In the end of Oct., 1815, A. returned to his own dominions. His policy, and the march of events, had completely changed the internal condition of Russia and her foreign relations. Her weight in European politics had become powerful ; the limits of the empire had extended in all directions ; and notwithstanding the war, the earlier legislative reforms had begun to act favorably on the industry and well-being of the nation. After 1805, A. had remodeled the army after the fashion of the western powers, and raised it to a condition that menaced Europe. When peace was attained, he not only sought to heal the wounds inflicted by the war, but to carry forward the work cf reform formerly begun. Numerous administrative abuses were done away with, and the condition of the pe,sants was more and more alleviated. In 1816, the .esnits, who were causing a great deal of disturbance, were made to leave St. Petersburg and Moscow, and in 1820 were sent out of the empire. On the other hand, proselytism was rigidly pro hibited, and the Duchoberzes, a sect of the liwiso-Greek church, were allowed the free exercise of worship.
But however good A.'s intentions might be, his internal policy met with obstructions, partly arising from his personal views and character, partly from the nature of his position. Affected with a morbid religiosity, worn out and shaken perhaps in body and mind by the vast events in the vortex of which he had moved for the last ten years, the emperor became possessed of a dread of another European revolution ; and the political struggles against reaction in Germany, and the outbreaks against despotism in Italy and Spain, appeared to him as the beginning of a new and terrible catastrophe. The atten tion now bestowed by A. on foreign relations threw internal improvements into the back ground ; and the liberal reformer and pupil of Laharpe found himself involved in hopeless inconsistency, when he fully concurred in the policy of the Austrian cabinet, and, at the congresses of Troppau, Laybach, and Verona, helped to crush, along with the insurrec tions, the just requirements and political progress of the nations.
This complete reversal of policy could not fail to produce fruits, especially as Russia peculiarly abounded in fermentable materials. Poland saw itself completely disappointed in its national expectations, and required the actual carrying out of the promised constitu tion. The contact into which the Russians had come during the war with the civiliza tion and institutions of the western nations, had excited in different classes of Russian society, wishes and views by no means compatible with their condition at home. On the other hand, there had long existed in the most influential circles an Old-Russian party, who either found their interests hurt by the enlightened measures of the emperor, or saw in them the downfall of the national church, and of the nation itself. Besides, the army was kept up on the war-footing, and in 1821 numbered about 830,000 regular troops ; and this pressed severely on the people, and produced discontent, along with exhaustion and disorder of the finances. To meet this evil, A. began the planting of military colonies, which, however, met with insuperable obstacles in the execution, and did not attain the end in view. But to exorcise the spirit of political discontent and the
phantom of a Russian revolution, the emperor adopted the same measures that were very generally applied over the rest of Europe with similar views. The censorship of the press, and a rigid guard over the importation of books, were again introduced ; restric tions were put on science, literature, and education ;. inquiries instituted into all demo-. cratic movements ; mason-lodges and missionary societies suppressed ; and gradually all plans for reform and progress given up. Over all the provinces of the empire, a net of police, open and secret, was spread, which interfered with the ordinary intercourse of society.
The experience that, in spite of this system of repression, public opinion could not be stifled, and that parties and individuals only expressed themselves more bitterly ; the vari ance with his former self in which A. found himself involved; and the difficulties of govern ing the huge empire, which were now becoming more manifest and startling—all this tormented and embittered his morbid mind, and led him to complain of ingratitude and of a want of recognition of his good intentions. Sometimes he sought to forget his position in the dissipations of a splendid court, in which luxury and piety were strangely blended ; at other times, he plunged into the darkness of religious mysticism. The progress of the revolt in Greece brought the policy of the emperor into complete opposition to public opinion and the most sacred sympathies of the nation. The Russian people, restrained from all participation in political movements, were profoundly affected by the religious element of the Greek struggle ; but the emperor condemned the rising as insur rection, disclaimed the favor lie had formerly shown to the Greek cause, and confined himself to exhortations to the Porte to act with humanity. The death of his only and much-loved natural daughter, the terrible inundation suffered by St. Petersburg in 1824, in which lie exposed himself to personal danger, and the alarm caused by a Russo-Polish conspiracy against all the members of the house of Romanow, contributed not a little to break the heart of the emperor, and completely destroy the composure of his mind. Sick in body, weary of life, and possessed by thoughts of death, he commenced, in Sept., 1825, a journey to the Crimea, with a view to benefit the health of the empress, who was ailing, and that he himself might enjoy retirement. Leaving the empress at Taganrog, he continued his journey, but was suddenly seized by a fever peculiar to the country, and obliged to return to Taganrog. Here, in spite of all care, he became worse, and died. Dec. 1, 1825. The rumor that he had been poisoned is altogether groundless. He is said to have learned, shortly before his death, the details of the conspiracy which his brother and successor, Nicholas I. (q.v.), bad to begin his reign by putting down.—See Choiseul-Gouther's Memoires Historiques sur l'Empereur Alexandre et la Caur de Russie, Paris, 1820; and Alexander I.: His Life and Times, by C. Joyneville, London, 1875.