Alexander the First was the eldest son of Paul 1. The future emperor was born in 1777, December 12. Alexandra was brought up mainly by Catherine 2, his grandmother. In the physical development of the boy tried to keep closer to nature. The future emperor was educated from the Swiss Lagarpe, a tactful republican.
Alexander the First. Biography
Catherine 2 intended to transfer the throne directly to her grandson, bypassing Paul 1. However, not having time to formalize her will, she died. Pavel 1 entered the throne, making his son a military governor in St. Petersburg, an inspector of infantry and cavalry, and then chairman of the military department of the Senate. Along with this, his father always suspected Alexander of a conspiracy, he even wanted to put him in a fortress. It is worth noting that the son really participated in organizing conspiracies against his father. As a result of one of them, Paul 1 died.
Alexander the First entered the throne at the age of twenty-four. He was in love with symmetry and order, was educated, had a sound mind. However, as contemporaries noted, he was afraid of government affairs, which seemed overwhelming to him. Along with this, Alexander the First was very suspicious and suspicious. The emperor always suffered from an inferiority complex. Trying to get rid of him, Alexander the First sought to establish himself either as an autocrat, or as a military leader.
According to contemporaries, the emperor was not an ardent supporter of change. However, at the beginning of the reign, Alexander the First reforms carried out quite radical.
First of all, the ruler canceled all the transformations of his father, Paul 1: he freed the clergy and nobles from corporal punishment, returned to the cities and nobility "granted letters", returned about twelve thousand repressed from exile, announced an amnesty to all those fleeing the state.
After 1803 (from the moment of promulgation of the law "On free cultivators"), peasants were vested with the right to redeem freedom under an agreement with the landowner. However, less than half of the serfs used it.
From 1803 to 1804, Alexander the First made changes to the public education system. In 1804, the "Censorship Charter" was adopted. A special participation in the reform was taken by M. M. Speransky. His efforts to a greater extent established a new management order in the state, with minor changes that existed until 1917.
From 1805 to 1807, Alexander participated in anti-Napoleonic coalitions. As a result of the defeat at Austerlitz, the emperor was forced to conclude the Peace of Tilsit. However, subsequent military successes contributed to strengthening the international position of Russia.
After the first unsuccessful battles at the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Alexander, making sure of his military insolvency, practically retires to private life. From that moment he almost never goes anywhere, all the time he is in the Kamennoostrovsky Palace in St. Petersburg.
The situation of everyone despised Alexander 1 changed radically after the disaster in the Napoleonic army, which lost almost its entire composition from frost and hunger in Russia. As a result, in 1814, on March 31, the Russian emperor entered Paris solemnly. From that moment, Alexander 1 became the most influential person in all of Europe. The emperor himself tried his best to strengthen his position.
However, Alexander 1 increasingly tried to rely on people "especially close". Among them was Arakcheev, a tough, rude, cruel soldier. The emperor seeks to create a special military estate, which is very annoying Russian landowners, hitting their national and estate pride. Under these conditions, a conspiracy was brewing against Alexander 1.
His assassination by 1825 was already carefully planned. The conspirators planned to make it in 1826, in the summer, during maneuvers. However, in 1825, the emperor suddenly died in Taganrog from an illness.