Nicholas 1 his children. The height of famous people

Therefore, he could not count on the throne, which determined the direction of his upbringing and education. From an early age he was interested in military affairs, especially its external side, and was preparing for a military career.

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

The oath to the new Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich was scheduled for December 14, 1825. On the same day, the “Decembrists” planned an uprising with the goal 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 suppressed.

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 changes. “His Majesty’s Own Office” began to play a major role in the state, which was constantly expanded 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 from the Council Code of 1649 and until 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 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 by 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, and education came under censorship, and measures were taken to limit the periodical press. Official propaganda began to extol unanimity in Russia as a national virtue. The idea “The people and the Tsar are one” was dominant 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 path of development, does not need the influence of the West and should be isolated from the world community. The Russian Empire under Nicholas I received the name “gendarme of Europe” for protecting peace in European countries from revolutionary uprisings.

In social policy, Nicholas I focused on strengthening the class system. In order to protect the nobility from “clogging,” the “December 6 Committee” proposed establishing a procedure according to which nobility was acquired only by right of inheritance. And for service people to create new classes - “officials”, “eminent”, “honorary” citizens. In 1845, the emperor issued a “Decree on Majorates” (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 situation of serfs. But Nicholas I was not a supporter of serfdom and secretly prepared materials on the peasant issue in order to make matters 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 Russian-Persian War (1826-1828), the Russian-Turkish War (1828-1829), as a result of which Russia annexed the eastern part of Armenia , the entire Caucasus, received the eastern shore 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, and 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 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 with the Time of Troubles.

Secret societies of nobles arose in the Russian Empire, aiming to change the existing order. The unexpected death of the emperor in the city of Taganrog in November 1825 became the catalyst that intensified the activities of the rebels. And the reason for the speech was the unclear situation with the succession to the throne.

The deceased sovereign had 3 brothers: Konstantin, Nikolai and Mikhail. Constantine was to inherit the rights to the Crown. However, back in 1823, he renounced the throne. No one knew about this except Alexander I. Therefore, after his death, Constantine was proclaimed emperor. But he did not accept that throne, and did not sign an official renunciation. A difficult situation has arisen in the country, since the entire empire has already sworn allegiance to Constantine.

Portrait of Emperor Nicholas I
Unknown artist

The next oldest brother, Nicholas, took the throne, which was announced on December 13, 1825 in the Manifesto. Now the country had to swear allegiance to another sovereign in a new way. Members of a secret society in St. Petersburg decided to take advantage of this. They decided not to swear allegiance to Nicholas and force the Senate to announce the fall of the autocracy.

On the morning of December 14, the rebel regiments entered Senate Square. This rebellion went down in history as the Decembrist uprising. But it was extremely poorly organized, and the organizers showed no decisiveness and clumsily coordinated their actions.

At first, the new emperor also hesitated. He was young, inexperienced and hesitated for a long time. Only in the evening Senate Square was surrounded by troops loyal to the sovereign. The rebellion was suppressed by artillery fire. The main rebels, numbering 5 people, were subsequently hanged, and more than a hundred were sent into exile in Siberia.

Thus, with the suppression of the rebellion, Emperor Nicholas I (1796-1855) began to reign. The years of his reign lasted from 1825 to 1855. Contemporaries called this period the era of stagnation and reaction, and A.I. Herzen described the new sovereign as follows: “When Nicholas ascended the throne, he was 29 years old, but he was already a soulless person. call him an autocratic forwarder whose main task was not to be even 1 minute late for the divorce.”

Nicholas I with his wife Alexandra Fedorovna

Nicholas I was born in the year of the death of his grandmother Catherine II. He was not particularly diligent in his studies. He married in 1817 the daughter of the Prussian king, Friederike Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina of Prussia. After converting to Orthodoxy, the bride received the name Alexandra Feodorovna (1798-1860). Subsequently, the wife bore the emperor seven children.

Among his family, the sovereign was an easy-going and good-natured person. The children loved him, and he could always find a common language with them. Overall, the marriage turned out to be extremely successful. The wife was a sweet, kind and God-fearing woman. She spent a lot of time on charity. True, she had poor health, since St. Petersburg, with its damp climate, did not have the best effect on her.

Years of reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855)

The years of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I were marked by the prevention of any possible anti-state protests. He sincerely strived to do many good deeds for Russia, but did not know how to start this. He was not prepared for the role of an autocrat, so he did not receive a comprehensive education, did not like to read, and very early became addicted to drill, rifle techniques and stepping.

Outwardly handsome and tall, he became neither a great commander nor a great reformer. The pinnacle of his military leadership talents were parades on the Field of Mars and military maneuvers near Krasnoe Selo. Of course, the sovereign understood that the Russian Empire needed reforms, but most of all he was afraid of harming the autocracy and landownership.

However, this ruler can be called humane. During the entire 30 years of his reign, only 5 Decembrists were executed. There were no more executions in the Russian Empire. This cannot be said about other rulers, during whose times people were executed in thousands and hundreds. At the same time, a secret service was created to carry out political investigation. She got the name Third department of personal office. It was headed by A. K. Benkendorf.

One of the most important tasks was the fight against corruption. Under Emperor Nicholas I, regular audits began to be carried out at all levels. The trial of embezzled officials has become a common occurrence. At least 2 thousand people were tried every year. At the same time, the sovereign was quite objective about the fight against corrupt officials. He claimed that among high-ranking officials he was the only one who did not steal.

Silver ruble depicting Nicholas I and his family: wife and seven children

Any changes in foreign policy were denied. The revolutionary movement in Europe was perceived by the All-Russian autocrat as a personal insult. This is where his nicknames came from: “the gendarme of Europe” and “the tamer of revolutions.” Russia regularly interfered in the affairs of other nations. She sent a large army to Hungary to suppress the Hungarian revolution in 1849, and brutally dealt with the Polish uprising of 1830-1831.

During the reign of the autocrat, the Russian Empire took part in the Caucasian War of 1817-1864, the Russian-Persian War of 1826-1828, and the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829. But the most important was the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Emperor Nicholas I himself considered it the main event of his life.

The Crimean War began with hostilities with Turkey. In 1853, the Turks suffered a crushing defeat in the naval battle of Sinop. After this, the French and British came to their aid. In 1854, they landed a strong landing in the Crimea, defeated the Russian army and besieged the city of Sevastopol. He bravely defended himself for almost a whole year, but eventually surrendered to the Allied forces.

Defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War

Death of the Emperor

Emperor Nicholas I died on February 18, 1855 at the age of 58 in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg. The cause of death was pneumonia. The Emperor, suffering from the flu, attended the parade, which aggravated the cold. Before his death, he said goodbye to his wife, children, grandchildren, blessed them and bequeathed them to be friends with each other.

There is a version that the All-Russian autocrat was deeply worried about the defeat of Russia in the Crimean War, and therefore took poison. However, most historians are of the opinion that this version is false and implausible. Contemporaries characterized Nicholas I as a deeply religious man, and the Orthodox Church always equated suicide with a terrible sin. Therefore, there is no doubt that the sovereign died from illness, but not from poison. The autocrat was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and his son Alexander II ascended the throne.

Leonid Druzhnikov

E. Vernet "Portrait of Nicholas I"

According to the description of contemporaries, Nicholas I was “a soldier by vocation,
a soldier by education, by appearance and by inside.”

Personality

Nicholas, the third son of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was born on June 25, 1796 - a few months before the accession of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich to the throne.

Since the eldest son Alexander was considered the crown prince, and his successor Konstantin, the younger brothers - Nicholas and Mikhail - were not prepared for the throne, they were raised as grand dukes destined for military service.

A. Rokstuhl "Nicholas I in childhood"

From birth, he was in the care of his grandmother, Catherine II, and after her death, he was raised by a nanny, Scottish woman Lyon, to whom he was very attached.

Since November 1800, General M.I. Lamzdorf became the teacher of Nikolai and Mikhail. This was the choice of the father, Emperor Paul I, who said: “Just don’t make my sons such rakes as German princes.” Lamsdorf was the future emperor's tutor for 17 years. The future emperor did not show any success in his studies, with the exception of drawing. He studied painting as a child under the guidance of painters I.A. Akimov and V.K. Shebueva.

Nikolai realized his calling early. In his memoirs, he wrote: “The military sciences alone interested me passionately; in them alone I found consolation and a pleasant activity, similar to the disposition of my spirit.”

“His mind is not cultivated, his upbringing was careless,” Queen Victoria wrote about Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich in 1844.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, he passionately wanted to participate in military events, but received a decisive refusal from the Empress Mother.

In 1816-1817 To complete his education, Nikolai made two trips: one throughout Russia (he visited more than 10 provinces), the other to England. There he became acquainted with the state structure of the country: he attended a meeting of the English Parliament, but remained indifferent to what he saw, because... believed that such a political system was unacceptable for Russia.

In 1817, Nicholas's wedding took place with the Prussian princess Charlotte (in Orthodoxy, Alexandra Fedorovna).

Before ascending the throne, his public activities were limited to the command of a guards brigade, then a division; from 1817, he held the honorary position of inspector general for the military engineering department. Already during this period of military service, Nikolai began to show concern for military educational institutions. On his initiative, company and battalion schools began to function in the engineering troops, and in 1818. The Main Engineering School (the future Nikolaev Engineering Academy) and the School of Guards Ensigns (later the Nikolaev Cavalry School) were established.

Beginning of reign

Nicholas had to ascend the throne under exceptional circumstances. After the death of childless Alexander I in 1825, according to the Decree on Succession to the Throne, Constantine was to become the next king. But back in 1822, Constantine signed a written abdication of the throne.

D. Doe "Portrait of Nicholas I"

On November 27, 1825, having received news of the death of Alexander I, Nicholas swore allegiance to the new emperor Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time; swore in the generals, army regiments, and government agencies. Meanwhile, Constantine, having received news of his brother's death, confirmed his reluctance to take the throne and swore allegiance to Nicholas as the Russian Emperor and swore in Poland. And only when Constantine twice confirmed his abdication, Nicholas agreed to reign. While there was correspondence between Nicholas and Constantine, there was a virtual interregnum. In order not to drag out the situation for a long time, Nicholas decided to take the oath of office on December 14, 1825.

This short interregnum was taken advantage of by members of the Northern Society - supporters of a constitutional monarchy, who, with the demands laid down in their program, brought military units to the Senate Square that refused to swear allegiance to Nicholas.

K. Kolman "Revolt of the Decembrists"

The new emperor dispersed the troops from Senate Square with grapeshot, and then personally supervised the investigation, as a result of which five leaders of the uprising were hanged, 120 people were sent to hard labor and exile; The regiments that took part in the uprising were disbanded, the rank and file were punished with spitzrutens and sent to remote garrisons.

Domestic policy

Nicholas's reign took place during a period of aggravated crisis of the feudal-serf system in Russia, a growing peasant movement in Poland and the Caucasus, bourgeois revolutions in Western Europe and, as a consequence of these revolutions, the formation of bourgeois revolutionary movements in the ranks of the Russian nobility and the common intelligentsia. Therefore, the Decembrist cause was of great importance and was reflected in the public mood of that time. In the heat of revelations, the tsar called the Decembrists “his friends of December 14th” and understood well that their demands had a place in Russian reality and the order in Russia required reforms.

Upon ascending the throne, Nicholas, being unprepared, did not have a definite idea of what he would like to see the Russian Empire. He was only confident that the country’s prosperity could be ensured exclusively through strict order, strict fulfillment of everyone’s duties, control and regulation of social activities. Despite his reputation as a narrow-minded martinet, he brought some revival to the life of the country after the gloomy last years of the reign of Alexander I. He sought to eliminate abuses, restore law and order, and carry out reforms. The Emperor personally inspected government institutions, condemning red tape and corruption.

Wanting to strengthen the existing political system and not trusting the apparatus of officials, Nicholas I significantly expanded the functions of His Majesty’s Own Chancellery, which practically replaced the highest state bodies. For this purpose, six departments were formed: the first dealt with personnel issues and monitored the execution of the highest orders; The second was concerned with the codification of laws; The third monitored law and order in government and public life, and later turned into a body of political investigation; The fourth was in charge of charitable and women's educational institutions; The fifth developed the reform of state peasants and monitored its implementation; The sixth was preparing governance reform in the Caucasus.

