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Birthday anniversary of Decembrist Yevgeny Petrovich Obolensky (1796–1865)
Yevgeny Petrovich Obolensky was born on April 9 (20), 1796. He was a descendant of an ancient Rurik dynasty, a participant in the revolt on Senate Square in Saint-Petersburg (1825). In 1843–1856, he served a sentence in Yalutorovsk, Tobolsk Province.
Yevgeny Obolensky was born into the family of the Tula Governor Pyotr Nikolaevich Obolensky. He was educated at home at his father's mansion in Moscow. In 1814, he entered the training squadron of the Life Guards Artillery Brigade as a yunker. On December 30, 1818, he and his younger brother Konstantin became podporuchiks (second lieutenants) of the Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment. In the same year, he joined the Union of Prosperity.
Yevgeny Obolensky participated in the creation of the Northern Society and was one of its leaders. In 1825, he approved the structure of the Moscow Committee, headed by Ivan Pushchin. Yevgeny Obolensky took an active part in the meetings at Konstantin Ryleev's apartment.
On the eve of the revolt, Yevgeny Obolensky was elected the chief of staff. On December 14, 1825, he became a commander of the rebel troops instead of Sergei Trubetskoy, who did not come to the square. During the revolt, he wounded Mikhail Miloradovich with a bayonet. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress on December 15. In 1826, the Supreme Court of the Decembrists sent him to the scaffold. Emperor Nicholas I replaced the death sentence with penal servitude for life.
On July 21, 1826, Yevgeny Obolensky was sent to settle in Irkutsk. Even before arriving at the place, the term for labour works was reduced to 20 years. In Siberia, he was confined to hard labour at the salt plant in Usolye, the Blagodatsky mine, the Chita prison and the Petrovsky plant.
In 1832, the term for labour works was reduced to 15 years, in 1835 - 13 years. In July 1839, he settled in the village of Itantsa in Verkhneudinsk District of Irkutsk Province.
On June 20, 1841, Yevgeny Obolensky obtained permission to be shipped to Turinsk in Tobolsk Province, where he arrived in March 1843. In August 1843, he and the Decembrist Ivan Pushchin were conveyed to Yalutorovsk. In Yalutorovsk, they shared one house, developed a joint farm, provided residents with money and legal assistance. In his memoirs written in Yalutorovsk, Yevgeny Obolensky noted that the disgraced Decembrists always lived according to the laws of the former brotherhood: "Mutual respect was based not on rules of society and a habit acquired by secular education, but on everyone's desire for everything true. All Decembrists, who lived in different nooks of Siberia, retained their dignity and gained the respect of neighbours and associates".
On August 26, 1856, according to the amnesty manifesto, Yevgeny Obolensky was rehabilitated. On November 11, 1856, he and his family left Yalutorovsk. After the amnesty, he lived in Kaluga, where he continued to engage in social activities and took an active part in the preparation of the Emancipation reform of 1861.
Yevgeny Obolensky died in Kaluga on March 10, 1865. He was buried at Pyatnitskoye Cemetery.
Lit: Болотова А. Декабристы и культура // Культура в наследство: году культуры и 70-летию Тюменской области посвящается. Тюмень, 2014. С. 41–50; Болотова А. Е. П. Оболенский: цельная и противоречивая личность // Явлутур-городок: историко-краеведческий альманах. Вып. 7. Ялуторовск, 2012. С. 43–46; В помощь краеведу: материалы к календарю знаменательных и памятных дат Тюменской области на 2014 год. Тюмень, 2013; Селезнёва Л. А. Семья декабриста Евгения Петровича Оболенского в Ялуторовске // Грани истории: сборник краеведческих статей научных сотрудников Ялуторовского музейного комплекса. Ялуторовск, 2002. С. 32–37.
From the Presidential library materials:
Дмитриев-Мамонов А. И. Декабристы в Западной Сибири: очерк по официальным документам. М., 1895
Копотилов М. П. Декабристы в Тобольском крае: 1825–1925. Тобольск, 1925
Оболенский Е. П. Воспоминания князя Евгения Петровича Оболенского. Leipzig, 1861