Alexander I Pavlovich, Tsar of Russia

ALEXANDER I PAVLOVICH, Tsar of Russia. - B. in St. Petersburg on 12/23 Dec. 1777, d. at Taganrog on 19/30 Nov. 1825. Having ascended the throne in March 1801, he did not follow the Francophile directives of the foreign policy of his father Paul I, but drew closer to Great Britain, also joining the Third Coalition. After the battle of Austerlitz and of Friedland, however, there came the meeting of Tilsit (25 June 1807), where A. and Napoleon agreed on the partition of Europe into two spheres of influence and dominion, French and Russian: to A. was given a free hand in Finland (against Sweden) and in Moldavia and Wallachia (against Turkey). A., however, did not wish to join the continental blockade and the war against Great Britain: Napoleon's answer was the invasion of Russia (24 June 1812), which ended with the fall of the Emperor of the French. At the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) A., regarded as the arbiter of Europe's destinies, made himself the promoter of the Holy Alliance. In domestic policy A., a pupil of the Swiss Enlightenment thinker Laharpe, sought in the early years of his reign to carry out vast administrative and social reforms, but later assumed a conservative and reactionary attitude, especially through the influence of Count Arakcheev. A. died suddenly at Taganrog, on the Black Sea, on his return from an inspection journey in the Crimea. As regards A.'s complex ecclesiastical policy, it must be remembered that, when Msgr. Arezzo went as Nuncio to Russia in 1802, he realized that the archbishop of Mohilev, Siestrzenciewicz, a person not acceptable to the Holy See, had regained credit at Court. A. moreover did not wish to recognize the Church's right to regulate its own affairs in full autonomy from the power of the State. This intention manifested itself quite clearly especially at the Congress of Vienna, where Count von Stackelberg, in the Emperor's name, asked Cardinal Consalvi that the archbishop of Mohilev be granted the power to confer canonical institution on the other bishops of the Russian empire. The Holy See did not yield to these requests, and the mission of General Tuyll van Serooskerken and the efforts of Italinski, Russian ambassador in Rome, also proved fruitless. The attempt to obtain the cardinalatial dignity for Siestrzenciewicz likewise failed.