This article is devoted to the history of protest moods and anti-government protests in the Orenburg region during the nineteenth century. Characteristics of the outstanding characters of the Orenburg political exile (G. Vinsky, A. Meshchevsky, I. Vitkevich, G. Karelin, A. Pleshcheyev, T. Shevchenko, A. Alyabyev, etc.) are given, and the activities of the Polish exiles are described. The history of the Orenburg secret society, the work of the Narodnik circles and the birth of the Marxist movement are covered. The article contains questions for the actualization of knowledge in the all-Russian context; section “Saved Time”, dedicated to the brightest preserved sights of this period; reference materials and the section “Working with documents”.