I.

Introduction

Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825), Emperor of Russia (1801-1825) during whose reign Russia’s fortunes were transformed by the Napoleonic Wars, and Russia became a significant military and diplomatic force in Europe.

Alexander was born in St Petersburg on December 23, 1777 (December 12 according to the Julian, or Old Style, calendar then in use in Russia), the eldest son of Paul, the only son of Catherine the Great, and Maria Fyodorovna. His liberal and progressive education was supervised by his grandmother, Catherine, who regarded Alexander as her favoured successor (though it was Paul who became emperor on her death in 1796). She appointed the Swiss republican philosopher César-Frédéric de la Harpe to be his tutor, giving the young Alexander an early induction into the currents of European thought. In 1793 he married Louise of Baden (who took the name Elizaveta Alekseyevna on her baptism into the Orthodox Church). The couple had two daughters, both of whom died in childhood. Alexander came to the throne on March 23 (March 11, Old Style), 1801, as the result of a conspiracy, led by Petr Alekseevich Pahlen, during which the unpopular and unstable Paul was murdered. The extent of Alexander’s complicity in this plot remains controversial, though it is believed that Alexander had given his support on condition that his father’s life was spared.

II.

Domestic Reform

Alexander surrounded himself at the beginning of his reign with the so-called “young friends”, progressive young noblemen who were keen to implement constitutional and social reforms in Russia. Universities were established in St Petersburg, Kazan, and Kharkov, more primary schools were opened, and seminaries were reformed. The reform-minded administrator Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky became Alexander’s first minister in 1807, and two years later presented him with a plan for a Russian constitution, which would have introduced Napoleonic-style representative institutions and the separation of administrative, legislative, and judicial functions. Later, Nikolai Nikolaevich Novosiltsev, one of the former “young friends”, wrote a constitution for Russia (having been commissioned by Alexander to do so) that envisaged a federal constitution for the empire. Proposals for emancipation of the serfs (peasants on seignorial land) were also drawn up during his reign.

Alexander, however, kept all these proposals a secret, and their application was limited. Serfdom was ended in the Baltic Provinces between 1816 and 1819, although serfs were freed without land. A constitution was granted to Poland in 1815, after its acquisition at the Congress of Vienna. However, neither the emancipation of the serfs in the Baltic Provinces nor the Polish constitution was extended to Russian lands. Alexander was unwilling to challenge the interests of the Russian landowning nobility, who would oppose any moves towards the abolition of serfdom. The only part of Speransky’s plan that was implemented was the establishment of ministries in 1811 (Speransky fell from power in 1812).

III.

War With Napoleon

Alexander found himself increasingly distracted from his plans for reform by the international reverberations of the rise of Napoleon. Concerned about the imperial ambitions of France, Alexander joined the Third Coalition (with Britain, Austria, and later Prussia) against France in 1805 and was present at the crushing defeat of Russian and Austrian troops by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805). After a further defeat at Friedland in 1807, Alexander came to terms with Napoleon at Tilsit (modern Sovetsk), where he had to accept French dominance in Western and Central Europe, the creation of a Polish state under French influence, and the Continental System (which forbade European states from trading with Britain) (see Treaty of Tilsit). Accusing the Russians of violating the agreement, Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with some 400,000 troops. Although Napoleon was not blocked at the Battle of Borodino (September 7, 1812) and entered Moscow, his military capacity was fatally weakened by the Russian campaign, which led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition, under Russia’s leadership, and to Napoleon’s final defeat. Alexander entered Paris with his army in March 1814, and Russia emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the strongest military power on the continent and as a major diplomatic player. Alexander exerted his influence at the Congress of Vienna (held between September 1814 and June 1815) to claim Poland for the Russian Empire.

IV.

Later Years

The last decade of Alexander’s reign was marked by his increasingly mystical and reactionary frame of mind. He made the curricula of universities and schools more conservative. Military colonies, set up to accommodate soldiers and state peasants and their families in peacetime, were established on Alexander’s orders under the control of the authoritarian Aleksei Andreevich Arakcheev, but were unpopular and unsuccessful. Inspired by a renewed Christian devotion, Alexander formed the Holy Alliance with the other European powers (except the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and the Pope), intended to provide the basis for an enduring peace, though in fact it served to bolster the forces of illiberalism. This became evident when Alexander denied support to the Greek revolt against the Ottoman Empire (1821), despite their shared Orthodox faith. Disillusionment with the limitations of Alexander’s reforms and hatred of the military colonies contributed to the establishment of secret societies in the last few years of his reign. Alexander died suddenly in Taganrog in south-western European Russia on December 1 (November 19, Old Style), 1825. His mixed legacy is evident in both the liberal Decembrist rebellion that followed shortly after his death, and in the conservatism of his successor, his brother Nicholas Pavlovich (see Nicholas I).