Reign of Alexander I. Alexander I the Blessed - One Hundred Great Generals of Russia

Alexander I, the future Emperor of Russia and the conqueror of Napoleon, was born on December 12, 1777. The birth of the Tsarevich coincided with a terrible flood in St. Petersburg, which, however, remained unnoticed by members of the imperial family who celebrated the appearance of the heir in the Winter Palace.

The newborn's godmother was his grandmother, Catherine II, and his godfathers were the Austrian Emperor Joseph II and the Prussian King Frederick the Great, whom Alexander's father Pavel Petrovich worshiped.

Catherine II took Alexander, as well as his younger brother Konstantin, who was born two years later, to Tsarskoye Selo to raise them away from their parents, who lived in Pavlovsk and Gatchina. This was explained by the intensified confrontation between mother and son, which in the 70s, in connection with Paul reaching adulthood, acquired a political character. There is evidence that Paul was preparing to overthrow his mother, because he did not approve of her policies and did not forgive her for the coup and assassination of Peter III, as a result of which she found herself on the throne.

Alexander's stay away from his father, under the influence of his grandmother, left an imprint on his future fate. He, of course, later accepted her worldview, which she herself sought to instill in her grandson, but he also adopted distrust and even fear towards his father. At first, Catherine independently taught the boy counting and writing, and also sought to instill in him the skills of physical labor and independence. Alexander, under the guidance of teachers, mastered agricultural work, cutting firewood, wallpapering walls, carpentry and the work of a groom.

Already at an early age, Alexander showed such character traits as pride, cunning and stubbornness. This can be explained primarily by the environment in which the Tsarevich was brought up. He witnessed the behind-the-scenes and sometimes completely open struggle between Catherine and the inhabitants of the Gatchina Palace. In addition, he understood that he was assigned a certain special role and perhaps even then knew about Catherine’s plans to transfer the throne to him, bypassing Paul.

While Alexander was growing up, the ideas of universal Enlightenment, constitutionality, liberalism and humanism were gaining strength in Europe. And this also influenced the development of the personality of the future monarch. He perfectly saw the backwardness of his own country, the slavery that persisted in it and the weakness of the middle class that flourished in Europe.

The reigning empress herself personally compiled the “Instructions on Preserving the Health of Royal Pets,” which should have been used to guide the education of the grand dukes. To better understand the methods and principles on which Alexander’s upbringing was based, we present here excerpts from it. In particular, Catherine prescribed feeding the child with the simplest food, and also indicated: “if they want to eat between lunch and dinner, give them a piece of bread,” “... so that they do not eat when they are full, and do not drink without being thirsty, and so that when they are full, they are not fed up with food or drink; so that you don’t drink cold things while sweating or when you’re hot, and when you’re sweating, don’t drink anything other than having eaten a piece of bread first.” Further in the chapter where it is said about the education of goodness, we read “Try in all cases to instill in children humanity and even compassion for every creature...”, “if injustice or deception is shown, then one should deprive them of what belongs to them, so that they feel what injustice". Children were forbidden to lie: “...if one of the pupils lies, then for the first time show surprise at the act as strange, unexpected and indecent; if he lies again, then reprimand the culprit and treat him coldly and with contempt, and if, beyond hope, he does not calm down, then punish him as for stubbornness and disobedience.” The main virtue in raising children, according to Catherine, was: “... in love for your neighbor (do not do to others what you do not want to be done to you), in general goodwill towards the human race, in goodwill towards all people, in affectionate and condescending treatment of everyone, in good manners, sincerity, in the removal of angry ardor, timidity and empty suspicion...” As we can see, the education program was worthy and encouraged the development of the most beautiful traits. Alexander I is a product of this program. He owes what he has become to his grandmother alone.

A huge, if not decisive, influence on the personality of the young prince was exerted by his teacher, the Swiss La Harpe, who himself was a republican, a humanist and generally a wonderful person. He set as his goal to make enlightened, true republicans out of his charges - Alexander and Konstantin. Strange as it may seem, Catherine II immediately approved the training program that the young teacher presented to her for approval. And this despite the fact that La Harpe had opponents at court who set the empress against. In fact, through the teachings of La Harpe, Alexander became involved in the idea of ​​the French Enlightenment, which, as we know, resulted in the Great French Revolution. La Harpe spent 11 whole years with his august pupil, and during these years a real friendship arose between mentor and teacher. Subsequently, they maintained a constant correspondence, in which Alexander often asked for advice on what to do in a given situation.

Despite the fact that, in general, Alexander’s childhood passed in a good environment and was devoid of serious shocks and troubles, the situation that developed between his father and Catherine II still poisoned this sweet existence. In fact, at that time there were two courts that did not intersect with each other: one - in Tsarskoe Selo, where Catherine reigned supreme and where neither Pavel Petrovich nor the Grand Duke’s mother was allowed, the other - in Gatchina, with its own army, which occupied almost all the time Pavel. The father demanded that his brothers participate in military service, at least in regimental exercises, which he organized with special care. Four times a week, Alexander came to the Gatchina Palace, and during his stay here, his father tried as best he could to free his son from Catherine’s influence. He succeeded in this with varying degrees of success. Drill and reconnaissance quickly tired of Alexander, but he began to be burdened by the contemplative life that he had settled in Tsarskoe Selo.

When Alexander turned 16, Catherine immediately married him to Louise, the Baden princess, only a year younger than him. At baptism, the wife of the Grand Duke received the name Elizaveta Alekseevna. The newlyweds liked each other, but instead of love, more sympathy was established between them; their relationship was more like that of a brother and sister. All this later pushed the spouses onto the path of extramarital relationships, which, however, in no way interfered with the tender feeling of affection that they carried through their entire life together and preserved until their death.

Alexander was aware of his grandmother's plan to transfer the throne to him, bypassing Paul. Paul also knew about this plan. Both father and son found themselves in an ambiguous position. Neither the Senate nor La Harpe, who was tasked with preparing his pupil for the throne, supported this decision of the empress. Alexander himself flatly refused to rule bypassing his father. In the 1790s, Alexander became closer to his father.

After the death of Catherine and the accession of Paul I, his relationship with his son changed. This was due to the fact that in the archives of the late empress many documents were found indicating the intention to elevate Alexander to the Russian throne and Constantine to the Greek throne, as well as the nature of Paul’s accession itself. He had to take the throne almost by force. Immediately after the death of his mother, Paul, together with the Gatchina troops, occupied the Winter Palace and audited the Empress’s archive; many documents from it were confiscated or destroyed. Alexander tried to show all his loyalty to his father and behaved passively, making no decisions regarding the fight for his succession to the throne.

Alexander had every right to take the throne and Paul knew this well. The law, adopted by Peter I, allowed the monarch to appoint his own successor, regardless of the degree of primogeniture or descent. It was following this law that Catherine II, after the overthrow and imprisonment of her husband, declared herself empress, although according to the old laws, her young son Paul should have become the monarch, and she would have been regent until he reached adulthood. Naturally, after his accession to the throne, Paul hastened to abolish this law, which almost cost him the throne.

In general, the reign of Paul I can be described as progressive. He eliminated the liberties that his mother had granted to the guard, in gratitude for placing her on the throne, and to the nobility. All military personnel had to return to the barracks, and the nobles were now freed from all inherent privileges. The charter granted to the nobility was also cancelled. Everything suggests that Paul intended to resolve the peasant issue. He understood perfectly well that the slavish position of most of his subjects was not a normal phenomenon. It was Paul who forbade the sale of serfs without land (decree of 1797); ownership of people was thus called into question.

Everyone who came forward under Catherine - her favorites and favorites - were sent into exile en masse or removed from their positions. Those who were in disgrace with her, on the contrary, returned to the court (Radishchev, Novikov).

In the army, Paul introduced Prussian rules and military uniforms; a sharp turn occurred in foreign policy - a rapprochement between Russia and France began, where Napoleon Bonaparte was the first consul. In relations with Austria and England, on the contrary, a cooling began.

Now Alexander lived at his father’s court and was obliged to participate in all state affairs and, above all, to carry out military service, which means participating in reviews and exercises and being in the barracks all the time. From the letters that Alexander wrote to Arakcheev and Lagarpe it is clear that the future emperor was suffocating in this situation. In addition, his father suspected him of disloyalty to himself and tried in every possible way to suppress his son.

Having made a sharp turn in domestic and foreign policy about how it was arranged under Catherine, Paul ultimately turned against himself the old guard, the noble oligarchy, which lived so sweetly under Catherine. Discontent was brewing in the circles of the nobility and military officers. The oppositionists received support from Paul's enemies - the English and Austrian cabinets.

Even Paul's supporters began to distance themselves from him at the end of his reign. This was due to the harsh character of the monarch, his temper, sometimes reaching the point of paranoia. He endlessly dismissed and appointed ministers, and the traits of despotism and tyranny became more and more apparent in him. He sent one of his most devoted supporters, Count Arkacheev, into retirement in 1801, and this for the second time. According to many researchers, the resignation of the Iron Count played a fatal role in the fate of Paul I. If he had not removed him from himself, then most likely Arakcheev would have uncovered a conspiracy as a result of which Paul was killed. Despite the insult, Arakcheev would never have betrayed his oath, and if he had learned anything about what was being prepared, he would have immediately reported to the emperor.

Discontent grew, the conspiracy, which spread to almost all classes, attracted more and more new members. Alexander systematically met with his friends N. Novosiltsev, P. Stroganov, A. Czartoryski. Their conversations about the structure of Russia were very reminiscent of the meetings of the Decembrists: all the same ideas of freedom, liberalization of power, abolition of serfdom. Alexander spoke out in favor of giving up power, that is, in fact, abolishing the monarchy and transferring all power to parliament; his friends insisted that gradual reforms needed to be carried out and that only the tsarist government could put everything planned into practice. Ultimately, the Grand Duke agreed that a radical transformation of Russia was necessary and that therefore power should not be given up. However, he believed that reforms should not be delayed and should be acted rather revolutionaryly. It should be noted that Alexander’s wife was entirely on her husband’s side; she also suffered from the tyranny of her father-in-law and felt an impending rebellion.

Another circle of conspirators is forming around the Zubov brothers, former favorites of Catherine II. The third circle is united on the basis of the British embassy in Russia, Ambassador Whitworth, Olga Zherebtsova, Nikita Panin become its members. Later they were joined by the military governor of St. Petersburg, P. A. Palen.

Ultimately, all these secret societies merge into a strong opposition with Alexander at its head. Paul fights back as best he can, because he knows about discontent in the highest echelons of power, he exiles, removes from positions, he even orders Laharpe, his son’s teacher, to be brought to Russia, because he believes that it is the Swiss who are guilty of the republican heresy.

Assassination of father and accession to the throne

It has been scientifically proven that back in 1800, Paul’s opponents suggested that Alexander lead a conspiracy and force his father to renounce the crown by force. Alexander hesitated, his role was largely passive, but over time he became more and more inclined towards a radical solution to the issue. By 1801, Alexander stood at the head of the titled conspirators and supported the idea of ​​​​overthrowing the emperor. His only condition was the preservation of Pavel’s life, and G. Palen repeatedly promised this to him, however, we believe that this was only a formality. Both of them understood that a living Paul, even if he had signed a renunciation, would be a dangerous adversary, given both his character and the love that he had gained among the people.

The conspirators, however, wanted to get rid of not only Paul, but also the absolute monarchy as a whole. To do this, they prepared a draft constitution, and also sent N.P. Panin to Alexander, who was supposed to take an oath from him to introduce, if everything was resolved successfully, a constitutional system. Alexander promised them this, just as the conspirators promised to spare the life of his father. None of these promises were kept.

At the beginning of 1801, Pavel changed greatly towards his family and surroundings. He expelled dozens of prominent nobles from the capital, had intentions of imprisoning his wife, Maria Fedorovna, in a monastery, and was going to put both sons in prison. He threatened Palen with the scaffold. It was clear to everyone that it was urgent to take decisive action, otherwise there would simply be nothing left of the conspirators.

It is known that at the time of the seizure of power and the murder of Paul, Alexander and his wife were there - in the Winter Palace. Nine chances out of ten he knew his father was being killed and he did nothing to stop the killers. It is known that he subsequently repented of this, but if this happened again, we believe he would not hesitate to do the same.

Another interesting fact is that Alexander, in fact, removed from the throne not only his father, but also his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna. Having learned about the death of her husband, she immediately hastened to take advantage of the situation and take full power upon herself, but the conspirators prevented her from seeing her husband’s body and turning to the soldiers who were drawn to the Winter Palace in order to support the coup. She never wanted to recognize Alexander as emperor and in the future she was always in opposition to him.

The reign of the new Emperor Alexander I began with favors. Political prisoners were pardoned, and those who had been removed from office and exiled under the previous monarch were returned to the capital and restored to their rights. The troops sent by Paul to India were returned, the Secret Chancellery was abolished, censorship was relaxed, and a review of many court cases began. Relations with foreign countries were stabilized: restrictions on movement, wearing specific clothing, and trade were lifted. The City Regulations, the Charter of Cities and the Charter of the Nobility, adopted under Catherine, were restored. The Russian uniform and Russian names of units and regiments returned to the army.

Beginning his reign, Alexander sought to rely on existing laws, while focusing on the general humanization of the entire apparatus of power. He, we believe, firmly believed in the possibility of a constitutional system in Russia and tried to begin its implementation. Alexander intended to destroy the most severe provisions of the Code of 1649 on “the deed and word of the sovereign,” when one word, a hint of insulting the monarch, was enough, and the death penalty followed. The highest decree abolished all torture, lovingly included in the outline of criminal proceedings by the formidable Peter I.