V. Golike "Nicholas I"

The emperor loved to create numerous secret committees and commissions. One of the first such committees was the “Committee of December 6, 1826.” Nicholas set him the task of reviewing all the papers of Alexander I and determining “what is good now, what cannot be left and what can be replaced with.” After working for four years, the committee proposed a number of projects for the transformation of central and provincial institutions. These proposals, with the approval of the emperor, were submitted for consideration to the State Council, but events in Poland, Belgium and France forced the king to close the committee and completely abandon fundamental reforms of the political system. So the first attempt to implement at least some reforms in Russia ended in failure, the country continued to strengthen clerical and administrative methods of management.

In the first years of his reign, Nicholas I surrounded himself with major statesmen, thanks to whom it was possible to solve a number of major tasks that were not completed by his predecessors. So, M.M. He instructed Speransky to codify Russian law, for which all laws adopted after 1649 were identified in the archives and arranged in chronological order, which were published in 1830 in the 51st volume of the “Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire”.

Then the preparation of the current laws began, drawn up in 15 volumes. In January 1833, the “Code of Laws” was approved by the State Council, and Nicholas I, who was present at the meeting, having removed the Order of A. the First-Called from himself, awarded it to M.M. Speransky. The main advantage of this “Code” was the reduction of chaos in management and arbitrariness of officials. However, this over-centralization of power did not lead to positive results. Not trusting the public, the emperor expanded the number of ministries and departments that created their local bodies in order to control all areas of life, which led to the swelling of the bureaucracy and red tape, and the costs of their maintenance and the army absorbed almost all state funds. V. Yu Klyuchevsky wrote that under Nicholas I in Russia “the building of the Russian bureaucracy was completed.”

Peasant question

The most important issue in the domestic policy of Nicholas I was the peasant question. Nicholas I understood the need to abolish serfdom, but could not carry it out due to opposition from the nobility and fear of a “general upheaval.” Because of this, he limited himself to such minor measures as the publication of a law on obligated peasants and the partial implementation of the reform of state peasants. The complete liberation of the peasants did not take place during the life of the emperor.

But some historians, in particular V. Klyuchevsky, pointed to three significant changes in this area that occurred during the reign of Nicholas I:

— there was a sharp reduction in the number of serfs, they ceased to constitute the majority of the population. Obviously, a significant role was played by the cessation of the practice of “distributing” state peasants to landowners along with lands, which flourished under the previous kings, and the spontaneous liberation of the peasants that began;

- the situation of state peasants greatly improved, all state peasants were allocated their own plots of land and forest plots, and auxiliary cash desks and grain stores were established everywhere, which provided assistance to the peasants with cash loans and grain in case of crop failure. As a result of these measures, not only did the welfare of state peasants increase, but also treasury income from them increased by 15-20%, tax arrears were halved, and by the mid-1850s there were practically no landless farm laborers eking out a miserable and dependent existence, all received land from the state;

- the situation of serfs improved significantly: a number of laws were adopted that improved their situation: landowners were strictly forbidden to sell peasants (without land) and send them to hard labor, which had previously been common practice; serfs received the right to own land, conduct business, and received relative freedom of movement.

Restoration of Moscow after the Patriotic War of 1812

During the reign of Nicholas I, the restoration of Moscow after the fire of 1812 was completed; on his instructions, in memory of Emperor Alexander I, who “restored Moscow from the ashes and ruins,” the Triumphal Gate was built in 1826. and work began on the implementation of a new program for planning and development of Moscow (architects M.D. Bykovsky, K.A. Ton).

The boundaries of the city center and adjacent streets were expanded, Kremlin monuments were restored, including the Arsenal, along the walls of which trophies of 1812 were placed - guns (875 in total) captured from the “Great Army”; the building of the Armory Chamber was built (1844-51). In 1839, the solemn ceremony of laying the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior took place. The main building in Moscow under Emperor Nicholas I is the Grand Kremlin Palace, the consecration of which took place on April 3, 1849 in the presence of the sovereign and the entire imperial family.

The improvement of the city’s water supply was facilitated by the construction of the “Alekseevsky water supply building,” founded in 1828. In 1829, the permanent Moskvoretsky Bridge was erected “on stone piers and abutments.” The construction of the Nikolaevskaya railway (St. Petersburg - Moscow; train traffic began in 1851) and St. Petersburg - Warsaw was of great importance for Moscow. 100 ships were launched.

Foreign policy

In the fall of 1831, Russian troops brutally suppressed the uprising in Poland, as a result of which Poland lost its autonomy. The Russian army suppressed the revolution in Hungary.

The Eastern Question occupied a special place in the foreign policy of Nicholas I.

Along with this, Russia sought to ensure its influence in the Balkans and the possibility of unhindered navigation in the straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles).

During the Russian-Turkish wars of 1806-1812. and 1828-1829, Russia achieved great success in implementing this policy. At the request of Russia, which declared itself the patroness of all Christian subjects of the Sultan, the Sultan was forced to recognize the freedom and independence of Greece and the broad autonomy of Serbia (1830); According to the Treaty of Unkar-Iskelesiki (1833), which marked the peak of Russian influence in Constantinople, Russia received the right to block the passage of foreign ships into the Black Sea (which it lost in 1841). The same reasons: the support of Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire and disagreements over the Eastern Question - pushed Russia to aggravate relations with Turkey in 1853, which resulted in its declaration of war on Russia. The beginning of the war with Turkey in 1853 was marked by the brilliant victory of the Russian fleet under the command of Admiral P. S. Nakhimov, which defeated the enemy in Sinop Bay. This was the last major battle of the sailing fleet.

Russia's military successes caused a negative reaction in the West. The leading world powers were not interested in strengthening Russia at the expense of the decrepit Ottoman Empire. This created the basis for a military alliance between England and France. Nicholas I's miscalculation in assessing the internal political situation in England, France and Austria led to the country finding itself in political isolation. In 1854, England and France entered the war on the side of Turkey. Due to Russia's technical backwardness, it was difficult to resist these European powers. The main military operations took place in Crimea. In October 1854, the Allies besieged Sevastopol. The Russian army suffered a number of defeats and was unable to provide assistance to the besieged fortress city. Despite the heroic defense of the city, after an 11-month siege, in August 1855, the defenders of Sevastopol were forced to surrender the city. At the beginning of 1856, following the Crimean War, the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. According to its terms, Russia was prohibited from having naval forces, arsenals and fortresses in the Black Sea. Russia became vulnerable from the sea and lost the opportunity to conduct an active foreign policy in this region.

Carried away by reviews and parades, Nicholas I was late with the technical re-equipment of the army. Military failures occurred to a large extent due to the lack of roads and railways. It was during the war years that he finally became convinced that the state apparatus he himself had created was good for nothing.

Culture

Nicholas I suppressed the slightest manifestations of freethinking. He introduced censorship. It was forbidden to print almost anything that had any political overtones. Although he freed Pushkin from general censorship, he himself subjected his works to personal censorship. “There is a lot of ensign in him and a little of Peter the Great,” Pushkin wrote about Nicholas in his diary on May 21, 1834; at the same time, the diary also notes “sensible” comments on “The History of Pugachev” (the sovereign edited it and lent Pushkin 20 thousand rubles), ease of use and the king’s good language. Nikolai arrested and sent to soldiery for Polezhaev’s free poetry, and twice ordered Lermontov to be exiled to the Caucasus. By his order, the magazines “European”, “Moscow Telegraph”, “Telescope” were closed, P. Chaadaev and his publisher were persecuted, and F. Schiller was banned from publication in Russia. But at the same time, he supported the Alexandria Theater, both Pushkin and Gogol read their works to him, he was the first to support the talent of L. Tolstoy, he had enough literary taste and civic courage to defend “The Inspector General” and after the first performance to say: “Everyone got it - and most of all ME.”

But the attitude of his contemporaries towards him was quite contradictory.

CM. Soloviev wrote: “He would like to cut off all the heads that rose above the general level.”

N.V. Gogol recalled that Nicholas I, with his arrival in Moscow during the horrors of the cholera epidemic, showed a desire to uplift and encourage the fallen - “a trait that hardly any of the crown bearers showed.”

Herzen, who from his youth was painfully worried about the failure of the Decembrist uprising, attributed cruelty, rudeness, vindictiveness, intolerance to “free-thinking” to the tsar’s personality, and accused him of following a reactionary course of domestic policy.

I. L. Solonevich wrote that Nicholas I was, like Alexander Nevsky and Ivan III, a true “sovereign master,” with “a master’s eye and a master’s calculation.”

“Nikolai Pavlovich’s contemporaries did not “idolize” him, as was customary to say during his reign, but were afraid of him. Non-worship, non-worship would probably be recognized as a state crime. And gradually this custom-made feeling, a necessary guarantee of personal safety, entered the flesh and blood of his contemporaries and was then instilled in their children and grandchildren (N.E. Wrangel).

Doctor of Historical Sciences M. RAKHMATULLIN

In February 1913, just a few years before the collapse of Tsarist Russia, the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov was solemnly celebrated. In countless churches of the vast empire, “many years” of the reigning family were proclaimed, in noble assemblies, champagne bottle corks flew to the ceiling amid joyful exclamations, and throughout Russia millions of people sang: “Strong, sovereign... reign over us... reign to the fear of the enemies." In the past three centuries, the Russian throne was occupied by different kings: Peter I and Catherine II, endowed with remarkable intelligence and statesmanship; Paul I and Alexander III, who were not very distinguished by these qualities; Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna and Nicholas II, completely devoid of statesmanship. Among them were both cruel ones, like Peter I, Anna Ioannovna and Nicholas I, and relatively soft ones, like Alexander I and his nephew Alexander II. But what they all had in common was that each of them was an unlimited autocrat, to whom ministers, police and all subjects obeyed unquestioningly... What were these all-powerful rulers, on whose one casually thrown word much, if not everything, depended? The magazine "Science and Life" begins publishing articles dedicated to the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, who went down in Russian history mainly because he began his reign with the hanging of five Decembrists and ended it with the blood of thousands and thousands of soldiers and sailors in the shamefully lost Crimean War, unleashed , in particular, and due to the exorbitant imperial ambitions of the king.

Palace Embankment near the Winter Palace from Vasilyevsky Island. Watercolor by Swedish artist Benjamin Petersen. Beginning of the 19th century.

Mikhailovsky Castle - view from the Fontanka embankment. Early 19th century watercolor by Benjamin Petersen.

Paul I. From an engraving of 1798.

The Dowager Empress and mother of the future Emperor Nicholas I, Maria Feodorovna, after the death of Paul I. From an engraving of the early 19th century.

Emperor Alexander I. Early 20s of the 19th century.

Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich in childhood.

Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich.

Petersburg. Uprising on Senate Square on December 14, 1825. Watercolor by artist K.I. Kolman.

Science and life // Illustrations

Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Portraits of the first third of the 19th century.

Count M. A. Miloradovich.

During the uprising on Senate Square, Pyotr Kakhovsky mortally wounded the military governor-general of St. Petersburg Miloradovich.

The personality and actions of the fifteenth Russian autocrat from the Romanov dynasty were assessed ambiguously by his contemporaries. Persons from his inner circle who communicated with him in an informal setting or in a narrow family circle, as a rule, spoke of the king with delight: “an eternal worker on the throne”, “a fearless knight”, “a knight of the spirit”... For a significant part of society, the name The tsar was associated with the nicknames “bloody”, “executioner”, “Nikolai Palkin”. Moreover, the latter definition seemed to re-establish itself in public opinion after 1917, when for the first time a small brochure by L. N. Tolstoy appeared in a Russian publication under the same name. The basis for its writing (in 1886) was the story of a 95-year-old former Nikolaev soldier about how lower ranks who were guilty of something were driven through the gauntlet, for which Nicholas I was popularly nicknamed Palkin. The very picture of “legal” punishment by spitzrutens, terrifying in its inhumanity, is depicted with stunning force by the writer in the famous story “After the Ball.”

Many negative assessments of the personality of Nicholas I and his activities come from A.I. Herzen, who did not forgive the monarch for his reprisal against the Decembrists and especially the execution of five of them, when everyone was hoping for a pardon. What happened was all the more terrible for society because after the public execution of Pugachev and his associates, the people had already forgotten about the death penalty. Nicholas I is so unloved by Herzen that he, usually an accurate and subtle observer, places emphasis with obvious prejudice even when describing his external appearance: “He was handsome, but his beauty was chilling; there is no face that would so mercilessly expose a person’s character as "his face. The forehead, quickly running back, the lower jaw, developed at the expense of the skull, expressed an unyielding will and weak thought, more cruelty than sensuality. But the main thing is the eyes, without any warmth, without any mercy, winter eyes."

