Sergey Volkonsky was a grandson of Field Marshal Nicholas Repnin, a leading statesman of Catherine the Great's reign.

He was the only general still in active service who took part in the Decembrist conspiracy of 1825, an attempt to achieve liberal reform by preventing the accession of Tsar Nicholas I.

Prince Volkonsky went to toil in the mines near Irkutsk and spent 30 years as a political exile in Siberia.

In the late 1850s, Sergey Volkonsky travelled in Europe, where he met Alexander Herzen and other young liberals.

Sergey and Maria spent the rest of their lives in the village of Voronki (Little Russia), which was owned by their daughter.