Prince Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky (Серге́й Григорьевич Волко́нский; 19 December 1788 – 10 December 1865)Gregorian calendar. His birth and death dates in the Julian calendar were 8 December 1788 and 28 November 1865 was a Russian Empire Major General and Decembrist from the aristocratic Volkonsky family. Prince Sergey was a grandson of Field Marshal Nicholas Repnin, a leading statesman of

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

's reign. The three brothers Sergey, Nikita Volkonsky and Nikolay Repnin, distinguished themselves during the Napoleonic Wars. Princess

Zenaǐde Wolkonsky Princess Zinaida Aleksandrovna Volkonskaya (Зинаида Александровна Волконская; 14 December 1792 – 24 January 1862), was a Russian writer, poet, singer, composer, salonist and lady in waiting. She was an important ...

was his sister-in-law. Serge Wolkonsky, a theatre director and critic, descended from his son Michail. Volkonsky was promoted Major General after the

Battle of Großbeeren The Battle of Großbeeren occurred on 23 August 1813 in neighboring Blankenfelde and Sputendorf between the Prussian III Corps under Friedrich von Bülow and the French-Saxon VII Corps under Jean Reynier. Napoleon had hoped to drive the P ...

and Battle of Dennewitz. He was wounded in the Battle of Eylau. He was the only general still in active service who took part in the

Decembrist conspiracy The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...

of 1825, an attempt to achieve liberal reform by preventing the accession of Tsar Nicholas I. Following the failure of the revolt, he was found guilty and sentenced to beheading, which was eventually commuted to life in prison. Prince Volkonsky went to toil in the mines near

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

and spent 30 years as a political exile in Siberia. His wife Maria Rayevskaya followed him to Siberia. Their tribulations and hardships have been seen, in a later Russian tradition, as the stuff of high Romantic legend.

Nikolay Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov ( rus, Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈkrasəf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Alexeyevich_Nekrasov.ogg, – ) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publi ...

described them in a long poem.

Oleg Strizhenov Oleg Aleksandrovich Strizhenov (russian: Олег Александрович Стриженов; born 10 August 1929 in Blagoveshchensk) is a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1988). Life and career Strizhenov ...

played the part of Volkonsky in the 1975 Soviet film '' The Captivating Star of Happiness''. On succeeding to the throne in 1856, Alexander II allowed Volkonsky and other old Decembrists to return from Siberia. In the late 1850s, Sergey Volkonsky travelled in Europe, where he met Alexander Herzen and other young liberals. Sergey and Maria spent the rest of their lives in the village of Voronki ( Little Russia), which was owned by their daughter. The memoirs of Sergey Volkonsky were published in 1902.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkonsky, Sergei Decembrists 1788 births 1865 deaths Sergei Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Internal exiles from the Russian Empire