This portrait contradicts the testimony of many other contemporaries. For example, the life physician of the Saxe-Coburg Prince Leopold, Baron Shtokman, described Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich as follows: unusually handsome, attractive, slender, like a young pine tree, regular facial features, beautiful open forehead, arched eyebrows, small mouth, gracefully outlined chin, character very lively, manners relaxed and graceful. One of the noble court ladies, Mrs. Kemble, who was distinguished by her particularly strict judgments about men, endlessly exclaims in delight with him: “What a charm! What a beauty! This will be the first handsome man in Europe!” The English Queen Victoria, the wife of the English envoy Bloomfield, other titled persons and “ordinary” contemporaries spoke equally flatteringly about Nicholas’s appearance.

THE FIRST YEARS OF LIFE

Ten days later, the grandmother-empress told Grimm the details of the first days of her grandson’s life: “Knight Nicholas has been eating porridge for three days now, because he constantly asks for food. I believe that an eight-day-old child has never enjoyed such a treat, this is unheard of... He looks wide eyes at everyone, holds his head straight and turns no worse than I can.” Catherine II predicts the fate of the newborn: the third grandson, “due to his extraordinary strength, is destined, it seems to me, to also reign, although he has two older brothers.” At that time, Alexander was in his twenties; Konstantin was 17 years old.

The newborn, according to the established rule, after the baptism ceremony is transferred to the care of the grandmother. But her unexpected death on November 6, 1796 “unfavorably” affected the education of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich. True, the grandmother managed to make a good choice of nanny for Nikolai. It was a Scot, Evgenia Vasilievna Lyon, the daughter of a stucco master, invited to Russia by Catherine II among other artists. She remained the only teacher for the first seven years of the boy's life and is believed to have had a strong influence on the formation of his personality. The owner of a courageous, decisive, direct and noble character, Eugenia Lyon tried to instill in Nikolai the highest concepts of duty, honor, and loyalty to his word.

On January 28, 1798, another son, Mikhail, was born into the family of Emperor Paul I. Paul, deprived by the will of his mother, Empress Catherine II, of the opportunity to raise his two eldest sons himself, transferred all his fatherly love to the younger ones, giving clear preference to Nicholas. Their sister Anna Pavlovna, the future Queen of the Netherlands, writes that their father “caressed them very tenderly, which our mother never did.”

According to the established rules, Nikolai was enrolled in military service from the cradle: at the age of four months he was appointed chief of the Life Guards Horse Regiment. The boy's first toy was a wooden gun, then swords appeared, also wooden. In April 1799, he was put on his first military uniform - the “crimson garus”, and in the sixth year of his life Nikolai saddled a riding horse for the first time. From his earliest years, the future emperor absorbs the spirit of the military environment.

In 1802, studies began. From that time on, a special journal was kept in which the teachers (“gentlers”) recorded literally every step of the boy, describing in detail his behavior and actions.

The main supervision of education was entrusted to General Matvey Ivanovich Lamsdorf. It would be difficult to make a more awkward choice. According to contemporaries, Lamsdorff “not only did not possess any of the abilities necessary to educate a person of the royal house, destined to have an influence on the destinies of his compatriots and on the history of his people, but he was even alien to everything that is necessary for a person devoting himself to education of a private individual." He was an ardent supporter of the generally accepted system of education at that time, based on orders, reprimands and punishments that reached the point of cruelty. Nikolai did not avoid frequent “acquaintance” with a ruler, ramrods and rods. With the consent of his mother, Lamsdorff diligently tried to change the character of the pupil, going against all his inclinations and abilities.

As often happens in such cases, the result was the opposite. Subsequently, Nikolai Pavlovich wrote about himself and his brother Mikhail: “Count Lamsdorff knew how to instill in us one feeling - fear, and such fear and confidence in his omnipotence that mother’s face was for us the second most important concept. This order completely deprived us of filial happiness trust in the parent, to whom we were rarely allowed alone, and then never otherwise, as if on a sentence. The constant change of people around us instilled in us from infancy the habit of looking for weaknesses in them in order to take advantage of them in the sense of what we want it was necessary and, it must be admitted, not without success... Count Lamsdorff and others, imitating him, used severity with vehemence, which took away from us the feeling of guilt, leaving only the annoyance for rude treatment, and often undeserved. "Fear and the search for how to avoid punishment occupied my mind most of all. I saw only coercion in teaching, and I studied without desire."

Still would. As the biographer of Nicholas I, Baron M.A. Korf, writes, “the great princes were constantly, as it were, in a vice. They could not freely and easily stand up, sit down, walk, talk, or indulge in the usual childish playfulness and noisiness: they at every step they stopped, corrected, reprimanded, persecuted with morals or threats.” In this way, as time has shown, they tried in vain to correct Nikolai’s as independent as he was obstinate, hot-tempered character. Even Baron Korff, one of the biographers most sympathetic to him, is forced to note that the usually uncommunicative and withdrawn Nikolai seemed to be reborn during the games, and the willful principles contained in him, disapproved of by those around him, manifested themselves in their entirety. The journals of the "cavaliers" for the years 1802-1809 are replete with records of Nikolai's unbridled behavior during games with peers. “No matter what happened to him, whether he fell, or hurt himself, or considered his desires unfulfilled, and himself offended, he immediately uttered swear words... chopped the drum, toys with his hatchet, broke them, beat his comrades with a stick or whatever their games." In moments of temper he could spit at his sister Anna. Once he hit his playmate Adlerberg with such force with the butt of a child’s gun that he was left with a scar for life.

The rude manners of both grand dukes, especially during war games, were explained by the idea established in their boyish minds (not without the influence of Lamsdorff) that rudeness is a mandatory characteristic of all military men. However, teachers note that outside of war games, Nikolai Pavlovich’s manners “remained no less rude, arrogant and arrogant.” Hence the clearly expressed desire to excel in all games, to command, to be a boss or to represent the emperor. And this despite the fact that, according to the same educators, Nikolai “has very limited abilities,” although he had, in their words, “the most excellent, loving heart” and was distinguished by “excessive sensitivity.”

Another trait that also remained for the rest of his life was that Nikolai Pavlovich “could not bear any joke that seemed to him an insult, did not want to endure the slightest displeasure... he seemed to constantly consider himself both higher and more significant than everyone else.” Hence his persistent habit of admitting his mistakes only under strong duress.

So, the favorite pastime of the brothers Nikolai and Mikhail remained only war games. At their disposal was a large assortment of tin and porcelain soldiers, guns, halberds, wooden horses, drums, pipes and even charging boxes. All attempts by the late mother to turn them away from this attraction were unsuccessful. As Nikolai himself later wrote, “military sciences alone interested me passionately, in them alone I found consolation and a pleasant activity, similar to the disposition of my spirit.” In fact, it was a passion, first of all, for paradomania, for frunt, which since Peter III, according to the biographer of the royal family N.K. Schilder, “took deep and strong roots in the royal family.” “He invariably loved exercises, parades, parades and divorces to death and carried them out even in winter,” one of his contemporaries writes about Nicholas. Nikolai and Mikhail even came up with a “family” term to express the pleasure they felt when the review of the grenadier regiments went off without a hitch - “infantry pleasure.”

TEACHERS AND PUPILS

From the age of six, Nikolai begins to be introduced to the Russian and French languages, the Law of God, Russian history, and geography. This is followed by arithmetic, German and English - as a result, Nikolai was fluent in four languages. Latin and Greek were not given to him. (Subsequently, he excluded them from his children’s education program, because “he can’t stand Latin ever since he was tormented by it in his youth.”) Since 1802, Nicholas has been taught drawing and music. Having learned to play the trumpet (cornet-piston) quite well, after two or three auditions he, naturally gifted with good hearing and musical memory, could perform quite complex works in home concerts without notes. Nikolai Pavlovich retained his love for church singing throughout his life, knew all the church services by heart and willingly sang along with the singers in the choir with his sonorous and pleasant voice. He drew well (in pencil and watercolor) and even learned the art of engraving, which required great patience, a faithful eye and a steady hand.

In 1809, it was decided to expand the training of Nicholas and Mikhail to university programs. But the idea of sending them to the University of Leipzig, as well as the idea of sending them to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, disappeared due to the outbreak of the Patriotic War of 1812. As a result, they continued their education at home. Well-known professors of that time were invited to study with the grand dukes: economist A.K. Storch, lawyer M.A. Balugyansky, historian F.P. Adelung and others. But the first two disciplines did not captivate Nikolai. He later expressed his attitude towards them in the instructions to M.A. Korfu, who was appointed by him to teach his son Konstantin law: “... There is no need to dwell too long on abstract subjects, which are then either forgotten or do not find any application in practice. I I remember how we were tormented over this by two people, very kind, perhaps very smart, but both of them the most intolerable pedants: the late Balugyansky and Kukolnik [father of the famous playwright. - M.R.]... During the lessons of these gentlemen, we either dozed off, or drew some nonsense, sometimes their own caricature portraits, and then for the exams we learned something by rote, without fruition or benefit for the future. In my opinion, the best theory of law is good morality, and it should be in the heart, regardless of these abstractions, and have its basis in religion."

Nikolai Pavlovich showed an interest in construction and especially engineering very early. “Mathematics, then artillery, and especially engineering science and tactics,” he writes in his notes, “attracted me exclusively; I had special success in this area, and then I got the desire to serve in engineering.” And this is not empty boasting. According to engineer-lieutenant general E. A. Egorov, a man of rare honesty and selflessness, Nikolai Pavlovich “always had a special attraction to the engineering and architectural arts... his love for the construction business did not leave him until the end of his life and, to tell the truth, he knew a lot about it... He always went into all the technical details of the work and amazed everyone with the accuracy of his comments and the fidelity of his eye.”

At the age of 17, Nikolai’s compulsory schooling is almost over. From now on, he regularly attends divorces, parades, exercises, that is, he completely indulges in what was previously not encouraged. At the beginning of 1814, the desire of the Grand Dukes to go to the Active Army finally came true. They stayed abroad for about a year. On this trip, Nicholas met his future wife, Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prussian king. The choice of the bride was not made by chance, but also answered the aspirations of Paul I to strengthen relations between Russia and Prussia through a dynastic marriage.

In 1815, the brothers were again in the Active Army, but, as in the first case, they did not take part in military operations. On the way back, the official engagement to Princess Charlotte took place in Berlin. A 19-year-old young man, enchanted by her, upon returning to St. Petersburg, writes a letter significant in content: “Farewell, my angel, my friend, my only consolation, my only true happiness, think about me as often as I think about you, and love if you can, the one who is and will be your faithful Nikolai for life." Charlotte's reciprocal feeling was just as strong, and on July 1 (13), 1817, on her birthday, a magnificent wedding took place. With the adoption of Orthodoxy, the princess was named Alexandra Feodorovna.

Before his marriage, Nicholas took two study tours - to several provinces of Russia and to England. After marriage, he was appointed inspector general for engineering and chief of the Life Guards Sapper Battalion, which fully corresponded to his inclinations and desires. His tirelessness and service zeal amazed everyone: early in the morning he showed up for line and rifle training as a sapper, at 12 o'clock he left for Peterhof, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon he mounted his horse and again rode 12 miles to the camp, where he remained until the evening dawn, personally supervising work on the construction of training field fortifications, digging trenches, installing mines, landmines... Nikolai had an extraordinary memory for faces and remembered the names of all the lower ranks of “his” battalion. According to his colleagues, Nikolai, who “knew his job to perfection,” fanatically demanded the same from others and strictly punished them for any mistakes. So much so that soldiers punished on his orders were often carried away on stretchers to the infirmary. Nikolai, of course, did not feel any remorse, for he only strictly followed the paragraphs of the military regulations, which provided for the merciless punishment of soldiers with sticks, rods, and spitzrutens for any offenses.

In July 1818, he was appointed brigade commander of the 1st Guards Division (while retaining the post of inspector general). He was in his 22nd year, and he sincerely rejoiced at this appointment, for he received a real opportunity to command the troops himself, to appoint exercises and reviews himself.

In this position, Nikolai Pavlovich was taught the first real lessons in behavior appropriate for an officer, which laid the foundation for the later legend of the “knight emperor.”

Once, during the next exercise, he gave a rude and unfair reprimand in front of the regiment's front to K.I. Bistrom, a military general, commander of the Jaeger Regiment, who had many awards and wounds. The enraged general came to the commander of the Separate Guards Corps, I.V. Vasilchikov, and asked him to convey to Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich his demand for a formal apology. Only the threat to bring the incident to the attention of the sovereign forced Nicholas to apologize to Bistrom, which he did in the presence of the regiment officers. But this lesson was of no use. After some time, for minor violations in the ranks, he gave an insulting scolding to the company commander V.S. Norov, concluding with the phrase: “I will bend you to the horn of a ram!” The regiment officers demanded that Nikolai Pavlovich “give satisfaction to Norov.” Since a duel with a member of the reigning family is by definition impossible, the officers resigned. It was difficult to resolve the conflict.

