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The Volkonsky House Museum, a blue wooden mansion with a mezzanine

City walk · City history · Decembrists & exile · Museums

The Decembrists and the History of Siberian Exile

The Volkonsky and Trubetskoy houses, Princess Trubetskaya’s grave and a city of exiled scholars

Photo: Aleksandr Zykov from Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0

Duration
3.5–5 h
Distance
≈ 6.9 kmcalculated on the OpenStreetMap footpath network
Difficulty
Easy
Best season
All year
Getting around
On foot
Start
The Trubetskoy House Museum, Dzerzhinskogo St 64
Finish
The Museum of Local Lore building by Gagarin Boulevard

After the uprising of 14 December 1825, more than a hundred of its participants were sent to hard labour and exile in Siberia. In the 1840s several families were allowed to settle in Irkutsk — and changed the cultural life of the city. This route visits their homes and follows those who came to Siberia after them: Polish exiles who became the region’s great explorers.

The Irkutsk Decembrists Museum occupies two houses — the Trubetskoys’ and the Volkonskys’. Their drawing rooms hosted music, lessons and guests; Maria Volkonskaya and Ekaterina Trubetskaya, who followed their husbands into exile, became symbols of devotion. Exile in Irkutsk did not end with the Decembrists: after the Polish uprisings hundreds of Poles were sent here, and some — Czekanowski, Chersky, Dybowski — became leading explorers of Siberia.

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The route line was calculated on the OpenStreetMap footpath network and has not been checked on the ground by our editors. The map mirrors the list of stops below; all information is available without the map.

Step-by-step itinerary

  1. Stop 1 · Time here: 50 min

    The Trubetskoy House Museum

    The Trubetskoy House Museum Photo: RyzhOl, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Sergei Trubetskoy was a leader of the Decembrists’ Northern Society. His wife Ekaterina was the first of the Decembrist wives to follow her husband to Siberia, in 1826. The family settled in Irkutsk in the 1840s; Ekaterina died here in 1854. The museum shows furniture, portraits, personal belongings and the everyday life of a family in exile.

    What to look for

    Children’s things and schoolbooks: the Trubetskoys taught other people’s children as well as their own.

    Opening hours & tickets: Opening hours and closing days are on the Decembrists Museum website.

    Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS Official website

  2. Stop 2 · Time here: 50 min

    The Volkonsky House Museum

    Getting there. A few blocks south-east into Volkonsky Lane, about 300 m.

    The Volkonsky House Museum, a blue wooden mansion with a mezzanine Photo: Aleksandr Zykov from Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0

    The home of Prince Sergei Volkonsky and Maria Volkonskaya (née Raevskaya). The house is generally said to have been moved here from the village of Urik, where the family had lived in exile. Maria’s salon was one of the centres of social and musical life in mid-nineteenth-century Irkutsk, and music fills its hall again today.

    What to look for

    The piano and the music library in the drawing room; the estate’s outbuildings in the yard.

    Opening hours & tickets: Opening hours and closing days are on the Decembrists Museum website.

    Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS Official website

  3. Stop 3 · Time here: 40 min

    The Znamensky Convent: Ekaterina Trubetskaya’s grave

    Getting there. North via Dekabrskikh Sobytiy Street and the Ushakovka bridge, about 1.8 km.

    The gate and churches of the Convent of the Sign (Znamensky) Photo: Alexander Klink, CC BY 4.0

    Ekaterina Trubetskaya was buried at the Znamensky Convent with her children who had died young. Other Decembrists and members of their families lie here too, as does Grigory Shelikhov. The cemetery is a quiet place where the history of exile becomes intensely personal.

    What to look for

    Trubetskaya’s tombstone by the church wall.

    Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS

  4. Stop 4 · Time here: 15 min

    The Polish Church

    Getting there. Back over the bridge and west along the lower embankment, about 1.6 km.

    The neo-Gothic “Polish Church” in Irkutsk with its red roof Photo: Yuri Getanov, CC BY 3.0

    The church was paid for by the Polish community, many of whom were exiles from the uprisings of 1830 and 1863. Among the Poles exiled to Siberia were future celebrated scientists: the geologist Jan Czerski (Ivan Chersky), Aleksander Czekanowski, who explored the Lower Tunguska and Olenyok rivers, and the zoologist Benedykt Dybowski, who studied the fauna of Lake Baikal.

    Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS

  5. Stop 5 · Time here: 30 min

    The Museum of Local Lore — the Geographical Society building

    Getting there. Through Kirov Square and south along Karl Marx Street, about 1.6 km.

    The building was put up for the East Siberian branch of the Russian Geographical Society. Exiled researchers worked with the society, set off on its expeditions and published in its journals. The explorers’ names on the facade are a fitting end to a route about how exile turned into science.

    Opening hours & tickets: Check gallery opening with the museum.

    Open in maps: OpenStreetMap · Yandex Maps · 2GIS (approximate location)

Practical tips

Transport

The start is 10 minutes’ walk from the bus station and 20 minutes from Kirov Square. It is about 1.8 km from the Volkonsky house to the Znamensky Convent; you can cover part of it by bus or taxi.

Practical tips

  • Allow 45–60 minutes for each house museum.
  • The Volkonsky house sometimes hosts chamber concerts — check the museum’s programme.
  • Carry water: there are few cafés on the way to the convent.

Seasonal notes

An all-year route, as much of it is indoors. In winter the path to the convent along the Ushakovka can be icy.

Accessibility

Historic houses with porches and steps; ask the museum about access to the interiors.

Safety and caring for nature

Cross busy streets at crossings. In the convent keep quiet and follow the dress rules.

Budget

Admission to the house museums is set by the Decembrists Museum; the walk between them is free.

The Trubetskoy House Museum Photo: RyzhOl, CC BY-SA 4.0
The gate and churches of the Convent of the Sign (Znamensky) Photo: Alexander Klink, CC BY 4.0
The neo-Gothic “Polish Church” in Irkutsk with its red roof Photo: Yuri Getanov, CC BY 3.0

Destinations: Irkutsk

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