The World of Russian Language and Culture: Maria Volkonskaya "With such a marvelous destiny…"

…following their husbands and maintaining their marital relationship with them, they will naturally become accessory to their fate and lose their prior title, i.e. not be recognized other than as exile-convicts’ wives…

From the directions approved by His Majesty, which were sent under Privy Councilor Lavinsky’s hand to the civil governor of Irkutsk on a form of Chief Directorate of the Eastern Siberia (dated September 1, 1826. Travelling log №842 from Moscow.)

…opening our eyes wide while listening to the stories about our hardships and sorrows, to which we were, however, able to get so accustomed that we could be cheerful and even happy in exile…

Maria Volkonskaya “Notes”

Ivan Aivazovsky Pushkin and Raevskaya in Gurzuf

I recall some storm-brewing ocean:
Jealous, I watched its waves that beat
A path straight toward her in devotion,
To swirl in sequence at her feet.
To join those waves my soul was burning,
To touch those limbs with lips so yearning.

Maria Raevskaya was playing with waves, while others didn’t dare to approach the sea, as they were wary of getting their feet wet and preferred to admire the view from afar. Alexander Pushkin was impressed with this picture. At that time he was travelling together with the Raevskys, who he was charmed with.

Nikolai Gorlov. Pushkin in the Raevsky family

He wrote to his brother Lev Segeyevich: ‘My friend, I’ve had the time of my life with the family of honorable Raevsky. I didn’t see a hero or glory of the Russian army in him, but what I loved about him was his being a clear-headed man with an innocent soul, a lenient, protective friend, a nice affectionate host… All his daughters are lovely; the eldest one is an extraordinary woman.’

Mikhail Lomonosov’s great-granddaughter and the daughter of the hero of the war of 1812 Nikolay Raevsky, since birth she was enfolded in and surrounded with her family’s love, which protected her from any hardship.

Alexander Pushkin. Maria Raevskaya

The Raevsky family was large and unite. Being a military family, they moved a lot from place to place, so they were unpretentious in everyday life. All the children received excellent home education. Maria was fluent in French and English. A teacher from Italy was invited especially to teach her singing. Maria loved singing more than anything and she often sang for guests. One could not help falling in love with her voice.

N. A. Bestushev. The portrait of M. N. Volkonskaya

Gustaw Olizar, Polish count, marshal of the Kiev Governorate’s nobility, was a suitor of her hand, but was rejected. Later he admitted: ’It must be confessed that for the lofty aspirations revived by cordial feelings in me I am fully obliged to the love inspired by Maria Raevskaya. She was that Beatrice to me, who was the object of my poetic sentiments; and thanks to Maria and my attraction to her, I gained the first Russian poet’s interest in me and our famous Adam’s (Mitskevich) goodwill.’

P. F. Sokolov. Portrait of Sergey Volkonsky

Who also got charmed with Maria’s voice was Sergey Volkonsky, who had become a frequent visitor at the soirées where she sang. Perhaps being afraid of rejection, he sought in marriage through writing to her father. So, he obtained the consent of her father, who didn’t even ask for her opinion and only showed her the letter from the prince written in French. The only thing Nikolay Raevsky told his daughter back then was: ‘Nobody’s hurrying you. Take your time to make friends with him. The Prince is a wonderful person…’

Later Serge Volkonsky wrote to Pushkin: ‘Having experienced your friendship and being certain that all good news about me would be welcome to you, I am willing to inform you about my engagement to Maria Raevskaya – I am not going to tell you about how happy I am, because you know my future wife’.

The wealthy and noble Prince probably reminded Maria of her father. He was also a general and a hero of the war of 1812. Yet she did not know his other side back then: binges, pranks, duels, card games, an impudent collection of portraits of Napoleon, propensity of falling in love, libertinage…

On the occasion of their engagement, the Raevskys and Volkonskys arranged a soirée, where Maria met her future mother-in-law and Prince Volkonsky’s sisters. When Maria Raevskaya was dancing mazurka with Sergey Volkonsky, her dress caught fire. Everybody thought it to be a bad sign. However, Nikolay Raevsky and Sergey Volkonsky called it a women’s superstition. They both wanted this marriage to happen. ‘ …my parents thought that they had arranged a bright and shiny future in high society for me…’ Maria wrote well after.

