Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace Read online

  ALAN PALMER

  ALEXANDER I

  Tsar of War and Peace

  To Veronica

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  List of Illustrations and Maps

  Author’s Note

  Preface

  CHAPTER 1 THE CROW IN PEACOCK FEATHERS

  The Bronze Horseman

  Alexander’s Childhood

  Betrothal and Marriage

  The Last Years of Catherine II

  The Succession in Doubt

  CHAPTER 2 EMPIRE ON PARADE

  The Grand Duke Comes to Town

  Doubts of a Tsarevich

  Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland

  Mounting Tension in the Capital

  Murder at the Mikhailovsky (March 1801)

  CHAPTER 3 THE CRACKING OF THE ICE

  A Promise of Reform

  The Secret Committee and its Enemies

  Alexander’s Coronation in Moscow (September 1801)

  CHAPTER 4 ‘THE EMPEROR WANTS IT THUS’

  Foreign Affairs: Isolation or Alignment?

  Governmental Reform and the Primacy of Vorontsov

  Alexander, Elizabeth and Maria Naryshkin

  CHAPTER 5 SHADOW OF WAR

  Alexander Disillusioned with the First Consul (1803–4)

  Czartoryski, Novosiltsov and the Grand Design of 1804

  Military Plans and the Polish Question

  Alexander at Pulawy and Berlin (October-November 1805)

  CHAPTER 6 AUSTERLITZ AND AFTER

  Alexander and Kutuzov in Moravia

  Peace Parleys

  The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805)

  Alexander Humiliated

  CHAPTER 7 ANATHEMA

  Inquest on Austerlitz

  The End of Government by the Tsar’s Friends

  Across the Bridge

  Preparing for War on Two Fronts, 1806

  Eylau and Friedland

  CHAPTER 8 TILSIT

  Alexander and Napoleon Meet in Midstream

  The Fine Phrases of Tilsit

  The Tilsit Settlement (July 1807)

  CHAPTER 9 AS DESTINY DEMANDS

  The Effects of Tilsit Abroad

  Alexander’s Throne in Danger?

  Caulaincourt arrives in St Petersburg (December 1807)

  The Death of Lisinka (May 1808)

  Erfurt

  CHAPTER 10 THE PRIMACY OF SPERANSKY

  The Rise of Michael Speransky

  The Reforms of 1808–9 and their Critics

  The Council of State at Work

  CHAPTER 11 THE VICEROY

  Caulaincourt: The Prussian Royal Visit; and the Marriage of Catherine

  Russia and Napoleon’s 1809 Campaign

  A Russian Empress for the French?

  CHAPTER 12 ‘BLOOD MUST FLOW AGAIN’

  Alexander at Tver and Gruzino

  Personal Sorrows, 1810

  Alexander takes Russia out of the Continental System

  The War Scare of 1811

  Discomforted Diplomats

  Portents and Military Plans

  The Fall of Speransky and Alexander’s Departure for the Army

  CHAPTER 13 CAPTAIN IN THE FIELD

  The Pleasures of Vilna

  The Eve of Invasion, 1812

  Resolution and Retreat

  From Vilna to Drissa

  CHAPTER 14 THE RAZOR-EDGE OF FATE

  Alexander in Moscow (July 1812)

  The Clamour for Kutuzov

  Bernadotte; General Wilson; and Germaine de Staël

  Borodino and its Consequences

  Plain Speaking from a Sister

  Alexander refuses to make Peace

  CHAPTER 15 TSAR WITH A MISSION

  Vilna Again (December 1812–January 1813)

  The Liberation of Prussia

  The Changing Fortunes of War (Spring 1813)

  Diplomatic Interlude (June–August 1813)

  The Battles of Dresden and Leipzig and the Race for Frankfurt

  The Campaign in France, 1814

  Alexander Enters Paris (31 March 1814)

  CHAPTER 16 PARIS AND LONDON

  The Tsar, Talleyrand and Caulaincourt (April 1814)

  Peacemaking in Paris

  Catherine Blazes an English Trail

  Alexander in England (June 1814)

  CHAPTER 17 THE PANORAMA OF EUROPE

  Preparing for the Vienna Congress in St Petersburg and at Pulawy

  Alexander in Residence at the Hofburg

  Congress Diplomacy (October 1814–February 1815)

  Alexander’s Change of Heart

  Napoleon’s Return from Elba and the Close of the Vienna Congress

  CHAPTER 18 HOLY ALLIANCE

  The Heilbronn Prophetess

  Peacemaking in Paris Once More

  Julie von Krüdener at her Prime

  The Treaty of the Holy Alliance, 26 September 1815

  Disillusionment?

