17. The document is quoted in Alexander, Perepiska, 286–90.
18. I.e., Christianity.
19. Alexander spelled the name “Mallebranche,” instead of “Malebranche.”
20. Grellet, Memoirs, 1: 417; quoted by Hartley in Alexander I, 187.
21. Allen, Life of William Allen, 2: 265, quoted in J. Hartley, Alexander I, 187.
22. Alexander’s conversation with Abbot Eylert, quoted by Schnitzler, Etudes sur l’empire des tsar, 463–64.
23. Ibid.
24. See J. de Maistre, Oeuvres complètes, 13: 282–88.
25. Ibid.
26. A theory presented in a document from Vienna, written by Mgr. the nuncio Severoli and sent to the papal secretary on January 27, 1816. It was taken up in a letter written by R. P. Desiderius Richardot, on February 14, 1844. In the archives of the Jesuit Order, Rome, doc Russ 6-VII, 31 box 1005, Russia, 1805–1814.
27. Joseph de Maistre to Severoli, St. Petersburg, December 1 (O.S.), 1815, ibid.
28. Note on the expulsion of the Jesuits, 1821, ibid.
29. The Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Orthodox Church as a protest against reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–1666. They continued liturgical practices maintained by the Russian Orthodox Church before the implementation of these reforms and suffered severe persecution.
30. Pushkin stayed in Bessarabia until the spring of 1823, before being exiled to Odessa, then to the family estate of Mikhailovskoe, close to Pskov.
31. “Decrees of Providence” was an expression often used by the tsar.
32. Choiseul-Gouffier, Mémoires historiques, 134.
33. Quoted by Arkhanguelski, Alexandre Ier, 442.
34. Russkaja Starina, no. 88 (1896), 53–54.
35. Quoted by ]Arkhanguelski, Alexandre Ier, 442.
36. See Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 117.
37. Charlotte of Prussia was the daughter of Queen Louise.
38. See the letter written from Warsaw by Constantine to his younger sister Anne, Princess of Orange, on May 15 (O.S.), 1820, reproduced in Jackman, Romanov Relations, 80–81.
39. “Memorandum de Pozzo di Borgo sur la question polonaise” (in French), October 8 (O.S.), 1814, in GARF, fd 679, opis’ 1, delo 47.
40. With the exception of Finland.
41. Particularly Catherine II.
42. “Memorandum de Pozzo di Borgo sur la question polonaise,” GARF, fd 679, opis’ 1, delo 47.
43. Ibid.
44. On May 25, 1815.
45. See Zawadski, Man of Honour, 256–57.
46. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 150.
47. Zawadski, Man of Honour, 261–62.
48. For a detailed analysis of this document, see Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 150–54.
49. Only Polish men could vote.
50. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 153.
51. Anna Pavlovna to Constantine, May 21, 1818, quoted in Jackman, Romanov Relations, 76.
52. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 154.
53. Ibid., 156.
54. He did not want to offend the Poles by using the Russian language.
55. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 157.
56. Archives of the Jesuit Order, Library of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Manuscript Department, personal archives of Father Pierling, file BSL/PI, 9 no.5.
57. This was Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s point of view. See Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 158.
58. Or Dekabristi. These were the Russian revolutionaries who led an unsuccessful uprising on December 14 (O.S.), 1825, and through their martyrdom served as an example to succeeding generations of revolutionaries. They were primarily members of the upper classes who had military backgrounds; some had participated in the Russian occupation of France after the Napoleonic Wars and came back from France with revolutionary ideas.
59. Emphasis is mine.
60. Alexander’s conversation with General Borstell, in GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 633a.
61. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 163.
62. Ibid., 168.
63. Ibid., 173.
64. The Russian document is located in Moscow in RGADA, fd 3, razrjad III, delo 25. The French version is in St. Petersburg’s Imperial Library, Manuscript Department, fd 37, delo 916.
65. The text does not say anything about the Muslims of the Russian Empire.
66. Alexander’s speech to the Polish diet, September 1 (O.S.), 1820, in Archives of the Jesuit Order, Library of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Manuscript Department, personal archives of Father Pierling, file BSL/PI, 9 no.5.
67. Ibid. Italics are mine.
68. The Troppau Congress gathered the representatives of the Quintuple Alliance. See chapter 14.
69. Kochubey’s report to Alexander, October 22 (O.S.), 1820; quoted in Shilder, Imperator Aleksandr I, IV: 540–41.
70. Quoted by Troyat in Alexandre Ier, 333.
71. See Minaudier, Histoire de l’Estonie, 145–57.
72. Quoted by M. Heller, Histoire de la Russie, 655–56.
73. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy, 96.
