When Nikolai 1 began to rule. The army of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich. Economic development. Fight against corruption

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 to 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 designed to alleviate the situation of serfs, a ban was introduced to kill and exile peasants to hard labor, sell them singly 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), Russian laws were codified (1833), the ruble was stabilized (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 works), 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.

Emperor of Russia Nicholas I

Emperor Nicholas I ruled Russia from 1825 to 1855. His work is controversial. On the one hand, he was an opponent of the liberal reforms that were the goal of the Decembrist movement, planted a conservative and bureaucratic mode of action in Russia, created new repressive state bodies, tightened censorship, and abolished the freedoms of universities. On the other hand, under Nicholas under the leadership of M. Speransky, work was completed on the drafting of a new legislative code, the 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, with the bureaucracy and the nobility, a new class of people began to take shape - the intelligentsia. At the time of Nicholas, Russian literature reached its peak: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Nekrasov, Tyutchev, Goncharov

The years of the 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 the dilapidated signs that were discovered with the help of practical legislation, and doing all this without any participation of society, even with the suppression of social independence, by government means alone; but he did not remove from the queue those burning questions that were raised in the previous reign, and, it seems, understood their burning even more than his predecessor. Thus, a conservative and bureaucratic mode of action is the characteristic of the new reign; to support the existing with the help of officials - this is another way to designate this character. (V. O. Klyuchevsky "Course of Russian History")

Brief biography of Nicholas I

• 1796, June 25 - the birthday of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I.
• 1802 - the beginning of systematic education

  Nikolai was brought up somehow, not at all according to the program of Rousseau, like the older brothers Alexander and Konstantin. Prepared himself for a very modest military career; he was not initiated into questions of higher politics, they did not give him participation in serious state affairs. Until the age of 18, he did not even have certain official occupations at all; only this year he was appointed director of the engineering corps and they gave him one guards brigade to command, therefore, two regiments

• 1814, February 22 - Acquaintance with the Prussian Princess Charlotte.
• 1816, May 9 - August 26 - an educational journey through Russia.
• 1816, September 13 - 1817, April 27 - educational trip to Europe.
• 1817, July 1 - marriage with Princess Charlotte (at baptism into Orthodoxy named Alexandra Feodorovna).
• 1818, April 17 - the 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 unwillingness to reign
• 1819, August 18 - the birth of daughter Mary
• 1822, September 11 - the birth of daughter Olga
• 1823, August 16 - secret manifesto of Alexander I, declaring Nicholas the heir to the throne
• 1825, June 24 - the birth of daughter Alexandra
• November 27, 1825 - Nicholas received news of the death of Alexander I in Taganrog on November 19
• December 12, 1825 - 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 - the birth of his son Konstantin
• 1829, May 12 - coronation in Warsaw as a Polish constitutional monarch
• 1830, August - the beginning of the cholera epidemic in Central Russia
• 1830, September 29 - Nicholas arrived in cholera 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 appeared among the townspeople that the disease was brought by foreign doctors who spread the infection in order to plague the Russian people. This madness reached its climax when a huge excited crowd turned up on Sennaya Square, where a temporary cholera hospital stood.

  Bursting inside, people smashed glass in windows, broke furniture, expelled hospital servants and beat local doctors to death. There is a legend that the crowd was calmed down by Nikolai, who reproached her with the words “shame on the Russian people, forgetting the faith of their fathers, to imitate the riot of the French and Poles”

• 1831, August 8 - the birth of the son of Nikolai
• 1832, October 25 - the birth of son Michael
• 1843, September 8 - the birth of the first grandson of Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future heir to the throne.
• 1844, July 29 - death of Alexandra's beloved daughter
• 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 they could later build a new state order” (Klyuchevsky). His main concern was the creation of a bureaucratic apparatus, which would become the basis of the throne, as opposed to the nobility, after December 14, 1825, lost confidence. As a result, the number of bureaucrats increased many times, as well as the number of clerical affairs.

At the beginning of his reign, the emperor was horrified when he learned that he had carried out 2,800,000 cases in all offices of justice alone. In 1842, the Minister of Justice submitted a report to the sovereign, which indicated that 33 million more cases had not been cleared in all official places of the empire, which were set out on at least 33 million written sheets. (Klyuchevsky)

1826, January - July - the transformation of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery into the highest body of state administration

Directing the most important matters himself, entering into their consideration, the emperor created His Majesty's Own Chancellery, with five departments, reflecting the range of affairs that the Emperor directly wanted to manage.