But nothing could drown out Nikolai Pavlovich’s official zeal. Following the rules of the military regulations “firmly ingrained” in his mind, he spent all his energy on drilling the units under his command. “I began to demand,” he recalled later, “but I demanded alone, because what I discredited out of duty of conscience was allowed everywhere, even by my superiors. The situation was the most difficult; to act otherwise was contrary to my conscience and duty; but by this I clearly set and bosses and subordinates against themselves. Moreover, they didn’t know me, and many either didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand.”

It must be admitted that his severity as a brigade commander was partly justified by the fact that in the officer corps at that time “the order, already shaken by the three-year campaign, was completely destroyed... Subordination disappeared and was preserved only at the front; respect for superiors disappeared completely... "There were no rules, no order, and everything was done completely arbitrarily." It got to the point that many officers came to training in tailcoats, throwing an overcoat over their shoulders and putting on a uniform hat. What was it like for serviceman Nikolai to put up with this to the core? He did not put up with it, which caused not always justified condemnation from his contemporaries. The memoirist F. F. Wigel, known for his poisonous pen, wrote that Grand Duke Nicholas “was uncommunicative and cold, completely devoted to the sense of his duty; in fulfilling it, he was too strict with himself and with others. In the regular features of his white, pale face one can see there was some kind of immobility, some kind of unaccountable severity. Let's tell the truth: he was not loved at all."

The testimonies of other contemporaries relating to the same time are in the same vein: “The ordinary expression of his face has something stern and even unfriendly in it. His smile is a smile of condescension, and not the result of a cheerful mood or passion. The habit of dominating these feelings is akin to his a being to the point that you will not notice in him any compulsion, nothing inappropriate, nothing learned, and yet all his words, like all his movements, are measured, as if musical notes were lying in front of him. There is something unusual about the Grand Duke: he speaks vividly, simply, by the way; everything he says is smart, not a single vulgar joke, not a single funny or obscene word. Neither in the tone of his voice, nor in the composition of his speech there is anything that would expose pride or secrecy. But you feel that his heart is closed, that the barrier is inaccessible, and that it would be crazy to hope to penetrate into the depths of his thoughts or have complete trust."

At the service, Nikolai Pavlovich was in constant tension, he buttoned up all the buttons of his uniform, and only at home, in the family, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna recalled about those days, “he felt quite happy, just like me.” In the notes of V.A. Zhukovsky we read that “nothing could be more touching to see the Grand Duke in his home life. As soon as he crossed the threshold, the gloominess suddenly disappeared, giving way not to smiles, but to loud, joyful laughter, frank speeches and the most affectionate treatment with those around him... A happy young man... with a kind, faithful and beautiful girlfriend, with whom he lived in perfect harmony, having occupations consistent with his inclinations, without worries, without responsibility, without ambitious thoughts, with a clear conscience, which is not did he have enough on earth?

THE PATH TO THE THRONE

Suddenly everything changed overnight. In the summer of 1819, Alexander I unexpectedly informed Nicholas and his wife of his intentions to renounce the throne in favor of his younger brother. “Nothing like this ever came to mind, even in a dream,” emphasizes Alexandra Fedorovna. “We were struck as if by thunder; the future seemed gloomy and inaccessible to happiness.” Nikolai himself compares his and his wife’s feelings with the feeling of a man calmly walking when “an abyss suddenly opens up under his feet, into which an irresistible force plunges him, not allowing him to retreat or turn back. This is a perfect image of our terrible situation.” And he was not lying, realizing how heavy the cross of fate looming on the horizon - the royal crown - would be for him.

But these are just words, for now Alexander I makes no attempts to involve his brother in state affairs, although a manifesto has already been drawn up (though secretly even from the inner circle of the court) on the renunciation of the throne of Constantine and its transfer to Nicholas. The latter is still busy, as he himself wrote, “with daily waiting in the hallway or secretary room, where... noble persons who had access to the sovereign gathered every day. We spent an hour, sometimes more, in this noisy meeting. .. This time was a waste of time, but also a precious practice for getting to know people and faces, and I took advantage of it.”

This is the whole school of Nikolai’s preparation for governing the state, for which, it should be noted, he did not strive at all and for which, as he himself admitted, “my inclinations and desires led me so little; a degree for which I had never prepared and, on the contrary, I always looked with fear, looking at the burden that lay on my benefactor" (Emperor Alexander I. - M.R.). In February 1825, Nikolai was appointed commander of the 1st Guards Division, but this did not essentially change anything. He could have become a member of the State Council, but did not. Why? The answer to the question is partly given by the Decembrist V. I. Steingeil in his “Notes on the Uprising.” Referring to rumors about the abdication of Constantine and the appointment of Nicholas as heir, he quotes the words of Moscow University professor A.F. Merzlyakov: “When this rumor spread throughout Moscow, I happened to see Zhukovsky; I asked him: “Tell me, perhaps, you are a close person - why should we expect from this change?" - “Judge for yourself,” answered Vasily Andreevich, “I have never seen a book in [his] hands; The only occupation is the frunt and the soldiers."

The unexpected news that Alexander I was dying came from Taganrog to St. Petersburg on November 25. (Alexander was touring the south of Russia and intended to travel all over Crimea.) Nikolai invited the Chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers, Prince P.V. Lopukhin, Prosecutor General Prince A.B. Kurakin, commander of the Guards Corps A.L. Voinov and the military Governor General of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, who was endowed with special powers in connection with the emperor’s departure from the capital, and announced to them his rights to the throne, apparently considering this a purely formal act. But, as the former adjutant of Tsarevich Konstantin F.P. Opochinin testifies, Count Miloradovich “answered flatly that Grand Duke Nicholas cannot and should not in any way hope to succeed his brother Alexander in the event of his death; that the laws of the empire do not allow the sovereign to dispose of will; that, moreover, Alexander’s will is known only to some people and is unknown among the people; that Constantine’s abdication is also implicit and remained unpublicized; that Alexander, if he wanted Nicholas to inherit the throne after him, had to make public his will and Constantine’s consent to it during his lifetime ; that neither the people nor the army will understand the abdication and will attribute everything to treason, especially since neither the sovereign himself nor the heir by birthright is in the capital, but both were absent; that, finally, the guard will resolutely refuse to take the oath to Nicholas in such circumstances , and then the inevitable consequence will be indignation... The Grand Duke proved his rights, but Count Miloradovich did not want to recognize them and refused his assistance. That's where we parted ways."

On the morning of November 27, the courier brought the news of the death of Alexander I, and Nicholas, swayed by Miloradovich’s arguments and not paying attention to the absence of a Manifesto obligatory in such cases on the accession of a new monarch to the throne, was the first to swear allegiance to the “legitimate Emperor Constantine.” The others did the same after him. From this day on, a political crisis provoked by the narrow family clan of the reigning family begins - a 17-day interregnum. Couriers scurry between St. Petersburg and Warsaw, where Constantine was, - the brothers persuade each other to take the remaining idle throne.

A situation unprecedented for Russia has arisen. If earlier in its history there was a fierce struggle for the throne, often leading to murder, now the brothers seem to be competing in renouncing their rights to supreme power. But there is a certain ambiguity and indecision in Konstantin’s behavior. Instead of immediately arriving in the capital, as the situation required, he limited himself to letters to his mother and brother. Members of the reigning house, writes the French ambassador Count Laferronais, “are playing with the crown of Russia, throwing it like a ball to one another.”

On December 12, a package was delivered from Taganrog addressed to “Emperor Constantine” from the Chief of the General Staff, I. I. Dibich. After some hesitation, Grand Duke Nicholas opened it. “Let them imagine what should have happened in me,” he later recalled, “when, glancing at what was included (in the package. - M.R.) letter from General Dibich, I saw that it was about an existing and just discovered extensive conspiracy, the branches of which spread throughout the entire Empire from St. Petersburg to Moscow and to the Second Army in Bessarabia. Only then did I fully feel the burden of my fate and remember with horror what situation I was in. It was necessary to act without wasting a minute, with full power, with experience, with determination."

Nikolai did not exaggerate: according to the adjutant of the infantry commander of the Guards Corps K.I. Bistrom, Ya.I. Rostovtsov, a friend of the Decembrist E.P. Obolensky, in general terms he knew about the impending “outrage at the new oath.” We had to hurry to act.

On the night of December 13, Nikolai Pavlovich appeared before the State Council. The first phrase he uttered: “I carry out the will of brother Konstantin Pavlovich” was supposed to convince the members of the Council that his actions were forced. Then Nicholas “in a loud voice” read out in its final form the Manifesto polished by M. M. Speransky about his accession to the throne. “Everyone listened in deep silence,” Nikolai notes in his notes. This was a natural reaction - the tsar is far from being desired by everyone (S.P. Trubetskoy expressed the opinion of many when he wrote that “the young great princes are tired of them”). However, the roots of slavish obedience to autocratic power are so strong that the unexpected change was accepted calmly by the members of the Council. At the end of the reading of the Manifesto, they “bowed deeply” to the new emperor.

Early in the morning, Nikolai Pavlovich addressed the specially assembled guards generals and colonels. He read to them the Manifesto of his accession to the throne, the will of Alexander I and documents on the abdication of Tsarevich Constantine. The answer was unanimous recognition of him as the rightful monarch. Then the commanders went to the General Headquarters to take the oath, and from there to their units to conduct the appropriate ritual.

On this critical day for him, Nikolai was outwardly calm. But his true state of mind is revealed by the words he then said to A.H. Benckendorf: “Tonight, perhaps, both of us will no longer be in the world, but at least we will die having fulfilled our duty.” He wrote about the same thing to P. M. Volkonsky: “On the fourteenth I will be sovereign or dead.”

By eight o'clock the oath ceremony in the Senate and Synod was completed, and the first news of the oath came from the guards regiments. It seemed that everything would go well. However, the members of secret societies who were in the capital, as the Decembrist M. S. Lunin wrote, “came with the idea that the decisive hour had come” and that they had to “resort to the force of arms.” But this favorable situation for the speech came as a complete surprise to the conspirators. Even the experienced K.F. Ryleev “was struck by the randomness of the case” and was forced to admit: “This circumstance gives us a clear idea of our powerlessness. I was deceived myself, we do not have an established plan, no measures have been taken...”

In the camp of the conspirators, there are continuous arguments on the verge of hysteria, and yet in the end it was decided to speak out: “It is better to be taken in the square,” argued N. Bestuzhev, “than on the bed.” The conspirators are unanimous in defining the basic attitude of the speech - “loyalty to the oath to Constantine and reluctance to swear allegiance to Nicholas.” The Decembrists deliberately resorted to deception, convincing the soldiers that the rights of the legitimate heir to the throne, Tsarevich Constantine, should be protected from unauthorized encroachments by Nicholas.

And so, on a gloomy, windy day on December 14, 1825, about three thousand soldiers “standing for Constantine” gathered on Senate Square, with three dozen officers, their commanders. For various reasons, not all the regiments that the leaders of the conspirators were counting on showed up. Those gathered had neither artillery nor cavalry. Another dictator, S.P. Trubetskoy, got scared and didn’t show up on the square. The tedious, almost five-hour standing in their uniforms in the cold, without a specific goal or any combat mission, had a depressing effect on the soldiers who were patiently waiting, as V. I. Steingeil writes, for “the outcome from fate.” Fate appeared in the form of grapeshot, instantly scattering their ranks.

The command to fire live rounds was not given immediately. Nicholas I, despite the general confusion, decisively took the suppression of the rebellion into his own hands, still hoped to do it “without bloodshed,” even after, he recalls, how “they fired a volley at me, bullets whizzed through my head.” All this day Nikolai was in sight, in front of the 1st battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and his powerful figure on horseback represented an excellent target. “The most amazing thing,” he will say later, “is that I was not killed that day.” And Nikolai firmly believed that God’s hand was guiding his destiny.

Nikolai’s fearless behavior on December 14 is explained by his personal courage and bravery. He himself thought differently. One of the ladies of state of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna later testified that when one of those close to him, out of a desire to flatter, began to tell Nicholas I about his “heroic act” on December 14, about his extraordinary courage, the sovereign interrupted the interlocutor, saying: “You are mistaken; I was not as brave as you think. But a sense of duty forced me to overcome myself." An honest confession. And subsequently he always said that on that day he was “only doing his duty.”

