ALEXANDER I. (ALEKSANDER PAVLOVICH) (1777-1825), emperor of Russia, son of the grand-duke Paul Petrovich, afterwards Paul I., and Maria Fedorovna, daughter of Frederick Eugene of Wurttemberg, was born on Dec. 28, The strange contradictions of his character make Alexander one of the most interesting as he is one of the most important figures in the history of the 19th century. Autocrat and "Jacobin," man of the world and mystic, he was to his contemporaries a riddle which each read according to his own temperament. Napoleon thought him a "shifty Byzantine." To Metternich he was a mad man to be humoured. Castlereagh gave him credit for "grand qualities," but said that he was "suspicious and undecided." His complex nature was, in truth, the outcome of the complex char acter of his early education. Reared in the free-thinking atmos phere of the court of Catherine II. he had imbibed from his Swiss tutor, Frederic Cesar de Laharpe, the principles of Rousseau's gospel of humanity ; from his military governor, General Soltikov, the traditions of Russian autocracy; while his father had inspired him with his own passion for military parade. These contradictory tendencies remained with him through life, revealed in the fluctua tions of his policy and influencing through him the fate of the world. Another element in his character discovered itself when in 18o1 he mounted the throne over the body of his murdered father ; a mystic melancholy liable at any moment to issue in extravagant action. At first, indeed, this exercised but little in fluence on his life. Young, impressionable, well-meaning and egotistic, Alexander plunged with all the ardour of youth into the task of realizing his political ideals. While retaining for a time the old ministers who had served and overthrown the emperor Paul, one of the first acts of his reign was to appoint a secret committee, called ironically the "Comite du salut public," con sisting of young and enthusiastic friends of his own—Victor Gavo vich Kochubey, Nikolai Nikolaevich Novosiltsov, Paul Alexandro vich Strogonov and Adam Czartoryski—to draw up a scheme of internal reform. Their aims were far in advance of the possibilities of the time, and even after they had been raised to regular min isterial positions, but little of their programme could be realized. For Russia was not ripe for liberty ; and Alexander, the disciple of the revolutionist Laharpe, was—as he himself said—but "a happy accident" on the throne of the tsars. He spoke, indeed, bitterly of "the state of barbarism in which the country had been left by the traffic in men." "Under Paul," he said, "three thou sand peasants had been given away like a bag of diamonds. If civilization were more advanced, I would abolish this slavery, if it cost me my head." 1 But the universal corruption, he complained, had left him no men; and the filling up of the government offices, with Germans and other foreigners merely accentuated the sullen resistance of the "old Russians" to his reforms. That Alexander's reign, which began with so large a promise of amelioration, ended by riveting still tighter the chains of the Russian people was, how ever, mainly due to the defects of the tsar himself.
His love of liberty, though sincere, was in fact unreal. It flat tered his vanity to pose before the world as the dispenser of ben efits ; but his theoretical liberalism was mated with an autocratic will which brooked no contradiction. "You always want to instruct me !" he exclaimed to Derzhavin, the minister of justice, "but I am the autocratic emperor, and I will this, and nothing else ! " Moreover, with this masterful temper was joined an infirmity of purpose which ever let "I dare not wait upon I would," and seized upon any excuse for postponing measures the principles of which he had publicly approved. The codification of the laws initiated in I 8o 1 was never carried out during his reign; nothing was done to improve the intolerable status of the Russian peasantry ; the constitution drawn up by Speranski, and passed by the emperor, remained unsigned. Alexander, in fact, who, without being consciously tyrannical, possessed in full measure the tyrant's characteristic distrust of men of ability and independent judgment, lacked also the first requisite for a reforming sovereign, confidence in his people; and it was this want that vitiated such reforms as were actually realized. He experimented in the out lying provinces of his empire ; and the Russians complained that, not content with governing through foreign instruments, he was conferring on Poland, Finland and the Baltic provinces benefits denied to themselves. In Russia, too, certain reforms were car ried out ; but they could not survive the suspicious interference of the autocrat and his officials. The newly created council of ministers, and the senate, endowed for the first time with certain theoretical powers, became in the end but the slavish instruments of the tsar and his favourites of the moment. The elaborate sys tem of education, culminating in the reconstituted, or new founded, universities of Dorpat, Vilna, Kazan and Kharkov, was strangled in the supposed interests of "order" and of orthodox piety; while the military colonies which Alexander proclaimed as a blessing to both soldiers and state were forced on the unwilling peasantry and army with pitiless cruelty. Even the Bible Society, through which the emperor in his later mood of evangelical zeal proposed to bless his people, was conducted on the same ruth less lines. The Roman archbishop and the Orthodox metropolitans were forced to serve on its committee side by side with Protestant pastors; and village popes were compelled to disseminate what they regarded as works of the devil.
