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NICHOLAS I
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See also:NICHOLAS I . [NIKOLAI PAVLOvICH], See also:emperor of See also:Russia (1796-1855), eighth See also:child of the emperor See also:Paul I. and his wife Maria Feodorovna, was See also:born at Tsarskoe-Selo on the 25th of See also:June (See also:July 6, N.S.) 1796. He was only five years old when his See also:father's See also:murder brought his See also:brother See also: On the 17/29th of See also:April 1818 their first child, the future emperor Alexander II., was born. In the autumn Nicholas was placed in command of the 2nd See also:brigade of the 1st See also:division of the Guard. In 1819 the emperor Alexander first mentioned his intention to abdicate in favour of Nicholas, Constantine consenting to stand aside; but he took no steps to initiate his prospective See also:heir in affairs of See also:state, and the grand-duke continued to be confined to his military duties. In 182o a further important step in the See also:matter of the See also:succession was taken in the See also:divorce of Constantine from the grand-duchess See also:Anne and his re-marriage to Johanna Grudzinska (see CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH). In See also:January 1822 it was decided in a See also:family See also:council, with the know-ledge though not in the presence of Nicholas, that Constantine's See also:petition to be relieved of the See also:burden of the See also:crown, for which he See also:felt himself unfitted, should be granted. It was not, however, until See also:August 1823 that the emperor See also:drew up the necessary papers, in the presence of the See also:metropolitan See also:Philaret and other witnesses, and deposited them in sealed packets, to be opened at his See also:death, with the council of state, the See also:senate and the See also:holy See also:synod. For some See also:reason, which can only be conjectured, Constantine was not made a party to this proceeding. Alexander I. died at See also:Taganrog on the 1st of See also:December 1825. When, some days later, the See also:news reached St Petersburg, all was confusion and uncertainty. Constantine was at See also:Warsaw; Nicholas, who on the 3rd of May of the same year had become chief of the 2nd division of the See also:infantry of the Guard, was too conscious of his unpopularity in the See also:army—the See also:fruit of his drastic discipline—to dare to assume the crown without a public See also:abdication on the part of the legitimate heir. No steps were taken to open the sealed packets, and he himself took the See also:oath to Constantine, and, with characteristic contempt for constitutional forms, usurped the functions of the senate and council of state by himself ordering its See also:imposition on the regiments stationed in St Petersburg. But Constantine refused to come to St See also:Peters-See also:burg, or to do more than himself take the oath to Nicholas as emperor, and write assuring him of his See also:loyalty. The result was a three See also:weeks' See also:interregnum, of which the discontented See also:spirits in the army took See also:advantage to bring to a head a See also:plot that had See also:long been hatching in favour of constitutional reform. When on the 14th of December the troops who had already taken the oath to Constantine were ordered to take another to Nicholas, it was easy to persuade them that this was a treasonable plot against the true emperor. The Moscow See also:regiment refused to take the oath, and part of it marched, shouting for Constantine and " Constitution," z to the square before the Senate See also:House, where they were joined by a See also:company of the Guard and the sailors from the warships. In this crisis Nicholas showed high See also:personal
• See See also:Stockmar, Denkzefirdigkeiten (See also:Brunswick, 1872), p. 98 seq ; and, for a later impression, See also:Queen See also:Victoria to the See also: A military rising on a large See also:scale in the See also:south was only averted by the news of the failure of the mutiny at St Petersburg; and at Moscow there were many arrests, including that of Colonel Paul Pestel, the chief of the revolutionary See also:southern See also:league. The prisoners were finally brought to trial before a supreme criminal See also:court established by imperial See also:ukaz on the 1st of June 1826; there were 121 of them and their trial had concluded by the 12th of June. Some were condemned to death, others to solitary confinement in fortresses, others to the Siberian mines and colonies. Of the latter many were accompanied by their wives, though the Russian See also:law allows divorce in the case of such sentences; the emperor unwillingly allowed the devoted See also:women to go, but decreed that any See also:children born to them in See also:Siberia would be illegitimate. Firmly seated on his throne, Nicholas proceeded to fill up the gaps in his education by studying the See also:condition of his See also:empire. In spite of his reverence for his brother's memory, he made a clean sweep of " the See also:angel's " See also:Bible Society,' and other See also:paraphernalia of See also:official See also:hypocrisy; as for Alexander's projects of reform, the pitiful See also:legacy of a life of unfulfilled purposes, these were reported upon by committees, considered and shelved. Nicholas too saw the need for reform; the Decabrist conspiracy had burnt that into his soul; but he had his own views as to the reform needed. The state was corrupt, disorganized; what was wanted was not more See also:liberty but more discipline. So he put See also:civil servants, professors and students into See also:uniform, and for little offences had them marched to the guard-house; thought was disciplined by the censorship, the army by an unceasing