Alexander I and the Holy Alliance. "Sphinx, unsolved to the grave" Sphinx, unsolved to the grave, Alexander 1

In January 1864, in distant Siberia, in a small cell four miles from Tomsk, a tall, gray-bearded old man was dying. “The rumor is that you, grandfather, are none other than Alexander the Blessed, is this true?” - asked the dying merchant S.F. Khromov. For many years the merchant had been tormented by this secret, which now, before his eyes, was going to the grave along with the mysterious old man. “Your deeds are wonderful, Lord: there is no secret that will not be revealed,” the old man sighed. “Even though you know who I am, don’t make me great, just bury me.”
Young Alexander ascended the throne as a result of the murder of Emperor Paul I by the Masons - those same “loyal monsters, that is, gentlemen with noble souls, the world’s foremost scoundrels.” Alexander himself was also initiated into the conspiracy. But when the news of his father's death reached him, he was shocked. “They promised me not to encroach on his life!” - he repeated with sobs, and rushed around the room, not finding a place for himself. It was clear to him that now he was a parricide, forever tied by blood with the Masons.

As contemporaries testified, Alexander’s first appearance in the palace was a pitiful picture: “He walked slowly, his knees seemed to be buckling, the hair on his head was loose, his eyes were teary... It seemed that his face expressed one heavy thought: “They all took advantage of my I was deceived by my youth and inexperience; I didn’t know that by snatching the scepter from the hands of the autocrat, I was inevitably putting his life in danger.” He tried to renounce the throne. Then the “loyal monsters” promised to show him “the river-shed blood of the entire reigning family”... Alexander surrendered. But the consciousness of his guilt, endless reproaches to himself for failing to foresee the tragic outcome - all this weighed heavily on his conscience, poisoning his life every minute. Over the years, Alexander slowly but steadily moved away from his “brothers.” The liberal reforms that had been started were gradually curtailed. Alexander increasingly found solace in religion - later liberal historians fearfully called this a “fascination with mysticism,” although religiosity has nothing to do with mysticism and in fact, Masonic occultism is mysticism. In one of his private conversations, Alexander said: “Ascending in spirit to God, I renounce all earthly pleasures. Calling on God for help, I acquire that calmness, that peace of mind that I would not exchange for any bliss of this world.”
The largest biographer of Alexander I N.K. Schilder wrote: “If fantastic guesses and folk legends could be based on positive data and transferred to real soil, then the reality established in this way would leave behind the most daring poetic inventions. In any case, such a life could serve as the basis for an inimitable drama with a stunning epilogue, the main motive of which would be redemption.
In this new image, created by folk art, Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, this “sphinx, unsolved to the grave,” would undoubtedly appear as the most tragic face of Russian history, and his thorny life path would be covered with an unprecedented afterlife apotheosis, overshadowed by the rays of holiness.”

Alexander I was the son of Paul I and grandson of Catherine II. The Empress did not like Paul and, not seeing in him a strong ruler and a worthy successor, she gave all her unspent maternal feelings to Alexander.

Since childhood, the future Emperor Alexander I often spent time with his grandmother in the Winter Palace, but nevertheless managed to visit Gatchina, where his father lived. According to Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Mironenko, it was precisely this duality, stemming from the desire to please his grandmother and father, who were so different in temperament and views, that formed the contradictory character of the future emperor.

“Alexander I loved to play the violin in his youth. During this time, he corresponded with his mother Maria Fedorovna, who told him that he was too keen on playing a musical instrument and that he should prepare more for the role of an autocrat. Alexander I replied that he would rather play the violin than, like his peers, play cards. He didn’t want to reign, but at the same time he dreamed of healing all the ulcers, correcting any problems in the structure of Russia, doing everything as it should be in his dreams, and then renouncing,” Mironenko said in an interview with RT.

According to experts, Catherine II wanted to pass the throne to her beloved grandson, bypassing the legal heir. And only the sudden death of the empress in November 1796 disrupted these plans. Paul I ascended the throne. The short reign of the new emperor, who received the nickname Russian Hamlet, began, lasting only four years.

The eccentric Paul I, obsessed with drills and parades, was despised by all of Catherine’s Petersburg. Soon, a conspiracy arose among those dissatisfied with the new emperor, the result of which was a palace coup.

“It is unclear whether Alexander understood that the removal of his own father from the throne was impossible without murder. Nevertheless, Alexander agreed to this, and on the night of March 11, 1801, the conspirators entered the bedroom of Paul I and killed him. Most likely, Alexander I was ready for such an outcome. Subsequently, it became known from memoirs that Alexander Poltoratsky, one of the conspirators, quickly informed the future emperor that his father had been killed, which meant he had to accept the crown. To the surprise of Poltoratsky himself, he found Alexander awake in the middle of the night, in full uniform,” Mironenko noted.