Alexander's grandiose imagination was, however, more strongly attracted by the great questions of European politics than by attempts at domestic reform. On the morrow of his accession he had reversed the policy of Paul, denounced the League of Neutrals, made peace with England (April 18o1), and opened negotiations with Austria. Soon afterwards, at Memel, he entered into a close alliance with Prussia. The development of this alliance was inter rupted by the short-lived peace of Oct. 18o1; and for a while it seemed as though France and Russia might come to an under standing. Carried away by the enthusiasm of Laharpe, who had returned to Russia from Paris, Alexander began openly to pro claim his admiration for French institutions and for the person of Bonaparte. Soon, however, came a change. Laharpe, after a new visit to Paris, presented to the tsar his Re flexions on the to Napoleon, 'Nov. 4, 1807. Tatischev, p. 226.
True Nature of the Consulship for Life, which, as Alexander said, tore the veil from his eyes, and revealed Bonaparte as "the most famous tyrant the world has produced." His disillusionment was completed by the murder of the duc d'Enghien, and diplomatic relations with Paris were broken off.
The tsar's attitude during the war that followed was pregnant with issues momentous for the world. In opposing Napoleon, "the oppressor of Europe and the disturber of the world's peace," Alexander already believed himself to be fulfilling a divine mis sion. In his instructions to Novosiltsov, his special envoy in Lon don, he elaborated the motives of his policy in language which anticipated those exalted ideals of international policy which the Covenant of the League of Nations has now sought to realize. The outcome of the war, Alexander argued, was not to be only the liberation of France, but the universal triumph of "the sacred rights of humanity." To attain this it would be necessary "after having attached the nations to their government by making these incapable of acting save in the greatest interests of their sub jects, to fix the relations of the states amongst each other on more precise rules, and such as it is to their interest to respect." A general treaty was to become the basis of the relations of the states forming "the European confederation," which would attain some of its results if, at the conclusion of the general war, it were possible to establish on clear principles the prescriptions of the rights of nations. "Why could not one submit to it," the tsar continued, "the positive rights of nations, assure the privilege of neutrality, insert the obligation of never beginning war until all the resources which the mediation of a third party could offer have been exhausted, having by this means brought to light the respective grievances, and tried to remove them? It is on such principles as these that one could proceed to a general pacification, and give birth to a league of which the stipulations would form, so to speak, a new code of the law of nations, which, sanctioned by the greater part of the nations of Europe, would without diffi culty become the immutable rule of the cabinets, while those who should try to infringe it would risk bringing upon themselves the forces of the new union."' Meanwhile Napoleon never gave up hope of detaching him from the coalition. He had no sooner entered Vienna in triumph than he opened negotiations with him; he resumed them after Austerlitz. Russia and France, he urged, were "geographical allies"; there was between them no true con flict of interests; together they might rule the world. But Alexander was still determined "to persist in the system of dis interestedness in respect of all the states of Europe which he had thus far followed," and he again allied himself with Prussia. The campaign of Jena and the battle of Eylau followed; and Napoleon, though still intent on the Russian alliance, stirred up Poles, Turks and Persians to break the obstinacy of the tsar. A party too in Russia itself was clamorous for peace; but Alexander, after a vain attempt to form a new coalition, summoned the Russian nation to a holy war against Napoleon as the enemy of the Orthodox faith. The outcome was the rout of Friedland (June 13 and 14, 18o7). Napoleon saw his chance and seized it. Instead of mak- ing heavy terms, he offered to the chastened autocrat his alliance, and a partnership in his glory.
