Nicholas I Romanov
Years of life: 1796–1855
Russian emperor (1825–1855). King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland.

From the Romanov dynasty.

In 1816 he made a three-month journey through the European
Russia, and since October 1816. to May 1817 traveled and lived in England.

In 1817 Nikolai Pavlovich Romanov married the eldest daughter of the Prussian king Frederick William II, Princess Charlotte Frederick-Louise, who adopted the name Alexandra Feodorovna in Orthodoxy.

In 1819, his brother, Emperor Alexander I, announced that the heir to the throne, the Grand Duke, wanted to renounce his right to succeed to the throne, so Nicholas would become the heir as the next brother in seniority. Formally, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich renounced his rights to the throne in 1823, since he had no children in a legal marriage and was married in a morganatic marriage to the Polish Countess Grudzinskaya.

On August 16, 1823, Alexander I signed a manifesto appointing his brother Nikolai Pavlovich as heir to the throne.

However, he refused to proclaim himself emperor until the final expression of the will of his elder brother. He refused to recognize Alexander's will, and on November 27 the entire population was sworn in to Constantine, and Nikolai Pavlovich himself swore allegiance to Constantine I as emperor. But Konstantin Pavlovich did not accept the throne, at the same time he did not want to formally renounce him as emperor, to whom the oath had already been taken. An ambiguous and very tense interregnum was created, which lasted twenty-five days, until December 14th.

Emperor Nicholas I

After the death of Emperor Alexander I and the abdication of the throne by Grand Duke Konstantin, Nicholas was nevertheless proclaimed emperor on December 2 (14), 1825.

To this day, the officers-conspirators, who later became known as "Decembrists", appointed a rebellion with the aim of seizing power, allegedly protecting the interests of Konstantin Pavlovich. They decided that the troops would block the Senate, in which the senators were preparing for the oath, a revolutionary delegation consisting of Pushchin and Ryleev would burst into the Senate premises demanding not to swear and declare the tsarist government deposed and issue a revolutionary manifesto to the Russian people.

The uprising of the Decembrists greatly impressed the emperor and instilled in him fear of any manifestations of free thought. The uprising was severely suppressed, and 5 of its leaders were hanged (1826).

After the suppression of the rebellion and large-scale repressions, the emperor centralized the administrative system, strengthened the military-bureaucratic apparatus, established the political police (the Third Branch of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery), and also established strict censorship.

In 1826, a censorship charter was issued, nicknamed "cast iron", according to which it was forbidden to print almost everything that had political overtones.

Autocracy of Nicholas Romanov

Some authors have nicknamed him "the knight of autocracy". He firmly and fiercely defended the foundations of the autocratic state and fiercely suppressed attempts to change the existing system. During the reign, the persecution of the Old Believers resumed again.

On May 24, 1829 Nikolai the First Pavlovich was crowned in Warsaw as the King (Tsar) of Poland. Under him, the Polish uprising of 1830-1831 was suppressed, during which he was declared deprived of the throne by the rebels (Decree on the dethronement of Nicholas I). After the suppression of the uprising, the Kingdom of Poland lost its independence, and the Sejm and the army were divided into provinces.

Meetings of commissions were held, which were called upon to alleviate the situation of serfs, a ban was introduced to kill and exile peasants to hard labor, sell them one by one and without land, attribute them to newly opened factories. The peasants received the right to own private property, as well as to redeem themselves from the estates being sold.

A reform of the management of the state village was carried out and a “decree on obligated peasants” was signed, which became the foundation for the abolition of serfdom. But these measures were belated in nature, and during the life of the king, the liberation of the peasants did not happen.

The first railways appeared in Russia (since 1837). From some sources it is known that the emperor got acquainted with steam locomotives at the age of 19 during a trip to England in 1816. He became the first Russian stoker and the first Russian to ride on a steam locomotive.

Property guardianship over state peasants and the status of obliged peasants were introduced (laws of 1837-1841 and 1842), codified Russian laws (1833), stabilized the ruble (1839), new schools were founded under it - technical, military and educational.

In September 1826, the emperor received Pushkin, who was released by him from Mikhailov's exile, and listened to his confession that on December 14 Alexander Sergeevich was with the conspirators. After that, he did this to him: he saved the poet from general censorship (he decided to personally censor his writings), instructed Pushkin to prepare a note “On Public Education”, called him after the meeting “the smartest man in Russia”.

However, the tsar never trusted the poet, seeing him as a dangerous "leader of the liberals", the great poet was under police surveillance. In 1834, Pushkin was appointed chamber junker of his court, and the role that Nikolai played in Pushkin's conflict with Dantes is estimated by historians rather contradictory. There are versions that the tsar sympathized with Pushkin's wife and arranged a fatal duel. After the death of A.S. Pushkin, a pension was assigned to his widow and children, but the tsar tried in every possible way to limit the memory of him.

He also doomed Polezhaev, who was arrested for free poetry, to years of soldiery, twice ordered M. Lermontov to be exiled to the Caucasus. By his order, the magazines "Telescope", "European", "Moscow Telegraph" were closed.

Significantly expanded the territory of Russia after the wars with Persia (1826–
1828) and Turkey (1828–1829), although the attempt to make the Black Sea an inland Russian sea met with active resistance from the great powers led by Great Britain. According to the Unkar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833, Turkey was obliged to close the Black Sea straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles) to foreign warships at the request of Russia (the agreement was canceled in 1841). Russia's military successes caused a backlash in the West because the world powers were not interested in strengthening Russia.

The tsar wanted to intervene in the internal affairs of France and Belgium after the revolutions of 1830 that took place there, but the Polish uprising prevented the realization of his plans. After the suppression of the Polish uprising, many provisions of the Polish Constitution of 1815 were repealed.

He took part in the defeat of the Hungarian revolution of 1848-1849. The attempt of Russia, ousted from the markets of the Middle East by France and England, to restore its position in this region led to a clash of powers in the Middle East, which resulted in the Crimean War (1853–1856). In 1854 England and France entered the war on the side of Turkey. The Russian army suffered a number of defeats from the former allies and was unable to provide assistance to the besieged fortress city of Sevastopol. At the beginning of 1856, following the results of the Crimean War, the Treaty of Paris was signed, the most difficult condition for Russia was the neutralization of the Black Sea, i.e. the prohibition to have naval forces, arsenals and fortresses here. Russia became vulnerable from the sea and lost the opportunity to conduct an active foreign policy in this region.

During his reign, Russia participated in wars: the Caucasian War of 1817-1864, the Russian-Persian War of 1826-1828, the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-29, the Crimean War of 1853-56.

Among the people, the tsar received the nickname "Nikolai Palkin", because in childhood he beat his comrades with a stick. In historiography, this nickname was established after the story of L.N. Tolstoy "After the Ball".

Death of Tsar Nicholas 1

He died suddenly on February 18 (March 2), 1855 at the height of the Crimean War; according to the most common version - from transient pneumonia (he caught a cold shortly before his death, taking a military parade in a light uniform) or flu. The emperor forbade doing an autopsy and embalming his body.

There is a version that the king committed suicide by drinking poison, due to defeats in the Crimean War. After his death, the Russian throne was inherited by his son, Alexander II.

He was married once in 1817 to Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm III, who received the name Alexandra Feodorovna after converting to Orthodoxy. They had children:

• Alexander II (1818-1881)
• Maria (08/6/1819-02/09/1876), was married to the Duke of Leuchtenberg and Count Stroganov.
• Olga (08/30/1822 - 10/18/1892), was married to the King of Württemberg.
• Alexandra (12/06/1825 - 29/07/1844), married to Prince of Hesse-Kassel
• Konstantin (1827-1892)
• Nicholas (1831-1891)
• Mikhail (1832-1909)

Personal qualities of Nikolai Romanov

He led an ascetic and healthy lifestyle. Was an Orthodox believer a Christian, he did not smoke and did not like smokers, did not drink strong drinks, walked a lot and did drills with weapons. He had a remarkable memory and a great capacity for work. Archbishop Innokenty wrote about him: "He was ... such a crowned bearer, for whom the royal throne served not as a head to peace, but as an incentive to unceasing work." According to the memoirs of the maid of honor of Her Imperial Majesty, Anna Tyutcheva, her favorite phrase was: "I work like a galley slave."

