December 23, 1777 was born Alexander I - one of the most controversial Russian emperors. The winner of Napoleon and the liberator of Europe, he went down in history as Alexander the Blessed. However, contemporaries and researchers accused him of weakness and hypocrisy. “The Sphinx, not unraveled to the grave, They are still arguing about it again,” - this is how poet Peter Vyazemsky wrote about him almost a century after the birth of the autocrat. About the era of the reign of Alexander I - in the material RT.

Exemplary son and loving grandson

Alexander I was the son of Paul I and the grandson of Catherine II. The empress did not like Paul and, not seeing in him a strong ruler and a worthy successor, she gave all unspent maternal feelings to Alexander.

From childhood, the future Emperor Alexander I often spent time with his grandmother in the Winter Palace, but at the same time he managed to visit Gatchina, where his father lived. According to the doctor of historical sciences Alexander Mironenko, it was this duality, the desire to please the grandmother and father, who were so different in temperaments and views, that formed the contradictory character of the future emperor.

“Alexander I in his youth loved to play the violin. During this time, he corresponded with his mother, Maria Feodorovna, who told him that he was too fond of playing a musical instrument and that he should prepare more for the role of autocrat. Alexander I replied that it would be better to play the violin than, like his peers, play cards. He did not want to reign, but at the same time he dreamed of curing all ulcers, correcting any disorders in the structure of Russia, doing everything as it should be in his dreams, and then abdicate, ”Mironenko said in an interview with RT.

According to experts, Catherine II wanted to pass the throne to her beloved grandson, bypassing the legitimate heir. And only the sudden death of the Empress in November 1796 violated these plans. Paul I ascended the throne. A short, lasting only four years, reign of the new emperor, who received the nickname "Russian Hamlet", began.

The eccentric Paul I, obsessed with drill and parades, was despised by the whole of Catherine's Petersburg. Soon, among those dissatisfied with the new emperor, a conspiracy arose, the result of which was a palace coup.

“It is not clear whether Alexander understood that the removal of his own father from the throne is impossible without murder. Nevertheless, Alexander went for it, and on the night of March 11, 1801, the conspirators entered the bedroom of Paul I and killed him. Most likely, Alexander I was ready for such an outcome of events. Subsequently, from the memoirs it became known that Alexander Poltoratsky, one of the conspirators, quickly informed the future emperor that his father had been killed, which means that he had to take the crown. To the surprise of Poltoratsky himself, he found Alexander awake in the middle of the night in full uniform, ”said Mironenko.

Tsar Reformer

Having ascended the throne, Alexander I began to develop progressive reforms. Discussions took place in the Unspoken Committee, which included close friends of the young autocrat.

“According to the first reform of government, undertaken in 1802, the colleges were replaced by ministries. The main difference was that in collegiums decisions are made collectively, in ministries all responsibility rests with one minister, who now had to be chosen very carefully,” Mironenko explained.

In 1810, Alexander I created the State Council - the highest legislative body under the emperor.

“The famous painting by Repin - the solemn meeting of the State Council on its centennial anniversary - was written in 1902, on the day the Private Committee was approved, and not in 1910,” Mironenko noted.

The State Council, as part of the transformation of the state, was developed not by Alexander I, but by Mikhail Speransky. It was he who laid the foundation for the Russian government controlled the principle of separation of powers.

“We should not forget that in an autocratic state this principle was difficult to implement. Formally, the first step - the creation of the State Council as a legislative body - was taken. Since 1810, any imperial decree was issued with the wording: "Having heeded the opinion of the State Council." At the same time, Alexander I could issue laws without listening to the opinion of the State Council,” Mironenko explained.

Tsar Liberator

After the Patriotic War of 1812 and foreign campaigns, Alexander I, inspired by the victory over Napoleon, returned to the long-forgotten idea of ​​​​reforms: changing the form of government, limiting autocracy by the constitution and solving the peasant question.

Alexander I in 1814 near Paris

© F. Kruger

The first step in resolving the peasant issue was the decree on free cultivators of 1803. For the first time in many centuries of serfdom, peasants were allowed to be liberated, giving them land, albeit for a ransom. Of course, the landowners were in no hurry to free the peasants, especially with the land. As a result, very few were free. However, for the first time in the history of Russia, the authorities gave the peasants the opportunity to leave serfdom.

The second significant state act of Alexander I was a draft constitution for Russia, which he instructed Nikolai Novosiltsev, a member of the Private Committee, to develop. An old friend of Alexander I fulfilled this order. However, this was preceded by the events of March 1818, when in Warsaw, at the opening of the meeting of the Polish Council, Alexander, by decision of the Congress of Vienna, granted Poland a constitution.

“The emperor uttered words that shocked all of Russia at that time: “someday blessed constitutional principles will be extended to all the lands subject to my scepter." It's like saying in the 1960s that Soviet power will no longer exist. Many representatives of influential circles were frightened by this. As a result, Alexander did not dare to adopt the constitution,” Mironenko said.

