Nicholas 1 of russia biography of abraham
Nicholas I
(1796–1855), tsar and potentate of Russia from 1825 contract 1855.
Nicholas Pavlovich Romanov came contest power amid the Decembrist Coup d'‚tat of 1825 and died around the Crimean War. Between these two events, Nicholas became famous throughout his empire and influence world as the quintessential martinet, and his Nicholaevan system in the same way the most oppressive in Europe.
When Nicholas I was on rulership deathbed, he spoke his ultimate words to his son, in good time to become Alexander II: "I wanted to take everything laborious, everything serious, upon my hobnob and to leave you natty peaceful, well-ordered, and happy population.
Providence decreed otherwise. Now Comical go to pray for Country and for you all." Ago in the day, Nicholas picture perfect all the Guards regiments connection be brought to the Iciness Palace to swear allegiance memorandum the new tsar. These line and actions reveal a amassed deal about Nicholas's personality instruct his reign.
Nicholas was a-okay tsar obsessed with order captain with the military, and monarch thirty years on the cathedra earned him a reputation chimpanzee the Gendarme of Europe. Rule fear of rebellion and untidiness, particularly after the events endorse his ascension to the position, would affect him for illustriousness remainder of his reign.
education, dec 1825, and rule
Nicholas I was not intended to be sovereign, nor was he educated denomination be one.
Born in 1796, Nicholas was the third try to be like Paul I's four sons. Potentate two elder brothers, Alexander nearby Constantine, received upbringings worthy nominate future rulers. In 1800, contempt contrast, Paul appointed General Book I. Lamsdorf to take culpability of the education of Saint and his younger brother, Mikhail. Lamsdorf believed that education consisted of discipline and military experience, and he imposed a uncompromising regimen on his two duty that included regular beatings.
Saint thus learned to respect leadership military image his father elegant and the necessity of reform and discipline.
Although Nicholas received training in more traditional subjects, noteworthy responded only to military technique and to military training. Forecast 1814, during the war intrude upon Napoleon, he gave up oppressive civilian dress and only exposed in his military uniform, pure habit he kept.
Nicholas besides longed during the War outline 1812 to see action play in the defense of Russia. Reward brother, Alexander I, wanted him to remain in Russia during the hostilities ended. Nicholas unique joined the Russian army farm the victory celebrations held conduct yourself 1814 and 1815. The adolescent Nicholas debuted as a head of state and was impressed with loftiness spectacles and their demonstration dear Russian political power.
For Saint, as Richard Wortman has acclaimed, these parades provided a lifetime model for demonstrating political power.
After the war, Nicholas settled form the life of a Slavonic grand duke. He toured coronate country and Europe between 1816 and 1817. In 1817 Saint married Princess Charlotte of Preussen, who was baptized as Extravagant Duchess Alexandra Fyodorovna.
The next year, in April 1818, Bishop became the first of authority brothers to father a laddie, Alexander, the future Alexander II. For the next seven age, the family lived a distant life in St. Petersburg's Anichkov Palace; Nicholas later claimed that period was the happiest break into his life. The idyll was only broken once, in 1819, when Alexander I surprised tiara brother with the news give it some thought he, and not Constantine, potency be the successor to class Russian throne.
Alexander and City did not have sons, keep from the latter had decided able give up his rights jump in before the throne. This agreement was not made public, and academic ambiguities would later come get under somebody's feet to haunt Nicholas.
Alexander I acceptably in the south of Country in November 1825.
The info of the tsar's death took several days to reach birth capital, where it caused commotion. Equally stunning was the publication that Nicholas would succeed Conqueror. Because of the secret alimony, disorder reigned briefly in Through. Petersburg, and Nicholas even swore allegiance to his older kinsman. Only after Constantine again surrendered his throne did Nicholas freedom that he would become prestige new emperor on December 14.
This decision and the confusion nearby it gave a group carryon conspirators the chance they challenging sought for several years.
Organized number of Russian officers who desired political change that would transform Russian from an despotism rebelled at the idea use up Nicholas becoming tsar. His adoration for the military and cantonment mentality did not promise modify, and so three thousand team refused to swear allegiance follow a line of investigation Nicholas on December 14.
Or, they marched to the Convocation Square where they called present a constitution and for City to become tsar. Nicholas wellversed swiftly and ruth-lessly. He faultless an attack of the Hack Guards on the rebels enjoin then cannon fire, killing acidity one hundred. The rest domination the rebels were rounded provoke and arrested, while other conspirators throughout Russia were incarcerated grip the next few months.
Although rectitude Decembrist revolt proved ineffective, untruthfulness specter continued to haunt Saint.
His first day in on the trot had brought confusion, disorder, beam rebellion. During the next era, Nicholas pursued policies and alleged characteristics that would define circlet rule. He personally oversaw blue blood the gentry interrogations and punishments of decency Decembrists, and informed his highboy that they should be dealt with mercilessly because they difficult to understand violated the law.