They got married in church on January 11, 1825. The bride was 19 years old, the groom was 37…

Maria and Serge Volkonsky's rings

Then all the fuss of the first year of married life broke out. Curtains from Paris, tableware from Italy, new furniture, carriages… Nonetheless, the bride found it unbearable at that time. She might have been insincere to herself though. Everyday potter was getting her down, but she was proud of her new role as a housewife. Sergey Volkonsky was often away. Being a freedom-loving scapegrace, he had trouble getting used to his new role of husband.

Maria goes to Odessa with her mother and sister for the whole summer. In the autumn Sergey brings her to his division in Uman, and then takes her to her parents for the birth to their first child. It was a very difficult birth. There was no doctor or midwife around. At the beginning of January, 1826 their son Nikolay was born. A few days after his birth, Sergey came to see his son. Why are the closest ones so necessary to us in times of trouble? But Maria was in puerperal fever and did not remember a thing. Soon he was arrested and sent to Petersburg. Maria was kept in the dark about the arrest of her husband, as well as about the arrest of her brothers Alexander and Nikolay and her uncle Vasily Demidov.

Nikolay Raevsky went to Petersburg to rescue his relatives. His sons had been released before his arrival. He did not manage to rescue the rest. Or did they not want to be rescued?

Prince Sergey’s mother, who did not manage to visit him at the fortress, wrote to him: ‘My dear Seryozha, make a clean breast of everything to His Majesty and with your genuine repentance to him, bring the consolation of getting the beloved son back to your miserable mother.’

Nikolay Raevsky came back two months later, told everything to Maria and said that he would not mind if she got divorced with Volkonsky. To his astonishment, she rebelled against her father for the first time. She went to Petersburg; on her way she visited her aunt Countess Branitskaya and left her little son with her.

Her brother Alexander Raevsky tried to prevent her from meeting her husband. However, thanks to the help of Count Benckendorff, his classmate and brother in arms, they met. Sergey Volkonsky’s father-in-law wrote to him in prison: ‘You call me your father – obey your father then! With a noble frank avowal you will admit your guilt, thus diminishing it! Don’t disgrace yourself! You are aware of your wife’s intelligence, feeling and affection for you. She will share your fate, miserable, dishonored. She will die! Don’t be her murderer!’ Perhaps that’s why Serge wrote on the corner of her handkerchief the following:

My friend, you are free, don’t blame me;

Try to understand, I am not unhappy,

I wish my wife to be as merry.

Farewell! Send my kind regards to our baby.

This is a poem written by Nikolay Nekrasov. Maria Volkonskaya wrote about it: ‘ …we exchanged handkerchiefs. When I came home I hurried to find out what he had given me, but everything I found was a few words of consolation written on the corner of my handkerchief which I could hardly make out.’

All letters from the Volkonskys get exterminated. Nikolenka falls ill with smallpox and Maria goes back to her son. From April till August she spends at her aunt’s with her son. Her brother and father were sure that she was still under their influence. ‘She will do and has to do only what her father and I advise her to do…’ Alexander Volkonsky wrote in one of his letters to their sister.

In July the judgment was pronounced: 20 years of penal servitude in Siberia and lifelong exile. Sergey Volkonsky was deprived of his title, civil rights and fortune. Maria found out about it only one month later from her brother Alexander, who soon departed. She packed her bags immediately and went with her son to her husband’s brother Count Repnin’s estate. She came to Petersburg on May 4, 1826, with the Count and his wife. Maria stayed at the Volkonskys’ house on the Moika river (by the way, this is the house where Pushkin died 11 years later). Sergey Volkonsky’s wife pawned her jewelry to discharge her husband’s debts and forwarded a petition to Nicholas I, where she asked for his permission to go to Siberia. Her father Nikolay Raevsky was in Petersburg too and tried to resist his daughter’s departure in every possible way, but the permission was obtained.

