Michael Lunin

Mikhail Sergeyevich "Michael" Lunin (Russian: Михаил Сергеевич Лунин; 8 December 1787 – 3 December 1845), also known as Mikhaïl Lounine, was a Russian political philosopher, revolutionary, Mason, Decembrist, 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.