Tsar-reformer

Having ascended the throne, Alexander I began developing progressive reforms. Discussions took place in the Secret Committee, which included close friends of the young autocrat.

“According to the first management reform, adopted in 1802, collegiums were replaced by ministries. The main difference was that in collegiums decisions are made collectively, but in ministries all responsibility rests with one minister, who now had to be chosen very carefully,” Mironenko explained.

In 1810, Alexander I created the State Council - the highest legislative body under the emperor.

“The famous painting by Repin, which depicts a ceremonial meeting of the State Council on its centenary, was painted in 1902, on the day of approval of the Secret Committee, and not in 1910,” Mironenko noted.

The State Council, as part of the transformation of the state, was developed not by Alexander I, but by Mikhail Speransky. It was he who laid the principle of separation of powers at the basis of Russian public administration.

“We should not forget that in an autocratic state this principle was difficult to implement. Formally, the first step—the creation of the State Council as a legislative advisory body—has been taken. Since 1810, any imperial decree was issued with the wording: “Having heeded the opinion of the State Council.” At the same time, Alexander I could issue laws without listening to the opinion of the State Council,” the expert explained.

Tsar Liberator

After the Patriotic War of 1812 and foreign campaigns, Alexander I, inspired by the victory over Napoleon, returned to the long-forgotten idea of ​​reform: changing the image of government, limiting autocracy by the constitution and solving the peasant question.

• Alexander I in 1814 near Paris
• F. Kruger

The first step in solving the peasant question was the decree on free cultivators in 1803. For the first time in many centuries of serfdom, it was allowed to free the peasants, allocating them with land, albeit for a ransom. Of course, the landowners were in no hurry to free the peasants, especially with the land. As a result, very few were free. However, for the first time in the history of Russia, the authorities gave the opportunity to peasants to leave serfdom.

The second significant act of state of Alexander I was the draft constitution for Russia, which he instructed to develop a member of the Secret Committee Nikolai Novosiltsev. A longtime friend of Alexander I fulfilled this assignment. However, this was preceded by the events of March 1818, when in Warsaw, at the opening of a meeting of the Polish Council, Alexander, by decision of the Congress of Vienna, granted Poland a constitution.

“The Emperor uttered words that shocked all of Russia at that time: “Someday the beneficial constitutional principles will be extended to all the lands subject to my scepter.” This is the same as saying in the 1960s that Soviet power would no longer exist. This frightened many representatives of influential circles. As a result, Alexander never decided to adopt the constitution,” the expert noted.

Alexander I's plan to free the peasants was also not fully implemented.

“The Emperor understood that it was impossible to liberate the peasants without the participation of the state. A certain part of the peasants must be bought out by the state. One can imagine this option: the landowner went bankrupt, his estate was put up for auction and the peasants were personally liberated. However, this was not implemented. Although Alexander was an autocratic and domineering monarch, he was still within the system. The unrealized constitution was supposed to modify the system itself, but at that moment there were no forces that would support the emperor,” the historian said.

According to experts, one of the mistakes of Alexander I was his conviction that communities in which ideas for reorganizing the state were discussed should be secret.

“Away from the people, the young emperor discussed reform projects in the Secret Committee, not realizing that the already emerging Decembrist societies partly shared his ideas. As a result, neither one nor the other attempts were successful. It took another quarter of a century to understand that these reforms were not so radical,” Mironenko concluded.

The mystery of death

Alexander I died during a trip to Russia: he caught a cold in the Crimea, lay “in a fever” for several days and died in Taganrog on November 19, 1825.

The body of the late emperor was to be transported to St. Petersburg. For this purpose, the remains of Alexander I were embalmed, but the procedure was unsuccessful: the complexion and appearance of the sovereign changed. In St. Petersburg, during the people's farewell, Nicholas I ordered the coffin to be closed. It was this incident that gave rise to ongoing debate about the death of the king and aroused suspicions that “the body was replaced.”

• Wikimedia Commons

The most popular version is associated with the name of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich. The elder appeared in 1836 in the Perm province, and then ended up in Siberia. In recent years he lived in Tomsk, in the house of the merchant Khromov, where he died in 1864. Fyodor Kuzmich himself never told anything about himself. However, Khromov assured that the elder was Alexander I, who had secretly left the world. Thus, a legend arose that Alexander I, tormented by remorse over the murder of his father, faked his own death and went to wander around Russia.