The first department prepared papers for a report to the emperor and monitored the execution of the highest orders; 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

1826, December 6 - Formation of the Committee on December 6 to prepare "improved organization and management" in the state

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 the estates, which was supposed to improve the life of serfs. The Estates Act was submitted to the State Council and approved by it, but was not made public because the revolutionary movements of 1830 in the West inspired fear of any reform. In the course of time, only a few measures from the drafts of the "Committee of December 6th, 1826" were implemented in the form of separate laws. But on the whole, the committee's work remained without any success, and the reform projected by it did not

1827, August 26 - the introduction of military service for Jews in order to convert them to Christianity. Children from the age of 12 were recruited

1828, December 10 - St. Petersburg Institute of Technology founded

Under Nicholas I, cadet corps and military and naval academies, the Construction School in St. Petersburg, and the Land Survey Institute in Moscow were established; several women's institutes. the Main Pedagogical Institute for the preparation of teachers was resumed. Boarding houses with a gymnasium course for the sons of nobles were founded. The position of men's gymnasiums was improved

1833, April 2 - Count S. S. Uvarov assumed the post of Minister of Public Education, who developed the theory of official nationality - the state ideology -

— Orthodoxy - without love for the faith of the ancestors, the people will perish
— Autocracy - The main condition for the political existence of Russia
— Folkness - preservation of the inviolability of folk traditions

1833, November 23 - the first performance of the anthem "God Save the Tsar" (under the title "Prayer of the Russian people").

May 9, 1834 - Nicholas confessed to Count P.D. Kiselyov, that he is convinced of the need to free the serfs over time

1835, January 1 - the introduction of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire - the official collection of the current legislative acts of the Russian Empire arranged in thematic order

1835, March - the beginning of the work of the first of the "Secret Committees" on the peasant question

1835, June 26 - the adoption of the University charter.

According to him, 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

1837, October 30 - opening of the Tsarskoye Selo railway

1837, July - December - a long trip of the emperor to the south: Petersburg-Kyiv-Odessa-Sevastopol-Anapa-Tiflis-Stavropol-Voronezh-Moscow-Petersburg.

1837, December 27 - the formation of the Ministry of State Property with the Minister Count P. D. Kiselev, the beginning of the reform of state peasants

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 watched over the state peasants. These peasants were arranged in special rural societies (which turned out to be almost 6,000); a volost was composed of several such rural communities. Both rural societies and volosts enjoyed self-government, had their own “gatherings”, elected “heads” and “foremen” to manage volost and rural affairs, and special judges for court.

The self-government of state peasants subsequently served as a model for privately owned peasants when they were freed from serfdom. But Kiselev did not limit himself to concerns about the self-government of the peasants. The Ministry of State Property took a number of measures to improve the economic life of the peasantry subordinate to it: the peasants were taught the best ways of farming, they were provided with grain in lean years; landless were given land; started schools; gave tax benefits, etc.

1839, July 1 - the beginning of the financial reform of E.F. Kankrin.
— introduced a fixed exchange rate of the silver ruble
— the circulation of endless banknotes that appeared in Russia from nowhere was destroyed
— created a gold reserve of the treasury, which did not exist before
— the exchange rate of the ruble has become stable, the ruble has become a hard currency throughout Europe,

1842, February 1 - Decree on the construction of the St. Petersburg-Moscow railway

1848, April 2 - the establishment of the "Buturlin" censorship committee - "Committee for the highest supervision of the spirit and direction of works printed in Russia." The Committee's supervision extended to all printed publications (including announcements, invitations and notices). Named after its first chairman, D.P. Buturlin

1850, August 1 - the foundation of the Nikolaev post (now Nikolaevsk-on-Amur) at the mouth of the Amur by Captain G.I. Nevelsky.

1853, September 20 - the foundation of the Muravyov post in the south of Sakhalin.