"J'ai reèu, Princesse, la lettre que Vous m'avez êcrite du 15 de ce mois, jyvi avec plaisir l'expression des sentiments que Vous me têmoignez pour l'intêrêt que je Vous porte, mais c'est à cause de cet intêrêt même que je prends à Vous, que je crois devoir renouveler ici les avertissements, que je Vous ai dêjà communiques sur ce qui Vous attend une fois passe Irkoutsk. Au reste j'abandonne entièrement à Votre propre conviction, Madame, de Vous decider à tel parti que Vous jugerez le plus convenable, dans votre situation".

Votre affectionnê.

(Signe) "Nicolas".

1826, le 21 Dêcembre

('Dear Princess, I have received you letter of the 15th instant. I was very pleased to read your words of gratitude to me for my role in your life. And, for the sake of this role, I feel I have to once again repeat my warnings about what can happen right after you pass Irkutsk. However, I fully leave it to your discretion to choose the way you may find the most consistent with your current situation.

December 21, 1826

Sincerely yours,

(signature) Nikolay‘)

Having obtained the permission, Maria asked her father to become a guardian for her child. Hot with rage, Nikolay Rayevsky rose his fists up his daughter’s head and cried: ‘God damn you if you don’t came back in a year…’ He was convinced that Maria was going to Siberia not because of her love to her husband, but ‘influenced by Volkonsky women who encouraged her heroism and led her to believe she was very brave, and she set out, as a stupid little girl…’

Alexandra, Maria’s mother-in-law, and her daughter Sofia were indeed persuading her to follow her husband. Prince Sergey’s mother was struggling hard to rescue her son once again. It was her who arranged an audience with the Empress Maria Feodorovna, after which Prince Sergey was exiled to a force-labor camp instead of being hanged.

The behavior of both Nikolay Raevsky and Alexandra Volkonskaya is understandable: each of them was trying to save their own child or at least better their lots. Maria’s father allowed her to go only if her mother-in-law goes with her. Once Alexandra said that she would like to visit her son in his mining camp.

On December 22, 1826, without saying goodbye to her parents, brothers or sisters, Maria makes for Siberia via Moscow, leaving her small child with her mother-in-law. In Moscow her relative Zinaida Volkonskaya arranged a soirée in her honor where Pushkin was among guests.

G. G. Miasoedov. Pushkin and his friends listen to Mitskevich's declamation in princess Z. A. Volkonsky's salon

‘You found shelter in my house and I had known you for only three days when you called me your friend! Your image filled my soul. I can see you in your absence: your tall figure appears in front of me as a stately thought, and your graceful gestures are as melodious as stars in the sky in legends of yore. Your eyes, hair, complexion as a woman’s, who was born on the shore of the Ganges, and similar to hers, your life is engraved with duty and sacrifice…’ Zinaida Volkonskaya wrote about Maria. After these words Maria was called ‘the virgin of the Ganges’ even in exile. All the Italian singers who were in Moscow at that time were invited for that famous dinner. They sang for Maria. Aleksander Pushkin assured her that he would write a book about Pugachyov, that’s why he was going to the Urals and further on ‘to seek shelter at the Nerchinsk mines.’

In Moscow Maria bought another kibitka (a type of carriage) for parcels sent to other exiled Decembrists, and Zinaida Volkonskaya secretly tied a clavichord to the vehicle. Maria set out on her way, going back to Petersburg, where her mother-in-law gave her money for horses in order to get to Irkutsk. Alexandra Volkonskaya will keep helping her in the future.