The plan of Alexander I to free the peasants was also not fully implemented.

“The emperor understood that it was impossible to free the peasants without the participation of the state. A certain part of the peasants must be redeemed by the state. One can imagine such an option: the landowner went bankrupt, his estate was put up for auction and the peasants were personally liberated. However, this was not implemented. Although Alexander was an autocratic and domineering monarch, he was still within the system. The unrealized constitution was supposed to modify the system itself, but there were no forces that would support the emperor at that moment, ”Mironenko explained.

According to experts, one of the mistakes of Alexander I was his conviction that the communities in which the ideas of reorganizing the state are discussed should be secret.

“Away from the people, the young emperor discussed reform projects in the Unspoken Committee, not realizing that the already emerging Decembrist societies partly share his ideas. In the end, neither of these attempts were successful. It took another quarter of a century to understand that these reforms were not so radical, ”Mironenko concluded.

Mystery of death

Alexander I died during a trip to Russia: he caught a cold in the Crimea, lay “in a fever” for several days and died in Taganrog on November 19, 1825.

The body of the late emperor was to be transported to Petersburg. The remains of Alexander I were embalmed. The procedure was unsuccessful: the complexion and appearance of the sovereign changed. In St. Petersburg, during a public farewell, Nicholas I ordered that the coffin be closed. It was this incident that gave rise to unceasing disputes about the death of the king and aroused suspicions that "the body was changed."

© Wikimedia Commons

The most popular version is associated with the name of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich. The elder appeared in 1836 in the Perm province, and then ended up in Siberia. In recent years, he lived in Tomsk in the house of the merchant Khromov, where he died in 1864. Fyodor Kuzmich himself never spoke about himself. However, Khromov assured that the elder was Alexander I, who had secretly left the world. Thus, a legend arose that Alexander I, tormented by remorse because of the murder of his father, staged his own death and set off to wander around Russia.

Subsequently, historians tried to debunk this legend. After studying the surviving notes of Fyodor Kuzmich, the researchers came to the conclusion that the handwriting of Alexander I and the elder have nothing in common. Moreover, Fyodor Kuzmich wrote with errors. However, lovers of historical secrets believe that the point in this matter has not been set. They are convinced that until a genetic examination of the remains of the old man has been carried out, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about who Fyodor Kuzmich really was.

Alexander was the favorite grandson of his grandmother Catherine the Great. From the first days of his life, she single-handedly raised the boy, removing her parents from caring for her son. Thus, she went the beaten path indicated to her by her aunt Elizabeth, who did exactly the same with herself, separating her from worries about her son Paul.

And what has grown out of the boy Pavlik has grown. A person who is not only hostile to the mother, but also denies all her deeds.

Ekaterina was unable to establish contact with her son in her entire life and placed great hopes on her first-born grandson Alexander. He was good to everyone. Both in appearance and mind. In her letters, she did not skimp on enthusiastic epithets addressed to him. "

I am crazy about this boy" "Divine baby" "My baby comes to me in the afternoon for as long as he wants and spends three or four hours a day in this way in my room" "He will be an inheritance that I will bequeath to Russia" "This is a miracle child "

The second grandson, Konstantin, could not be compared with the first and beloved. "I won't bet a dime on him"

Alexander I

The succession manifesto, written shortly after the boy's birth, was not made public, but its existence was known. Of course, depriving the direct heir of the right to the throne could have the most unexpected consequences.

Catherine, who saw well all the pitfalls of such a situation, was cautious and, at the very end of her reign, persuaded Paul to voluntarily sign the abdication, undertaking all sorts of detours. And with the help of his wife Maria Feodorovna and with the help of other levers, This did not strengthen trust either between mother and son, or between father and son Alexander. As you know, by the end of his life, Paul did not trust absolutely anyone. And to whom he trusted, he took advantage of this trust. That is, the scenario of the fate of this emperor was written long before the tragedy.

Alexander, on the other hand, certainly grew up two-faced and capable of a subtle diplomatic game. Maneuvering between grandmother and father brought the proper result. No wonder Napoleon was regularly enraged by his behavior. Without a shadow of embarrassment, he violated the agreements reached while maintaining a good-natured mine.

At the age of 13, Alexander wrote about himself: “Egoist, if only I didn’t lack anything, I don’t care much about others. Vain, I would like to speak out and shine at the expense of my neighbor, because I don’t feel the necessary strength in myself to acquire true dignity.

At thirteen, I'm getting closer and closer to zero. what will become of me? Nothing, by the looks of it."

So, the grandmother planned a royal crown for her grandson, bypassing his father, and in a letter to Melchor Grimm said: “First we marry him, and then we crown him”

The choice of the bride was entrusted to the envoy at the small German courts, Count Rumyantsev.

He recommended for consideration the candidacies of the sisters of the princesses of Baden.
The family of Crown Prince Karl Ludwig was distinguished by its fertility. He had six daughters and one son. The older girls are twins, then daughter Louise, who at the time of the viewing has reached the age of 13, then Frederica -11 years old. these two were offered to the fourteen-year-old Prince Alexander as potential brides.