The king's love for justice and order was well known. I personally visited military formations, examined fortifications, educational institutions, government agencies. He always gave concrete advice to correct the situation.

He had a pronounced ability to form a team of talented, creatively gifted people. The employees of Nicholas I Pavlovich were the Minister of Public Education Count S. S. Uvarov, the commander Field Marshal His Serene Highness Prince I. F. Paskevich, the Minister of Finance Count E. F. Kankrin, the Minister of State Property Count P. D. Kiselev and others.

The height of the king was 205 cm.

All historians agree on one thing: the tsar was undoubtedly a bright figure among the rulers-emperors of Russia.

>Biographies of famous people

Brief biography of Nicholas I

Nicholas I Pavlovich - Emperor of All Russia from 1825 to 1855, son of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna. Other titles are Grand Duke of Finland and Tsar of Poland. Born on July 6, 1796 in Tsarskoye Selo (now the city of Pushkin); was the third son of the royal couple and the grandson of Catherine II. From childhood he was enrolled in military service and was brought up by General M.I. Lamsdorf. Everything that had nothing to do with military affairs, namely various sciences, burdened the boy. Throughout his life, he retained a passion for construction and engineering.

Nicholas was not raised as a future ruler. However, after the sudden death of Alexander I, he ascended the throne. The political orientation that he chose was clearly different from all previously accepted forms and was rather conservative, anti-liberal. For educational and educational purposes, he was taken to some provinces of Russia and England. Therefore, he was well aware of the internal state and problems of the country. At the age of 21, he married a Prussian princess, who, according to the canons of Orthodoxy, received a new name - Alexandra Feodorovna. A year later, their first child was born - the future Emperor Alexander II.

Nicholas did not come to the imperial position immediately. He himself learned that he would become the heir to the throne in 1819, but the corresponding manifesto was not made public, which caused an uprising of the Decembrists, dissatisfied with this turn of events. The emperor took the oath in December 1825, and then he had to crush the uprising. From the very beginning of his reign, he created a special committee to implement reforms. Under the leadership of Speransky, this commission quickly developed a new Code of Laws and streamlined Russian legislation. At the same time, S. S. Uvarov developed the "theory of official nationality."

According to the tsar, the people had to live as one large, well-coordinated army, i.e. according to their own laws. He was distrustful of outside interference and liberalism. Thus, under Nicholas I, unanimity flourished in Russia, and he himself was a true autocrat. The emperor's foreign policy was marked by a series of wars. The most striking event was the Crimean War. At the same time, he brought back the principles of the Holy Alliance and raised the Eastern Question. As a result of the Russian-Turkish, Russian-Persian and Caucasian wars, Russia annexed the east of Armenia, the entire Caucasus and partly the Black Sea coast. The ruler died in February 1855 in St. Petersburg.

Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich could not count on the Russian throne, and this left an imprint on his upbringing and education. The paramilitary atmosphere of St. Petersburg from an early age determined Nikolai's passion for military affairs, especially with regard to its external, front side. The political system of views of Nicholas was distinguished by a pronounced conservative, anti-liberal orientation. In 1817, Nicholas married the Princess of Prussia, who, after converting to Orthodoxy, received the name Alexandra Feodorovna. In the spring of the following year, their first son Alexander (future Emperor Alexander II) was born. ................................................. ................................................. ................................................. ......

The defeat in the Crimean War dealt a severe blow to the entire foreign policy system of Nicholas I, who became convinced that his position as European and Asian ruler was a fiction. Russian positions in the Middle East were crumbling; its international prestige plummeted. The country was forced to agree to the shameful Treaty of Paris (March 1856), according to which the Black Sea was declared neutral, the empire was deprived of the opportunity to have a navy here and build military installations on its shores, and also ceded significant territories and its influence in the Balkans and in Armenia to in favor of Turkey, which crossed out all the efforts of Nicholas in the "eastern question".

Nikolai's death was completely unexpected. It was a 58-year-old man, of enormous stature, defiantly despising any effeminacy and sleeping on a camp bed under an overcoat. He ruled Russia for 30 years, and as if he was not going to stop this. True, people close to Nicholas I knew how his defeats in the Crimean War shocked him. “No matter how hard His Majesty tried to overcome himself, to hide his inner torment,” writes V. Panaev (director of the Emperor’s office), “it began to be revealed by the gloom of his gaze, pallor, even some darkening of his face and thinness of his whole body. In this state of his health, the slightest cold could develop a dangerous disease in him. And so it happened. Not wanting to refuse Count Kleinmichel's request to be planted as a father to his daughter, the sovereign went to the wedding, despite the severe frost, wearing a horse guard uniform with elk pantaloons and silk stockings. That evening was the beginning of his illness: he caught a cold. When he returned, he did not complain about anything, but he spent the night without sleep, spent the next two nights restless. Neither in the city nor at the court did they pay attention to the illness of the sovereign; they said that he had caught a cold, was unwell, but was not lying down. The sovereign did not express fears about his health, therefore he forbade the printing of bulletins about his illness.

On February 12, 1855, a courier brought news of the defeat near Evpatoria to the palace. Those close to him recalled how, on sleepless nights, the tsar "made bows to the earth", "cried like a child." Herzen would later remark that Nikolai had "Evpatoria in his lungs." In the last hours of his life, the tsar did not even want to know the news from the Crimea contained in the letter of his younger sons Mikhail and Nikolai. He only asked: "Are they healthy? Everything else does not concern me ..." After being ill for 5 days, the emperor got stronger and went to the Mikhailovsky Manege to inspect the troops. Returning, he felt worse: cough and shortness of breath increased. But the next day, Nicholas I again went to the Manege to inspect the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky reserve regiments. On February 11, he could no longer get out of bed. From the records of the Fourier cameras, it is clear that from February 10 to 15, the emperor's malaise either intensifies or decreases. "His V-stvo on the night of the 14th of February slept little, the fever had almost ceased." February 15th: "His Lordship spent the night a little better, although there was agitation yesterday. Pulse is satisfactory today. Cough: sputum eruption is not violent." February 16: "Yesterday after a feverish movement accompanied with rheumatic pain under the right shoulder, His Lordship slept that night, but not so calmly. No headache, no fever." It turned out a strange picture: in early February 1855, Nikolai caught a cold, but nothing special, judging by the official publications. According to the diaries of court events, it can be seen that on February 12-17, Nicholas's health did not worsen, but rather improved; in any case, there was no concern. At the same time, the king did not accept reports and, obviously, "shut himself" in a difficult state of mind. These days, from February 12 to 17, physically healthy, he is experiencing a psychological crisis, physical ailment is replaced by mental breakdown, which is an unusual state for Nikolai, who was proud of his equanimity.

Suddenly, on the night of February 17-18, Nicholas I became sharply worse. He got paralyzed. The emperor's eldest son, Alexander, was summoned to his father on the night of February 18, stayed alone with him for some time and left the office in tears. Before his death, Nicholas asked to be dressed in a uniform, and saying goodbye to his eldest grandson (the future Tsar Alexander III), he said: "Learn to die." A few hours later, on February 18 (March 2), 1855, at the height of the war, Nikolai died suddenly, according to the most common version - from transient pneumonia. However, there is a version that he committed suicide by drinking poison, due to defeats in the Crimean War. What caused the paralysis? This is what remains a mystery. If the emperor committed suicide, then who gave him the poison? Two life physicians were alternately at the bedside of the sick emperor: Dr. Karelle and Dr. Mandt. In memoirs and historical literature, suspicion falls on Dr. Mandt, although at the beginning of the development of paralysis, he did not exist under Nicholas. There were enough publications about the suicide of the emperor at that time. "The Bell" in 1859 ("Letters of a Russian Man") reported that Nicholas I was poisoned with the help of Mandt. The version of the suicidal poisoning of the monarch is confirmed by the memoirs of the diplomat A. Pelikan and the colonel of the general staff, adjutant of the Tsarevich I.F. Savitsky. The poisoning version is also supported by the fact that the anatomist Wenzel Gruber, who embalmed the body of the deceased emperor, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for compiling the protocol for the autopsy of the body of Nicholas I and printing it in Germany, finding it interesting from a forensic point of view.

