Princess E and Trubetskoy. Biographies of the Decembrists

Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya, née Countess Laval(November 27, Kiev - October 14, Irkutsk) - the wife of the Decembrist S. P. Trubetskoy, who followed him to Siberia. The heroine of N. A. Nekrasov's poem "Russian women".

Biography

The daughter of a French émigré, a member of the Main Board of Schools, later - the manager of the 3rd expedition of the special office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ivan Stepanovich Laval and Alexandra Grigorievna Laval (nee Kozitskaya) - the heiress of the capital of I.S.Myasnikov, the mistress of the famous St. Petersburg salon. Catherine and her sisters did not need anything and did not know the refusal. The sisters were well educated and lived with their parents in Europe for a long time.

According to her contemporaries, Ekaterina Laval was not a beauty - she was short, plump, but charming, cheerful and playful with a beautiful voice. In Paris in 1819, Catherine Laval met Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, and on May 16 (28), 1820, she married him. Trubetskoy was ten years older than her and was considered an enviable groom: noble, rich, smart, educated, went through the war with Napoleon and rose to the rank of colonel. His career was not over yet, and Catherine had a chance to become a general. A brilliant marriage was overshadowed by a lack of children. Catherine was very worried about this and went abroad to be treated for infertility.

Decembrist's wife

Five years after the wedding, it suddenly turned out that Sergei Trubetskoy, together with his friends, was preparing an uprising.

The event of December 14 and the departure of Prince Sergei Petrovich to Siberia served only as an excuse for the development of those forces of the soul with which Ekaterina Ivanovna was gifted and which she so perfectly knew how to use to achieve the lofty goal of fulfilling her marital duty in relation to the one with whom she was connected by ties eternal love, indestructible by nothing; she asked as the highest mercy to follow her husband and share his fate and received the highest permission and, despite the insistence of her mother, who did not want to let her go, set off on a long journey<…>Having temporarily united with her husband in the Nikolaev plant, she did not leave us since that time and was during all the time of our common life our guardian angel.

Finally, they were given a regulation on the wives of exiled convicts and on the rules on which they were allowed to enter the factories. First, they must refuse to use those rights that belonged to them by rank and state. Secondly, they can neither receive nor send letters and money except through the factory bosses. Further, a meeting with their husbands is allowed to them only at the will of the same authorities and in the place that will be determined by them.

E.P. Obolensky. Memoirs of the Decembrists. Northern Society. Compiled by prof. V. A. Fedorova, Moscow: Moscow University Publishing House, 1981, p. 104

Trubetskaya and Volkonskaya signed these conditions and were allowed to follow their husbands.