Rumyantsev gave the most brilliant characteristics to the family of applicants, their upbringing, the way of life of the Baden court, as well as the appearance and manners of the girls themselves.
Catherine was very interested in the candidates and ordered to send their portraits, but for some reason she suddenly began to rush things and sent Countess Shuvalova to Baden to negotiate the arrival of both girls in Russia in order to meet and subsequently marry one of them her boy.

At the same time, the parents were ordered to leave in their own house.
"Find a way to stop the crown prince from coming here with his wife, you'll do a good deed."

Count Rumyantsev was supposed to contribute to the fulfillment of the empress's plans.

"The princesses will remain incognito to the very Russian borders. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, they will live in my palace, from which, I hope, one will never leave. Both will be kept at my expense"

And now two girls aged 13 and 11 say goodbye to their parental home, to their parents, get into a carriage and go to a little unfamiliar country. Louise sobbed. She even tried to jump out of the carriage, but Countess Shuvalova knew the matter strictly.

In the spring of 1793, Louise converted to Orthodoxy and was named after Elizabeth Alekseevna, and on September 28 the marriage took place. The young wife was 14, the young spouse 16.

Frederica left for her homeland, having spent time in Russia not without benefit to herself. King Gustav of Sweden, who was wooing Pavel's eldest daughter Alexandra, saw Frederica abruptly change his mind and refused to sign the marriage contract, citing the girl's unwillingness to change her religion as the reason.

In fact, Frederica took a place in his heart and later became his wife and Queen of Sweden. Although their marriage was not happy and fate did not smile for long.

But this is a different story, which had an echo of the hostility that Louise's mother-in-law Maria Fedorovna had for her daughter-in-law's family for many years. The grandmother of the crowned grandson had little time left to live, and the warmth with which she warmed the young left with her. And the cold hostility of the new emperor towards his son, who from birth was appointed as a competitor to his father, came to replace him.

Elizaveta Alekseevna gave birth to her first daughter on May 18, 1799. She was twenty years old. Alexander was happy. But in July 1800, the girl died from a severe attack of respiratory failure.

Alexander was helpful and attentive to the suffering of his wife.

Meanwhile, relations between emperor and heir became increasingly strained.

During this period, Alexander seriously considered giving up his rights to the throne in favor of his brother Constantine. Together with Elizabeth, they began to dream of life in Europe as ordinary bourgeois.

But Pavel had already rebuilt his last Mikhailovsky castle, where he ordered the family of the heir to move.

In March 1801, Paul was killed by conspirators. Alexander fell into hysterics, and Elizabeth consoled everyone: both her husband and mother-in-law. Alexander was depressed, but mourning and coronation events were ahead. Elizabeth showed fortitude and supported her husband.

Alexander began to rule, and his wife began to travel. Entering into marriage at a very young age, Alexander very quickly lost interest in his wife. Although I did not miss a single skirt. “To love a woman, you have to despise her a little,” he said. And I have too much respect for my wife.

All his love affairs are recorded in police reports during the stay of the victorious king at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.
List of ladies. whom he honored with his attention, consists of dozens of names.
"The Emperor of Russia loves women" - Talleyrand wrote to his patron Louis XVIII

Starting from 1804, Emperor Alexander gave preference to one lady. Maria Naryshkina became his official favorite. She had a very indulgent husband, so the beautiful Polish woman led a free lifestyle.

Maria Naryshkina

According to rumors, the emperor played Naryshkina in a lottery with Platon Zubov.

In one of the meetings at a reception in the Winter Palace, Elizabeth asked Naryshkina a polite question about her health.
"Not very well," she replied, I think I'm pregnant.
And Elizabeth could only dream of a child...

The dream came true in the spring of 1806.
In early November, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born, who died at the age of one and a half years.
This was a terrible blow for the empress. For four days she held the body in her room in her arms...

In the same year, Princess Golitsina, the closest friend of Elizabeth, died of transient consumption. Elizabeth took care of her young daughter.

The royal couple had no other children in marriage.

In 1810, the youngest daughter of the emperor from Maria Naryshkina, Zinaida, died. Elizabeth is a wife, she comforts both parents: both her own husband and his beloved.
"I am a sinister bird. If I am close, then it is bad for him. For me to be close, he must be in illness, in misfortune, in danger," she writes in a letter.

Maria Fedorovna spoke about the family relations of her royal son and his wife:
"If they were married at twenty years old, they would be happy. But Elizabeth's excessive pride and lack of self-confidence prevented her from being happy in marriage"

Years passed. The emperor triumphantly entered Paris, became known as the victorious tsar, was loved by many women, sung by many poets.