1854, February 4 - the decision to build the Trans-Ili fortification (later - the Verny fortress, the city of Alma-Ata)

So, in the reign of Nicholas were produced:
— arrangement of offices of "His Majesty's Own Chancellery";
— publication of the Code of Laws;
— financial reform
— measures to improve the life of the peasants
— public education measures

Foreign policy of Nicholas I

Two directions of diplomacy of Nicholas I: the decomposition of Turkey for the sake of Russia inheriting the straits and its possessions in the Balkans; fight against any manifestations of revolutionism in Europe

The foreign policy of Nicholas I, like any policy, was characterized by unscrupulousness. On the one hand, the emperor strictly adhered to the provisions of legitimism, in everything and always supporting the official authorities of states against dissidents: he severed relations with France after the revolution of 1830, severely suppressed the Polish liberation uprising, took the side of Austria in its affairs with rebellious Hungary

In 1833, an agreement was reached between Russia, Austria and Prussia, which entailed the incessant intervention of Russia in the affairs of Europe with the aim of "supporting 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 unleashed a war against Turkey, protecting the Greek rebels, although he considered them rebels.

Russian wars during the reign of Nicholas I

— War with Persia (1826-1828)
It ended with the Turkmanchay peace treaty, which confirmed the terms of the Gulistan peace treaty of 1813 (the accession of Georgia, Dagestan to Russia) and fixed the transition to Russia of part of the Caspian coast and Eastern Armenia

— War with Turkey (1828-1829)
It ended with the Peace of Adrianople, according to which Russia passed most of the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the Danube Delta, the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, Imeretia, Mingrelia, Guria, the Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates, Moldavia and Wallachia, Serbia was granted autonomy with the presence of Russian troops there

— Suppression of the Polish uprising (1830-1831)
As a result, the rights of the Kingdom of Poland were significantly curtailed, the Kingdom of Poland became an inseparable part of the Russian state. The previously existing elements of Polish statehood were abolished (the Sejm, a separate Polish army, etc.)

— Khiva campaign (1838-1840)
The attack of a detachment of the Separate Orenburg Corps of the Russian Army on the Khiva Khanate in order to stop the Khiva raids on Russian lands, the release of Russian prisoners in the Khiva Khanate, ensuring safe trade and exploration of the Aral Sea. The trip ended in failure

— 2nd Khiva campaign (1847-1848)
Russia continued to pursue a policy of advancing deep into Central Asia. In 1847-1848, a detachment of Colonel Erofeev occupied the Khiva fortifications of Dzhak-Khodzha and Khodzha-Niaz.

— War with Hungary (1849)
Military intervention in the Austro-Hungarian conflict. The suppression of the Hungarian liberation movement by the army of General Paskevich. Hungary remained part of the Austrian Empire

Introduction

There has always been interest in historical figures - emperors, generals, politicians. But in Soviet times, historians were attracted, first of all, by the leaders of the revolutionary movement, who fought against the autocracy. In recent years, this bias 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 the era of extreme self-assertion of the Russian autocratic power, in the most extreme manifestations of its actual domination and principled ideology,” historian A.E. Presnyakov. The image of the "gendarme of Europe", "Nikolai Palkin" rises 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. Leontiev, I. Solonevich, considered the personality of Nicholas I and the significance of his reign for Russia in a different way.

This view is most consistently expressed in the writings of the philosopher K.N. Leontiev, who called Nicholas I "a true and great legitimist", who "was called upon to delay the general decay for a while", whose name is revolution. So who was the autocrat, whose name is inextricably linked with a whole era in the political, social and cultural life of Russia, the “strangler of freedom” and despot, or did his personality contain something more? The answer to this question is closely connected with the dispute about the fate of Russia, about the ways of its development, about its past and future, which continues to this day.

The purpose of this essay is to review 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 Constantine were prepared for the throne from childhood, the younger ones - Nicholas and Michael 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 with her ears plugged: for days on end fortresses were being built there, drums were beating, trumpets were blowing, pistols were firing. They looked through their fingers at their pranks: military service has always been the lot of the younger in royal families.

The teaching staff of Nikolai Pavlovich was not as brilliant as his older brothers. Social science teachers failed to instill in him an interest in their disciplines. But he was given the exact and natural sciences, and military engineering became his real passion for life.

