After joining Russia, Siberia at once became a principle location for imprisonment at hard labor and exile. There were being exiled the most dangerous, from the government’s point of view, criminals. Among them were, mostly, participants of the popular uprisings, single rebels that came out against the servitude relations as well as some persons from the supreme Governmental circles who illegally tried to hold higher posts, but had lost the fight. The state Government regarded an exile of the criminal and political convicts to Siberia not only as the way of penalty but, first of all, as a means of colonization and developing of the remote Siberian lands. By the 19th century exile and hard labor in Siberia acquired a mass character. In 1898 about 310 thousand of the exiled of all categories concentrated in the region. According to the Governmental plan, the criminals were intended to increase the agricultural population in the region. Their labor was widely applied in the industry of Siberia. Though, such a compulsory work was inefficient and required big expenses.

The Polacks in Siberia. From the end of the 16th up to the beginning of 17th century an exile of the prisoners of wars between Russia and Poland started. The total number of that group of the polish population reached 1.5 thousand people. Later, in the 60s of 18th century occurred a great exile of the political adversaries of the Tsarist regime in Poland. All of them were exiled to the territory of Western Siberia, but some of them even further – to the east of the Irkutsk region.

In 1794, Eastern Siberia accepted the exiled participants of the nation-wide liberating uprising headed by Tadeush Kostyushko. He was a Polish and American military man and politician as well as a national hero of Poland and the USA.  He participated in the War of Independence of the USA. The reason was the adoption in 1791 by Rech Pospolita of the constitution that put an end to the Union of Lyublin (that had united the Polish Kingdom with the Principality of Lithuania into a single state named Rech Pospolita in 1569). Tadeusch Kostyushko along with his supporters organized an uprising with the aim to attain the abolition of the constitution adopted and to restore the state integrity. However, the rebellion was cruelly suppressed. Later, further separation of the Poland territory between Russia, Prussia and Austria took place. After that a country named Poland temporarily disappeared from the map of Europe. Total amount of the rebellions exiled had not been specified exactly. It is considered about some thousand people.

The second wave of the Polish resettlers refers to the period between 1830 and 1870. That time, an overwhelming majority of the participants of two serious national liberating uprisings against Russian Empire on the territory of Poland, Lithuania, Belorussia as well as the right-bank Ukraine appeared in Siberia exiled. Among the descendants of these exiled and resettlers was an outstanding compositor Dmitriy Schostakovich and a famous writer Alexander Grin.  Furthermore, among the exiled Poles were a lot of highly educated scientists and talented persons who were aimed to the science. Even being in the exile, they continued researching the Baikal’s nature, its wealth and climate peculiarities. Owing to the scientific works Yan Chersky had got a big fame. With the help of his friends and compatriots he became a serious investigator of the region. A substantial contribution to the Siberia’s researching made the exiled Polish scientists A. Chekanovsky and V. Dybovskiy. Their names forever went down in the history of the region.

As a memory about the Poles’ staying in Irkutsk serves a Polish Catholic church built in the Neogothic style. It was restored in 1884 after the great city-wide fire. Firstly, there was erected a wooden church in 1825 that was consecrated in the name of Assumption of Madona. The church had been built for the Catholic parishioners of Irkutsk the number of which reached about 1400 people for that period. In December, 1825, on the feast of Immaculate Conception a first sacred worship was held in the church. Nowadays, there is an Organ Hall of the Irkutsk State Philharmonic in that building.

In a whole, an uncountable number of the Poles were constantly arriving in the territory of Siberia up to the 1950s. Among them were, mainly, rebellions, participants of numerous Polish uprisings, representatives of diverse proletarian and socialistic movements and organizations, conspiracy liberating groups and a plenty of other criminals. According to the population census of 1920 the Polish population ran to 57 thousand people. They not only successfully blended with multi-nation life of Eastern Siberia, but also left a remarkable imprint in the history of the Siberian cities having participated in the science, culture and education development. The Poles worthy participated in all the spheres of the local industry and commerce. In the second middle of the 19th century a majority of the Polish entrepreneurs in Siberia were descendants of the exiled criminals or were the exiled themselves.