March 1824 arrived. The daughter of the emperor and Maria Naryshkina, Sofia, was to marry Count Andrei Shuvalov. The emperor himself chose this groom for his only and dearly beloved eighteen-year-old daughter. The wedding was scheduled for Easter. A magnificent wedding dress was delivered from Paris. Sophia believed that she had two mothers. One is native, the other is Empress Elizabeth. Sophia wore a portrait of the Empress in a gold medallion on her chest without removing it.

Due to the illness of the girl, the wedding had to be postponed. Transient consumption did not give her the opportunity to become a wife. Upon learning of the death of his last child, the emperor said, "This is the punishment for all my delusions."

Will end in 1826 life path this person. Emperor Alexander will spend the last two years in seclusion with his seriously ill wife, leading a reclusive lifestyle.

According to many biographers, Alexander imitated his death, and he took the tonsure and went to the Siberian hermitage under the name of Fyodor Kuzmich. Elizaveta Alekseevna died five months later on the way from Taganrog, where, according to the official version, the emperor died.

sources
Valentina Grigoryan "The Romanov Princesses-Empresses"
Vallotton "Alexander the First"

The reign of Alexander 1 (1801-1825)

By 1801, dissatisfaction with Paul 1 began to go wild. Moreover, it was not ordinary citizens who were dissatisfied with him, but his sons, in particular Alexander, some generals and the elite. The reason for non-solicitation is the rejection of the policy of Catherine 2 and the deprivation of the nobility of the leading role and some privileges. The English ambassador supported them in this, since Paul 1 severed all diplomatic relations with the British after their betrayal. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, the conspirators, led by General Palen, broke into Paul's chambers and killed him.

Emperor's First Steps

The reign of Alexander 1 actually began on March 12, 1801 on the basis of a coup carried out by the elite. In the early years, the emperor was an adherent of liberal reforms, as well as the ideas of the Republic. Therefore, from the first years of his reign, he had to face difficulties. He had like-minded people who supported the views of liberal reforms, but the main part of the nobility spoke from a position of conservatism, so 2 camps formed in Russia. In the future, the conservatives won, and Alexander himself, by the end of his reign, changed his liberal views to conservative ones.

To implement the TSV look, Alexander created " secret committee", which included his associates. It was an unofficial body, but it was he who was involved in the initial drafts of reforms.

Internal government of the country

Alexander's domestic policy differed little from that of his predecessors. He also believed that serfs should not have any rights. The dissatisfaction of the peasants was very strong, so Emperor Alexander 1 was forced to sign a decree banning the sale of serfs (this decree was easily managed by the landlords) and in the same year the decree “On Sculptural Plowmen” was signed. According to this decree, the landowner was allowed to provide the peasants with freedom and land if they could redeem themselves. This decree was more formal, since the peasants were poor and could not redeem themselves from the landowner. During the reign of Alexander 1, 0.5% of peasants throughout the country received freedom.

The emperor changed the system of government of the country. He dissolved the colleges that had been appointed by Peter the Great and organized ministries in their place. Each ministry was headed by a minister who reported directly to the emperor. During the reign of Alexander, the judicial system of Russia was also changed. The Senate was declared the highest judicial authority. In 1810, Emperor Alexander 1 announced the creation of the State Council, which became the country's supreme governing body. The system of government, which was proposed by Emperor Alexander 1, with minor changes, lasted until the very moment of the fall Russian Empire in 1917.

Population of Russia

During the reign of Alexander the First in Russia there were 3 large estates of inhabitants:

• Privileged. Nobles, clergy, merchants, honorary citizens.
• Semi-privileged. Odnodvortsy and Cossacks.
• Taxable. Petty bourgeois and peasants.

At the same time, the population of Russia increased and by the beginning of the reign of Alexander (early 19th century), it amounted to 40 million people. For comparison, at the start of the 18th century, the population of Russia was 15.5 million people.

Relations with other countries

Alexander's foreign policy was not distinguished by prudence. The emperor believed in the need for an alliance against Napoleon, and as a result, in 1805, a campaign was made against France, in alliance with England and Austria, and in 1806-1807. in alliance with England and Prussia. The British did not fight. These campaigns did not bring success, and in 1807 the Treaty of Tilsit was signed. Napoleon did not demand any concessions from Russia, he was looking for an alliance with Alexander, but Emperor Alexander 1, devoted to the British, did not want to move closer. As a result, this peace has become only a truce. And in June 1812 began Patriotic War between Russia and France. Thanks to the genius of Kutuzov and the fact that the entire Russian people rose up against the invaders, already in 1812 the French were defeated and expelled from Russia. Fulfilling the allied duty, Emperor Alexander 1 gave the order to pursue Napoleon's troops. The foreign campaign of the Russian army continued until 1814. This campaign did not bring much success for Russia.