On December 15, 1825, Colonel Trubetskoy, the failed dictator of the Decembrists, was arrested in St. Petersburg. According to rumors, his wife embroidered a banner for the rebels, but Prince Sergei did not need it ... Ekaterina Laval, a well-educated girl, lived for a long time with her relatives in Europe. In Paris in 1819, she met Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, who became her husband in May 1821. According to general reviews, she was not too beautiful and plump, but she had a pleasant voice, and most importantly, she charmed her with her expression and treatment. “Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya,” recalled the Decembrist Andrei Rosen, “was not beautiful in face, not slender, of average height, but when she spoke ... she would simply enchant with a calm pleasant voice and a smooth, intelligent and kind speech, so everyone would listen to her. Voice and speech were the imprint of a kind heart and a very educated mind from legible reading, from travel and stay in foreign lands, from the rapprochement with the celebrities of diplomacy. " Ekaterina Ivanovna's mother, nee Kozitskaya, was the owner of a huge fortune. She married a poor emigrant, Jean François Laval, who received high ranks in Russia and taught at the Naval Cadet Corps; the Frenchman was famous for his delicate taste and kindness. This married couple had four daughters and one son. One of the daughters, called in a close circle Katasha, the brilliant princess Trubetskoy, was destined to share his bitter fate with her beloved husband, and later to become the main heroine of N. A. Nekrasov's poem "Russian women". According to her contemporaries, Ekaterina Laval was not a beauty - she was short, plump, but charming, cheerful and playful with a beautiful voice. In Paris in 1819, Catherine Laval met Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, and in May 1821 she married him. Trubetskoy was ten years older than her and was considered an enviable groom: noble, rich, smart, educated, went through the war with Napoleon and rose to the rank of colonel. His career was not yet over, and Catherine had a chance to become a general. A brilliant marriage was overshadowed by a lack of children. Catherine was very worried about this and went abroad to be treated for infertility. S.P. Trubetskoy A member of the Union of Salvation, the Union of Welfare (chairman and overseer of the Root Council), one of the leaders of the Northern Society, one of the authors of the "Manifesto to the Russian people", Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy was designated a dictator during the preparation of the uprising on 12/14/1825, but did not appear on the square and did not take part in the uprising. At a meeting of conspirators on December 13 in the evening, when Prince. Obolensky and Alexander Bestuzhev spoke in favor of the need for an attempt on the life of Nikolai Pavlovich, Trubetskoy, according to Steingel's testimony, agreed to this and expressed a desire to proclaim the minor emperor. book Alexander Nikolaevich (the latter was also proposed by Batenkov in a conversation with Trubetskoy on December 8), but, according to the testimony of others, Trubetskoy kept aloof and talked in an undertone with Prince Obolensky. Trubetskoy himself showed that he could not give himself a clear account of his actions and words that evening. According to Ryleev's testimony, Trubetskoy was thinking about occupying the palace. During the investigation, Trubetskoy announced his hope that Nikolai Pavlovich would not use force to pacify the rebels and would enter into negotiations with them. Trubetskoy in his "Notes" sets out the plans of the conspirators. The regiments were supposed to gather on Petrovskaya Square and force the Senate: 1) to issue a manifesto, which would spell out the extraordinary circumstances in which Russia was, and for the decision of which, at the appointed time, elected people from all estates were invited to confirm who the throne should remain and on which grounds; 2) to establish a temporary government until a new emperor is approved, by a general council of selected people. However, on the decisive day, Trubetskoy was completely confused and not only did not appear on Senate Square, but even took the oath to Emperor Nicholas. Trubetskoy undoubtedly proved his courage during the Napoleonic wars, but, according to Pushchin, he was distinguished by extreme indecision, and it was not in his nature to take responsibility for the blood that was to be shed and all the disturbances that were to follow in the capital. “This failure to appear played a significant role in the defeat of the uprising,” writes Academician M. V. Nechkina. The Decembrists themselves rightly regarded this behavior of Trubetskoy as "treason". On the night of December 14-15, Trubetskoy was arrested and taken to the Winter Palace. The emperor went out to him and said, pointing to Trubetskoy's forehead: “What was in this head when you, with your name, with your surname, entered into such a matter? Guard Colonel! Prince Trubetskoy! how