  CHAPTER 19 CONTRASTS

  Alexander in Congress Poland (November 1815)

  St Petersburg Once More

  The Arakcheev System and the Military Colonies

  Imperial Weddings

  Alexander continues his Spiritual Quest

  Disarmament and Foreign Affairs (1816–18)

  The Congress of Aix (1818)

  CHAPTER 20 THE ABSENTEE TSAR

  Sad News from Stuttgart (January 1819)

  Government by Post Chaise

  The Tsar Goes to Troppau

  Mutiny in the Semeonovsky Regiment (October 1820)

  Laibach and the Re-opening of the Eastern Question

  Alexander’s Dilemma over the Greek Insurrection

  Vienna and Verona (1822)

  CHAPTER 21 ‘AN ISLAND BATTERED BY THE WAVES’

  Procrastination

  Alexander’s Illness; His Reconciliation with Elizabeth; and the Ascendancy of Photius

  The Flood of 1824

  The Decision to go to Taganrog

  CHAPTER 22 TAGANROG

  To the Sea of Azov

  Alexander in the Crimea

  The Last Fourteen Days

  The Aftermath

  Legends

  Genealogical Table

  Reference Notes

  Select Bibliography

  Index

  Plates

  Copyright

  Illustrations

  1 The six eldest children of Paul and Marie Feodorovna (Mansell Collection)

  2 Catherine the Great by Lampi (photo Alinari–Giraudon)

  3 The Mikhailovsky Palace in 1807 (Collection Viollet)

  4 Tsar Paul I shortly before his death. Engraving by Wolf (Radio Times Hulton Picture Library)

  5 Alexander from the painting by Monnier, 1806 (Radio Times Hulton Picture Library)

  6 Empress Elizabeth in 1814 (The Wallace Collection)

  7 Prince Adam Czartoryski after an engraving by Soliman (Radio Times Hulton Picture Library)

  8 Arakcheev as a young man (Radio Times Hulton Picture Library)

  9 Queen Louise of Prussia by Grassi in 1802 (Mansell Collection)

  10 Maria Naryshkin, Alexander’s mistress (Radio Times Hulton Picture Library)

  11 The meeting between Alexander and Napoleon on a raft at Tilsit in 1807 (from Imperator Aleksandr by N. K. Shilder)

  12 A contemporary English cartoon satirizing the new-found friendship between Russia and France (photo Françoise Foliot)

  13 Marshal Kutuzov (Novosti Press Agency)

  14 Michael Speransky (Novosti Press Agency)

  15 The historic letter from the Grand-Duchess Catherine to Alexander informing him of the loss of Moscow

 
16 Letter from Alexander to the Grand-Duchess Catherine

  17 The Allied leaders in Hyde Park, 1814 (reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen)

  18 The Grand-Duchess Catherine Pavlovna. An engraving of 1814 (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  19 The Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna. An engraving by T. Wright from a painting by George Dawe (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  20 The Imperial villa on Kammionyi Island where the Tsar spent the anxious weeks after the burning of Moscow in 1812 (photo by Victor Kennett)

  21 The river front of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg (photo by Victor Kennett)

  22 Baroness Julie von Krüdener (Radio Times Hulton Picture Library)

  23 Alexander in 1818. Engraving by V. Bromley from a drawing by Igleson (Novosti Press Agency)

  LIST OF MAPS

  The Europe of Alexander I

  St Petersburg in the Early Nineteenth Century

  The Battle of Austerlitz

  Author’s Note

  Throughout the narrative and reference notes of this book my practice has been as follows:

  Dates. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all dates are given according to the Gregorian Calendar, common to western Europe and the Americas, rather than to the Julian Calendar which was followed by the Russians until the Bolshevik Revolution. In the eighteenth century the Julian Calendar was eleven days behind the Gregorian Calendar and in the nineteenth century the difference was twelve days.