The Decembrists. Another big wave of the political exile in Siberia was caused by the uprising in the Senate Square in St Petersburg on December 14, 1825. It was organized by, mostly, high-ranking officers later called the Decembrists. They were revolutionists who came from the nobility and were the first in Russia to take up arms against autocracy and serfdom.

At the beginning of the 19th century a lot of secret conspiracy societies appeared in Russian Empire. Their participants were not satisfied with the current regime. The majority of them were guards officers, just returned from the Napoleon war. For that reason, all the Decembrists were deeply influenced by Western ideas of freedom and by the romantic literature of France, Germany and England. The organizers of the December’s uprising belonged to the “Northern” secret conspiracy society that was formed in St. Petersburg. It was headed by a captain of the Guard’s general headquarters Nikita Muraviov, a colonel of the Preobrazhensky regiment Sergey Trubetskoy as well as a famous poet Kondraty Ryleev. There existed a “Southern” conspiracy society found in the Ukraine by the colonel Pestel. Further, one of the Decembrists G. Batenkov wrote: “Our secret conspiracy society was not a seditious but a political one. It, except someone, included people whom Russia will always be proud of”.

The date of the uprising was thoroughly premeditated. After the death of the emperor Alexander I, his heir Konstantin abdicated the crown.  It was planned a prompt swear to Nikolas. Having caught an opportunity arisen, the Decembrists wanted not to allow the troops and the Senate give swear to a new Tsar. Then they planned to enter the Senate and to claim publishing a manifest written by them. According to their expectations, the deputies had to approve the main and new law that was a constitution. In case of rejection, it was decided to make the Senate sign it by force.

The author of the “Manifest to the Russian people” was Sergey Trubetskoy. It declared the abolition of serfdom and deposition of autocracy. But there wasn’t clearly accurate what type of regime it was planned to install in the country. There was not if it stipulated would be a Republic or Constitutional Monarchy as well as if the peasants would be given land or not after getting freedom. So, “Manifest” didn’t solve the main problems. The uprising began at 11 a.m. The Decembrists marched armed troops to the Senate Square in St. Petersburg. But From the very start all the things came wrongly. One of the participants A. Yakubovich that was charged with the capture of Winter Palace and arrest the Tsar’s family, rejected to accomplish his order. Moreover, a leader chosen by the society - Sergey Trubetskoy didn’t appear on the Square because he had seen the uprising was doomed to failure. Besides, a few part of the soldiers gathered there had got a political sense of all the happening. A majority of them cried out: “Urah, Constitution!” bearing in mind that it was a name of the Konstantin’s wife. Three thousand of the soldiers and other people were ready to act by any order of the leader. However, he didn’t appear on the Square, and the moment was lost. By Nicolas’s order the artillery had been withdrawn there and the fire was opened. The uprising was suppressed by the cost of thousand rebellions’ and simple people’s lives because of indecision and wavering on the part of its leaders.

The reprisal with the Decembrists was cruel. Total amount of the arrested ran to about three thousand rebellion. The soldiers participated in the uprising were sent to the penalty company. To carry on the reprisal under the Decembrists Nicolas I deliberately appointed M. Speransky bearing in mind the fact of Speransky’s friendship with some of the Decembrists. The Tsar’s intention consisted in that a slight indulgence on the Speransky’s part would be examined like sympathy to the criminals and evidence of his relationship with them. The Tsar’s plan worked. Trying to serve decently to the Emperor, a court punished as more secondary participants as possible as well as people who had nothing to do with that events. Five were executed, other punished in various ways – reduced to the ranks and sent to the Caucasus scene of fierce fighting at the time or deprived of all their rights and estates as well as sent into exile for life to Siberia.

The appointed terms of exile for each Decembrist differed. 121 participants were sent to Siberia for hard labor and subsequent settlement there for ever, among them was a young general Sergey Volkonsky (20 years of forced labor) and Sergey Trubetskoy (eternal hard labor). Some of the exiled were sentenced only to several years of settlement and hard labor.