The new 1827 year reached Maria Volkonskaya somewhere in a steppe between Kazan and Irkutsk, in the company of a maid and coachmen. It took them 15 days to get from Moscow to Irkutsk, where Maria moved in the apartment that Ekaterina Trubetskaya left earlier on the same day. Alexandrina Muravyova arrived after eight days. Maria Volkonskaya managed to catch up to Ekaterina Trubetskaya at Bolshoy Nerchinsky Zavod. Blagodatsky mine camp, where Sergey Volkonsky was held, was just 12 kilometers away. Maria was allowed to see her husband twice a week in the presence of an officer.

Everybody witnessed their first meeting: Maria fell down on her knees before Sergey and kissed his leg irons…

Maria Volkonskaya and Ekaterina Trubetskaya settled down in a peasant’s log hut. Local people had a great respect for Decembrists and their wives, they called them ‘our princes’ or ‘our gentlemen’. Decembrists’ wives kept in touch with their relatives, sent and received parcels. They cooked food and repaired clothes for their husbands. Their maids were soon sent back for their indecent behavior. The women liked to sit on a rock opposite the camp and loudly talk to their husbands. Maria even brought a ladies saddle from Petersburg, which was a wonder for the local people. She had to account for her expenses to Burnashev, the mine camp director. Once he said to her: ‘You have no right to distribute clothes. You may help the poor by giving them 5 or 10 kopecks, but you cannot dress up the people that are government’s dependents.’ She replied: ‘In this case, dear sir, dress them up yourself, because I am not used to the sight of seminude people in the street.’ The women often rode to China, the camp was situated only 12 kilometers from the border. Maria even helped escaped bandits, giving them money and clothes, but when they got caught, they didn’t betray her.

When they all were transferred to Chita, Maria Volkonskaya shared a room in a deacon’s house with Trubetskaya and Yental’tseva. During the time Maria spent in Siberia, her family sent her only one parcel, and soon they moved abroad. All of them but, probably, her father and sisters, never understood her decision.

However, she regularly received help from her mother-in-law, who granted her even insignificant wishes related to her son. For example, Maria asked Alexandra to send her cruet stands to take food to the prison, some medicines and some seeds for the garden, which she did immediately.

Everything received from the families was divided equally. Women secretly brought wine to the prison, where clothes and books were also shared. Maria Volkonskaya wrote to her mother: ‘All prisoners’ wives form a sort of family. They welcomed me with open arms, because grief bonds people.’

The next three years were extremely difficult for Maria. These were the years of losses. In September 1829 her father Nikolay Raevsky dies, and only in the teeth of death he called her beloved daughter ‘the most amazing woman he had ever known’, following the death of her son Nikolay, who was in care of his grandmother, in January 1828. In August 1830 Maria loses her newborn daughter Sofia, but manages to overcome all these misfortunes.

On August 1, 1829 the prisoners were freed from their irons. It might be Alexandra Volkonskaya who made it happen by reading Maria’s letter to the Emperor where she asked to allow her to live together with her husband in his prison cell. It was very hard, because Nikolas I always wanted to forget about Decembrists, but never did… He granted Maria’s wish, and the prisoners were transferred to Petrovsky plant, and their wives were allowed to live with them. ‘Each of us tried to organize the household the best possible; I upholstered the walls with silk (my former curtains sent from Petersburg). I had a piano, a bookcase, two small sofas, so, it was almost chic.’

After a year all prisoners with families were allowed to live outside the prison. Step by step, they were returning to the ordinary way of life.

In 1832, Maria gave birth to a son named Mikhail, and, some years later, to a daughter Nelly. Maria devoted her whole life to her children. ‘My love for you two was insane, unceasing…’ She might have finally found her real love…

In 1835, Nikolas I ‘out of respect for the late princess’ (Maria’s mother-in-law) frees Sergey Volkonsky from forced labor and sends them to a place called Urik near Irkusk. Maria decided to settle down not far from doctor Wolf to be able to get a medical treatment. Women now could go to town and do shopping; men could hunt and walk. Maria asked to accept her son Mikhail to a gymnasium in Irkutsk. Soon she took the children and moved to the town, joined by Sergey after a year. As time passed, her emotional doubts receded into the background. She begins to value everyday well-being more and more. Not a princess by birth, she wants to turn her house in Irkutsk to the town’s first saloon. But the real prince Sergey made friends with peasants. In fact, he wasn’t much different from them, and was obviously discordant with his wife’s saloon. Having suffered all her life from the fact she was forced into marriage, Maria did the same to her own daughter: she settled fifteen-year-old Nelly with a successful Siberian functionary Molchanov. Only Maria called her daughter in the English manner. All others called her either Nelya or Elena. By the way, Elena was first to come back from Siberia.

