Mikhail Lunin (Decembrist)

Mikhail Sergeyevich Lunin (Russian: Михаил Сергеевич Лунин; December 29, 1787 - December 3, 1845 ), also spelt Mikhaïl Lounine, was a Russian political philosopher, revolutionary, Mason, Decembrist, a Lieutenant of the Grodno Life Guards regiment and a participant of the Franco-Russian Patriotic War of 1812. After a successful career in the military during the Napoleonic invasion, he became involved with multiple liberal Russian secret societies in the early 19th century, including the Union of Salvation and the Union of Welfare, as well as the Northern Society and the Southern Society. After the Decembrist Revolt took place in 1825, he was arrested due to his affiliations with the men responsible, and was subsequently exiled to a labor camp in Siberia. Lunin spent time in Finnish jails, three different prisons in Siberia, and lived on a farm under the watchful eye of the government during his life as an exile. Known for keeping good spirits and maintaining a firm defiance of autocratic rule, Lunin was eventually imprisoned again for writing in "opposition" to the Russian government, and lived out the rest of his life in a cell.

Mikhail was born December 8, 1787, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His father, Sergei Mikhailovich Lunin, was Actual Civil Councilor to the tsar, the fourth rank in the civil service division of the Russian government, and his mother was Fyeodosiya Mykytychna Lunina née Muravyova, the daughter of a wealthy family. Fyeodosiya died in 1792 while giving birth to a daughter, leaving Sergei to raise her and his two sons, Mikhail and his brother, Nikita. To ensure the boys got a proper education, Sergei hired several tutors and governors to come live with the family and train the boys in various subjects. Due to the fact that these men either were often dismissed for being unsatisfactory or left of their own accord, Mikhail’s education was at times uneven and inconsistent. Even when there was a tutor or governor on hand, Mikhail did not experience much in the way of discipline, as his father was an often-distant figure, in accordance with the norms of the time. Nevertheless, Mikhail's basic education—history, mathematics, literature, some French and Latin—was befitting of his station, but otherwise not unusual. The hobbies he cultivated as a young man—dancing, fencing, horseback riding—were similarly suited to his background.

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