Subsequently, historians tried to debunk this legend. Having studied the surviving notes of Fyodor Kuzmich, researchers came to the conclusion that there is nothing in common in the handwriting of Alexander I and the elder. Moreover, Fyodor Kuzmich wrote with errors. However, lovers of historical mysteries believe that the end has not been set in this matter. They are convinced that until a genetic examination of the elder’s remains has been carried out, it is impossible to make an unambiguous conclusion about who Fyodor Kuzmich really was.

Portrait of Alexander I

Birth certificate of the newborn Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, signed by physicians Karl Friedrich Kruse and Ivan Filippovich Beck

Ceremonial costume of seven-year-old Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich

Portrait of a Count
N.I. Saltykova

Triumphal wreath "Liberator of Europe", presented to Emperor Alexander I

The ceremonial entry of the All-Russian Sovereign Emperor Alexander I into Paris

Medal in memory of the Patriotic War of 1812, which belonged to Emperor Alexander I

Portrait of Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna in mourning

Death mask of Alexander I

The exhibition in the Neva Enfilade of the ceremonial chambers of the Winter Palace includes over a thousand exhibits closely related to the life and work of Emperor Alexander I, from the collection of the State Hermitage, museums and archives of St. Petersburg and Moscow: archival documents, portraits, memorial items; many monuments are presented for the first time.

“...The Sphinx, unsolved to the grave, They still argue about it again...” wrote P.A. almost half a century after the death of Alexander I. Vyazemsky. These words are still relevant today - 180 years after the death of the emperor.

The exhibition, which has collected a lot of material and documentary evidence, tells about the era of Alexander and allows us to trace the fate of the emperor from birth to death and burial in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Attention is also paid to the peculiar mythology surrounding the untimely death of Alexander Pavlovich in Taganrog - the famous legend about the Siberian hermit elder Fyodor Kuzmich, under whose name the Emperor Alexander I allegedly hid.

The exhibition features portraits of Alexander I, made by Russian and European painters, sculptors and miniaturists. Among them are works by J. Doe, K.A Shevelkin and a recently acquired portrait by the largest miniaturist of the first quarter of the 19th century, A. Benner.

It is worth noting other acquisitions of the Hermitage displayed at the exhibition: “Portrait of Napoleon”, executed by the famous French miniaturist, a student of the famous J.L. David, Napoleon's court master J.-B. Izabe and "Portrait of Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna", painted from life by E. G. Bosse in 1812.

Along with unique documents and autographs of Alexander I and his immediate circle, personal belongings of the emperor are presented: the ceremonial suit of the seven-year-old Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, the suit of a holder of the Order of the Holy Spirit, the coronation uniform (it is believed that the vest was sewn for it by the emperor himself), a cypress cross, medallion with locks of hair from Alexander I and Elizaveta Alekseevna, unpublished letters from educators of the future emperor F.Ts. Laharpe and N.I. Saltykov, educational notebooks.

Valuable exhibits were provided by collector V.V. Tsarenkov: among them is a gold-embroidered briefcase that Alexander I used during the days of the Congress of Vienna and three rare watercolors by Gavriil Sergeev “Alexandrova’s Dacha”.

The exhibition was prepared by the State Hermitage together with the State Archive of the Russian Federation (Moscow), the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire of the Historical and Documentary Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Moscow), the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps (St. Petersburg), the Military Medical Museum Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (St. Petersburg), All-Russian Museum A.S. Pushkin (St. Petersburg), State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Moscow Kremlin" (Moscow), State Historical Museum (Moscow), State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg), State Museum-Reserve "Pavlovsk", State Museum-Reserve "Peterhof", State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoe Selo", State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments (Moscow), Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House) (St. Petersburg), Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts (St. Petersburg), Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (Moscow), Russian State Military Historical Archive (Moscow), Russian State Historical Archive (St. Petersburg), Central Naval Museum (St. Petersburg), the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSIZO, as well as collectors M.S. Glinka (St. Petersburg), A.S. Surpin (New York), V.V. Tsarenkov (London).

For the exhibition, a team of State Hermitage employees prepared an illustrated scientific catalog with a total volume of 350 pages (Slavia Publishing House). The introductory articles to the publication were written by the director of the State Hermitage M.B. Piotrovsky and Director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation S.V. Mironenko.

This is what Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, one of the most insightful memoirists of the last century, called Emperor Alexander I. Indeed, the king’s inner world was tightly closed to outsiders. This was largely explained by the difficult situation in which he had been since childhood: on the one hand, his grandmother was exceptionally disposed towards him (for her he was “the joy of our heart”), on the other, a jealous father who saw him as a rival. A.E. Presnyakov aptly noted that Alexander “grew up in the atmosphere not only of Catherine’s court, free-thinking and rationalistic, but also of the Gatchina Palace, with its sympathies for Freemasonry, its German ferment, not alien to pietism”*.