December 14, 1825 determined the fate not only of Nikolai Pavlovich, but in many ways of the country. If, according to the author of the famous book “Russia in 1839”, Marquis Astolphe de Custine, on this day Nicholas “from the silent, melancholy, as he was in the days of his youth, turned into a hero,” then Russia for a long time lost the opportunity to carry out any there was liberal reform, which she so needed. This was already obvious to the most insightful contemporaries. December 14 gave the further course of the historical process “a completely different direction,” noted Count D.N. Tolstoy. Another contemporary clarifies it: “December 14, 1825... should be attributed to the dislike for any liberal movement that was constantly noticed in the orders of Emperor Nicholas.”

Meanwhile, there might not have been an uprising at all under only two conditions. The Decembrist A.E. Rosen clearly speaks about the first in his Notes. Noting that after receiving the news of the death of Alexander I, “all classes and ages were struck by unfeigned sadness” and that it was with “such a mood of spirit” that the troops swore allegiance to Constantine, Rosen adds: “... the feeling of grief took precedence over all other feelings - and the commanders and troops would have just as sadly and calmly sworn allegiance to Nicholas if the will of Alexander I had been communicated to them in a legal manner." Many spoke about the second condition, but it was most clearly stated on December 20, 1825 by Nicholas I himself in a conversation with the French ambassador: “I found, and still find, that if Brother Konstantin had heeded my persistent prayers and arrived in St. Petersburg, we would have avoided a terrifying scene... and the danger to which it plunged us over the course of several hours." As we see, a coincidence of circumstances largely determined the further course of events.

Arrests and interrogations of those involved in the outrage and members of secret societies began. And here the 29-year-old emperor behaved to such an extent cunningly, prudently and artistically that those under investigation, believing in his sincerity, made confessions that were unthinkable in terms of frankness even by the most lenient standards. “Without rest, without sleep, he interrogated... those arrested,” writes the famous historian P.E. Shchegolev, “he forced confessions... choosing masks, each time new for a new person. For some, he was a formidable monarch, whom he insulted a loyal subject, for others - the same citizen of the fatherland as the arrested man standing in front of him; for others - an old soldier suffering for the honor of his uniform; for others - a monarch ready to pronounce constitutional covenants; for others - Russians, crying over the misfortunes of their fatherland and passionately thirsty for the correction of all evils." Pretending to be almost like-minded, he “managed to instill in them confidence that he was the ruler who would make their dreams come true and benefit Russia.” It is the subtle acting of the tsar-investigator that explains the continuous series of confessions, repentances, and mutual slander of those under investigation.

The explanations of P. E. Shchegolev are complemented by the Decembrist A. S. Gangeblov: “One cannot help but be amazed at the tirelessness and patience of Nikolai Pavlovich. He did not neglect anything: without examining the ranks, he condescended to have a personal, one might say, conversation with the arrested, tried to catch the truth in the very expression eyes, in the very intonation of the defendant's words. The success of these attempts, of course, was greatly helped by the very appearance of the sovereign, his stately posture, antique facial features, especially his gaze: when Nikolai Pavlovich was in a calm, merciful mood, his eyes expressed charming kindness and affection ; but when he was angry, the same eyes flashed lightning."

Nicholas I, notes de Custine, “apparently knows how to subjugate the souls of people... some mysterious influence emanates from him.” As many other facts show, Nicholas I “always knew how to deceive observers who innocently believed in his sincerity, nobility, courage, but he was only playing. And Pushkin, the great Pushkin, was defeated by his game. He thought in the simplicity of his soul that the king honored the inspiration in him that the spirit of a sovereign is not cruel... But for Nikolai Pavlovich, Pushkin was just a rogue requiring supervision.” The manifestation of the monarch’s mercy towards the poet was dictated solely by the desire to derive the greatest possible benefit from this.

(To be continued.)

Since 1814, the poet V. A. Zhukovsky was brought closer to the court by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Nicholas I Pavlovich. Born June 25 (July 6), 1796 in Tsarskoye Selo - died February 18 (March 2), 1855 in St. Petersburg. Emperor of All Russia from December 14 (26), 1825, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland.

Main dates of the reign of Nicholas I:

♦ 1826 - Founding of the Third Department at the Imperial Chancellery - the secret police to monitor the state of minds in the state;
♦ 1826-1832 - Codification of the laws of the Russian Empire by M. M. Speransky;
♦ 1826-1828 - War with Persia;
♦ 1828 - Founding of the Technological Institute in St. Petersburg;
♦ 1828-1829 - War with Turkey;
♦ 1830-1831 - Uprising in Poland;
♦ 1832 - Cancellation of the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, approval of the new status of the Kingdom of Poland within the Russian Empire;
♦ 1834 - The Imperial University of St. Vladimir was founded in Kiev (the university was founded by decree of Nicholas I on November 8 (20), 1833 as the Kiev Imperial University of St. Vladimir on the basis of the Vilna University and the Kremenets Lyceum, which were closed after the Polish uprising of 1830-1831);
♦ 1837 - Opening of the first railway in Russia, St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo;
♦ 1837-1841 - Reform of state peasants carried out by Kiselyov;
♦ 1841 - The sale of peasants individually and without land is prohibited;
♦ 1839-1843 - Financial reform of Kankrin;
♦ 1843 - The purchase of peasants by landless nobles is prohibited;
♦ 1839-1841 - Eastern crisis, in which Russia acted together with England against the France-Egypt coalition;
♦ 1848 - Peasants received the right to purchase their freedom from the land when selling the landowner's estate for debts, as well as the right to acquire real estate;
♦ 1849 - Participation of Russian troops in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising;
♦ 1851 - Completion of the construction of the Nikolaev railway, connecting St. Petersburg with Moscow. Opening of the New Hermitage;
♦ 1853-1856 - Crimean War. Nikolai did not live to see its end - he died in 1855.

Father - Emperor Paul I.

Mother - Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Nicholas was the third son of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna. Born a few months before the accession of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich to the throne. He was the last of the grandchildren born during her lifetime. The birth of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich was announced in Tsarskoe Selo with cannon fire and bell ringing, and news was sent to St. Petersburg by messenger.

He received a name unusual for the Romanov dynasty. The court historian M. Korf even specifically noted that the baby was given a name “unprecedented in our royal house.” In the imperial house of the Romanov dynasty, children were not named after Nikolai. There is no explanation for the naming of the name Nicholas in the sources, although Nicholas the Wonderworker was highly revered in Rus'. Perhaps Catherine II took into account the semantics of the name, which goes back to the Greek words “victory” and “people”.

Odes were written for the birth of the Grand Duke, the author of one of them was G.R. Derzhavin. Name day - December 6 according to the Julian calendar (Nicholas the Wonderworker).

According to the order established by Empress Catherine II, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich from birth entered the care of the Empress, but the death of Catherine II, which soon followed, stopped her influence on the course of the Grand Duke’s upbringing. His nanny was the Livonian Charlotte Karlovna Lieven. She was Nikolai's only mentor for the first seven years. The boy sincerely became attached to his first teacher, and during early childhood, “the heroic, knightly noble, strong and open character of the nanny Charlotte Karlovna Lieven” left an imprint on his character.

Since November 1800, General M.I. Lamzdorf became the teacher of Nikolai and Mikhail. The choice of General Lamzdorf for the post of educator of the Grand Duke was made by Emperor Paul I. Paul I indicated: “just don’t make my sons such rakes as German princes.” In the highest order dated November 23 (December 5), 1800, it was announced: “Lieutenant General Lamzdorf has been appointed to serve under His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich.” The general stayed with his pupil for 17 years. It is obvious that Lamzdorf fully satisfied the pedagogical requirements of Maria Fedorovna. So, in a parting letter in 1814, Maria Feodorovna called General Lamzdorf the “second father” of the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mikhail.

The death of his father, Paul I in March 1801, could not help but be imprinted in the memory of four-year-old Nicholas. Subsequently, he described what happened in his memoirs: “The events of this sad day remained in my memory as well as a vague dream; I was awakened and saw Countess Lieven in front of me. When I was dressed, we noticed through the window, on the drawbridge under the church, guards who had not been there the day before; the entire Semyonovsky regiment was here in an extremely careless appearance. None of us suspected that we had lost our father; we were taken down to my mother, and soon from there we went with her, my sisters, Mikhail and Countess Lieven to the Winter Palace. The guard went out into the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Palace and saluted. My mother immediately silenced him. My mother was lying in the back of the room when Emperor Alexander entered, accompanied by Konstantin and Prince Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov; he threw himself on his knees in front of mother, and I can still hear his sobs. They brought him water, and they took us away. It was happiness for us to see our rooms again and, I must tell the truth, our wooden horses, which we had forgotten there.”

This was the first blow of fate dealt to him at a very tender age. From then on, the care of his upbringing and education was concentrated entirely and exclusively in the hands of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, out of a sense of delicacy for whom Emperor Alexander I refrained from any influence on the education of his younger brothers.

The greatest concerns of Empress Maria Feodorovna in the upbringing of Nikolai Pavlovich consisted of trying to divert him from his passion for military exercises, which was revealed in him from early childhood. The passion for the technical side of military affairs, instilled in Russia by Paul I, took deep and strong roots in the royal family - Alexander I, despite his liberalism, was an ardent supporter of the shift parade and all its subtleties, like Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. The younger brothers were not inferior to the elders in this passion. From early childhood, Nikolai had a special passion for military toys and stories about military operations. The best reward for him was permission to go to a parade or divorce, where he watched everything that happened with special attention, dwelling even on the smallest details.

Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich received a home education - teachers were assigned to him and his brother Mikhail. But Nikolai did not show much diligence in his studies. He did not recognize the humanities, but he was well versed in the art of war, was fond of fortification, and was familiar with engineering.

Nikolai Pavlovich, having completed his course of education, was horrified by his ignorance and after the wedding tried to fill this gap, but the predominance of military activities and family life distracted him from constant desk work. “His mind is not cultivated, his upbringing was careless,” Queen Victoria wrote about Emperor Nicholas I in 1844.

Nikolai Pavlovich’s passion for painting is known, which he studied in childhood under the guidance of the painter I. A. Akimov and the author of religious and historical compositions, Professor V. K. Shebuev.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 and the subsequent military campaigns of the Russian army in Europe, Nicholas was eager to go to war, but was met with a decisive refusal from the Empress Mother. In 1813, the 17-year-old Grand Duke was taught strategy. At this time, from his sister Anna Pavlovna, with whom he was very friendly, Nicholas accidentally learned that Alexander I had visited Silesia, where he saw the family of the Prussian king, that Alexander liked his eldest daughter, Princess Charlotte, and that it was his intention that Nicholas I saw her sometime.

Only at the beginning of 1814 did Emperor Alexander I allow his younger brothers to join the army abroad. On February 5 (17), 1814, Nikolai and Mikhail left St. Petersburg. On this trip they were accompanied by General Lamzdorf, cavaliers: I.F. Savrasov, A.P. Aledinsky and P.I. Arsenyev, Colonel Gianotti and Dr. Ruehl. After 17 days they reached Berlin, where 17-year-old Nicholas first saw the 16-year-old daughter of King Frederick William III of Prussia, Princess Charlotte..

Princess Charlotte - future wife of Nicholas I in childhood

After spending one day in Berlin, the travelers proceeded through Leipzig and Weimar, where they met with sister Maria Pavlovna. Then through Frankfurt am Main, Bruchsal, where Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna was then located, Rastatt, Freiburg and Basel. Near Basel, they first heard enemy shots, as the Austrians and Bavarians were besieging the nearby Güningen fortress. Then, through Altkirch, they entered France and reached the rear of the army in Vesoul. However, Alexander I ordered the brothers to return to Basel. Only when news arrived of the capture of Paris and the exile of Napoleon I to the island of Elba, the Grand Dukes received permission to arrive in Paris.

On November 4 (16), 1815 in Berlin, during an official dinner, the engagement of Princess Charlotte and Tsarevich and Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich was announced.

After the military campaigns of the Russian army in Europe, professors were invited to the Grand Duke, who were supposed to “read military science in as complete a manner as possible.” For this purpose, the famous engineering general Karl Opperman and, to help him, colonels Gianotti and Andrei Markevich were chosen.

In 1815, military conversations between Nikolai Pavlovich and General Opperman began.

Upon returning from his second campaign, starting in December 1815, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich continued his studies with some of his former professors. Mikhail Balugyansky read “the science of finance”, Nikolai Akhverdov - Russian history (from the reign to the time of troubles). With Markevich, the Grand Duke was engaged in “military translations,” and with Gianotti, he was reading the works of Giraud and Lloyd about various campaigns of the wars of 1814 and 1815, as well as analyzing the project “on the expulsion of the Turks from Europe under certain given conditions.”

