Emperor Nicholas I
Nicholas I Pavlovich - born: June 25 (July 6) 1796. Died: February 18 (March 2) 1855 (58 years old).
The Nikolaev era in Russian history is amazing in itself: an unprecedented flourishing of culture and police arbitrariness, the strictest discipline and widespread bribery, economic growth and backwardness in everything. But before coming to power, the future autocrat had completely different plans, the implementation of which could make the state one of the richest and most democratic in Europe.
The reign of Emperor Nicholas 1 is usually called a period of gloomy reaction and hopeless stagnation, a period of despotism, barracks order and cemetery silence, and hence the assessment of the emperor himself as a strangler of revolutions, a Decembrist jailer, a gendarme of Europe, an incorrigible soldier, “the fiend of uniform enlightenment”, “Who strangled Russia for 30 years”. Let's try to figure it out.
The starting point of the reign of Nicholas 1 was December 14, 1825 - the day when the Decembrist uprising took place. He became not only a test of the character of the new emperor, but also had a significant influence on the subsequent formation of his thoughts and actions. After the death of Emperor Alexander 1 on November 19, 1825, the situation of the so-called interregnum appeared. The emperor died childless, and his middle brother Constantine was to inherit the throne. However, back in 1823, Alexander signed a secret manifesto, appointing his younger brother Nicholas as his heir.
In addition to Alexander, Constantine and their mother, only three people knew about this: Metropolitan Filaret, A. Arakcheev and A. Golitsyn. Nicholas himself, until the death of his brother, did not even suspect about this, therefore after his death he swore allegiance to Constantine who was in Warsaw. With this, according to V. Zhukovsky, a three-week “struggle not for power, but for the donation of honor and duty to the throne” began. Only on December 14, when Constantine confirmed his renunciation of the throne, Nicholas issued a manifesto on his accession. But by this time, conspirators from secret societies began to spread rumors in the army that Nicholas intended to usurp Constantine's rights.
December 14, morning - Nicholas familiarized the guards generals and colonels with the will of Alexander 1 and the documents on the abdication of Constantine and read out the manifesto of his accession to the throne. All unanimously recognized him as the legitimate monarch and pledged to bring the troops to the oath. The Senate and the Synod had already sworn allegiance, but in the Moscow regiment, instigated by the conspirators, the soldiers refused to take the oath.
There were even armed clashes, and the regiment went to Senate Square, where part of the soldiers from the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment and the guard crew joined it. The mutiny flared up. "Tonight, - said Nikolai 1 to A. Benkendorf, - perhaps we both will not be in the world, but at least we will die, having fulfilled our duty."
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Just in case, he gave the order to prepare the carriages to take the mother, wife and children to Tsarskoe Selo. “It is not known what awaits us,” Nikolai turned to his wife. "Promise me to show courage and, if I have to die, to die with honor."
Intending to prevent bloodshed, Nicholas 1 with a small retinue went to the rioters. A volley was fired at him. The admonitions of either Metropolitan Seraphim or Grand Duke Michael did not help. And the shot of the Decembrist P. Kakhovsky in the back of the St. Petersburg governor-general made it completely clear: the negotiation paths have exhausted themselves, buckshot is indispensable. “I am the emperor,” Nikolai later wrote to his brother, “but at what cost. Oh my God! At the cost of the blood of my subjects. But, if we proceed from what the Decembrists really wanted to do with the people and the state, Nicholas 1 was right in deciding to quickly suppress the revolt.
“I saw,” he recalled, “that either I should take it upon myself to shed the blood of some and save almost everything, or, having spared myself, resolutely sacrifice the state.” At first, he had a thought - to forgive everyone. However, when the investigation revealed that the Decembrists' speech was not an accidental outbreak, but the fruit of a long conspiracy, which set its task primarily to regicide and change the way of government, personal impulses faded into the background. There was a trial and punishment to the fullest extent of the law: 5 people were executed, 120 sent to hard labor. But that's all!
Whatever they write or say for Nicholas 1, he, as a person, is much more attractive than his "friends on the 14th". After all, some of them (Ryleev and Trubetskoy), having incited people to speak, themselves did not come to the square; they were going to destroy the entire royal family, including women and children. After all, it was they who had the idea, in case of failure, to set fire to the capital and retreat to Moscow. After all, they were going (Pestel) to establish a 10-year dictatorship, to distract the people with wars of conquest, to get 113,000 gendarmes, which was 130 times more than under Nicholas 1.
