Prince Evgeny Petrovich Obolensky was a truly amazing person. He was born in a large family and was the heir to a noble family. His father placed his hopes on him, and his sisters trembled and dearly loved. Obolensky was pure in soul, religious and kind to meekness ... How could such a person become a conspirator and an active participant in the Decembrist uprising? However, he could.
Biography
Evgeny Petrovich Obolensky was born in Novomirgorod on October 6, 1796. His father, Prince Pyotr Nikolaevich, in the future became the Tula governor. Mother, Anna Evgenievna, was the daughter of General-General Kashkin. Eugene had five sisters and four brothers.
He received home education as a child, then he went to military service with his brother Konstantin: in 1814 they became cadets of the First Training Company of the Life Guards Artillery Brigade, and in 1817 they were transferred to the Pavlovsky Regiment. From the end of December 1818 Evgeny Obolensky was a second lieutenant, from the end of April 1821 he was a lieutenant, and from February 1824 he was a senior adjutant of the Second Infantry Division of the Finland Regiment.
Decembrist organizations
As early as 1817, as a nineteen-year-old youth, Obolensky joined the ranks of the "Union of Welfare" - a secret society whose goals were the elimination of serfdom and the establishment of constitutional rule in the state. Such an act of the prince was not a manifestation of a rebellious revolutionary nature, but, most likely, a tribute to fashion and boyish frivolity. And even then, in 1817, nobody seriously thought about the coup d'etat and anti-government protests.
In January 1821, the "Union of Welfare" was dissolved, after which, in 1822, a new Decembrist organization, the Northern Society, was formed in St. Petersburg. Evgeny Petrovich, who had not previously taken an active part in the affairs of the conspirators, was unexpectedly elected a member of the Duma - the main organ of society. And, surprisingly, Obolensky agreed! Not only did he agree, but also became the so-called chief of staff of the conspirators. After many decades, the prince wrote in his memoirs that he went for it for the sake of the opportunity to do a good deed, protect the truth and destroy the evil that manifested around.
Rebellion on Senate Square
In the apartment of Prince Obolensky, the Decembrists discussed the "Constitution" of N. Muravyov and held meetings. In 1825, Evgeny Petrovich of the members of his society who was at his home approved the Moscow Council, which was appointed by I. Pushchin as its chairman. According to Obolensky, at that time he had doubts about whether he was doing the right thing, whether he had the right to undertake a coup and impose his image of the state system on all citizens of the country.
However, on December 14, 1985, the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square still took place, and Prince Yevgeny Petrovich not only participated in it, but also commanded the troops instead of S. Trubetskoy, who did not appear. When the military governor-general of St. Petersburg M. Miloradovich appeared on horseback in front of the soldiers, the Decembrist Obolensky asked him to leave. The count did not pay attention to this, and Yevgeny Petrovich wounded him with a bayonet. At the same time, Kakhovsky fired a pistol at Miloradovich. The wounded Governor General was taken to the barracks, but he died on the same day.
After some time, the rebels were surrounded by government troops, four in number superior to the Decembrists. By night, the rebellion was crushed. The conspirators were arrested and brought to the Winter Palace. On December 17, Obolensky was handcuffed, and in them he was until 02/01/1826
Penal servitude
Evgeny Petrovich was convicted on the first level and was deprived of the princely title. On July 10, 1826, he was sentenced to hard labor for life and on July 21 sent to Siberia. However, even before the arrival of the Decembrist Obolensky in Irkutsk, the term of hard labor was reduced to twenty years.
First, the disgraced prince, together with A. Yakubovich, worked at a salt factory in Usolye, in October 1826 he was transferred to the Blagodatsky mine, and in September 1827 to the Chita prison. In places of detention, Yevgeny Petrovich was ill with scurvy; in his free time, he studied foreign languages and philosophy. In September 1830, he was transferred to the Petrovsky Plant, and there he spent nine years. In November 1832, the term of hard labor was reduced to fifteen years, and in December 1835, to thirteen.
Link
07/10/1839 the Decembrist Obolensky was sent to a settlement in the village of Itants, Irkutsk province. In June 1841, he was allowed to move to Turinsk, and in July 1842, to Yalutorovsk. There, Evgeny Petrovich lived with Pushchin. In the house of Ivan Ivanovich, he met the nanny of his daughter, Varvara Samsonovna Baranova, and decided to marry her. Yalutorovsky high society reacted to this news with indignation. Pushchin and other Decembrists did not recognize the mesalliance and turned away from Obolensky. But Yevgeny Petrovich was not embarrassed, and on February 6, 1846, his wedding with Baranova took place.
A year after the scandalous marriage, Varvara Samsonovna learned to read and was already so respectable in society that the Decembrists who turned away from Obolensky began to accept their couple and went to visit the young ones themselves. In this marriage, nine children were born, of whom only three survived to adulthood. Moreover, the sons and daughters of Yevgeny Petrovich were awarded the princely title, but this title was not returned to him.
After Siberia
In August 1856, the Obolensky spouses and their children were allowed to leave Siberia. In November, the family left Yalutorovsk and went to Kaluga. At first, a noble relative received Yevgeny Petrovich's wife wary. But for ten years of marriage, Varvara Samsonovna had already learned the manners of the noble nobility and behaved so dignified that she managed to earn respect for the titled relatives of her husband.
In Kaluga, the Decembrist Obolensky continued to conduct social activities, participated in the preparation of the Russian peasant reform of 1861. In 1857, Yevgeny Petrovich filed an application for permission to live in Moscow, but he was rejected. In 1861, he made this request again, and this time it was granted.
Nevertheless, the last years the disgraced prince spent in Kaluga, where he died on 02/26/1865 at the age of 68. His wife, Varvara Samsonovna, lived for almost thirty years and during that time buried all her children. She died in 1894. And in Russia, a new revolution was already beginning to emerge ...