Emperor Alexander 1 lost his vigilance after the war. He absolutely did not control foreign organizations, which began to supply Russian revolutionaries with money in large volumes. As a result, a boom of revolutionary movements began in the country aimed at overthrowing the emperor. All this resulted in the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825. The uprising was subsequently suppressed, but a dangerous precedent was set in the country, and most of the participants in the uprising fled from justice.

results

The reign of Alexander 1 was not glorious for Russia. The emperor bowed before England and did almost everything he was asked to do in London. He got involved in the anti-French coalition, pursuing the interests of the British, Napoleon at that time did not think about a campaign against Russia. The result of such a policy was terrible: the devastating war of 1812 and the powerful uprising of 1825.

Emperor Alexander 1 died in 1825, ceding the throne to his brother, Nicholas 1.

Since the relationship between father and grandmother did not work out, the Empress took her grandson from his parents. Catherine II immediately inflamed with great love for her grandson and decided what she would make of the newborn ideal emperor.

Alexander was brought up by the Swiss Laharpe, who was considered by many to be a staunch republican. The prince received a good Western-style education.

Alexander believed in the possibility of creating an ideal, humane society, he sympathized french revolution, felt sorry for the Poles deprived of statehood, and was skeptical of the Russian autocracy. Time, however, dispelled his belief in such ideals ...

Alexander I became Emperor of Russia after the death of Paul I, as a result of palace coup. The events that took place on the night of March 11-12, 1801, affected the life of Alexander Pavlovich. He was very worried about the death of his father, and guilt haunted him all his life.

Domestic policy of Alexander I

The emperor saw the mistakes made by his father during his reign. The main reason for the conspiracy against Paul I was the abolition of privileges for the nobility that Catherine II introduced. First of all, he restored these rights.

Domestic policy had a strictly liberal connotation. He declared an amnesty for people who were subjected to repression during the reign of his father, allowed him to freely travel abroad, reduced censorship and returned the foreign press to the Russian Empire.

He carried out a large-scale reform of public administration in Russia. In 1801, the Permanent Council was created - a body that had the right to discuss and cancel the decrees of the emperor. The indispensable council had the status of a legislative body.

Instead of collegiums, ministries were created, headed by responsible persons. This is how the Cabinet of Ministers was formed, which became the most important administrative body of the Russian Empire. During the reign of Alexander I, the undertakings of Speransky played a big role. He was a talented man with great ideas in his head.

Alexander I distributed all sorts of privileges to the nobility, but the emperor understood the seriousness of the peasant issue. Many titanic efforts were made to alleviate the position of the Russian peasantry.

In 1801, a decree was adopted, according to which merchants and philistines could buy free lands and organize economic activities on them using hired labor. This decree destroyed the monopoly of the nobility on land ownership.

In 1803, a decree was issued, which went down in history as the “Decree on free cultivators”. Its essence was that now, the landowner could make a serf free for a ransom. But such a deal is possible only with the consent of both parties.

Free peasants had the right to property. Throughout the reign of Alexander I, there was continuous work aimed at solving the most important internal political issue - the peasant one. Various projects were developed to give freedom to the peasantry, but they remained only on paper.

There was also a reform of education. The Russian Emperor understood that the country needed new highly qualified personnel. Now educational establishments divided into four successive levels.

The territory of the Empire was divided into educational districts, headed by local universities. The university provided personnel and educational programs to local schools and gymnasiums. In Russia, 5 new universities were opened, many gymnasiums and colleges.

Foreign policy of Alexander I

His foreign policy is primarily "recognizable" by the Napoleonic wars. Russia was at war with France, most of the reign of Alexander Pavlovich. In 1805, a major battle took place between the Russian and French armies. The Russian army was defeated.

Peace was signed in 1806, but Alexander I refused to ratify the treaty. In 1807, the Russian troops were defeated near Friedland, after which the emperor had to conclude the Tilsit peace.

Napoleon sincerely considered the Russian Empire his only ally in Europe. Alexander I and Bonaparte seriously discussed the possibility of joint military operations against India and Turkey.

France recognized the rights of the Russian Empire to Finland, and Russia, the rights of France to Spain. But due to a number of reasons, Russia and France could not be allies. The interests of the countries clashed in the Balkans.

Also, the existence of the Duchy of Warsaw, which prevented Russia from conducting profitable trade, became a stumbling block between the two powers. In 1810, Napoleon asked for the hand of Alexander Pavlovich's sister, Anna, but was refused.

In 1812 the Patriotic War began. After the expulsion of Napoleon from Russia, foreign campaigns of the Russian army began. During the events of the Napoleonic wars, many worthy people inscribed their names in golden letters in the history of Russia: Kutuzov, Bagration, Davydov, Yermolov, Barclay de Tolly ...

Alexander I died on November 19, 1825 in Taganrog. The emperor died of typhoid fever. The unexpected departure of the emperor from life gave rise to many rumors. There was a legend among the people that a completely different person was buried instead of Alexander I, and the emperor himself began to wander around the country and, having reached Siberia, settled in this area, leading the life of an old hermit.

Summing up, we can say that the reign of Alexander I can be characterized in positive terms. He was one of the first to speak about the importance of limiting autocratic power, introducing a duma and a constitution. Under him, voices calling for the abolition of serfdom began to sound louder, and a lot of work was done in this respect.