The decree of December 12, 1801 broke the monopoly of the nobles on land. Now every free person could freely buy and sell land plots. Alexander understood that it was necessary to abolish serfdom and even hoped that this would happen during his reign, but he never decided on the abolition itself. The conservative nobility, which rightly considered itself responsible for the installation of Alexander on the throne, resisted the abolition of slavery with all its might.

In order to balance the influence on his own person of Palen and the Zubov brothers, who demanded constitutional changes, but in fact only wanted to be kings of the king, Alexander gathered around himself the so-called Secret Committee, consisting of close friends: Czartoryski, Novosiltsev, Kochubey. However, with the help of this circle alone it was impossible to resist the opposition, nor to develop any serious plans for the transformation of Russia. From the memoirs of the committee members, we learn that the main idea and hope of the emperor was the introduction of human rights throughout the empire, and above all the right to freedom and property. However, it was not possible to balance the influence. Leaving the walls of the circle, Alexander found himself in a real world in which the Senate and cabinets of ministers ruled, and the emperor alone could not resist them.

Despite the fact that the young emperor did not have enough strength to carry out further liberalization, he still found it to fight the opposition. In June 1801, he removed from office the military governor of St. Petersburg Palen (who, by the way, concentrated truly unimaginable power and influence in his hands) and appointed M. I. Kutuzov instead, followed by the resignation of N. P. Panin, at the beginning In 1802, one of the prominent conspirators P.A. Zubov left Russia. Instead of them, new faces appear on the stage - M. M. Speransky, Alexander's former teacher - Lagarpe and Count Arakcheev.

On the advice of Speransky, Alexander creates the State Council, which was charged with the role of a legislative body. However, in reality, power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of one emperor. Despite the fact that the State Council held some meetings and issued decisions, in essence its power was fictitious.

As we see, having taken the throne, Alexander increasingly moves away from his youthful liberal views and increasingly turns towards absolutism, albeit with a human face.

Discontent among the progressive nobility was growing in the country. He did not like the creation of a cabinet of ministers, as opposed to outdated colleges. In addition, the half-hearted and sluggish reform of the state apparatus only strengthened the bureaucracy and treasury. N. M. Karamzin denounced the reforms in his “Note on Ancient and New Russia”, in which he criticizes the subordination of ministers directly to the emperor, as well as the system of localism and bribes that has grown wildly. Karamzin also mentions educational reforms (new universities were created), however, he also says that the reorganization is being carried out poorly and unpreparedly. He also condemns the war with France (1805-1807), which, according to the historian, is useless for Russia. Public opinion also condemned the shameful Peace of Tilsit.

The opposition, represented by the reactionary nobility, also attacked Alexander. Under her pressure, he was forced to dismiss Speransky and also postpone the resolution of the peasant issue. Of course, his merit is that he abolished the distribution of state serfs into private property, but that’s all. We believe that Alexander did not have a clear program of action on the peasant issue; all this was influenced by the pressure of the reactionaries and the indecisive nature of the emperor. As you know, under him the liberation of the serfs, which he so dreamed of in his youth, did not happen.

It is interesting that in other countries under his control, in particular in Finland and Poland, Alexander carried out a peasant reform! In both cases, the serfs received freedom, and the people received a constitution. Seeing all this, the Russian opposition trembled, because they were afraid that all this would soon happen in Russia, however, apparently, they underestimated their strength and influence on the emperor. But the emperor hesitated. His entire reign passed through this tangle of contradictions.

It seems that the introduction of a constitution and the abolition of slavery did not happen because everyone - the opposition, progressive circles, and Alexander himself believed that the country was not ready for such changes. No other conclusion simply arises; how else can we explain the postponement of resolving such important issues?

Arakcheev and Alexander I

In Soviet historiography, the personality of A. A. Arkacheev was sharply criticized. This tendency (in a negative assessment) was borrowed from pre-revolutionary historical literature, which was based on biographies and memoirs of figures of the early 19th century. Arakcheev was accused of being extremely reactionary, which had no basis. Arakcheev is an extremely unique figure in all of Russian history. Neither Paul I, nor Alexander, nor his successor Nicholas knew a more devoted person.

Alexey Andreevich Arakcheev came from a family of small nobles and achieved everything in his life on his own. Neither his poor origin, nor the poverty from which his family practically did not crawl out, prevented him from reaching dizzying heights. Only strict order, self-discipline, diligence and mobilization of all forces made him what he became. He also had one more remarkable quality for which everyone loved him - devotion. Devotion to superiors and duty.

Arakcheev played a big role in establishing order in the Russian army, which led to a brilliant victory over Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812 and promoted our army to the ranks of the best armies in Europe.

By the end of the reign of Catherine II, the army was in a state of disintegration, the guard existed only nominally, the nobles refused to serve, bought off service, or sent recruits in their place. Pavel tried to somehow correct the broken order and, as mentioned above, returned the officers to the barracks. Alexander, having ascended the throne, proclaimed that everything would be like “under his grandmother,” and was forced to return liberties to the nobility. As a result of such upheavals, there was great discord and abuse in the army. Arakcheev did not want to put up with this order, so with an iron hand he began to impose discipline in the units. He checked military fortresses and fortifications, the armament of regiments, listened to all complaints against officers and suppressed arbitrariness and corporal punishment. Of course, the officers groaned, but the ordinary soldiers were finally brought out of the bestial state into which Catherine’s freemen had driven them.

The generally accepted point of view is that Alexander I was a wise and cunning ruler. In his activities, he relied on two people completely opposite in character and type of activity: on the one hand, the liberal Speransky, on the other, the conservative Arakcheev. Such an impossible union, however, bore fruit, since the emperor thus received support from both liberal and conservative sections of the population.

Arakcheev spent 5 years (1803-1808) as an artillery inspector, where he was appointed by Alexander. As a result, modern artillery personnel appeared in Russia, and the entire structure of army artillery life was reorganized.

In 1808, Alexander appointed Arakcheev as Minister of War. Now the army is completely in his power, now he can begin to eradicate theft, corruption, abuse of power and abuse of recruits. He coped brilliantly with this role.

Count Arakcheev also distinguished himself during the Russian-Swedish war. We can say that it was only thanks to his determination that the attack on Swedish territory took place, and the Russian army reached Stockholm. As a result of the war, Russia received Finland, and Arakcheev acquired a friend in the person of commander Bagration. Alexander awarded him the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called for his successes in the Russian-Swedish war, however, Arakcheev refused it, citing the fact that he himself did not personally participate in hostilities, so he did not see anything heroic in it.

Arakcheev’s merit lies in the fact that he was able to prepare the Russian army for the impending war with Napoleon. He improved the army organization, introducing divisions of a new formation, and reorganized the artillery. The Iron Count was also in charge of supply issues; it was only thanks to him that the Russian army throughout the entire Patriotic War had no shortages of ammunition, ammunition and cavalry.

At the end of the war of 1812-1814. Alexander, in gratitude for the zeal shown during the military suffering, appointed Arakcheev field marshal. Once again, the count refused mercy, citing the fact that he did not personally participate in hostilities.

In February 1818, Arakcheev submitted a project for peasant reform to the emperor. A truly stunning document. It proposes to free the serf peasants from dependence and to allocate everyone (both landowner peasants and courtyard servants) with two tithes of land for each person, including infants! If we compare this project with the Decembrists’ program to liberate the peasants, then it is the latter that will be reactionary. Many provisions from Arakcheev’s project were used as the basis for the peasant reform of 1861!

The only negative point in Arakcheev’s biography was the military settlements, which caused heated controversy during their creation, which, however, has not stopped to this day. We believe that the topic of military settlements requires quite a detailed study and in-depth analysis, which is not possible within the framework of this work. Let us only note that the military settlements themselves cannot be assessed only on the positive or negative side. It is necessary to consider their problem comprehensively.

Alexander I and the Emperor of the French

Immediately after ascending the throne, Alexander tried to regulate Russia's foreign policy. He establishes relations with England and the Austrian Empire, and is warm towards France, however, over time, dissatisfaction with the policies pursued by Napoleon grows in him. Alexander enthusiastically welcomed the Great French Revolution, however, he sharply condemned the Jacobin terror that followed it and the seizure of power by the first consul. Napoleon begins expansion, Alexander strongly protests. The Russian emperor declared that he did not intend to interfere in the internal affairs of foreign states, however, this was a completely different matter. France behaved aggressively towards its neighbors, and this could no longer remain only its internal matter.

Russia strongly protested Napoleon's actions in Hanover and the Kingdom of Naples. The rapprochement between Russia and Prussia begins. For objective reasons, Russia did not benefit from a war with France, but the foreign policy interests of both countries came into conflict, which escalated into war.

Alexander refused to negotiate with Napoleon, which the latter always sought. On the contrary, the Russian emperor put forward ultimatum conditions, which he knew France would never satisfy. In addition, he considered Napoleon a personal enemy, since he inflicted personal insults on him, in particular, he executed the Duke of Enghien, for whom Alexander worked, and refused Alexander’s personal request to award the Legion of Honor to General Bennigsen, and also allowed the publication of a provocative piece in a Paris newspaper article hinting at Alexander's participation in the assassination of Paul I.

On December 2, 1805, the Russian army, together with the army of the allies, suffered a crushing defeat at Austerlitz. Alexander only miraculously escaped capture. After this, according to contemporaries, the emperor changed greatly. He suddenly realized that Napoleon was his most sworn enemy and that every effort must be made to destroy him. Alexander's character also changed - he became suspicious, strict and intolerant of different opinions.

During the negotiations in Tilsit and the signing of the peace treaty, Alexander showed miracles of diplomacy. He demonstrated affection and friendliness to Napoleon in every possible way, and the French emperor believed him and gained confidence in him. The two monarchs even agreed on joint actions regarding the blockade of England. Russia also received freedom of action in relation to Turkey and Sweden and could take up issues of annexing the Danube principalities. In fact, the conditions of the Tilsit peace were very favorable for Russia. A little later, in a conversation with Frederick William III, King of Prussia, Alexander opened his cards, saying that it was all just a game and that in fact he was a good friend and ally of the Prussian king.

Hood. Bergeret. Napoleon and Alexander I in Tilsit

In the spring of 1812, Russian-French relations became tense to the limit. Napoleon invaded Russia and, meeting little resistance, began to move deeper. After the fall of Moscow, all senior army and civilian officials were in favor of signing peace with Napoleon. Arakcheev, Rumyantsev and even Alexander’s brother, Grand Duke Konstantin, persuaded the emperor to conclude a peace agreement. Alexander fiercely resisted, claiming that he would retreat if necessary all the way to Kamchatka, but would not give up an inch of Russian land.

On the anniversary of the victory at Poltava, Alexander I addressed a fiery speech to the troops, calling on them to throw all their strength into the fight against the invaders. He also refused to develop a plan for a general battle, believing that with retreat and delicacy he could preserve the army.

In July, Napoleon offers negotiations to Alexander. He avoids them. In August, a new proposal follows and again the Russian emperor leaves it unanswered.

In December 1812, the Russian army managed to turn the situation in its favor and drive the French out of Russia. It would seem that this is the end of the Patriotic War, the country is saved, we can lay down our arms. On December 12, 1812, Alexander leaves for the active army and makes an appeal to the generals: “You saved not only Russia, you saved Europe”: the emperor intends to continue the war with Napoleon, he wants his complete destruction. England and France, interested in the Russian army moving further to the West, strongly support this decision. Russian commanders, in particular Kutuzov, sharply criticized such a proposal. The death of Kutuzov to some extent freed Alexander's hands, and his crusade against Napoleon continued.

After the battle of Leipzig, Napoleon begged Alexander to negotiate with him; he wrote that he was ready to make all the concessions that he refused to make in Tilsit and Erfurt. Alexander did not deign to answer him. After the Russian army and its allies entered Paris, the heads of the allied states declared that they would not deal with anyone from the Bonaparte family, especially with Napoleon himself. On April 6, the French Emperor abdicated and was exiled to Elbe. Alexander won!

Sunset

During the war with Napoleonic France, Alexander's character was strengthened. He became inflexible, intolerant, and domineering. It would seem that this is the right moment to implement the liberal reforms conceived in his youth. However, projects of peasant, state and administrative reforms were shelved so as not to appear from there again. The foreign policy situation remained unstable: the former allies sought to push Russia aside and carefully selected from its hands those threads of political power and influence that still remained. In the European arena, power was concentrated in the hands of England and Austria, where the all-powerful Metternich himself personally made important decisions about the structure of post-war Europe.

Domestic policy also left much to be desired. Despite the fact that the peasant reform was only on paper, rumors about it leaked out, and now the nobles are furiously protesting against the liberation of the peasants. Alexander is afraid of a repeat of the March night of 1801. Secret societies begin to emerge throughout Russia, the brainchild of Alexander - military settlements cause only indignation in society, unrest begins in the army.

In fear for his life and crown, Alexander passes a series of reactionary decrees that enslave the peasantry. Once again, the nobles had the opportunity to exile serfs to Siberia, and the peasants themselves were forbidden to complain about the landowners. At the same time, censorship and persecution of the press intensified, and those press organs that tried to propagate the constitutional projects of Alexander I himself were persecuted. In the St. Petersburg and Kazan educational districts, Runich and Magnitsky committed atrocities.

In the 20s of the XIX century. Alexander devotes more and more time to religion and mysticism. According to contemporaries, the fire of Moscow and the invasion of the French army into Russia greatly shocked the emperor; he often said that this was God's punishment for parricide committed with his knowledge. He never recovered from this shock.