are you not ashamed to be with such rubbish? Your fate will be terrible! " The emperor was very unhappy with the participation in the conspiracy of a member of such a noble family, who, moreover, was in property with the Austrian envoy. When a little later the testimony written by Trubetskoy was taken to the Tsar and he was called, Emperor Nicholas exclaimed: "You know that I can shoot you now!", But then ordered Trubetskoy to write to his wife: "I will be alive and well." On March 28, 1826, Adjutant General Benckendorff entered Trubetskoy's casemate and demanded on behalf of the sovereign that he reveal what relations he had with Speransky; at the same time Benckendorff promised that everything said would remain a secret, that Speransky would not suffer in any case, and that the sovereign only wanted to know to what extent he could trust him. Trubetskoy replied that he had met Speransky in a secular society, but had no special relationship to him. Then Benckendorff told Trubetskoy that he was talking about his conversation with Speransky and that he even consulted with him about the future constitution in Russia. Trubetskoy strongly denied this. At Benckendorff's request, Trubetskoy recorded some conversation about Speransky and Magnitsky, which he had with G. Batenkov and K. Ryleev, and sent the package into Benckendorff's own hands. Obviously, this case is related to one place in the annex to the report of the investigation commission, which was not made public at one time, where it says that the leaders of the Northern Society intended to make Admiral Mordvinov and secret adviser Speransky members of the provisional government: “the first ... expressed opinions contrary to the assumptions of the ministries, and the second they (according to Prince Trubetskoy) considered not the enemy of the news. " The Supreme Court sentenced Trubetskoy to death by beheading S.P. Trubetskoy's wife E.I. Trubetskoy [Tuesday] December 15 I am alive and well, my unfortunate friend, I ruined you, but not with evil intention. Do not murmur at me, my angel, you alone are still tying me to life, but I am afraid that you will have to drag out an unhappy life, and perhaps it would be easier for you if I were not there at all. My fate is in the hands of the sovereign, but I have no means to convince him of any sincerity, the sovereign has now approached and ordered me to write to you only that I will be alive and well **. God save you my friend. Forgive me. Your eternal friend Trubetskoy“I really feel that I cannot live without you,” Ekaterina Ivanovna wrote to her husband in the Peter and Paul Fortress. - I am not afraid of the future. I will calmly say goodbye to all the blessings of the world. One thing can please me: to see you, to share your grief ... and to devote all the minutes of my life to you ... ”By the resolution of the sovereign, the death penalty was replaced for Trubetskoy by eternal hard labor. When his wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna, wished to accompany her husband into exile, Emperor Nicholas and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna tried to dissuade her from this intention. When she remained adamant, the emperor said: "Well, go, I will remember you!" the same! " Trubetskaya, the first of the wives of the Decembrists, achieved the decision to leave for Siberia. Ekaterina Ivanovna arrived in Irkutsk on September 16, 1826. On October 8, 1826, a party of exiles, which included S.P. Trubetskoy, was sent to the Nerchinsk mines. For some time Trubetskaya did not know where her husband was sent. According to Obolensky's recollections, Ekaterina Ivanovna appealed to her superiors so that she was allowed to follow Sergei Petrovich and "tormented her for a long time with various evasive answers." Trubetskaya spent 5 months in Irkutsk - Governor Zeidler received an order from St. Petersburg to persuade her to return. However, Ekaterina Ivanovna was firm in her decision. At the same time, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya arrived in Irkutsk. Finally, they were given a regulation on the wives of exiled convicts and on the rules on which they were allowed to enter the factories. First, they must refuse to use those rights that belonged to them by rank and state. Secondly, they can neither receive nor send letters and money except through the factory bosses. Further, a meeting with their husbands is allowed to them only at the will of the same authorities and in the place that will be determined by them. Trubetskaya fainted when she saw through the prison fence her husband - a former prince, shackled, dressed in a short, tattered sheepskin coat, belted with a rope. An aristocrat, accustomed to gourmet cuisine, Ekaterina Ivanovna sometimes had to sit on black bread with kvass. In the Blagodatsky mine, Trubetskaya got frostbitten on her feet, because she walked in frayed shoes: from warm shoes she sewed a hat for her husband's friend. Meetings with their husbands were allowed for an hour twice a week in the presence of an officer. Therefore, the women sat for hours on a large