By the morning of February 18, 1855, the rapid decomposition of the body began. Yellow, blue, purple spots appeared on the face of the deceased. The mouth was parted, sparse teeth were visible. The features of the face, cramped, testified that the emperor was dying in great agony. In the morning, the heir emperor Alexander was horrified to see his father so disfigured, and called two doctors - Zdekaner and Myanovsky - professors of the Medico-Surgical Academy, ordered them to remove all signs of poisoning in any way in order to properly expose the body in four days for a general farewell according to tradition and protocol. The two scientists called in, in order to hide the true cause of death, literally repainted, retouched the face, properly processed and laid the body in a coffin.

The last will of Nicholas I was a ban on the autopsy and embalming of his body, he was afraid that the autopsy would reveal the secret of his death, which he wanted to take to the grave. His reign began in tragedy (with a manifesto of July 13, 1826, announcing the verdict on the Decembrists) and ended in disaster. He did not survive the Crimean catastrophe; it remained in the memory of posterity as one of the darkest periods of Russian history.

The reign of Nicholas 1 lasted from December 14, 1825 to February 1855. This emperor has an amazing fate, but the fact that the beginning and end of his reign are characterized by important political events in the country is noteworthy. So the coming to power of Nicholas was marked by the uprising of the Decembrists, and the death of the emperor fell on the days of the defense of Sevastopol.

Beginning of the reign

Speaking about the personality of Nicholas 1, it is important to understand that no one prepared this person for the role of Emperor of Russia from the very beginning. This was the third son of Paul 1 (Alexander - the eldest, Konstantin - the middle and Nikolai - the youngest). Alexander the First died on December 1, 1825, leaving no heir. Therefore, power, according to the laws of that time, came to the middle son of Paul 1 - Constantine. And on December 1, the Russian government swore allegiance to him. Including the oath of allegiance was brought by Nicholas himself. The problem was that Constantine was married to a woman of no noble family, lived in Poland and did not aspire to the throne. Therefore, he transferred the authority to manage Nicholas the First. Nevertheless, 2 weeks passed between these events, during which Russia was virtually without power.

It is necessary to note the main features of the reign of Nicholas 1, which were characterized by his character traits:

• Military education. It is known that Nikolai poorly mastered any sciences except military ones. His educators were military men and almost all of his entourage were former military personnel. It is in this that one must look for the origins of the fact that Nicholas 1 said "In Russia everyone must serve", as well as his love for the uniform, which he forced everyone to wear without exception in the country.
• Decembrist revolt. The first day of the power of the new emperor was marked by a major uprising. This showed the main threat that liberal ideas posed to Russia. Therefore, the main task of his reign was precisely the fight against the revolution.
• Lack of communication with Western countries. If we consider the history of Russia, starting from the era of Peter the Great, then at the court they always spoke foreign languages: Dutch, English, French, German. Nicholas 1 - it stopped. Now all conversations were conducted exclusively in Russian, people wore traditional Russian clothes, there was propaganda of traditional Russian values ​​and traditions.

Many history textbooks say that the Nicholas era is characterized by reactionary rule. Nevertheless, it was very difficult to manage the country in those conditions, since the whole of Europe was literally mired in revolutions, the focus of which could shift towards Russia. And this had to be fought. The second important point is the need to resolve the peasant issue, where the emperor himself advocated the abolition of serfdom.

Changes within the country

Nicholas 1 was a military man, so his reign is associated with attempts to transfer army orders and customs to everyday life and government.

The army has a clear order and subordination. There are laws and there are no contradictions. Here everything is clear and understandable: some order, others obey. And all this to achieve a common goal. That is why I feel so comfortable among these people.

Nicholas the First

This phrase best emphasizes what the emperor saw in order. And it was precisely this order that he sought to bring to all organs of state power. First of all, in the epoch of Nicholas there was a strengthening of police and bureaucratic power. According to the emperor, this was necessary to fight the revolution.

On July 3, 1826, the III department was created, which performed the functions of the highest police. In fact, this body kept order in the country. This fact is interesting in that it significantly expands the powers of ordinary police officers, giving them almost unlimited power. The third branch consisted of about 6,000 people, which was a huge number at that time. They studied the public mood, observed foreign citizens and organizations in Russia, collected statistics, checked all private letters, and so on. During the second phase of Emperor III's reign, the branch further expanded its powers by establishing a network of agents to work overseas.

Systematization of laws

Even in the era of Alexander in Russia, attempts began to systematize laws. This was extremely necessary, since there were a huge number of laws, many of them contradicted each other, many were only in the manuscript version in the archive, and the laws had been in force since 1649. Therefore, until the Nicholas era, judges were no longer guided by the letter of the law, but rather by general orders and worldview. To solve this problem, Nicholas 1 decided to turn to Speransky, whom he empowered to systematize the laws of the Russian Empire.

Speransky proposed to carry out all the work in three stages:

1. Collect in chronological order all the laws issued from 1649 until the end of the reign of Alexander 1.
2. Publish a set of current laws of the empire. This is not about changing laws, about considering which of the old laws can be repealed and which cannot.
3. Creation of a new "Code", which was supposed to amend the current legislation in accordance with the current needs of the state.

Nicholas 1 was a terrible opponent of innovations (the only exception is the army). Therefore, he allowed the first two stages to be held, categorically forbade the third.

The work of the commission began in 1828, and in 1832 the 15-volume Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was published. It was the codification of laws during the reign of Nicholas 1 that played a huge role in the development of Russian absolutism. In fact, the country has not changed dramatically, but has received real structures for quality management.

Policy on education and awareness

Nikolai believed that the events of December 14, 1825 were connected with the education system that was built under Alexander. Therefore, one of the first orders of the emperor in his post happened on August 18, 1827, in which Nicholas demanded that the charters of all educational institutions of the country be revised. As a result of this revision, it was forbidden for any peasants to enter higher educational institutions, philosophy as a science was abolished, and supervision over private educational institutions was strengthened. The control over this work was performed by Shishkov, who holds the post of Minister of Public Education. Nicholas 1 absolutely trust this man, since their basic views converged. At the same time, it is enough to consider just one phrase of Shishkov in order to understand what the essence was behind the then education system.

Science is like salt. They are useful and can only be pleasurable if given in moderation. People should be taught only such literacy that corresponds to their position in society. The education of all people, without exception, will no doubt do more harm than good.

A.S. Shishkov

The result of this stage of government is the creation of 3 types of educational institutions:

1. For the lower classes, one-class education was introduced, based on parish schools. People were taught only 4 operations of arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), reading, writing, the laws of God.
2. For the middle classes (merchants, philistines, and so on) three-year education. As additional subjects, geometry, geography and history were found.
3. For the upper classes, a seven-year education was introduced, the receipt of which guaranteed the right to enter universities.

Solution of the peasant question

Nicholas 1 often said that the main task of his reign was the abolition of serfdom. However, he could not directly solve this problem. It is important to understand here that the emperor was faced with his own elite, which was categorically against this. The question of the abolition of serfdom was extremely complex and extremely acute. One need only look at the peasant uprisings of the 19th century to understand that they took place literally every decade, and their strength increased each time. For example, here is what the head of the third department said.

Serfdom is a powder charge under the building of the Russian Empire.

OH. Benkendorf

Nicholas the First himself also understood the full significance of this problem.

It is better to start changes on your own, gradually, carefully. We need to start at least with something, because otherwise, we will wait until the changes come from the people themselves.