74. Servan, Le soldat citoyen.
75. Jenkins, Arakcheev, 185.
76. Ibid., 189. The text of Barclay’s memorandum was published in Voennyj Sbornik, no. 6 (1861), 336–40.
77. Fedorov, Speranskij i Arakcheev, 185.
78. Russkaja Starina, no. 88 (1896), 36.
79. Report from Count de la Ferronays to Baron Pasquier, April 1820, in Archives du duc de Richelieu, fonds Richelieu, Ms99, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne, Paris.
80. Fedorov, Speranskij i Arakcheev, 178.
Notes to Chapter 14
1. See chapter 7.
2. Today in Azerbaijan.
3. See RAN anthology Istorija Vneshnej Politiki Rossii, 245–46.
4. Then called Urga.
5. See Ocherki ministerstva inostrannyh, 285.
6. Today these islands are part of Alaska.
7. The place still exists and is called Fort Ross.
8. Quoted in Rey, De la Russie, 105.
9. Bridge and Bullen, Great Powers, 34.
10. On Castlereagh’s positions, see Bartlett, Peace, War, 16.
11. Meaning the Restoration king, Louis XVIII.
12. Quoted in Renouvin, Histoire des relations internationales, 3: 372.
13. Quoted in Hartley, Alexander I, 142.
14. Alexander to Lord Castlereagh, March 21 (O.S.), 1816, in Vneshnjaja Politika Rossii, II, 1:(X), 108–11.
15. I.e., the creation of the Quadruple Alliance.
16. Alexander to Lord Castlereagh, March 21 (O.S.), 1816, in Vneshnjaja Politika Rossii, II, 1: (X), 108–11.
17. Hartley, Alexander I, 144.
18. Report of the foreign minister to Alexander, June 24 (O.S.), 1818, in Vneshnjaja Politika Rossii, II, 1: (X), 409–22.
19. Quoted in Ley, Alexandre Ier, 215.
20. Quoted in Renouvin, Histoire des relations internationales, 377.
21. Ibid.
22. Metternich, Lettres, 78.
23. Istoriia Vneshnej Politiki Rossii, 154.
24. Hartley, Alexander I, 144.
25. Bartlett, Peace, War, 18.
26. Note by the state secretary to Alexander, Vienna, December 19 (31), 1818, in Vneshnjaja Politika Rossii, II, 1: (X), 611–18.
27. Istoriia Vneshnej Politiki Rossii, 157.
28. Quoted by Shilder, Imperator Aleksandr I, 4: 497.
29. Alexander to Golitsyn, February 8–15, 1821, GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 1113.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Alexander to Golitsyn, December 14 (O.S.), 1820, GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 803.
33. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire.
34. Quoted by Bartlett, Peace, War, 19.
35. See the previous chapter.
36. Seton-Watson, Russian Empire, 177.
37. Today Ljubljana.
38. See Ley, Alexandre Ier, 180.
39. Article 7 of the treaty forced the Ottoman Empire “to protect on a permanent basis Christianity and Christian churches” and article 16 gave Russia the right to interfere in domestic issues of Danubian principalities. See Bridge and Bullen, Great Powers, 50.
40. Quoted in Shilder, Imperator Aleksandr I, 3: 553.
41. The carbonari (coal-burners) were an influential revolutionary group, formed as a secret organization in southern Italy. Inspired by the principles of the French Revolution, they wanted to promote liberalism and the unification of Italy.
42. Alexander to Golitsyn, February 8–15, 1821, GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 1113.
43. Quoted by Zorin in “Star of the East,” 338.
44. Ibid.
45. Bridge and Bullen, Great Powers, 54.
46. McConnell, Tsar Alexander I, 163.
47. Bridge and Bullen, Great Powers, 56.
48. Chateaubriand, Le Congrès de Vérone.
Notes to Chapter 15
1. Schnitzler, Etudes sur l’empire, 1, 459.
2. Russkaja Starina, 1896.
3. See Dupré de Saint-Maur, L’Hermite en Russie, passim.
4. Alexander to Countess de Nesselrode, Warsaw, April 25 (O.S.), 1825, in Nesselrode, Papiers et archives, 5: 224–25.
5. Choiseul-Gouffier, Mémoires historiques, 292–93.
6. Schakovskoy, Saint-Pétersbourg et Paris, 44.
7. Dupré de Saint-Maur, L’Hermite en Russie, 230–31.
8. Arkhangelski, Alexandre Ier, 380–81.
9. Alexander to Golitsyn, February 8–15 (O.S.), 1821, GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 1113.
10. Quoted in Romanov, Imperator Aleksandr I (1912 edition), 299.
11. Sophie was suffering from tuberculosis.
12. Choiseul-Gouffier, Mémoires historiques, 308–9.
13. Golitsyn to Alexander, June 1824 (no more precise date), GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 120.
14. De la Ferronays to Pasquier, March 30 (April 10), 1820, quoted in McConnell, “Hundred Days,” 393.
15. Of the three mentioned, only Kankrin was competent.
16. Kotchubey to Arakcheev, May 17 (O.S.), 1823, quoted by Romanov, Imperator Aleksandr I (1912 ed.), 312.
17. Volkonsky to Aleksey Zakrevsky, October 3 (O.S.), 1823, quoted ibid., 315–16.
18. Quoted ibid., 309.
19. Ivan Pestel was the father of the future Decembrist Pavel Pestel. On Speransky’s contribution to the development of Siberia, see Hartley, Alexander I, 170.
