When Nicholas 1 began to rule. The army of Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich. Economic development. Fight against corruption
Nicholas I Romanov
Years of life: 1796–1855
Russian Emperor (1825–1855). Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland.
From the Romanov dynasty.
In 1816 he made a three-month journey across European 
Russia, and from October 1816. until May 1817 he traveled and lived in England.
In 1817 Nikolai Pavlovich Romanov married the eldest daughter of the Prussian king Frederick William II, Princess Charlotte Frederica-Louise, who took 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 of succession to the throne, so Nicholas would become the heir as the next senior brother. 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. 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, and at the same time did not want to formally renounce it 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 14.
Emperor Nicholas I
After the death of Emperor Alexander I and the abdication of the throne by Grand Duke Constantine, Nicholas was nevertheless proclaimed emperor on December 2 (14), 1825.
By this day, the conspiratorial officers, who later began to be called “Decembrists,” ordered a mutiny 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 to take the oath, and a revolutionary delegation consisting of Pushchin and Ryleev would burst into the Senate premises with a demand not to take the oath and to declare the tsarist government overthrown and to issue a revolutionary manifesto to the Russian people.
The Decembrist uprising greatly amazed the emperor and instilled in him fear of any manifestations of free-thinking. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and 5 of its leaders were hanged (1826).
After suppressing the rebellion and large-scale repression, the emperor centralized the administrative system, strengthened the military-bureaucratic apparatus, established a political police (Third Department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery) and also established strict censorship.
In 1826, a censorship statute was issued, nicknamed “cast iron”; according to it, it was forbidden to print almost anything that had a political background.
Autocracy of Nikolai Romanov
Some authors 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, persecution of the Old Believers resumed again.
On May 24, 1829, Nicholas 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 dethroned by the rebels (Decree on the dethronement of Nicholas I). After the suppression of the uprising by the Kingdom of Poland, independence was lost, and the Sejm and the army were divided into provinces.
Meetings of commissions were held that were designed to alleviate the situation of serfs; a ban was introduced on killing and exiling peasants, selling them individually and without land, and assigning them to newly opened factories. Peasants received the right to own private property, as well as to redeem from the estates being sold.
A reform of state village management 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 and during the tsar’s lifetime the liberation of the peasants did not occur.
The first railways appeared in Russia (since 1837). From some sources it is known that the emperor became acquainted with steam locomotives at the age of 19 during a trip to England in 1816. He became the first Russian fireman and the first Russian to ride on a steam locomotive.
Property trusteeship over state-owned peasants and the status of obligated peasants was introduced (laws of 1837–1841 and 1842), he codified Russian laws (1833), stabilized the ruble (1839), under him new schools were founded - technical, military and general education.
In September 1826, the emperor received Pushkin, who had been released from Mikhailovsky exile, and listened to his confession that on December 14, Alexander Sergeevich was with the conspirators. Then he dealt with him like this: he freed the poet from general censorship (he decided to personally censor his works), instructed Pushkin to prepare a note “On Public Education,” and 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 chamberlain of his court, and the role played by Nikolai in the conflict between Pushkin and Dantes is assessed by historians as quite contradictory. There are versions that the tsar sympathized with Pushkin’s wife and set up the fatal duel. After the death of A.S. Pushkin was assigned a pension 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 his free poetry, to years of soldiery, and twice ordered M. Lermontov to be exiled to the Caucasus. By his order, the magazines “Telescope”, “European”, “Moscow Telegraph” were closed.
Significantly expanded Russian territory after the wars with Persia (1826–
1828) and Turkey (1828–1829), although the attempt to make the Black Sea an internal Russian sea met 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 (Bosphorus and Dardanelles) to foreign military vessels at the request of Russia (the treaty was canceled in 1841). Russia's military successes caused a negative reaction in the West because world powers were not interested in Russia's strengthening.
The Tsar wanted to intervene in the internal affairs of France and Belgium after the revolutions of 1830, but the Polish uprising prevented the implementation 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. An attempt by 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 series of defeats from its 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 Paris Peace Treaty was signed; the most difficult condition for Russia was the neutralization of the Black Sea, i.e. 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.
The Tsar received the popular nickname “Nikolai Palkin” because as a child 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
Died suddenly on February 18 (March 2), 1855 at the height of the Crimean War; According to the most common version, it was from transient pneumonia (he caught a cold shortly before his death while attending a military parade in a light uniform) or influenza. The emperor forbade performing an autopsy on himself 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 Frederick William III, who received the name Alexandra Feodorovna after converting to Orthodoxy. They had children:
- Alexander II (1818-1881)
- Maria (08/06/1819-02/09/1876), 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 (06/12/1825 - 07/29/1844), married to the 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 drill exercises with weapons. He was distinguished by his remarkable memory and great capacity for work. Archbishop Innocent wrote about him: “He was... such a crown-bearer, for whom the royal throne served not as a head to rest, but as an incentive to incessant work.” According to the memoirs of Her Imperial Majesty's maid of honor, Mrs. Anna Tyutcheva, her favorite phrase was: “I work like a slave in the galleys.”