The most heroic deed had been made by the Decembrists’ wives and fiancés. In spite of all the sufferings and humiliation made for them by the Government, 11 young women followed their beloved to the remote and cold Siberia. Among the arrested were few married men for the reason of their youth. Women were deprived of all the privileges, high position in society, fortune. They were added to the criminals and for that reason were not allowed to appear in the public places while living in Siberia. But the most hard and terrible ordeal for the women was prohibition to take to Siberia their children if they had them. For example, a wife of S. Volkonsky had to leave a little son of under one year old in St. Petersburg. Once she said: “My son is happy and my husband is not, so, I ought to be near my husband”.

The first of the women arrived in Siberia was a wife of Sergey Trubetskoy. The next followed Maria Volkonsky. First time they were allowed to meet their husbands twice a week only. They lived in a small hut with a much smoking stove and tiny windows made of mica in spite of glass. Very often they were hungry. Catherine Trubetskaya even had frost-bitten her feet because she made a warm cap to the husband’s comrade from her only shoes. After the transferring of their husbands to the works at Petrovsk plant, the families could finally live together. Many years later, the Trubetskoy managed to buy a little hut in Chita city (the neighbor region to Irkutsk) that was always overcrowded with indigents and homeless people that always were given help there.

Staying of such outstanding Russian intellectuals, the most educated persons of Siberia influenced a lot in the destiny of that land. Each of them left a bright imprint in the region’s history and stayed forever on the minds of local people. Nicolas I hoped the Decembrists’ names would be forgotten soon, but he was mistaken. For ordinary Russian people all of them were great heroes.

The Decembrists were bringing to the masses Enlightenment: developed education, opened schools not only for boys but also for girls having left behind the European part of Russia. Economical activity of the Siberians, science, agriculture, medicine, culture and many other life aspects of the Irkutsk region as well as other Siberian territory experienced a beneficial and positive influence of the Decembrists.

For the population of Buriatia the Decembrists turned into doctors and teachers.  They were interested in history of the region, its cultural traditions and local religious beliefs. For example, the Decembrists V. Tolstoy, E. Obolensky, the brothers Khuhelbeckers, K. Torson, the brothers Bestuzhevs were giving lessons to the local children and adult persons at home. There was no difference for the Decembrists if there were Russian or Buryat peasants they taught. As for Bestuzhev, he was an often guest in the Buryat yurtas of both the poor and rich Buryats. He went hunting together with them and participated in diverse local celebrations with traditional religious rites. For his kindness, cordial treatment, disinterested assistance of Bestuzhev the Buryats called him “Ulan Nar” – “Red Sun”.

In various places next to the Baikal other Decembrists like a philosopher and writer Michal Lunin, a poet and enlightener Vladimir Rayevsky, a noble and city head Alexander Muraviov were living. As for Muraviov, being a perfect musician, he taught to play the piano a lot of the Irkutsk residents. Another Decembrist - Alexey Yushnevsky was an outstanding doctor whose medical recipes were of a high confidence by the local population during the long time even after his departure from Irkutsk.

The history of Irkutsk closely related with the destinies of two Decembrists – Sergey Trubetskoy and Sergey Volkonsky.  In the middle of the 1840s they were allowed to leave for Irkutsk from the villages they lived. From that time, Irkutsk turned into the center of the Decembrists colony for 11 years. There were often taken place balls, diverse home spectacles, concerts with the German, French and Italian musicians visiting Siberia in the houses of the Trubetskys and Volkinskys. For the local young people relations with the highly educated persons were like a supreme school of morality, manners and intellect. Every local resident took for honor to be a guest in their houses that were the heart of the cultural life of Irkutsk.

Many of the Decembrists were seamen, and they were astonished by dimensions of the Siberian rivers and the Baikal as well. They could find in the nature of Siberia not only poetic verve, but also regarded it as a convenient transport system. M. Khuhelbeker had elaborated the plans on the connection of all that rivers into a single waterway. The more detailed projects on the river connection in Siberia were being working out by Nikita Muraviov along with Sergey Trubetskoy. The Decembrist G. Batenkov after the 20-year imprisonment in loneliness had thoroughly created the designs of the North-, Mid- and South-Siberian arterial road. Many of the sectors of the present Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline coincide with his drafts.

