page_title: Nikolay Bestuzhev
section_title: Life in Siberia
hierarchical_section_title: Nikolay Bestuzhev / Biography / Life in Siberia
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Памятник Н. А. Бестужеву в Новоселенгинске
context_page_description: Nikolay Alexandrovich Bestuzhev was a Russian Navy officer, writer, inventor and portrait artist; associated with the Decembrist revolt.
context_section_description: The following month, he and his brother Mikhail were taken to the fortress in Shlisselburg. In September 1827, they were transferred to Siberia and placed in a special prison at the confluence of the Chita and Ingoda rivers. In 1830, they were moved again, into the town of Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky. In 1832, their terms were reduced to fifteen years. Shortly after, he entered into a common-law marriage and had two children; one of whom was Alexey Startsev, a major figure in the commercial trade between Russia and China. The year 1839 found him and his brother transferred to Novoselenginsk, where he chose to remain; dying there in 1855.
  Despite the harsh conditions, he painted numerous portraits of his fellow Decembrists, the family members who had followed them there and local villagers; at first in watercolor, later in oils. At the end of his term, he spent 1841 in Irkutsk, doing portraits of government officials.
  He was also engaged as a cobbler, lathe operator and watchmaker. In that capacity, he developed a design for a high-precision chronometer based on a "new system" which he never revealed. During the Crimean War, he designed a gun lock. He also made meteorological and astronomical observations, created an irrigation system, bred sheep, found a new coal deposit and collected Buryat folk tales.
  In 1973, the playwright Semyon Metelitsa wrote a drama about Bestuzhev called Гражданин России (A Citizen of Russia). The 1990 feature-length film, Нет чужой земли (No Foreign Land) is based on his life in Siberia. It was directed by Baras Khalzanov and stars Pyotr Yurchenkov as Bestuzhev.
caption: Monument to Bestuzhev in Novoselenginsk
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