During the reign of Alexander I (1801 - 1825), Russia was able to successfully defend itself against an external enemy that conquered all of Europe. The Patriotic War of 1812 became the personification of the unity of the Russian people in the face of external danger. The successful defense of the borders of the Russian Empire is undoubtedly a great merit of Alexander I.

Alexander the first was born in St. Petersburg on December 12 (23), 1777 and was the eldest son of Paul I. His mother was the second wife of Paul I, Maria Feodorovna; before conversion to Orthodoxy - Sophia Maria Dorothea Augusta Louise von Württemberg. Pavel's first wife, Natalya Aleksevna, born Princess Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, died in childbirth. Paul I had 10 children from Maria Feodorovna and three more illegitimate.
Grandmother, Catherine II, named the eldest grandson Alexander in honor of Alexander Nevsky and Alexander the Great. Alexander I ascended the Russian throne in 1801.

At the beginning of his reign, he carried out moderately liberal reforms developed by the Private Committee and M. M. Speransky. In foreign policy, he maneuvered between Great Britain and France. In 1805-07 he participated in anti-French coalitions. In 1807-12 he temporarily became close to France. He waged successful wars with Turkey (1806-12) and Sweden (1808-09).

Under Alexander I, the territories of Eastern Georgia (1801), Finland (1809), Bessarabia (1812), Azerbaijan (1813), and the former Duchy of Warsaw (1815) were annexed to Russia. After the Patriotic War of 1812, he headed the anti-French coalition of European powers in 1813-14. He was one of the leaders of the Vienna Congress of 1814-15 and the organizers of the Holy Alliance.

Immediately after his birth, Alexander was taken from his parents by his grandmother, Empress Catherine II, to Tsarskoe Selo, who wanted to raise him as an ideal sovereign, a successor to her work. The Swiss F. C. Laharpe, a republican by conviction, was invited to be tutors to Alexander. The Grand Duke grew up with a romantic belief in the ideals of the Enlightenment, sympathized with the Poles who lost their statehood after the partitions of Poland, sympathized with the French Revolution and critically assessed political system Russian autocracy.

Catherine II forced him to read the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and herself explained to him its meaning. However, in last years During the reign of his grandmother, Alexander found more and more inconsistencies between her declared ideals and everyday political practice. He had to carefully hide his feelings, which contributed to the formation in him of such traits as pretense and slyness.

This was also reflected in the relationship with his father during a visit to his residence in Gatchina, where the spirit of the military and strict discipline reigned. Alexander constantly had to have, as it were, two masks: one for his grandmother, the other for his father. In 1793, he was married to Princess Louise of Baden (in Orthodoxy, Elizaveta Alekseevna), who enjoyed the sympathy of Russian society, but was not loved by her husband.

Ascension of Alexander I to the throne

It is believed that shortly before her death, Catherine II intended to bequeath the throne to Alexander, bypassing her son. Apparently, the grandson was aware of her plans, but did not agree to accept the throne. After the accession of Paul, the position of Alexander became even more complicated, since he had to constantly prove his loyalty to the suspicious emperor. Alexander's attitude to his father's policy was sharply critical.

Even before Alexander’s accession to the throne, a group of “young friends” rallied around him (Count P. A. Stroganov, Count V. P. Kochubey, Prince A. A. Czartorysky, N. N. Novosiltsev), who from 1801 began to play extremely important role in government. Already in May, Stroganov invited the young tsar to form a secret committee and discuss plans for state reform in it. Alexander readily agreed, and friends jokingly called their secret committee the Committee of Public Safety.

It was these moods of Alexander that contributed to his involvement in a conspiracy against Paul, but on the condition that the conspirators save his father's life and would only seek his abdication. The tragic events of March 11, 1801 seriously affected Alexander's state of mind: he felt guilty for the death of his father until the end of his days.

In the Russian Empire, the assassination of Paul I was first published in 1905 in the memoirs of General Bennigsen. This caused shock in the society. The country was amazed that Emperor Paul I was killed in his own palace, and the killers were not punished.

Under Alexander I and Nicholas I, the study of the history of the reign of Pavel Petrovich was not encouraged and was banned; it was forbidden to mention it in the press. Emperor Alexander I personally destroyed materials about the murder of his father. The official cause of the death of Paul I was declared apoplexy. Within a month, Alexander returned to the service of all those previously dismissed by Pavel, lifted the ban on the import of various goods and products into Russia (including books and musical notes), declared an amnesty for the fugitives, and restored noble elections. On April 2, he restored the validity of the Charter to the nobility and cities, liquidated the secret office.

Reforms of Alexander I

Alexander I ascended the Russian throne, wishing to carry out a radical reform of the political system of Russia by creating a constitution that guaranteed personal freedom and civil rights to all subjects. He was aware that such a "revolution from above" would actually lead to the liquidation of the autocracy and was ready, if successful, to retire from power. However, he also understood that he needed a certain social support, like-minded people. He needed to get rid of pressure from both the conspirators who overthrew Paul and the “Catherine old men” who supported them.

