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Irkutsk
Irkutsk is one of the few "historic" cities of Siberia, a wealthy trading town since the C17th. It retains that importance today, as the Capital of Eastern Siberia - although it is located approximately mid-way between Moscow and the Far Eastern Pacific coast.
Irkutsk is intimately linked with the stories of the Siberian Exiles. (NB - "Exile to Siberia" began in the C18th, and reached its peak in the C19th - it was not a "soviet" invention, although the USSR expanded an exisiting Prison-Camp system). The sentence to Hard Labour in Siberia was only the first part of the sentence - for most prisoners, there was also the condition that even once the sentence had been served, the released prisoner was obliged to remain in Siberia, and never again return to Moscow. The lives of many of the "common" prisoners who ended their days in Siberia have never been documented - but Irkutsk does have two Museums of special interest.
The Decembrists were the most famous, and romantic, of the Siberian Exiles. They were not anarchist revolutionaries - instead, they were the Officer Corps which had saved Russia from Napoleon in 1812, and were in despair about the disastrous conditions under the rule of the incompetent and cruel Nicholas I. In December 1825 they launched their abortive coup - but failed. Five ringleaders were executed, 136 officers, the creme de la creme of Russian nobility, hobbled to Siberia in the Chain Gangs. Those who survived the Hard Labour made their homes, and a new "polite society", in Irkutsk.
The Decembrists Museum in the former home of prominent Decembrist Muraviev, tells their story - the house is unchanged from that time. You can see their clothes and possessions, their diaries, and rare pictures of the most famously romantic of them all, Princess Trubetskaya - a French Society Beauty, she refused to divorce her husband Prince Trubetskoy, and instead, followed him in his chains to his Siberian exile.
Volkonsky's House. Although not the most important of the Decembrists, the dashing manner and brilliance of Prince Volkonsky caught the public imagination - and aroused public support for an Official Pardon for the Decembrists. Although even the mention of their names was banned, the novelist Tolstoy used his book War & Peace to re-establish their heroic status as veterans and patriots. The book's young romantic hero of 1812, who dies of shell-shock in a Field Hospital in the arms of Natasha Rostova is "Prince Bolkonsky" - only one letter of his name is changed.
C17th Churches. Irkutsk has several churches built by wealthy merchants of the C17th and C18th which are worth a visit.
Trans-Siberian Railway Monument. Irkutsk was a major centre of the building of the railway, and the opening of the first section, in 1898, was marked by the erection of this famous monument.
Ethnographic Museum. This area of Siberia is ethnically non-Russian - although Russian settlers began arriving from the C16th onwards. The Ethnographic Museum shows the culture and lives of the native Asiatic Peoples of Central-Eastern Siberia.
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