Alexander again has ideas about abdicating the throne, about abdicating his government duties, he increasingly leaves the palace and goes to the provinces or abroad, it seems that he is trying to escape from himself. In 1819 in Warsaw, he directly tells his brother Konstantin that he wants to abdict. Since Constantine could no longer be considered the heir to the Russian throne, because. He did not marry a person of the royal family; Paul's youngest son, Nikolai, was to inherit the crown. In 1823, Alexander officially confirmed that Nicholas would be his heir.

In the 1920s, Alexander repeatedly mentioned in conversations that he would like to lay down the burden of power. By 1825, this desire to leave power took on the character of an obsession. This then led supporters of the theory about the imaginary death of the emperor to say that Alexander was in fact Fyodor Kuzmich, a hermit from Tomsk. This theory is also supported by the nature of the emperor’s preparations for his departure to Taganrog.

Before the trip, Alexander visited his mother, who was in Pavlovsk, and then the graves of his daughters, who died at an early age and rested in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. While in Crimea, the emperor repeatedly spoke about resigning from his duties as ruler and retiring into private life. Being near death and receiving communion, the emperor did not give any orders regarding the heir. The latter, however, is not surprising, since only the younger brother Nicholas could be the heir, since Constantine had already signed the abdication of the throne. Alexander I died in Taganrog on December 1, 1825. His wife, Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, who was always a devoted friend, soon followed her husband. She died on May 4, 1826.

Name: Alexander I (Alexander Pavlovich Romanov)

Age: 47 years old

Activity: Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia

Marital status: was married

Alexander I: biography

Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich, sometimes mistakenly called Tsar Alexander I, ascended the throne in 1801 and ruled for almost a quarter of a century. Russia under Alexander I fought successful wars against Turkey, Persia and Sweden, and was later drawn into the War of 1812 when Napoleon attacked the country. During the reign of Alexander I, the territory expanded due to the annexation of Eastern Georgia, Finland, Bessarabia and part of Poland. For all the transformations introduced by Alexander I, he was called Alexander the Blessed.

The biography of Alexander I was initially supposed to be outstanding. Not only was he the eldest son of the emperor and his wife Maria Feodorovna, but his grandmother doted on her grandson. It was she who gave the boy a sonorous name in honor and, in the hope that Alexander would create history following the example of his legendary namesakes. It is worth noting that the name itself was unusual for the Romanovs, and only after the reign of Alexander I it firmly entered the family nomenclature.

The personality of Alexander I was formed under the tireless supervision of Catherine the Great. The fact is that the empress initially considered the son of Paul I incapable of taking the throne and wanted to crown her grandson “over the head” of his father. The grandmother tried to ensure that the boy had almost no contact with his parents, however, Pavel had influence on his son and he adopted from him a love for military science. The young heir grew up affectionate, smart, easily absorbed new knowledge, but at the same time he was very lazy and proud, which is why Alexander I was unable to learn to concentrate on painstaking and lengthy work.

Contemporaries of Alexander I noted that he had a very lively mind, incredible insight and was easily attracted to everything new. But since he was actively influenced from childhood by two opposing natures, his grandmother and his father, the child was forced to learn to please absolutely everyone, which became the main characteristic of Alexander I. Even Napoleon called him an “actor” in a good sense, and Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wrote about Emperor Alexander “in the face and life of a harlequin.”

Passionate about military affairs, the future Emperor Alexander I served in the Gatchina troops, which his father personally formed. The service resulted in deafness in the left ear, but this did not prevent Paul I from promoting his son to colonel of the guard when he was only 19 years old. A year later, the ruler’s son became the military governor of St. Petersburg and headed the Semenovsky Guards Regiment, then Alexander I briefly presided over the military parliament, after which he began to sit in the Senate.

Reign of Alexander I

Emperor Alexander I ascended the throne immediately after the violent death of his father. A number of facts confirm that he was aware of the plans of the conspirators to overthrow Paul I, although he may not have suspected the regicide. It was the new head of the Russian Empire who announced the “apoplectic stroke” that struck his father, literally a few minutes after his death. In September 1801, Alexander I was crowned.

The very first decrees of Alexander I showed that he intended to eradicate judicial arbitrariness in the state and introduce strict legality. Today it seems incredible, but at that time there were practically no strict fundamental laws in Russia. Together with his closest associates, the emperor formed a secret committee with which he discussed all plans for state transformation. This community was called the Committee of Public Safety, and is also known as the Social Movement of Alexander I.

Reforms of Alexander I

Immediately after Alexander I came to power, the transformations became visible to the naked eye. His reign is usually divided into two parts: at first, the reforms of Alexander I occupied all his time and thoughts, but after 1815, the emperor became disillusioned with them and began a reactionary movement, that is, on the contrary, he squeezed people in a vice. One of the most important reforms was the creation of the “Indispensable Council”, which was later transformed into the State Council with several departments. The next step is the creation of ministries. If previously decisions on any issues were made by a majority vote, now a separate minister was responsible for each industry, who regularly reported to the head of state.

The reforms of Alexander I also affected the peasant issue, at least on paper. The emperor thought about abolishing serfdom, but wanted to do it gradually, and was unable to determine the steps of such a slow liberation. As a result, the decrees of Alexander I on “free cultivators” and the ban on selling peasants without the land on which they live turned out to be a drop in the ocean. But Alexander’s transformations in the field of education became more significant. By his order, a clear gradation of educational institutions was created according to the level of the educational program: parish and district schools, provincial schools and gymnasiums, universities. Thanks to the activities of Alexander I, the Academy of Sciences was restored in St. Petersburg, the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was created and five new universities were founded.

But the sovereign’s naive plans for the rapid transformation of the country encountered opposition from the nobles. He could not quickly implement his reforms for fear of a palace coup, plus the wars occupied the attention of Alexander 1. Therefore, despite good intentions and the desire to carry out reforms, the emperor was unable to realize all his desires. In fact, besides educational and government reform, the only thing of interest is the Constitution of Poland, which the ruler’s associates considered as a prototype for the future Constitution of the entire Russian Empire. But the turn of Alexander I’s domestic policy towards reaction buried all the hopes of the liberal nobility.

Politics of Alexander I

The starting point for a change of opinion about the need for reform was the war with Napoleon. The Emperor realized that in the conditions that he wanted to create, rapid mobilization of the army was impossible. Therefore, Emperor Alexander 1 shifted his policy from liberal ideas to the interests of state security. A new reform is being developed, which has proven to be the most successful: military reforms.

With the help of the Minister of War, a project for a completely new type of life is being created - a military settlement, which represented a new class. Without particularly burdening the country's budget, it was intended to maintain and staff a standing army at wartime levels. The growth in the number of such military districts continued throughout the years of the reign of Alexander I. Moreover, they were preserved under his successor Nicholas I and were abolished only by the emperor.

Wars of Alexander I

In fact, the foreign policy of Alexander I boiled down to a series of constant wars, thanks to which the territory of the country increased significantly. After the end of the war with Persia, Alexander I's Russia gained military control of the Caspian Sea, and also expanded its possessions by annexing Georgia. After the Russian-Turkish War, the Empire's possessions were replenished by Bessarabia and all the states of Transcaucasia, and after the conflict with Sweden - by Finland. In addition, Alexander I fought with England, Austria and started the Caucasian War, which did not end during his lifetime.

Russia's main military adversary under Emperor Alexander I was France. Their first armed conflict occurred back in 1805, which, despite periodic peace agreements, constantly flared up again. Finally, inspired by his fantastic victories, Napoleon Bonaparte sent troops into Russian territory. The Patriotic War of 1812 began. After the victory, Alexander I entered into an alliance with England, Prussia and Austria and made a series of foreign campaigns, during which he defeated Napoleon’s army and forced him to abdicate the throne. After this, the Kingdom of Poland also went to Russia.

When the French army found itself on the territory of the Russian Empire, Alexander I declared himself commander-in-chief and forbade peace negotiations until at least one enemy soldier remained on Russian soil. But the numerical advantage of Napoleon's army was so great that Russian troops constantly retreated deeper into the country. Soon the emperor agrees that his presence is disturbing the military leaders, and leaves for St. Petersburg. Mikhail Kutuzov, who was highly respected by soldiers and officers, became the commander-in-chief, but most importantly, this man had already proven himself to be an excellent strategist.

And in the Patriotic War of 1812, Kutuzov again showed his keen mind as a military tactician. He planned a decisive battle near the village of Borodino and positioned the army so well that it was covered by natural terrain on both flanks, and the commander-in-chief placed artillery in the center. The battle was desperate and bloody, with huge losses on both sides. The Battle of Borodino is considered a historical paradox: both armies declared victory in the battle.

To keep his troops in combat readiness, Mikhail Kutuzov decides to leave Moscow. The result was the burning of the former capital and its occupation by the French, but Napoleon's victory in this case turned out to be Pirova. In order to feed his army, he was forced to move to Kaluga, where Kutuzov had already concentrated his forces and did not allow the enemy to go further. Moreover, partisan detachments delivered effective blows to the invaders. Deprived of food and unprepared for the Russian winter, the French began to retreat. The final battle near the Berezina River put an end to the defeat, and Alexander I issued a Manifesto on the victorious end of the Patriotic War.

Personal life

In his youth, Alexander was very friendly with his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna. Some sources even hinted at a relationship closer than just brotherly and sisterly. But these speculations are very unlikely, since Catherine was 11 years younger, and at the age of 16, Alexander I had already connected his personal life with his wife. He married a German woman, Louise Maria Augusta, who, after converting to Orthodoxy, became Elizaveta Alekseevna. They had two daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, but both died at the age of one, so it was not the children of Alexander I who became the heir to the throne, but his younger brother Nicholas I.

Due to the fact that his wife was unable to give him a son, the relationship between the emperor and his wife cooled greatly. He practically did not hide his love affairs on the side. At first, Alexander I cohabited for almost 15 years with Maria Naryshkina, the wife of Chief Jägermeister Dmitry Naryshkin, whom all the courtiers called “an exemplary cuckold” to his face. Maria gave birth to six children, and the paternity of five of them is usually attributed to Alexander. However, most of these children died in infancy. Alexander I also had an affair with the daughter of the court banker Sophie Velho and with Sofia Vsevolozhskaya, who gave birth to an illegitimate son from him, Nikolai Lukash, a general and war hero.

In 1812, Alexander I became interested in reading the Bible, although before that he was basically indifferent to religion. But he, like his best friend Alexander Golitsyn, was not satisfied with the framework of Orthodoxy alone. The emperor was in correspondence with Protestant preachers, studied mysticism and various movements of the Christian faith and sought to unite all faiths in the name of “universal truth.” Russia under Alexander I became more tolerant than ever before. The official church was outraged by this turn and began a secret behind-the-scenes struggle against like-minded people of the emperor, including Golitsyn. Victory remained with the church, which did not want to lose power over the people.

Emperor Alexander I died in early December 1825 in Taganrog, during another trip that he loved very much. The official cause of death of Alexander I was fever and inflammation of the brain. The sudden death of the ruler caused a wave of rumors, spurred by the fact that shortly before, Emperor Alexander drew up a manifesto in which he transferred the right of succession to the throne to his younger brother Nikolai Pavlovich.

People began to say that the emperor falsified his death and became the hermit Fyodor Kuzmich. This legend was very popular even during the life of this truly existing old man, and in the 19th century it received additional argumentation. The fact is that it was possible to compare the handwriting of Alexander I and Fyodor Kuzmich, which turned out to be almost identical. Moreover, today genetic scientists have a real project to compare the DNA of these two people, but so far this examination has not been carried out.

The upbringing and views of young Alexander I and young Paul were in many ways similar. Like his father, Alexander was raised in the spirit of Enlightenment ideas about the “true,” “legitimate” monarchy. His mentor from 1783 was the Swiss F.-C. de La Harpe, professional lawyer, follower of the encyclopedists. For Alexander, La Harpe was not just a teacher, but also a moral authority. Documents show that Alexander’s views in his youth were quite radical: he sympathized with the French Revolution and the republican form of government, condemned the hereditary monarchy, serfdom, favoritism and bribery that flourished at the St. Petersburg court. There is reason to believe that court life with its intrigues, the entire behind-the-scenes side of “big politics,” which Alexander could closely observe even during Catherine’s life, aroused in him indignation, a feeling of disgust for politics as such, and a desire not to take part in it. He had the same attitude towards rumors about Catherine’s plan to transfer the throne to him, bypassing Paul.

Thus, unlike Paul I, Alexander, when ascending the Russian throne, was apparently not particularly power-hungry and had not yet had time to abandon the ideals of youth (he was 23 years old at the time). Through the prism of these ideals, he looked at his father’s actions, completely not sympathizing with either his goals or methods. Alexander dreamed of first carrying out a revolution, which “would be carried out by legitimate authority,” and then retiring from business.

Back in the mid-90s, a small circle of like-minded people formed around Alexander. These were, firstly, V.P. Kochubey - the nephew of Catherine’s chancellor, Count. Bezborodko, secondly, Prince. Adam A. Czartoryski - a wealthy Polish nobleman in Russian service, then A.S. Stroganov is the son of one of the most noble and rich people of that time and, finally, Nikolai N. Novosiltsev is Stroganov’s cousin. In this circle of “young friends” the evils of Paul’s reign were discussed and plans were made for the future.

It should be noted, however, that the life experiences of Alexander and the members of his circle were very different. Thus, Stroganov and Kochubey witnessed the events in revolutionary France. The first was there at the very beginning of the revolution with his tutor Gilbert Romm, attended meetings of the National Assembly, became a Jacobin and was returned home by force in 1790. The second came to France already in 1791-1792. after several years of living abroad and, in particular, in England, where he studied the English government system. Upon returning to Russia, Kochubey was appointed ambassador to Constantinople, where he spent another five years. Prince Adam Czartoryski also visited England for educational purposes, and he also had experience of a completely different kind: he fought against Russia during the second partition of Poland. The oldest member of this circle was N.N. Novosiltsev - by the time of Alexander’s accession to the throne in 1801, he was already 40 years old. As for Alexander, his life experience was limited only to knowledge of the St. Petersburg court and a negative perception of the reign of first his grandmother, and then his father. In conversations with members of the circle, Alexander admired revolutionary France and expressed a naive belief in the possibility of creating a “true monarchy” through reforms from above. The “young friends” were more skeptical and realistic, but did not disappoint the Grand Duke, hoping to extract certain benefits from their position.