Nicholas 1

A secret committee was formed to solve peasant problems. In total, in the Nikolaev era, 9 secret committees met on this issue. The greatest changes affected exclusively the state peasants, and these changes were superficial and insignificant. The main problem of giving the peasants their own land and the right to work for themselves was not resolved. In total, during the reign and work of 9 secret committees, the following problems of the peasants were solved:

• Peasants were forbidden to sell
• It was forbidden to separate families
• Peasants were allowed to buy property
• It was forbidden to send old people to Siberia

In total, during the reign of Nicholas 1, about 100 decrees were adopted that related to the solution of the peasant issue. It is here that you need to look for the base that led to the events of 1861, their abolition of serfdom.

Relations with other countries

Emperor Nicholas 1 sacredly honored the "Holy Alliance", a treaty signed by Alexander 1, on Russian assistance to countries where uprisings began. Russia was the European gendarme. In essence, the implementation of the "Holy Alliance" of Russia did not give anything. The Russians solved the problems of the Europeans and returned home with nothing. In July 1830, the Russian army was preparing for a campaign in France, where the revolution took place, but the events in Poland disrupted this campaign. A major uprising broke out in Poland, led by Czartoryski. Nicholas 1 appointed Count Paskevich as commander of the army for a campaign against Poland, who in September 1831 defeated the Polish troops. The uprising was crushed, and the autonomy of Poland itself became almost formal.

In the period from 1826 - 1828. reign of Nicholas I, Russia was drawn into the war with Iran. Her reasons were that Iran was dissatisfied with the peace of 1813 when, when they lost part of their territory. Therefore, Iran decided to take advantage of the uprising in Russia to regain what they had lost. The war began suddenly for Russia, however, by the end of 1826, Russian troops completely expelled the Iranians from their territory, and in 1827 the Russian army went on the offensive. Iran was defeated, the existence of the country was under threat. The Russian army cleared its way to Tehran. In 1828, Iran offered peace. Russia received the khanates of Nakhichevan and Yerevan. Iran also pledged to pay Russia 20 million rubles. The war was successful for Russia; access to the Caspian Sea was won.

As soon as the war with Iran ended, the war with Turkey began. The Ottoman Empire, like Iran, wanted to take advantage of the apparent weakness of Russia and regain some of the previously lost lands. As a result, in 1828 the Russian-Turkish war began. It lasted until September 2, 1829, when the Treaty of Adrianople was signed. The Turks suffered a brutal defeat that cost them their positions in the Balkans. In fact, with this war, Emperor Nicholas 1 achieved diplomatic submission to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1849, Europe was engulfed in revolutionary fire. Emperor Nicholas 1, fulfilling the allied dog, sent an army to Hungary in 1849, where, within a few weeks, the Russian army unconditionally defeated the revolutionary forces of Hungary and Austria.

Emperor Nicholas 1 paid great attention to the fight against the revolutionaries, mindful of the events of 1825. To this end, he created a special office, which was subordinate only to the emperor and conducted only activities against the revolutionaries. Despite all the efforts of the emperor, revolutionary circles in Russia actively developed.

The reign of Nicholas 1 ended in 1855, when Russia was drawn into a new war, the Crimean War, which ended sadly for our state. This war ended after the death of Nicholas, when his son, Alexander 2, ruled the country.

PART TWO

LECTURE XIV

The reign of Emperor Nicholas I. - The conditions under which he ascended the throne. - The issue of succession. — Alexander's unpublished manifesto on the abdication of Constantine. – Confusion and interregnum after the death of Alexander until December 14, 1825 . - Negotiations between Nicholas and Constantine. - Accession to the throne of Nicholas. - Uprising December 14, 1825 . - His suppression. - Personality of Emperor Nicholas. - Biographical information about him before his accession. - An investigation into secret societies. - The massacre of the Decembrists and the results of the acquaintance of Emperor Nicholas with them. - The influence of Karamzin and the program of reign inspired by him.

The circumstances of the accession of Nicholas I to the throne

By the time Emperor Nicholas came to the throne, in the course of internal administration and in general in the state of affairs inside Russia, many difficult, unfavorable circumstances had accumulated, which, in general, created an extremely confused and even rather formidable situation for the government.

Since the beginning of Alexander's reign, as we have seen, many raised and unresolved issues have accumulated, the resolution of which was impatiently awaited by the advanced part of society, accustomed to an oppositional attitude towards the government since the time of the Tilsit peace and the continental system and managed, after close contact with Europe in 1813-1815 to work out certain political ideals for themselves. These ideals ran completely counter to the reactionary trend of the government, which was expressed by the end of Alexander's reign in the most obscurant and absurd forms. All this, as we have seen, led little by little not only to acute discontent and ferment among the progressive intelligentsia, but to the formation of a direct conspiracy among them, which set itself sharply revolutionary goals.

This revolutionary movement ended, due to accidental circumstances, with a premature and unprepared explosion on December 14, 1825 - an explosion that helped the government of Nicholas to quickly liquidate and suppress this movement with cruel repressive measures. As a result, the country lost the best and most lively and independent representatives of an advanced thinking society, the rest of which was intimidated and terrorized by the measures of the government, and the government turned out to be completely disunited in the difficult work ahead of it with the mental forces of the country for the entire time of the reign of Nicholas.

Meanwhile, even more important and more difficult than the political and administrative tasks facing Nicholas were those socio-economic tasks that had matured by the time of his reign under the influence of the development of the general social process in Russia, the course of which, as we have seen, aggravated and accelerated under influenced by the Napoleonic Wars. The development of this process continued to move and intensify throughout the reign of Nicholas and eventually led to a crisis that occurred under the influence of a new external impetus - the unsuccessful Crimean campaign, which brought the period of great transformations of the 50s and 60s onto the historical stage with fatal necessity.

We now have to study the events and facts in which the course of this process manifested itself.

The accession to the throne of Emperor Nicholas took place in exceptional circumstances, due to the unexpected death of Emperor Alexander and his very strange orders on the issue of succession to the throne.

According to the law on succession to the throne of April 5, 1797, issued by Emperor Paul, if the reigning emperor does not have a son, he must be succeeded by the brother who follows him. Thus, since Alexander had no children at the time of his death, his brother Konstantin Pavlovich should have succeeded him. But Konstantin Pavlovich, firstly, from his very childhood had, as he repeatedly stated, the same disgust for the reign, which Alexander himself initially expressed; on the other hand, circumstances occurred in his family life that formally hampered his accession to the throne: even at the beginning of the reign of Alexander, Konstantin divorced his first wife, who left Russia in 1803. Then they lived apart for a long time, and Konstantin finally raised the issue of dissolving this marriage, obtained a divorce and remarried the Polish Countess Zhannat Grudzinskaya, who received the title of the Most Serene Princess Lovich. But this marriage was considered morganatic, and therefore not only their children were deprived of the right to the throne, but Konstantin Pavlovich himself, having entered into this marriage, as if thereby renounced the throne. All these circumstances raised the question of the transfer of succession rights to the brother following Constantine in the reign of Alexander. Despite this, Konstantin Pavlovich, until the death of Alexander, continued to be considered the heir to the throne and bear the title of crown prince associated with this. The next brother after him was Nikolai. Although Nicholas later said more than once that he did not expect that he would have to reign, but, in essence, the fact that he was the natural successor to the throne after the removal of Constantine was obvious to all those who knew the law of succession. As early as 1812, Alexander himself made very unambiguous hints to Nicholas that he would have to reign, and in 1819 he already directly told him this, warning him of the possibility of his own abdication in the near future.

In 1823, Alexander recognized the need to make a formal order on this score - not so much in the event of his death, but in the event of his own abdication, which he was thinking hard about at that time.

Having spoken back in 1822 with Konstantin, Alexander received at the same time from him a written abdication from the throne; then a manifesto was drawn up about this abdication, signed by Alexander, in which he recognized the abdication of Constantine as correct and "appointed" Nicholas as heir to the throne. This fully corresponded to the fact that during the accession of Alexander the oath was taken to him and the heir, "who will be appointed."