The two emperors met at Tilsit on June 25. Alexander, dazzled by Napoleon's genius, was completely won. Napoleon knew well how to appeal to the imagination of his new-found friend. He would divide with Alexander the empire of the world; as a first step he would leave him in possession of the Danubian principali ties and give him a free hand to deal with Finland; and, after wards, the emperors of the East and West would drive the Turks from Europe and march across Asia to the conquest of India. A programme so stupendous awoke in Alexander's impressionable mind an ambition to which he had hitherto been a stranger. The interests of Europe were forgotten. "What is Europe?" he ex claimed to the French ambassador. "Where is it, if it is not you and we?" 2 These new visions did not, however, blind Alexander to the obligations of friendship; and he refused to retain the Danubian 'Instructions to M. Novosiltsov, Sept. II, 1804. Tatischev, p. 82. 2Savary to Napoleon, Nov. 18, 1807. Tatisehev, p. 232.
principalities as the price for suffering a further dismemberment of Prussia. It was not long before the first enthusiasm of Tilsit began to wane. Napoleon promised much, and performed little. The French remained in Prussia, the Russians on the Danube; each accused the other of breach of faith. Meanwhile, however, the personal relations of Alexander and Napoleon were cordial; and it was hoped that a fresh meeting might adjust all their differences. The meeting took place at Erfurt in Oct. i8o8, and resulted in a treaty which defined a common policy. But Alexan der's relations with Napoleon none the less changed. He realized that Napoleon had never intended his proposed "grand enterprise" seriously, and had only used it to preoccupy the mind of the tsar while he consolidated his own power in central Europe. From this moment the French alliance was for Alexander also an affair of pure policy. He used it, in the first instance, to remove "the geographical enemy" from the gates of St. Petersburg by wresting Finland from the Swedes (18o9) ; and he hoped by means of it to make the Danube the southern frontier of Russia. Events were in fact rapidly tending to the rupture of the Franco-Russian alliance. Alexander, indeed, assisted Napoleon in the war of 18o9, but he declared that he would not allow Austria to be crushed; and Napoleon complained bitterly of the inactivity of the Rus sian troops during the campaign. The tsar in his turn protested against Napoleon's encouragement of the Poles. In the matter of the French alliance he knew himself to be practically isolated in Russia, and he declared that he could not sacrifice the interest of his people and empire to his affection for Napoleon. The treaty of Vienna, which added largely to the grand-duchy of Warsaw, he complained had "ill requited him for his loyalty," and he was only mollified for the time by Napoleon's public declaration that he had no intention of restoring Poland.
