of Alexander: “The Emperor liked the forms of liberty as we like spectacles. . . . He would have willingly consented that the whole world should be free on condition that the whole world should submit voluntarily to his single will.” The Russian Senate, in which the idle nobility were shelved, was not the body with which to experiment in parliamentary government. Alexander and his associates discussed the emancipation of the serfs; but the time seemed hardly ripe for that measure. An imperial ukase of March 3, 1804, attempted to ameliorate their condition.
The real administrative achievement of Alexander was the creation by the ukase of September 8, 1802, of the ministries, eight in number: Interior and Police, Finance, Justice, Public Instruction, Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Marine, and War. This was a marked step toward an orderly government from the semi-Asiatic methods by which the growing Empire had been managed. Each department was in charge of a minister and an adjunct. Progress was made toward a codification of the laws. The privilege hitherto held by the nobles only, that their patrimonial estate should not be confiscated as a punishment, was made the common right of all subjects. An imperial bank was instituted, Odessa was made a free port, the laws regarding debt and mortgages were amended, and by the ukase of 1818 peasants were permitted to carry on manufactures. Alexander sent expeditions around the world, and made treaties with the United States, Spain, Brazil, and Turkey. Settlements were established on the northwestern coast of America, but the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 checked the Russian advance in the last direction. The new Ministry of Public Instruction meant much for the Empire. There had been but three universities in Russia — Moscow, Vilna, and Dorpat. These were strengthened, and three others were founded at St. Petersburg, Kharkov, and Kazan. Literary and scientific bodies were established or encouraged, and the reign became noted for the aid lent to the sciences and arts by the Emperor and the wealthy nobility.
The foreign policy of Alexander was marked, like his internal policy, by plans outrunning performance. He at first stood as an advocate of peace. He endeavored to obtain from Napoleon just compensation for the German States; but, becoming convinced of Napoleon's bad faith, he joined the coalition of 1805. He was the ally of Prussia against Napoleon in the campaign of 1806, carrying on wars at the same time with Persia and Turkey. His forces fought an indecisive battle at Eylau in February, 1807, and were totally defeated at Friedland in the following June. In July, 1807, Alexander signed the Treaty of Tilsit, in which he left Prussia to her fate. Dazzled by the genius of Napoleon and by his scheme for the division of the world into an Eastern and a Western Empire, Alexander joined the Continental System (q.v.), declared war on England (1808), and wrested Finland from Sweden. At Erfurt in the autumn of 1808 the two emperors met with great pomp, but the ill-assorted alliance soon lost force. The pressure of the Continental System on the material resources of Russia, the growth of the Napoleonic despotism, the existence and aggrandizement of the Duchy of Warsaw, were utterly opposed to Alexander's theories and to his sense of sound Russian policy. At length in 1812 a rupture ensued, and Napo- leon's Grand Army entered Russia, only to be destroyed in the retreat from Moscow. Alexander threw himself into the struggle of Europe against the French Emperor, and raised an army of nearly 900,000 men. He took part personally in the campaigns, and was prominent in the negotiations at Vienna.
At Paris, in 1814, Alexander, who by nature had always been inclined toward religious mysticism, fell under the influence of Madame Krüdener (q.v.) . It was under this influence that he instituted the Holy Alliance (q.v.), the declared object of which was to make the principles of Christianity recognized in the political arrangements of the world, but which became through Metternich a mere means for the reëstablishment of political absolutism. The latter part of Alexander's reign presents a strong contrast to the earlier. The ardent young reformer was drawn into a reactionary course. He concurred in the Austrian policy of Metternich, and by repressing insurrection in Europe assisted in crushing the political progress of the nations. The spread of education and liberal ideas, and the disorder of the finances, due to Russia's active part in the Napoleonic wars, aroused popular discontent, which was put down by the censorship and police espionage. Alexander became morbid and embittered, and sought relief alternately in dissipation and in religious mysticism. Personal exposure during the inundation of St. Petersburg in 1824 undermined his health; the death of a favorite daughter and the discovery of a Russo-Polish conspiracy against the House of Romanoff aggravated his illness. With the Empress he sought rest in the Crimea, but was seized by an illness on the journey, and died at Taganrog, December 1 (November 19, Old Style), 1825.
Bibliography. Schnitzler, Histoire intime de la Russie sous les empereurs Alexandre I. et Nicolas I. (Paris, 1847); Bogdanovitch, History of the Reign of Alexander I., in Russian (St. Petersburg, 1860-71), the first four volumes of which are translated into French; Rabbe, Histoire d'Alexandre I. (Paris, 1826); Countess Choiseul-Gonflier, Mémoires historiques sur l'empereur Alexandre et la cour de Russie (Paris, 1829), English translation by Patterson, Historical Memoirs of the Emperor Alexander I. and the Court of Russia (Chicago, 1900); C. Joyneville, Alexander I.: His Life and Times (London, 1875); Mazade, Mémoires du prince Adam Czartoryski et sa correspondance avec l'empereur Alexandre I. (Paris, 1887); Vandal, Napoléon et Alexandre I., l'alliance russe sous le premier empire (Paris, 1890-96); and Bernhardi, Geschichte Russlands und der europäischen Politik 1814-1831 (Leipzig, 1863-77).
ALEXANDER II., Nikolayevitch (1818-81). Emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881. son of Nicholas I. He was born April 20. 1818. and received a thorough education and military training. He traveled in Germany, and in 1841 married Princess Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt. He also journeyed through Russia. Siberia, and the Caucasus, and took a creditable part in the campaigns against the Tcherkesses. On succeeding to the throne during the Crimean War (March 2, 1855), he assured the foreign ambassadors that he would adhere to the policy of his uncle (Alexander I.) and his father, but his desire was for an honorable peace. In March, 1856, he was com-
