The Russian Emperor Alexander the First

Alexander the First was the eldest son of Paul 1. The future emperor was born in 1777, on December 12. Alexander was brought up mainly by Catherine 2, his grandmother. In physical development, the boy was tried to keep closer to nature. Education the future emperor received from the Swiss Lagarp, tactful Republican.

Alexander the First. Biography

Catherine II intended to transfer the throne directly to her grandson, bypassing Paul 1. However, before she could register her will, she died. The throne was joined by Pavel 1, who made his son a military governor in St. Petersburg, an inspector of infantry and cavalry, and then chairman in the military department of the Senate. Together with this father always suspected Alexander of conspiracy, he even wanted to put him in the fortress. It should be noted that the son did participate in the organization of conspiracies against his father. As a result of one of them, Paul died.

Alexander the First entered the throne at the age of twenty-four. He was in love with symmetry and order, he was educated, had a sound mind. However, as contemporaries note, he was afraid of state affairs, which seemed to him unbearable. Together with this, Alexander the First was very suspicious and suspicious. The emperor suffered from an inferiority complex all the time . Trying to get rid of him, Alexander the First tried to establish himself as an autocrat, then as a military leader.

According to contemporaries, the emperor was not an ardent adherent of change. However, at the beginning of the reign of Alexander the First, the reforms were fairly radical.

First of all, the ruler abolished all the reforms of his father, Paul 1: freed the clergy and nobles from corporal punishment, returned to the cities and the nobility "letters of commendation", returned the order of twelve thousand repressed from exile, all fled outside the state declared an amnesty.

After 1803 (from the moment of the promulgation of the law "On Free Farmers"), peasants were entitled to redemption of freedom under a contract with the landowner. However, less than half the percentage of serfs used it.

From 1803 to 1804, Alexander the First introduced changes in the system of public education. In 1804 the "Censorial Charter" was adopted. M. Speransky took a special part in reforming . His efforts to a greater extent established a new order of government in the state, with minor changes existed until 1917.

From 1805 to 1807 Alexander participated in the anti-Napoleonic coalitions. As a result of the defeat at Austerlitz, the emperor was forced to conclude the Tilsit peace. However, subsequent military successes contributed to strengthening the international position of Russia.

After the first unsuccessful battles at the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Alexander, convinced of his military insolvency, practically retired into private life. Since that moment, he almost does not go anywhere, he is always in the Kamennoostrovsky Palace of Petersburg.

Radically changed the position of all the despised Alexander 1 after the disaster in the Napoleonic army, who lost almost all of its membership from the cold and famine in Russia. As a result, in 1814, on March 31, the Russian emperor entered Russia in Paris. From that moment Alexander 1 became the most influential man in the whole of Europe. The Emperor himself tried with all his might to strengthen his position.

However, Alexander 1 increasingly tried to rely on people "especially close". Among them was Arakcheev, a tough, rude, cruel soldier. The emperor strives to create a special military class, which greatly irritated the Russian landowners, affecting their national and class pride. Under these conditions, a conspiracy against Alexander 1 was brewing.

His murder by 1825 was already carefully planned. The conspirators planned to make it in 1826, in the summer, during the maneuvers. However, in 1825 the emperor suddenly died in Taganrog from illness.