But if Alexander suspected Napoleon, Napoleon was no less suspicious of Alexander; and, partly to test his sincerity, he sent an almost peremptory request for the hand of the grand-duchess Anne, the tsar's youngest sister. Af ter some little delay Alexander returned a polite refusal. Napoleon's answer was to refuse to ratify the convention of Jan. 4, and to announce his engagement to the archduchess Marie Louise. From this time the relation between the two emperors became more and more strained. The annexation of Oldenburg, of which the duke was the tsar's uncle, to France in Dec. 181o, added another to the personal grievances of Alexander against Napoleon; while the ruinous reaction of the "continental system" on Russian trade made it impossible for the tsar to maintain a policy which was Napoleon's chief motive for the alliance. An acid correspondence followed, and ill-con cealed armaments, which culminated in the summer of 1812 in Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Yet, even after the French had passed the frontier, Alexander still protested that his personal sentiments towards the emperor were unaltered. It was the occu pation of Moscow and the desecration of the Kremlin, the sacred centre of Holy Russia, that changed his sentiment into passionate hatred. In vain the French emperor, within eight days of his entry into Moscow, wrote him a letter, revealing the desperate straits of the Grand Army, and appealed to "any remnant of his former sentiments." Alexander returned no answer to these "fanfaronnades." "No more peace with Napoleon!" he cried, "He or I, or I or he: we cannot longer reign together!" The campaign of 1812 was the turning-point of Alexander's' life. Its horrors, for which he felt himself largely responsible, overset still more a mind never too well balanced. At the burning of Moscow, he declared afterwards, his own soul had found illumination, and he had received the divine revelation of his mission as the peacemaker of Europe. He tried to calm the unrest of his conscience by correspondence with the leaders of the evan gelical revival, and sought for guidance in texts of scripture. It was not, however, according to his own account, till he met the Baroness de KrUdener (q.v.) at Basle, in the autumn of 1813, that his soul found peace. From this time a mystic pietism in fluenced his policy. Madame de Kriidener, and her colleague, the evangelist Empaytaz, became the confidants of his most secret thoughts; and during the campaign that.ended in the occupation 'Alexander speaking to Colonel Michaud. Tatischev, p. 612.
of Paris the imperial prayer-meetings were the oracle on whose revelations hung the fate of the world.
Such was Alexander's mood when the downfall of Napoleon left him the most powerful sovereign in Europe. With the memory of Tilsit still fresh in men's minds, it was not unnatural that to cynical men of the world like Metternich he merely seemed to be disguising "under the language of evangelical abnegation" vast and perilous schemes of ambition. The puzzled powers were, in fact, the more inclined to be suspicious in view of other, and seemingly inconsistent, tendencies of the emperor, which yet seemed all to point to a like disquieting conclusion. For though Alexander had declared war against the revolution, Laharpe was once more at his elbow, and the catchwords of the gospel of humanity were still on his lips. The very proclamations which denounced Napoleon as "the genius of evil," denounced him in the name of "liberty," and of "enlightenment." A monstrous intrigue was suspected for the alliance of the eastern autocrat with the Jacobinism of all Europe, which would have issued in the sub stitution of an all-powerful Russia for an all-powerful France. At the congress of Vienna Alexander's attitude accentuated this distrust. Castlereagh, whose aim was the restoration of "a just equilibrium" in Europe, reproached the tsar to his face for a "conscience" which suffered him to imperil the concert of the powers by keeping his hold on Poland in violation of his treaty obligation.' Yet Alexander was sincere. Even the Holy Alliance, the pet offspring of his pietism, does not deserve the sinister reputation it has since obtained. To the other powers it seemed, at best "verbiage" and "exalted nonsense," at worst an effort of the tsar to establish the hegemony of Russia on the goodwill of the smaller signatory powers. To the Liberals, then and afterwards it was clearly a hypocritical conspiracy against freedom. Yet to Alexander himself it seemed the only means of placing the "con federation of Europe" on a firm basis of principle' and, so far from its being directed against liberty he declared roundly to all the signatory powers that "free constitutions were the logical outcome of its doctrines." Europe, in fact, owed much at this time to Alexander's exalted temper. During the period when his influence was supreme, the fateful years between the Moscow campaign and the close of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, it had been used largely in the interests of moderation and liberty. To him mainly it was due that France was saved from dismember ment, and received a constitution which, to use his own words, "united crown and representatives of the people in a sense of common interests."' By this wise intervention Switzerland was saved from violent reaction. To his protection it was due that the weak beginnings of constitutional freedom in Germany were able for a while to defy the hatred of Austria. Lastly, whatever its ultimate outcome, the constitution of Poland was a genuine effort to respond to the appeal of the Poles for a national existence.
