Whenever someone wishes to paint the Romanov dynasty, or monarchy in general, in a very negative way, they will often point to the case of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. This is ridiculous and unfortunate for a number of reasons. He was undoubtedly a hard man, and this is not the sort of thing which would have shamed Nicholas I, he did, however, live in times where rather stern methods were sometimes called for. Because of this, he has also often been painted as a cruel man, a man of limited intelligence and other things which the facts prove to be quite unfair. The title of "Iron Tsar" is probably one Nicholas would not have minded, however, the more recent historians who often compare him with Joseph Stalin would certainly infuriate him beyond measure. Tsar Nicholas I was no corrupt, sadistic atheist bent on world domination. On the contrary, Nicholas I was a disciplined man, a loving and devoted husband and father, a very religious man and one who was concerned, not with world power, but with upholding the balance of powers and legitimate authority across Europe.
Nicholas I came to power at a difficult time and under difficult circumstances. Tsar Alexander I, for all of the glory Russia won under his reign, had not been a leader with a clear vision and there was dissent among both the liberal and conservative elements in Russian society. Alexander I also left behind trouble at his death. His successor was to have been his younger brother Constantine, but he wished to immediately pass the throne to his younger brother Nicholas, who despite being painted as an ambitious man, had no desire to become Tsar. So, in 1825 when Constantine stepped aside and left the throne to Nicholas, the reluctant new Tsar was immediately faced with rebellion by units of the Russian military which had been infiltrated by various degrees of liberals. They chanted, "Constantine and Constitution", which was absurd considering that Constantine was actually more reactionary than Nicholas, so much so that he forbid his troops to cheer on the grounds that this was a gross display of "independent" thought!
This first crisis shows a great deal about the character of Nicholas I and how he was actually not the monster many portray him as. He was calm and courageous in the face of this disaster and his first impulse was to try to make peace with the mutineers. Of course, he had enough sense to find and move in loyal troops, but he made repeated efforts to negotiate with the rebel ringleaders. In fact, it was not until rebel forces fired on his emissaries that the new Tsar ordered his troops to use whatever force was needed to suppress the rebels. This undoubtedly influenced the mentality with which Nicholas assumed the imperial throne, but not neccessarily in the way one would think. Nicholas I recognized that there was a need for reform, but he was resolved that it would be legal reform handed down from the Tsar and not forced on Russia by armed mobs. He also was resolved to find and eliminate those in Russia who were spreading revolutionary propaganda.
The man who came to the throne in 1825 was a hard man with a strict upbringing. Seeing that this had instilled discipline in his life, he saw to it that Russian education was reformed along the lines of his own. He was not an intellectual, but accusations that he was some kind of imbecile are quite unfair and can be easily debunked by his own thoughtful writings. He was also a devoted and loving family man as can be easily seen by the letters he wrote his wife, Alexandra Fedorovna. Nicholas told his wife, "God has given you such a happy character that it is no merit to love you. I exist for you. . . . I wished, as much as this was in my power, to make you a hundred times happier". He would no doubt have been happiest if he had not taken the throne, but could have devoted his whole life to the things he loved the most: his wife and children and the Russian army.
The imperial crown was an honor he endured rather than enjoyed, considering it a duty and once saying that he had, "been born to suffer". He was an orderly, hard-working and very "hands-on" emperor. He had few close friends and kept mostly to himself, he was known to be on the move constantly, attending to every detail personally. In 1831 he personally stopped a mob of several thousand people who had stormed a hospital during a cholera epidemic, simply by the strength of his presence and commanding voice. He travelled constantly to inspect every corner of Russia, her government, military and civil society. He was also openly and proudly reactionary and structured all of Russian society around his three pillars of "Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality", a slogan developed by education minister Sergius Uvarov. Like another tsar of his name many years later, Nicholas I was devoutly religious, fatalistic and convinced of his role as God's viceroy over the Russian Empire. Under his rule liberalism of any kind was stamped out, revolutionaries were exiled to Siberia and Russia solidified in the image of its ruler. However, the gaze of the "Iron Tsar" stretched beyond Russia, not in an ambition for conquest, but a firm determination to defend legitimate authority wherever it was in peril. |