20. See Jenkins, Arakcheev, 222.
21. This was a secret society created in Königsberg (Prussia) in 1808 that intended to regenerate Prussia through the diffusion of liberal ideas.
22. Seton-Watson, Russian Empire, 187.
23. Ibid., 187–92.
24. The term bojyar belongs to the history of medieval Russia, but it had a new meaning for Pestel: now bojyary would be chosen for their expertise and their wisdom, not for their aristocratic origin.
25. See Shilder, Imperator Aleksandr I, 4: 204.
26. Constantine to Alexander, January 14 (O.S.), 1822, GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 67.
27. Alexander to Constantine, February 2 (O.S.), 1822, GARF, fd 728, opis’ 1, delo 1144.
28. The final version of the document is dated August 23 (O.S.), 1823, GARF, fd 679, opis’ 1 delo 68.
29. Ibid.
30. Quoted by Bariatinsky, Le mystère, 14.
31. Nicholas was born in 1796; he was almost 20 years younger than Alexander.
32. Alexander to Elizabeth, April 15 (O.S.), 1825, in GARF, fd 658, opis’ 1, delo 96, 4.
33. Alexander to Elizabeth, May 12 (O.S.), 1825, in GARF, fd 658, opis’ 1, delo 96, 5.
34. Volkonsky to Zakrevsky, quoted in Bariatinsky, Le mystère, 18.
35. As admitted by Nicholas Mikhailovich in 1913.
36. Gagarine, Les archives russes.
37. All this correspondence belongs to his personal papers that are preserved in the Jesuit archives in Vanves (a Paris suburb), where I consulted them.
38. Personal archives of Father Ivan Gagarin. Archives of the Jesuit order, Vanves. The file devoted to Alexander’s conversion is BS GA L 11.
39. She was born Constance de Maistre and was Joseph de Maistre’s daughter.
40. Father Gagarin’s archives. Archives of the Jesuit order, Vanves, BS GA L 11.
41. Pierling, L’Empereur Alexandre Ier .
42. The personal papers of Father Pierling and his sources are preserved in the archives of the Jesuit order located in Lyon, Library of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Manuscript fd, file BSL Pi 13, n.8.
43. This memorandum was published on November 4, 1876, in La Civilta Cattolica.
44. She was born Anastasie Michaud de Beauretour.
45. The book was published in 1869 in Italy (Turin: J. Baglione). A copy of this book is preserved in the collection of ancient and rare books of the Biblioteca Reale di Torino. I express my gratitude to the directors of this library, in particular Clara Vitulo, who provided me with a copy of the text.
46. Paoletti de Rodoretto, Coup d’oeil, 117.
47. Ibid., 118.
48. The italics are in the original.
49. Paoletti de Rodoretto, Coup d’oeil, 131.
50. Pierling, Problème d’histoire.
51. That is, on November 23 in the Russian calendar.
52. Romanov, Imperator Aleksandr I (1912 ed.), 303.
53. Vatican Archives, Rome, Segretaria di Stato, 1825–1830, vol. 268.
54. The diary of Father Antonio Bresciani (Diario di Padre Bresciani) that I consulted is preserved in the archives of the Civilta Cattolica, Rome, Scaffale 24, Palchetto C. The report is mentioned on January 22, 1846.
55. Louis Cappatti did not have any links with Russia. But he was a specialist in the history of Nice. In cooperation with J. Eynaudi, he wrote a Dictionnaire de la langue niçoise. His article on Michaud, entitled “Le comte Michaud de Beauretour, Alexandre Ier et le pape en 1825,” was published in 1932 in Nice, in Annales du comté de Nice.
56. I.e., six years before the letter was sent.
57. De la Ferronays.
58. Indeed, the Vatican archives attest to the fact that Italinsky served as an intermediary between the pope and Michaud.
59. Ten years after the fact, Michaud’s memory was quite precise: the Vatican archives prove that the meeting took place on December 5.
60. This draft was written in 1835. The final version of the letter sent in 1841 might have been slightly different.
61. This document was communicated to me by Geneviève Chesneau, director of the Bibliothèque du Chevalier de Cessole, Masséna Palace, Nice. I am very grateful to her.