By nature, the emperor was a rather generous person and knew how to forgive, not attaching importance to personal grievances and believing that he should be above this. He could, for example, apologize to the officer who was unjustly offended by him in front of the entire regiment, and now, taking into account the conspirators' awareness of their guilt and the complete remorse of most of them, he could demonstrate "mercy to the fallen." I could. But he did not do this, although the fate of most of the Decembrists and their families was mitigated as much as possible.
For example, Ryleev's wife received a monetary assistance of 2,000 rubles, and Pavel Pestel's brother, Alexander, was given a life pension of 3,000 rubles a year and he was assigned to the cavalry regiment. Even the children of the Decembrists, who were born in Siberia, with the consent of their parents, were assigned to the best educational institutions at public expense.
It would be appropriate to quote the statement of Count DA Tolstoy: “What would the great sovereign do for his people if at the first step of his reign he did not meet with December 14, 1825, is unknown, but this sad event must have had on him a huge impact. Apparently, he should be ascribed to the dislike of any liberalism, which was constantly noticed in the orders of Emperor Nicholas … "And this is well illustrated by the words of the tsar himself:" The revolution is on the threshold of Russia, but I swear it will not penetrate it as long as it remains in me breath of life, while by God's grace I am the emperor. " Since December 14, 1825, Nicholas 1 celebrated this date every year, considering it the day of his true accession to the throne.
What many in the emperor noted was the desire for order and legality.
“My strange fate,” wrote Nicholas 1 in one of his letters, “they tell me that I am one of the most powerful sovereigns in the world, and I must say that everything, that is, everything that is permissible, should be for me it is possible that I, therefore, could, at my discretion, do what I want. In fact, however, the opposite is true for me. And if I am asked about the cause of this anomaly, there is only one answer: duty!
Yes, this is not an empty word for someone who has been accustomed from his youth to understand him, as I do. This word has a sacred meaning, before which every personal impulse recedes, everything must subside before this one feeling and yield to it until you disappear into the grave. This is my slogan. It is tough, I confess, it is more painful for me under it than I can express, but I was created to suffer."
This sacrifice in the name of duty is worthy of respect, and the politician from France A. Lamartin said well: "One cannot but respect the monarch who did not demand anything for himself and fought only for principles."
Maid of honor A. Tyutcheva wrote about Nicholas 1: “He possessed an irresistible charm, could charm people … He was extremely unpretentious in everyday life, already being an emperor, he slept on a hard camp bed, hiding in a simple greatcoat, observed moderation in food, gave preference to simple food, and almost did not drink alcohol. He fought for discipline, but first of all he himself was disciplined. Order, clarity, organization, utmost clarity in actions - that is what he demanded from himself and from others. He worked 18 hours a day."
The emperor reacted with great attention to the criticism of the Decembrists of the order that existed before him, trying to understand for himself a possible positive beginning in their plans. He then brought closer to himself two of the most prominent initiators and conductors of the liberal undertakings of Alexander 1 - M. Speransky and V. Kochubey, who had long since departed from the former constitutional views, which were supposed to lead the work on creating a code of laws and reforming public administration.
“I noted and will always celebrate,” the emperor said, “those who want fair demands and want them to come from legitimate authority …” He also invited N. Mordvinov to work, whose views previously attracted the attention of the Decembrists, and then often disagreed with government decisions. The emperor elevated Mordvinov to the dignity of counts and awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
But in general, people who think independently irritated Nicholas I. He often admitted that he prefers obedient rather than smart performers. Hence his constant difficulties in personnel policy and the choice of worthy employees. Nevertheless, Speransky's work on the codification of laws successfully ended with the publication of the Code of Laws. The situation was worse with solving the problem of alleviating the situation of the peasants. True, within the framework of government tutelage, it was forbidden to sell serfs at public auctions with the fragmentation of families, donate them, give them to factories or exile to Siberia at their discretion.
The landowners were given the right to release the servants by mutual consent to freedom, and they even had the right to acquire real estate. When the estates were sold, the peasants received the right to freedom. All this paved the way for the reforms of Alexander II, but led to new types of bribery and arbitrariness in relation to the peasants on the part of officials.
Much attention was paid to the issues of education and upbringing. Nicholas I raised his first-born son Alexander in the Spartan way and declared: "I want to raise a man in my son before making him a sovereign." His tutor was the poet V. Zhukovsky, the teachers were the best specialists of the country: K. Arsenyev, A. Pletnev and others. The law of Alexander 1 was taught by M. Speransky, who convinced the heir: “Every right, and therefore the right of autocracy, therefore there is right that it is based on truth. Where truth ends and untruth begins, law ends and autocracy begins."