stone opposite the prison, in order to sometimes exchange a word with the prisoners. The soldiers rudely chased them away, and one day they hit Trubetskoy. The women immediately sent a complaint to St. Petersburg. And since then Trubetskaya demonstratively arranged a real reception in front of the prison - she sat down on a chair and in turn talked with the prisoners who had gathered inside the prison yard. To see her husband every day, Ekaterina Ivanovna went out onto the road along which the exiles were taken to work, and exchanged glances or even exchanged words with the passing Trubetskoy. And he picked flowers on the way, folded a bunch of flowers for his wife and left them on the side of the road. Like other Decembrists, Ekaterina Ivanovna knew how to support the fallen in spirit, calm the upset, comfort the grieved. Sergei Trubetskoy in the Petrovsky plant often used to say: "What do we need windows for when we have four suns!" At the end of 1839, the term of hard labor for Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy expired. The family received an order to leave for a settlement in the village of Oek, 30 versts from Irkutsk. The move to a new place was overshadowed by the death of the youngest son Vladimir, who lived only a year. This first loss was especially hard for the Trubetskoys. Household work, helping local peasants helped to distract from sorrowful thoughts, and there were many of them. In September 1840, the second son of the Trubetskoys, Nikita, died. The princess had less strength and health, more and more often she suffered from bouts of rheumatism. At the end of January 1842, fearing an imminent death, Ekaterina Ivanovna made a will, in which she asked her sisters to take care of her children and her husband. For health reasons and for the study of children, Trubetskaya turned to the authorities with a request to allow her to move to Irkutsk. In 1845 such permission was obtained. Ironically, the house in which the Trubetskoys settled in the Znamenskoye suburb of Irkutsk used to be the country cottage of the same governor Zeidler, who eighteen years ago tried to prevent the princess from visiting her husband in the Nerchinsk mines. The house turned out to be spacious and comfortable, but most of all the princess was pleased with the large beautiful garden. Wanderers, homeless people, beggars have always found shelter and attention at the Trubetskoys. Unknown artist. Daughters of the Trubetskoys In addition to caring for the children, Ekaterina Ivanovna took care of the pupils who appeared in her house: the daughters of M.K.Kyukhelbeker Anna and Justina, the son of the exiled A.L. her surname has not survived). All of them, without exception, were surrounded by kind care and attention. In January 1846, the news of the death of I.S.Laval, the father of Ekaterina Ivanovna, reached Irkutsk. For the last six months, the old count was very sick, and his wife tried to get the emperor's permission to meet her daughter with her dying father, but all her efforts were in vain. Nicholas I was faithful to his oath and did not allow any of his "friends on December 14" and their relatives to set foot on the land of European Russia. Four years later, the mother of the Decembrist also died, never seeing either her eldest daughter or grandchildren born in Siberia. But it was in them that the continuation of the life of a famous and unhappy family turned out ... In the last years of her life, Ekaterina Ivanovna left the house less and less often, and in the end, due to rheumatic pains, she had to move around the rooms in a wooden chair on wheels. The tender care of her husband and children, of course, extended her earthly days, but, unfortunately, not for long. Throughout the spring and summer of 1854, the princess fell ill. She no longer got out of bed, she was tormented by a dry cough, and the doctors, who were trying to alleviate her fate, were powerless. At 7 o'clock in the morning on October 14, 1854, Ekaterina Ivanovna died in the arms of her husband and children. It was said that the entire Irkutsk accompanied the wife of the “state criminal” on her last journey. Contemporaries wrote that this was the first time this city had seen such a crowded funeral. The coffin with the body of the deceased was carried by the nuns of the women's Znamensky monastery, within the walls of which E.I. Trubetskaya found her last refuge. She was buried next to the children who had died earlier, Nikita and Sophia ... Under the amnesty of Emperor Alexander II of August 22, 1856, Trubetskoy was restored to the rights of the nobility. His children, by decree of August 30, 1856, could use the princely title. Trubetskoy had no right to live permanently in Moscow. Arriving there with the permission of the police, he refused to make new acquaintances and limited himself to the circle of his relatives and old acquaintances, saying that he did not want "to be the subject of anyone's curiosity." According to one contemporary, he was "good-natured and meek, silent and deeply humble" at that time. S.P. Trubetskoy. 1860 year

