Alexander I Pavlovich, Tsar of Russia

ALESSANDRO I Pavlovic, Tsar of RUSSIA. — Born in Saint 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 Francophile directives of his father Paul I’s foreign policy, but drew closer to Great Britain, also joining the Third Coalition. After the battles of Austerlitz and Friedland, however, the conference of Tilsit took place (25 June 1807), where A. and Napoleon agreed on the partition of Europe into two spheres of French and Russian influence and domination: A. was given a free hand in Finland (against Sweden) and in Moldavia and Wallachia (against Turkey). A. nevertheless refused to join the Continental Blockade and the war against Great Britain: Napoleon’s response was the invasion of Russia (24 June 1812), which ended with the downfall of the French Emperor. At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), A., regarded as the arbiter of Europe’s destiny, took the initiative in promoting the Holy Alliance. In domestic policy, A., a pupil of the Swiss Enlightenment thinker Laharpe, wished in the first years of his reign to implement extensive administrative and social reforms, but subsequently adopted a conservative and reactionary stance, especially under the influence of Count Arakceev. A. died suddenly at Taganrog, on the Black Sea, on his return from an inspection tour in Crimea. With regard to A.’s complex ecclesiastical policy, it should be recalled that, when Msgr. Arezzo went to Russia as Nuncio in 1802, he realized that the archbishop of Mohilev, Siestrzenciewicz, a person unwelcome to the Holy See, had regained influence at Court. A. also did not wish to recognize the Church’s right to regulate its own affairs in complete autonomy from the power of the State. This intention became especially evident at the Congress of Vienna, where Count Stackelberg, in the Emperor’s name, asked Cardinal Consalvi that the archbishop of Mohilev be granted the power to confer canonical institution upon 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, the Russian ambassador in Rome, likewise proved fruitless. The attempt to obtain the cardinalitial dignity for Siestrzenciewicz also failed.