.jpg, Mikhail Fonvizin File:Michael Naryshkin by N.Bestuzhev.jpg, File:И. А. Анненков. 1828 г..jpg, File:Maria Wolonskaja.jpg,

Mariya Volkonskaya Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya (''née'' Raevskaya; ; December 25, 1805August 10, 1863) was a Decembrist revolt, Decembrist wife of Prince Sergey Volkonsky who followed her husband into Siberia, Siberian exile after his trial. Early life ...

File:С. Г. Волконский 1837.jpg,

Sergei Volkonsky Prince Sergey Grigoryevich Volkonsky (; – ) was a Russian major general and Decembrist from the aristocratic Volkonsky family. Life Sergey Volkonsky was a grandson of Field Marshal Nicholas Repnin, a leading statesman of Catherine the Great' ...

References

External links