Historians have argued a lot about how much Alexander was privy to the plans of the conspirators against Paul 1 and, therefore, how much he was to blame for his death. Surviving indirect evidence indicates that Alexander most likely hoped that Paul could be persuaded to abdicate in his favor and, thus, the coup would be legal and bloodless. The murder of Paul put the young emperor in a completely different situation. With his sensitivity and romantic belief in justice and legality, he could not help but perceive what happened as a tragedy that darkened the very beginning of his reign. Moreover, if Alexander had received power legally, his hands would have been sufficiently untied. Now he found himself dependent on those who had obtained the throne for him by crime and who constantly put pressure on him, reminding him of the possibility of a new coup. In addition, behind the conspirators stood a party of old Catherine’s nobles (“Catherine’s old men,” as they were called) - a large, influential party with strong family connections. The main thing for these people was to preserve the old order. It is no coincidence that in Alexander’s manifesto on his accession to the throne, he promised “to govern the people entrusted to us by God according to the law and according to the heart in the gods of our late august grandmother, Empress Catherine the Great.”

Events at the beginning of the reign

And indeed, the emperor's first decrees confirmed this promise. Already on March 13-15, 1801, orders were issued to issue resignation decrees to all those dismissed from military and civil service without trial, members of the Smolensk circle were amnestied, and their ranks and nobility were returned; On March 15, an amnesty was declared for political prisoners and fugitives who had taken refuge abroad, and the ban on the import of various industrial goods was lifted; March 31 - the ban on the activities of private printing houses and the import of books from abroad was lifted. Finally, on April 2, the emperor announced 5 manifestos in the Senate, restoring the full effect of the Letters of Grant to the nobility and cities. At the same time, it was announced that the Secret Expedition of the Senate would be liquidated and the investigation of political affairs would be transferred to institutions in charge of criminal proceedings. One of the manifestos on April 2 was addressed to peasants; it promised not to increase taxes and allowed the export of agricultural products abroad.

It would seem that the “old people” should be happy, but the real meaning of the manifestos turned out to be broader than the simple restoration of Catherine’s order. For example, the removal of political affairs from the direct jurisdiction of the sovereign was perceived in principle as a limitation of his power. This revealed the second (no less significant than the first) goal of the conspirators: to create a state system that would legally limit the rights of any despot-sovereign in favor of the top of the aristocracy. Control over the activities of the monarch, the creation of a mechanism that would protect against despotic tendencies, fully corresponded to Alexander’s convictions, and therefore on April 5, 1801, a decree appeared on the creation of the Permanent Council - a legislative body under the Sovereign (in 1810 it was replaced by the State Council).

There was nothing fundamentally new in the very fact of the creation of such a Council: the urgent need for such a body was felt by all rulers after Peter I. However, the legal status and rights were not usually enshrined in laws; the situation was different with the Permanent Council. Although the supreme power in the country continued to remain entirely in the hands of the sovereign and he retained the right to make laws without the consent of the Council, members of the Council were given the opportunity to monitor the activities of the monarch and submit representations, that is, to essentially protest those actions or decrees of the emperor with which they didn't agree. The real role of the Council in governing the country was to be determined depending on how the relationship between the members of the Council and the monarch would develop in practice.

However, in addition to relationships, the Sovereign’s attitude towards the Council was also important - how seriously he took it and how much he was going to take it into account. Alexander was going to fulfill his obligations exactly, and, as further developments showed, it was his mistake. As for the relationship with the Council, they, in turn, depended on the composition of this government body.

Initially, the Council consisted of 12 people, mainly heads of the most important government institutions. In addition to them, the Council included the emperor’s confidants and the main participants in the conspiracy against Paul. Basically, all of these were representatives of the highest aristocracy and bureaucracy - those on whom Alexander 1 depended to the greatest extent. However, such a composition of the Council gave hope of getting rid of this dependence, because Catherine’s nobles found themselves there next to Pavlov’s, and they could not help but compete with each other for influence on the emperor. Quite quickly, the sovereign learned to use this situation to his advantage.

With such a balance of power, the young emperor could hope to find among the members of the Council supporters of broader reforms, but he gathered to develop a plan for these reforms with his “young friends.” Alexander saw the main goal of change in the creation of a constitution that would guarantee his subjects the rights of a citizen, similar to those formulated in the famous French “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.” He, however, agreed that the management system should initially be reformed in such a way as to guarantee property rights.

Meanwhile, without waiting for the reform plan to be created, in May 1801 Alexander submitted to the Permanent Council a draft decree banning the sale of serfs without land. According to the emperor, this decree was supposed to be the first step towards the abolition of serfdom. The next step was planned - permission to purchase populated lands for non-nobles with the condition that the peasants living on these lands would become free. When, as a result, a certain number of free peasants appeared, a similar procedure for the sale of land was planned to be extended to the nobles. Thus, Alexander’s plan was similar to the plan that Catherine had at one time, which he most likely did not know about. At the same time, the emperor was quite careful and did not reveal all the details even to the people closest to him, but already at the first stage he had to face furious resistance from the serf owners.

Without rejecting the emperor’s proposal in principle, the members of the Council, however, made it quite firmly clear to him that the adoption of such a decree could cause both unrest among the peasantry and serious discontent among the nobles. The Council believed that the introduction of such a measure should be included in the system of laws on the rights of estate owners that should be developed.

In other words, it was proposed to postpone the adoption of the decree for an indefinite period. It is significant that Alexander’s “young friends” - Stroganov and Kochubey - also agreed with this opinion of the Council. However, the king did not give up and personally appeared at the meeting of the Council to defend his project. A discussion took place in which only one member of the Council supported the emperor. Alexander, who hoped for the enlightenment of the nobility, apparently did not expect such a reaction and was forced to retreat. The only result of this attempt to limit serfdom was a ban on printing advertisements for the sale of serfs in newspapers, which the landowners soon learned to easily circumvent.

The most important consequence of Alexander’s failure to resolve the peasant question was the final transfer of the preparation of reforms to the circle of “young friends,” and he agreed with their opinion that the work should be carried out in secret. This is how the Secret Committee was created, which included Stroganov, Kochubey, Czartorysky, Novosiltsev, and later the old “Catherine’s nobleman” Count A.V. Vorontsov.

Already at the first meeting of the Secret Committee, it became clear that there was some discrepancy in ideas about its tasks between the emperor and his friends, who believed that it was necessary to begin, first of all, by studying the situation of the state, then carry out a reform of the administration, and only then proceed to the creation of a constitution. Alexander, agreeing in principle with this plan, wanted to quickly move on to the third stage itself. As for the official Permanent Council, the real result of the first months of its work was the draft “The Most Gracious Charter Granted to the Russian People,” which was supposed to be published on coronation day, September 15, 1801. The charter was supposed to reconfirm all the privileges outlined in the Charters Granted in 1785 ., as well as the rights and guarantees of private property, personal security, freedom of speech, press and conscience common to all residents of the country. A special article of the charter guaranteed the inviolability of these rights. Simultaneously with this document, a new project on the peasant question was prepared. Its author was Catherine’s last favorite and one of the leaders of the 1801 coup. P.A. Zubov. According to his project, again (as under Paul 1), the sale of peasants without land was prohibited and a procedure was established according to which the state was obliged to redeem peasants from landowners if necessary, and also stipulated the conditions under which peasants could redeem themselves.

The third project prepared for the coronation was the reorganization of the Senate. The document took quite a long time to prepare, so there were several versions of it. The essence of all of them, however, boiled down to the fact that the Senate was to become the body of the supreme leadership of the country, combining executive, judicial, control and legislative functions.

Essentially, all three acts prepared for the coronation together represented a single program for transforming Russia into the “true monarchy” that Alexander I dreamed of, but their discussion showed that the tsar had practically no like-minded people. In addition, discussion of projects was hampered by the constant rivalry of court factions. Thus, members of the Secret Committee decisively rejected Zubov’s project on the peasant issue as too radical and untimely. The project to reorganize the Senate caused a whole storm in the Tsar's circle. The “young friends” of the emperor, teaming up with Laharpe, who had arrived in Russia, proved to Alexander the impossibility and harmfulness of any restrictions on autocracy.

Thus, the people from the king’s inner circle, those on whom he pinned his hopes, turned out to be greater monarchists than he himself. As a result, the only document published on the day of coronation was a manifesto, the entire content of which was reduced to the abolition of recruitment for the current year and the payment of 25 kopecks per capita tax.

Why did it happen that the reformer tsar actually found himself alone, that is, in a situation where no serious reforms were any longer possible? The first reason is the same as several decades earlier, when Catherine II implemented her reform plan: the nobility - the main support and guarantor of the stability of the throne, and therefore the political regime in general - did not want to give up even a fraction of their privileges, in the defense of which they were ready go to the end. When, after Pugachev’s uprising, the nobility rallied around the imperial throne and Catherine realized that she did not have to fear a coup, she was able to carry out a series of transformations, as decisive as possible without fear of disturbing political stability. At the beginning of the 19th century. There was a certain decline in the peasant movement, which strengthened the position of Alexander’s opponents and gave them the opportunity to frighten the young king with major upheavals. The second most important reason was associated with the disappointment of a significant part of educated people not only in Russia, but throughout Europe in the effectiveness of the Enlightenment. The bloody horrors of the French Revolution became a kind of sobering cold shower for many. There was a fear that any changes, reforms, and especially those leading to a weakening of the tsarist power, could ultimately turn into a revolution.

There is one more question that cannot help but be asked: why did Alexander I not decide on the day of his coronation to publish at least one of the three prepared documents - the one about which, as it seems, there was no particular controversy - the Charter to the Russian People? Probably, the emperor was aware that the Charter, without being supported by other legislation, would remain a simple declaration. That is why she did not raise any objections. It was necessary either to publish all three documents together, or not to publish anything. Alexander chose the second path, and this, of course, was his defeat. However, the undoubted positive result of the first months of his reign was the political experience acquired by the young emperor. He resigned himself to the need to reign, but did not abandon plans for reforms.

Upon returning from Moscow from the coronation celebrations, at meetings of the Secret Committee, the tsar again returned to the peasant issue, insisting on issuing a decree prohibiting the sale of peasants without land. The tsar decided to reveal the second point of the plan - to allow the sale of populated lands to non-nobles. Once again, these proposals aroused sharp objections from the “young friends.” In words, they completely agreed with the condemnation of the practice of selling peasants without land, but still frightened the tsar with a noble rebellion. This was a strong argument that could not fail to work. As a result, this round of Alexander’s reform attempts ended with minimal results: December 12, 1801. a decree appeared on the right of non-nobles to buy land without peasants. Thus, the monopoly of the nobility on land ownership was violated, but so insensitively that there was no fear of an explosion of discontent.

The next steps of Alexander I were associated with the reorganization of public administration and corresponded to the practice established in this area during previous reigns. In September 1802, a series of decrees created a system of eight ministries: Military, Naval, Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, Commerce, Finance, Public Education and Justice, as well as the State Treasury as a ministry. Ministers and chief administrators, with the rights of ministers, formed the Committee of Ministers, in which each of them was obliged to submit his most submissive reports to the emperor for discussion. Initially, the status of the Committee of Ministers was uncertain, and only in 1812 did a corresponding document appear.

Simultaneously with the creation of ministries, Senate reform was also carried out. The decree on the rights of the Senate defined it as the “supreme place of the empire,” whose power was limited only by the power of the emperor. Ministers were required to submit annual reports to the Senate, which could be appealed to the sovereign. It was this point, which was greeted with enthusiasm by the top of the aristocracy, that within a few months became the cause of the conflict between the tsar and the Senate, when an attempt was made to protest the report of the Minister of War, already approved by the emperor, and it was about establishing the terms of compulsory service for nobles who had not served the officer rank. The Senate saw this as a violation of noble privileges. As a result of the conflict, a decree of March 21, 1803 followed, prohibiting the Senate from making submissions on newly issued laws. Thus, the Senate was effectively reduced to its previous position. In 1805 it was transformed, this time into a purely judicial institution with some administrative functions. In fact, the Committee of Ministers became the main governing body.

The incident with the Senate largely predetermined the further development of events and the plans of the emperor. By transforming the Senate into a representative body with broad rights, Alexander did what he had refused a year earlier. Now he was convinced that exclusively noble representation without legal guarantees for other classes became only an obstacle for him; anything could be achieved only by concentrating all power in his own hands. In fact, Alexander followed the path that his “young friends” and his old mentor Laharpe pushed him on from the very beginning. Apparently, by this time the emperor himself had felt the taste of power; he was tired of the constant teachings and lectures, the incessant disputes of his entourage, behind which a struggle for power and influence was easily discernible. So, in 1803, in a dispute with G.R. Derzhavin, who was at that time the Prosecutor General of the Senate, Alexander uttered significant words that could hardly be heard from him before: “You always want to teach me, I am an autocratic sovereign and I want it that way.”

The beginning of 1803 was also marked by some changes in the solution of the peasant question. This time the initiative came from the camp of the dignitary aristocracy from Count Rumyantsev, who wished to free his peasants and asked to establish a legal order for this. The count's appeal was used as a pretext for issuing on February 20, 1803 the Decree on free cultivators.

