Nicholas I

I

Introduction

Nicholas I (1796-1855), Emperor of Russia (1825-1855), whose reign was marked by conservatism, and who led Russia into the Crimean War (1853-1856).

Nicholas was born on July 6, 1796 (June 25, according to the Julian, or Old Style, calendar then used in Russia), the third son of Paul I and a younger brother of Alexander I. He found his education a trial, and only showed enthusiasm for military affairs. Although he joined the army in 1814, he did not see active service during the war against Napoleon. Nevertheless, Nicholas was given the opportunity to travel to Western Europe, where he met his wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, whom he married in 1817 (she took the name Alexandra on her baptism into the Orthodox Church). The sudden death of Alexander I in late 1825 and the uncertain succession (the elder brother of Nicholas, Constantine, having renounced his claim to the throne) caused a constitutional crisis. Nicholas’s accession sparked a revolt by some army officers (the Decembrist revolt), who wanted the accession of Constantine and the introduction of a constitution to Russia. Nicholas suppressed the revolt and had the leaders tried and executed or exiled. The experience gave him a lifelong fear of revolution that coloured both his domestic and his foreign policy.

II

Domestic Policies

In 1833, Count Sergei Semenovich Uvarov, the minister of education, stated that the principles of “Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality” should underpin education in the Russian Empire. These principles emphasized the role of the emperor, the Orthodox Church, and the importance of Russianness and were also manifested in other areas of Nicholas’s domestic and foreign policy. Censorship was increased, travel abroad was restricted, conservative principles were applied to education, and entrance to schools and universities became restricted by social estate. After the Polish revolt of 1830-1831, the separate status of Poland within the Russian Empire was ended, the Polish diet was abolished, and the University of Warsaw was closed. Most notoriously, Nicholas established the “Third Department”, a police agency responsible for security and surveillance whose network of spies and informers rapidly gave it a sinister reputation as a repressive organ of the state.

Nicholas was not, however, opposed to reform that could increase the efficiency of the state apparatus without threatening the social or political order. The laws of the Russian empire were codified for the first time, the municipal government of St Petersburg was reformed, and a new ministry was established to administer those peasants owned by the state, leading to reductions in their fiscal and other obligations and to some material improvements to their lives. However, Nicholas made only a limited attempt to ameliorate the conditions of serfs (peasants on seignorial land) and did not address the fundamental issues raised by the institution of serfdom, or consider moves towards its reform or abolition.

III

Foreign Policies

Nicholas believed in the preservation of the status quo in Western and Central Europe as established by the Congress of Vienna. He opposed the Belgian rebellion of 1830 and supplied troops to help Austria crush the Hungarian revolt of 1848-1849 (see Revolutions of 1848). Western states suspected that Nicholas had expansionist aims and wanted to conquer Ottoman territory in the Balkans and establish Russian hegemony over the Black Sea. Nicholas signed an advantageous treaty with the Ottoman Empire (see Treaty of Adrianople) in 1829 but was prepared to abide by international agreements governing the passage of ships through the Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles) in 1841. Conflict with France over the question of access to the Christian “Holy Places” in the Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent attempt by Russia to force concessions from the sultan, could not be resolved peacefully. In 1853, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and invaded the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia; war broke out with Britain and France the following year. The resulting Crimean War exposed Russia’s economic backwardness and military inadequacies and the war had been lost by the time of Nicholas’s death from pneumonia on March 2 (February 18, Old Style), 1855.

IV

Evaluation

Nicholas was characterized during his life and by later commentators as a reactionary. His reign was marked by vigorous efforts to prevent the spread of liberal and revolutionary ideas, the fear of which was accentuated by the traumatic Decembrist revolt that accompanied his accession in 1825 and the unrest that shook Europe in 1830 and 1848. The challenge of undertaking serious reform, the urgency of which was made clear by the disaster of the Crimean War, was passed on to Nicholas’s son and heir, Alexander II.