Catherine herself taught her grandson to read and write, introducing him to Russian history. The empress entrusted general supervision of the education of Alexander and Constantine to General N. I. Saltykov, and among the teachers were the naturalist and traveler P. S. Pallas, the writer M. N. Muravyov (the father of the future Decembrists). The Swiss F. S. de La Harpe not only taught French, but also compiled an extensive program of humanistic education. Alexander remembered the lessons of liberalism for a long time.

The young Grand Duke showed an extraordinary intelligence, but his teachers discovered that he had a dislike for serious work and a tendency toward idleness. However, Alexander’s education ended quite early: at the age of 16, without even consulting Paul, Catherine married her grandson to the 14-year-old Princess Louise of Baden, who became Grand Duchess Elizaveta Alekseevna after converting to Orthodoxy. Laharpe left Russia. About the newlyweds, Catherine reported to her regular correspondent Grimm: “This couple is as beautiful as a clear day, they have an abyss of charm and intelligence... This is Psyche herself, united with love”**.

Alexander was a handsome young man, although shortsighted and deaf. From his marriage to Elizabeth, he had two daughters who died at an early age. Quite early, Alexander distanced himself from his wife, entering into a long-term relationship with M.A. Naryshkina, with whom he had children. The death of the emperor's beloved daughter Sophia Naryshkina in 1824 was a heavy blow for him.

* Presnyakov A. E. Decree. op. P. 236.

** Vallotton A. Alexander I. M., 1991. P. 25.

While Catherine II is alive, Alexander is forced to maneuver between the Winter Palace and Gatchina, distrusting both courts, lavishing smiles on everyone, and trusting no one. “Alexander had to live with two minds, keep two ceremonial guises, except for the third - everyday, domestic, a double device of manners, feelings and thoughts. How different this school was from La Harpe’s audience! Forced to say what others liked, he was used to hiding, what I thought myself. Secrecy has turned from a necessity into a need"*.

Having ascended the throne, Paul appointed Alexander's heir as the military governor of St. Petersburg, senator, inspector of cavalry and infantry, chief of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, chairman of the military department of the Senate, but increased supervision over him and even subjected him to arrest. At the beginning of 1801, the position of Maria Feodorovna's eldest sons and herself was most uncertain. The coup of March 11 brought Alexander to the throne.

Memoirists and historians often gave a negative assessment of Alexander I, noting his duplicity, timidity, and passivity**. “The ruler is weak and crafty,” A.S. Pushkin called him. Modern researchers are more lenient towards Alexander Pavlovich. “Real life shows us something completely different - a purposeful, powerful, extremely lively nature, capable of feelings and experiences, a clear mind, perspicacious and cautious, a flexible person, capable of self-restraint, mimicry, taking into account what kind of people are in the highest echelons of Russian power have to deal with" ***.

* Klyuchevsky V. O. Course of Russian history. Part 5 // Collection. cit.: In 9 volumes. M., 1989. T. 5. P. 191.

** Alexander I was called in various ways: “Northern Talma” (as Napoleon called him), “Crowned Hamlet”, “Brilliant Meteor of the North”, etc. An interesting description of Alexander was given by the historian N. I. Ulyanov (see: Ulyanov N. Alexander I - emperor, actor, person // Rodina. 1992. No. 6-7. P. 140-147).

Alexander I was a real politician. Having ascended the throne, he conceived a series of transformations in the internal life of the state. Alexander's constitutional projects and reforms were aimed at weakening the dependence of autocratic power on the nobility, which gained enormous political power in the 18th century. Alexander immediately stopped the distribution of state peasants into private ownership, and according to the law of 1803 on free cultivators, landowners were given the right to free their serfs by mutual agreement. In the second period, the personal liberation of peasants in the Baltic states took place and peasant reform projects were developed for the whole of Russia. Alexander tried to encourage the nobles to come up with projects for the liberation of the peasants. In 1819, addressing the Livonian nobility, he declared:

“I am glad that the Livonian nobility lived up to my expectations. Your example is worthy of imitation. You acted in the spirit of the times and realized that liberal principles alone can serve as the basis for the happiness of peoples” ****. However, the nobility was not ready to accept the idea of ​​​​the need to liberate the peasants for more than half a century.

Discussion of liberal reform projects began in the “intimate” circle of Alexander’s young friends when he was heir. “The Emperor's Young Confidants,” as they were called by conservative dignitaries, formed the Secret Committee for several years

*** Sakharov A. N. Alexander I (On the history of life and death) // Russian autocrats. 1801-1917. M" 1993. P. 69.

****Cit. by: Mironenko S.V. Autocracy and reforms. Political struggle in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. M, 1989. P. 117.