Military education, the hereditary passion of the Romanovs for the army, the ability to exact sciences brought results. Nikolai Pavlovich grew up as a whole person, with firm principles and convictions. He loved order and discipline in everything. In his opinion, it is necessary not to kill time in useless philosophical dreams, but to build fortresses, bridges, roads. Nicholas in everyday life was unusually modest. His life was strictly regulated: he got up early, slept on a bed stuffed with hay, covered himself with a soldier's overcoat, worked hard, was moderate in food. The attitude towards Nicholas I of his contemporaries and descendants 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 died unexpectedly in Taganrog. He had no heirs. His successor was to be his brother Konstantin Pavlovich, but he renounced the throne in favor of his younger brother Nikolai Pavlovich. Having no communication from Constantine himself, Nicholas refused to take the throne until a letter was received from Warsaw in which his brother confirmed his unconditional renunciation of royal power. Constantine 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 dragged on for three weeks and ended with the announcement of Nicholas as Russian tsar. However, the very first step to the throne, on which the next Tsar Romanov ascended, was stained with blood. This time, the shots were directed at the guardsmen who had come to the aid of his ancestors so many times.

On the morning of December 14, 1825, when the manifesto on Nicholas' accession to the throne was published, the majority in the guard immediately swore allegiance to the new emperor. But several guards regiments refused the oath and gathered on the 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 rebels with cannons. Many remained lying right there on 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 of the uprising was drawn up. It was decided to refuse the oath to the new king and come forward with their own demands.

The freedom-loving ideas proclaimed by Russian aristocrats were the trend of Europe, along which many Russians marched 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 the secret societies, later called the Decembrists, there were many people of foreign origin. Mostly immigrants from Germany: Anton von Delvig, Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Paul von Pestel, Kondraty Ryleev.

However, the ideas of progress that came from the West were not destined to come true, and the punishment for these ideas turned out to be very cruel.

The High Commission of Inquiry was set up to investigate the case. 120 people were detained, whom the tsar ordered to be put in a fortress and tried in a closed court. He personally took part in the interrogations of the 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 sent to hard labor in Siberia or the far North, where the 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. With a harsh reprisal against the Decembrists, the new emperor wanted to emphasize the power and impregnability of tsarist power, although, undoubtedly, he also felt human pity for the rebels, even tried to alleviate their plight and showed some attention to their families. For example, he assigned a life pension to the three-year-old daughter of the executed Ryleyev and sent Zhukovsky, the court poet and educator of his son, to Siberia, ordering him to give all kinds of relief to the exiles, but in no case on behalf of the emperor, but on his own.

For Nicholas I, the main thing was the observance of law, and the mere thought of overthrowing order aroused panic fear in him. He believed that the king must be feared. Emperor Nicholas considered retribution his duty, and the so-called "revolution" the greatest danger to Russia.

The day of December 14 made an indelible impression on Nicholas I, which was clearly reflected in the whole character of his reign.

2. Russia during the reign of Nicholas I

2.1 Domestic politics

Nicholas ascended the throne, inspired by the idea of ​​serving the state, and the rebellion on December 14 broke 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 transformations. This predetermined the distinctly protective character of the government. On the other hand, from the materials of interrogations of the Decembrists, their notes and letters addressed to Nikolai, they formed his idea of ​​the need for reforms, but moderate and cautious, carried out exclusively by the autocratic authorities to ensure the stability and prosperity of the state.

The emperor began to reorganize the system of state administration. A huge role in his reign began to play his own imperial majesty's office. It was created by Alexander I to consider petitions to the highest name. Nicholas I significantly expanded its functions, giving it the importance of the highest governing body of the state. In 1826, the office was divided into 5 departments. Of particular importance was the III branch - the secret police under the leadership of Count A.Kh. Benckendorff. Under the leadership of the III department were: detective and investigation on political affairs; control over literature, theater and periodicals; struggle against the Old Believers and sectarianism.

At the very beginning of his reign, Nicholas I declared that he wanted to put the law at the basis of state administration. To do this, he decided to put Russian legislation in order, which has 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 “Council Code” of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Nicholas I introduced the death penalty into criminal law - it was his personal initiative. He 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, which consisted of more than 200 paragraphs, significantly exceeding in severity the censorship rules of the Alexander time. In society, this charter was called "cast iron". However, already in 1828 it was replaced by a more moderate one, in which the censors were advised to consider the direct meaning of the speech, not allowing themselves to arbitrarily interpret it. At the same time, an unspoken order was made in the gendarme department, according to which persons subjected to censorship punishment fell under the covert supervision of the police. 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 was completed, twenty-three kilometers long, and fourteen years later, trains began to run 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 is limited, tuition fees are increased, only poor nobles were exempted from it.

