Alexander I, who ruled the Russian Empire during the first quarter
of the nineteenth century, had received a most liberal education in his
youth ; and during the early years of his reign he devoted his attention
to devising numerous plans of reform for his people. His cbaracter and the
leading reforms which he cherished are described in the Memoirs of the distinguished
Polish prince, Adam Czartoryski 0770-1861), from which the following passages
are taken. Czartoryski knew Alexander as a young man, and thus describes
his ideals before his accession to the throne.
As soon as I came in the Grand Duke Alexander took me by the hand and proposed
that we should go into the garden. We walked about in every direction for
three hours, keeping up an animated conversation all the time. He declared
that he did not in any way share the ideas and doctrines of the cabinet
and the court; and that he was far from approving the policy and conduct
of his grandmother, whose principles he condemned. He had wished for the
success of Poland in her glorious struggle and had deplored her fall. Kosciuszko,
he said, was, in his eyes, a man who was great by his virtues as well as
owing to the cause which he had defended,- the cause of humanity and of
justice. He added that he detested despotism everywhere, no matter in what
way it was exercised ; that he loved liberty, to which all men had a right
, that he had taken the strongest interest ii~ the French Revolution, and
that while condemning its terrible excesses, he wished the French Republic
success and rejoiced at its establishment.
I was deeply moved, and could hardly believe my ears. That a Russian prince,
Catherine 11's successor, her grandson and her favorite child, whom she
would have wished to see reigning after her instead of her son, and of whom
it was said that he would continue her reign, should disavow and detest
his grandmother's principles, should repel the odious policy of Russia,
should be a passionate lover of justice and liberty, should pity Poland
and wish to see her happy, - all this seemed incredible. And that such noble
ideas and great virtues should be able to grow and flourish in such an atmosphere
and with such surroundings was surely little less than a miracle.
It should be remembered that at that time so-called liberal opinions were
much less prevalent than they are now, and had not yet penetrated into all
the classes of society or even into the cabinets of sovereigns. On the contrary,
everything that had the appearance of liberalism was anathematized in the
courts and salons of most of the European capitals, and especially in Russia
and at St. Petersburg, where all the convictions of the old French r6gime
were grafted in an exaggerated form on Russian despotism and servility.
Alexander's opinions were indeed those of one brought up in the ideas of
1789, who wishes to see republics everywhere, and looks upon that form of
government as the only one in conformity with the wishes and the rights
of humanity. He held, among other things, that hereditary monarchy was an
unjust and absurd institution, and that the supreme authority should be
granted not through the accident of birth but by the votes of the nation,
which would best know who is most capable of governing it. I represented
to him the arguments against this view, the difficulty and the risks of
an election, what Poland had suffered from such an institution, and how
little Russia was adapted to or prepared for it. I added that now, at any
rate,
Russia would not gain anything by the change, as she would lose the man
who, by his benevolent and pure intentions, was most worthy of succeeding
to the throne. . . .During the year 1796 an event occurred which had vast
consequences for Europe and terrible ones for Poland. -The Grand Duchess
Maria gave birth to a son. The baptismal ceremony took place in the chapel
of Tsarskoe-Selo,- the whole court attended in full dress in the spacious
hall which leads to the chapel. The ceremony, as was to be expected, was
a most sumptuous one. The ambassadors were present, and some of them held
the child at the baptismal font as the representatives of their respective
sovereigns. He was named Nicholas 1 Looking at him then in his swaddling
clothes as he moved about impatiently while the long baptismal ceremony
of the Russian Church was being performed, I little thought that this weak
and pretty child would one day become the scourge of my country....
As years went on, Emperor Alexander's vague and floating ideas were consolidated
into a practical shape. All the eccentric views which were mere fireworks
were abandoned, and he had to restrict his wishes to the realities and possibilities
of the moment. He consoled himself by indulging in his hours of leisure,
which were daily becoming more rare, in hopes of progress, which permitted
hirn to retain some, at least, of the dreams of his youth. These seemed
to me like a tree transplanted into a dry and arid soil and deprived of
its exuberant vegetation, whose despoiled trunk puts forth a few weak branches
and then perishes.
