Lyubov M. Podshivalova,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Irkutsk Regional Historic Memorial Decembrists’ Museum, Irkutsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The History of “The Archive of the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky”: Past and Present
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-6-4
Irkutsk Regional Historic Memorial Decembrists’ Museum is known for more than two decades as a big publication center in Eastern Siberia. In 1999 it acquired a legal right to publish the documentary series “Polyarnaya zvezda” (“The North Star”) from Eastern Siberian book publishing house. Currently the author is planning to publish the archival documents kept in the Manuscript division of the Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House) and related to the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky’s family history. This corpus of documents and letters (more than 330 items) was prepared for publication in 1918 as one of the parts of the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky’s family multi-volume archive. The idea to publish it was stated by to S.M. Volkonsky and B.L. Modzalevsky. The publication of the archive was planned in four parts: “Before the Siberia”, “Imprisoning”, “Exile” and “Returning”. Because of the great quantity of the documents, at least six volumes were meant to come out. The first part had to include the documents related to the period from 1803 to 1826, that is before S.G. Volkonsky’s departure for convict prison in Blagodatsk and the movement of his wife Maria Volkonskaya to the Siberia. The first part of the first volume came out in 1918 in Petrograd. It contained the preface common for the two parts. The corpus of documents for the second part of the first volume was almost completely prepared for publication but was not published, just as all other volumes. To continue the publication was the idea of to the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky’s descendant M.P. Volkonsky who for many years examined the documents of his family, visited Irkutsk in 1960, and was in correspondence with researchers and archivists in Moscow, Leningrad as well as in Siberia. Mikhail Volkonsky repeatedly discussed the continuation of “The Decembrist’s archive” publication as well as all the S.G. Volkonsky’s epistolary heritage. Unfortunately, he died before the implementation of the project. Irkutsk Regional Historic Memorial Decembrists’ Museum has all the necessary documents and is ready to publish the Volkonsky family letters which were meant to come out a hundred years ago. The museum also plans to continue the series “Polyarnaya Zvezda” (“The North Star”) by the publication of S.G. Volkonsky’s epistolary heritage which is not available for researchers yet.
Publishing: 31/12/2020
The article has been received by the editor on 17.10.2020
How to cite: Podshivalova L.M. The History of “The Archive of the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky”: Past and Present // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 6 (14), pp. 72–78. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-6-04.pdf
Links: Issue 6 2020
Keywords: Decembrists; the Irkutsk Decembrists’ Museum; S.G. Volkonsky; archive; letters; publication; “Polyarnaya zvezda” series