14 october , Irkutsk) - wife Decembrist S. P. Trubetskoy who followed him to Siberia. The heroine of the poem N. A. Nekrasova « Russian women ».

Biography

Daughter of a French émigré, member of the General Board of Schools, later - the manager of the 3rd expedition of the special office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jean (Ivan Stepanovich) Laval and Alexandra G. Kozitskaya- heiress of capital I. S. Myasnikova, the hostess of the famous Petersburg salon. Baptized on December 7, 1800, as evidenced by the registers of birth Church of St. Isaac of Dalmatia... Catherine and her sisters did not need anything and did not know the refusal. The sisters were well educated and lived with their parents in Europe for a long time.

According to her contemporaries, Ekaterina Laval was not a beauty - she was short, plump, but charming, cheerful and playful with a beautiful voice. V Paris in 1819, Catherine Laval met Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, and 16 (28) May 1820 year married him. Trubetskoy was ten years older than her and was considered an enviable groom: noble, rich, smart, educated, went through the war with Napoleon and rose to the rank of colonel. His career was not over yet, and Catherine had a chance to become a general. A brilliant marriage was overshadowed by a lack of children. Catherine was very worried about this and went abroad to be treated for infertility. Five years after the wedding, it suddenly turned out that Sergei Trubetskoy, together with his friends, was preparing an uprising.

The event of December 14 and the departure of Prince Sergei Petrovich to Siberia served only as an excuse for the development of those forces of the soul with which Ekaterina Ivanovna was gifted and which she so perfectly knew how to use to achieve the lofty goal of fulfilling her marital duty in relation to the one with whom she was connected by ties eternal love, indestructible by nothing; she asked as the highest mercy to follow her husband and share his fate and received the highest permission and, despite the insistence of her mother, who did not want to let her go, set off on a long journey<…>Having temporarily united with her husband in the Nikolaev plant, she did not leave us since that time and was during all the time of our common life our guardian angel.

Trubetskaya was the first of the wives of the Decembrists to obtain permission to leave for Siberia. Ekaterina Ivanovna arrived in Irkutsk on September 16 1826 year... On October 8, 1826, a party of exiles, which included S.P. Trubetskoy, was sent to the Nerchinsk mines. For some time Trubetskaya did not know where her husband was sent. According to Obolensky's recollections, Ekaterina Ivanovna appealed to her superiors so that she was allowed to follow Sergei Petrovich, and "they tormented her for a long time with various evasive answers." Trubetskaya spent 5 months in Irkutsk - Governor Zeidler received an order from Petersburg to persuade her to return back. However, Ekaterina Ivanovna was firm in her decision.

Then she came to Irkutsk Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya... After long delays, they were finally introduced to the regulations on the wives of exiled convicts and the conditions under which they would be admitted to their husbands. They had to sign a waiver of the rights inherent in their rank and state, and agree not to correspond and not to receive money bypassing the factory bosses. A meeting with husbands was allowed at a time and place determined by the same authorities. Accepting these conditions, Trubetskaya was taken to the Blagodatsky mine, where on February 10, 1827 she was finally allowed to see her husband.

At the end of 1839, after serving his term of hard labor, Trubetskoy went to a settlement in the village Oyok Irkutsk province. In 1845, the Trubetskoy family was allowed to settle in Irkutsk. According to the memories N. A. Belogolovoy, “The two main centers around which the Irkutsk Decembrists were grouped were the Trubetskoy and Volkonsky families, since they had the means to live wider, and both mistresses - Trubetskoy and Volkonskaya with their intelligence and education, and Trubetskaya - and with their extraordinary cordiality, were, as it were, created to unite all comrades into one friendly colony ... "

Ekaterina Ivanovna died on October 14 1854 year from cancer. Buried in

After 10 years of unsuccessful attempts to have children, the princely couple Trubetskoy had four daughters and three sons. The Siberian hard labor became a genius doctor-reproductologist, to which the wife of the Decembrist followed her husband.

She was the daughter of a French count and the wife of a Russian prince. The first half of her life flew by in the splendor of aristocratic salons, the second - stretched among the endless roads of Siberian convict labor. She herself chose this fate. Perhaps everything could be different, but the wife of the Decembrist, Princess Yekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya never regretted her choice.

1800-1821. Golden dawn

Catherine Laval (that was the name of the future princess Trubetskoy) was very lucky - both with her parents, and with the place, and with the time of birth. She saw the light in St. Petersburg, November 27, 1800, in a magnificent mansion on the English Embankment. Catherine's father Jean Francois (in Russian - Ivan Stepanovich) Laval left revolutionary France very in time, and happily married in Russia - to Anna Grigorievna Kozitskaya, the heiress of estates, factories and mines of a family of millionaire miners.