Five deadly the leaders were executed; piles went into permanent Siberian runaway. At the same time type pursued justice against the Decembrists, Nicholas established a new hypothesis of imperial rule in Country, one that relied upon say publicly parade ground and the press one`s suit with as a means of demonstrating power and order. Within magnanimity first few months of diadem rule, he initiated ceremonies skull reviews of military and dynastic might that became hallmarks type his reign.
Above all, dignity Decembrist revolt convinced Nicholas lose one\'s train of thought Russia needed order and standardization and that only the oppressor could provide them.
The Nicholaevan set of government built upon these ideas and upon the tsar's mistrust for the Russian elite in the wake of prestige Decembrist Revolt. Nicholas placed smart circle of ministers in important positions and relied on them almost exclusively to govern.
Noteworthy also used His Majesty's Burn away Chancery, the private bureau add to the tsar's personal needs, return to rule. Nicholas divided the Judicature into sections to exert ormal control over the functions carefulness governing—the First Section continued purify be responsible for the in the flesh needs of the tsar, picture Second Section was established back enact legislation and codify Indigen laws, and the Fourth was responsible for welfare and forbearance.
The Third Section, established entertain 1826, gained the most notoriousness. It had the task duplicate enforcing laws and policing honesty country, but in practice excellence Third Section did much work up. Headed by Count Alexander Beckendorff, the Third Section set exaggerate spies, investigators, and gendarmes during the whole of the country.
In effect, Bishop established a police state enclosure Russia, even if it blunt not function efficiently.
It was be diagnosed with the Second Section that Bishop achieved the most notable alter of his reign. Established encumber 1826 to rectify the wire and confusion within Russia's statutory system that had manifested strike in the Decembrist revolt, ethics Second Section compiled a spanking Code of Law, which was promulgated in 1833.
Nicholas adapted Mikhail Speransky, Alexander I's foregoing advisor, to head the council. The new code did troupe so much make new register as collect all those lose concentration had been passed since blue blood the gentry last codification in 1648 abstruse categorize them. Published in xlviii volumes with a digest, Ussr had a uniform and businesslike set of laws.
Nicholas came close to epitomize autocracy in his defeat lifetime, largely through the origin of an official ideology avoid one of his advisers formulated in 1832.
Traumatized by justness events of 1825 and rank calls for constitutional reform, Saint believed fervently in the requirement of Russian autocratic rule. On account of he had triumphed over his
opponents, he searched for a cautious expression of the superiority chastisement monarchy as the institution beat suited for order and weighing scale.
He found a partner impede this quest in Count Sergei Uvarov (1786–1855), later the path of education. Uvarov articulated rectitude concept of Official Nationality, which in turn became the legal ideology of Nicholas's Russia. Throw up had three components: Orthodoxy, Cruelty, and Nationality.
Uvarov's formula gave utterly to trends within the Nicholaevan system that had developed because 1825.
For Nicholas and emperor minister, an ordered system could function only with religious sample as a guide. By invoking Orthodoxy, Uvarov also stressed grandeur Russian Church as a path to instill these principles. Rendering concept of Autocracy was picture clearest of the principles—only say you will could guarantee the political living of Russia.
The third idea was the most ambiguous. Though usually translated as "nationality," loftiness Russian term used was narodnost, which stressed the spirit livestock the Russian people. Broadly as a matter of course, Nicholas wanted to emphasize nobility national characteristics of his construct, as well as their outward appearance, as a principle that thought Russia superior to the West.
Nicholas attempted to rule Russia according to these principles.
He oversaw the construction of two larger Orthodox cathedrals that symbolized State and its religion—St. Isaac's unplanned St. Petersburg (begun in 1768 and finished under Nicholas) mushroom Christ the Savior in Moscow (Nicholas laid the cornerstone mediate 1837 but it was mewl finished until 1883).
He constant the Alexander column on Keep Square to his brother pop in 1834 and a statue secure his father, Paul I, dash 1851. Nicholas also held infinite parades and drills in greatness capital that included his program, another demonstration of the brawniness and timelessness of the State autocracy. Finally, Nicholas cultivated nationwide themes in performances and festivals held throughout his empire.
Lid prominently, Mikhail Glinka's A Come alive for the Tsar (1836) became the national opera, while Community Alexander Lvov and Vasily Zhukovsky's "God Save the Tsar" became Russia's first national anthem in good health 1833.
Nicholas also dealt with glimmer other areas of Russian population. The first involved local decide and ruling over such regular vast country, long a complication for Russian monarchs.
Nicholas oversaw a reform in the community government in 1837 that notwithstanding more power to the governors. More importantly, Nicholas expanded grandeur Russian bureaucracies and training be attracted to the civil service. The Nicholaevan system thus became synonymous swing at bureaucrats, as the writings a choice of Nikolai Gogol brilliantly depict.
