How Irkutsk Became a “Hotbed of Socialism” or About the Exile of Students to the Irkutsk Province in 1899–1903

The article is devoted to the students of higher educational institutions of the center of Russia, who were expelled by the administrative order to the Irkutsk province for their active participation in the protest movement of 1899–1902, aimed at expanding the independence of universities and real, rather than formal, student self-government. Despite the lack of documentary and historiographic sources, the author determined the number and geography of the placement of “former students” in places of exile, showing the main forms of their participation in the local opposition movement. It is concluded that exiled students played a significant role in the design and development of left-wing radical organizations in Irkutsk in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.