From the end of the year 1818 Alexander's views began to change. A revolutionary conspiracy among the officers of the guard, and a foolish plot to kidnap him on his way to the con gress of Aix-la-Chapelle, are said to have shaken the foundations of his Liberalism. At Aix he came for the first time into intimate contact with Metternich, who was swift to take advantage of the psychological moment. From this time dates the ascendancy of Metternich over the mind of the Russian emperor and in the councils of Europe. It was, however, no case of sudden conver sion. Though alarmed by the revolutionary agitation in Germany, which culminated in the murder of his agent, the dramatist Kotze bue (q.v.), Alexander approved of Castlereagh's protest against Metternich's policy of "the governments contracting an alliance against the peoples," as formulated in the Carlsbad decrees, He still declared his belief in "free institutions, though not in 'Castlereagh to Liverpool, Oct. 1814. F.O. papers, Vienna VII. 'Martens IV. part i., P. 49.
des negotiations actuelles, etc., mem. prepared by order of the tsar, July 16, '815, enclosed in Castlereagh to Liverpool, F. O. Cont. papers. Congress Paris, Castlereagh, 2 2.
of Lieven, Nov. 3o (Dec. 12) , 181 g, and Russ. Circular of Jan. 27, 182o. Martens IV., part i., p. 27o.
such as are forced from feebleness, nor contracts ordered by popular leaders from their sovereigns." "Liberty," he main tained, "should be confined within just limits. And the limits of liberty are the principles of order." It was the apparent triumph of the principles of disorder in the revolutions of Naples and Piedmont, combined with increas ingly disquieting symptoms of discontent in France, Germany and among his own people, that completed Alexander's conversion. In the seclusion of the little town of Troppau, where in Oct. 182o the powers met in conference, Metternich found an opportunity for cementing his influence over Alexander which had been want ing amid the turmoil and feminine intrigues of Vienna and Aix.' The issue was momentous. Iq January Alexander had still upheld the ideal of a free confederation of the European states, symbol ized by the Holy Alliance ; he had still protested against the claims of collective Europe to interfere in the internal concerns of the sovereign states. On Nov. 19 he signed the Troppau protocol, which consecrated the principle of intervention and wrecked the harmony of the concert (see TROPPAU, CONGRESS OF).
At Laibach, whither in the spring of 1821 the congress had been adjourned, Alexander first heard of the revolt of the Greeks. From this time until his death his mind was torn between his anxiety to realize his dream of a confederation of Europe and his traditional mission as leader of the Orthodox crusade against the Turks. At first, under the careful nursing of Metternich, the former motive prevailed. He struck the name of Alexander Ypsilanti from the Russian army list, and directed his foreign minister, Count Capo d'Istria, himself a Greek, to disavow all sympathy of Russia with his enterprise ; and, next year, a depu tation of the Greeks of the Morea on its way to the congress of Verona was turned back by his orders on the road. He made, indeed, some effort to reconcile the principles at conflict in his mind. He offered to surrender the claim that the affairs of the East were the "domestic concerns of Russia," and to march into Turkey, as Austria had marched into Naples, "as the mandatory of Europe." 3 Metternich's opposition to this first opened his eyes to the true character of Austria's attitude towards his ideals. Once more in Russia, far from the fascination of Metternich's personality, the immemorial spirit of his people drew him back into itself ; and when, in the autumn of 1825, he took his dying empress for change of air to the south of Russia, in order—as all Europe supposed—to place himself at the head of the great army concentrated near the Ottoman frontiers, his language was no longer that of "the peace-maker of Europe," but of the Orthodox tsar determined to take the interests of his people and of his religion "into his own hands." Before the momentous issue could be decided, however, Alexander died at Taganrog on Dec. 1 (Nov. 18, O.S.) 1825, "crushed," to use his own words, "beneath the terrible burden of a crown" which he had more than once declared his intention of resigning. A report, current at the time and often revived, affirmed that he did not in fact die. By some it was supposed that a mysterious hermit named Fomich, who lived at Tomsk until 187o and was treated with peculiar deference by successive tsars, was none other than but this legend is now Modern history knows no more tragic figure than that of Alexander. The brilliant promise of his early years; the haunting memory of the crime by which he had obtained the power to realize his ideals; and, in the end, the terrible legacy he left to Russia ; a principle of government which, under lofty pretensions, veiled a tyranny supported by spies and secret police ; an uncertain succession; an army permeated by organized disaffection; an armed Poland, whose hunger for liberty the tsar had whetted but not satisfied ; the quarrel with Turkey, with its alternative of war or humiliation for Russia; an educational system rotten with official hypocrisy ; a church in which conduct counted for nothing; orthodoxy and ceremonial observance for everything ; economical 'A percu des idees de l'Empereur, Martens IV., part i., p. 269. 'Metternich Mem.