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 idea 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, over 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 a simple property of a private person, but, above all, a subject of the state."

· In 1827, a law was issued according to which, if a peasant had less than 4.5 acres per capita in a noble estate, then such a peasant either passed into state administration, or into a free city state.

· In 1833, a decree was issued prohibiting 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 was established to find means to improve the condition of peasants of various ranks."

· In 1841, the peasant family was recognized as an inseparable legal structure, and peasants were forbidden to be sold separately from the family.

· In 1842, the Decree on obligated peasants was issued, which allowed the landowner to release peasants into the wild, providing them with land for temporary use in response to certain duties or dues.

· In 1848, a law was passed giving peasants the right, with the consent of the landowner, to acquire immovable property.

All further measures of the government of Nicholas I went in two directions: the organization of the life of the state peasants and the streamlining of the position of the landlord peasants. Taxable state peasants were considered personally free rural class. In practice, the government treated them as their serfs. The Ministry of Finance, which was entrusted with their organization, considered the state peasants only a source of budget revenues. During the reign of Alexander I and Nicholas I, criticism of the autocrats as the 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 to freedom. But the consequences of these decrees were insignificant. From 1804 to 1855, only 116,000 serfs were set free by the landlords. This testified that the landlords were primarily interested in maintaining 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 obsolete system, life went its own way in complete contradiction to the protective principles of the Nikolaev policy. The economy of the empire entered new ways of development. New branches of industry arose: sugar beet in the south, engineering and weaving in the central part of the country. The Central Russian industrial region stands out, which is increasingly fed by the purchase of grain in the agricultural provinces. In defiance of government measures, the diversity of students in the 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. In the reign of Nicholas I, the economic and social foundations on which the autocracy had matured finally disintegrated. In acute distrust of social forces: to the conservative - for their degeneration, to the 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 the administration of the state according to his personal will and personal views to be the direct work of the autocrat.

But it would be an oversimplification to judge the 30-year reign of Nicholas I only as a time of gloomy reaction. The Nikolaev era was a period of genuine flowering of Russian literature and art. It was at that time that A.S. Pushkin and V.A. Zhukovsky, N.V. Gogol and M.Yu. Lermontov, K. Bryullov and A. Ivanov created their masterpieces.

Domestic scientific thought successfully developed. The works of G.I. Hess, N.N. Zinina, A.A. Resurrection. In 1828, refined platinum was obtained for the first time. In 1842, K. K. Klaus discovered a previously unknown metal, which received, in honor of Russia, the name "ruthenium". 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 has reached world fame.

Culture and art

Nicholas I, who sought to put 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, he collected rare paintings, both by Russian and foreign artists.

The favorite brainchild of Nicholas I was the Alexandrinsky Theater, which experienced a heyday in the 30-40s of the 19th century.

The Russian stage was enriched at that time by the works of N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, A.N. Ostrovsky, M.I. Glinka. Stage art has reached special heights.

Significant changes took place in the architectural appearance of the empire. The departure of classicism and its replacement by a national, although not very original, style is symbolic for the Nikolaev time. Nicholas I had a special predilection for architecture. Not a single project of a public building 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, its internal inconsistency is striking. The golden age of Russian culture, the first railways, the systematization of laws. Formation of the ideological basis of the Russian autocracy, a number of important reforms in various areas of society. 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, the manifestation of his common sense and spiritual limitations , unbending will and capricious stubbornness, worldly good nature and petty suspiciousness.

The private life and public activities of Nicholas I, his character, habits, relationships with a variety of people are reflected in no less than 300 diaries and memoirs of his contemporaries.

Statesmen and generals, writers and poets, visiting foreign and court ladies wrote about Nicholas I.

There is still no truly scientific biography of Nicholas I. On the other hand, all aspects of Nicholas's domestic policy have been studied in detail, although somewhat one-sidedly, with an emphasis on exposing punitive (gendarmerie, censorship, and other) terror. The most informative reviews of Nikolaev's domestic 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 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 bright work of A.V. Fadeev. An overview of the same was written by N.S. 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 reform of P.D. Kiseleva. The classic work of N.M. Druzhinin. 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 by tsarism to find a way out of the imminent crisis of the feudal-serf system without destroying its foundations.