At the beginning of 1816, the University of Abo of the Grand Duchy of Finland, following the example of the universities of Sweden, most submissively petitioned: “Will Alexander I, by royal grace, grant him a chancellor in the person of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich.” According to the historian M.M. Borodkin, this idea belongs entirely to Tengström, the bishop of the Abo diocese, a supporter of Russia. Alexander I granted the request, and Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich was appointed chancellor of the university. His task was to respect the status of the university and the conformity of university life with the spirit and traditions. In memory of this event, the St. Petersburg Mint minted a bronze medal. Also in 1816 he was appointed chief of the horse-jaeger regiment.

In the summer of 1816, Nikolai Pavlovich was supposed to complete his education by taking a trip around Russia to get acquainted with his fatherland in administrative, commercial and industrial relations. Upon returning, it was planned to make a trip to England. On this occasion, on behalf of Empress Maria Feodorovna, a special note was drawn up, which set out the main principles of the administrative system of provincial Russia, described the areas that the Grand Duke had to pass through in historical, everyday, industrial and geographical terms, indicating what exactly could constitute the subject of conversations between the Grand Duke and representatives of the provincial government, which should be paid attention to.

Thanks to a trip to some provinces of Russia, Nikolai Pavlovich received a clear picture of the internal state and problems of his country, and in England he became acquainted with the experience of developing the socio-political system of the state. Nicholas's own political system of views was distinguished by a pronounced conservative, anti-liberal orientation.

Nicholas I's height: 205 centimeters.

Personal life of Nicholas I:

On July 1 (13), 1817, the marriage of Grand Duke Nicholas with Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna, who was called Princess Charlotte of Prussia before her conversion to Orthodoxy, took place. The wedding took place on the birthday of the young princess in the court church of the Winter Palace. A week before the wedding, on June 24 (6) July 1817, Charlotte converted to Orthodoxy and was given a new name - Alexandra Feodorovna, and upon her betrothal to Grand Duke Nicholas on June 25 (7) July 1817, she became known as the Grand Duchess with the title of Her Imperial Highnesses. The spouses were each other's fourth cousins (they had the same great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother). This marriage strengthened the political alliance between Russia and Prussia.

Nicholas I and Alexandra Fedorovna had 7 children:

♦ son (1818-1881). 1st wife - Maria Alexandrovna; 2nd wife - Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova;
♦ daughter Maria Nikolaevna (1819-1876). 1st husband - Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg; 2nd husband - Count Grigory Alexandrovich Stroganov;
♦ daughter Olga Nikolaevna (1822-1892). Spouse - Friedrich-Karl-Alexander, King of Württemberg;
♦ daughter Alexandra Nikolaevna (1825-1844). Spouse - Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hesse-Kassel;
♦ son Konstantin Nikolaevich (1827-1892). Wife - Alexandra Iosifovna;
♦ son Nikolai Nikolaevich (1831-1891). Wife - Alexandra Petrovna;
♦ son Mikhail Nikolaevich (1832-1909). Wife - Olga Fedorovna.

Alexandra Fedorovna - wife of Nicholas I

The maid of honor A.F. Tyutcheva, who lived at court for a long time, wrote in her memoirs: “Emperor Nicholas had for his wife, this fragile, irresponsible and graceful creature, a passionate and despotic adoration of a strong nature for a weak being, whose only ruler and legislator he feels. To him it was a lovely bird, whom he kept locked in a golden and jeweled cage, which he fed with nectar and ambrosia, lulled to sleep with melodies and scents, but whose wings he would not regret to cut if she wanted to escape from the gilded bars of her cage . But in her magical prison the bird did not even remember its wings.”

Also had from 3 to 9 alleged illegitimate children.

Nicholas I was in a relationship with his maid of honor Varvara Nelidova for 17 years. According to rumors, the relationship began when, after 7 births of the 34-year-old Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (1832), doctors forbade the emperor from having marital relations with her out of fear for her health. The emperor's relationship with Nelidova was kept in deep secrecy.

Varvara Nelidova - mistress of Nicholas I

Decembrist revolt

Nikolai Pavlovich kept his personal diary irregularly; daily entries covered a short period from 1822 to 1825. The records were kept in French in very small handwriting with frequent abbreviations of words. His last entry was made on the eve of the Decembrist uprising.

In 1820, Emperor Alexander I informed Nikolai Pavlovich and his wife that the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, intended to renounce his right to the throne, so Nikolai, as the next senior brother, would become the heir. Nikolai himself was not at all happy about this prospect. In his memoirs, he wrote: “The Emperor left, but my wife and I remained in a situation that I can only liken to that feeling that, I believe, will amaze a person walking calmly along a pleasant road strewn with flowers and from which the most pleasant views open up everywhere, when suddenly an abyss opens up under his feet, into which an irresistible force plunges him, preventing him from retreating or turning back. This is a perfect picture of our terrible situation.”

In 1823, Konstantin Pavlovich formally renounced his rights to the throne, since he had no children, was divorced and married for a second morganatic marriage to the Polish Countess Grudzinskaya. On August 16 (28), 1823, Alexander I signed a secretly compiled manifesto, approving the abdication of the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich and confirming the Heir to the Throne of the Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich. On all the packages with the text of the manifesto, Alexander I himself wrote: “Keep until my demand, and in the event of my death, disclose before any other action.”

On November 19 (December 1), 1825, while in Taganrog, Emperor Alexander I died suddenly. In St. Petersburg, news of the death of Alexander I was received only on the morning of November 27 during a prayer service for the health of the emperor. Nicholas, the first of those present, swore allegiance to “Emperor Constantine I” and began to swear in the troops. Constantine himself was in Warsaw at that moment, being the de facto governor of the Kingdom of Poland. On the same day, the State Council met, where the contents of the 1823 Manifesto were heard. Finding themselves in an ambiguous position, when the Manifesto indicated one heir, and the oath was taken to another, the members of the Council turned to Nicholas. He refused to recognize the manifesto of Alexander I and refused to proclaim himself emperor until the final expression of the will of his elder brother. Despite the contents of the Manifesto handed over to him, Nicholas called on the Council to take the oath to Constantine “for the peace of the State.” Following this call, the State Council, Senate and Synod took an oath of allegiance to “Constantine I”.

The next day, a decree was issued on a widespread oath to the new emperor. On November 30, the nobles of Moscow swore allegiance to Constantine. In St. Petersburg, the oath was postponed until December 14.

Nevertheless, Konstantin refused to come to St. Petersburg and confirmed his abdication in private letters to Nikolai Pavlovich, and then sent rescripts to the Chairman of the State Council (December 3 (15), 1825) and the Minister of Justice (December 8 (20), 1825). Constantine did not accept the throne, and at the same time did not want to formally renounce it as an emperor, to whom the oath had already been taken. An ambiguous and extremely tense interregnum situation was created.

Unable to convince his brother to take the throne and having received his final refusal (albeit without a formal act of abdication), Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich decided to accept the throne according to the will of Alexander I.

On the evening of December 12 (24), 1825, M. M. Speransky drew up a Manifesto on the accession to the throne of Emperor Nicholas I. Nicholas signed it on December 13 in the morning. Attached to the Manifesto were a letter from Constantine to Alexander I dated January 14 (26), 1822, about refusal of inheritance, and a manifesto from Alexander I dated August 16 (28), 1823.

The manifesto on the accession to the throne was announced by Nicholas at a meeting of the State Council at about 22:30 on December 13 (25). A separate point in the Manifesto stipulated that November 19, the day of the death of Alexander I, would be considered the time of accession to the throne, which was an attempt to legally close the gap in the continuity of autocratic power.

A second oath was appointed, or, as they said in the troops, a “re-oath” - this time to Nicholas I. The re-oath in St. Petersburg was scheduled for December 14. On this day, a group of officers - members of a secret society - scheduled an uprising in order to prevent the troops and the Senate from taking the oath to the new tsar and preventing Nicholas I from ascending the throne. The main goal of the rebels was the liberalization of the Russian socio-political system: the establishment of a provisional government, the abolition of serfdom, equality of all before the law, democratic freedoms (press, confession, labor), the introduction of jury trials, the introduction of compulsory military service for all classes, the election of officials, abolition of the poll tax and change in the form of government to a constitutional monarchy or republic.

The rebels decided to block the Senate, send there a revolutionary delegation consisting of Ryleev and Pushchin and present to the Senate a demand not to swear allegiance to Nicholas I, declare the tsarist government deposed and publish a revolutionary manifesto to the Russian people. However, the uprising was brutally suppressed on the same day. Despite the efforts of the Decembrists to carry out a coup d'etat, troops and government institutions were sworn in to the new emperor. Later, the surviving participants in the uprising were exiled, and five leaders were executed.

“My dear Konstantin! Your will is fulfilled: I am the emperor, but at what cost, my God! At the cost of the blood of my subjects!” he wrote to his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, on December 14.

The highest manifesto, given on January 28 (February 9), 1826, with reference to the “Institution on the Imperial Family” on April 5 (16), 1797, decreed: “First, as the days of our life are in the hand of God: then in the event of OUR death, until the legal majority of the Heir, Grand Duke ALEXANDER NIKOLAEVICH, we determine the Ruler of the State and the inseparable Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland as OUR Most Dear Brother, Grand Duke MIKHAIL PAVLOVICH...”

Crowned on August 22 (September 3), 1826 in Moscow - instead of June of the same year, as originally planned - due to mourning for the Dowager Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, who died on May 4 in Belev. The coronation of Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.

On May 12 (24), 1829, in the Senatorial Hall of the Royal Castle, the coronation of Nicholas I to the Kingdom of Poland took place - a unique event in the history of Russia and Poland.

Full title of Nicholas I as Emperor:

“By the hastening grace of God, We are NICHOLAS the First, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Chersonis-Tauride, Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volyn, Podolsk and Finnish, Prince of Estland, Livland, Courland and Semigalsky, Samogitsky, Bialystok, Korelsky, Tver, Yugorsky, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novagorod Nizovsky lands, Chernihiv, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavsky, Belozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondian, Vitebsky, Mstislav and all north sides of the Ivraki, Kartalinsky, Georgia and Kabardinsky lands, and Armenian regions; Cherkasy and Mountain Princes and other Hereditary Sovereign and Possessor; Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstin, Stormarn, Dietmar and Oldenburg, and so on, and so on, and so on.”

Reign of Nicholas I

The first steps of Nicholas I after the coronation were very liberal. The poet was returned from exile, and V. A. Zhukovsky, whose liberal views could not but be known to the emperor, was appointed the main teacher (“mentor”) of the heir.

The Emperor closely followed the trial of the participants in the December speech and gave instructions to compile a summary of their critical comments against the state administration. Despite the fact that attempts on the life of the tsar were punishable by quartering according to existing laws, he replaced this execution with hanging.

The Ministry of State Property was headed by the hero of 1812, Count P. D. Kiselyov, a monarchist by conviction, but an opponent of serfdom. The future Decembrists Pestel, Basargin and Burtsov served under his command. Kiselyov's name was presented to Nicholas I on the list of conspirators in connection with the uprising case. But, despite this, Kiselev, known for the impeccability of his moral rules and his talent as an organizer, made a career under Nicholas I as the governor of Moldavia and Wallachia and took an active part in preparing the abolition of serfdom.

Some contemporaries wrote about his despotism. At the same time, as historians point out, the execution of five Decembrists was the only execution during the entire 30 years of the reign of Nicholas I, while, for example, under Peter I and Catherine II executions numbered in the thousands, and under Alexander II - in the hundreds. However, it should be noted that more than 40,000 people died during the suppression of the Polish uprising. It is also noted that under Nicholas I, torture was not used against political prisoners. Even historians critical of Nicholas I do not mention any violence during the investigation into the case of the Decembrists (in which 579 people were brought in as suspects) and the Petrashevites (232 people).

Nevertheless, in October 1827, on a report about the secret passage of two Jews across the river. Rod in violation of quarantine, which noted that only the death penalty for quarantine violations can stop them, Nikolai wrote: “The perpetrators will be driven through a thousand people 12 times. Thank God, we never had the death penalty, and it’s not for me to introduce it.”

The most important direction of domestic policy was the centralization of power. To carry out the tasks of political investigation, a permanent body was created in July 1826 - the Third Department of the Personal Chancellery - a secret service with significant powers, the head of which (since 1827) was also the chief of the gendarmes. The third department was headed by A. F. Orlov, who became one of the symbols of the era, and after his death (1844).