In 1856 after 30-year forced labors and exile the Decembrists were given the amnesty already not expected by them. The Emperor Alexander ıı on the day of his coronation made a decision to remove the penalty of all the involved in the events on December 14. Unfortunately, not all of the exiled could live up to the day of freedom. Among 121 Decembrists only 19 stayed alive by that time, and only 16 of them returned to the European part of Russia. For instance, M. Bestuzhev stayed in settlement. He carried on a naval journey along the Amur river from 1857 up to 1858. In 1856 the Anglo-French troops touched down in the south of China having started the intervention n 1856. M. Bestuzhev had got a rank of admiral of flotilla consisted of 40 barges and floaters aimed to the goods floating for the Amur’s settlers. The first floating, one of them was carried out by M. Bestuzhev, had a great importance. Owing to them the fight for the city Petropalovsk-Kamchatsky was won, and the aggression on the part of England on Sakhalin, in the south of the Primorsky region as well as in China. Sergey Volkonsky together with his family left for the Moscow Oblast and was always under the control of the policemen. He died in 1865 having left his “Notes” about his life that were interrupted on the description of his first interrogation. Nowadays, they represent an important historical document. There described in details scenes of the war and peace, various interesting meetings, curious observations of the lifestyle in Russia and Europe. In short, they are interesting considerations of the smart, intelligent person. Afterward, the “Notes” had been published with the help of the son of S. Volkonsky – a prince Michael Volkonsky.

Nowadays, the houses belonged to the families of S. Trubetskoy and S. Volkonsky are restored, and are the museums in Irkutsk now. Besides, they are not just ordinary museums, but, so to say, the houses that are alive and continue, as their previous masters, play a peculiar role in the Irkutsk’s life. In the evenings there organize the musical concerts, light up candles and the music performed is the same as it was in times of the Volkonskys. The tombs of the Trubetskoy’s wife and their children are located in the territory of the Znamensky Convent in Irkutsk.

To the Decembrists and the heroic deed of their wives that of their own accord   followed their husbands, is devoted a film named “Captivating Happiness’s Star” directed by V. Mogul. The graves of all the Decembrists and the members of their families arouse a sacred worship in the souls of all people in our days.

The 20th century exile. Further, population of Siberia was added with resettlers of the Stolypin’s reform as well as with the Soviet criminals exiled to the Gulag (the main labor-correctional camps board).

In 1906, there was appointed on the post of the Minister of Home Policy Petr Stolypin. He was an outstanding reformator, illustrate state functionary as well as a great Russian patriot. The state activity of P. Stolypin had a all-embracing character and was filled with the striving for the consolidation of the Russia’s position.

In 1910, P. Stolypin went to Western Siberia. He saw that remote territory could accommodate the surplus population and offered his plan of resettlement of the peasants to the Siberian virgin and unexploited lands. P.Stolypin regarded Siberia as an unexhausted source of raw materials. However, a majority of the peasants after their resettlement came back having not overcome the hard life and labor conditions in the severe climate.

In the Soviet times, within the 1920s and the 1960s Siberia was considered to be the main place for the government agencies that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union named GULAG (Russian acronym for The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies). There were exiled the state functionaries that were disagreeable to the Government and tried to make anti-Soviet activity. The camps of such a type appeared already in the tsarist times (as the places of penal labor), and later they started to be used by the communist government. The Gulag system has become initially known as a place for the political criminals and as a mechanism for repressing political opposition to the Soviet state. In the 1930s its population reached enormous figures. According to the data, in time of the terror’s peak in 1938, the number of the exiled ran to over 2 million criminals. However, the controversies on the number of people died there have not ceased. The mortality in the camps was a 5 % a year. A big percentage was laying on the respiratory illnesses and exhaustion.

Penal practice started carrying out before the penal legislature appeared. The exile of the “anti-Soviet persons” began from 1922. Though, the first normative act on exile’s using in the administrative order appeared only on August 10, 1922. 