But this manifesto about the abdication of Constantine and the appointment of Nicholas as heir, surprisingly, was not published. Instead of publishing it, Alexander secretly ordered Prince A.P. Golitsyn to make three copies of it, then the original was handed over to Metropolitan Filaret for placement on the throne of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, where he was to be kept in deep secrecy, and the copies were transferred to State Council, to the Senate and the Synod for storage in sealed envelopes with the inscription on the envelope handed over to the State Council, by Alexander’s hand: “Keep in the State Council until my demand, and in the event of my death, open, before any other action, in an emergency meeting ". Similar inscriptions were on the other two envelopes. All these copies were copied by the hand of Prince Golitsyn, and apart from the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Konstantin, who, however, did not see the manifesto (but apparently knew about its existence), the manifesto itself was known only to Prince Golitsyn and Filaret. The only thing that can be thought of as an explanation for this behavior of Alexander is that Alexander did all this mainly in case of his abdication, and since renunciation could only be an arbitrary act, he thought, of course, that the whole matter remained in his hands.

When the news of Alexander's death came to St. Petersburg on November 27, 1825, Nikolai found it impossible to use the unpublished manifesto and, knowing from Miloradovich that the guards troops in St. formal and solemn abdication in his favour. Therefore, he began by swearing allegiance to Konstantin as the legitimate emperor and, not listening to Golitsyn, who insisted on opening the package with the manifesto, which was stored in the State Council, he ordered the troops of the St. Petersburg district to be immediately sworn in to Konstantin; and then, with a report about all this and with an expression of his loyal feelings, he sent a special envoy to Constantine in Warsaw.

Constantine replied through his brother Michael, who was visiting Warsaw at the time, that he had long ago abdicated the throne, but answered this in a private letter, without again giving this act any official character. Nikolai believed that such a letter was not enough, especially since the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Count Miloradovich, advised him, in view of the dislike of the guards, to act as carefully as possible.

To avoid misunderstandings, Nicholas sent a new envoy to Warsaw, asking Konstantin to come to St. Petersburg and personally confirm his renunciation. But Konstantin only confirmed again in a private letter that he had renounced during the life of Alexander, but he could not come personally, and that if they insisted on this, he would leave even further.

Then Nikolai decided that he had to stop these negotiations, which had dragged on for two whole weeks, and announce himself about his accession to the throne. Actually, a manifesto about this was written by him, with the help of Karamzin and Speransky, already on December 12, but it was published only on the 14th, and the general oath in St. Petersburg to the new emperor was assigned to this date.

Decembrist uprising (1825)

At the end of this unusual interregnum, alarming news began to reach Nicholas in various ways about the mood of the minds in St. Petersburg and in general in Russia; but Miloradovich, although he advised to act cautiously, denied the possibility of serious indignation right up to December 14th.

Meanwhile, the members of the secret society, who were in St. Petersburg, decided to take advantage of this unprecedented confusion in their appearances; it seemed to them that there could be no more favorable occasion to raise an insurrection and demand a constitution.

On December 14, when a manifesto was issued stating that Konstantin had renounced and that one should swear allegiance to Nicholas, members of the Northern Society, mainly guard officers and sailors who gathered daily at Ryleev, made an attempt to convince the soldiers that Konstantin had not renounced at all, that Nikolai was acting illegally and that one should therefore stand firmly on one's first oath to Constantine, while demanding a constitution. The conspirators succeeded, however, in revolting entirely only one Moscow Guards Regiment; his example was followed by several companies of the naval guards crew and individual officers and lower ranks of other parts of the troops.

Having gathered in the Senate Square, the rebels declared that they considered Constantine the legitimate emperor, refused to swear allegiance to Nicholas and demanded a constitution.

When the news of this reached Nicholas, he considered the matter very serious, but nevertheless wanted to take measures first to end it, if possible, without shedding blood. To this end, he first sent Miloradovich to exhort the rebels, who, as a well-known military general, enjoyed considerable prestige among the troops and was especially loved by the soldiers. But when Miloradovich approached the rebellious units of the troops and spoke to them, one of the conspirators, Kakhovsky, immediately fired at him, and Miloradovich fell from his horse, mortally wounded. Since several batteries of artillery joined the rebels at that time, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich volunteered to admonish them as the head of all artillery, but Wilhelm Kuchelbecker fired a shot at him, and Mikhail Pavlovich, although he was not wounded, had to, however Well, leave. Then Metropolitan Seraphim was sent to exhort the soldiers, but they did not listen to him either and shouted to him to leave. Then Nikolai ordered, on the advice of the generals surrounding him, to attack the insurgent troops with the help of the horse guards, commanded by Alexei Fedorovich Orlov, brother of Mikhail Orlov, a former member of the Union of Welfare. Orlov went on the attack, but his horses were not properly shod, meanwhile there was ice, and they could not go at a fast gait, as their legs were moving apart. Then the generals surrounding Nicholas began to say that it was necessary to put an end to this, because the population, little by little, joins the rebels; indeed, crowds of people and civilians appeared on the square. Then Nikolai ordered to shoot, after several shots of buckshot at close range, the whole crowd rushed to run, leaving many dead and wounded. Not limited to this, out of inertia they also shot after the crowd, when it rushed to run along the St. Isaac's Bridge (it was a bridge directly from Senate Square to Vasilyevsky Island), and quite a lot of people were killed and wounded here.

On this, in essence, the whole uprising in St. Petersburg was stopped. All other troops swore allegiance without a murmur, and the incident was over. Nikolai ordered that the next day there should be no corpses or traces of what had happened, and the obliging but unreasonable chief police officer Shulgin ordered that the corpses be thrown directly into the hole, which is why there were rumors for a long time that, in the haste of this cleaning, the seriously wounded were thrown into the hole along with the corpses. . Subsequently, it turned out that from the side of Vasilyevsky Island a number of corpses had frozen to the ice; even an order was made not to take water here that winter and not to break the ice, because parts of the human body came across in the ice. Such a gloomy event marked the beginning of a new reign.

This was followed by searches and arrests throughout St. Petersburg. Several hundred people were arrested - among them many were not involved in the case, but at the same time all the main leaders were arrested.

On December 10, Nikolai Pavlovich received the first warning from the young lieutenant Rostovtsev about the unrest that was being prepared in the guards, and at the same time, almost at the same time, he also received from Dibich (Chief of the Main Staff of His Majesty, who was under Alexander in Taganrog) copies of denunciations about a conspiracy in the Southern Society, where in January 1826, Sergei Muravyov also attempted an armed uprising near the White Church. Therefore, the investigation began immediately about all the secret societies that existed in Russia at that time. This consequence filled the first months of the reign of Nicholas.

Personality of Nicholas I

But before proceeding to the presentation of the first steps of the reign of Emperor Nicholas, it is necessary to give some information about his personality. Nicholas was the third son of Emperor Paul and after the death of his father remained a five-year-old child. His mother, Maria Fedorovna, took over his entire upbringing, but Alexander, out of false delicacy, did not consider himself entitled to interfere in this matter, although it would seem that the upbringing of a possible heir to the throne is a matter of state, not private. Subsequently, however, there were separate cases of Alexander's interference in this matter, but they were rather in a disadvantageous direction. Historians of the reign of Nicholas, or rather, his biographers - because the history of this reign does not yet exist - for the most part adhere to the view, which is very common even among contemporaries of that era, that Nicholas was brought up as if not as a future emperor, but as a simple grand duke, destined to military service, and this explains the shortcomings in his education, which were subsequently felt quite strongly. This view is completely wrong, since for the persons of the royal family it should have seemed quite probable from the very beginning that Nicholas would have to reign. Empress Maria Feodorovna could not doubt this, who knew that Constantine did not want to reign and that both Alexander and Constantine had no children. Therefore, there is no doubt that Nicholas was brought up precisely as the heir to the throne, but his upbringing from the upbringing of Alexander nevertheless differed extremely greatly.

