ALEXANDER L Alexander I.'s reign (1801-1825), like that of Catherine whom he professed to imitate, opened with attempts at a very liberal legislation (1801-5), which were interrupted by active foreign policy and wars (1806-9). There followed a new attempt at a constitutional reform (1809), hampered by the nationalist opposi tion, which urged and approved the annexation of Finland (1809) and of Bessarabia (1812). The invasion of Napoleon (1812) brought the national feeling to extreme tension. The following years (1813-1818) were devoted to the assertion of Russia's in fluence in Europe. The last years of the reign (1819-1825) were marked by a reactionary policy, which provoked the first revo lutionary movement in Russia.
Alexander received a careful education at the hand of his grandmother, who wished him to inherit the throne instead of Paul, his father. The Swiss republican Laharpe had a very strong influence on him in his early years But this education was interrupted by an early marriage (at 16) and it did not go beyond imparting to Alexander some general ideas unsustained by exact knowledge. His sentimental feelings were cooled by the court intrigues, the hidden enmity between his grandmother and father and finally by the harsh system of Paul's reign which Alexander was expected to approve and obliged to share in. The consequence was that he grew up a past master in dissimulation and self-restraint. His evasiveness in face of other people's strong opinions was often taken for weakness. But he knew how to promote his own views and if impeded in his designs he was capable of violent explosions of wrath.
Initial Liberalism.—In the first year of his reign Alexander surrounded himself with a few friends of his youth—Novosiltsev, Stroganov, Prince Adam Czartorisky, Prince Kochucey,—a "private committee," whom he wished to help him in drafting large schemes of reforms. He at once cancelled a series of re actionary measures of Paul and declared his desire to abolish arbitrariness and to inaugurate a reign of law. Public opinion received him with enthusiasm. But the "private committee," which met regularly for about a year, found dangerous and untimely a formal declaration limiting the power of the autocrat, and abolition of serfdom. The most important fruit of these good in
tentions was the introduction of "ministries" instead of the col leges of Peter the Great, which had been practically abolished by Catherine. A new senate statute was intended to make this in stitution the highest legal authority (1802). A very cautious ukase of 1803 permitted noble landowners to liberate their serfs, granting them at the same time lots of land. Only 47,000 serfs were thus liberated and became "free agriculturists." Somewhat larger measures limited the power of landowners over the serfs in Livonia and Estonia (1804-5). A new and important impulse was given to public education which was considered to be a pre liminary condition to all substantial reforms. Three new uni versities were created.
Since 1801 Alexander had feared the consequences of Na poleon's ambition and he took upon himself, although it had no relation to Russian national interest, to organize a new coali tion against France. In 1805 and 1806 he was involved in wars which ended in crushing defeats at Austerlitz and Friedland. He then changed his policy and concluded an accord with Napoleon directed against England, whose commerce with the continent had to be forbidden in all countries which adhered to this "con tinental system." At his personal meeting with Napoleon at Tilsit (1807) Alexander played a part which made Napoleon call him a "northern Talma" (a renowned actor) and a "Byzantine Greek." But he was in part genuinely under Napoleon's in fluence, and was entangled into new wars, with Sweden—which finished with the annexation of Finland (1809), and with Turkey —which lasted for six full years (1806-12) and ended with the annexation of Bessarabia. A year later (1808) Alexander again met Napoleon at Erfurt, but Napoleon's intention to raise the Polish question did not please Alexander, while Napoleon was offended by the refusal of the tsar to give him his sister in marriage. Relations were very strained by the end of 181o.