“…to Reconcile the Duty of Service with Christian Compassion”: Nicholas I’s Measures to Mitigate the Conditions of the Trans-Baikal Penal Servitude for the Decembrists

The article is devoted to the analysis of the conditions of the Decembrists’ penal servitude in Transbaikal exile and the measures taken by Nicholas I to mitigate it. The author claims that the policy of mitigating the Decembrists’ situation began virtually immediately after the sentence was passed and continued uninterruptedly thereafter. The key issue, of course, was the emperor’s pragmatic choice of the person who would guard and care for the Decembrists during their imprisonment. The comparison of the conditions of their confinement with ordinary convicts clearly demonstrates the privileged position of the Decembrists. At the same time, the granted freedoms to engage in sciences, crafts, and even educational activities, along with the preservation of material wealth even under imprisonment conditions, the absence of physical punishments, and the non-obligation to perform physical labor, clearly indicate Nicholas’s more than careful attitude towards them.