Pavel Pestel and his Parents: on the Problem of Forming the Decembrist's Personality
Letters from parents and other close relatives of the Decembrist Pavel Pestel (his grandparents, aunt, brothers, and his sister), as well as his tutor, that were found during the search of the Decembrist's apartment, are an extremely interesting source. They are preserved in the archives of the Investigative Committee on the Decembrists case and were recently published in the volume XXII of the documentary series “The Decembrists' Uprising”. The epistolary legacy of the Decembrist himself has not been preserved, so the value of letters addressed to him increases, they partly fill in the information gap and provide a lot of new information about his life. Pestel was close to his parents, especially to his father. Letters from his father have been preserved almost completely and are of particular interest. The Decembrist kept only part of the letters from his mother, which makes it possible to guess the nuances of his feelings towards his mother. Letters received by Pavel Pestel as a child give an idea of the practice of raising children in the family. Correspondence served as a form of education. Parents and grandparents wrote edifying, didactic letters. In addition, the form of writing itself was supposed to teach children correct epistolary behavior, the use of accepted formulas of courtesy and politeness. All the letters were written in French. Published for the first time in the article, the letters of Sophia, the younger sister to her brother Pavel serve as an example of such children's letters written according to the learned rules. It is obvious that Pavel and his brothers wrote very similar letters to their parents as children. Sophia's letters contain details about the Pestels' home life, and the description of a festive masquerade at relatives' houses is noteworthy. But it seems that this epistolary is of the greatest interest precisely as an example of educational practices of its era.