Alexander 1

Birth and name

Alexander was born at 11 o’clock on December 12 (23), 1777 in the Winter Palace [1]. He was the first child in the family of the heir to the throne of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Fedorovna. Catherine II called one of her grandchildren Konstantin in honor of Constantine I the Great, the other - Alexander in honor of Alexander Nevsky [3]. This choice of names expressed the hope that Konstantin would free Constantinople from the Turks, and the newly -minted Alexander Macedon will become the sovereign of the new empire. On the throne of the Greek Empire, which was supposed to recreate Konstantin. “Thus, the choice of the name Catherine predicted the great future to the grandson and prepared him for the monarch calling, which was supposed to contribute, in her opinion, primarily a militarized and oriented to ancient samples.” The name “Alexander” was not typical of the Romanovs - before that, only the dead son of Peter the Great was only baptized once. However, after Alexander I, it firmly entered the Romanov nameron [6]. Gabriel Derzhavin responded to Alexander's birth by a famous poem “To the Birth of Porphyrodery in the North”: “At that time, as cold as Borey was furious, having decomposed Porpherodno in the Kingdom of the Northern Born ...”.

Childhood

Grew up at the intellectual court of Catherine the Great; The teacher-the Swiss-Jacoban Frederick Cesar Lagarp introduced him to the principles of the humanity of Russo, the military teacher Nikolai Saltykov-with the traditions of the Russian aristocracy, his father handed him his addiction to the military parade and taught him to combine spiritual love of humanity with practical concern for the neighbor. Catherine II considered her son Paul to be unable to take the throne and planned to build Alexander to the throne, bypassing his father. V. Klyuchevsky said: “If an outside observer, who had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Russian state order and with Russian public life at the end of the reign of Catherine, then would turn to Russia at the end of the reign of Alexander and would carefully look at Russian life, he would not notice that there was an era of government and social transformations; He would not notice the reign of Alexander ”[22].

Character 1

Alexander owed many features of his character to his grandmother, who took his son from his mother and determined him to live in Tsarskoye Selo, near himself, far from his parents who lived in their palaces (in Pavlovsk and Gatchina) and rarely appeared at a “big courtyard”. However, the child, as can be seen from all the reviews about him, was an affectionate and tender boy, so communicating with him for the royal grandmother was a great pleasure. Young Alexander possessed minds and talents, shared liberal ideas, but was lazy, proud and superficial in the assimilation of knowledge, not knowing how to focus on prolonged and serious work [8]. On September 17 (28), 1793, he married the daughter of Margraf Baden Louise Maria Augusta Von Baden, who took the name of Elizabeth Alekseevna. For some time he was military service in the Gatchina troops formed by his father; Here he developed the deafness of his left ear "from a strong hum of guns." On November 7 (18), 1796 he was promoted to colonels of the guard. In 1797, Alexander was a St. Petersburg military governor, the chief of the Guards Semenovsky Regiment, commander of the capital's division, chairman of the commission for food supply and performed a number of other duties. Since 1798, he, in addition, chaired the military parliament, and, starting next year, met in the Senate.

Character 2

The aristocrat and liberal, at the same time mysterious and open, Alexander seemed to his contemporaries a secret, which everyone solves according to his own performance. Napoleon called him a “inventive Byzantine”, North Talm, an actor who is able to play any noticeable role. In his youth, Alexander Pavlovich - a tall, slender, handsome young man with blond hair and blue eyes - was the ruler of his hearts. The contrast with his father seemed striking to contemporaries. Having received excellent upbringing and brilliant education, he fluently owned three European languages. The follower of the revolutionary Lagarp considered himself a “happy chance” on the throne of the kings and regretfully spoke of “the state of barbarism in which the country was due to the serf”, but pretty soon came to taste of autocratic government [19]. “He was ready to agree,” wrote Prince Charrtorysky, “that everyone can be free if they did freely what he wanted.” According to Metternich, Alexander I was a smart and insightful person, but "devoid of depths." He quickly and warmly fond of various ideas, but also easily changed his hobbies [20]. Since childhood, Alexander was used to doing what grandmother (Catherine) and Father (Paul) liked, in the characters of which was not in common. “Harlequin is familiar to anti -senses, in the person and life,” Pushkin wrote about him.

Relationship and family

From his youth, Alexander was associated with close and very personal relations with his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna [24]. In 1793, he married Louise Maria Augustus (1779-1826), the daughter of the Baden Margraf Karl Ludwig, who adopted the name of Elizaveta Alekseevna in Orthodoxy. The submarks consisted in distant relationship: they had two common ancestors in the fifth knee-Margraf Friedrich VII Baden-Durlahi on his father’s lines and Margraf Albrecht II Brandenburg-Ansbakh, their common ancestor was the Duke Eberhard III Würtemberg. Both of them [25] daughters died in early childhood [26]: Grand Duchess Maria, May 18 (29), 1799 - July 27 (August 8) 1800 [27]; Grand Duchess Elizabeth, November 3 (15), 1806 - April 30 (May 12), 1808 [27]. Alexander’s relationship with his wife was very cool. For 15 years, he was almost open in connection with Maria Naryshkina (in the girl’s girlfriend) and was forced to break with her only convinced of her infidelity. After the break with Naryshkina, he met for some time in the Babolovsky Palace with the portal Sophie Velo, the daughter of the court banker [28]. According to some estimates, up to 11 illegitimate children from Naryshkina and other mistresses of Alexander; Other biographers consider it barren. Most often, his children are called Sofu Naryshkin and General Nikolai Lukash (illegitimate son of Sofia Vsevolozhskoy). Alexander was the godfather of the future Queen Victoria (named in honor of King Alexandrina Victoria) and architect Vitberg, who created the unfulfilled project of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Relationship and family 2