The king's love for justice and order was well known. I personally visited military formations, inspected fortifications, educational institutions, and government institutions. He always gave specific 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 king's height was 205 cm.
All historians agree on one thing: the tsar was undoubtedly a prominent figure among the rulers-emperors of Russia.
Emperor of Russia Nicholas I
Emperor Nicholas I ruled Russia from 1825 to 1855. His activities are contradictory. On the one hand, he was an opponent of the liberal reforms that were the goal of the Decembrist movement, he implanted a conservative and bureaucratic way of action in Russia, created new repressive government bodies, tightened censorship, and abolished the freedoms of universities. On the other hand, under Nikolai, under the leadership of M. Speransky, work was completed on drawing up a new legislative code, a Ministry of State Property was created, whose activities were aimed at changing the situation of state peasants, secret commissions developed projects for the abolition of serfdom, there was an increase in industry, mainly light industry, along with With the bureaucracy and nobility, a new class of people began to emerge - the intelligentsia. During the time of Nicholas, Russian literature reached its peak: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Nekrasov, Tyutchev, GoncharovYears of reign of Nicholas I 1825 - 1855
Nicholas set himself the task of not changing anything, not introducing anything new in the foundations, but only maintaining the existing order, filling in the gaps, repairing revealed dilapidations with the help of practical legislation, and doing all this without any participation from society, even with the suppression of social independence, by government means alone; but he did not remove from the queue those burning questions that had been raised during the previous reign, and, it seems, he understood their burning importance even more than his predecessor. So, a conservative and bureaucratic mode of action is the characteristic of the new reign; to support what exists with the help of officials - this is another way to describe this character. (V. O. Klyuchevsky “Course of Russian History”)
Brief biography of Nicholas I
- 1796, June 25 - birthday of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I.
- 1802 - beginning of systematic education
Nikolai was raised somehow, not at all according to Rousseau’s program, like his older brothers Alexander and Konstantin. He prepared himself for a very modest military career; he was not initiated into issues of higher politics, and was not allowed to participate in serious state affairs. Until the age of 18, he did not even have specific official occupations; only this year he was appointed director of the engineering corps and given his command of one guards brigade, therefore two regiments
- 1814, February 22 - acquaintance with the Prussian Princess Charlotte.
- 1816, May 9 - August 26 - educational trip around Russia.
- 1816, September 13 - 1817, April 27 - educational trip to Europe.
- 1817, July 1 - marriage to Princess Charlotte (named Alexandra Fedorovna at baptism into Orthodoxy).
- 1818, April 17 - birth of the first-born Alexander (future emperor)
- 1819, July 13 - Alexander I informed Nicholas that the throne would eventually pass to him due to Constantine’s reluctance to reign
- 1819, August 18 - birth of daughter Maria
- 1822, September 11 - birth of daughter Olga
- 1823, August 16 - secret manifesto of Alexander I, declaring Nicholas heir to the throne
- 1825, June 24 - birth of daughter Alexandra
- 1825, November 27 - Nicholas received news of the death of Alexander I in Taganrog on November 19
- 1825, December 12 - Nicholas signed the Manifesto on his accession to the throne
- 1825, December 14 - in St. Petersburg
- 1826, August 22 - coronation in Moscow
- 1827, September 21 - birth of son Konstantin
- 1829, May 12 - coronation in Warsaw as Polish constitutional monarch
- 1830, August - the beginning of the cholera epidemic in Central Russia
- 1830, September 29 - Nikolai arrived in cholera-ridden Moscow
- 1831, June 23 - Nicholas calmed the cholera riot on Sennaya Square in St. Petersburg
In the summer of 1831 in St. Petersburg, at the height of the cholera epidemic, rumors arose among the townspeople that the disease was brought in by foreign doctors who were spreading the infection in order to plague the Russian people. This madness reached its climax when a huge excited crowd found itself on Sennaya Square, where there was a temporary cholera hospital.
Having rushed inside, people broke glass in the windows, broke furniture, drove out hospital servants and beat local doctors to death. There is a legend that the crowd was calmed down by Nicholas, who reproached them with the words “It is a shame for the Russian people, having forgotten the faith of their fathers, to imitate the riot of the French and Poles.”
- 1831, August 8 - birth of son Nicholas
- 1832, October 25 - birth of son Mikhail
- 1843, September 8 - the birth of the first grandson of Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future heir to the throne.
- 1844, July 29 - death of his beloved daughter Alexandra
- 1855, February 18 - death of Emperor Nicholas I in the Winter Palace
Domestic policy of Nicholas I. Briefly
- In domestic policy, Nikolai was guided by the idea of “arranging private public relations so that a new state order could then be built on them” (Klyuchevsky). His main concern was the creation of a bureaucratic apparatus that would become the basis of the throne as opposed to the nobility, which lost its trust after December 14, 1825. As a result, the number of bureaucrats increased manifold, as well as the number of clerical cases.
