Choose one of the following famous Russians, then post as a comment to this post the following information:
-basic biographical information
-goals/accomplishments
-failutes
-enemies
-friends
-personality quirks
-influence
People:
-Ivan the Terrible
-Peter the Great
-Catherine the Great
-Alexander I
-Nicholas I
-Alexander II
-Alexander III
-Nicholas II
Alexander I was born in St. Petersburg on December 12, 1777. Paul’s mother, Catherine the Great, utterly disliked her son and didn’t think him capable of ruling the country. When Alexander, her first and long-awaited grandson , was born, Catherine saw him as her successor and took control of his education.
ReplyDeleteCatherine’s death in 1796 brought Alexander’s father, Paul I, to the throne. But he wasn’t to reign for long. When he took the position, Alexander didn’t think he was cut for the role of a monarch and dreamt of a quiet life, away from the court. Yet, in 1801, aged 23, Alexander was crowned Tsar. Good-looking and charming, the young Emperor was extremely popular. True to the ideals of his liberal schooling, he set out to reform the outdated, centralised system of government of his massive empire. He embarked on a range of social reforms, much of them drawn up by a close advisor, Mikhail Speransky. Censorship was relaxed, torture prohibited and a new law allowed peasants to buy themselves out of serfdom. Administrative, education and financial changes followed. The ambitious vision went as far as setting up a parliament and giving Russia a constitution.
By December, reduced to a fraction of their initial might, the French army was expelled from Russia. Two years later, with Alexander riding at their head, Russian troops made a glorious entry to Paris. This was the triumph of his reign – hailed as hero across Europe he turned into one of its most powerful monarchs. Seeing himself as Europe’s liberator and peace-maker, the Tsar became the driving force behind the Holy Alliance – a coalition of Russia, Austria and Prussia signed in 1815. Designed to counter any new revolutions and protect stability in Europe, the alliance was the first international peacekeeping organisation of sorts.
At home, Alexander started another wave of reforms. A plan to abolish serfdom was prepared and a constitution drafted. But soon his views changed. Russian officers returning from their European campaigns brought with them ideas of freedom and wanted modernization. But much of the nobility opposed Alexander’s plans – the Czar backed down.
Supported by his new right-hand man, Count Aleksey Arakcheev, he repealed many of his early changes, police control was reinforced and censorship tightened. One of the most disastrous projects of the time were the so-called military settlements – the villages combining military service and farming. They were supposed to improve the soldiers’ living conditions and cut the state military spending, but their economic benefits proved poor and, forced on the unwilling peasants, they prompted frequent unrest. This period of Alexander’s reign was dubbed arakcheevshchina – derived from the name of his favorite and synonymous with reaction and oppression.
Alexander’s last years were filled with obsession with God and Christianity. At the end of his reign he was a troubled man, “crushed” in his own words “beneath the terrible burden of a crown”. In the autumn of 1825 on a trip to the south of Russia, Alexander caught a cold which developed into typhoid. He died in the southern city of Taganrog on November 19, 1825. He was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. But his sudden death caused persistent rumours that the Tsar secretly abdicated and became a monk. A legend has it that a mysterious hermit Feodor Kuzmich who appeared in Siberia in 1836 was in fact Alexander I. When the Soviet government opened his coffin in the 1920s it was found empty.
Although Alexander had a string of lovers and 9 illegitimate children, he didn’t leave an heir – his two daughters from his marriage to Louise of Baden died young. The throne was left to Alexander’s brother Nicholas I. Nevertheless Alexander I went down into Russia’s history as Alexander the Blessed – the man who didn’t want to be Tsar. He led Russia to one of its greatest triumphs and became a legend after death.
Nicholas II was born May 18, 1868. He became Tzarvich after the assassination of his grandfather. Before he got married to Alexandra Feodorovna (who has also related to him, I blame the Hapsburgs), he had an affair with a ballerina. Described as being a quiet moan, he wasn't the best candiate to rule, despite his great love of Russia. He ruled Russia 1894 until March 2, 1917.
ReplyDeleteDuring his rule he went to war with Japan, and lost which lead to the 1905 revolution. Then Bloody Sunday happened,where Cossacks and Hussars were ordered to shoot on a crowd of protesters, and wrote in his diary ,"Difficult day! In St. Petersburg there were serious disturbances due to the desire of workers to get to the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places of the city, there were many dead and wounded. Lord, how painful and bad!" After all three of these events he created the Duma, (Russian parliment) which he did not like.
Also taking place at this time his wife had a hemophilliac son. They kept this information within the Royal Family.
In 1914 Russia entered War War I. The Russian people were not happy with this and he was thrown out ('abdicated') March 2, 1917. Then he was shipped all over Russia with his family before he was finally killed July 18,1918 from a gunshot wound.