Maria Fedorovna, apparently, not only did not want to make a military man out of him, but from childhood she tried to protect him from being carried away by the military. This, however, did not prevent Nicholas from acquiring very early a taste for the military. This is explained by the fact that the very formulation of the matter of education was unsuccessful, since neither the atmosphere of the court nor the pedagogical views of the empress favored her. At the head of Nikolai's educators, instead of La Harpe, who was under Alexander, an old German rutiner, General Lamsdorf, was put in charge, whom Maria Fedorovna simply called "papa Lamsdorf" in intimate conversations and letters, and who, in the old fashioned way, organized the upbringing of Nikolai.

Nikolai was a rude, obstinate, power-hungry boy; To eradicate these shortcomings, Lamsdorf considered it necessary to use corporal punishment, which he used in significant doses. The fun and games of Nikolai and his younger brother always acquired a military character, moreover, any game, moreover, threatened to end in a fight thanks to the wayward and pretentious nature of Nikolai. At the same time, the atmosphere in which he grew up was that of a court, and his mother herself, Maria Fedorovna, considered it important to observe court etiquette, and this deprived education of a family character. There is evidence that at an early age Nikolai showed traits of childish cowardice, and Schilder gives a story about how Nikolai at the age of five was frightened by cannon fire and hid somewhere; but it is hardly possible to attach special significance to this fact, if it took place, since there is nothing special in the fact that a five-year-old boy was frightened by cannon fire. Nicholas was not a coward, and he subsequently showed personal courage both on December 14 and on other occasions. But his character from childhood was not pleasant.

As for the teachers who were assigned to him, the extremely random and meager choice of them is striking. For example, his tutor, the French émigré du Puget, taught him both French and history, without being sufficiently prepared for this. All this teaching was reduced to instilling in Nikolai hatred for all revolutionary and simply liberal views. Nikolai studied extremely poorly; all the teachers complained that he was not making any progress - the only exception was drawing. Later, however, he showed great success in the art of military construction and showed a penchant for the military sciences in general.

When he left his childhood years, very respectable and knowledgeable teachers were invited to him, precisely as to the future heir to the throne: this was how a rather respectable scientist, Academician Storch, was invited, who read political economy and statistics to him; Professor Balugiansky - the same one who was Speransky's teacher in financial science in 1809 - taught Nikolai the history and theory of finance.

But Nikolai Pavlovich himself later recalled that he yawned during these lectures and that nothing remained in his head from them. Military sciences were read to him by engineer general Opperman and various officers invited on the recommendation of Opperman.

Maria Fedorovna thought it was to complete her education to send both her younger sons, Nikolai and Mikhail, to the University of Leipzig, but then Emperor Alexander unexpectedly declared his veto and suggested that instead of sending the brothers to the then designed Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, but when this lyceum was opened in 1811 ., then the entry of the Grand Dukes there also did not take place, and all their education was limited to homework.

In 1812, Nikolai Pavlovich, who was 16 years old at that time, asked very much to be allowed to participate in the army, but Emperor Alexander refused him this and then for the first time hinted to him that he would have a more important role in the future, which would not gives him the right to expose his forehead to the bullets of the enemy, and obliges him to make more efforts to prepare himself for his high and difficult mission.

Alexander allowed his brothers to appear in the active army only in 1814, but then they were late for hostilities and arrived when the campaign of 1814 had already ended and the troops were in Paris. In the same way, Nikolai Pavlovich was late for the war of 1815, when Napoleon fled from the island of Elba and when Emperor Alexander again allowed his brother to come to the troops. Thus, in fact, in the days of his youth, during the Napoleonic Wars, Nicholas did not even manage to see a real battle from afar, but only managed to be present at the magnificent reviews and maneuvers that followed at the end of the campaigns of 1814 and 1815.

To finish with the characterization of the upbringing of Emperor Nicholas, it should also be mentioned that in 1816 he traveled around Russia to familiarize him with the country, and then he was allowed to travel around European courts and capitals. But these journeys were made, so to speak, by courier with dizzying speed, and the young Grand Duke could see Russia only superficially, only from its outer side, and then mostly ostentatious. He traveled the same way in Europe. Only in England did he stay a little longer and saw parliament, clubs and meetings - which, however, made a repulsive impression on him - and even visited Owen in New Park and looked at his famous institutions, both Owen himself and his attempts to improve the fate of the workers then made a favorable impression on Nikolai Pavlovich.

It is remarkable that Maria Fedorovna was afraid that the young Grand Duke would not acquire a taste for English constitutional institutions, and therefore a detailed note was written for him by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Neselrode, with the aim of protecting him from possible hobbies in this regard. But the impressions that Nikolai Pavlovich took away from his trip to England showed that this note was completely superfluous: obviously, all his previous upbringing had been insured against any enthusiasm for so-called liberalism.

This trip across Europe ended with Nikolai's courtship of the daughter of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm, Princess Charlotte, with whom he married in 1817, and together with the Orthodox faith, his wife took the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. In 1818, when Nikolai Pavlovich was only 21 years old, he had already become the father of a family: the future Emperor Alexander Nikolayevich was born to a young couple. The whole end of the reign of Alexander I flowed for Nicholas partly in the joys of family life, partly in front-line service. Eyewitnesses testify that Nikolai was a good family man during these years and felt good in his family. His public activity consisted in these years exclusively in military service. True, Alexander even at that time repeatedly gave him hints about what lay ahead of him. So, in 1819, as I already mentioned, he had a very serious conversation with Nicholas, and Alexander definitely warned his younger brother and his wife that he felt tired and was thinking of abdicating the throne, that Constantine had already abdicated and that he reigned to Nicholas. Then, in 1820, Alexander summoned Nicholas to a congress at Laibach, saying that Nicholas should become acquainted with the course of foreign affairs and that representatives of foreign powers should get used to seeing him as Alexander's successor and continuer of his policy.

Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, future Emperor Nicholas I

Despite, however, all these conversations, which always took place face to face, no significant changes followed in the external life of Nicholas. As early as 1817, he was promoted to general and then, almost until the end of his reign, was commander of a guards brigade; True, he had the honorary head of the military engineering department, but most of his time was spent precisely on the command of the brigade. This matter was boring and small (instructive for the future ruler of a great country. At the same time, it was also fraught with trouble, since the main task of the Grand Duke was to restore external discipline in the troops, which had been greatly shaken in them during foreign campaigns, in which officers accustomed to comply with the rules of military discipline only at the front, and outside it they considered themselves free citizens and even walked in civilian clothes.With these habits, they returned to Russia, and Alexander, who was especially concerned about preserving the military spirit in the army and considered external discipline very important , recognized it necessary to strongly pull up in particular the officers of the guard. In this matter of "pulling up" the guard, one of the most devoted missionaries was Nikolai Pavlovich, who pulled up his brigade not out of fear, but out of conscience. He himself complained in his notes that it was it is rather difficult for him, since everywhere he met dull discontent and even protest, for the officers of his brother The igadas belonged to the highest circles of society and were "infected" with freedom-loving ideas. In his activities, Nicholas often did not meet with approval from his higher authorities, and since he pedantically insisted on his own, he soon aroused almost universal hatred against himself in the guard, reaching such an extent that at the time of the interregnum of 1825, Miloradovich considered It is my duty, as I have already mentioned, to warn him of this and advise him to behave as carefully as possible, not counting on public sympathy for himself.

Alexander, despite the fact that it was apparently a settled issue for him that Nicholas would reign after him, behaved very strangely towards him: he not only did not prepare him for the affairs of government, but did not even introduce him into the State council and other higher state institutions, so that the whole course of state affairs went past Nicholas. And although there is evidence that, after Alexander’s decisive warnings, Nikolai Pavlovich himself changed his former attitude to the sciences and gradually began to prepare for the management of state affairs, trying to get to know them theoretically, but there is no doubt that he succeeded little, and he came to the throne in the end. ends unprepared - neither theoretically nor practically.