In childhood and adolescence, Countess Catherine had everything one could wish for. She received an excellent education at home. She had the opportunity to meet with the most prominent people of her time - both in Russia and on trips abroad.

The meeting that determined the fate of Catherine took place in Paris in 1819 (where can you get to know Russians if not in Paris - especially in the years following the defeat of Napoleon!). Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, captain of the guards, a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, a representative of one of the most noble Russian families, in truth, was not particularly beautiful. Yes, and the very young Catherine could more likely be attributed to the clever, and not to the beauties. But emotional closeness is often much more important than external beauty ... As Zinaida Lebzeltern, Katrin's sister, wrote in her memoirs, they “ They talked for a long time and gradually became attached to each other. My sister was sweet and kind, the prince was the embodiment of cordiality, modesty and spiritual nobility, they had to suit each other. "

The wedding of Catherine Laval and Sergei Trubetskoy took place in the city of Paris, in the Russian Orthodox Church on Rue Berry on May 12, 1821. In the autumn of the same year, they returned to St. Petersburg and settled on the English Embankment, in the house of Princess Catherine's parents.

1821-1825. A time of hope

The happy family life of the Trubetskoy couple was overshadowed only by the fact that neither a year, nor two, nor five years after the marriage they had children. Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna repeatedly went to European resorts, turned to the best doctors - but in vain.

The healing waters of Baden-Baden were of no use. And not a single European luminary could tell why a young, completely healthy and needless woman never got pregnant.

Ekaterina Trubetskoy failed to become a mother in the early years of marriage. But she was a faithful friend of her husband - and was well aware of his affairs, secret and overt. And Prince Sergei Petrovich continued to make a successful military career - on the one hand, and actively participated in the activities of secret societies - on the other ...

1825-1826. Crash. "It will be easy for me to endure everything with you ..."

The regiments that came out on December 14, 1825 to Senate Square were scattered with grapeshot volleys. Everyone who survived was hastily dragged into custody. The elected head of the guards' performance, Colonel Prince Trubetskoy, was no exception. By the way, he had no chance of dying on the square, since he did not actually appear at the scene of the uprising. Later, during the investigation, Trubetskoy said that he had lost faith in the success of their case ...

However, we will leave aside what and how Trubetskoy said during the investigation. Our story is primarily about the fate of Ekaterina Ivanovna. Let's just say that in the conclusion Sergei Trubetskoy was more fortunate than other Decembrists - he was immediately allowed to correspond with his wife. For six months, from December to July, they wrote each other about two hundred letters each.

On July 12, 1826, the thirty-five-year-old prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, manager of the Northern Secret Society, the recognized head of the military rebellion on December 14 on Senate Square, heard his verdict: “ upon deprivation of ranks and nobility, to be sent to hard labor forever ".

On July 24, 1826, twenty-five-year-old Ekaterina Trubetskaya left Petersburg. She will never return there again.

1826. The Way to the East

The origin, family ties and closeness of the family to the imperial court played a role - Ekaterina Ivanovna did not put any obstacles on the way to Siberia. So far - not set.

Despite the delays and illness, Ekaterina Ivanovna overcame the distance of five thousand versts, a little slower than the tsar's couriers did on courier troikas. Less than 2 months later, on September 16, she was in Irkutsk. She managed to see her husband - before he was sent further east, to the Nerchinsk mines.

And then for Princess Trubetskoy began months of agonizing anticipation and struggle with the imperial bureaucratic machine - in the person of Irkutsk governor Zeidler. He had an unspoken decree of Emperor Nicholas - to prevent the wives of the Decembrists from going after their husbands. Dissuade, and if it fails, intimidate.