(N.N. Novosiltsev, Counts V.P. Kochubey and P.A. Stroganov, Prince Adam Czartoryski). However, the results of their activities were insignificant: instead of outdated collegiums, ministries were created (1802), and the above-mentioned law on free cultivators was issued. Soon wars began with France, Turkey, and Persia, and reform plans were curtailed.

From 1807, one of the largest statesmen of Russia in the 19th century, M. M. Speransky (before the disgrace that followed in 1812), who developed a reform of the social system and public administration, became the tsar’s closest collaborator. But this project was not implemented; only the State Council was created (1810) and the ministries were transformed (1811).

In the last decade of his reign, Alexander became increasingly possessed by mysticism; he increasingly entrusted the current administrative activities to Count A. A. Arakcheev. Military settlements were created, the maintenance of which was entrusted to the very districts in which the troops settled.

A lot was done in the field of education in the first period of the reign: Dorpat, Vilna, Kazan, Kharkov universities, privileged secondary educational institutions (Demidov and Tsarskoye Selo lyceums), the Institute of Railways, and the Moscow Commercial School were opened.

After the Patriotic War of 1812, politics changed dramatically; reactionary policies were pursued by the Minister of Public Education and Spiritual Affairs, Prince A. N. Golitsyn; trustee of the Kazan educational district, who organized the defeat of Kazan University, M. L. Magnitsky; trustee of the St. Petersburg educational district D. P. Runich, who organized the destruction of the St. Petersburg University created in 1819. Archimandrite Photius began to exert great influence on the king.

Alexander I understood that he did not have the talent of a commander; he regretted that his grandmother did not send him to Rumyantsev and Suvorov for training. After Austerlitz (1805), Napoleon told the Tsar: “Military affairs is not your craft.” * Alexander arrived in the army only when a turning point occurred in the war of 1812 against Napoleon and the Russian autocrat became the arbiter of the destinies of Europe. In 1814, the Senate presented him with the title of Blessed, Magnanimous Restorer of Powers**.

Alexander I's diplomatic talent manifested itself very early. He conducted complex negotiations in Tilsit and Erfurt with Napoleon, achieved great successes at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), and played an active role at the congresses of the Holy Alliance, created on his initiative.

The victorious wars waged by Russia led to a significant expansion of the Russian Empire. At the beginning of Alexander’s reign, the annexation of Georgia was finally formalized (September 1801) ***, in 1806 the Baku, Kuba, Derbent and other khanates were annexed, then Finland (1809), Bessarabia (1812), the Kingdom of Poland (1815) . Such commanders as M. I. Kutuzov (although Alexander could not forgive him for the defeat at Austerlitz), M. B. Barclay de Tolly, P. I. Bagration became famous in the wars. Russian generals A.P. Ermolov, M.A. Miloradovich, N.N. Raevsky, D.S. Dokhturov and others were not inferior to the famous Napoleonic marshals and generals.

*Quoted by: Fedorov V. A. Alexander I // Questions of history. 1990. No. 1. P. 63.

**See ibid. P. 64.

*** Even during the reign of Catherine II, the Kartalian-Kakheti king Irakli II, according to the Treaty of Georgievsk in 1783, recognized the patronage of Russia. At the end of 1800, his son Tsar George XII died. In January 1801, Paul I issued a manifesto on the annexation of Georgia to Russia, but the fate of the Georgian dynasty was not determined. According to the September manifesto of 1801, the Georgian dynasty was deprived of all rights to the Georgian throne. At the beginning of the 19th century. Mingrelia and Imereti recognized vassal dependence, Guria and Abkhazia were annexed. Thus, both Eastern (Kartli and Kakheti) and Western Georgia were included in the Russian Empire.

Alexander's final turn to reaction was fully determined in 1819-1820, when the revolutionary movement was reviving in Western Europe. Since 1821, lists of the most active participants in the secret society fell into the hands of the tsar, but he did not take action (“it is not for me to punish”). Alexander becomes more and more secluded, becomes gloomy, and cannot be in one place. Over the last ten years of his reign, he traveled more than 200 thousand miles, traveling around the north and south of Russia, the Urals, the Middle and Lower Volga, Finland, visiting Warsaw, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London.

The king increasingly has to think about who will inherit the throne. Tsarevich Konstantin, rightfully considered the heir, was very reminiscent of his father in his rudeness and wild antics in his youth. He was with Suvorov during the Italian and Swiss campaigns, subsequently commanded the guard and participated in military operations. While Catherine was still alive, Constantine married the Saxe-Coburg princess Juliana Henrietta (Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna), but the marriage was unhappy, and in 1801 Anna Feodorovna left Russia forever*.

