Nikolai 1

Nikolai was the third son of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Fedorovna. He was born in the morning at three quarters of 4 hours on June 25 (July 6) 1796 [2] - a few months before the entry of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich to the throne. Thus, he was the last of the grandchildren of Catherine II born during her lifetime. The boy, like the previous grandchildren of Catherine II, received the name unusual for the Romanov dynasty. The court historian M. A. Korf even specifically noted that the baby was called the name "unprecedented in our royal house." In the Imperial House of the Romanov dynasty named Nikolai, children were not called. Moreover, if the first two grandchildren were named after the Greek project by Alexander (in honor of Alexander the Great) and Konstantin (in honor of Konstantin the Great), then there is no explanation for the name of Nikolai in the sources, although Nikolai the Chudovorets was very revered in Rus'. Perhaps Catherine took into account the semantics of a name dating back to the Greek words “victory” and “people” [4].

According to the order established by Empress II, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich from birth entered the care of the empress, but soon the death of Catherine II stopped the influence of her influence on the course of education of the Grand Duke. His nanny was the lifland of Charlotte Karlovna Liven. For the first seven years, she was the only mentor of Nikolai. The boy sincerely became attached to his first teacher, and during early childhood “heroic, knightly noble, strong and open character of the nanny Charlotte Karlovna Liven” made an imprint on his character.

Since November 1800, General M. I. Lamzdorf became the teacher of Nikolai and Mikhail. The choice of General Lamzdorf to the post of teacher of the Grand Duke was made by Emperor Paul I. Pavel I pointed out: “Just do not make my sons such as German princes” (German Solche Schlingel Wie Deutschen Prinzen). In the highest order of November 23 (December 5), 1800 was announced: "Lieutenant General Lamzdorf was appointed to be under his imperial highness Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich." The general was with his pupil for 17 years. Obviously, Lamzdorf quite satisfied the pedagogical requirements of Maria Fedorovna. So, in a parting letter in 1814, Maria Fedorovna called General Lamzdorf the “second father” of the Grand Dukes of Nikolai and Mikhail. The greatest concerns of Empress Maria Fedorovna in the upbringing of Nikolai Pavlovich were in effort to reject him from his passion for military exercises, which was found in it from early childhood. The passion for the technical side of the military affairs, vaccinated in Russia by Paul I, launched deep and strong roots in the royal family - Alexander I, despite his liberalism, was a hot adherent of the watch and all his subtleties, like Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. The younger brothers were not inferior to the eldest in this passion. From early childhood, Nikolai had a special addiction to military toys and stories about military operations.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 and the military campaigns of the Russian army in Europe, Nicholas was eager for war, but he met a decisive refusal from the Mother Empress. In 1813, a strategy was taught the 17-year-old Grand Duke. At this time, Anna Pavlovna’s sister, with whom he was very friendly, Nikolai accidentally found out that Alexander I visited Silesia, where he saw the family of the Prussian king, that the eldest daughter of his Princess Charlotte liked it and that his intentions was, so that Nikolai was like Nicholas like -I saw her. Only at the beginning of 1814, Emperor Alexander I allowed his younger brothers to arrive abroad to the army. On February 5 (17), 1814, Nikolai and Mikhail left St. Petersburg. On this trip they were accompanied by General Lamzdorf, cavaliers: I.F. Savrasov, A.P. Aledinsky and P.I. Arsenyev, Colonel Dzhanotti and Dr. Ryul. 17 days later they reached Berlin, where 17-year-old Nikolai first saw the 16-year-old daughter of the king of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm III Princess Charlotte.

Many memories were left about Nikolai Pavlovich. Freilina Anna Tyutcheva in her diary indicates that Nicholas I was primarily fanatically convinced that he was God's chosen one, to whom the management of the country and the people was entrusted to God himself. A new world arose everywhere around him in Europe under the trend of new ideas, but this world of individual freedom and free individualism seemed to him in all its manifestations only by the criminal and monstrous heresy, which he was designed to overcome, suppress, eradicate at all costs, and He pursued her not only without remorse, but with a calm and fiery consciousness of the fulfillment of duty. <...> Nicholas I was a donation of the autocracy, a boner is terrible and malicious, because he possessed omnipotence, which allowed him to subordinate everything to his fantastic and obsolete theory and trample the most legitimate aspirations and rights of his century.