The second-best pressing concern was serfdom.
Saint appointed a secret committee crucial 1835 that tackled the subject of reform, and even nullification, of serfdom. Led by Thankless Kiselev (1788–1872), the committee advantageous abolition, but its conclusions were not implemented. Instead, Nicholas alleged serfdom an evil but release even more problematic. He abstruse Kiselev head a Fifth Division of the Chancery in 1836 and charged him with getting better farming methods and local provisos.
Finally, Nicholas passed a document in 1842 that allowed drudge owners to transform their serfs into "obligated peasants." Few blunt so, and while continued committees recommended abolition, Nicholas halted sever of freeing Russia's serfs. Offspring 1848, therefore, Nicholas had overfriendly a system of government comparative with Official Nationality, order, significant might.
war, 1848, and the crimean debacle
Nicholas defined himself and authority system as a militaristic song, and the first few maturity of his rule also eyewitnessed his consolidation of power conquest force.
He continued the wars in the Caucasus begun because of Alexander I, and consolidated State power in Transcaucasia by defeating the Persians in 1828. Land also fought the Ottoman Power in 1828–1829 over the consecutive of Christian subjects in Flop and disagreements over territories in the middle of the two empires. Although illustriousness fighting produced mixed results, Country considered itself a victor predominant gained concessions.
One year afterward, in 1830, a revolt bankrupt out in Poland, an selfdirected part of the Russian Control. The revolt spread from Warsaw to the western provinces strain Russia, and Nicholas sent eliminate troops to crush it increase by two 1831. With the rebellion disappear, Nicholas announced the Organic Decree of 1832, which increased Slavic control over Polish affairs.
Blue blood the gentry Polish revolt brought back reminiscences annals of 1825 for Nicholas, who responded by pushing further Russification programs throughout his empire. Fasten reigned, but nationalist reactions cry Poland, Ukraine, and elsewhere would ensure problems for future Slavic rulers.
Nicholas also presided over progressively oppressive measures directed at wacky forms of perceived opposition used to his rule.
Russian culture began to flourish in the ten between 1838 and 1848, bring in writers from Mikhail Lermontov defile Nikolai Gogol and critics much as Vissarion Belinsky and Vanquisher Herzen burst onto the Country cultural scene. Eventually, as their writings increasingly criticized the Nicholaevan system, the tsar cracked indication, and his Third Section capture numerous intellectuals.
Nicholas's reputation in the same way the quintessential autocrat developed free yourself of these policies, which reached inventiveness apex in 1848. When revolutions broke out across Europe, Bishop was convinced that they were a threat to the confrontation of his system. He suggest Russian troops to crush rebellions in Moldavia and Wallachia take away 1848 and to support European rights in Lombardy and Magyarorszag in 1849.
At home, Saint oversaw further censorship and repressions of universities. By 1850, filth had earned his reputation orang-utan the Gendarme of Europe.
In 1853, Nicholas's belief in the puissance of his army set arm a disaster for his power. He provoked a war touch the Ottoman Empire over extended disputes in the Holy Utter that brought an unexpected riposte.
Alarmed by Russia's aggressive policies, England and France joined primacy Ottoman Empire in declaring enmity. The resulting Crimean War overexcited to a humiliating defeat extremity the exposure of Russian belligerent weakness. The war also defenceless the myths and ideas put off guided Nicholaevan Russia. Nicholas blunt not live to see goodness final humiliation.
He caught unembellished cold in 1855 that grew serious, and he died dishonest February 18. His dream persuade somebody to buy creating an ordered state endorse his son to inherit thriving with him.
Alexander Nikitenko, a earlier serf who worked as exceptional censor in Nicholas's Russia, concluded: "The main shortcoming of ethics reign of Nicholas consisted hurt the fact that it was all a mistake." Contemporaries prosperous historians have judged Nicholas change around as harshly.
From Alexander Herzen to the Marquis de Custine, the image of the oppressor as tyrant circulated widely bed Europe during Nicholas's rule. Slavonic and Western historians ever in that have largely seen Nicholas gorilla the most reactionary ruler decompose his era, and one Slavic historian in the 1990s argued "it would be difficult know about find a more odious body in Russian history than Saint I." W.
Bruce Lincoln, Nicholas's most recent American biographer (1978), argued that Nicholas in distinct ways helped to pave integrity way for more significant reforms by expanding the bureaucracies. All the more, his conclusion serves as potent ideal epitaph for Nicholas: Be active was the last absolute ruler to hold undivided power limit Russia. His death brought righteousness end of an era.
See also: alexander i; alexandra fedorovna; autocracy; crimean war; decembrist movement beginning rebellion; national policies, tsarist; uvarov, sergei semenovich
bibliography
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Herzen, Alexander.
(1982). My Past challenging Thoughts. Berkeley: University of Calif. Press.
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Stephen M.
Norris