  Spelling of Foreign Words and Names. So far as possible, I have tried to follow the currently fashionable system of transliteration except when common English usage commends an alternative spelling more naturally acceptable to the general reader. For arbitrary distinctions of this kind I ask the indulgence of linguistic purists.

  Place-Names and First Names. The names used for places are normally those which were current in Alexander’s reign; I have at times added modern alternatives to assist the reader to identify them on a map. First names have been anglicized: thus ‘Catherine’ for ‘Ekaterina’. The only occasion upon which I have used a foreign form is to distinguish a person from somebody with a similar name who has already appeared in the text.

  Titles. I have used the word ‘Tsar’ where contemporaries would have said ‘Emperor’ so as to distinguish Alexander from Napoleon and Francis of Austria. I have, however, referred to Alexander’s wife as the Empress Elizabeth, his mother as the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna and his grandmother as the Empress Catherine II. This is a totally illogical personal foible caused by the fact that I do not like the English rendering ‘Tsarina’. Moreover reigning Empresses, unlike their husbands, do not crowd out the page.

  I would like to acknowledge my debt to the authors of the specialized studies cited in the bibliography and to express my gratitude to the staffs of the London Library and the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their kind assistance and courtesy. It is also a pleasure to thank Miss Gila Curtis for the care she has taken in editing this book for publication, and I wish particularly to thank Mrs M. D. Anderson who once again prepared the Index with such remarkable speed and skill. I am especially indebted to my wife, Veronica, who accompanied me on both my trips to Russia and who read and discussed every chapter with me in detail as it was written.

  A.W.P.

  Preface

  Alexander I, ruler of Russia for the first quarter of the nineteenth century, is remembered today mainly on three counts: as the Tsar who refused to make peace with the French when Moscow fell in 1812; as the idealist who sought to bind Europe’s sovereigns in a Holy Alliance in 1815; and as the Emperor who died – or gave the impression of having died – at the remote southern seaport of Taganrog in the winter of 1825. Recent interest has concentrated, perhaps excessively, on the third of these dramatic episodes although it is natural that the epic years of the struggle with Napoleon should continue to excite the historical imagination.

  There was, however, much of significance in Alexander’s life and reign besides these events. ‘A more virtuous man, I believe, does not exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better the condition of mankind,’ declared President Thomas Jefferson six years after Alexander’s accession; and Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, writing a private note to his own brother eleven years later, was prepared to assert he knew ‘of no Sovereign in history who has had so rich a harvest of glory’. Napoleon and Metternich, on the other hand, both complained that Alexander was inconsistent and untrustworthy; and there were numerous occasions when he puzzled, or exasperated, contemporaries. Was he sincere in his principles of government? Did he understand how to manage the armies he delighted to see on parade? Were his hours of religious devotion an escape from the responsibilities of Empire or a necessary means of finding strength and inspiration? Could he ever be relied upon to follow through logically a line of thought or action?

  The questions, and the doubts, accumulated readily enough in his own lifetime. It was the answers which posed difficulty then, and the passage of a century and a half has made them no easier to attain. Alexander was a remarkably complex personality. There remains about the nature of his reign and his character sufficient mystery for him to have been clubbed, in retrospect, ‘the enigmatic Tsar’. This present book attempts to assemble clues to understand him as a man and as a sovereign; it does not pretend to present a final and definitive answer, for that is impossible. Pushkin once declared Alexander was ‘a Sphinx who carried his riddle with him to the tomb’. There are some who say that tomb is empty.