On December 6 (18), 1826, the first of the secret committees was created, the task of which was, firstly, to consider the papers sealed in the office of Alexander I after his death, and, secondly, to consider the issue of possible transformations of the state apparatus.

Under Nicholas I, the Polish uprising of 1830-1831 was suppressed, during which Nicholas I was declared dethroned by the rebels (Decree on the dethronement of Nicholas I). After the suppression of the uprising, the Kingdom of Poland lost its independence, the Sejm and the army and was divided into provinces.

Some authors call Nicholas I a “knight of autocracy”: he firmly defended its foundations and suppressed attempts to change the existing system, despite the revolutions in Europe. After the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, he launched large-scale measures in the country to eradicate the “revolutionary infection”. During the reign of Nicholas I, persecution of the Old Believers resumed, and the Uniates of Belarus and Volyn were reunited with Orthodoxy (1839).

In the Volga region, forced Russification of local peoples was carried out on a large scale. Russification was accompanied by administrative and economic coercion and spiritual oppression of the non-Russian population of the Volga region.

Emperor Nicholas I paid a lot of attention to the army. The introduction of strict discipline in the army in the first years of the reign of Nicholas I, which was maintained subsequently, was associated with the extreme licentiousness that reigned in the Russian army in the last decade of the reign of Alexander I (after the end of the war with Napoleon). Officers often wore tailcoats rather than military uniforms, even during exercises, wearing an overcoat on top. In the Semenovsky regiment, soldiers were engaged in crafts and trade, and the proceeds were handed over to the company commander. “Private” military formations appeared. Thus, Mamonov, one of the richest men in Russia, formed his own cavalry regiment, which he himself commanded, while expressing extreme anti-monarchist views and calling the Tsar (Alexander I) “a brute.” Under Nicholas I, army “democracy,” bordering on anarchy, was curtailed and strict discipline was restored.

Drill training was considered the basis of military training. During the Eastern War, it often happened that for the construction of a minor field fortification, a sapper non-commissioned officer supervised the construction work, since the infantry officer (or even a sapper who graduated from the cadet corps, and not the Mikhailovsky or Engineering School) had no idea about the basics of field fortification. In this situation, “the sapper non-commissioned officer directed the work, the infantry soldiers were the labor force, and their officers were his overseers.”

There was a similar attitude towards shooting.

At the height of the Crimean War, due to a significant loss of officers at the front, one of the emperor’s orders was to introduce drill training in civilian gymnasiums and higher military sciences (fortification and artillery) in universities. Thus, Nicholas I can be considered the founder of basic military training in Russia.

One of Nikolai Pavlovich’s greatest achievements can be considered the codification of law. Involved by the tsar in this work, M. M. Speransky performed a titanic work, thanks to which the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire appeared.

During the reign of Nicholas I, the situation of the serfs became easier. Thus, a ban was introduced on exiling peasants to hard labor, selling them individually and without land, and peasants received the right to redeem themselves from the estates being sold. A reform of state village management was carried out and a “decree on obligated peasants” was signed, which became the foundation for the abolition of serfdom. However, the complete liberation of the peasants did not take place during the life of the emperor.

For the first time, there was a sharp reduction in the number of serfs - their share in the population of Russia, according to various estimates, decreased from 57-58% in 1811-1817 to 35-45% in 1857-1858, and they ceased to constitute the majority of the population. Obviously, a significant role was played by the cessation of the practice of “distributing” state peasants to landowners along with lands, which flourished under the previous kings, and the spontaneous liberation of peasants that began.

The situation of state peasants improved, whose number reached about 50% of the population by the second half of the 1850s. This improvement occurred mainly due to the measures taken by Count P. D. Kiselyov, who was responsible for the management of state property. Thus, all state peasants were allocated their own plots of land and forest plots, and auxiliary cash desks and grain stores were established everywhere, which provided assistance to the peasants with cash loans and grain in case of crop failure. As a result of these measures, not only did the welfare of state peasants increase, but also treasury income from them increased by 15-20%, tax arrears were halved, and by the mid-1850s there were practically no landless farm laborers eking out a miserable and dependent existence. everyone received land from the state.

A number of laws were passed to improve the situation of serfs. Thus, landowners were strictly forbidden to sell peasants (without land) and send them to hard labor (which had previously been common practice); serfs received the right to own land, conduct business, and received relative freedom of movement. Earlier, under Peter I, a rule was introduced according to which any peasant who found himself more than 30 miles from his village without a vacation certificate from the landowner was considered a runaway and subject to punishment. These strict restrictions: the obligatory nature of a vacation certificate (passport) for any departure from the village, a ban on business transactions, and even, for example, a ban on marrying off a daughter to another village (you had to pay a “ransom” to the landowner) - survived until the 19th century. and were abolished during the first 10-15 years of the reign of Nicholas I.

On the other hand, for the first time, the state began to systematically ensure that the rights of peasants were not violated by landowners (this was one of the functions of the Third Department), and to punish landowners for these violations. As a result of the application of punishments against landowners, by the end of the reign of Nicholas I, about 200 landowner estates were under arrest, which greatly affected the position of the peasants and the psychology of the landowners.

Thus, serfdom under Nicholas changed its character - from an institution of slavery it actually turned into an institution of rent in kind, which to some extent guaranteed the peasants a number of basic rights.

These changes in the position of the peasants caused discontent on the part of large landowners and nobles, who saw them as a threat to the established order.

Some reforms aimed at improving the situation of the peasants did not lead to the desired result due to the stubborn opposition of the landowners. Thus, on the initiative of D. G. Bibikov, who later became the Minister of Internal Affairs, an inventory reform was launched in Right Bank Ukraine in 1848, the experience of which was supposed to be extended to other provinces. The inventory rules introduced by Bibikov, mandatory for landowners, established a certain size of the peasant’s land plot and certain duties for it. However, many landowners ignored their implementation, and the local administration, which was dependent on them, did not take any measures.

Was first started mass peasant education program. The number of peasant schools in the country increased from 60, with 1,500 students, in 1838, to 2,551, with 111,000 students, in 1856. During the same period, many technical schools and universities were opened - essentially, the country's system of professional primary and secondary education was created.

The state of affairs in industry at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I was the worst in the entire history of the Russian Empire. There was virtually no industry capable of competing with the West, where the industrial revolution was already coming to an end at that time. Russia's exports included only raw materials; almost all types of industrial products needed by the country were purchased abroad.

By the end of the reign of Nicholas I the situation had changed greatly. For the first time in the history of the Russian Empire, a technically advanced and competitive industry began to form in the country, in particular, textile and sugar, the production of metal products, clothing, wood, glass, porcelain, leather and other products began to develop, its own machines, tools and even steam locomotives began to be produced .

From 1825 to 1863, the annual output of Russian industry per worker increased 3 times, while in the previous period it not only did not grow, but even decreased. From 1819 to 1859, the volume of Russian cotton production increased almost 30 times; the volume of engineering production from 1830 to 1860 increased 33 times.

For the first time in the history of Russia, under Nicholas I, intensive construction of paved roads began: the routes Moscow - St. Petersburg, Moscow - Irkutsk, Moscow - Warsaw were built. Of the 7,700 miles of highways built in Russia by 1893, 5,300 miles (about 70%) were built in the period 1825-1860. The construction of railways was also started and about 1000 miles of railway track was built, which gave impetus to the development of our own mechanical engineering.

The rapid development of industry led to a sharp increase in urban population and urban growth. The share of the urban population during the reign of Nicholas I more than doubled - from 4.5% in 1825 to 9.2% in 1858.

Having ascended the throne, Nikolai Pavlovich abandoned the practice of favoritism that had prevailed over the previous century. He introduced a moderate system of incentives for officials (in the form of lease of estates/property and cash bonuses), which he controlled to a large extent. Unlike previous reigns, historians have not recorded large gifts in the form of palaces or thousands of serfs granted to any nobleman or royal relative. To combat corruption, under Nicholas I, regular audits were introduced for the first time at all levels. Trials of officials have become commonplace. Thus, in 1853, 2,540 officials were on trial. Nicholas I himself was critical of successes in this area, saying that the only people around him who did not steal were himself and his heir.

Nicholas I demanded that only Russian be spoken at court. The courtiers, who did not know their native language, learned a certain number of phrases and uttered them only when they received a sign that the emperor was approaching.

Nicholas I suppressed the slightest manifestations of freethinking. In 1826, a censorship statute was issued, nicknamed “cast iron” by his contemporaries. It was forbidden to print almost anything that had any political implications. In 1828, another censorship statute was issued, somewhat softening the previous one. A new increase in censorship was associated with the European revolutions of 1848. It got to the point that in 1836, the censor P.I. Gaevsky, after serving 8 days in the guardhouse, doubted whether news like “such and such a king had died” could be allowed into print. When in 1837 a note about the attempt on the life of the French king Louis-Philippe I was published in the St. Petersburg Gazette, Count Benckendorff immediately notified the Minister of Education S.S. Uvarov that he considered “it is indecent to place such news in gazettes, especially those published by the government.” "

In September 1826, Nicholas I received Alexander Pushkin, who had been released from Mikhailovsky exile, and listened to his confession that on December 14, 1825, Pushkin would have been with the conspirators, but acted mercifully with him: he freed the poet from general censorship (he decided to censor his works himself) , instructed him to prepare a note “On Public Education”, called him after the meeting “the smartest man in Russia” (however, later, after Pushkin’s death, he spoke very coldly about him and this meeting).

In 1828, Nicholas I dropped the case against Pushkin regarding the authorship of the “Gabrieliad” after the poet’s handwritten letter was handed over to him personally, bypassing the investigative commission, which, in the opinion of many researchers, contained, in the opinion of many researchers, an admission of authorship of the seditious work after much denial. However, the emperor never completely trusted the poet, seeing in him a dangerous “leader of the liberals,” Pushkin was under police surveillance, his letters were illustrated; Pushkin, having gone through the first euphoria, which was expressed in poems in honor of the tsar (“Stanzas”, “To Friends”), by the mid-1830s also began to evaluate the sovereign ambiguously. “There is a lot of ensign in him and a little of Peter the Great,” Pushkin wrote about Nicholas in his diary on May 21 (June 2), 1834; at the same time, the diary also notes “sensible” comments on “The History of Pugachev” (the sovereign edited it and lent Pushkin 20 thousand rubles), ease of use and the tsar’s good language.

In 1834, Pushkin was appointed chamberlain of the imperial court, which greatly burdened the poet and was also reflected in his diary. Pushkin could sometimes afford not to come to balls to which Nicholas I personally invited him. Pushkin preferred to communicate with writers, and Nicholas I showed his dissatisfaction with him. The role played by the emperor in the conflict between Pushkin and Dantes is assessed by historians contradictory. After the death of Pushkin, Nicholas I granted a pension to his widow and children, while limiting speeches in memory of the poet, thereby showing, in particular, dissatisfaction with the violation of the ban on dueling.

As a result of the policy of strict censorship, Alexander Polezhaev was arrested for free poetry and was exiled to the Caucasus twice. By order of the emperor, the magazines “European”, “Moscow Telegraph”, “Telescope” were closed, its publisher Nadezhdin was persecuted, and F. Schiller was banned from publication in Russia.

In 1852, he was arrested and then administratively exiled to the village for writing an obituary dedicated to memory (the obituary itself was not passed by censorship). The censor also suffered because he allowed Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” to go into print, in which, according to the Moscow Governor-General Count A. A. Zakrevsky, “a decisive direction was expressed towards the destruction of the landowners.”

In 1850, by order of Nicholas I, the play "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" was banned from production. The Committee of Higher Censorship was dissatisfied with the fact that among the characters brought out by the author there were not “one of those venerable merchants of ours in whom fear of God, uprightness and straightforwardness of mind constitute a typical and integral attribute.”

Censorship also did not allow publication of some jingoistic articles and works that contained harsh and politically undesirable statements and views, which happened, for example, during the Crimean War with two poems. From one (“Prophecy”) Nicholas I personally deleted the paragraph that spoke of the erection of the cross over Sophia of Constantinople and the “All-Slavic Tsar”; another (“Now you have no time for poetry”) was prohibited from publication by the minister, apparently due to the “somewhat harsh tone of the presentation” noted by the censor.

Having received a good engineering education in his youth, Nicholas I showed considerable knowledge in the field of construction equipment. Thus, he made successful proposals regarding the dome of the Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Later, already occupying the highest position in the state, he closely monitored the order in urban planning, and not a single significant project was approved without his signature.