At the beginning of his reign, the emperor was horrified to learn that he had carried out 2,800 thousand cases in all official places in the Department of Justice alone. In 1842, the Minister of Justice presented a report to the sovereign, which stated that in all official places of the empire, another 33 million cases, which were set out on at least 33 million written sheets, had not been cleared. (Klyuchevsky)
Directing the most important matters himself, entering into their consideration, the Emperor created His Majesty’s Own Office, with five departments, reflecting the range of affairs that the Emperor directly wanted to manage.
The first department prepared papers for the report to the emperor and monitored the execution of the highest commands; the second department was engaged in the codification of laws and was under control until his death in 1839; the third department was entrusted with the affairs of the high police under the control of the chief of gendarmes; the fourth department managed charitable educational institutions, the fifth department was created to prepare a new order of management and state property
Working for several years, this committee developed projects for the transformation of both central and provincial institutions, prepared a draft of a new law on estates, which envisaged improving the life of serfs. The law on estates was submitted to the State Council and approved by it, but was not promulgated due to the fact that the revolutionary movements of 1830 in the West instilled fear of any reform. Over time, only some of the measures from the projects of the “Committee of December 6, 1826” were implemented in the form of separate laws. But on the whole, the committee’s work remained without any success, and the reform designed by it did not
Under Nicholas I, cadet corps and military and naval academies, the Construction School in St. Petersburg, and the Survey Institute in Moscow were established; several women's institutes. The Main Pedagogical Institute for training teachers was reopened. Boarding houses with a gymnasium course were founded for the sons of nobles. The situation in male gymnasiums has been improved
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Orthodoxy - without love for the faith of their ancestors, the people will perish
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Autocracy - The main condition for the political existence of Russia
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Nationality - preserving the integrity of folk traditions
According to it, the management of universities passed to the trustees of educational districts subordinate to the Ministry of Public Education. The Council of Professors lost its independence in educational and scientific affairs. Rectors and deans began to be elected not annually, but for a four-year term. Rectors continued to be approved by the emperor, and deans by the minister; professor - trustee
Under the influence of the Ministry, “chambers” of state property began to operate in the provinces. They were in charge of state lands, forests and other property; they also observed the state peasants. These peasants were organized into special rural societies (of which there were almost 6,000); A volost was formed from several such rural communities. Both rural societies and volosts enjoyed self-government, had their own “assemblies”, elected “heads” and “elders” to manage volost and rural affairs, and special judges for the court.
The self-government of state-owned peasants subsequently served as a model for privately owned peasants in liberating them from serfdom. But Kiselev did not limit himself to concerns about the self-government of peasants. The Ministry of State Property carried out a number of measures to improve the economic life of the peasantry subordinate to it: the peasants were taught the best methods of farming and were provided with grain in lean years; those with little land were given land; started schools; gave tax benefits, etc.
— a fixed exchange rate for the silver ruble was introduced
— the circulation of endless banknotes that appeared in Russia from nowhere was destroyed
— a gold reserve of the treasury was created, which did not exist before
— the ruble exchange rate has become strong, the ruble has become a hard currency throughout Europe,
- So, during the reign of Nicholas the following were produced:
— arrangement of departments of “His Majesty’s own Office”;
— publication of the Code of Laws;
— financial reform
— measures to improve the life of peasants
— measures in the field of public education
Foreign policy of Nicholas I
Two directions of diplomacy of Nicholas I: the disintegration of Turkey for the sake of Russia's inheritance of the straits and its possessions in the Balkans; fight against any manifestations of revolution in Europe
The foreign policy of Nicholas the First, like any policy, was characterized by unprincipledness. On the one hand, the emperor strictly adhered to the principles of legitimism, always and in everything supporting the official authorities of states against dissidents: he broke off relations with France after the revolution of 1830, harshly suppressed the Polish liberation uprising, and took the side of Austria in its affairs with the rebellious Hungary
In 1833, an agreement was reached between Russia, Austria and Prussia, which entailed continuous Russian intervention in European affairs with the goal of “maintaining power wherever it exists, strengthening it where it weakens, and defending it where it is openly attacked.” »
On the other hand, when it seemed profitable, Nicholas launched a war against Turkey, protecting the Greek rebels, although he considered them rebels
Russian wars during the reign of Nicholas I
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War with Persia (1826-1828)
Ended with the Turkmanchay Peace Treaty, which confirmed the terms of the Gulistan Peace Treaty of 1813 (the annexation of Georgia and Dagestan to Russia) and recorded and recognized the transition to Russia of part of the Caspian coast and Eastern Armenia
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War with Turkey (1828-1829)
It ended with the Peace of Adrianople, according to which most of the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the Danube Delta, the Kartli-Kakheti Kingdom, Imereti, Mingrelia, Guria, the Erivan and Nakhichevan Khanates, Moldavia and Wallachia passed to Russia, Serbia was granted autonomy in the presence of Russian troops there
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Suppression of the Polish uprising (1830-1831)
As a result, the rights of the Kingdom of Poland were significantly curtailed, and the Kingdom of Poland became an indivisible part of the Russian state. The previously existing elements of Polish statehood (the Sejm, a separate Polish army, etc.) were abolished.