The decree on free cultivators had an important ideological significance: it for the first time approved the possibility of freeing peasants with land for ransom. This provision later formed the basis of the reform of 1861. Apparently, Alexander pinned great hopes on the decree: annually statements on the number of peasants transferred to this category. The practical application of the decree was supposed to show how ready the nobility really was to part with their privileges. The results were discouraging: according to the latest data, during the entire period of the decree, 111,829 male souls were freed, i.e., approximately 2% of all serfs.

A year later, the government took another step: on February 20, 1804, the “Regulations on Livland Peasants” appeared. The situation with the peasant question in the Baltic states was somewhat different than in Russia, since the sale of peasants without land was prohibited there. The new provision consolidated the status of “yard owners” as lifelong and hereditary tenants of the land and gave them the right to purchase their plot of land as their own. According to the provision, “yard owners” were exempt from conscription duty, and could be subjected to corporal punishment only by a court verdict. The amounts of their duties and payments were clearly defined. Soon the main provisions of the new law were extended to Estonia. Thus, a layer of wealthy peasantry was created in the Baltic countryside.

In October 1804, another innovation was introduced here by decree: people from the merchant class who had reached the rank of 8th grade were allowed to buy populated lands and own them on the basis of an agreement with the peasants. In other words, the peasants purchased in this way ceased to be serfs and became free. It was, as it were, a truncated version of the original program for the abolition of serfdom. However, the final goal could not be achieved with such half measures. Speaking about attempts to resolve the peasant issue in the first years of the reign of Alexander I, it should be mentioned that at that time the practice of granting state peasants to landowners ceased. True, about 350,000 state-owned peasants were transferred to temporary lease.

Along with attempts to solve the most important issues in the life of Russia, the government of Alexander I carried out major reforms in the field of public education. On January 24, 1803, Alexander approved a new regulation on the organization of educational institutions. The territory of Russia was divided into six educational districts, in which four categories of educational institutions were created: parish, district, provincial schools, as well as gymnasiums and universities. It was assumed that all these educational institutions would use uniform curricula, and the university in each educational district would represent the highest level of education. If before this there was only one university in Russia - Moscow, then in 1802 the University of Dorpat was restored, and in 1803 a university was opened in Vilna. In 1804, Kharkov and Kazan universities were founded. At the same time, the Pedagogical Institute was opened in St. Petersburg, then renamed the Main Pedagogical Institute, and in 1819 transformed into a university. In addition, privileged educational institutions were opened: in 1805 - the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl, and in 1811 - the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Specialized higher educational institutions were also created - the Moscow Commercial School (1804), the Institute of Railways (1810). Thus, under Alexander I, the work begun by Catherine II to create a public education system was continued and adjusted. As before, however, education remained inaccessible to a significant part of the population, primarily peasants.

The first stage of Alexander I's reforms ended in 1803, when it became clear that it was necessary to look for new ways and forms of their implementation. The emperor also needed new people who were not so closely connected with the top of the aristocracy and were completely devoted only to him personally. The king's choice settled on A.A. Arakcheev, the son of a poor and humble landowner, a former favorite of Paul I. Gradually, Arakcheev’s role became more and more significant, he became a confidant of the emperor, and in 1807 an imperial decree followed, according to which the commands announced by Arakcheev were equated with personal imperial decrees . But if Arakchiev’s main activity was military-police, then a different person was needed to develop plans for new reforms. It became M.M. Speransky.

Activities of M.M. Speransky

The son of a village priest, Speransky, like Arakcheev, not only did not belong to the aristocracy, but was not even a nobleman. He was born in 1771 in the village of Cherkutino, Vladimir province, studied first at the Vladimir, then at the Suzdal and, finally, at the St. Petersburg seminary. Upon completion, he was left there as a teacher and only in 1797 began his career with the rank of titular adviser in the office of the Prosecutor General of the Senate, Prince A. B. Kurakin. This career was, in the full sense of the word, rapid: after four and a half years, Speransky had the rank of full state councilor, equal to the rank of general in the army and giving the right to hereditary nobility.

In the first years of the reign of Alexander I, Speransky still remained in the shadows, although he was already preparing some documents and projects for members of the Secret Committee, in particular on ministerial reform. After the reform was implemented, he was transferred to serve in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1803 On behalf of the emperor, Speransky compiled a “Note on the structure of judicial and government institutions in Russia,” in which he showed himself to be a supporter of a constitutional monarchy, created through the gradual reform of society on the basis of a carefully developed plan. However, the Note had no practical significance. Only in 1807 After unsuccessful wars with France and the signing of the Peace of Tilsit, in the conditions of the internal political crisis, Alexander again turned to reform plans.

But why did the emperor’s choice fall on Arakcheev and Speransky and what were they for him? First of all, obedient executors of the will of the monarch, who wished to turn two not noble, but personally devoted people to him into all-powerful ministers, with whose help he hoped to implement his plans. Both of them were, in essence, zealous and diligent officials, independent by virtue of their origin from one or another group of the dignitary aristocracy. Arakcheev had to protect the throne from a noble conspiracy, Speransky had to develop and implement a reform plan based on the ideas and principles suggested by the emperor.

Speransky did not immediately receive a new role. At first, the emperor entrusted him with some “private matters.” Already in 1807, Speransky was invited to dinner at the court several times; in the fall of this year, he accompanied Alexander to Vitebsk for a military review, and a year later to Erfurt, to a meeting with Napoleon. This was already a sign of high trust.

The reform plan, drawn up in 1809 by Speransky in the form of an extensive document called “Introduction to the Code of State Laws,” was, as it were, a statement of the thoughts, ideas and intentions of the sovereign himself. Speransky insisted on the identity of the historical destinies of Russia and Europe, the processes that took place in them. The first attempts to change the political system occurred during the accession of Anna Ioannovna to the throne and during the reign of Catherine II, when she convened the Legislative Commission. Now the time has come for serious changes. This is evidenced by the state of society in which respect for ranks and titles has disappeared and the authority of the authorities has been undermined. It is necessary to implement a genuine separation of powers, creating independent legislative, judicial and executive powers. Legislative power is exercised through a system of elected bodies - dumas, starting from volosts and up to the State Duma, without the consent of which the autocrat should not have the right to issue laws, except in cases when it comes to the salvation of the fatherland. The State Duma exercises control over the executive branch - the government, whose ministers are responsible to it for their actions. The absence of such responsibility is the main drawback of the ministerial reform of 1802. The emperor retains the right to dissolve the Duma and call new elections. Members of provincial dumas elect the highest judicial body of the country - the Senate. The top of the state system is the State Council. Members of the State Council are appointed by the Sovereign, who himself presides over it. The Council includes ministers and other senior officials. If a disagreement arises in the State Council, the Tsar, at his discretion, approves the opinion of the majority or minority. Not a single law could come into force without discussion in the State Duma and the State Council.

Speransky also did not ignore the problem of civil rights. He believed that the entire population of the country, including serfs, should be provided with them. Among these rights he included the impossibility of punishing anyone without a court decision. Political rights, i.e., the right to participate in elections, were supposed to be given to Russian citizens who own land and capital, including state peasants. The right to be elected to representative bodies was limited by property qualifications. From this alone it is clear that Speransky’s project did not involve the abolition of serfdom. Speransky believed that it was impossible to abolish serfdom with a one-time legislative act, but conditions should be created under which it would be profitable for the landowners to set the peasants free.

Speransky's proposals also contained a plan for the gradual implementation of reforms. The first step was the establishment at the beginning of 1810 of the State Council, which was to be entrusted with the discussion of the previously drawn up “Civil Code”, that is, laws on the fundamental rights of the estates, as well as the financial system of the state. Having discussed the Civil Code, the Council would begin to study laws on the executive and judicial powers. All these documents together should have been drawn up by May 1810, the “State Code”, i.e. the constitution itself, after which it would be possible to begin the elections of deputies.

The implementation of Speransky's plan was supposed to transform Russia into a constitutional monarchy, where the power of the sovereign would be limited by a bicameral legislative body of a parliamentary type. Some historians even believe it is possible to talk about the transition to a bourgeois monarchy, however, since the project preserved the class organization of society and, especially, serfdom, this is incorrect.

The implementation of Speransky’s plan began in 1809. In April and October, decrees appeared, according to which, firstly, the practice of equating court ranks with civil ones, which allowed dignitaries to move from court service to senior positions in the state apparatus, ceased, and secondly, compulsory educational qualifications were introduced for civil ranks. This was supposed to streamline the activities of the state apparatus and make it more professional

In accordance with what was planned, already in the first months of 1810, a discussion took place on the problem of regulating public finances. Speransky compiled the “Plan of Finavs,” which formed the basis of the Tsar’s manifesto on February 2. The main purpose of the document was to eliminate the budget deficit, stop issuing depreciated banknotes and increase taxes, including on noble estates. These measures yielded results, and already next year the budget deficit decreased and state revenues increased.

At the same time, during 1810, the State Council discussed the draft “Code of Civil Laws” prepared by Speransky and even approved its first two parts. However, the implementation of the next stages of reform was delayed. Only in the summer of 1810 did the transformation of ministries begin, which was completed by June 1811: the Ministry of Commerce was liquidated, the ministries of police and communications, State Control (with the rights of a ministry), as well as a number of new Main Directorates were created.

At the beginning of 1811, Speransky presented a new project for the reorganization of the Senate. The essence of this project was significantly different from what was originally planned. This time, Speransky proposed dividing the Senate into two - government and judicial, that is, dividing its administrative and judicial functions. It was assumed that members of the Judicial Senate were to be partly appointed by the sovereign, and partly elected from the nobility. But this very moderate project was rejected by the majority of members of the Council State, and although the tsar approved it anyway, it was never implemented. As for the creation of the State Duma, it seems that it was discussed in 1810 - 1811. there was no talk. Thus, almost from the very beginning of the reforms, a deviation from their original plan was discovered, and it was no coincidence that in February 1811 Speransky turned to Alexander with a request for resignation.

Results of domestic policy 1801 - 1811.

What are the reasons for the new failure of reforms? Why was the supreme power unable to carry out radical reforms, which were clearly overdue and the need for which was quite obvious to the most far-sighted politicians?

The reasons are essentially the same as at the previous stage. The very rise of Speransky, the transformation of him - an upstart, a “popovich” - into the first minister aroused envy and anger in court circles. In 1809, after the decrees regulating the civil service, hatred of Speransky intensified even more and, by his own admission, he became the object of ridicule, caricatures and malicious attacks: after all, the decrees he prepared encroached on a long-established order that was very convenient for the nobility and bureaucrats. When the State Council was created, general discontent reached its climax.

The nobility was afraid of any changes, rightly suspecting that ultimately these changes could lead to the abolition of serfdom. Even the gradual nature of the reforms and the fact that they did not actually encroach on the main privilege of the nobility, and in general their details were kept secret, did not save the situation. The result was general discontent; in other words, as in 1801-1803, Alexander I faced the danger of a noble rebellion. The matter was complicated by foreign policy circumstances - the war with Napoleon was approaching. Perhaps the desperate resistance of the top of the nobility, intrigues and denunciations against Speransky (he was accused of Freemasonry, of revolutionary beliefs, of being a French spy, and all careless statements addressed to the sovereign were reported) ultimately would not have had an effect on the emperor If only in the spring of 1811 the camp of opponents of reforms had not suddenly received ideological and theoretical reinforcement from a completely unexpected quarter. In March of this year, in the salon of his sister, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, who lived in Tver, and with her active support, the wonderful Russian historian N.M. Karamzin handed over to the emperor “A Note on Ancient and New Russia” - a kind of manifesto of opponents of change, a generalized expression of the views of the conservative direction of Russian social thought.

According to Karamzin, autocracy is the only possible form of political structure for Russia. When asked whether it is possible to limit autocracy in Russia in any way without weakening the saving tsarist power, he answered in the negative. Any change, “any news in the state order is an evil that should be resorted to only when necessary.” However, Karamzin admitted, “so much new has been done that even the old would seem dangerous news to us: we have already become unaccustomed to it, and it is harmful for the glory of the sovereign to solemnly admit to ten years of errors produced by the pride of his very shallow-minded advisers... we must look for means, most suitable for the present.” The author saw salvation in the traditions and customs of Russia and its people, who do not at all need to take an example from Western Europe and, above all, France. One of these traditional features of Russia is serfdom, which arose as a consequence of “natural law”. Karamzin asked: “And will the farmers be happy, freed from the power of the master, but sacrificed to their own vices, tax farmers and unscrupulous judges? There is no doubt that the peasants of a reasonable landowner, who is content with a moderate rent or tithe of arable land for taxes, are happier than the state-owned peasants, having in him a vigilant guardian and supporter.”

Karamzin’s “Note” did not contain anything fundamentally new: many of his arguments and principles were known in the previous century. Apparently, the sovereign also heard them many times. However, this time these views were concentrated in one document written by a man not close to the court, not vested with power that he was afraid of losing. For Alexander, this became a sign that rejection of his policies had spread to wide sections of society and Karamzin’s voice was the voice of public opinion.

The denouement came in March 1812, when Alexander announced to Speransky the termination of his official duties, and he was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod, and then to Perm (returned from exile only at the end of Alexander’s reign). Apparently, by this time the pressure on the emperor had increased, and the denunciations he received against Speransky had acquired such a character that it was simply impossible to continue to ignore them. Alexander was forced to order an official investigation into the activities of his closest collaborator, and he probably would have done so if he had believed the slander even a little. At the same time, Speransky’s self-confidence, his careless statements, which immediately became known to the emperor, his desire to independently resolve all issues, pushing the sovereign into the background - all this overflowed the cup of patience and served as the reason for Speransky’s resignation and exile.