He issued a decree regulating the height of private buildings in the capital. The decree limited the height of any private building to the width of the street on which the building was built. At the same time, the height of a residential private building could not exceed 11 fathoms (23.47 m, which corresponds to the height of the eaves of the Winter Palace). Thus, the famous St. Petersburg city panorama that existed until recently was created. Knowing the requirements for choosing a suitable location for the construction of a new astronomical observatory, Nikolai personally indicated the place for it on the top of Pulkovo Mountain.

The first all-Russian railways appeared in Russia, including the Nikolaev railway. It is likely that Nicholas I first became acquainted with the technologies of steam locomotive and railway construction at the age of 19 during a trip to England in 1816, where the future emperor visited the railway of engineer Stephenson.

Nicholas I, having studied in detail the technical data of the railways proposed for construction, demanded an expansion of the Russian gauge compared to the European one (1524 mm versus 1435 in Europe), thereby eliminating the possibility of delivering the armed forces of a potential enemy deep into Russia. The gauge adopted by the Emperor was proposed by the road builder, the American engineer Whistler, and corresponded to the 5-foot gauge adopted at that time in some “southern” states of the United States.

The high relief of the monument to Nicholas I in St. Petersburg depicts an episode of his inspector’s trip along the Nikolaevskaya Railway, when his train stopped at the Verebyinsky railway bridge.

The naval defense of St. Petersburg under Admiral Traverse relied on a system of wood-earth fortifications near Kronstadt, armed with outdated short-range cannons, which allowed the enemy to destroy them from long distances without hindrance. Already in December 1827, by order of the Emperor, work began to replace the wooden fortifications with stone ones. Nicholas I personally reviewed the designs of fortifications proposed by the engineers and approved them. And in some cases (for example, during the construction of the fort “Emperor Paul the First”), he made specific proposals to reduce the cost and speed up construction.

Nicholas I, aware of the need for reforms, considered their implementation a lengthy and careful task. He looked at the state subordinate to him, like an engineer looks at a complex but deterministic mechanism in its functioning, in which everything is interconnected and the reliability of one part ensures the correct operation of others. The ideal of social order was army life, which was completely regulated by regulations.

Foreign policy of Nicholas I was concentrated on three main directions of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire: the fight against the revolutionary movement in Europe; the Eastern Question, including Russia's struggle for control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits; as well as the expansion of the empire, advancement in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

An important aspect of foreign policy was the return to the principles of the Holy Alliance. Russia's role in the fight against any manifestations of the “spirit of change” in European life has increased. It was during the reign of Nicholas I that Russia received the unflattering nickname of “the gendarme of Europe.” Thus, at the request of the Austrian Empire, Russia took part in the suppression of the Hungarian revolution, sending a 140,000-strong corps to Hungary, which was trying to free itself from oppression by Austria; as a result, the throne of Franz Joseph was saved. The latter circumstance did not prevent the Austrian emperor, who feared excessive strengthening of Russia’s position in the Balkans, from soon taking a position unfriendly to Nicholas during the Crimean War and even threatening to enter the war on the side of a coalition hostile to Russia, which Nicholas I regarded as ungrateful treachery; Russian-Austrian relations were hopelessly damaged until the end of the existence of both monarchies.

The Eastern Question occupied a special place in the foreign policy of Nicholas I.

Russia under Nicholas I abandoned plans for the division of the Ottoman Empire, which were discussed under the previous tsars (Catherine II and Paul I), and began to pursue a completely different policy in the Balkans - a policy of protecting the Orthodox population and ensuring its religious and civil rights, up to political independence . This policy was first applied in the Treaty of Akkerman with Turkey in 1826. Under this treaty, Moldova and Wallachia, while remaining part of the Ottoman Empire, received political autonomy with the right to elect their own government, which was formed under the control of Russia. After half a century of the existence of such autonomy, the state of Romania was formed on this territory - according to the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878.

Along with this, Russia sought to ensure its influence in the Balkans and the possibility of unhindered navigation in the straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles).

The same reasons - support for Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire and disagreements over the Eastern Question - pushed Russia to aggravate relations with Turkey in 1853, which resulted in its declaration of war on Russia. The beginning of the war with Turkey in 1853 was marked by the brilliant victory of the Russian fleet under the command of the admiral, which defeated the enemy in Sinop Bay. This was the last major battle of the sailing fleets.

In 1854, England and France entered the war on the side of Turkey. Due to Russia's technical backwardness, it was difficult to resist these European powers. The main military operations took place in Crimea.

In October 1854, the Allies besieged Sevastopol. The Russian army suffered a number of defeats and was unable to provide assistance to the besieged fortress city. Despite the heroic defense of the city, after an 11-month siege, in August 1855, the defenders of Sevastopol were forced to surrender the city.

At the beginning of 1856, following the Crimean War, the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. According to its terms, Russia was prohibited from having naval forces, arsenals and fortresses in the Black Sea. Russia became vulnerable from the sea and lost the opportunity to conduct an active foreign policy in this region.

Generally During the reign of Nicholas I, Russia participated in wars: Caucasian War 1817-1864, Russian-Persian War 1826-1828, Russian-Turkish War 1828-1829, Crimean War 1853-1856.

Death of Nicholas I

He died, according to historical sources, “at twelve minutes past one o’clock in the afternoon” on February 18 (March 2), 1855. According to the official version - due to pneumonia (he caught a cold while taking part in the parade in a light uniform, being already sick with the flu). The funeral service was performed by Metropolitan Nikanor (Klementyevsky).

According to some medical historians, the death of the emperor could have occurred due to the consequences of a serious injury he received on August 26 (September 7), 1836, during a fact-finding trip to Russia. Then, as a result of a night traffic accident that occurred near the city of Chembar, Penza province, Emperor Nicholas I received a fractured collarbone and a shock contusion. The diagnosis was made by a random physician, who probably did not have the opportunity to diagnose the condition of the victim’s internal organs. The emperor was forced to stay for two weeks in Chembar for treatment. As soon as his health stabilized, he continued his journey. Due to these circumstances, Emperor Nicholas I, after a serious injury, was without qualified medical care for a long time.

The emperor maintained complete composure as death approached. He managed to say goodbye to each of his children and grandchildren and, having blessed them, turned to them with a reminder to remain friendly with each other. The last words of the emperor addressed to his son Alexander were the phrase “Hold tight...”.

Immediately after this, rumors spread widely in the capital that Nicholas had committed suicide. The illness began against the backdrop of disappointing news from besieged Sevastopol and worsened after receiving news of the defeat of General Khrulev near Yevpatoria, which was perceived as a harbinger of an inevitable defeat in the war, which Nicholas, due to his character, could not survive. The Tsar’s appearance at the parade in the cold without an overcoat was perceived as an intention to get a fatal cold; according to stories, the life physician Mandt told the Tsar: “Sire, this is worse than death, this is suicide!”

We can say with certainty that the illness (mild flu) began on January 27, noticeably intensified on the night of February 4, and during the day the already sick Nikolai went to withdraw troops; After that, he fell ill for a short time, quickly recovered, and on February 9, despite the objections of doctors, in 23-degree frost without an overcoat, he went to review the marching battalions. The same thing happened again on February 10 in even more severe frost. After this, the illness worsened, Nikolai spent several days in bed, but his powerful body took over, and on February 15 he was already working all day.

No bulletins were issued about the Tsar's health at this time, which shows that the illness was not considered dangerous. On the evening of February 14, a courier arrived with a message about the defeat near Yevpatoria. The news made the most overwhelming impression, especially since Nikolai himself was the initiator of the attack on Yevpatoria.

On February 17, the emperor’s condition unexpectedly and sharply worsened, and on the morning of February 18, painful agony began, lasting several hours (which does not happen with pneumonia). According to a rumor that immediately spread, the emperor, at his request, was given poison by his physician Mandt. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna directly accused Mandt of poisoning her brother. The emperor forbade the opening and embalming of his body.

Nikolaevskaya Square in Kazan and the Nikolaevskaya Hospital in Peterhof were named in honor of Nicholas I.

In honor of Emperor Nicholas I, about one and a half dozen monuments were erected in the Russian Empire, mainly various columns and obelisks, in memory of his visit to one place or another. Almost all sculptural monuments to the Emperor (with the exception of the equestrian monument in St. Petersburg) were destroyed during the years of Soviet power.

Currently, the following monuments to the Emperor exist:

Saint Petersburg. Equestrian monument on St. Isaac's Square. Opened on June 26 (July 8), 1859, sculptor P. K. Klodt. The monument has been preserved in its original form. The fence surrounding it was dismantled in the 1930s and rebuilt again in 1992.

Saint Petersburg. Bronze bust of the Emperor on a high granite pedestal. Opened on July 12, 2001 in front of the facade of the building of the former psychiatric department of the Nikolaev Military Hospital, founded in 1840 by decree of the Emperor (now the St. Petersburg District Military Clinical Hospital), Suvorovsky Ave., 63. Initially, a monument to the Emperor, which is a bronze bust on granite pedestal, was opened in front of the main facade of this hospital on August 15 (27), 1890. The monument was destroyed shortly after 1917.

Saint Petersburg. Plaster bust on a high granite pedestal. Opened on May 19, 2003 on the main staircase of the Vitebsk station (52 Zagorodny pr.), sculptors V. S. and S. V. Ivanov, architect T. L. Torich.

Velikiy Novgorod. Image of Nicholas I on the “Millennium of Russia” monument. Opened in 1862, sculptor - M. O. Mikeshin.

Moscow. The monument to the “Creators of Russian Railways” at the Kazansky railway station is a bronze bust of the emperor surrounded by famous figures from the railway industry of his reign. Opened on August 1, 2013.

A bronze bust of Emperor Nicholas I was inaugurated on July 2, 2015 on the territory of the Nikolo-Berlyukovsky Monastery in the village of Avdotyino, Moscow region (sculptor A. A. Appolonov).

St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Starobelsk. In 1859, a location for the construction of the temple was determined - between Malaya Dvoryanskaya and Sobornaya, Classical and Nikolaevskaya streets. The temple was built in the Baroque style and was solemnly consecrated in 1862. The temple is considered an architectural monument of the 19th century and is protected by the state.

The following were named after Nicholas I: a battleship that took part in the Battle of Tsushima and surrendered to the Japanese after it, a battleship laid down in 1914 but unfinished due to the Civil War, and a civilian steamer on which Louis de Heeckeren and Georges Dantes arrived in Russia and sailed away to Europe Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nicholas I, according to the decrees of Nicholas II, state awards were established, namely two commemorative medals. The medal “In memory of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I” was awarded to persons who served during the reign of Nicholas I, the medal “In memory of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I” for students of educational institutions was awarded to students of military educational institutions who studied during the reign of Nicholas I, but the rights They didn’t have the right to wear the first medal.

The image of Nicholas I in the cinema:

1910 - “The Life and Death of Pushkin”;
1911 - “Defense of Sevastopol”;
1918 - “Father Sergius” (actor Vladimir Gaidarov);
1926 - “Decembrists” (actor Evgeny Boronikhin);
1927 - “The Poet and the Tsar” (actor Konstantin Karenin);
1928 - “Secrets of an ancient family”, Poland (actor Pavel Overlo);
1930 - “White Devil” Germany (actor Fritz Alberti);
1932 - “House of the Dead” (actor Nikolai Vitovtov);
1936 - “Prometheus” (actor Vladimir Ershov);
1943 - “Lermontov” (actor A. Savostyanov);
1946 - “Glinka” (actor B. Livanov);
1951 - “Taras Shevchenko” (actor M. Nazvanov);
1951 - “Belinsky” (actor M. Nazvanov);
1952 - “Composer Glinka” (actor M. Nazvanov);
1959 - “Hadji Murat - the white devil” (actor Milivoje Zivanovic);
1964 - “Dream” (actor);
1965 - “The Third Youth” (actor V. Strzhelchik);
1967 - “The Green Carriage” (actor V. Strzhelchik);
1967 - “Wake up Mukhin!” (actor V. Zakharchenko);
1968 - “The Mistake of Honore de Balzac” (actor S. Polezhaev);
1975 - “Star of Captivating Happiness” (actor V. Livanov);
2010 - “The Death of Wazir-Mukhtar” (actor A. Zibrov);
2013 - “The Romanovs. The seventh film" (actor S. Druzhko);
2014 - “Duel. Pushkin - Lermontov” (actor V. Maksimov);
2014 - “Fort Ross: In Search of Adventure” (actor Dmitry Naumov);
2016 - “The Monk and the Demon” (actor Nikita Tarasov);
2016 - “The Case of the Decembrists” (actor Artyom Efremov)