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This article discusses Leo Tolstoy's view of the Russian revolutionary movement. Taking as a focal point the writer's lifelong interest in the Decembrist uprising of 1825 and particularly in the personalities of the gentry revolutionaries, the article argues that Tolstoy's fascination for these figures was due to their superior moral qualities, rather than to their political and socioeconomic doctrines. Following Alexander Herzen, Tolstoy came to regard the Decembrists as full-fledged individualities and "beautiful souls" (in Friedrich von Schiller's sense of the term). Thus, Tolstoy's much debated "conversion" and subsequent attempts to transform literary art into a medium of religious and moral reform (and thus a peaceful cultural revolution) can also be viewed as extensions of his project of self-understanding and self-formation according to the model of kalokagathia provided by Russia's aristocratic revolutionaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Representations of the experiences of past and present Russian prisoners' women relatives in Russia are explored. The annals of Russian national history glorify the handful of wives who voluntarily chose to share Siberian exile with their husbands who were punished for the anti-monarchist uprising in December 1825. A survey of images of prisoners' wives demonstrates how Russian cultural mythology has promoted a powerful, stereotypical image of the 'Decembrist wife' as the epitome of marital love, devotion and personal sacrifice. On the basis of various historic, literary, documentary and Internet sources, as well as interviews with current Russian prisoners' women relatives, the formation, articulation and enduring vitality of the 'Decembrist wife' discourse in Russia is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselev (1788-1872) ranks among the most outstanding Russian statesmen of his age. During a long life he served three emperors as military commander, key administrator and distinguished ambassador. But early in his already brilliant career he risked losing everything through potentially compromising friendships with several of his staff officers who were Decembrists, in particular with Pavel Pestel', the republican ideologist of the Southern Society. By exploring Kiselev's ten years as chief-of-staff at Tul'chin from 1819, the article seeks to clarify the extent of these links, Kiselev's motives for them, and the danger they posed to his standing at court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two, lesser known Decembrists were exiled to Siberia as a result of their involvement in the uprising of 1825. The first, Nikolai Chizhov, was one of a handful of Decembrists sentenced by Emperor Nicholas I's Supreme Criminal Court to exile to settlement (ssylka na poselenie). The second, Aleksandr Lutskii, was like most Decembrists sentenced to penal labour (katorga); however, unlike such well known Decembrists as Trubetskoi and Rozen he was tried by a military court rather than the Supreme Criminal Court and consequently faced much harsher conditions. Historian Aleksandr Margolis has classified Lutskii as one of the 'soldier-Decembrists,' in contradistinction to those 'aristocrat-Decembrists' assigned to Chita and later transferred to Petrovskii Zavod. English-language works on the Decembrists routinely avoid discussion of the 'soldier-Decembrists' or those who were, like Chizhov, exiled to settlement; and among Russian sources Margolis's research is exceptional. Using archival and secondary sources this article expands upon Margolis's work to analyse these individuals' experiences in Siberia. Although both men were atypical of the majority of Decembrists exiled to Siberia, analysis of their experiences highlights the importance of class within the punitive structures of Nicolaevan Russia and elucidates certain administrative procedures which characterized the bureaucratic apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Decembrists and the concept of a civic nation. Decembrists are members of secret societies which were part of the Northern Society and the Southern society but have similar concepts of a nation. This research explores the history of conventional nationalism between the East and the West. How the unions of citizens became the foundation of sovereign citizen people.

Presents the author's views on Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, a Russian poet. Comment on the poems of Pushkin on freedom; Information on the views of Decembrists who felt that the freedom Pushkin stood for was of a different nature, even though Pushkin agreed with them in demanding political and civil freedom; View on the poem "The Poet and the Crowd," by Pushkin.