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Khiva campaign (1838-1840)
An attack by a detachment of the Separate Orenburg Corps of the Russian Army on the Khiva Khanate in order to stop the Khivan raids on Russian lands, freeing Russian prisoners in the Khiva Khanate, ensuring safe trade and exploring the Aral Sea. The campaign ended in failure
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2nd Khiva campaign (1847-1848)
Russia continued to pursue a policy of advancing deeper into Central Asia. In 1847-1848, Colonel Erofeev’s detachment occupied the Khiva fortifications of Dzhak-Khoja and Khoja-Niaz.
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War with Hungary (1849)
Military intervention in the Austro-Hungarian conflict. Suppression of the Hungarian liberation movement by the army of General Paskevich. Hungary remained part of the Austrian Empire
Introduction
There has always been an interest in historical figures - emperors, generals, politicians. But in Soviet times, historians were attracted primarily by figures of the revolutionary movement who fought against the autocracy. In recent years, this imbalance has been overcome: articles and books have appeared that analyze in detail the upbringing, education, family relationships, character formation, and the personality of Russian autocrats.
There is hardly a more controversial figure in Russian history than Nicholas I. Historians unanimously consider his reign to be the period of the darkest reaction. “The time of Nicholas I is an era of extreme self-assertion of Russian autocratic power, in the most extreme manifestations of its actual rule and fundamental ideology,” this is how historian A.E. characterizes Nicholas’s reign. Presnyakov. The image of the “gendarme of Europe”, “Nikolai Palkin” appears before us from the pages of the works of A.I. Herzen, N.A. Dobrolyubova, L.N. Tolstoy.
From the second half of the 19th century and especially after the October Revolution of 1917, Russian historians and philosophers: I. Ilyin, K. Leontyev, I. Solonevich, took a different look at the personality of Nicholas I and the significance of his reign for Russia.
This view is expressed most consistently in the writings of the philosopher K.N. Leontyev, who called Nicholas I a “true and great legitimist,” who “was called upon to temporarily delay the general decay,” whose name is revolution. So who was the autocrat, whose name is inextricably linked with an entire era in the political, social and cultural life of Russia, a “strangler of freedom” and a despot, or did his personality contain something more? The answer to this question is closely related to the dispute about the fate of Russia, about the paths of its development, about its past and future, which does not subside even today.
The purpose of this essay is to examine the most important moments of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I.
Nicholas politics Decembrists
1. Accession of Nicholas I to the throne
Nicholas was the third son of Paul I. The eldest sons of Paul I, Alexander and Konstantin, were prepared for the throne from childhood, the younger ones, Nicholas and Mikhail, were prepared for military service.
After the death of Paul I, his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna devoted all her time to raising children. She adored her older sons, carefully selected teachers for them and reverently guarded the peace and quiet in their half during class hours. She ran past half of the younger ones, covering her ears: all day long, fortresses were being built there, drums were beating, trumpets were blowing, pistols were firing. They turned a blind eye to their pranks: the lot of the youngest in royal families was always military service.
The teaching staff chosen for Nikolai Pavlovich was not as brilliant as his older brothers. His social studies teachers failed to instill in him an interest in their subjects. But he was gifted in the exact and natural sciences, and his real lifelong passion was military engineering.
Military education, the Romanovs' hereditary passion for the army, and an ability for exact sciences brought results. Nikolai Pavlovich grew up as an integral person, with strong principles and beliefs. He loved order and discipline in everything. In his opinion, one should not kill time in useless philosophical dreams, but build fortresses, bridges, and roads. Nikolai was unusually modest in everyday life. His life was strictly regulated: he got up early, slept on a bed filled with hay, covered himself with a soldier's overcoat, worked a lot, and was moderate in food. The attitude of his contemporaries and descendants towards Nicholas I was ambiguous: some called him a rude martinet, others a genius of Russian history. The accession of Nicholas I to the throne was accompanied by dramatic events.
On October 1825, Alexander I unexpectedly died in Taganrog. He had no heirs. His successor was supposed to be his brother Konstantin Pavlovich, but he abandoned the throne in favor of his younger brother Nikolai Pavlovich. Having no messages from Constantine himself, Nicholas refused to ascend the throne until a letter was received from Warsaw in which his brother confirmed his unconditional renunciation of royal power. Konstantin avoided public renunciation. He even refused to come to St. Petersburg on the day of the oath to the new tsar, believing that a written act was quite enough. All this was the reason for the interregnum in the country, which lasted for three weeks and ended with the announcement of Nicholas as Tsar of Russia. However, already the first step to the throne, to which the next Tsar Romanov ascended, was stained with blood. This time the shots were aimed at the guards who had come to the aid of his ancestors so many times.
On the morning of December 14, 1825, when the manifesto on Nicholas’s accession to the throne was published, the majority of the guard immediately swore allegiance to the new emperor. But several guards regiments refused the oath and gathered on Senate Square.
