The Presidential Library’s rare documents spotlight Alexander I the Blessed, the winner of the "invincible"

This year marks the 245th anniversary of the birth of Emperor Alexander I. One rarely talks about it, but among the “Great” rulers of Russia, his predecessors Peter I and grandmother Catherine II, he received the name “Blessed” from his subjects, and was nicknamed “our Angel”.

He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Maria Feodorovna. Catherine II simply idolized her first grandson. It was she who chose his name, she herself was engaged in his upbringing, and it was him, and not her son, she saw as a worthy successor to the throne. On March 11, 1801, on the day of the death of his father, Alexander I ascended the throne. A conspiracy had been brewing against Paul for a long time, his eldest son was directly involved in the conspiracy, but he did not imagine that everything would end with the death of his father.

During the reign of the young emperor, the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was opened, of which Pushkin himself was a graduate, and universities were opened. State transformations were of particular importance - ministries were established instead of collegiums, the highest advisory body appeared under the person of the emperor - the State Council. The emperor dreamed of the abolition of serfdom, but he understood that the changes should be gradual. Alexander I initiated the adoption of a decree on free cultivators, which allowed the release of serfs into freedom.

During the years of his reign, there was a series of hostilities, as a result of which new territories were annexed to the territory of Russia. As a result of the military campaign with Persia, the territories of Georgia and Azerbaijan became part of Russia, and control over the Caspian Sea was established. The war with Turkey helped annex Bessarabia (Moldova). As a result of the war with Sweden, Finland was annexed. Under Alexander I, the Caucasian War began, which he did not complete until the end of his days. Alexander was a consistent supporter of anti-French coalitions and only a series of military failures forced him to make concessions to Napoleon and conclude the Treaties of Tilsit.

Among the greatest merits of Alexander to Russia is the victory over the Napoleonic army in the Patriotic War of 1812. When Napoleon's troops entered the lands of the Russian Empire, Alexander wrote with dignity to his enemy: “My lord brother, yesterday I learned that, despite the conscientiousness with which I fulfilled my obligations to your majesty, your troops crossed the borders of Russia” (Letter from Alexander I to Napoleon I in connection with the entry of French troops into Russia on June 13/25, 1812). The correspondence of two enemies, who do not lose respect for each other, has been on the top line among the most popular materials among users of the Presidential Library’s portal for several years.

Alexander forbade peace negotiations with the enemy until the troops left his country. In the first month of hostilities, the emperor was with the army and made sure that the soldiers were not exhausted during the exercises, that there was enough food and that the soldiers would be given a full portion of food. Sofia Makarova in the book Alexander I the Blessed (1873) said that the sovereign was distinguished by courage during fierce battles, remaining on the battlefield when the shells around him hit both horses and people.

For some time, under the pressure of Napoleon, the Russian army was forced to retreat and conduct defensive battles. In August, Alexander I appoints Mikhail Kutuzov as commander-in-chief. After the expulsion of the French from Russia, Alexander I continued the war in order to free the continent from the rule of Napoleon. The war ended in 1814 with the capture of Paris.

“From early childhood, such traits as responsiveness to someone else’s grief, the desire to help all those in need, the desire to be useful to everyone began to prevail in the character of the future emperor,” Nikolai Duchinsky wrote in the book Emperor Alexander the Blessed and the Patriotic War. He retained these qualities throughout his life. It also tells about how once the emperor in Vilna saved a drowning man. The peasants took the king for a simple officer and turned to him for advice on how to save the unfortunate. Alexander jumped off the horse, with the doctor accompanying him, helped to undress the victim and began to rub his temples, hands and soles. When he sighed, the emperor shed tears and exclaimed: “This minute is the happiest in my life!” He did not leave the patient until he finally came to his senses, and then personally took care of ensuring the life of this poor man.

He did the same nobly with the defeated France. After Napoleon was defeated and sent to the desert island of St. Helena, Alexander had to visit Paris in order to stop the allied forces from ruining the French capital.

Nikolai Grech in his Biography of Emperor Alexander I (1835) publishes the order of the Russian emperor, given to the troops before entering France.

Alexander did not avenge the ruin of Moscow. On the contrary, the emperor strictly ordered the troops not to offend the French. Moreover, Russian soldiers defended historical values from the Parisians themselves. They were going to demolish the Vendôme column, erected in honor of Napoleon's victories, but our soldiers surrounded it and did not allow it to be done.

Immediately after the abdication of Napoleon from the throne, on the first day of Easter, our troops gathered in one of the large squares of Paris, where, by order of Alexander, a thanksgiving service was performed for the last victories, the capture of Paris and the restoration of order in France.

“He spent his whole life on the road, caught a cold and died in Taganrog”, - Pushkin wrote such an epitaph about him when, at the age of 47, on December 1, 1825, Alexander I died. It happened in Taganrog, where he was passing through.

There were rumors among the people that the death was just a falsification and that, in fact, Alexander Pavlovich was alive and known to the people under the name of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich. Many books have been written about this. The Presidential Library’s collections contain some rare documents, such as, for example, The Legend of the Death of Emperor Alexander I in Siberia in the form of Elder Fyodor Kozmich (1904) by Grand Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich. This legend is alive to this day, there are even scientists who claim that the handwriting of the emperor and the hermit Kuzmich are almost identical.

Immediately after the death of Alexander I, it was decided to erect a monument to the winner of Napoleon. This decision was made by the inhabitants of Taganrog as a token of gratitude for his services to the entire empire. The monument was cast in St. Petersburg according to the model of the famous artist Ivan Martos, who personally knew Alexander I, created his lifetime bust, so contemporaries noted the great portrait resemblance of the sculpture installed in Taganrog. The monument was opened already in October 1831. True, the deeds of Alexander the Blessed were quickly forgotten after the revolution of 1917, and the monument was first clogged with boards, and in 1929 it was sent for remelting. Fortunately, today the monument has been restored according to the plaster models made by Martos, preserved in the collection of the Russian Museum.

In 1829, in St. Petersburg, Nicholas I announced a competition to create a monument in memory of his beloved brother. French architect Auguste Montferrand was recognized as the author of the best project of the monument to the winner of the "invincible" Napoleon. In the intended composition, the type of triumphal building of the antiquity era is reproduced. This is how one of the symbols of St. Petersburg was born - the Alexander Column, or, according to Pushkin, the Alexandria Pillar. The monument is made of a solid granite monolith, processed in the Pyuterlak quarry near Vyborg. The column itself weighs 600 tons. It is not dug into the ground and not fixed on the foundation, but is kept solely due to accurate calculation and its own weight. The column is crowned with the figure of an angel. According to legend, the sculptor Boris Orlovsky gave the face of an angel the features of Emperor Alexander himself.