See also:round of parades and inspections. The one great See also:gift of Nicholas I. to Russia, a gift which he really believed would be welcome because it would bring every subject into immediate contact with the throne, was—the See also:secret See also:police, the dreaded Third See also:Section.6 The crowning See also:fault of Nicholas was, however, that he would not delegate his authority; whom could he See also:trust but himself ? In this he resembled his contemporary the emperor See also:Francis I. But Francis would " See also:sleep upon" a difficult problem; Nicholas never slept. His constitution was of See also:iron, his capacity for See also:work prodigious; reviews and parades, receptions of deputations, visits to public institutions, then eight or nine hours in his 3 The prisoners were kept in solitary confinement in the casemates of the inner fortress of St See also:Peter and St Paul. They were brought blindfolded before the commission, and then suddenly confronted with their interrogators. Many went mad under the See also:ordeal, one died, and one starved himself to death (Schiemann, ii. 73). 4 From Russ. Dekabr, December. ' " The Holy Scriptures distributed with an absurd profusion in a See also:country where the See also:clergy itself is hardly able to understand and explain them " had been the " See also:prime source of all the secret See also:societies established in the empire." Piece remise See also:par S.M. l'Empereur See also:Nicolas, in See also:Nesselrode vi. 275. 6 i.e. of the Private See also:Chancery of the emperor. See also:cabinet See also:reading and deciding on reports and despatches—such was his See also:ordinary day's work. Yet, in spite of all this, his activity et-See also:mid not but 'rove the narrow limits of autocratic See also:power. Under the " Iron 'See also:Isar " the outward semblance of authority was perfectly maintained; but behind this imposing See also:facade the whole structure of the Russian administrative See also:system continued to rot and crumble. The See also:process was even hastened; for the emperor's stern discipline crushed out all See also:independence of initiative and silenced all honest See also:criticism. The secret police provided but a poor substitute for the assistance which an See also:argus-eyed and articulate public See also:opinion gives to the efficient working of a constitutional system; for the greatest of autocrats has but two eyes, and it is no difficult task to deceive him. Thus it came about that, as See also:Professor Schiemann puts it, " See also:Potemkin's scenery was brought out again," and Nicholas walked with conscious self-approval through a Russia seemingly well ordered, but in fact merely temporarily prepared for each See also:stage of his progress. See also:War is the ultimate and sharpest test of the soundness of a state, and to this test Russia was submitted soon after the See also:accession of Nicholas, who could not be See also:blind to the revelations that resulted, though he drew the wrong moral. These revelations had, indeed, begun before the outbreak of the war with See also:Turkey in 1828. The new See also:tsar had devoted especial See also:attention to the reform and reconstruction of the See also:navy, which under Alexander I. had been suffered to decay. Yet the newly organized See also:squadron which in 1827 set out on the cruise which ended at See also:Navarino only reached See also:Plymouth with difficulty, and there had to be completely refitted. The disastrous See also:Balkan See also:campaign of 1828 was an even more astounding See also:revelation of corruption, disorganization and folly in high places; and the presence of the emperor did nothing to mitigate the attendant evils. He was indefatigable, in war as in See also:peace, in parading and inspecting; the weary and starving soldiers were forced to turn out amid the marshes of the Dobrudscha as spick and span as on the See also:parade grounds of St Petersburg; but he cculd do nothing to set order in the confusion of the See also:commissariat, which caused the troops to See also:die like flies of See also:dysentery and See also:scurvy; or to remedy the scandals of the hospitals, which inflicted on the wounded unspeakable sufferings. On the other See also:hand, his presence was sufficient to hamper the initiative of Prince See also:Wittgenstein, the nominal See also:commander-in-chief; for Nicholas was constitutionally incapable of leaving him a See also:free hand. This was one reason for the failure of the opening campaign.' Another was more creditable to the tsar's heart than to his head; he turned from the sight of wounds and See also:blood, and would not make up his mind to See also:sanction operations which, at the cost of a few See also:hundred lives, would have saved thousands who perished miserably of disease.2 These then were the leading principles which underlay Nicholas's domestic and See also:foreign policy from first to last: to discipline Russia, and by means of a disciplined Russia to discipline the See also:world. So far as the latter task was concerned, he again sharply divided the issues which Alexander had See also:con-fused. The See also:mission of Russia in the See also:West was, in accordance with the principles of the Holy See also:Alliance as Nicholas interpreted them, to uphold the cause of See also:legitimacy and See also:autocracy against the Revolution; her mission in the See also:East was, with or without the co-operation of " See also:Europe," to advance the cause of Orthodox See also:Christianity, of which she was the natural See also:protector, at the expense of the decaying See also:Ottoman empire. The sympathy of Europe with the, insurgent Greeks gave the tsar his opportunity. The duke of See also:Wellington was sent to St Petersburg in 1826 to
r Nicholas remained in Russia in 1829, and Diabitsch had a free hand.