* In connection with the actress Josephine Friedrich, Konstantin Pavlovich had a son, Pavel Alexandrov (1808-1857), who later became adjutant general, and from a connection with the singer Clara Anna Laurent (Lawrence), the illegitimate daughter of Prince Ivan Golitsyn, a son was born, Konstantin Ivanovich Konstantinov ( 1818-1871), lieutenant general, and daughter Constance, who was raised by the Golitsyn princes and married Lieutenant General Andrei Fedorovich Lishin.

After Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich’s son Alexander was born in 1818, the tsar decided to transfer the throne, bypassing Constantine, to his next brother. Summer of 1819 Alexander I warned Nicholas and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna that they would “be called to the rank of emperor in the future.” That same year, in Warsaw, where Constantine commanded the Polish army, Alexander gave him permission to divorce his wife and to have a morganatic marriage with the Polish Countess Joanna Grudzinskaya, subject to the transfer of his rights to the throne to Nicholas. On March 20, 1820, a manifesto “On the dissolution of the marriage of Grand Duke Tsarevich Konstantin Pavlovich with Grand Duchess Anna Fedorovna and on an additional resolution on the imperial family” was published. According to this decree, a member of the imperial family, when marrying a person not belonging to the ruling house, could not transfer to his children the right to inherit the throne.

On August 16, 1823, the manifesto on the transfer of the right to the throne to Nicholas was drawn up and deposited in the Assumption Cathedral, and three copies certified by Alexander I were placed in the Synod, Senate and State Council. After the death of the emperor, the package with copies had to be opened first of all. The secret of the will was known only to Alexander I, Maria Feodorovna, Prince A. N. Golitsyn, Count A. A. Arakcheev and Moscow Archbishop Filaret, who compiled the text of the manifesto.

In the last years of his life, Alexander was more lonely than ever and deeply disappointed. In 1824, he admitted to a random interlocutor: “When I think how little has yet been done within the state, this thought falls on my heart like a ten-pound weight; I get tired of it” **.

** Quoted by: Presnyakov A. E. Decree. op. P. 249.

The unexpected death of Alexander I on November 19, 1825 in distant Taganrog, in a state of moral depression, gave rise to a beautiful legend about the elder Fyodor Kuzmich - supposedly the emperor disappeared and lived under an assumed name until his death*. The news of Alexander's death opened the most acute dynastic crisis of 1825.

The personality of Alexander the Blessed remains one of the most complex and mysterious in Russian history. “The Sphinx, unsolved to the grave,” Prince Vyazemsky will say about him. To this we can add that beyond the grave the fate of Alexander I just as mysterious. We mean the life of the righteous elder Theodore Kuzmich the Blessed, canonized as a Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.

World history knows few figures comparable in scale to Emperor Alexander. This amazing personality remains misunderstood today. The Alexander era was perhaps the highest rise of Russia, its “golden age”, then St. Petersburg was the capital of Europe, and the fate of the world was decided in the Winter Palace.

Contemporaries called Alexander I “an angel on the throne,” the conqueror of the Antichrist, and the liberator of Europe. European capitals greeted the Tsar-Liberator with delight: the population of Paris greeted him with flowers. The main square of Berlin is named after him - Alexander Platz. I want to dwell on the peacekeeping activities of Tsar Alexander. But first, let us briefly recall the historical context of the Alexander era.

The global war, unleashed by revolutionary France in 1795, lasted almost 20 years (until 1815) and truly deserves the name “First World War,” both in its scope and duration. Then, for the first time, millions of armies clashed on the battlefields of Europe, Asia and America; for the first time, a war was waged on a planetary scale for the dominance of a total ideology. France was the breeding ground of this ideology, and Napoleon was the disseminator. For the first time, the war was preceded by the propaganda of secret sects and mass psychological indoctrination of the population. The Enlightenment illuminators worked tirelessly, creating controlled chaos. The age of enlightenment, or rather darkness, ended with revolution, guillotine, terror and world war.

The atheistic and anti-Christian basis of the new order was obvious to contemporaries. In 1806, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church anathematized Napoleon for his persecution of the Western Church. In all churches of the Russian Empire (Orthodox and Catholic), Napoleon was declared the Antichrist and the enemy of the human race.

But the European and Russian intelligentsia welcomed Napoleon as the new Messiah, who would make the revolution worldwide and unite all nations under his power. Thus, Fichte perceived the revolution led by Napoleon as preparation for the construction of an ideal world state. For Hegel, the French Revolution “revealed the very content of the will of the human spirit.” Hegel is undoubtedly right in his definition, but with the clarification that this European spirit was apostasy. Shortly before the French Revolution, the head of the Bavarian illuminators, Weishaupt, sought to return man to his “natural state.” His credo: “We must destroy everything without regret, as much as possible and as quickly as possible. My human dignity does not allow me to obey anyone.” Napoleon became the executor of this will.

