The leather-bound book "Notes" by S.G.Volkonsky

The first quarter of the 19th century in Russia was a time of heroic military glory and revolutionary upheavals, social reforms and unfulfilled hopes. The "Notes" of Prince S. G. Volkonsky, the famous hero of the Napoleonic Wars and Decembrist, is a fascinating and reliable testimony of a man who, by the will of fate, was involved in the thick of these dramatic events. A staunch supporter of the abolition of serfdom and the establishment of a republican system, he remained faithful to his views on the need for civil freedom in Russia until the end of his life.
Sergei Volkonsky's memoirs are interrupted by memories of the uprising on Senate Square and the arrest that followed. The rest of the story belongs to the pen of his wife Maria Volkonskaya, who in 1827, for a long 30 years, voluntarily went to her husband's place of exile in Siberia. Her "Notes", written in the form of letters to her eldest son Mikhail, became a significant phenomenon in Russian literature and public life, the most talented "memoir monument" to Decembrism.