Sergei Volkonsky

Sergei Grigorievich Volkonsky (Серге́й Григорьевич Волко́нский) (19 December 1788 - 10 December 1865) was a Russian soldier, political activist and author. He was a member of the Decembrist conspiracy of 1825, an attempt to achieve liberal reform by preventing the accession of Tsar Nicholas I. Following the failure of the revolt, he spent 30 years as a political exile in Siberia. He was the inspiration for the character Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, and the grandfather of the theatre director and critic Serge Wolkonsky.