After the defeat of the Austrian army in 1805, the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire was abolished, and Napoleon - officially "Emperor of the Republic" - became the de facto Emperor of the West. Pushkin will say about him:

Rebellious liberty heir and murderer,
This cold-blooded bloodsucker,
This king, who disappeared like a dream, like the shadow of dawn.

After 1805, Alexander I, remaining the only Christian emperor in the world, confronted the spirits of evil and the forces of chaos. But the ideologists of the world revolution and globalists do not like to remember this. The Alexander era is unusually eventful: even the reigns of Peter the Great and Catherine pale in comparison. In less than a quarter of a century, Emperor Alexander won four military campaigns, repelling the aggression of Turkey, Sweden, Persia and, in 1812, the invasion of European armies. In 1813, Alexander liberated Europe and in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig, where he personally led the allied armies, inflicted a mortal defeat on Napoleon. In March 1814, Alexander I, at the head of the Russian army, entered Paris in triumph.

A subtle and far-sighted politician, a great strategist, diplomat and thinker - Alexander Pavlovich was unusually gifted by nature. Even his enemies recognized his deep and insightful mind: “He is as elusive as sea foam,” Napoleon said about him. How, after all this, can we explain that Tsar Alexander I remains one of the most slandered figures in Russian history?

He, the conqueror of Napoleon, is declared a mediocrity, and the Napoleon he defeated (by the way, who lost six military campaigns in his life) is declared a military genius. The cult of the cannibal Napoleon, who covered Africa, Asia and Europe with corpses, this robber and murderer, has been supported and extolled for 200 years, including here in Moscow, which he burned. Globalists and slanderers of Russia cannot forgive Alexander the Blessed for his victory over the “global revolution” and the totalitarian world order.

I needed this long introduction in order to outline the state of the world in 1814, when, after the end of the World War, all the heads of European states met at a congress in Vienna to determine the future order of the world.

The main issue of the Vienna Congress was the issue of preventing wars on the continent, defining new borders, but, above all, suppressing the subversive activities of secret societies. Victory over Napoleon did not mean victory over the Illuminati ideology, which managed to pierce all the structures of society in Europe and Russia. Alexander’s logic was clear: whoever allows evil does the same. Evil knows no boundaries or measures, so the forces of evil must be resisted always and everywhere.

Foreign policy is a continuation of domestic policy, and just as there is no double morality - for oneself and for others, there is no domestic and foreign policy. The Orthodox Tsar could not be guided by other moral principles in his foreign policy, in relations with non-Orthodox peoples. Alexander, in a Christian way, forgives the French all their guilt before Russia: the ashes of Moscow and Smolensk, robberies, the blown up Kremlin, the execution of Russian prisoners. The Russian Tsar did not allow his allies to plunder and divide defeated France into pieces. Alexander refuses reparations from a bloodless and hungry country. The Allies (Prussia, Austria and England) were forced to submit to the will of the Russian Tsar, and in turn refused reparations. Paris was neither robbed nor destroyed: the Louvre with its treasures and all the palaces remained intact.

Europe was stunned by the king's generosity. In occupied Paris, crowded with Napoleonic soldiers, Alexander Pavlovich walked around the city without an escort, accompanied by one aide-de-camp. The Parisians, recognizing the king on the street, kissed his horse and boots. None of the Napoleonic veterans thought of raising a hand against the Russian Tsar: everyone understood that he was the only defender of defeated France. Alexander I granted amnesty to all Poles and Lithuanians who fought against Russia. He preached by personal example, firmly knowing that you can only change others with yourself. In the words of St. Philaret of Moscow: “Alexander punished the French with mercy.” The Russian intelligentsia - yesterday's Bonapartists and future Decembrists - condemned Alexander's generosity and at the same time prepared regicide.

As the head of the Vienna Congress, Alexander Pavlovich invites defeated France to participate in the work on an equal basis and speaks in Congress with an incredible proposal to build a new Europe based on evangelical principles. Never before in history has the Gospel been laid at the foundation of international relations. In Vienna, Emperor Alexander defines the rights of peoples: they must rest on the precepts of the Holy Scriptures. In Vienna, the Orthodox Tsar invites all monarchs and governments of Europe to abandon national egoism and Machiavellianism in foreign policy and sign the Charter of the Holy Alliance (la Sainte-Alliance). It is important to note that the term "Holy Alliance" itself in German and French sounds like "Holy Covenant", which strengthens its Biblical meaning.

