Most of the exiled Decembrists showed remarkable entrepreneurial fervor. For example, in Siberian exile N. Muravyov made close acquaintance and cooperation with the Irkutsk banker Medvednikov, the largest gold miner Kuznetsov and other businessmen, was engaged in lending, field cultivation and horticulture, trade and various crafts, which he spoke about in his Constitution. In the summer months the brothers Nikita and Alexander Muravyovs "turned into energetic agronomists", spent a lot of time in their own, cleared by the hands of hired workers, in the fields, in the barns, barns and mills.
And here's another …
Decembrists Bestuzhev and Thorson at the oil mill.
Once near Irkutsk, the largest shopping center between China and Moscow, they showed interest in other areas of entrepreneurship. At first, they lent money ("distributed to private hands"), receiving a legitimate 8% of the annual profit. Developing their business, they set up a mill, which, unlike local mills, began to work in winter, and penetrated into fishing. Baikal omul was one of the main food products of the local population and became a hot commodity. In 1842, the Muravyovs invested 20 thousand rubles in catching and processing omul. and received 7 thousand rubles. profit (profitability - 35%).
The bread trade was considered even more profitable, giving up to 40% of the profit. Muravyovs, like other Decembrists, aspired to the gold industry. But their projects turned out to be unfulfilled, since the government did not issue them commercial certificates and did not allow them to move away from their place of registration even for several miles. Otherwise, in Siberia, the large rich from the exiled Decembrists would have gained wide popularity.
To another Decembrist, G. Batenkov, Siberia seemed the most suitable land for testing the planned transformations even before joining the secret society. He linked his hopes for improving life in Siberia to new laws. Like other Decembrists, Batenkov saw that the order and conduct of affairs in public places, arbitrariness, bribes and oppression of the people depended in Siberia, as in all of Russia, on the personality of the administrator, primarily the governor. “Laws have not yet entered the foundation of the people's life,” he wrote.
Once in Siberia, Batenkov became an entrepreneur. He ran a large private farm, designed buildings and structures to order, and supervised their construction. In particular, he built a dacha for the wine tax farmer Stepan Sosulin 4 versts from Tomsk, placing next to it exemplary factories (soap, candle, tannery), greenhouses. Having received a plot of land on Stepanovka for his labors, he built himself a house there according to the advanced technology even for our time: chopping blocks stuffed onto the frame and straw mats between them.
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Batenkov's hopes of raising the productive forces of Siberia in connection with the gold rush did not come true. Feud and bribery flourished, and the poverty of the workers and settlers did not dry up. However, there was a way out of the impasse - the introduction of private ownership of land for those who work on it, the development of farms, the improvement of water and land communications, the requirement to grant Siberia autonomy.
A prominent place among the Decembrists was occupied by Vladimir Raevsky, who, like Gavriil Batenkov, spent his youth in the cadet corps, where they were friends and dreamed of reorganizing Russian life, and the officer's youth - on the battlefields of the Patriotic War of 1812 and in foreign campaigns. Raevsky arrived in Siberia in 1828 and was "installed" in the village. Olonki near Irkutsk. Here he soon married a peasant woman, a Buryat woman, Evdokia Seredkina, taught her to read and write, and made her addicted to reading. The family had 8 children: 5 sons and 3 daughters, the eldest of them became a Cossack colonel.
V. Raevsky immediately became involved in entrepreneurship - he took a contract for the transportation of wine from the distillery to the points of sale and storage. For this I received a salary of 3 thousand rubles. per year in banknotes and up to 2 thousand rubles. "Rewarding", although he himself did not drink vodka in principle. At his own expense he bought a mill, a house in Irkutsk, 30 acres of land, built a beautiful estate for the family in Olonki, with a park and an alley, vegetable gardens and greenhouses, where he grew melons, watermelons, tomatoes, and other cultures rare for those places.
The range of Raevsky's commercial interests was wide: he was engaged in arable farming, buying and selling bread, and processing it. For some time he was engaged in hiring workers for gold mines (up to 2 thousand people) and received up to 3 thousand ser. in year. In addition, for 12 years he was a trusted tax collector, receiving up to 2.5 thousand rubles. ser. annually.
Almost all Decembrists compared Siberia to the booming North American United States. A talented staff worker, Decembrist N. Basargin, in his notes, says about it this way: “The further we moved in Siberia, the more it won in my eyes. The common people seemed to me much freer, smarter, even more educated than our Russian peasants, and especially the landlords. He understood the dignity of man more, he valued his rights more. Subsequently, more than once I happened to hear from those who visited the United States and lived there that Siberians have many similarities with Americans in their morals, habits, and even lifestyle."
The Decembrist Thorson built a threshing machine, and Zavalishin created an exemplary farm and, with his experience, showed the local residents what “farming culture” means: how to fertilize the land, what a multi-field and variable fruit system is, and when to mow the grass correctly. In addition to farming, he raised breeds of dairy cows. He had a large farm: 7 cows and over 40 horses.
Decembrist Andreev built a flour mill in Olekma, and Bechasny near Irkutsk built an oil mill. Hemp was grown here for more than 300 years, and they did not know how to beat oil from it. M. Muravyov-Apostol began to plant potatoes in Vilyuisk, F. Shakhovskoy was engaged in experiments on the acclimatization of vegetable crops.
Muravyov-Apostol was surprised that the local cemetery was not fenced off and that domestic and wild animals walked on it. He organized people to build a fence. The Decembrists were also surprised by the fact that there were no trees or flowers near the house, many of them (Lunin, Muravyovs in Urik, Trubetskoy in Omsk, Raevsky in Olonki, etc.) planted gardens near the houses. Raevsky's garden has survived to this day.
Comparison of Siberia with America is often found in the memoirs and letters of A. Rosen, V. Steingel, S. Volkonsky, I. Pushchin and others. I. Pushchin wrote to his lyceum teacher, and then to the director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Engelhardt: “She (Siberia) could would also be separated from the metropolis and would not need anything - it is rich in all the gifts of the kingdom of nature. Change only the regulations, and everything will improve."
The exiled Decembrist A. Yakubovich also became an entrepreneur in Siberia. In a letter dated December 11, 1840 to V. Davydov, he writes: “You already know through Malvinsky (a retired officer, a well-known Siberian gold miner) that I was instructed to purchase 31 thousand poods of flour from a farm, I processed everything in less than a month; delivered more than 7 thousand rubles. benefits to his clients and he himself received the following benefit: 2 thousand 80 rubles were cleared for me for the commission. - of which I paid 800 rubles to Obolensky. and kept 75 rubles for himself. a month, sewed a wolf fur coat and acquired new ammunition; but most importantly, I won unlimited trust, as a result of which I am now the chief distiller of the Aleksandrovsk plant, the chief cellar and attorney of the buyout."
Vladimir Boyko, "Entrepreneurial activity of the Decembrists in Siberian exile: theoretical and practical aspects", Bulletin of Tomsk University