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Birth of Emperor Nicholas I
On June 25 (July 6), 1796, the third son, the future Emperor of Russia (1825-1855), Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland Nicholas I, was born in the family of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (from November 6 (17), Emperor of All Russia Paul I).
From earliest years he was interested most of all in construction and engineering, a passion to which he retained for life. In the future, he applied his knowledge in creating the design of the dome of the Trinity Cathedral and in the construction of the Main Headquarters in St. Petersburg. In 1816, he made a number of trips to the provinces of Russia to get a visual idea of the internal state and problems of the country, and also visited England. In 1817, Nicholas united in matrimony with a Prussian Princess Frederica Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina, in the Orthodox bride Alexandra Feodorovna.
On April 17 (29), 1818, the couple had a son Alexander - the future Russian Emperor Alexander II. The family of Grand Duke led a lifestyle that corresponded to the status of Nicholas as an ordinary member of the imperial family. However, in 1819, Tsar Alexander I told his brother that the official heir to the throne, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich intended to renounce his rights. On August 16 (28), 1823, Alexander I signed a secretly drafted manifesto, according to which Nicholas, as the next in seniority, was confirmed heir to the throne.
Alexander I died on November 19 (December 1), 1825 in Taganrog, and when the news of this reached the capital, troops were sworn in the new Russian Emperor Konstantin I. However, Konstantin, who was in Warsaw at that time, confirmed his abdication of the throne in a private letter to Nicholas. Unable to convince his brother, Nicholas decided to fulfill the will of Alexander I and take power. On the day of the oath to Emperor Nicholas I on December 14 (26), 1825, an armed mutiny took place on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg, the purpose of which was to change the political system of Russia. By the evening of the same day, the uprising was suppressed. On August 22 (September 3), 1826 in Moscow at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, Nicholas I was crowned.
In December 1826 he created a Privy Committee for development of major state reforms on the basis of the projects that had been preserved in the office of the late Emperor Alexander Pavlovich. He transformed His Imperial Majesty's Chancellery into a government agency in charge of all affairs of state. The greatest importance had the Third Section of the imperial chancellery, which played the role of the secret police, and also defined the government measures to curb the periodical press and increased censorship of literature and art. Head of the Third Section and the gendarmerie was General Alexander X. Benkendorf. Role of the State Council, the Senate and the central institutions of governance had diminished.
In 1826, the censorship statute was approved, nicknamed “cast iron” for its rigidity. In 1828, a new Statute on Censorship was adopted, which served as a legal guide for the censorship apparatus of the country until the 1860s of the XIX century.
To consolidate and streamline the state power Nicholas I ordered the codification of laws. With this purpose in 1826 was set up the Second Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery. M. M. Speransky was charged with conducting of codification. As a result of the Chancellery’s work, in 1830-1832 was published the Complete Collected Laws of the Russian Empire, from the Catholic Code of 1649. Then, on the emperor’s order current laws were selected, classified and published in 15 volumes under the name of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire.
Emperor Nicholas I was against serfdom. At a meeting of the State Council on March 30 (April 11), 1842, when discussing the decree on obligated peasants, the sovereign made a speech in which he noted that the abolition of serfdom in the present era would be a disastrous evil, but there was a need to prepare funds “for a gradual transition to a different order of things” and a cold-blooded discussion of the benefits and consequences of this change. During the reign of Nicholas I, a total of 9 secret committees on the peasant question were successively created, and more than 100 decrees and laws were issued, but the results of this activity were very modest. Nevertheless, the decree on obligated peasants (1842), as well as the reform of the management of state peasants (1837-1841), which expanded local peasant self-government, and the “inventory” introduced in landlords’ farms since 1847, i.e. state inventories of “all the aggregate things necessary for farming” became the foundation of the future peasant reform of 1861.
In 1830-1840-ies emperor had been reforming social sphere, as well as education. In 1831, in St. Petersburg was opened Russia's first private public museum - the Rumyantsev Museum. In 1832, Nicholas I signed a Manifesto "On establishment of a new estate of Honorary citizens." The same year "for the greater dissemination of knowledge in the Army" in St. Petersburg opened the Imperial Military Academy - military high school of the Russian Empire. After the death of Emperor it was named after Nicholas.