Already in the first days after the accession, Alexander announced that he would govern Russia "according to the laws and according to the heart" of Catherine II. On April 5, 1801, the Permanent Council was created - a legislative advisory body under the sovereign, which received the right to protest the actions and decrees of the king. In May of the same year, Alexander submitted to the council a draft decree banning the sale of peasants without land, but members of the Council made it clear to the emperor that the adoption of such a decree would cause unrest among the nobles and lead to a new coup d'état.

After that, Alexander concentrated his efforts on developing a reform in the circle of his “young friends” (V.P. Kochubey, A.A. Czartorysky, A.S. Stroganov, N.N. Novosiltsev). By the time of Alexander’s coronation (September 1801), the Indispensable Council prepared a draft “Most Merciful Letter Complained to the Russian People”, which contained guarantees of the basic civil rights of subjects (freedom of speech, press, conscience, personal security, guarantee of private property, etc.), a draft manifesto on the peasant question (a ban on the sale of peasants without land, the establishment of a procedure for the redemption of peasants from the landowner) and a draft reorganization of the Senate.

During the discussion of the drafts, sharp contradictions between the members of the Permanent Council were exposed, and as a result, none of the three documents was made public. It was only announced that the distribution was stopped state peasants into private hands. Further consideration of the peasant question led to the appearance on February 20, 1803 of the decree on “free cultivators”, which allowed landlords to release peasants into freedom and secure land for them to own, which for the first time created the category of personally free peasants.
In parallel, Alexander carried out administrative and educational reforms.

In the same years, Alexander himself already felt a taste for power and began to find advantages in autocratic rule. Disappointment in his immediate environment forced him to seek support in people who were personally devoted to him and not connected with the high-ranking aristocracy. He brought closer first A. A. Arakcheev, and later M. B. Barclay de Tolly, who became Minister of War in 1810, and M. M. Speransky, to whom Alexander entrusted the development of a new draft state reform.

Speransky's project assumed the actual transformation of Russia into a constitutional monarchy, where the sovereign's power would be limited by a bicameral legislature of a parliamentary type. The implementation of the Speransky plan began in 1809, when the practice of equating court ranks with civil ranks was abolished and an educational qualification for civil officials was introduced.

On January 1, 1810, the State Council was established, replacing the Indispensable Council. It was assumed that the initially broad powers of the State Council would then be narrowed after the establishment of the State Duma. During 1810-11 in State Council the plans for financial, ministerial and senate reforms proposed by Speransky were discussed. The implementation of the first of them led to a reduction in the budget deficit, by the summer of 1811 the transformation of the ministries was completed.

Meanwhile, Alexander himself experienced the strongest pressure from the court environment, including members of his family, who sought to prevent radical reforms. A certain influence on him, apparently, was also exerted by N. M. Karamzin’s Note on Ancient and New Russia, which obviously gave the emperor reason to doubt the correctness of the path he had chosen.

Of no small importance was the factor of Russia's international position: the growing tension in relations with France and the need to prepare for war made it possible for the opposition to interpret Speransky's reformist activities as anti-state, and to declare Speransky himself a Napoleonic spy. All this led to the fact that Alexander, inclined to compromises, although he did not believe in Speransky's guilt, dismissed him in March 1812.

Having come to power, Alexander tried to carry out his foreign policy as if from a clean slate. The new Russian government sought to create a system of collective security in Europe, linking all the leading powers among themselves with a series of agreements. However, already in 1803 peace with France turned out to be unprofitable for Russia, in May 1804 the Russian side recalled its ambassador from France and began to prepare for a new war.

Alexander considered Napoleon a symbol of the violation of the legality of the world order. But the Russian emperor overestimated his capabilities, which led to the disaster near Austerlitz in November 1805, and the presence of the emperor in the army, his inept orders had the most disastrous consequences. Alexander refused to ratify the peace treaty with France signed in June 1806, and only the defeat near Friedland in May 1807 forced the Russian emperor to agree.

At his first meeting with Napoleon in Tilsit in June 1807, Alexander managed to prove himself an outstanding diplomat and, according to some historians, actually "beat" Napoleon. An alliance and an agreement on the division of zones of influence was concluded between Russia and France. As the further development of events showed, the Tilsit agreement turned out to be more beneficial for Russia, allowing Russia to accumulate forces. Napoleon sincerely considered Russia his only possible ally in Europe.

In 1808, the parties discussed plans for a joint campaign against India and the division of the Ottoman Empire. At a meeting with Alexander in Erfurt in September 1808, Napoleon recognized Russia's right to Russian-Swedish war(1808-09 years) Finland, and Russia - the right of France to Spain. However, already at this time, relations between the allies began to heat up due to the imperial interests of both sides. Thus, Russia was not satisfied with the existence of the Duchy of Warsaw, the continental blockade harmed the Russian economy, and in the Balkans, each of the two countries had their own far-reaching plans.