The emperor's first step was to issue an ukase or manifesto to restore the
authority and dignity of the Senate. Although every order of the emperor,
whether written or spoken, had the force of law, such orders had all to
be addressed to the Senate, which was intrusted with the task of publishing
them and seeing to their due execution. It was at the same time laid down
that all the ministers should make detailed reports of their acts, which
the emperor would send to the Senate for its opinion. This, it was hoped,
would be a first step in the direction of national and representative government.
After laying the first stone of the edifice of a regulated legislative power,
and devising a lirnit to the autocratic power, the emperor turned his attention
to the organization of his government, so as to make its action more enlightened,
more just, and more methodical. The government machine was irregular and
intermittent in its action, and the administration was a chaos in which
nothing was regulated or clearly defined.
The object of the reform was to establish a system ~omewhat similar to those
adopted in most other European States, by separating the governmental departments,
defining their limits, assigning to each all the business of a particular
kind, centralizing their management, and thereby augmenting the responsibility
of the principal functionaries of State. It was hoped, among other things,
that this would be an efficacious means of checking the numberless abuses
and frauds which are the curse of Russia. The emperor accordingly created
for the first time ministries of the Interior and of Police, of Finance,
of justice, of Public Instruction, of Commerce, of Foreign Affairs, of War,
and of the Navy.
These changes, which anywhere else would seem the very A B C of politics,
seemed at that time to the Russians novel and immense. The manifesto made
much noise in the whole empire, and especially in the salons of St. Petersburg
and Mos~cow; each man had his own opinion of it, and the majority judged
it not by its intrinsic merits or the benefits it might confer on the State,
but by the effect it would be likely to have on his own particular advancement.
Those who obtained places approved it, while those who were left out in
the cold criticised the juvenile infatuation that wished to change the old
and venerable institutions under which Russia had become great. The personages
high in office who had not been consulted, vented their disappointment by
smiling with pity at the young men who were trying to reform the empire,
and at the foolishness of some older men who consented to be the instruments
of a servile and awkward imitation of foreign institutions.
Alexander also reconstituted the commission for the revision of the law.
This had been formed by the Empress Catherine, who thereby gained the flattering
appreciation of Voltaire and the Diderots , but the only result was the
publication of the philanthropic and philosophical instructions addressed
by Catherine to the commission. It was dissolved soon after, and its proceedings
were never made public. The new commission was organized with the assistance
of a German jurist, Baron Rosenkampf, on a vast and well-conceived plan.
It was directed to codify all the existing Russian laws, which were very
numerous and often contradicted each other, classifying them according to
subjects, omitting such as were obsolete and adding new ones when necessary,
but taking care to retain in the new codes all that had for many years entered
into the life of the Russian people.
The creation of a Ministry of Public Instruction was a remarkable innovation
in Russia which was f ruitf ul of great and salutary results, and posterity
will owe gratitude both to Alexander and to the young men, then so much
criticised, who supported him in his plans. Nothing could be more wretched
or insufficient than public instruction in Russia up to the reign of Alexander.
There was an academy of sciences at St. Petersburg, which owed its only
celebrity to the presence of some learned men whom the government had brought
to the Russian capital from abroad. The transactions of this academy were
for the most part written in the French and German languages; it had no
relations whatever with the country, and exercised no influence on its progress.
At Moscow there was a university which was equally isolated. The only other
educational establishments in Russia proper were the so-called " national
schools." The teaching in these was bad and extremely meager,- the
teachers were poor wretches whom idleness and ennui had rendered drunkards,
and no respectable person sent his children to them.
The establishment of the Ministry of Public Instruction completely changed
all this. The existing universities of Moscow, Wilna, and Dorpat were better
endowed, and three new ones were created, - those of St. Petersburg, Kharkoff,
and Kazan, - each forming an educational center for a definite region in
which it directed all educational matters.