They demanded the abolition of royal power and the introduction of a democratic form of government. They tried to persuade the rebels, but to no avail. Then the order was given to shoot at the rioters from cannons. Many remained lying right there in the square, the rest fled.
By evening, all the main instigators were arrested. These were representatives of the highest nobility who dreamed of making Russia free from autocracy, freeing the peasants from serfdom, and making trials open. For this purpose, they created secret societies in Russia, at whose meetings the plan for the uprising was drawn up. It was decided to refuse the oath to the new king and make his demands.
The freedom-loving ideas proclaimed by Russian aristocrats were the spirit of Europe, through which many Russians walked during the time of Alexander I. They had a chance to see and hear a lot of things that they wanted to create in their homeland. Among the members of secret societies, later called Decembrists, there were many people of foreign origin. Mostly immigrants from Germany: Anton von Delwig, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, Paul von Pestel, Kondraty Ryleev.
However, the ideas of progress that came from the West were not destined to come true, and reprisals for these ideas turned out to be very cruel.
A Supreme Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the case. 120 people were detained, whom the king ordered to be imprisoned in the fortress and tried in a closed court. He personally took part in the interrogations of those arrested. He ordered five of them to be hanged. Among those executed were Pestel and Ryleev. More than a hundred participants in the rebellion were exiled to hard labor in Siberia or the far North, where conditions of detention were very strict.
The difficult events of the first day of the reign of Nicholas I made a depressing impression on everyone. By harsh reprisal against the Decembrists, the new emperor wanted to emphasize the power and inaccessibility of the royal power, although, undoubtedly, he also felt human pity for the rebels, even tried to alleviate their fate and showed some attention to their families. For example, he assigned a lifelong pension to the three-year-old daughter of the executed Ryleev and sent Zhukovsky, the court poet and educator of his son, to Siberia, ordering all kinds of relief to be given to the exiles, but in no case on behalf of the emperor, but on his own.
For Nicholas I, the main thing was compliance with the law, and the mere thought of overthrowing order aroused panic in him. He believed that the king should be feared. Emperor Nicholas considered retribution his duty, and the so-called “revolution” as the greatest danger for Russia.
The day of December 14 made an indelible impression on Nicholas I, which clearly affected the entire character of his reign.
2. Russia during the reign of Nicholas I
2.1 Domestic policy
Nicholas ascended the throne, inspired by the idea of serving the state, and the rebellion on December 14 refracted its implementation in two directions. On the one hand, Nikolai saw a danger to his own rights, and therefore, from his point of view, to the state as a whole from social forces that wanted transformation. This predetermined the distinctly protective nature of the government. On the other hand, from the materials of interrogations of the Decembrists, their notes and letters addressed to Nicholas, he formed an idea of the need for reforms, but moderate and cautious ones, carried out exclusively by the autocratic government to ensure the stability and prosperity of the state.
The Emperor began to restructure the system of government. His Imperial Majesty's own office began to play a huge role in his reign. It was created by Alexander I to consider petitions addressed to the highest name. Nicholas I significantly expanded its functions, giving it the significance of the highest governing body of the state. In 1826, the office was divided into 5 departments. The III Department, the secret police under the leadership of Count A.Kh., acquired particular importance. Benckendorf. Under the leadership of the III department were: investigation and investigation of political cases; control over literature, theater and periodicals; fight against Old Believers and sectarianism.
At the very beginning of his reign, Nicholas I stated that he wanted to base public administration on the law. To do this, he decided to put Russian legislation in order, which had not been done since the time of Alexei Mikhailovich. Under Nicholas I, the “Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire” was published, which contained about thirty thousand laws, starting with the “Conciliar Code” of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Nicholas I introduced the death penalty into criminal law - it was his personal initiative. He also banned all kinds of sects, encouraging the restoration of churches. The protective measures of the first years of the reign of Nicholas I included the publication in 1826 of a new censorship charter, consisting of more than 200 paragraphs, which significantly exceeded the censorship rules of Alexander’s time in severity. In society, this charter was called “cast iron”. However, already in 1828 it was replaced by a more moderate one, in which censors were advised to consider the direct meaning of speech, without allowing themselves to arbitrarily interpret it. At the same time, a secret order was made to the gendarmerie department, according to which persons subject to censorship punishment came under secret police surveillance. All these measures served to combat the “spirit of freethinking” that spread during the reign of Alexander I.
During the reign of Nicholas I, the first railways appeared in Russia. In October 1837, the first section between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo, twenty-three kilometers long, was completed, and fourteen years later trains began running between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Several technical higher educational institutions were opened in the country, but the freedom of universities was somewhat curtailed. Student enrollment was limited, tuition fees were increased, and only poor nobles were exempt.
Peasant question
Nicholas I considered the issue of serfdom to be the most important. At the beginning of his reign, he was constantly occupied with the thought of liberating the peasants; he agreed that serfdom was evil. Nicholas I wanted to abolish serfdom, but in such a way as not to cause the slightest damage or offense to the landowners. However, during the thirty years of his reign he could not come up with anything in this direction.