Ekaterina Ivanovna had to sign an extensive paper with a list of prohibitions, which, among other things, stipulated the possibility of meetings with her husband only in the presence of guards, as well as the threat that children born in hard labor would be recorded in state factory peasants. But Trubetskoy was not stopped by any threats. In January 1827, she crossed the frozen Baikal and came to her husband.

1826-1839. Hard labor and unexpected happiness

The Blagodatsky mine, where Ekaterina Trubetskaya lived until mid-autumn 1827, is a bear's corner of the Empire, five hundred miles from Chita, almost on the border with China, remarkable only for its reserves of silver-lead ores. Ekaterina Ivanovna now walked not on the marble floors of her parents' house, but on the snow-covered paths in winter and muddy paths in the spring. Together with her friend in misfortune, Maria Volkonskaya, she lived in a black hut, where it was difficult to stretch out to her full height. The two former princesses tidied up themselves, washed the linen, washed the floors. They prepared food for their imprisoned husbands, and ate bread and kvass themselves, since their spending was strictly controlled by the prison authorities.

Ekaterina Ivanovna could visit her husband only twice a week (and in the presence of guards). On the other days, she could see Sergei Petrovich only from afar. Trubetskoy did not neglect any opportunity for a date - she stood for hours in the snow, once frostbitten feet, she left the house in a blizzard and rain ... As the family story says, Sergei Petrovich collected and left on the path along which they were taken to work, bouquets of flowers, and Ekaterina Ivanovna picked them up afterwards ...

In the fall of 1827, the prisoners of the Nerchinsk mine were transferred to Chita, where other Decembrists were kept. In a new place, Ekaterina Ivanovna settled down more comfortably - in her own, albeit small, house. And Sergey Petrovich's life became easier in the literal sense of the word - on August 1, 1828, six-kilogram shackles were removed from all Decembrists. Meetings with her husband Ekaterina Ivanovna were allowed two days later on the third, and from 1829 - not even in prison and under supervision, but in her own house and without prying eyes.

And then an event happened, having learned about which, the European luminaries of medicine would have been very surprised. What trips to European resorts and consultations of the best doctors could not help - four years of life in seemingly unbearable conditions for a pampered aristocrat helped. On February 2, 1830, a daughter, Alexander, was born to the Trubetskoys.

In medical terms, the Siberian climate completely restored the reproductive health of the Trubetskoy couple. Further, their children were born one after another. The second daughter, Elizabeth - in 1834, son Nikita - in 1835, Zinaida - in 1837, Vladimir - in 1838, Ivan - in 1843, Sophia - in 1844 ...

Over the years, the Trubetskoys have changed more than one refuge. From September 1830 to 1839, the Decembrists were held in the prison of the Petrovsky plant, which is three hundred miles closer to Europe than Chita. There, Ekaterina Ivanovna built the tallest house in the city - a two-story house with a balcony from which she could see her husband walking around the prison yard behind a seven-meter fence. Yes, the meetings, of course, continued - at the end of the imprisonment, husbands were generally allowed to live in apartments with their wives.

1839 - 1854. "If I was destined to go through everything again, I would have done the same"

After the end of the hard labor and ordeals in the Siberian villages, Ekaterina Ivanovna managed (still with the help of influential relatives) to achieve the right to live for the whole family, with her husband and children, in Irkutsk. They lived in a beautiful house with a garden (the last gift that Trubetskoy's mother made to her daughter). It was, in general, the usual social life of the provincial town, the Trubetskoy children were growing up, the daughters were getting married ... and Ekaterina Ivanovna's health was getting worse. Frozen feet made themselves known - in the last years of her life Trubetskaya could not walk.

Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya died of consumption on October 14, 1854. She was 54 years old. She was buried in the fence of the Znamensky women's monastery in Irkutsk. People still bring fresh flowers to the tombstone.

« But for me, my friend, it will be easy for me to endure everything with you, and I feel, every day I feel more strongly that no matter how bad it is for us, from the depths of my soul I will bless my lot if I am with you...» , - These lines Ekaterina Trubetskaya wrote to her husband in the fortress, in December 1825. And she kept her word. For life.