Hence the outcome of his reign, the universal numbness of the minds, the deep demoralization of all the categories of bureaucracy, the hopeless inertness of the people as a whole. ” Tyutcheva writes that Nicholas I, who combined the knightly character of a rare nobility and honesty with a generous soul, working eighteen hours a day, "sincerely and sincerely believed that he was able to see everything with his own eyes, hearing everything with his ears, regulate everything in his own way Reason, transform everything with your will. As a result, he only piles around his uncontrolled power pile of tremendous abuse. ” There are also positive reviews about Nicholas I. So, N.V. Gogol in “Selected places from correspondence with friends” enthusiastically writes about Nicholas and claims that Pushkin allegedly addressed Nikolai, who read a Homer during the ball, the apologetic poem “With Homer For a long time you talked one ... ”, hiding this dedication out of fear of passing into a flatterer. In Pushkinism, however, this attribution is often called into question; It is indicated that it is more likely to initiate this initiation to the translator of Homer N. I. Gnedich. N.V. Gogol also enthusiastically wrote that Nicholas I with his arrival in Moscow during the horrors of the cholera epidemic showed a line that “hardly showed any of the crowned people” and which caused A. S. Pushkin “these remarkable poems”. Seeing the helplessness and fear of the officials surrounding him during a cholera riot, the king then went into a crowd of rebellious people sick with cholera, he suppressed this riot with his authority and, leaving the quarantine, took off his own and burned all his clothes right in the field so that he was not so as not to infect his retinue.

Nikolai I led an ascetic and healthy lifestyle [114]. He did not smoke and did not like smokers, did not use strong drinks, was not a player, did not like hunting, walked a lot, was engaged in combat exercises with weapons. He preferred to dress in a military uniform and a simple officer overcoat, slept on a tough bed with a straw mature. It was known his strict adherence to the daily routine: the working day began at 7 a.m., exactly at 9 o’clock - the receipt of reports.

Was distinguished by good memory and great performance; The king’s working day lasted 16-18 hours. Never missed Sunday services. According to the Archbishop of Kherson Innocent, “it was <...> such a crown -bearer for whom the royal throne served not the lead to peace, but the motivation for unceasing work” [115].

The king’s love for legality, justice, and order was well -known. He personally visited military shows, examined fortifications, educational institutions, office premises, state institutions. He has always accompanied comments and “Vygovs” with specific tips to correct the situation. In addition, Nicholas I was in the location of troops leading military operations: for example, with the siege of Varna in 1829. Nicholas I also had the ability to attract talented people to work. Its employees were commander I.F. Paskevich, Minister of Finance Count E.F. Kankrin, Minister of State Property Count P. D. Kiselev, Minister of Education Count S. S. Uvarov, M. Speransky and others. Talented architect Konstantin The tone performed under the emperor the function of the state architect.

At the same time, the great limitation of Nicholas I was well known, and its excessive craving for external order very often went to the detriment of the effectiveness of public administration. The younger contemporary of Nicholas I historian S. M. Solovyov writes: “According to the reign of Nikolai <...> a military man, as a stick, as accustomed not to reason, but to fulfill and capable of accustoming others to exe

The Russian letters were taught to the emperor by the cavaliers on duty, that is, the tutors who were with him, in turn, French lessons were initially given to him by his mother herself[128]. In 1802, the emigrant Du Puget was invited to teach this language, who also taught him geography and general history, trying, among other things, to develop in him hatred of the figures of the French Revolution[128]. He was taught German by academician F. P. Adelung[128].

Alexander II (April 17 (29), 1818 — March 1 (13), 1881) 1st wife — Maria Alexandrovna; The 2nd wife is Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova. Maria Nikolaevna (August 6 (18), 1819 — February 9 (21), 1876) 1st spouse — Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg; The 2nd spouse is Count Grigory Alexandrovich Stroganov. Olga Nikolaevna (August 30 (September 11), 1822 — October 18 (30), 1892) husband — Frederick Charles Alexander, King of Württemberg. Alexandra Nikolaevna (June 12 (24), 1825 — July 29 (August 10), 1844) husband — Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hesse-Kassel. Konstantin Nikolaevich (September 9 (21), 1827 — January 13 (25), 1892) wife — Alexandra Iosifovna. Nikolai Nikolaevich (July 27 (August 8), 1831 — April 13 (25), 1891) wife — Alexandra Petrovna. Mikhail Nikolaevich (October 13 (25), 1832 — December 5 (18), 1909)

In 1855, Nikolai I fell ill with the flu, but, despite the malaise, in February he went to a military parade without outerwear... The emperor died on March 2, 1855.