The government issued a number of laws that emphasized that “a serf is not the mere property of a private individual, but, above all, a subject of the state.”
· In 1827, a law was passed according to which, if a peasant owned less than 4.5 dessiatines per capita on a noble estate, then such a peasant either transferred to government administration or to a free urban state.
· In 1833, a decree was issued banning the sale of peasants at auction and the sale of individual family members; it was forbidden to pay private debts to serfs without land.
· In March 1835, a “Secret Committee to find means to improve the condition of peasants of various ranks” was established.
· In 1841, the peasant family was recognized as an indissoluble legal entity, and peasants were prohibited from being sold separately from the family.
· In 1842, the Decree on Obligated Peasants was issued, which allowed the landowner to set the peasants free by providing them with land for temporary use in response to certain duties or rent.
· In 1848, a law was passed giving peasants the right, with the consent of the landowner, to acquire real estate.
All further measures of the government of Nicholas I went in two directions: organizing the life of state peasants and streamlining the position of landowner peasants. The state-owned peasants, subject to taxes, were considered a personally free rural class. In practice, the government treated them as its serfs. The Ministry of Finance, which was entrusted with their organization, considered state peasants only a source of budget revenue. During the reign of Alexander I and Nicholas I, criticism of the autocrats as guardians of serfdom intensified among the nobility. Alexander I in 1803 issued a decree “On free cultivators”, Nicholas I in 1842 issued a decree “On obligated peasants”, which allowed the landowner to voluntarily release his peasants. But the consequences of these decrees were insignificant. From 1804 to 1855, the landowners released only 116 thousand serfs. This indicated that landowners were primarily interested in preserving serfdom.
Attempts to resolve the peasant issue during the reign of Nicholas I show that even the tsar, who tried to be an autocrat in the full sense of the word, could not show intransigence towards the nobility, contrary to his own views. Within the framework of the outdated system, life went its own way in complete contradiction with the protective principles of Nikolaev's policy. The economy of the empire was entering new paths of development. New industries arose: beet sugar in the south, mechanical engineering and weaving industry in the central part of the country. The Central Russian industrial region stands out, which increasingly feeds itself on the purchase of grain from agricultural provinces. In defiance of government measures, the diversity of students at universities is increasing, and the middle social strata are becoming stronger. The authorities had to reckon with the new needs of the country.
And all this happened against the backdrop of a deepening crisis of serfdom. During the reign of Nicholas I, the economic and social foundations on which the autocracy grew up finally decomposed. In acute distrust of social forces: conservative - for their degeneration, progressive - for their revolutionary nature, the tsarist government tried to live a self-sufficient life, bringing the autocracy to the personal dictatorship of the emperor. He considered governing the state according to his personal will and personal views as a direct matter of the autocrat.
But it would be simplistic to judge the 30-year reign of Nicholas I only as a time of gloomy reaction. The Nicholas era was a period of genuine flowering of Russian literature and art. It was at that time that A.S. was creating. Pushkin and V.A. Zhukovsky, N.V. Gogol and M.Yu. Lermontov, K. Bryullov and A. Ivanov created their masterpieces.
Domestic scientific thought developed successfully. The glory of Russian chemical science was the works of G.I. Gessa, N.N. Zinina, A.A. Voskresensky. In 1828, purified platinum was first obtained. In 1842, K. K. Klaus discovered a previously unknown metal, which received the name “ruthenium” in honor of Russia. In the 30s of the 19th century, the Pulkovo Observatory was opened. The outstanding Russian mathematician N.I. Lobachevsky created the theory of non-Euclidean geometry. In the field of physics and electrical engineering, remarkable results were achieved by B.S. Jacobi. The network of medical institutions expanded, domestic surgery represented by N.Y. Pirogova achieved world fame.
Culture and art
Nicholas I, who sought to bring all aspects of the country's life under personal control, paid great attention to national culture and art. The emperor himself was a great lover and connoisseur of painting, collecting rare paintings by both Russian and foreign artists.
The favorite brainchild of Nicholas I was the Alexandrinsky Theater, which experienced its heyday in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century.
The Russian stage was enriched at that time by the works of N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgeneva, A.N. Ostrovsky, M.I. Glinka. The performing arts have reached special heights.
Significant changes occurred in the architectural appearance of the empire. The departure of classicism and its replacement by a national, although not very original, style is symbolic of Nicholas’s time. Nicholas I had a special passion for architecture. Not a single public building project was carried out without his personal approval.
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Conclusion
The reign of Emperor Nicholas I is often called the apogee of autocracy. Indeed, the front facade of the Russian Empire has never been so brilliant, and its international prestige so high, as in the era of Nicholas I.
However, her internal inconsistency is striking. The golden age of Russian culture, the first railways, systematization of laws. Formalization of the ideological basis of the Russian autocracy, a number of important reforms in various areas of social life. The defeat of the Decembrist movement, the harsh persecution of dissent, the oppressive dominance of bureaucratic routine, the Hungarian campaign of the Russian army in 1849 and the failure in the Crimean War as a kind of result of the reign of Nicholas I. And in all this one can find traces of his personal participation, manifestations of his common sense and spiritual limitations , unyielding will and capricious stubbornness, worldly good nature and petty suspiciousness.