Thus ended another stage of the reign of Alexander I, and with it one of the most significant attempts in Russian history to implement radical state reform. A few months after these events, the Patriotic War with Napoleon began, followed by foreign campaigns of the Russian army. Several years passed before problems of domestic politics again attracted the attention of the emperor.

wiki.304.ru / History of Russia. Dmitry Alkhazashvili.

On March 12, 1801, Emperor Alexander I (1777-1825) ascended the Russian throne. He reigned from 1801 to 1825. He was the eldest son of the murdered Pavel and knew about the conspiracy. However, he did not interfere with him and allowed his father to be killed.

Russian society received the new sovereign with enthusiasm. He was young, smart, well educated. He was seen as a humane and liberal ruler capable of carrying out progressive reforms. In addition, the new emperor was personified with Catherine II, who was mainly involved in raising her grandson, not entrusting this important matter to his parents.

Russian Emperor Alexander I
Artist George Dow

When the boy was born, he was named after Alexander the Great. Previously, the name "Alexander" was not popular in the Romanov dynasty. However, with the light hand of Catherine, they began to call boys extremely often.

The grandmother, I must say, loved her grandson. And he grew up as an affectionate and gentle child, so the empress worked with him with pleasure. The future sovereign saw his parents extremely rarely. They lived in their own palace and rarely appeared at Catherine’s court. And she seriously thought about bequeathing power not to her son, whom she could not stand, but to her beloved grandson.

By order of his mother, the Empress, Alexander was married early, when he was 16 years old. The 14-year-old daughter of the Margrave of Baden was chosen as the bride. The girl's name was Louise Maria Augusta Margravine of Baden. She was baptized and named Elizaveta Alekseevna. The wedding took place on September 17, 1793.

Catherine II with her beloved grandson

Contemporaries described the wife of the future emperor as a charming and intelligent woman with a kind heart and an exalted soul. Life for the young people immediately went well. The young couple lived extremely friendly. However, when the husband ascended the throne, the wife lost all influence over him. She gave birth to two children - Mary and Elizabeth, but both girls died in infancy. Only towards the end of their lives did complete peace and quiet reign between the spouses.

The reign of Alexander I (1801-1825)

On the night of March 12, 1801, Paul I was killed, and already during the day his eldest son issued a Manifesto, in which he assumed control of the country and promised to rule by law and by heart. Even during his father’s lifetime, a circle of young and progressively thinking people rallied around the emperor. They were full of bright plans and hopes, which even began to come true after Alexander’s accession to the throne.

Domestic policy

This group of young people was called By secret committee. It existed for 2.5 years and considered issues of ministerial, senate, peasant reform, as well as foreign policy events. But all the innovations remained on paper, since the upper classes of the Russian Empire began to interfere with the implementation of reforms. The growing resistance alarmed the emperor, and he began to fear that such reform activities would weaken his personal power.

It all ended with the main reformer Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (1772-1839) being removed from his post as Secretary of State in March 1812 and sent into exile. He returned from it only in March 1821.

And Speransky proposed equalizing the civil rights of nobles, merchants, townspeople, peasants, workers and domestic servants. He also proposed creating legislative bodies in the form of state, provincial, district and volost dumas. The Senate and ministries also underwent serious changes. But the transformations only partially affected the legislative and executive powers. The judiciary has not been reformed in any way. The provincial government did not undergo changes either.

After Speransky’s disgrace, Alexei Andreevich Arakcheev (1769-1834) moved to first place in the state. He was immensely devoted to the sovereign, but extremely conservative and limited. By order of Emperor Alexander I, he began creating military settlements.

The peasants driven into such settlements were forced, along with agricultural labor, to also serve in the army. This experience turned out to be extremely unsuccessful and led to suffering among people. As a result, uprisings began to break out here and there, but they were all suppressed, and Arakcheev himself was adamant.

Why did the sovereign conceive such a clearly failed and hopeless business? He wanted to free the country's budget from maintaining the army by creating a military-agricultural class. It would feed itself, put on shoes, clothe itself and support its troops. Moreover, the size of the army would always correspond to wartime.

The massive creation of military settlements began in 1816. They were organized in Novgorod, Kherson and some other provinces. Their number increased until the death of the emperor. In 1825, there were 170 thousand professional soldiers in the settlements, ready to take up arms at any moment. Military settlements were abolished in 1857. By that time, there were 800 thousand people liable for military service.

Battle of Russian and French cavalry

Foreign policy

In foreign policy, Emperor Alexander I glorified his name by successfully opposing Napoleon Bonaparte. He became the initiator of the anti-French coalition. But in 1805, the Russian-Austrian army was defeated at Austerlitz.

On June 25, 1807, the agreement was signed with France World of Tilsit. According to it, Russia recognized territorial changes in Europe. Concluded a truce with Turkey, withdrew troops from Wallachia and Moldova. Trade relations with England were also severed. Russia became an ally of France. This union lasted until 1809. In addition, in 1808-1809 there was a war with Sweden, which ended with the annexation of Finland to Russia. In 1806-1812 there was a war with Turkey, and in 1804-1813 there was a Russian-Persian war.

Glory came to the emperor during the Patriotic War of 1812. On June 12, Napoleon Bonaparte's huge army invaded Russian territory. This company ended in the complete defeat of the invincible French army. At first she retreated slowly, and then took a shameful flight.

Alexander I enters Paris on a white horse

Russian troops, having liberated Russia, under the command of M.I. Kutuzov moved to France. Kutuzov caught a cold in April 1813, fell ill and died in Silesia. But this did not prevent the victorious offensive. In the spring of 1814, the Russian army entered French territory. Napoleon abdicated the throne, and Emperor Alexander I rode into Paris on a white horse. This company became a triumph of Russian weapons.

The Russian sovereign was one of the leaders Congress of Vienna, which took place in Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. Almost all European states took part in it. At the congress, a decision was made to restore the monarchies destroyed by the French Revolution and Napoleon. New state borders were established in Europe. These negotiations are considered extremely difficult to this day, as they took place in conditions of behind-the-scenes intrigue and secret collusion.

Medal "For the Capture of Paris"

In general, it should be noted that during the reign of Emperor Alexander I, the Russian Empire significantly expanded its borders. She annexed the lands of Georgia, Imereti, Mingrelia, and Bessarabia. Finland, the main part of Poland. Thus, the western border of the empire was formed, which existed until the October Revolution of 1917.

The last years of the life of Alexander I

In the last years of his life, the All-Russian Emperor changed a lot. He began to show excessive religiosity, claiming that he wanted to leave power and the throne and go into private life.

In 1824, the sovereign's wife Elizaveta Alekseevna fell ill and suffered from heart failure. Her husband took her to the south for treatment. He combined his wife’s treatment with an inspection trip. It happened in the month of November, when cold winds blew. As a result, the sovereign caught a cold. He developed a fever, complicated by inflammation of the brain, and on November 19, 1825, he died in the city of Taganrog in a house on Grecheskaya Street.

Be that as it may, life in the Russian Empire continued. After the death or departure of Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich Romanov, his younger brother Nicholas I ascended the throne.

Leonid Druzhnikov

This war began on the initiative of Iran. His army consisted of 140 thousand horsemen and 60 thousand infantry, but it was poorly armed and equipped. The Russian Caucasian Army was initially led by General I.V. Gudovich. In a short time, his troops managed to conquer the Ganja, Sheki, Karabakh, Shirvan, Kuba and Baku khanates. However, after an unsuccessful assault on the city of Erivan (Yerevan) in 1808, General A.P. Tormasov was appointed commander. He scored several more victories.

In 1810. the Persians and Turks concluded an alliance against Russia, which, however, did little to help them. In 1812. Russian troops of General P. S. Kotlyarevsky, consisting of 2 thousand people, attacked the 10 thousand-strong Persian army led by Crown Prince Abbas Mirza and put it to flight, after which they occupied Arkevan and Lenkoran. October 24, 1813. was signed Gulistan Peace Treaty. The Shah of Iran recognized Russia as the territories of Georgia, Dagestan, Shirvan, Mingrelia, Imereti, Abkhazia and Guria. He was forced to conclude a military alliance with Russia and grant it the right of free navigation in the Caspian Sea. The result of the war was a serious expansion and strengthening of the southern borders of Russia.

Breaking the Russian-French alliance.

Alexander unsuccessfully demanded that Napoleon abandon his support for the Poles' intentions to annex the lands of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine to the Duchy of Warsaw. Finally in February 1811 Napoleon dealt another blow to his " dear ally- annexed the Duchy of Oldenburg in Germany to France, whose crown prince was married to Alexander's sister Catherine. In April 1811, the Franco-Russian alliance broke down. Both countries began intensive preparations for the inevitable war.

Patriotic War of 1812 (briefly)

The cause of the war was the violation by Russia and France of the terms of the Tilsit Treaty. Russia actually abandoned the blockade of England, accepting ships with British goods under neutral flags in its ports. France annexed the Duchy of Oldenburg, and Napoleon considered Alexander's demand for the withdrawal of French troops from Prussia and the Duchy of Warsaw offensive. A military clash between the two great powers was becoming inevitable.

June 12, 1812. Napoleon at the head of an army of 600 thousand, crossing the river. Neman invaded Russia. Having an army of about 240 thousand people, Russian troops were forced to retreat before the French Armada. On August 3, the 1st and 2nd Russian armies united near Smolensk, and a battle was fought. Napoleon failed to achieve complete victory. In August, M.I. was appointed commander-in-chief. Kutuzov. Kutuzov decided to give battle in the area of ​​the village of Borodino. A good position for the troops was chosen. The right flank was protected by the Koloch River, the left was protected by earthen fortifications - flashes, they were defended by the troops of P.I. Bagration. The troops of General N.N. Raevsky and artillery stood in the center. Their positions were covered by the Shevardinsky redoubt.

Napoleon intended to break through the Russian formation from the left flank, and then direct all efforts to the center and press Kutuzov’s army to the river. He directed the fire of 400 guns at Bagration's flashes. The French launched 8 attacks, starting at 5 a.m., suffering huge losses. Only by 4 o'clock in the afternoon did the French manage to advance in the center, temporarily capturing Raevsky's batteries. At the height of the battle, a desperate raid into the rear of the French was carried out by the lancers of the 1st cavalry corps F.P. Uvarov and the Cossacks of Ataman M.I. Platova. This restrained the attacking impulse of the French.

The battle ended late in the evening. The troops suffered huge losses: the French - 58 thousand people, the Russians - 44 thousand.

September 1, 1812. At a meeting in Fili, Kutuzov decides to leave Moscow. The retreat was necessary to preserve the army and further fight for the independence of the Fatherland.

Napoleon entered Moscow on September 2 and stayed there until October 7, 1812, awaiting peace proposals. During this time, most of the city was destroyed by fires. Bonaparte's attempts to make peace with Alexander I were unsuccessful.

Having left Moscow in October, Napoleon tried to go to Kaluga and spend the winter in a province not devastated by the war. On October 12, near Maloyaroslavets, Napoleon’s army was defeated and began to retreat along the devastated Smolensk road, driven by frost and hunger. Pursuing the retreating French, Russian troops destroyed their formations in parts. The final defeat of Napoleon's army took place in the battle of the river. Berezina November 14-16. Only 30 thousand French soldiers were able to leave Russia. On December 25, Alexander I issued a manifesto on the victorious end of the Patriotic War.

Nicholas I

Emperor Nicholas 1 was born on June 25 (July 6), 1796. He was the third son of Paul 1 and Maria Feodorovna. He received a good education, but did not recognize the humanities. He was knowledgeable in the art of war and fortification. He was good at engineering. However, despite this, the king was not loved in the army. Cruel corporal punishment and coldness led to the fact that the nickname of Nicholas 1, Nikolai Palkin, became entrenched among soldiers.

Alexandra Fedorovna- the wife of Nicholas 1, possessing amazing beauty, became the mother of the future Emperor Alexander 2.

Nicholas 1 ascended the throne after the death of his elder brother Alexander 1. Constantine, the second contender for the throne, renounced his rights during the life of his elder brother. Nicholas 1 did not know about this and first swore allegiance to Constantine. This short period would later be called the Interregnum. Although the manifesto on the accession to the throne of Nicholas 1 was published on December 13 (25), 1825, legally the reign of Nicholas 1 began on November 19 (December 1). And the very first day was overshadowed by the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square, which was suppressed, and the leaders were executed in 1826. But Tsar Nicholas 1 saw the need to reform the social system. He decided to give the country clear laws, while relying on the bureaucracy, since trust in the noble class had been undermined.

The domestic policy of Nicholas 1 was distinguished by extreme conservatism. The slightest manifestations of free thought were suppressed. He defended the autocracy with all his might. The secret chancellery under the leadership of Benckendorf was engaged in political investigation.

The reforms of Nicholas 1 were limited. The legislation was streamlined. Under the leadership of Speransky, the publication of the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire began. Kiselev carried out a reform of the management of state peasants. Peasants were allocated lands when they moved to uninhabited areas, first aid stations were built in villages, and agricultural technology innovations were introduced. In 1839 - 1843. A financial reform was also carried out, establishing the relationship between the silver ruble and the banknote. But the question of serfdom remained unresolved.

The foreign policy of Nicholas 1 pursued the same goals as his domestic policy. During the reign of Nicholas 1, Russia fought the revolution not only within the country, but also outside its borders.

Nicholas 1 died on March 2 (February 18), 1855 in St. Petersburg, and his son, Alexander 2, ascended the throne.

Brief biography of Alexander 2

The domestic policy of Alexander 2 was strikingly different from the policy of Nicholas 1 and was marked by many reforms. The most important of them was the peasant reform of Alexander 2, according to which in 1861, on February 19, serfdom was abolished. This reform created an urgent need for further changes in many Russian institutions and led to Alexander carrying out 2 bourgeois reforms.