Those persons who stood close to him, such as, for example, V. A. Zhukovsky, who was first invited as a teacher of the Russian language to the Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna, and then became the tutor of her eldest son and entered quite deeply into their family life, testify to that Nikolai during this period at home was not at all the same harsh and unpleasant pedant as he was in his brigade. Indeed, his home entourage was completely different from the military entourage. His main friend in the service was General Paskevich, who was a strict, vain and soulless front-line soldier, who later played a large role in organizing the Russian army in this particular direction. As for the family circle of Nikolai, then he was surrounded by such people as V. A. Zhukovsky, V. A. Perovsky and other simple, intelligent and nice people who rarely met in a court atmosphere.

Trial of the Decembrists

Having ascended the throne under the circumstances that I have already described, Nikolai Pavlovich considered it his first task to investigate to the most secret depths all the causes and threads of the “sedition”, which, in his opinion, almost destroyed the state on December 14, 1825. He, undoubtedly, exaggerated, especially at first, the importance and number of secret revolutionary societies, he liked to express himself in lofty style about these events and his own role in them, presenting everything in a heroic way, although the revolt that took place in St. Petersburg, in fact, according to those material forces, which the conspirators had on December 14, was, in fact, rather powerless, and if he could have any success, it was only thanks to the phenomenal disorder that reigned at that time in the palace. Arrests and searches, which were carried out with a wide hand, covered barely a few hundred people throughout Russia, and of the five hundred people who were captured, most were subsequently released and freed from persecution. Thus, with all the severity of the investigation and with the remarkable frankness of the majority of the accused in their testimonies, only 120 people were eventually put on trial.

But even after the end of the case, this conspiracy seemed to Nicholas monstrous and enormous, and he was firmly convinced that on December 14 he had saved Russia from inevitable death. Many close associates looked at the matter in the same way. It is very difficult to separate the assent and flattery here from the sincere presentation of these events. At the very coronation, when Nicholas entered the Assumption Cathedral, Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow, who then had a reputation as a free-thinking bishop, said among other things in his speech: “The impatience of loyal desires would dare to ask: why did you hesitate? If we did not know that both Your present solemn coming is a joy to us, and Your previous delay was a blessing to us. You were not in a hurry to show us Your glory, because You were in a hurry to establish our safety. You are coming, finally, as the king not only of Your hereditary, but also of Your preserved kingdom ... "

There were a lot of people who thought that was the way it was. And so, for the first six months of his reign, Nicholas, leaving aside all state affairs and even military ones, directed all his efforts to finding the roots of the conspiracy and to asserting his personal and state security. He himself appeared, if not directly as an investigator, then as a zealous supreme leader of the entire investigation that was carried out on the Decembrists. As an investigator, he was often biased and unbalanced: he showed great temper and a very uneven attitude towards persons under investigation. This was reflected in the memoirs of the Decembrists. Some of them - who had to experience the comparatively humane attitude of the supreme investigator - praise him, others say that he attacked them with unusual irritation and intemperance.

The attitude changed depending on the preconceived views of some of the defendants, on the different attitude towards different persons, and simply on the personal mood of Nikolai. In one of his letters to Konstantin, he himself wrote with great naivete that by establishing the Supreme Criminal Court for the Decembrists, he showed almost an example of a constitutional institution; from the point of view of modern justice, these words can only seem like a mockery. The whole thing came down to an inquisitorial investigation, extremely deep and detailed, by a special commission of inquiry, led by Nikolai himself, which predetermined the whole end of the case. The Supreme Court was a simple solemn comedy. It consisted of several dozen persons: it included senators, members of the State Council, three members of the Synod, then 13 people were appointed to this supreme Sanhedrin by order of Emperor Nicholas - but no court, in the sense in which we used to understand it. there was, in fact, no word: no judicial investigation, no debate of the parties, there was only a solemn meeting of such a court, before which each defendant was brought separately; he was interrogated extremely briefly, and some were even only read a maxim, so that many of the defendants were sure that they had not been tried, that they had only been read the verdict of some mysterious institution of the Inquisition. This is how the criminal side of this case was arranged. In the end, Nicholas showed great cruelty and mercilessness towards the defendants, but he himself believed, and, apparently, sincerely, that he was showing only complete justice and civil courage. And, it must be said that no matter how biased he was during the investigation, in the end he punished everyone equally mercilessly - both Pestel, whom he considered a fiend of hell and an extremely malicious person, and Ryleev, whom he himself recognized as extremely pure and an exalted personality and whose family he provided significant material support. According to the verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court, five people were sentenced to death by quartering - Emperor Nicholas replaced the quartering by hanging; 31 people were sentenced to ordinary execution - by firing squad; Nikolai replaced it with hard labor for them - indefinite and partly for 15-20 years. Accordingly he lowered the punishment of others; but most were nevertheless sent to Siberia (some after many years of imprisonment in fortresses), and only a few were given to soldiers without service.

For the subsequent course of government, another side of this exceptional process was also important. Nikolai, striving to discover all the roots of sedition, to find out all its causes and springs, deepened the matter of investigation to the extreme. He wanted to achieve all the causes of discontent, to find hidden springs, and thanks to this, little by little, a picture unfolded before him of those disorders in Russian social and state life of that time, the magnitude and significance of which he had not suspected before. In the end, Nicholas realized that these disturbances were significant and that the discontent of many had a basis, and already in the first months of his reign, he declared to many people - including representatives of foreign courts - that he was aware of the need for serious changes in Russia. “I have distinguished and will always distinguish,” he told the French envoy, Comte de Saint Prix, “those who want just reforms and want them to come from legitimate authority, from those who would like to undertake them themselves and God knows by what means” .

By order of Nikolai, one of the clerks of the commission of inquiry (Borovkov) even drew up a special note, which included information about the plans, projects and instructions received from the Decembrists during interrogation or reported in notes compiled by some of them on their own initiative, others - at the request of Nicholas.

Thus, Nikolai quite consciously considered it useful and even necessary to borrow from the Decembrists, as people who are very smart and well thought out their plans, everything that could be useful to him as material for state activity.

The mentioned note, drawn up by Borovkov, in its conclusion also outlined certain conclusions, of which, of course, only some were inspired by the testimony of the Decembrists, while others flowed from the general impression of the internal state of the state that had become clear to Emperor Nicholas. Borovkov summarizes these conclusions about the urgent needs of state administration in the following way: “It is necessary to grant clear, positive laws; establish justice by the institution of the shortest judicial procedure; to elevate the moral education of the clergy; to reinforce the nobility, fallen and completely ruined by loans in credit institutions; resurrect trade and industry with unshakable statutes; direct the enlightenment of youth according to each state; improve the situation of farmers; destroy the humiliating sale of people; resurrect the fleet; to encourage private people to sail, in a word, to correct innumerable disorders and abuses. In essence, an entire state program could be extracted from this, but Nicholas took note of only those facts and conclusions that struck him the most.

In any case, among the Decembrists, he saw for the most part not inexperienced young men who were guided by one youthful ardor, but a whole series of persons who had previously been attached to the affairs of the highest and local administration. Such was N. I. Turgenev, State Secretary of the State Council and director of one of the departments of the Ministry of Finance, such was Krasnokutsky, chief prosecutor of the Senate, Batenkov, one of Speransky’s close associates, and at one time Arakcheev, Baron Steingeil, ruler of the office of the Moscow governor general. Nikolai could not but see the mind of such representatives of the Decembrists as Pestel and Nikita Muravyov, but even from minor members of secret societies, such as Batenkov or Steingeil, he could draw a lot of useful instructions.