In 1837 in Russia was built the first Tsarskoe Selo railroad , in 1851 - Nicholas railway Petersburg - Moscow. During the reign of Nicholas I was created the first official anthem of the Russian Empire ("God Save the Tsar"), the text of which was written by the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, and the music – by A. F. Lvov. The anthem was first performed in December 1833 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Under Nicholas I, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the end of the Patriotic War and the occupation of Paris (1814) in Moscow was laid the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
In 1826, under the imperial rescript a Committee for arrangement of educational institutions was set up under the Ministry of Public Education. The policy of Nicholas I in the field of education, science and literature reflected in the so-called theory of official nationality, which declared three sacred principles - Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality as the fundamentals of existence of Russia. Its basic principles were set forth by Count S. S. Uvarov's report to Emperor when he took office of Minister of Education.
Nicholas’ policy in education was based on the prior development of technical and legal educational institutions. It was during his reign that the foundations for modern engineering education in Russia were laid. At the same time, schools and universities were put under strict administrative control (uniform programs, textbooks, uniforms were introduced), the number of students was limited.
Over thirty years of running Russia, Nicholas I has greatly expanded its territory, annexing large areas in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Far East. In 1845 the emperor approved an initiative of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia, Earl L. A. Perovsky regarding the establishment in St. Petersburg of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1846 the emperor signed the Charter of the Imperial St. Petersburg Yacht Club - the first official yacht club in Russia.
In foreign policy, the Emperor Nicholas I declared his intention to "put an end to the Eastern question" - the fight with Turkey for the possession of the Black Sea coast and in the end of the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and for the liberation of the Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke. In 1826, in St. Petersburg the governments of Russia and Great Britain signed a protocol on joint actions in the settlement of the Greek question. The document was the first major diplomatic victory of the Russian Emperor and became the basis for the London Convention (1827). The victorious military operations in 1828-1829 against the Turkish forces had significantly weakened Turkey enabling Russia to annex a number of areas on the Black Sea, Caucasus, and to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet. In 1829, General I. I. Dibich seized Andrianopol, and Count Paskevich - Kars and Erzurum.
In September 1829 in Adrianople, Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed a peace treaty. However, in October 1853 a new war against Turkey started (the Crimean War), during which was held the last major naval battle of the era of sailing fleets – the Battle of Sinop. The Crimean War revealed the military and economic backwardness of Russia, pushed the government to begin the transformations carried out during the reforms of the 1860s and 1870s.
Emperor Nicholas I died on February 18 (March 2), 1855 in St. Petersburg, buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Lit.: Выскочков Л. В. Николай I. М., 2003; Кипянина Н. С. Внешняя политика Николая I // Новая и новейшая история. 2001. № 1, 2; Записка императора Николая I о военных действиях на Кавказе (около 1845 г.) // Русская старина. 1885. Т. 48. № 10. С. 209-212; Записки императора Николая Павловича о прусских делах. 1848 г. / Сообщ. В. Ф. Ратч // Русская старина. 1870. Т. 1. С. 295-303; Кюстин А. де. Николаевская Россия. М., 2008; Полиевктов М. Николай I. М., 1918; Николай I и его время: В 2 т. М., 2000; Пресняков А. Е. Николай I. Апогей самодержавия // А. Е. Пресняков. Российские самодержцы. М., 1990; Рахматуллин М. А. Император Николай I глазами современников // Отечественная история. 2004. № 6; Сочинение в. к. Николая Павловича о Марке-Аврелии (Письмо к профессору морали Аделунгу). 1813 г. // Русская старина. 1874. Т. 9. № 2. С. 252-571; Шильдер Н. К. Император Николай I, его жизнь и царствование. Т. 1-2. СПб., 1903.
Based on the Presidential Library's materials:
Nicholas I (1796–1855) // The House of Romanov. The Zemsky Sobor of 1613: [digital collection];