In 1864. By decree of Alexander 2, zemstvo reform was carried out. Its goal was to create a system of local self-government, for which the institution of district zemstvo was established.

In 1870. urban reform was carried out, which had a positive impact on the development of industry and cities. City councils and councils were established, which were representative bodies of government.

The judicial reform of Alexander II, carried out in 1864, was marked by the introduction of European legal norms, but some features of the previously existing judicial system were retained, for example, a special court for officials.

Military reform of Alexander 2. Its result was universal conscription, as well as army organization standards close to European ones.

During the financial reform of Alexander 2, the State Bank was created, and official accounting was born.

The foreign policy of Alexander 2 was very successful. During his reign, Russia regained its military power, which had been shaken under Nicholas 1.

The great reforms of Alexander 2 were interrupted by his death. March 1, 1881 On that day, Tsar Alexander 2 intended to sign Loris-Melikov’s project of large-scale economic and administrative reforms. The assassination attempt on Alexander 2, committed by the Narodnaya Volya member Grinevitsky, led to his severe injury and the death of the emperor.

Alexander 3 - policy of counter-reforms (briefly)

April 29, 1881 - Manifesto, in which the emperor declared his will to preserve the foundations of autocracy and thereby eliminated the hopes of the democrats for transforming the regime into a constitutional monarchy.

Alexander III replaced liberal figures in the government with hardliners. The concept of counter-reforms was developed by its main ideologist K.N. Pobedonostsev.

To strengthen the autocratic system, the system of zemstvo self-government was subjected to changes. Judicial and administrative powers were combined in the hands of zemstvo chiefs. They had unlimited power over the peasants.

Published 1890 The “Regulations on Zemstvo Institutions” strengthened the role of the nobility in zemstvo institutions and the administration’s control over them. The representation of landowners in zemstvos increased significantly through the introduction of a high property qualification.

In 1881. The “Regulation on measures to preserve state security and public peace” was published, which granted numerous repressive rights to the local administration (to declare a state of emergency, to expel without trial, to put on trial in a military court, to close educational institutions). This law was used until the reforms of 1917 and became a tool for the fight against the revolutionary and liberal movement.

In 1892. a new “City Regulation” was issued, which infringed on the independence of city government bodies. The government included them in the general system of government institutions, thereby putting them under control.

Alexander 3, by law of 1893, prohibited the sale and mortgage of peasant lands, negating all the successes of previous years.

In 1884. Alexander undertook a university counter-reform, the purpose of which was to educate the intelligentsia obedient to the authorities. The new university charter sharply limited the autonomy of universities, placing them under the control of trustees.

Under Alexander 3, the development of factory legislation began, which restrained the initiative of the owners of the enterprise and excluded the possibility of workers fighting for their rights.

The results of the counter-reforms of Alexander 3 are contradictory: the country managed to achieve industrial growth and refrain from participating in wars, but at the same time social unrest and tension increased.

Emperor Nicholas 2 (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov)

Nicholas 2 (May 18, 1868 - July 17, 1918) - last Russian emperor, son of Alexander 3.

May 26, 1896. The coronation of Nicholas 2 and his wife took place. During the holidays, a terrible event occurs, called “Khodynka,” as a result of which 1,282 people died in a stampede.

During the reign of Nicholas 2, Russia experienced rapid economic growth. The agricultural sector is strengthening - the country is becoming Europe's main exporter of agricultural products, and a stable gold currency is being introduced. Industry was actively developing: cities grew, enterprises and railways were built. Nicholas 2 was a reformer; he introduced a rationed day for workers, provided them with insurance, and carried out reforms in the army and navy. The Emperor supported the development of culture and science in Russia.

But, despite significant improvements, popular unrest occurred in the country. In January 1905, the first Russian revolution took place, the impetus for which was Bloody Sunday. As a result, on October 17, 1905, the manifesto “On the Improvement of State Order” was adopted. It talked about civil liberties. A parliament was created, which included the State Duma and the State Council. On June 3 (16), 1907, the “Third June Coup” took place, which changed the rules of elections to the Duma.

In 1914, World War I began, causing conditions within the country to deteriorate. Failures in battles undermined the authority of Tsar Nicholas 2. In February 1917, an uprising arose in Petrograd, reaching enormous proportions. On March 2, 1917, fearing mass bloodshed, Nicholas 2 signed an act of abdication.

On March 9, 1917, the provisional government arrested the entire Romanov family and sent it to Tsarskoe Selo. In August they were transported to Tobolsk, and in April 1918 to their final destination - Yekaterinburg. On the night of July 16-17, the Romanovs were taken to the basement, the death sentence was read out and they were executed. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that no one from the royal family managed to escape.

Russia in the First World War

The First World War was the result of contradictions that arose between the states of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary) and the Entente (Russia, England, France). At the heart of these contradictions was the conflict between England and Germany, including economic, naval and colonial claims. There were disputes between France and Germany over the regions of Alsace and Lorraine seized from France, as well as German claims to French colonies in Africa.

The reason for the outbreak of war was the murder in Sarajevo on June 25, 1914 of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. On August 19, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia.

Military operations in Europe were divided into two fronts: Western (in France and Belgium) and Eastern - Russian. Russian troops operated on the Northwestern Front (East Prussia, the Baltic States, Poland) and the Southwestern Front (Western Ukraine, Transcarpathia). Russia entered the war without having time to complete the rearmament of its troops.

Successful operations were carried out against German troops near Warsaw and Lodz.

In the autumn of 1914. Türkiye took the side of the Triple Alliance. The opening of the Caucasian Front greatly complicated Russia's position. The troops began to experience an urgent need for ammunition; the situation was complicated by the helplessness of the allies.

In 1915. Germany, having concentrated its main forces on the Eastern Front, carried out a spring-summer offensive, as a result of which Russia lost all the gains of 1914 and partly the territories of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine and Western Belarus.

Germany transferred its main forces to the Western Front, where it began active battles near the Verdun fortress.

Two offensive attempts - in Galicia and Belarus - ended in defeat. The Germans managed to capture the city of Riga and the Moonsund archipelago.

October 26, 1917. The 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Peace, in which all warring parties were invited to begin peace negotiations. On November 14, Germany agreed to hold negotiations, which began on November 20, 1917 in Brest-Litovsk.

A truce was concluded, Germany put forward demands, which the delegation led by L. Trotsky rejected and left Brest-Litovsk. German troops responded to this with an offensive along the entire front. On February 18, the new Soviet delegation signed a peace treaty with Germany on even more difficult conditions.

Russia lost Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and part of Belarus. The military presence of Soviet troops in the Baltic states, Finland, and Ukraine was excluded.

Russia pledged to demobilize the army, transfer ships of the Black Sea Fleet to Germany, and pay a monetary indemnity.

February Revolution of 1917 (briefly)

The difficult economic situation prompted the government to involve the bourgeoisie in managing the economy. Numerous committees and bourgeois unions appeared, the purpose of which was to provide assistance to those affected during the war. Military-industrial committees dealt with issues of defense, fuel, transport, food, etc.

At the beginning of 1917. the level of the strike movement reached a critical point. In January-February 1917, 676 thousand workers went on strike, making mainly (95% of strikes) political demands. The growth of the workers' and peasants' movement showed "the reluctance of the lower classes to live in the old way."

February 14, 1917 A demonstration took place near the Tauride Palace demanding that deputies of the State Duma create a “government of people’s salvation.” At the same time, the Bolsheviks, calling on the workers for a one-day general strike, brought 90 thousand people onto the streets of Petrograd. The revolutionary explosion was facilitated by the introduction of rationing for bread, which caused its rise in price and panic among the population. On February 22, Nicholas II left for Mogilev, where his Headquarters was located. On February 23, the Vyborg and Petrograd sides went on strike, and pogroms of bakeries and bakeries began in the city.

The success of the revolution began to depend on whose side the Petrograd garrison took. On the morning of February 26, soldiers of the Volyn, Preobrazhensky and Lithuanian regiments joined the rebels; they captured the armory and arsenal.

Political prisoners held in the Kresty prison were released. By the end of the day, most of the units of the Petrograd garrison had gone over to the side of the rebels.

The corps under the command of N.I. Ivanov, aimed at suppressing the demonstrators, was disarmed on the approaches to the city. Without waiting for support and realizing the futility of resistance, on February 28, all other troops, led by the commander of the military district, General S.S. Khabalov, surrendered.

The rebels established control over the most important objects in the city.

On the morning of February 27, members of the “working group” under the Central Military-Industrial Committee announced the creation of a “Provisional Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers’ Deputies” and called for the election of representatives to the Council.

Nicholas II from Headquarters tried to break through to Tsarskoye Selo. In a situation of a developing revolutionary crisis, the emperor was forced to sign a manifesto abdicating the throne for himself and his young son Alexei in favor of his brother, Mikhail Alekseevich Romanov. However, Mikhail renounced the throne, declaring that the issue of power should be decided by the Constituent Assembly.

October Revolution of 1917 in Russia

The Great October Socialist Revolution took place on October 25-26, 1917. This is one of the greatest events in the history of Russia, as a result of which dramatic changes occurred in the position of all classes of society.

The October Revolution began as a result of a number of compelling reasons:

• In 1914-1918. Russia was involved in the First World War, the situation at the front was not the best, there was no intelligent leader, the army suffered heavy losses. In industry, the growth of military products prevailed over consumer products, which led to rising prices and caused discontent among the masses. The soldiers and peasants wanted peace, and the bourgeoisie, who profited from the supply of military supplies, longed for the continuation of hostilities.
• National conflicts.
• The intensity of the class struggle. The peasants, who for centuries dreamed of getting rid of the oppression of the landowners and kulaks and taking possession of the land, were ready for decisive action.
• The decline in the authority of the Provisional Government, which was unable to solve the problems of society.
• The Bolsheviks had a strong, authoritative leader, V.I. Lenin, who promised the people to solve all social problems.
• The prevalence of socialist ideas in society.

The Bolshevik Party achieved enormous influence on the masses. In October there were already 400 thousand people on their side. On October 16, 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee was created, which began preparations for an armed uprising. During the revolution, by October 25, 1917, all key points in the city were occupied by the Bolsheviks, led by V.I. Lenin. They are taking over Winter palace and arrest the provisional government.

On October 26, the Decree on Peace and Land was adopted. At the congress, a Soviet government was formed, called the “Council of People’s Commissars,” which included: Lenin himself (chairman), L.D. Trotsky (People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs), I.V. Stalin (People's Commissar for National Affairs). The “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” was introduced, which stated that all people have equal rights to freedom and development, there is no longer a nation of masters and a nation of the oppressed.

As a result of the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks won a victory and the dictatorship of the proletariat was established. Class society was abolished, the land of the landowners was transferred into the hands of the peasants, and industrial structures: factories, factories, mines - into the hands of the workers.

Civil War and Intervention (briefly)

The civil war began in October 1917 and ended with the defeat of the White Army in the Far East in the fall of 1922. During this time, on the territory of Russia, various social classes and groups resolved the contradictions that arose between them using armed methods.

The main reasons for the outbreak of the civil war include:

Inconsistency between the goals of transforming society and the methods for achieving them,

Refusal to create a coalition government,

Dispersal of the Constituent Assembly,

Nationalization of land and industry,

Liquidation of commodity-money relations,

Establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat,

Creation of a one-party system,

The danger of the revolution spreading to other countries,

Economic losses of Western powers during regime change in Russia.

In the spring of 1918. British, American and French troops landed in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The Japanese invaded the Far East, the British and Americans landed in Vladivostok - the intervention began.

May 25 There was an uprising of the 45,000-strong Czechoslovak corps, which was transferred to Vladivostok for further shipment to France. A well-armed and equipped corps stretched from the Volga to the Urals. In the conditions of the decayed Russian army, he became the only real force at that time.

In November-December 1918 English troops landed in Batumi and Novorossiysk, the French occupied Odessa. In these critical conditions, the Bolsheviks managed to create a combat-ready army by mobilizing people and resources and attracting military specialists from the tsarist army.

By the autumn of 1918. The Red Army liberated the cities of Samara, Simbirsk, Kazan and Tsaritsyn.

The revolution in Germany had a significant influence on the course of the civil war. Having admitted its defeat in the First World War, Germany agreed to annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and withdrew its troops from the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states.

The Entente began to withdraw its troops, providing only material assistance to the White Guards.

By April 1919. The Red Army managed to stop the troops of General A.V. Kolchak. Driven deep into Siberia, they were defeated by the beginning of 1920.

Summer 1919. General Denikin, having captured Ukraine, moved towards Moscow and approached Tula. The troops of the first cavalry army under the command of M.V. Frunze and the Latvian riflemen concentrated on the Southern Front. In the spring of 1920, near Novorossiysk, the “Reds” defeated the White Guards.

In the north of the country, the troops of General N.N. Yudenich fought against the Soviets. In the spring and autumn of 1919 they made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Petrograd.

In April 1920. The conflict between Soviet Russia and Poland began. In May 1920, the Poles captured Kyiv. The troops of the Western and Southwestern Fronts launched an offensive, but failed to achieve final victory.

Realizing the impossibility of continuing the war, in March 1921 the parties signed a peace treaty.

The war ended with the defeat of General P.N. Wrangel, who led the remnants of Denikin’s troops in the Crimea. In 1920, the Far Eastern Republic was formed, and by 1922 it was finally liberated from the Japanese.

Education of the USSR (briefly)

In 1918, the “Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People” was adopted, which proclaimed the principle of the future structure of the country. Its federal basis as a free union of republics assumed the right of nations to self-determination. Following this, the Soviet government recognized the independence of Finland and the statehood of Poland.