When the process of the Decembrists was over, in June 1826, and when five people who were considered the main conspirators were executed, then in the manifesto published on the occasion of the coronation on July 13, 1826, Nicholas's attitude to secret societies was also highlighted and at the same time rushed a look at his own future activities. “Not from bold dreams, always destructive,” it was said, among other things, in this manifesto, “but from above, domestic institutions are gradually improved, shortcomings are supplemented, abuses are corrected. In this order of gradual improvement, every modest desire for the better, every thought to establish the power of laws, to expand true enlightenment and industry, reaching us through the lawful way, open to all, will always be accepted by us with good pleasure: for we do not have, we cannot have another desire, how to see our fatherland at the highest degree of happiness and glory, predetermined by Providence.

Thus, the manifesto, which appeared immediately after the massacre of the Decembrists, promised a series of transformations, and one can hardly doubt that the first intentions of Nicholas at the beginning of his reign were transformational intentions. The direction and content of these transformations had to depend on the general views and views of the young autocrat on the essence and tasks of state power in Russia.

Karamzin and the views of Nicholas I on domestic politics

Nikolai Pavlovich succeeded in clarifying and formulating for himself these general political views and views at the very accession to the throne - mainly thanks to N. M. Karamzin, who, undoubtedly, was at this difficult moment a mentor and intimate adviser to the new young and inexperienced ruler of Russia. If from the Decembrists Nikolai Pavlovich had to receive the first information that struck him about the unrest and abuses in government affairs, then Karamzin even earlier gave him, one might say, the general program of the reign, which to such an extent came to Nikolai's taste that he was ready to make rich this irreplaceable in his the eyes of the adviser, who at that time already stood with one foot in the coffin.

Karamzin, as you know, never held any government post under Alexander, but this did not prevent him from acting sometimes as a strong and sharp critic of government measures - both at the time of the greatest flowering of liberal assumptions, in the era of Speransky, and at the end of the reign, when Karamzin sharply condemned Alexander's policy on the Polish question and did not hide from him his negative views both on military settlements and on the obscurantist activities of various Magnitsky and Runichi in the field of public education and censorship.

Upon the accession to the throne of Nicholas, the days of Karamzin were already numbered: on the very day of December 14, he caught a cold on Palace Square and, although he overcame it for two months, he eventually fell ill and died six months later, without using the frigate, equipped according to the highest command, to carry sick historiographer to Italy. From the first days of the interregnum, which began on November 27, 1825, Karamzin, on his own impulse, appeared daily at the palace and there specially preached to Nicholas, trying to convey to him his views on the role of an autocratic monarch in Russia and on the state tasks of the moment. Karamzin's speeches made a huge impression on Nikolai Pavlovich. Karamzin, skillfully able to maintain full respect, even reverence for the personality of the just deceased sovereign, at the same time mercilessly criticized his government system - so mercilessly that Empress Maria Feodorovna, who was constantly present at these conversations and, perhaps, even contributed to their emergence , exclaimed once when Karamzin attacked some measures of the last reign too sharply: “Have mercy, spare the heart of your mother, Nikolai Mikhailovich!” a sovereign who is preparing to reign."

What were Karamzin's views on the role of autocracy in Russia, you already know from the content of his note "On Ancient and New Russia", presented by him to Emperor Alexander in 1811. Nikolai Pavlovich could not have known this note then, because the only copy of it was handed over by Emperor Alexander Arakcheev and only in 1836 - after the death of Arakcheev - was found in his papers. But Karamzin developed the same views later (in 1815) in the introduction to his History of the Russian State, and this introduction was, of course, known to Nicholas. In Karamzin’s mind, however, the thoughts expressed in the notes he submitted to Alexander (“On Ancient and New Russia” in 1811 and “The Opinion of a Russian Citizen” in 1819) undoubtedly remained unchanged until the end of his life. Karamzin, faithful in this case to the view he borrowed from Catherine II, believed that autocracy was necessary for Russia, that without it Russia would perish, and he supported this idea with examples of moments of unrest in the history of Russia, when autocratic power wavered.

At the same time, he looked at the role of an autocratic monarch as a kind of sacred mission, as a constant service to Russia, by no means relieving the monarch of duties and strictly condemning such actions of sovereigns, which, not corresponding to the benefits and interests of Russia, were based on personal arbitrariness. , whim, or even ideological dreams (like Alexander). The role of a subject in an autocratic state was portrayed by Karamzin not in the form of wordless slavery, but as the role of a courageous citizen who is obliged to unconditional obedience to the monarch, but at the same time, who must freely and sincerely declare to him his opinions and views concerning state affairs. Karamzin's political views were, for all their conservatism, undoubtedly a utopia, but a utopia not without a certain upsurge and a sincere, noble feeling. They sought to give political absolutism a certain ideology and beauty, and made it possible for autocracy, to which Nicholas was naturally inclined, to rely on a lofty ideology. Under the direct and semi-conscious personal aspirations of Nicholas, they summed up the principle and gave the young autocrat a ready-made system that fully corresponded to his tastes and inclinations. At the same time, the practical conclusions that Karamzin drew from his general views were so elementary and simple that Nikolai Pavlovich, who had become accustomed from a young age to the ideas of military front service, could not but like it from this side. They seemed to him built on a wise and majestic foundation, and at the same time they were quite within his reach.

The views inspired by Karamzin did not at the same time exclude the possibility and even the need to set about correcting those abuses and disorders of Russian life that Nicholas had discovered during his relations with the Decembrists. Karamzin, for all the conservativeness of his views, was neither a reactionary nor an obscurantist. He resolutely condemned the obscurantist measures of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education and the savage exploits of Magnitsky and Runich, had a negative attitude towards the activities of Arakcheev and military settlements, and strictly condemned the abuses of financial management under Guryev. After December 14, 1825, he told one of the people close to him (Serbinovich) that he was "an enemy of the revolution", but he recognized the necessary peaceful evolutions, which, in his opinion, "are most convenient in monarchical rule."

Trust in Karamzin's statesmanship was so strong in Nikolai Pavlovich that he was apparently going to give him a permanent state post; but the dying historiographer could not accept any appointment and, instead of himself, recommended to Nikolai his younger associates from among the members of the former literary society "Arzamas": Bludov and Dashkov, who were soon joined by another prominent "Arzamas" - Uvarov, who subsequently gave the final the formulation of that system of official nationality, the father of which was Karamzin.

For the most detailed description of the end of the day on December 14, 1825, see Art. M. M. Popova(famous teacher Belinsky, who later served in the III department), in Art. collection. "About the Past". SPb., 1909, pp. 110;–121.

Shortly before Karamzin's death, he was granted a pension of 50,000 rubles. per year, with the fact that after death this pension was transferred to his family (cf. Pogodin."N. M. Karamzin, vol. II, p. 495, where the very decree on this to the Minister of Finance of May 13, 1826 is given).

Ref. "Opinion of Mrs. Bludova about two notes by Karamzin”, printed in the book Eg. P. Kovalevsky"Gr. Bludov and his time. SPb., 1875, p. 245.

From among the former "Arzamas" Pushkin was admitted from the village to the capital, who brought complete repentance in 1826. He was summoned from the village to Moscow during the coronation, and it was ordered to send him from the Pskov province, although with a courier, but in his own crew - not as a prisoner. Emperor Nicholas received him personally, and Pushkin made a good impression on him with his frank and direct conversation. Undoubtedly, in Pushkin, Emperor Nicholas first of all saw great mental strength and wanted to “attach” this strength to the cause and utilize it for the service of the state. Therefore, the first proposal that he made to Pushkin was a business proposal - to draw up a note on measures to raise public education. Pushkin set to work very reluctantly, only after repeating this order through Benckendorff. This case was unusual for the poet; however, he wrote a note and in it carried the idea that enlightenment is very useful even for establishing a trustworthy direction of minds, but that it can develop only with some freedom. Apparently, Emperor Nicholas did not like this very much, as can be seen from the following note reported to Pushkin by Benckendorff: “Morality, diligent service, diligence - one should prefer inexperienced, immoral and useless enlightenment. Well-directed upbringing must be based on these principles...” Cf. Schilder"Imp. Nicholas the First, his life and reign”, vol. II, p. 14 et seq.