The prisoner’s labor in the USSR was regarded, first of all, as an economic resource. With the help of the criminals a colonization of the remote regions was held as well as the exploitation of its natural wealth. The Gulag’s prisoners were building various big industrial and transport objects (canals, hydro-electric power station, tunnels, objects of the Soviet nuclear programme) within 1930 and 1950. Even several Soviet towns had been projected and built by the institutions of the Gulag (Magadan, Vorkuta, Dubna, Hakhodka). He prisoner’s labor was used also in the agriculture, extractive and timber industries as well.

The criminals of the Gulag were divided according to their possible labor exploitation. Those who carried out industrial, building and other works referred to the “A” category. They represented the main labor contingent. The prisoners of the “B” category were busy with the camp’s inner work (service staff). A working day lasted 10-12 hours.

In 1953, an overall amnesty happened and the number of the camp prisoners reduced twice. It resulted in the stoppage of the many objects’ construction. The Gulag’s system eventually displaced and completely terminated its existence by 1960.

More than 14 million people passed through the Gulag within the period between 1929 and 1953, with a further 6 to 7 million that had been deported and exiled to remote areas of the USSR like Siberia. According to de-classified archive data released by the KGB after Perestroika, the total population of the camps varied from 510,307 (in 1934) to 1,727,970 (in 1953). Among the exiled to the camps were, mainly, Russian people, than the Ukrainians and residents of Belorussia that were not satisfied with the Bolcheviks’ regime and by all means tried to oppose it.  They were sent to Gulag without trial. Moreover, people could be imprisoned in a Gulag camp for crimes such as unexcused absences from work, petty theft and anti-government jokes as well. About 1.3 million people were exiled under the political motives.

One of the biggest correcting camp for the political criminals was “Ozerny” (from Russian “Ozero” – lake). This camp was located in the Irkutsk region near the town of Taishet. It was based in 1948 and existed up to 1963. The “Ozerny” camp’s prisoners were building a railway road Bratsk-Taishet, were engaged in the laying-in, processing and delivery of timber, sleepers as well as saw-timber materials.

The Ozerlag (“Ozerny” camp) was known as the severest among the all others. However, its history hasn’t studied thoroughly yet for the reason that all the archive’s documentation continue being classified as secret. There were about 40 thousand people in the camp. It was divided into the camp points that were spread all over the territory from Taishet to Bratsk.  There were formed only six institutions of such a type. The political prisoners were sent there from the Krasnoyarsk, Norilsk, Magadan camps.

The place was chosen intentionally: there was wetness and mould all over the world. All the prisoners constantly caught a cold. Their faces were usually wind-bitten.  The bad weather conditions rapidly made the cloths and boots worthless. The prisoners of the “Ozerny” camp (Ozerlag) were building the Baikal-Amur Mainline within the period between 1930 and 1950.

In short terms, the Ozerlag gained the fame of a demonstration one because there were imprisoned exceptionally well-educated people. Besides, the central hospital of the region was located in Taishet where the prisoners were given medical treatment by the doctors imprisoned therein. They even formed a medical museum and among the exhibits there were arms, the human body’s inner parts, and a human embryo (appeared after the miscarriage of one of the woman imprisoned therein) preserved in alcohol. The museum disappeared, and there is no information when and why it happened.

There was organized a circle of those who was keen on poetry and prose in one of the points of Ozerlag. The prisoners were gathered together for reading works of famous Russian writers who were prohibited in Soviet time like V. Nabokov, A. Solzhenitsin and others. The prisoners from other camps were striving to be imprisoned namely in the camp “Ozerny”. They deliberately organized sham political circles to be classified as political criminals and be sent to Ozerlag. It’is said that one of the reasons was an especial nutrition there. Meal was given to the prisoners according to its calories and not by grams, for instance, there was often given high-calorie red fish.

In recent decades, the interest for a sad role played by the Gulag in the history of Russia has arisen. There are a plenty of the soviet repression evidences. The old camps’ buildings have been preserved up to our time. Moreover, a majority of the railroads in Siberia were built by the prisoners.