'Martens IV., part i., pp. 307, etc.
W. Gasiorowski, Tragic Russia, translated by Viscount de Busancy (igo8) .
'See Waliszewski, Le Regne d'Alexandre rer.
and financial conditions scarce recovering from the verge of ruin; and lastly, that curse of Russia—serfdom.
In private life Alexander displayed many lovable qualities. All authorities combine in praising his handsome presence and the charm of his address. His personal friendship, too, once bestowed, was never lightly withdrawn. By nature he was sociable and pleasure-loving, he proved himself a notable patron of the arts and he took a conspicuous part in all the gaieties of the congress of Vienna. In his later years, however, he fell into a mood of settled melancholy; and, though still accessible to all who chose to approach him with complaints or petitions, he withdrew from all but the most essential social functions, and lived a life of strenuous work and of Spartan simplicity. His gloom had been increased by domestic misfortune. He had been married, in without his wishes being consulted, to the beautiful and amiable Princess Maria Louisa of Baden (Elizabeth Feodorovna), a polit ical match which proved the misfortune of both. The only child of the marriage, a little grandduchess, died on May 12, 1808 ; and their common sorrow drew husband and wife closer together. Towards the close of his life their reconciliation was completed by the wise charity of the empress in sympathizing deeply with him over the death of his beloved daughter by Madame Narish kine.
See also EUROPE ; RUSSIA ; FRANCE ; TURKEY ; VIENNA, CONGRESS OF ; NAPOLEON ; METTERNICH ; CAPO D'ISTRIA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Comtesse de Choiseul-Gouffier, Memoires histoBibliography.-Comtesse de Choiseul-Gouffier, Memoires histo- riques sur l'empereur Alexandre (1829), and Reminiscences sur l'emper eur Alexandre I., etc. (1862) ; H. L. Empaytaz, Notice sur Alexandre Empereur de Russie (2nd ed., 184o) ; Rulemann Friedrich Eylert, Charakterzuge and historische Fragmente aus dem Leben Konig Friedrich Wilhelm's 111. (1846) ; Joseph de Maistre, Memoires histo riques et correspondance diplomatique, ed. A. Blanc (1859) ; F. de Martens, Recueil des traites conclus par la Russie, etc. (1874, etc.) ; Wellington Despatches; Castlereagh Correspondence; Prince Adam Czartoryski, Memoires et correspondance avec l'empereur Alexandre I. (1887) ; P. Bailleu (ed.) Briefwechsel Konig Friedrich Wilhelm's III. and der Konigin Luise mit Kaiser Alexander I. (Leipzig, 1900) ; Serge Tatischev, Alexandre I. et Napoleon d'apres leur correspondance inedite (IgoI) ; Comte A. de la Garde-Chambonas, Souvenirs du Con gres de Vienne; publ. avec introd. et notes par le Cte. Fleury (1901) ; Laharpe, Le Gouverneur d'un Prince (F. C. de Laharpe et Alexandre 1. de Russia) (19o2) ; E. Muhlenbeck, Etudes sur les origines de la Sainte-Alliance (1909) ; August Fournier, Die Geheimpolizei auf dem Wiener Kongress (1913) ; W. Alison Phillips, The Confederation of Europe (2nd ed. 1919).