Nicholas 1 shared the same views. A. Pushkin also pondered about the combination of intellectual and moral education, who, at the request of the tsar, compiled a note "On people's education." By this time, the poet had completely moved away from the views of the Decembrists. And the emperor himself set an example of serving duty. During the cholera epidemic in Moscow, the tsar went there. The Empress brought the children to him, trying to keep him from traveling. "Take them away," said Nikolai 1, "thousands of my children are suffering in Moscow now." For ten days, the emperor visited the cholera barracks, ordered the establishment of new hospitals, shelters, and provided financial and food assistance to the poor.
If in relation to revolutionary ideas Nicholas 1 led an isolationist policy, the material inventions of the West attracted his close attention, and he liked to repeat: "We are engineers." New factories began to appear, railways and highways were laid, industrial production doubled, and finances stabilized. The number of the poor in European Russia was no more than 1%, while in European countries it ranged from 3 to 20%.
They also paid great attention to natural sciences. By order of the emperor, observatories were equipped in Kazan, Kiev, near St. Petersburg; various scientific societies appeared. Nicholas 1 paid special attention to the archaeographic commission, which was engaged in the study of ancient monuments, analysis and publication of ancient acts. Under him, many educational institutions appeared, including the Kiev University, the St. Petersburg Technological Institute, the Technical School, the military and naval academies, 11 cadet corps, a higher school of jurisprudence and a number of others.
It is curious that, at the request of the emperor, during the construction of churches, volost administrations, schools, etc., it was prescribed to use the canons of ancient Russian architecture. No less interesting is the fact that it was during the "gloomy" 30-year reign of Nicholas 1 that an unprecedented surge of Russian science and culture took place. What names! Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Zhukovsky, Tyutchev, Koltsov, Odoevsky, Pogodin, Granovsky, Bryullov, Kiprensky, Tropinin, Venetsianov, Bove, Montferand, Ton, Rossi, Glinka, Verstovsky, Dargomyzhsky, Lobachevsky, Yakobi, Struvealov, Schepkin Karatygin and other brilliant talents.
The emperor supported many of them financially. New magazines appeared, they organized university public readings, literary circles and salons developed their activities, where any political, literary, philosophical issues were discussed. The emperor personally took A. Pushkin under his protection, forbidding F. Bulgarin to publish any criticism against him in "Severnaya Bee", and invited the poet to write new fairy tales, because he considered the old ones to be highly moral. But … Why is the Nikolaev era usually described in such gloomy colors?
As they say - the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Building, as it seemed to him, an ideal state, the tsar essentially turned the country into a huge barracks, instilling only one thing in the minds of people - obedience with the help of stick discipline. And now the admission of students to universities has been reduced, control has been established over the censorship itself, and the rights of gendarmes have been expanded. The writings of Plato, Aeschylus, Tacitus were banned; the works of Kantemir, Derzhavin, Krylov were censored; entire historical periods were excluded from consideration.
During the aggravation of the revolutionary movement in Europe, the emperor remained faithful to his allied duty. Based on the decisions of the Vienna Congress, he helped suppress the revolutionary movement in Hungary. As a sign of "gratitude", Austria united with Britain and France, which sought to weaken Russia at the first opportunity. It was necessary to pay attention to the words of the member of the British Parliament T. Attwood regarding Russia: "… It will take a little time … and these barbarians will learn to use the sword, bayonet and musket with almost the same skill as civilized people." Hence the conclusion - as soon as possible to declare war on Russia.
But it was not the loss in the Crimean War that was the most terrible defeat for Nicholas 1. There were even worse defeats. The emperor lost the main war to his officials. Their number increased from 16 to 74,000 during his reign. The bureaucracy became an independent force acting according to its own laws, capable of torpedoing any attempts at reform, which weakened the state. And there was no need to talk about bribery. So during the reign of Nicholas 1 there was an illusion of the country's prosperity. The king understood all this.
“Unfortunately,” he admitted, “more than often you are forced to use the services of people whom you do not respect …” By 1845, many noted the emperor's depression. “I work to stun myself,” he wrote to King Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia. And what is such recognition worth: “For 20 years now I have been sitting in this beautiful place. Often there are days that, looking at the sky, I say: why am I not there? I'm so tired.
At the end of January 1855, the autocrat fell ill with acute bronchitis, but continued to work. As a result, pneumonia began and on February 18, 1855, he died. Before his death, he told his son Alexander: “I wanted, having taken upon myself everything difficult, everything difficult, to leave you a kingdom of peace, order and happiness. Providence judged differently. Now I'm going to pray for Russia and for you …"
V. Sklyarenko