ALESSANDRO I Pavlovič, Tsar of Russia. – Born in St Petersburg on 12/23 December 1777, died at Taganrog on 19/30 November 1825. Having ascended the throne in March 1801, he did not follow the Franco-phile foreign policy directives of his father Paul I, but instead drew closer to Great Britain and joined the Third Coalition. After the battles of Austerlitz and Friedland, however, the Tilsit Conference (25 June 1807) took place, where A. and Napoleon agreed on the partition of Europe into two spheres of influence and dominion, French and Russian: A. was granted a free hand in Finland (against Sweden) and in Moldavia and Wallachia (against Turkey). A., however, refused to adhere to the Continental System and to wage war against Great Britain; Napoleon’s response was the invasion of Russia (24 June 1812), which ended with the downfall of the French invaders. At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), A., regarded as the arbiter of Europe’s fate, became the promoter of the Holy Alliance. In domestic policy, A., a pupil of the Swiss Enlightenment figure Laharpe, initially sought to implement sweeping administrative and social reforms, but later adopted a conservative and reactionary stance, especially under the influence of Count Arakcheev. A. died suddenly at Taganrog, on the Black Sea, while returning from an inspection tour in the Crimea.
As regards A.’s complex ecclesiastical policy, it must be recalled that when Monsignor Arezzo went as Nuncio to Russia in 1802, he found that the Archbishop of Mohilev, Siestrzenevicz, a person displeasing to the Holy See, had regained favour at court. A. moreover refused to acknowledge the Church’s right to regulate its own affairs with full autonomy from state power. This intention became especially evident at the Congress of Vienna, where Count Stackelberg, acting on the Emperor’s behalf, asked Cardinal Consalvi to grant the Archbishop of Mohilev the power to confer canonical institution on the other bishops of the Russian Empire. The Holy See did not yield to these demands, nor did it meet with success the mission of General Tuvill van Serooskerken or the efforts of Italinski, the Russian ambassador to Rome. Even the attempt to obtain the cardinal’s hat for Siestrzenevicz failed.