Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2015 number

The article deals with the biography of Vasily Mikhailovich Muraviev, a young associate of N.N. Muraviev-Amursky, the governor-general of Eastern Siberia. Vasily Mikhailovich Muraviev (1824-1849) was related by family ties to the Decembrists. He was the third son of Count M.N. Muraviev-Vilensky and belonged to the most progressive minded young men of his time in terms of his moral qualities, education, career and political views. The article introduces for scientific use V.M. Muraviev’s letters written in Siberia in 1848, which are an important source on the history of Siberian administration and the Decembrists. In particular, these letters contain biographical material about I.D. Yakushkin. The author reveals main traits of the collective portrait of youth from the era of Nicholas I as exemplified by Vasily Muraviev. The author focuses on moral and ideological relations between the younger generation and their fathers- fathers-Decembrists raising the question of ideological continuity. This approach is relevant from a perspective of historical concepts dealing with «lesser characters». Vasily Muraviev was no different from the young Decembrists except for the two basic things: he didn’t have a conspiratorial mind while being a man of strong Christian beliefs. In his social environment he found conditions for implementation of his social, corporate and civil-political ideas. The author highlights some aspects of his upbringing by the family clan of Muravievs-Yakushkins-Sheremetevs, who highly respected and even worshiped their family’s Decembrist past. Grandmother N.N. Sheremeteva, one of the outstanding women of her time, had great moral authority and directed up-bringing of her grandchildren, and this gives a direct link to women’s history. It is concluded that glorification of the Decembrist factor was a serious component of V.M. Muraviev’s worldview and noble corporate consciousness typical of other young members of his kinship circle.