2 He once sentenced an unhappy See also:Jew to run the See also:gauntlet of 10,000 strokes, exclaiming as he signed the See also:warrant, " Thank See also:God, we have no See also:capital See also:punishment in Russia ! " Yet his nature had its kindly side: " He feels kindness deeply—and his love for his wife and children, and for all children, is very great " (Queen Victoria, loc. cit). He also spent much personal effort in organizing the charitable institutions of the See also:dowager empress Maria, and founded a great number of institutions for technical education.congratulate the new tsar on his accession and arrange a See also:concert in the Eastern Question. The upshot proved the See also:diplomatic value of Nicholas's apparent sincerity of purpose and See also:charm of manner; the " Iron Duke" was to the " Iron Tsar" as soft iron to See also:steel; Great See also:Britain, without efficient guarantees for the future, stood committed to the policy which ended in the destruction of the Ottoman See also:sea-power at Navarino and the march of the Russians on See also:Constantinople. By the treaty of See also:Adrianople in 1829 Turkey seemed to become little better than a See also:vassal state of the tsar, a relation intensified, after the first revolt of Mehemet See also:Ali, by the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi in 1833 (see MEHEMET ALI). In the West, meanwhile, the revolutions of 1830 had modified the See also:balance of forces. Nicholas himself proposed an armed intervention of the Alliance in order " to restore order " in See also:Belgium and France; 3 and when his allies held back even proposed to intervene alone, a project rendered impossible by the outbreak of the great insurrection in See also:Poland, which tied the hands of all three See also:powers (see POLAND: See also:History). In the circumstances, Nicholas was forced to give a grudging recognition to the See also:title of See also: 1833) reaffirming the right and See also:duty of intervention at the See also:request of a legitimate See also:sovereign. The cordial understanding with See also:Austria, cemented at. Munchengratz and Berlin, was renewed, after the accession of the emperor See also: Is that—Great God!—the alliance created by the immortal emperor? . Let us preserve the sacred fire for the moment of the struggle with the infernal powers! " ' Nicholas himself ascribed his hatred of Poles and See also:Jews to the stories told him by his See also:English See also:nurse, See also:Miss See also:Lyon, of her sufferings during the See also:siege of Warsaw in 1794.—Schiemann, i. 181. This convention was not acted upon till 1846. ' Conversation with Count Ficquelmont (Feb. 13, 1833) in Martens Recueil, iv. pt. i. p. 443. 2 lb. p. 475. 8 lb p. 481. tsar to the English court. This visit, in spite of the favourable personal impression made by the emperor, was the starting-point of a fresh and fateful divergence; for it was now that the tsar first openly raised the question of the eventual See also:partition of the See also:inheritance of the " Sick Man," as he called Turkey. The whole question, however, was indefinitely postponed by the events culminating in the revolutions of 1848. Nicholas foresaw the troubles See also:brewing, and warned Frederick William IV. of Prussia, in a See also:tone of lofty and paternal remonstrance, of the inevitable results of his constitutional experiments. When the See also:storm burst, he remained entrenched behind the barriers of his own disciplined empire; sovereigns truckling in a panic to insurgent democracies he would not lift a See also:finger to help; l it was not till Francis See also:Joseph of Austria in 1849 appealed to him in the name of autocracy, reasserting its rights, that he consented to intervene, and, true to the promise made at Mtinchengratz in 1833, crushed the insurgent Hungarians and handed back their country as a free gift to the See also:Habsburg king. Scarcely less valuable to Austria was the tsar's intervention in the See also:quarrel between Austria and Prussia arising out of the See also:Hesse incident and the general question of the See also:hegemony of See also:Germany. In See also:October 185o he had a See also:meeting with Francis Joseph at Warsaw, at which Count See also:Brandenburg and Prince See also:Schwarzenberg were See also:present. Prussia, he declared, must in the See also:German question return to the basis of the See also:treaties of 1815 and renew her entente with Austria; this was the only way of preserving the old friendship of Prussia and Russia. In See also:face of the See also:threat conveyed in this, the Prussian government decided to maintain peace (Nov. 2), See also:Radowitz resigning as a protest. Thus Nicholas, who refused to believe in the perfidy ascribed by Frederick William to Austria,2 was the immediate cause of Prussia's humiliation at See also:Olmutz. Nicholas was soon to have personal experience of the perfidy of Austria. It was a small