The private life and government activities of Nicholas I, his character, habits, relationships with a wide variety of people were reflected in no less than 300 diaries and memoirs of his contemporaries.
Statesmen and generals, writers and poets, visiting foreigners and court ladies wrote about Nicholas I.
There is still no truly scientific biography of Nicholas I. But all aspects of Nicholas’s internal policy have been studied in detail, albeit somewhat one-sidedly, with an emphasis on exposing punitive (gendarmerie, censorship, etc.) terror. The most informative reviews of Nikolaev internal policy are in the 85th lecture of the fifth volume of the “Course of Russian History” by V.O. Klyuchevsky, and from Soviet literature in “Essays” and “Lectures” on the history of the USSR by S.B. Okun and in the monograph by A.S. Nifontov "Russia in 1848".
In the literature on the foreign policy of Nicholas I, the deep and brilliant work of A.V. stands out. Fadeeva. N.S. wrote a review about the same thing. Kinyapin, and the intervention of tsarism against the Hungarian revolution was studied by R.A. Averbukh.
The Nikolaev reforms do not arouse much interest among historians. Only the P.D. reform has been thoroughly studied. Kiseleva. The classic work of N.M. is dedicated to her. Druzhinina. It exhaustively examines the prerequisites, meaning and consequences of Kiselev’s reform as a serious, carefully thought-out, but, nevertheless, obviously doomed to failure attempt of tsarism to find a way out of the urgent crisis of the feudal-serf system without destroying its foundations.
Bibliography
1.V.G. Grigoryan. Royal destinies. - M.: JSC NPP Ermak, 2003. - 350-355 p.
.History of Russia from the beginning of the 18th to the end of the 19th century. Ed. A.N. Sakharov. - M.: AST, 1996.
3.ON THE. Trinity. Russia in the 19th century. Lecture course. - M.: Higher school. - 2003.
.N.S. Kinyapina. Foreign policy of Nicholas I. New and recent history. - M.: 2001. No. 1-195 p.
.M.A. Rakhmatullin. Emperor Nicholas I and his reign. Science and life. - M.: 2002. No. 2-94 p.
.I.N. Kuznetsov. National history. - M.: Dashkov and K, 2005.
.T.A. Kapustina. Nicholas I. Questions of history. - M.: 1993. No. 11-12.
9. Materials from the site www.historicus.ru/kultura
Materials from the site www.history-at-russia.ru/
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Therefore, he could not count on the throne, which determined the direction of his upbringing and education. From an early age he was interested in military affairs, especially its external side, and was preparing for a military career.
In 1817, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich married the daughter of the Prussian king, who in Orthodoxy received the name Alexandra Fedorovna. They had 7 children, the eldest of whom was the future Emperor Alexander II.
In 1819, Emperor Alexander I informed Nicholas of the intention of their brother Konstantin Pavlovich to renounce his right of succession to the throne, and accordingly, power would have to pass to Nicholas. In 1823, Alexander I issued a Manifesto proclaiming Nikolai Pavlovich heir to the throne. The manifesto was a family secret and was not published. Therefore, after the sudden death of Alexander I in 1825, confusion arose with the accession to the throne of a new monarch.
The oath to the new Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich was scheduled for December 14, 1825. On the same day, the “Decembrists” planned an uprising with the goal of overthrowing autocracy and demanding the signing of the “Manifesto to the Russian People,” which proclaimed civil liberties. Informed, Nicholas postponed the oath to December 13, and the uprising was suppressed.
Domestic policy of Nicholas I
From the very beginning of his reign, Nicholas I declared the need for reforms and created a “committee on December 6, 1826” to prepare changes. “His Majesty’s Own Office” began to play a major role in the state, which was constantly expanded by creating many branches.
Nicholas I instructed a special commission led by M.M. Speransky to develop a new Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. By 1833, two editions had been printed: “The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire,” starting from the Council Code of 1649 and until the last decree of Alexander I, and “The Code of Current Laws of the Russian Empire.” The codification of laws carried out under Nicholas I streamlined Russian legislation, facilitated legal practice, but did not bring changes to the political and social structure of Russia.
Emperor Nicholas I was an autocrat in spirit and an ardent opponent of the introduction of a constitution and liberal reforms in the country. In his opinion, society should live and act like a good army, regulated and by laws. The militarization of the state apparatus under the auspices of the monarch is a characteristic feature of the political regime of Nicholas I.
He was extremely suspicious of public opinion; literature, art, and education came under censorship, and measures were taken to limit the periodical press. Official propaganda began to extol unanimity in Russia as a national virtue. The idea “The people and the Tsar are one” was dominant in the education system in Russia under Nicholas I.
According to the “theory of official nationality” developed by S.S. Uvarov, Russia has its own path of development, does not need the influence of the West and should be isolated from the world community. The Russian Empire under Nicholas I received the name “gendarme of Europe” for protecting peace in European countries from revolutionary uprisings.
