NICHOLAS I (NIKOLAI PAVLOVICH)
1796-1855
EMPEROR OF ALL RUSSIA 1825-1855
Nicholas I was born on May 25, 1796, in Gatchina near St. Petersburg, the
third son of Emperor Paul I. Not considered likely
to succeed to the throne, he received an education in military engineering. In
the 1820s, he held the post of inspector general of the army's engineers. He also
became Commander of the First Guards Division.
Nicholas I came to throne after the death of his older brother Alexander I and the refusal of the second brother,
Grand Duke Constantine, to accept sovereignty. His first measure as Emperor was
the execution of the participants in the uprising of December 14, 1825. He was
crowned on August 22, 1826, in the Dormition Cathedral of
the Moscow Kremlin.
His reign saw the flourishing of absolute monarchy in military and civil
areas. He strengthened and centralized bureaucratic structures to an
unprecedented degree. Harsh and despotic by nature, he had little time for
abstract ideas. Any sign of liberalism in Russia was brutally suppressed.
The principal issue in foreign policy was the "Eastern Question," maintaining
pro-Russian regimes in the Black Sea Straits. Nicholas attempted to resolve this
by the partition of the Ottoman Empire. The result was the Crimean War of
1853-56, in which Russia suffered a bitter defeat at the hands of a coalition of
Western European states and Turkey.
He married Frederica Louisa Charlotta Wilhelmina (Alexandra Feodorovna),
daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, and had seven
children.
Nicholas died on February 18, 1855. Many researchers believe he poisoned
himself after receiving news of the defeat of Russian forces at Evpatoria. He was
buried in the Cathedral of the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress in St.
Petersburg.
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©Copyright 1995, St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
©Copyright 1995, The Moscow Kremlin Museums and other international
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Text compiled by Alexei K. Levykin
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