Bibliography

1.V.G. Grigoryan. Royal destinies. - M.: ZAO 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 nineteenth century. Lecture course. - M.: Higher school. - 2003.

.N.S. Kinyapin. 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 i K, 2005.

.T.A. Kapustin. 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 fond of military affairs, especially its outer side, and prepared for a military career.

In 1817, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich married the daughter of the Prussian king, who received the name Alexandra Feodorovna in Orthodoxy. 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 to the throne, and, accordingly, power would have to pass to Nicholas. In 1823, Alexander I issued a Manifesto proclaiming Nikolai Pavlovich the 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 of a new monarch to the throne.

On December 14, 1825, the oath to the new Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich was appointed. On the same day, the "Decembrists" planned an uprising with the aim 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 crushed.

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 the reforms. An important role in the state began to play "His Majesty's Own Chancellery", which was constantly expanding 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 with the Council Code of 1649 and up to 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 the conduct of 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 in accordance with the 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, education fell under the yoke of censorship, and measures were taken to limit the periodical press. As a national dignity, official propaganda began to extol unanimity in Russia. The idea "The people and the tsar are one" was the dominant one 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 way of development, does not need the influence of the West and must be isolated from the world community. The Russian Empire under Nicholas I was called the "gendarme of Europe" for keeping peace in European countries from revolutionary uprisings.

In social policy, Nicholas I emphasized the strengthening of the estate system. In order to protect the nobility from "contamination", the "December 6 Committee" proposed to establish a procedure according to which the nobility was acquired only by inheritance. And for service people to create new estates - "bureaucratic", "eminent", "honorary" citizens. In 1845, the emperor issued a "Decree on Majorates" (the 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 position of serfs. But Nicholas I was not a supporter of serfdom and secretly prepared materials on the peasant question 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 Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), the Russo-Turkish War (1828-1829), as a result of which Russia annexed the eastern part of Armenia , the entire Caucasus, received the eastern coast 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, 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 the 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 from 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, strengthening autocracy. During the reign of Nicholas I, the following major political steps were taken:

• created his own imperial majesty's chancellery;
• legislation was codified;
• reform of education was carried out;
• improved landownership;
• introduced censorship.

2. His Imperial Majesty's own office 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 departments:

• the department led the work on the codification of legislation;
• the department became an organ of political supervision and investigation. In fact, the III branch became a "state within a state", standing above all other bodies - the Senate, the State Council, 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 Section, whose duties were entrusted with the eradication of any free-thinking and revolutionary ideas, became the backbone of the regime of Nicholas I. Agents of the III Section 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 state bodies for a century and existed until 1917.

3. The II branch of His Imperial Majesty's own office for almost 10 years carried out work on the codification of all Russian legislation. This work was led by the well-known reformer M.M., who emerged from the shadows under Alexander I. Speransky. As a result of the work of the department and M.M. Speransky was the release in 1833 of 15 volumes of the "Code of Laws of the Russian Empire", which collected all the legislation of Russia: from the Cathedral Code of 1649 to modern Speransky laws.

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 - for peasants, county - 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 were actually transferred 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 question, headed by P.D. Kiselev;
• P.D. Kiselev raised the question of the abolition of serfdom, but he did not find the support of the emperor and the nobility;
• a compromise was the decision not to extend serfdom to the extremely western regions of Russia - Poland, Finland and the Baltic states, as well as the right of the landowner to give "freedom" to some peasants at his discretion (for the first time, the possibility of officially liberating part of the peasants was created);
• the position of the landowners also improved - taxes were reduced; landlords and nobles were exempted from corporal punishment, which became widespread under Paul I.

6. Despite the fact that the era of Nicholas 1 was the heyday of Russian culture, in particular, the talent of A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontova, N.V. Gogol and others, the most severe and mandatory censorship was introduced in the country, which had two levels:

• preliminary, when works and publications objectionable to the regime were eliminated;
• punitive - censorship of published works, during which the published works were "sifted" and censors and authors of free-thinking works, who accidentally or deliberately passed the initial censorship, were punished.