In 1810, Alexander refused Napoleon, who asked for the hand of his sister, Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna (later Queen of the Netherlands), and signed a provision on neutral trade, which effectively nullified the continental blockade. There is an assumption that Alexander was going to deliver a preemptive strike to Napoleon, but after France concluded allied treaties with Austria and Prussia, Russia began to prepare for a defensive war. On June 12, 1812, French troops crossed the Russian border. The Patriotic War of 1812 began.

The invasion of the Napoleonic armies into Russia was perceived by Alexander not only as the greatest threat to Russia, but also as a personal insult, and Napoleon himself became from now on a mortal personal enemy for him. Not wanting to repeat the experience of Austerlitz and submitting to the pressure of his entourage, Alexander left the army and returned to St. Petersburg.

During the entire time that Barclay de Tolly carried out a retreat, which provoked sharp criticism from both society and the army, Alexander almost did not show his solidarity with the commander. After Smolensk was abandoned, the emperor gave in to the general demands and appointed M. I. Kutuzov to this post. With the expulsion of the Napoleonic troops from Russia, Alexander returned to the army and was in it during the foreign campaigns of 1813-14.

The victory over Napoleon strengthened the authority of Alexander, he became one of the most powerful rulers of Europe, who felt like a liberator of its peoples, who was entrusted with a special mission determined by God's will to prevent further wars and devastation on the continent. He also considered the tranquility of Europe necessary condition to implement their reformist plans in Russia itself.

To ensure these conditions, it was necessary to maintain the status quo, determined by the decisions of the Vienna Congress of 1815, according to which the territory of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was ceded to Russia, and the monarchy was restored in France, and Alexander insisted on the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in this country, which should have been serve as a precedent for establishing similar regimes in other countries. Russian emperor, in particular, he managed to enlist the support of the allies for his idea of ​​​​introducing a constitution in Poland.

As a guarantor of compliance with the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the emperor initiated the creation of the Holy Alliance (September 14, 1815) - the prototype of international organizations of the 20th century, Alexander was convinced that he owed his victory over Napoleon to the providence of God, his religiosity was constantly increasing. Baroness J. Krudener and Archimandrite Photius had a strong influence on him.

In 1825, the Holy Alliance essentially collapsed. Having strengthened his authority as a result of the victory over the French, Alexander made another series of reform attempts in the domestic politics of the post-war period. Back in 1809, the Grand Duchy of Finland was created, which essentially became autonomy with its own Sejm, without whose consent the tsar could not change legislation and introduce new taxes, and the Senate. In May 1815, Alexander announced the granting of a constitution to the Kingdom of Poland, which provided for the creation of a bicameral Sejm, a system of local self-government, and freedom of the press.

In 1817-18, a number of people close to the emperor were engaged, on his orders, in developing projects for the gradual elimination of serfdom in Russia. In 1818, Alexander gave the task to N. N. Novosiltsev to prepare a draft constitution for Russia. The draft "State Charter of the Russian Empire", which provided for the federal structure of the country, was ready by the end of 1820 and approved by the emperor, but its introduction was postponed indefinitely.

The tsar complained to his inner circle that he had no assistants and could not find suitable people for governorships. Former ideals more and more seemed to Alexander only fruitless romantic dreams and illusions, divorced from real political practice. The news of the uprising of the Semyonovsky regiment in 1820, which he perceived as a threat of a revolutionary explosion in Russia, had a sobering effect on Alexander, to prevent which it was necessary to take tough measures.

One of the paradoxes domestic policy Alexander of the post-war period was the fact that attempts to update Russian state were accompanied by the establishment of a police regime, later called "Arakcheevshchina". Military settlements became its symbol, in which Alexander himself, however, saw one of the ways to free the peasants from personal dependence, but which aroused hatred in the widest circles of society.

In 1817, instead of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education was created, headed by the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod and the head of the Bible Society A. N. Golitsyn. Under his leadership, the defeat of Russian universities was actually carried out, cruel censorship reigned. In 1822, Alexander banned the activities of Masonic lodges and other secret societies in Russia and approved the proposal of the Senate, which allowed landowners to exile their peasants to Siberia for "bad deeds". At the same time, the emperor was aware of the activities of the first Decembrist organizations, but did not take any measures against their members, believing that they shared the delusions of his youth.

In the last years of his life, Alexander again often spoke to his loved ones about his intention to abdicate the throne and “remove from the world”, which, after his unexpected death from typhoid fever in Taganrog on November 19 (December 1), 1825 at the age of 47, gave rise to the legend of “Elder Fyodor Kuzmich. According to this legend, it was not Alexander who died and was then buried in Taganrog, but his double, while the tsar lived for a long time as an old hermit in Siberia and died in 1864. But there is no documentary evidence of this legend.

Alexander I of the children had only 2 daughters: Maria (1799) and Elizabeth (1806). And the Russian throne went to his brother Nicholas.