Romanovs Essay Research Paper THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY

Romanovs Essay, Research Paper

THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY For each generation to react against the generation before it is a characteristic of many reigning dynasties; but particularly of the Russian Imperial House in the century following the death of Catherine the Great, when autocratic Tsars alternated with Tsars who were liberal as inevitably as Fredericks alternated with Christians on the Throne of Denmark. Catherine’s son, Paul I, who reigned from 1796 to 1801, was autocratic; and it can often be said to have reacted against his mother who, while being a despot, was influenced by the doctrines of the Enlightenment. Paul was also influenced by ideas which came out of France; but in his case it was the strong royalist and legitimist theories of the French emigres, who, together with the Knights of Malta and other victims of the revolutionary upheaval, were given a refuge in his dominions. Whereas Catherine, though enlightened in her ideas, was unscupulous in her methods, Paul “wished to remain an honest man, philosophical and religious, while governing despotically”. He hated the abuse of power, and he detested the crimes which he had seen his mother commit. The belief in his own Divine Right, which made some Monarchs more human, had the opposite effect on him so that he was perceived to be an aloof, haughty, lonely figure; yet he was generous and sympathized with the misfortunes of others. He would often apologize to people whom he had punished unjustly in a fit of anger, making amends by embracing them and showering them with presents; he visited the wounded Polish leader, Kosciuszko, in prison, ordered his release and treated him with great kindness. Strongly wedded as he was to legitimacy, the Emperor Paul, in the days of the Consulate, admired Napoleon, of who he would say “I have found a man; there is a man in the world!” The key to his contradictory nature seems to lie in the fact that he had secret doubts about the divine concept of Monarchy which he so rigorously upheld. Being unsure of his convictions made him unhappy and tyrannical in his behaviour; so that he became highly unpopular, particularly among Russia’s nobles. There was a plot to dethrone him–the last of those palace revolutions that are such a feature of Russian history up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. It had the approval of Paul’s son, the Tsarevitch Alexander, who was assured by the conspirators that nothing worse would happen to the Emperor than imprisonment. This was genuinely the intention of some of them; but when they attempted to seize the unfortunate Paul, they were afraid that his cries would bring the palace guards to the rescue; so they put him to death. The character and career of the next Emperor, Alexander I, presents us with paradoxes that are typically Russian. As Tsarevitch, though he was heir to the wealthiest and most absolute Monarchy in Europe, he espoused the doctrines of 1789. A young man of charming disposition, with a touching, Rousseauesque delight in the beauties of nature, he would tell his confidant Prince Adam Czartoryski, that he “would like to see Republics everywhere” and that he “looked upon this form of government as the only one suited to the rights and happiness of humanity”. He had acquired some of his notions from his tutor, a Voltairian professor chosen for him by his grandmother, Catherine the Great; yet his Voltairian upbringing did not in any way affect his pious and fervent Orthodox faith. The absolutist Paul had wished to make friends with the First Consul of revolutionary France. The liberal Alexander went to war with Napoleon a few years after succeeding to the Throne. Having been defeated at Austerlitz, he and Napoleon came to terms at Tilsit, where he astonished the upstart Emperor of the French by maintaining that Monarchies ought to be elective, whereas Napoleon argued with equal conviction that they should be hereditary. Five years after Tilsit, Napoleon invaded Russia and Alexander led his country’s epic defence; then, having forced the French to retrace their steps, he chased the remnant of their Army all the way back to Paris. When the Allied Sovereigns assembled in Paris and Vienna for the peacemaking, the tall, benignly smiling Alexander, with his fine brow and lustrous eyes, was the most impressive figure among them, as well as the most popular. In London, the tumultuous welcome given by the populace to the visiting Tsar was in striking contrast to the unpopularity of the Prince Regent. But when the Allied statesmen got down to business, they were dismayed by Alexander’s proposal that Poland–which had been partioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria at various times during the past fifty years–should be reunited under his sceptre. Castlereagh called it “the plan of the Tartar prince for overturning Europe”; the fact that Alexander intended to reign over a reunited Poland as a constitutional King did not make the proposal any more acceptable. Though his Polish dream came to nothing, Alexander insisted on granting a Constituition to that part of Poland which he already held. This caused great jealousy in Russia. Madame de Stael once told him that his own character was “a charter and a constitution for his subjects”. Alexander’s benevolence was still the only Constitution which the Russians had. It was better than many a written charter; but Constitutions were now all the rage; especially among those of the Tsar’s subjects who had picked up dem