62. The Jesuit case apart.
63. Chateaubriand, Le Congrès de Vérone, chap. 32.
64. Romanov, Imperator Aleksandr I (1912 ed.), 302.
65. Alexander to Elizabeth, September 5 (O.S.), 1825, GARF, fd 658, opis’ n.1, delo 96, 9.
66. After a long trip to France, Volkonsky came back in 1825 and reentered the imperial service to accompany Elizabeth in Taganrog. So Volkonsky, who was probably the closest and the most loyal friend to the tsar, would be present at his illness and death.
67. This means intimate or cozy.
68. Letter quoted by Romanov in Imperatrica Elizaveta Alekseevna, 3: 455.
69. Quoted in Arkhanguelski, Alexandre Ier, 452.
70. Quoted by Romanov in Tsar Alexandre Ier, 339.
71. Elizabeth to her mother, Taganrog, November 19 (December 1), 1825, quoted in Romanov, Imperatrica Elizaveta Alekseevna, 3: 469.
72. Elizabeth to her mother, Taganrog, December 31 (O.S.), 1825, quoted in ibid., 3: 488.
73. Quoted in McConnell, “Hundred Days,” 187.
By Way of Epilogue
1. A spiritual adviser, often a monk or religious hermit, in the Orthodox Church, who was known for his great piety and his wisdom.
2. My emphasis.
3.
Faybisovic, Aleksandr I, 13.
4. Gromyko, Sviatoj pravednij starets, 55.
5. The meetings between Khromov and Pobedonostsev that took place on July 31, August 11, and August 25 are documented in the Russian archives, RGALI, fd 487, opis’ 1, delo 137.
6. Gromyko, Sviatoj pravednij starets, 200.
7. For a precise description of the icon, see Arkhanguelski, Alexandre I, 509.
8. And today in the inventories of the Department of Manuscripts of the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg, which were established before the October 1917 Revolution, documents related to Alexander I and Feodor Kuzmich are classified in the same place!
9. Gromyko, Sviatoj pravednij starets, 127.
10. Romanov, Legenda o konchine, 15.
11. Gromyko, Sviatoj pravednij starets, 123.
12. Bariatinsky, Le mystère.
13. See Arkhanguelski, Alexandre Ier, 482, and Gromyko, Sviatoj pravednij starets, 201.
14. This is the position taken by A. N. Sakharov in his biography of Alexander I, Aleksandr I, published in 1998.
15. This position is defended by Gromyko, Sviatoj pravednij starets, passim.
16. Most of these contradictions were meticulously reported in Bariatinsky, Le mystère, passim.
Sources
Primary Sources
Archives
RGADA (Rossijskij gosudarstvennyj arhiv drevnih aktov) (Russian State Archive of Early Acts, Moscow).
Fond n.1, Gosudarstvennyj arhiv rossijskoj imperii, razrjad I, sekretnye pakety, ser. XVIII v.–1830, opis’ n.1. (Fd n.1, State Archive of the Russian Empire, section I, secret documents, 18th century–1830, opis’ n.11)
See, in particular, Semejnaja perepiska Aleksandra I, Marii Fedorovny, Elizavety Alekseevny, vel. Kn. Konstantina Pavlovicha, Aleksandry Pavlovny, Ekateriny Pavlovny, Eleny Pavlovny 1780–1825. (Family correspondence of Alexander I, Maria Fedorovna, Elizabeth Alekseevna, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, Alexandra Pavlovna, Catherine Pavlovna, Elena Pavlovna, 1780–1825.)
Fond n.4, Perepiska lic imperatorskoj familii i drugih vysochajsih osob, opis’ n.1. (Fd n.4, correspondence of the Imperial family members and other princes, opis’ n.1)
Fond n.5, razrjad V—Perepiska vysochajsih osob s chastnymi licami 1682–1869 opis n.1. (Fd n.5, section V, correspondence of the princes with individuals, 1682–1869, opis’ n.1)
See in particular, Perepiska Aleksandra I s inostrannymi gosudarstvennymi dejateljami, 1808–1825, Kn. Sh.-M. Talejranom (kop.), 1808–1810, gercogom A. E. de Rishel’e 1820, kn. K.-V. Metternihom o revoljucionnom dvizhenii v Evrope 1820–1823, pisatelem N. Bergasom o politicheskih sobytijah v Ispanii i Francii 1820–1823, gercogom M.-Zh.-F. Monmoransi 1825. Pis’mo gercogu A.-U. Vellingtonu o polozhenii v Grecii (chern.) 1821 (Correspondence of Alexander I with foreign statesmen, 1808–1825, with Prince Ch.-M. Talleyrand (copy), 1808–1810, the duke de Richelieu 1820, Prince K.-W. Metternich on the revolutionary movement in Europe 1820–1823, the writer N. Bergas on political events in Spain and in France 1820–1823, the duke M.-J.-F. de Montmorency 1825. Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the situation in Greece (draft), 1821).
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