  The Europe of Alexander I

  The Crow in Peacock Feathers

  The Bronze Horseman

  The city of St Petersburg awoke early in the summer sunshine. It was Wednesday, 7 August 1782, and from soon after dawn the long avenues of the Russian capital echoed with all the anticipatory bustle of a grand parade. Bugles sounded in the fortress of St Peter and St Paul; cavalry hooves rang out sharply on the Nevsky Prospect and down the granite quays along the left bank of the river Neva; bands led the Guards past the ordered line of public buildings – the green and red of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers, the green and white of the Izmailovsky, the blue and white of the Semeonovsky. By mid-morning eight regiments were drawn up facing outwards in a circle at the centre of the huge square between the Admiralty and the Senate House. From ornamented windows to east and west the great families of the Empire waited and watched. Less privileged onlookers – masons, carpenters, minor government officials and their wives, foreign traders and seamen, peasants come to town from the island villages or the fields to the south – jostled each other along the new embankment above the Neva. Some labourers clambered among the foundations of St Isaac’s Cathedral: they felt at home there, knowing every stone after ten years’ or more work, sleeping during the summer months in a cantonment at the foot of the church’s massive walls. Off the quay, a dark flotilla of warships rode at anchor, dressed overall. In the clear northern light flags and bunting were caught so sharply that the smooth grey river gleamed with rare colour. Someone had calculated that, over the previous decade, the citizens of the capital had enjoyed bright sunshine on only one day in four and that on almost half the days of the year it either rained or snowed. This morning they were fortunate. An artist who sketched the scene shows cloud rolling in from the Gulf of Finland, but the weather was good. Oddly enough, the elements always treated Catherine the Great’s days of public spectacle with proper respect.

  At last the long French windows of the Senate House opened; the troops sprang to the salute; and Catherine II, Empress of All the Russias, came out on the balcony. Eyeing her with wonder from a room above was her eldest grandson, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, four months short of his fifth birthday. It was unusual for members of the Imperial family to be in St Petersburg during July and August, but the Empress had insisted on bringing Alexander and his younger brother, Constantine, with her when she left the summer residence at Tsarskoe Selo on Monday morning. This was an occasion for associating
the future with the past, as well as with the present. Attention that day was to be focused for once not on the Empress herself but on the most renowned of her forerunners. In the centre of the square Falconet’s massive equestrian statue of Peter the Great was ready to be unveiled, after fifteen years of dispute and weary labour. To the sound of ceremonial cannon the last wooden palisades were knocked away and, as the smoke and dust cleared, the Bronze Horseman stood revealed to St Petersburg in all his majesty, the animal prancing wildly on a granite pedestal while its master, with arm outstretched towards the river and the Gulf, commands the waters on which he had dared to build his city to keep their distance. An eloquently simple inscription was carved in the rock base of Finnish stone – Petro Primo Catharina Secunda. Thus one great autocrat hailed another in comradely greeting, projecting herself to twenty million subjects as his true and undoubted successor.1

  Yet Catherine was not a Russian Empress by inheritance but a Germanic usurper, converted from Lutheran Protestantism to Orthodoxy as a convenience of marriage and thrust on the throne in a palace revolution. She was born in April 1729 at Stettin on the Baltic coast, the eldest daughter of Prince Christian of Anhalt-Zerbst. At sixteen she was married to her first cousin, Peter the Great’s grandson and namesake, who succeeded his aunt (Elizabeth) as Peter III in the first days of 1762. Both as husband and sovereign Peter was ineffectual. According to Catherine’s memoirs, the marriage was never consummated. A son, Paul, was indeed born in September 1754 but his paternity has always been in doubt and Catherine herself indicated that the father was Prince Serge Saltykov, a not unattractive member of an old Russian family. Peter III reigned for only twenty-seven weeks, alienating the nobility and Church dignitaries by his contempt for the customs and interests of the Empire he had inherited. By contrast, Catherine’s attachment to Russian traditions won her a following in the capital. During the last week of June 1762 the Guards Regiments shifted their allegiance from Peter III to his consort, forced the Tsar to abdicate and proclaimed Catherine his successor. Peter was banished to Ropsha, some twenty-five miles from St Petersburg. A few days later there was a drunken brawl around the dinner table at Ropsha and, in the confusion, the ex-Tsar was strangled. His custodians went unpunished and his widow announced he had died from a sudden attack of colic. Within three months she was solemnly crowned by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Novgorod in the Uspensky Cathedral, Moscow. ‘The Lord has placed the crown upon thine head,’ the Metropolitan declared, with the comforting assurance of inner revelation. Foreign envoys, watching Catherine prostrate herself before Russia’s holy relics, knowingly discounted her chances of survival in such a barbaric land.2