The Charter of the Holy Alliance will be finally signed by the participants of the Congress on September 26, 1815. The text was compiled personally by Emperor Alexander and only slightly corrected by the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia. Three monarchs, representing three Christian denominations: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism, address the world in the preamble: “We solemnly declare that this act has no other purpose than the desire to demonstrate before the whole world its unshakable intention to choose as a rule, as in the internal government of its states, and in relations with other governments, the commandments of the Holy Religion, the commandments of justice, love, peace, which are observed not only in private life, but should guide the policy of sovereigns, being the only means of strengthening human institutions and correcting their imperfections.”

From 1815 to 1818, fifty states signed the charter of the Holy Alliance. Not all signatures were signed sincerely; opportunism is characteristic of all eras. But then, in the face of Europe, the rulers of the West did not dare to openly refute the Gospel. From the very inception of the Holy Alliance, Alexander I was accused of idealism, mysticism and daydreaming. But Alexander was neither a dreamer nor a mystic; he was a man of deep faith and clear mind, and loved to repeat the words of King Solomon (Proverbs, ch. 8:13-16):

The fear of the Lord hates evil, pride and arrogance, and I hate the evil way and deceitful lips. I have advice and truth, I am the mind, I have the strength. By me kings reign, and rulers legitimize truth. The rulers and nobles and all the judges of the earth rule over me.

For Alexander I, history was a manifestation of God's Providence, the Manifestation of God in the world. On the medal that was awarded to the victorious Russian soldiers, the words of King David were engraved: “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give glory” (Psalm 113:9).

Plans for organizing European politics on evangelical principles were a continuation of the ideas of Paul I, the father of Alexander I, and were built on the patristic tradition. Thus, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk in his work “True Christianity” devoted two chapters to the topic of royal power. In Christian society, Saint Tikhon distinguishes between dual power: secular and ecclesiastical power. He writes: “The monarch must remember that just as Christ himself, the King of kings, was not ashamed to call us brothers, so even more so should he, as a human being, consider people like himself as brothers. A crown adorned with virtues is glorified more than one victorious over external enemies" ( Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. Creations in 5 volumes. M., 1889. T. 3, p. 348).

These words seemed to directly refer to Alexander, the conqueror of Europe. Another great contemporary of Alexander I, Saint Philaret (Drozdov), proclaimed bibliocentrism as the basis of state policy. His words are comparable to the provisions of the Charter of the Holy Alliance. The enemies of the Holy Alliance understood perfectly well against whom the Alliance was directed. Liberal propaganda, both then and after, in every possible way denigrated the “reactionary” policies of the Russian tsars. According to F. Engels: “The world revolution will be impossible as long as Russia exists.” Until the death of Alexander I in 1825, the heads of European governments met in congresses to coordinate their policies.

At the Congress in Verona, the Tsar said to the French Foreign Minister and famous writer Chateaubriand: “Do you think that, as our enemies say, the Union is just a word covering up ambitions? […] There is no longer a policy of English, French, Russian, Prussian, Austrian, but there is only a general policy, and it is for the sake of the common good that peoples and kings must accept it. I should be the first to show firmness in the principles on which I founded the Union.”

In his book “History of Russia” Alphonse de Lamartine writes: “This was the idea of ​​the Holy Alliance, an idea that was slandered in its essence, representing it as base hypocrisy and a conspiracy of mutual support for the oppression of peoples. It is the duty of history to restore the Holy Alliance to its true meaning.”

For forty years, from 1815 to 1855, Europe did not know war. At that time, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow spoke about the role of Russia in the world: “The historical mission of Russia is the establishment of a moral order in Europe, based on the Gospel commandments.” The Napoleonic spirit will be resurrected with Napoleon I's nephew, Napoleon III, who, with the help of a revolution, will seize the throne. Under him, France, in alliance with England, Turkey, Piedmont, with the support of Austria, will start a war against Russia. The Europe of the Vienna Congress will end in Crimea, in Sevastopol. In 1855 the Holy Union will be buried.

Many important truths can be learned by contradiction. Attempts at denial often lead to affirmation. The consequences of the disruption of the world order are well known: Prussia defeats Austria and, having united the German states, defeats France in 1870. The continuation of this war will be the war of 1914-1920, and the consequence of the First World War will be the Second World War.

The Holy Alliance of Alexander I remains in history as a noble attempt to elevate humanity. This is the only example of unselfishness in the field of world politics in history when the Gospel became the Charter in international affairs.

In conclusion, I would like to cite the words of Goethe, spoken in 1827 regarding the Holy Alliance, after the death of Alexander the Blessed: “The world needs to hate something great, which was confirmed by his judgments about the Holy Alliance, although nothing greater and more beneficial has yet been conceived for humanity! But the mob doesn't understand this. Greatness is unbearable for her.”