The collapse of the Russian Empire and the imperialist war led to the establishment of Soviet power throughout Russia.

Proclaimed in 1918. The RSFSR occupied 92% of the entire territory and was the largest of all Soviet republics, where more than 100 peoples and nationalities lived. It partially included the territories of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In fact, until 1922, the Far Eastern Republic functioned in its likeness.

From 1920 to 1921. units of the Red Army occupied these states without visible resistance and established the laws of the RSFSR there. The Sovietization of Belarus was easy.

In Ukraine, there was a struggle against the pro-Kiev course. The process of establishing Soviet power in the Central Asian Soviet People's Republics - Bukhara and Khorezm - was difficult. Units of local armed opposition continued to resist there.

Most of the communist leaders of the republics were concerned about the existence of “Great Russian chauvinism”, so that the unification of the republics into a single whole would not become the creation of a new empire. This problem was perceived especially painfully in Georgia and Ukraine.

The unity and rigidity of the repressive bodies served as powerful factors in the unification of the republics.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee commission was involved in developing the principles of the national state structure. Autonomous, federal and confederal options for building a single state were considered.

The plan for the declared autonomous entry of the Soviet republics into the RSFSR was proposed by the People's Commissar for Nationalities Stalin. However, the commission accepted the version of a federal federal state proposed by Lenin. It gave future republics formal sovereignty.

Lenin clearly understood that a single party and a single repressive system were a sure guarantee of the integrity of the state. Lenin's project could attract other peoples to the union, and not scare them away, like Stalin's version.

December 30, 1922. At the First Congress of Soviets, the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was proclaimed. The Congress adopted the Declaration and Treaty.

The Central Executive Committee (CEC), which consisted of two chambers: the Union Council and the Council of Nationalities, was elected as the highest legislative body.

January 31, 1924. The Second All-Union Congress of Soviets adopted the first Constitution of the USSR, which stipulated the principles of the Declaration and the Treaty.

The foreign policy of the USSR was quite active. Progress has been achieved in relations with the countries of the capitalist camp. An economic cooperation agreement was signed with France (1966). The Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Nuclear Arms (SALT-1) is concluded. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1975 played an important role in relieving international tension. The USSR maintained and strengthened ties with developing countries.

The 80s became a time of radical changes and restructuring in the USSR. It was brought about by problems in the social sphere and social production, and the impending crisis in the economy of the USSR, caused by the arms race that was ruinous for the country. The course towards democratization of public life and openness was announced by M.S. Gorbachev.

But perestroika could not prevent the collapse of the USSR.

Among the main reasons for the collapse of the USSR are the following:

• The actual destruction of the philosophy of communism, the spirit of which was lost first by the leadership of the country, and then by all its citizens.
• Distortion in the development of industry in the USSR - as in the pre-war years, the main attention was paid to heavy industry, as well as defense and energy. The development of light industry and the level of production of consumer goods were clearly insufficient.
• Ideological failure also played a role. Life behind the Iron Curtain seemed wonderful and free to most Soviet people. And such benefits as free education and medicine, housing and social guarantees were taken for granted; people did not know how to appreciate them.
• Prices in the USSR, which were relatively low, were artificially “frozen,” but there was a problem of shortage of many goods, often also artificial.
• Soviet people were completely controlled by the system.
• Many experts cite the sharp decline in oil prices and the ban on religions as one of the reasons for the fall of the USSR.

The Baltic republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) were the first to leave the USSR.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russia declared itself the heir to a great empire. The 90s turned into a severe crisis for the country in all areas. The production crisis led to the virtual destruction of many industries, and contradictions between the legislative and executive authorities led to a crisis situation in the political sphere.

GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

At dawn on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Romania, Hungary, Italy and Finland took the side of Germany. In accordance with the Barbarossa plan developed in 1940, Germany planned to enter the Arkhangelsk-Volga-Astrakhan line as soon as possible. It was a setup for blitzkrieg - lightning war. This is how the Great Patriotic War began.

Main periods of the Great Patriotic War. The first period (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942) from the beginning of the war to the beginning of the offensive of Soviet troops near Stalingrad. This was the most difficult period for the USSR, called the Battle of Stalingrad.

Having created multiple superiority in men and military equipment in the main directions of attack, the German army achieved significant success. By the end of November 1941, Soviet troops, having retreated under the blows of superior enemy forces to Leningrad, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, left a huge territory to the enemy, lost about 5 million people killed, missing and captured, most of the tanks and aircraft .

The second period (November 19, 1942 - end of 1943) is a radical turning point in the war. Having exhausted and bled the enemy in defensive battles, on November 19, 1942, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive, encircling 22 fascist divisions numbering more than 300 thousand people near Stalingrad. On February 2, 1943, this group was liquidated. At the same time, enemy troops were expelled from the North Caucasus. By the summer of 1943, the Soviet-German front had stabilized.

The third period (end of 1943 - May 8, 1945) is the final period of the Great Patriotic War. In 1944, the Soviet economy achieved its greatest expansion during the entire war. Industry, transport, and agriculture developed successfully. Military production grew especially rapidly.

1944 was marked by victories of the Soviet Armed Forces. The entire territory of the USSR was completely liberated from the fascist occupiers. The Soviet Union came to the aid of the peoples of Europe - the Soviet Army liberated Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and fought its way to Norway. Romania and Bulgaria declared war on Germany. Finland left the war.

During the winter offensive of 1945, the Soviet Army pushed the enemy back more than 500 km. Poland, Hungary and Austria, and the eastern part of Czechoslovakia were almost completely liberated. The Soviet Army reached the Oder. On April 25, 1945, a historic meeting between Soviet troops and American and British troops took place on the Elbe, in the Torgau region.

The fighting in Berlin was exceptionally fierce and stubborn. On April 30, the Victory Banner was hoisted over the Reichstag. On May 8, the act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed. May 9 became Victory Day.

Development of the USSR in 1945-1953

The main task of the post-war period was the restoration of the destroyed economy. In March 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a plan for the reconstruction and restoration of the national economy.

The demilitarization of the economy and the modernization of the military-industrial complex began. Heavy industry, mainly mechanical engineering, metallurgy, and the fuel and energy complex, was declared a priority area.

By 1948, production had reached pre-war levels thanks to the heroic work of the Soviet people, the free labor of Gulag prisoners, the redistribution of funds in favor of heavy industry, the transfer of funds from the agricultural sector and light industry, the attraction of funds from German reparations, and strict economic planning.

In 1945, the gross agricultural output of the USSR was 60% of the pre-war level. The government tried to take punitive measures to bring the industry out of the crisis.

In 1947, a mandatory minimum of workdays was established, the law “For encroachment on collective farm and state property” was tightened, and the tax on livestock was increased, which led to its mass slaughter.

The area of ​​individual plots of collective farmers has been reduced. Wages in kind have decreased. Collective farmers were denied passports, which limited their freedom. At the same time, farms were enlarged and control over them was tightened.

These reforms were not successful, and only by the 50s was it possible to reach the pre-war level of agricultural production.

In 1945, the State Defense Committee was abolished. The work of public and political organizations has been resumed

In 1946, the Council of People's Commissars was transformed into the Council of Ministers, and the People's Commissariats into ministries.

Since 1946, the development of a draft of a new Constitution of the USSR began. In 1947, the question “On the draft of a new program of the All-Union Communist Party (b)” was submitted for consideration by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

There have been changes in science and culture. Since 1952, compulsory seven-year education has been introduced and evening schools have been opened. The Academy of Arts and the Academy of Sciences were established with its branches in the republics. Many universities have postgraduate courses. Regular television broadcasting began.

In 1948, the persecution of “cosmopolitans” began. Bans on contacts and marriages with foreigners were introduced. A wave of anti-Semitism swept across the country.

Khrushchev's foreign and domestic policies

Khrushchev's activities played a significant role in organizing mass repressions, both in Moscow and in Ukraine. During the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was a member of the military councils of the fronts and by 1943 he received the rank of lieutenant general. Also, Khrushchev led the partisan movement behind the front line.

One of the most famous post-war initiatives was the strengthening of collective farms, which helped reduce bureaucracy. In the fall of 1953, Khrushchev took the highest party position. Khrushchev's reign began with the announcement of a large-scale project for the development of virgin lands. The purpose of developing virgin lands was to increase the volume of grain collected in the country.

Khrushchev's domestic policy was marked by the rehabilitation of victims of political repression and an improvement in the standard of living of the population of the USSR. He also made an attempt to modernize the party system.

Foreign policy changed under Khrushchev. Thus, among the theses put forward by him at the 20th Congress of the CPSU was the thesis that a war between socialism and capitalism is not at all inevitable. Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress contained rather harsh criticism of Stalin's activities, the cult of personality, and political repression. It was received ambiguously by leaders of other countries. An English translation of this speech was soon published in the United States. But citizens of the USSR were able to get acquainted with it only in the 2nd half of the 80s.

In 1957 a conspiracy was created against Khrushchev, which was unsuccessful. As a result, the conspirators, which included Molotov, Kaganovich and Malenkov, were dismissed by decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee.

Brief biography of Brezhnev

During the Great Patriotic War, Brezhnev L.I. served as head of the department of the Southern Front, and received the rank of major general in 1943. After the end of hostilities, Brezhnev successfully built a political career. He consistently works as secretary of the regional committee of Ukraine and Moldova. In 1952 he became a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, and after Khrushchev came to power he was appointed secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.

By 1957, Brezhnev returned to the Presidium and after 3 years he took the position of Chairman of the Presidium. During the years of Brezhnev's rule, the country refused to implement the ideas of the previous leader, Khrushchev. Since 1965, Brezhnev’s leisurely and outwardly more modest reforms began, the goal of which was to build “developed socialism.” Enterprises are gaining greater independence than in previous years, and the standard of living of the population is gradually improving, which is especially noticeable in villages. However, by the beginning of the 70s, stagnation in the economy began to appear.

In international relations, Khrushchev's course is maintained, and dialogue with the West continues. The agreements on disarmament in Europe, enshrined in the Helsinki Agreements, are also important. Tensions in international relations reappeared only after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

Brief biography of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev

Party career of Gorbachev M.S. turned out to be successful. And high yields in the Stavropol region created a good reputation for it. In an effort to introduce more rational methods of agricultural labor, Gorbachev publishes articles in the regional and central press. As Secretary of the Central Committee, he deals with the problems of the country's agriculture.

Gorbachev came to power in 1985. Later, he held other high posts in the USSR. Gorbachev's reign was marked by serious political reforms designed to end stagnation. The most famous actions of the country's leadership were the introduction of self-financing, acceleration, and money exchange. Gorbachev’s famous Prohibition Law aroused sharp rejection among almost all citizens of the Union. Unfortunately, the decree “On strengthening the fight against drunkenness” had the exact opposite effect. Most of the liquor stores were closed. However, the practice of moonshine has spread almost everywhere. Fake vodka also appeared. Prohibition was repealed in 1987 for economic reasons. However, the fake vodka remains.

Gorbachev's perestroika was marked by a weakening of censorship and, at the same time, a deterioration in the standard of living of Soviet citizens. This happened due to ill-conceived internal policies. Interethnic conflicts in Georgia, Baku, Nagorno-Karabakh, etc. also contributed to the growth of tension in society. Already during this period, the Baltic republics headed for separation from the Union.

Gorbachev's foreign policy, the so-called “policy of new thinking,” contributed to the detente of the difficult international situation and the end of the Cold War.

In 1989, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev took the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, and in 1990 he became the first and only president of the USSR.

In 1990, M. Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize as a person who did a lot to ease international tension. But the country at that time was already in a deep crisis.

As a result of the August 1991 coup, organized by former supporters of Gorbachev, the USSR ceased to exist. Gorbachev resigned after the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords. Subsequently, he continued his social activities, heading the Green Cross and Gorbachev Foundation organizations.

RUSSIA DURING THE RULE OF B.N. YELTSIN

June 12, 1991 B.N. Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Federation. After his election, B. Yeltsin’s main slogans were the fight against the privileges of the nomenklatura and the independence of Russia from the USSR.

On July 10, 1991, Boris Yeltsin took the oath of allegiance to the people of Russia and the Russian Constitution, and took office as president of the RSFSR.

In August 1991, the confrontation between Yeltsin and the putschists began, which led to a proposal to ban the activities of the Communist Party, and on August 19, Boris Yeltsin made a famous speech from a tank, in which he read out a decree on the illegitimate activities of the State Emergency Committee. The putsch is defeated, the activities of the CPSU are completely prohibited.

In December 1991, the USSR officially ceased to exist.

December 25, 1991 B.N. Yeltsin received full presidential power in Russia in connection with the resignation of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and the actual collapse of the USSR.

1992 - 1993 - a new stage in the construction of the Russian state - privatization has begun, economic reform is being carried out.

In September-October 1993, a confrontation between Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Council began, which led to the dissolution of parliament. In Moscow there were riots, the peak of which occurred on October 3-4, supporters of the Supreme Council seized the television center, the situation was brought under control only with the help of tanks.

In 1994, the 1st Chechen War began, which led to a huge number of casualties among both civilians and military personnel, as well as among law enforcement officers.

In May 1996 Boris Yeltsin forced to sign an order in Khasavyurt to withdraw troops from Chechnya, which theoretically means the end of the first Chechen war.

In 1998 and 1999 in Russia, as a result of unsuccessful economic policy, a default occurs, then a government crisis.

On December 31, 1999, in a New Year's address to the people of Russia, Boris Yeltsin announced his early resignation. Prime Minister V.V. has been entrusted with the temporary duties of head of state. Putin, who provides Yeltsin and his family with guarantees of complete security.