During his stay in Europe in 1815, the sovereign was completely charming Baroness Krudener. This “tearful preacher” from the Protestants plunged Alexander into an analysis of the movements of her ripe soul [31]; Arriving in Russia, Baroness covered up the “sovereign novice” with circumstance letters on mystical topics full of ornate expressions and foggy conclusions along with unequivocal requests for material payments [29]. Meanwhile, the Tatarinova sectarian, who had recently participated in the pruning of the whips and the dance of the crystands, discovered the gift of the prophecy and, with the consent of the emperor, was placed in the Mikhailovsky castle, where the Minister of Theological Golitsyn and the Minister of Special Affairs Golitsyn and the Minister of Special Affairs [29]. Such a “combination of all religions in the bosom of universal Christianity” was explained by the desire of the emperor to approach the truth by invisible communication with God's craft; The spiritual rites of various faiths were to unite on the basis of “World Truth” [29]. The atmosphere of tolerance, which was unheard of in the Russian Empire, outraged the church authorities, and primarily the influential archimandrite of Fotia. He was able to convince of the dangers that threaten Orthodoxy from high -ranking mystics, the beloved adjutant of the emperor F. P. Uvarov, and after that, Arakcheev, who also began to bother the unlimited influence of the Golitsyn clique. The main “enemy of Orthodoxy and an evil illuminant” was considered not Golitsyn, but Koshelev [32]. The obscenses of M. L. Magnitsky and D. P. Runich, who were considered by Golitsyn’s right hand in the Ministry of Education and the Biblical Society, planted clericalism at universities and dismissed professors of accurate sciences for “swindle”. Receiving from them secret denunciations on the “Illuminati”, Arakcheev slowly collected incriminating evidence against Golitsyn [29]. The backstage struggle lasted for sever

The war of 1812

In the year of the invasion of Napoleon on Russia under the influence of all the stunning events of that time, Alexander first became vividly interested in the Christian religion. In the summer of 1812, on the advice of his old friend, Prince A. N. Golitsyn, he added to the reading of the Bible; The pages of the apocalypse were especially worried about him [29]. This pietism was encouraged by the elderly widower R. A. Koshelev, to whom the emperor allocated a room in the Winter Palace. When the French were ruled in Moscow and burned the Kremlin, all three often prayed together, forming a kind of mystical union [30]. In December of the same year, Golitsyn and Koshelev organized a biblical society, encouraging the study and new translations of sacred texts. Representatives of exotic movements in Christianity rushed to Russia - Moravian brothers, quakers, Bavarian preachers of Lindle and Gosner ecstasy. “This universal tendency towards rapprochement with Christ the Savior for me is real pleasure,” the emperor admitted to his new friends [29]. When the Baltic authorities tried to make it difficult to send the worship to the “the Vlensovans”, Alexander intervened personally [29]:

Death

In the last two years of his life, having lost support in the form of Golitsyn and Mistikov, Alexander was increasingly interested in the state affairs that Arakcheev (Arakcheevschina) condemned. He did not respond to reports about the spread of secret societies. The fatigue of the burden of government, the apathy and pessimism of the emperor were such that they talked about his intention to renounce the throne [33]. The last year of Alexander’s life was overshadowed by the largest flood in the capital. Until the end of his life, Alexander retained the passion for traveling, which made him go out half-Russia and half-Europe [9], and died far from his capital. Two years before his death, he ordered a secret manifesto (August 16 (28), 1823), in which he accepted the abdication of his brother Konstantin from the throne and recognized as the legal heir to the younger brother, Nikolai. Shortly before a trip to Taganrog, he visited the elder Alexy (Shestakova) in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra [34]. According to the official version, easily dressed Alexander I caught a cold in the rocky monastery of St. George in Crimea, visiting the raw monastery housing. This was followed by a trip to Sevastopol and an inspection of the vicinity of Bakhchisaray. After some time, the king admitted to his doctors that he has been feeling bad for several days, but he categorically abandoned drugs and bloodletting. On November 15 (according to the old style), the emperor confessed and communed - after the doctor of Willia in the presence of the empress informed him of the approach of death. The priest begged the emperor to fulfill all the instructions of the doctors, but it was too late. Willia wrote on November 18: "No hope to save my adored sovereign." The painful agony of the emperor lasted almost twelve hours. November 19 (December 1 in a new style), at 10 hours 50 minutes the emperor died. The empress, who did not leave the patient, closed Alexander eyes and tied his chin with her handker

Rumors of death

The sudden death of the emperor, who had never previously painted [the source was not indicated for 267 days], gave rise to a lot of rumors (N.K. Schilder in his biography of the emperor gives 51 opinions that arose within a few weeks after the death of Alexander). One of the rumors (40th) reported that he who avoided the assassination attempt on his life “the sovereign fled under hidden in Kyiv and there will live about Christ with the soul and will give the advice necessary for the current sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich for the best government” [35] [35] [35] [ 36]. Later, in the 1830-1840s, a legend appeared that Alexander, allegedly exhausted by remorse (as an accomplice in the murder of his father), staged his death away from the capital and began a wandering, hermit life under the name of the elder Fedor Kuzmich (died on January 20 (died (died on January 20 (died (died (died (died. February 1) 1864 in Tomsk) [37]. This legend appeared already during the life of the Siberian elder and became widespread in the second half of the 19th century [35] [38].