Vladimir Steingheil (1783-1862)

A Decembrist Vladimir Steingheil was exiled to Ishym and lived there since 1837 till 1840. He was born in the town of Obv, the Perm district. He got educated in the cadet school 91792-1799), and graduated as a midshipman of the Baltic fleet. In 1825 he retired as a colonel. Steingheil was a member of the Northern Society, an active participant of preparation to the rebellion in St.-Petersburg. In December 1825 Steingheil was arrested in Moscow, convoyed to St.-Petersburg, and imprisoned into the Petropavlovskaya fortress. He was convicted to penalty servitude for 20 years. In July 1826 he was kept in the Swartgholmsk fortress, and since August 1827 he had been kept in the Chita prison. Since 1835 he had been exiled to many parts in Siberia. Being a well-educated person, he contributed to studying the vicinities of Ishym. One of his major works at that period was ‘A Statistic description of the Ishym district’. The report was published in the magazine of interior affairs under the name of Nikolai Chernjakovski, an outstanding Maesenas in Ishym. The name of Steingheil was absent in the report, since the names of Decembrists were severely forbidden by the censorship of Nikolai I. Steingheil’s study revealed a lot of new data on Siberian settlements, and compromised a wide-spread myth on ignorance and wildness of local residents. Also the works by Steingheil characterized in detail positive and negative trends in life-style in Ishym.