In social policy, Nicholas I focused on strengthening the class system. In order to protect the nobility from “clogging,” the “December 6 Committee” proposed establishing a procedure according to which nobility was acquired only by right of inheritance. And for service people to create new classes - “officials”, “eminent”, “honorary” citizens. In 1845, the emperor issued a “Decree on Majorates” (indivisibility of noble estates during inheritance).
Serfdom under Nicholas I enjoyed the support of the state, and the tsar signed a manifesto in which he stated that there would be no changes in the situation of serfs. But Nicholas I was not a supporter of serfdom and secretly prepared materials on the peasant issue in order to make things easier for his followers.
Foreign policy of Nicholas I
The most important aspects of foreign policy during the reign of Nicholas I were the return to the principles of the Holy Alliance (Russia's struggle against revolutionary movements in Europe) and the Eastern Question. Russia under Nicholas I participated in the Caucasian War (1817-1864), the Russian-Persian War (1826-1828), the Russian-Turkish War (1828-1829), as a result of which Russia annexed the eastern part of Armenia , the entire Caucasus, received the eastern shore of the Black Sea.
During the reign of Nicholas I, the most memorable was the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Russia was forced to fight against Turkey, England, and France. During the siege of Sevastopol, Nicholas I was defeated in the war and lost the right to have a naval base on the Black Sea.
The unsuccessful war showed Russia's backwardness from advanced European countries and how unviable the conservative modernization of the empire turned out to be.
Nicholas I died on February 18, 1855. Summing up the reign of Nicholas I, historians call his era the most unfavorable in the history of Russia, starting with the Time of Troubles.
1. Nicholas I Pavlovich, brother of Alexander I, who became emperor in 1825, was in power for 30 years (until 1855). The 30-year era of Nicholas I, who came to power on the day of the Decembrist uprising, was distinguished by extreme conservatism and reactionaryness. Nicholas I was convinced of the harmfulness of any revolutionary and reform processes and saw the salvation of the country in stability and conservatism, the strengthening of autocracy. During the reign of Nicholas I, the following major political steps were made:
- His Imperial Majesty's own office was created;
- legislation was codified;
- education reform was carried out;
- landownership was improved;
- censorship was introduced.
2. His Imperial Majesty’s own chancellery is a powerful bureaucratic structure that has taken control of various spheres of the country’s internal life. This organization consisted of several departments, the most important of which were the III department:
- the department led the work on codifying legislation;
- The department became a body of political supervision and investigation. In fact, the III department became a “state within a state”, standing above all other bodies - the Senate, the State Council, and ministers. It had broad powers and under Nicholas I began to play a decisive role in the life of the country. The gendarmes of the III department, whose duties were entrusted with eradicating any freethinking and revolutionary ideas, became the support of the regime of Nicholas I. Agents of the III department were introduced into almost all spheres of society. Count A.Kh. was appointed the first head of the III department. Benckendorff, who became a symbol of the era. An atmosphere of suspicion, denunciation, and total investigation has developed in the country. Russia has officially become a police state. Created under Nicholas I in 1826, the political police became one of the leading government bodies throughout the century and existed until 1917.
3. The II Department of His Imperial Majesty’s own chancellery worked for almost 10 years to codify all Russian legislation. This work was led by the famous reformer M.M., who emerged from the shadows under Alexander I. Speransky. The result of the work of the department and M.M. Speransky published 15 volumes of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire in 1833, which collected all the legislation of Russia: from the Council Code of 1649 to the laws contemporary to Speransky.
4. Under Nicholas I, an education reform was carried out, the essence of which is as follows:
- all schools were divided into three types strictly according to the class principle, parish schools - for peasants, district schools - for townspeople, gymnasiums - for nobles;
- in 1835, a new University Charter was introduced, as a result of which university education was strictly subordinated to the state, educational programs were cleared of free-thinking ideas, and the universities themselves actually moved to a barracks position.
5. During the reign of Nicholas I, landownership was also improved and an attempt was made to resolve the peasant issue:
- a secret committee was created to consider options for resolving the peasant issue, headed by P.D. Kiselev;
- P.D. Kiselev raised the question of abolishing serfdom, but he did not find the support of the emperor and the nobility;
- a compromise was the decision on the non-extension of serfdom to the extreme western regions of Russia - Poland, Finland and the Baltic states, as well as on the right of the landowner to give “freedom” to some peasants at his discretion (for the first time, the possibility of officially liberating some peasants was created);
- The position of the landowners also improved - taxes were reduced; landowners and nobles were exempted from corporal punishment, which became widespread under Paul I.
6. Despite the fact that the era of Nicholas 1 became the heyday of Russian culture, in particular, the talent of A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontova, N.V. Gogol and others, the country introduced the most severe and mandatory censorship, which had two levels:
- preliminary, when works and publications undesirable for the regime were eliminated;
- punitive - censorship of published works, during which published works were “sifted” and censors and authors of free-thinking works who accidentally or intentionally passed the initial censorship were punished.