Irkutsk House-Museum of Decembrists

The Decembrists Museum in Irkutsk is a regional memorial museum telling about the participants of the December Uprising of 1825, who served exile in Siberia. The museum’s expositions are housed in two estates that belonged to Princes S. G. Volkonsky and S. P. Trubetskoy. P. Trubetskoy. The ancient buildings are located 250 m from each other in the historical center of the city.

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Highlights

The Decembrists’ Museum in Irkutsk for a century and a half has accumulated many memorial items, books and documents owned by members of the Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Ivashov, Yushnev and Muravyev families. The museum also houses the personal belongings of Decembrists I. I. Pushchin, I. V. Poggio and D. I. Zavalishin. Maria Volkonskaya’s old piano and music box are considered a special pride of the museum. All visitors like the beaded embroideries made by the hands of Catherine Trubetskoy and Maria Volkonskaya.

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Both buildings offer sightseeing and thematic tours for guests. In the house-museum of the Volkonskys recreated home theater, as it was at the time when the Volkonskys lived here. The estate shows plays that were staged in Russian theaters in the first half of the 19th century.

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Literary evenings, festivals, balls and musical salons have become traditional for the Decembrists Museum in Irkutsk. Special thematic excursions, drawing contests and educational programs are organized for children.

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Tourists arriving in Irkutsk can explore not only museum expositions, but also visit bus tours. Such trips last 2-3 hours and introduce them to the Decembrists’ memorial houses and buildings they visited – Irkutsk Prison Castle, Znamensky Monastery, Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Church and Roman Catholic Church.

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History of the Decembrists Museum

The Decembrists Museum in Irkutsk was founded in 1970. Before that, separate collections of rarities related to the stay of the Decembrists’ families in Siberia were collected and exhibited. The first exhibits began to arrive in the XIX century, when the Decembrists lived in Irkutsk. They themselves donated various items and books to the museum and the library of the local branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

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At first, the Trubetskys’ memorial house was opened. And 15 years later, after the Volkonsky estate was restored, an exposition about the Volkonsky family was placed there.

House of Trubetskys

Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy moved to Irkutsk with his family in 1845. Before that he had served exile in the village of Oyok for 6 years. The Trubetskoys lived in the provincial center until 1856. The house where the prince’s family lived burned down in a fire in 1908. But according to the city legend, the house No. 64 on Arsenalnaya Street (now Dzerzhinskogo Street) also belonged to the Trubetskys. It is believed that the prince built it for one of his daughters.

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From 2007 to 2011, the old wooden mansion underwent a major renovation, and today it welcomes guests of the Decembrists Museum in Irkutsk with new interiors. On two floors of the old building there are 11 small museum halls.

Familiarization with the exposition begins with a story about the biography of S. P. Trubetskoy before the December Uprising. Moving from hall to hall, one can follow the fate of the exiled prince and his relatives. Of special interest is Trubetskoy’s study, where a rare book from the prince’s library with his personal autograph is kept.

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Volkonsky Estate

The Volkonsky Memorial Estate consists of the prince’s house, people’s hut, stable, carriage barn, barn and stable. After 10 years spent on penal servitude in Transbaikalia, Volkonsky and his family were sent to the village of Urik, where they lived from 1836 to 1845. Then the Volkonskys settled in Irkutsk, and the prince obtained permission to move the wooden house belonging to him from Urik to the provincial center. So the two-story mansion, cut down in 1838, ended up in Irkutsk.

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Today on the second floor of the memorial house one can see the restored boudoirs of Maria Volkonskaya and her daughter Elena, as well as the spacious princely library. On the first floor, below the library is the front hall, which served as the Volkonskys’ drawing room. On two sides of it are the offices of the prince and his son Mikhail.

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Tourist information

The two buildings of the Decembrists Museum in Irkutsk operate on different schedules. The Volkonsky Estate welcomes guests on any day, except Monday, from 10.00 to 18.00. The Trubetskys House-Museum is open on all days, except Tuesday, from 10.00 to 18.00. In summer, the expositions do not close until 20.00 on Thursday.

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Visitors can examine the exhibits on their own or walk through the museum halls with a guide.

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How to get there

The Volkonsky estate stands in the center of Irkutsk, in Volkonsky Lane, 10. It is located near the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, not far from the Chinese Market.

The Trubetskys’ house-museum is located at 64 Dzerzhinsky Street, 250 meters northwest of the Volkonskys’ house-museum. Both buildings of the Decembrists’ Museum in Irkutsk can be reached by streetcars No. 2, 3, 4, 4a and 6, bus No. 52 and route No. 4k.

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