This marriage wasn't happy. First Molchanov was brought to justice for defalcation, then he got palsy and lost his reason. Nelly never left him alone, but soon he died. Her next marriage was also very short, her husband died from phthisis. And it was only her third husband who made her happy.

Elena Volkonskaya (Molchanova, Kochubey, Rakhmanova)

In 1855 Nikolas I died. Decembrists took the news differently. Having learnt about the death of the man who sent him to Siberia, Sergey Volkonsky wept. Maria wrote to her son Mikhail: ‘…your father has been crying for three days, and I cannot do anything about it.’ Is that possible that deep inside he was still a monarchist, ‘an Emperor’s servant’?

The same year Alexander II was crowned Decembrists returned from Siberia, but they were only 12 or 15 out of 121… Among them was Prince Sergey Volkonsky. At a ball in Kremlin Alexander II said to Elena: ‘I am happy I can bring your father back and was glad to send your brother for him.’

Maria Volkonskaya asks Alexander II to reconfer the prince’s titles to her son Mikhail and Trubetskoy’s son Ivan. The wish was granted.

And what about Maria Volkonskaya?

She is going to write ‘Memories’ in French for her son Mikhail.

Ilya Repin. Mikhail Volkonsky

Mikhail read them to Nikolay Nekrasov, and the poem ‘Russian Women’ was written soon after. One of the chapters in it was dedicated to Princess Volkonskaya.

Everything seemed to be good in the end. However, Maria did not seem happy to her contemporaries. Ivan Yakushkin wrote to Natalia Fonvizina: ‘I have not seen Maria for a long time, she is still unwell. She is said to have lost a lot of weight. Her position is far from being enviable, she looks so lonely. She has nobody around. She seems to love her children so much and she is grieving for Nelin’ka, who is in Moscow with her husband, and he is paralyzed and tried in the criminal court. In spite of this, poor Nelin’ka is bearing her cross perfectly well. But what can a mother feel, having put her cross on her daughter’s shoulders? All fiction stories pale by comparison with this reality.’

Maria Volkonskaya and Prince Sergey lived in different estates in Russia. She made time to go abroad for treatment with Nelly. But nothing could possibly help her. Maria Volkonskaya died earlier than her husband – on August 10, 1863. Prince Sergey could not come to the funeral for health reasons. He died two years later. In accordance with his last will, he was buried at his wife’s feet in Voronki village not far from Chernigov…

Long ago when Maria was trying to get a permission to go to Siberia to be with her husband, she wrote to her father: ‘Dear father, you must be surprised at my courage to write to the royalty and ministers. Need and misery have revealed the energy of resolution and particularly tolerance in me. Pride to get by without anyone’s help has opened up in me. I have my own feet very firmly on the ground and this makes me feel good.’

Despite everything, Maria Volkonskaya lived a happy life, because she was content with herself and with her deed: "…you can find happiness anywhere in any circumstances. It mainly depends on our conscience. When you do your duty and do it with joy, then you find inner peace". She chose her path herself. Strangely enough, many people in exile felt more freedom and happiness than those in the palaces of Petersburg and Moscow. Maria Volkonskaya not only admired life as her friends and relatives would admire the sea, but she also lived.

‘Having spotted the sea, we commanded to stop and all our band left the carriage and rushed to admire the sea. It was covered with waves and I started running up to the waves and back away when they were about to get me, I had no idea the poet was following us…’