matter that Count Prokesch-Osten, the Austrian See also:ambassador, was discovered to be supplying a " foul Jew " editor with copy; more serious was Austria's attitude in the troubles that led up to the See also:Crimean War. Gratitude, in the tsar's opinion, should have made her neutral if not friendly; the revelation of her ingratitude came upon him with the See also:shock of a painful surprise. The first cause of all the evils that followed was his attitude towards See also:Napoleon III. He was forced to recognize the new French empire, but he would recognize no more than the fact of its existence (du fait en luimeme) ; he refused to address the emperor of the French as a brother sovereign. He attempted, moreover, to revive the See also:function of the triple alliance as See also:guardian of Europe against French aggression. The resentment of Napoleon awakened the slumbering Eastern Question by reviving the obsolescent claims of France to the guardianship of the Holy Places, and this aroused the See also:pride of the Orthodox tsar, their guardian by right of faith and in virtue of a clause of the treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji (1774), as interpreted in the See also:light of subsequent events. Nicholas could not believe that See also:Christian powers would resent his claim to protect the Christian subjects of the See also:sultan; he believed he could count on the friendship of Austria and Prussia; as for Great Britain, he would try to come to a See also:frank under-See also:standing with her (hence the famous conversations with See also:Sir See also: Martens, Recueil, viii. 376." 2 See Frederick William's See also:letter to the tsar (Nov. 4) and the latter's reply. Martens, viii. 384, 386.1854), urging the tsar to accept the decisions of the Vienna conference, and on his refusal See also:signing a defensive alliance with Austria (April 20, 1854), which included among the casus See also:belli the See also:incorporation in Russia of the See also:banks of the See also:Danube and a Russian march on Constantinople. Thus Nicholas, the See also:pillar of the European alliance, found himself isolated and at war, or potentially at war, with all Europe. The invasion of the See also:Crimea followed, and with it a fresh revelation of the corruption and demoralization of the Russian system. At the outset Nicholas had grimly remarked that " Generals January and See also:February " would prove his best allies. These acted, however, impartially; and if thousands of See also:British and French soldiers perished of See also:cold and disease in the trenches before See also:Sevastopol, the tracks leading from the centre of Russia into the Crimea were marked by the bones of Russian dead. The revelation of his failure See also:broke the spirit of the Iron Tsar, and on the 2nd of March 1855 he threw away the life which a little ordinary care would have saved. The character of the emperor Nicholas was summed up with great insight by Queen Victoria in a letter to the king of the Belgians, written during the tsar's visit to England (June I1, 1844). " He is stern and severe—with fixed principles of duty which nothing on See also:earth will make him See also:change; very See also:clever I do not think him, and his mind is an uncivilized one; his education has been neglected; politics and military concerns are the only things he takes great interest in; the arts and all softer occupations he is insensible to, but he is sincere, I am certain, sincere even in his most despotic acts, from a sense that that is the only way to govern; he is not, I am sure, aware of the dreadful cases of individual misery which he so often causes, for I can see by various instances that he is kept in utter See also:ignorance of many things, which his See also:people carry out in most corrupt ways, while he thinks that he is extremely just . . . and I am sure much never reaches his ears, and (as you observed) how can it? He is, I should say, too frank, for he talks so openly before people, which he should not do, and with difficulty restrains himself. His anxiety to be believed is very great, and I must say his personal promises I am inclined to believe; then his feelings are very strong; he feels kindness deeply. . . . He is not happy, and that See also:melancholy which is visible in the countenance made me sad at times; the sternness of the eyes goes very much off when you know him, and changes according to his being put out or not. . . . He is bald now, but in his See also:chevalier Garde uniform he is magnificent still, and very striking."
The emperor was a See also:kind See also:husband and father, and his domestic life was very happy. He had, seven children: (I) the emperor Alexander II. (q.v.); (2) the grand-duchess Maria (1819–1876), duchess of Leuchtenberg; (3) the grand-duchess See also:Olga (1822–1892), See also:consort of King See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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