profoundly deplored his death. But the romanticist sentimentality to which he gave expression in his poetic works, evaporated. He abandoned the ideals of Plato's republic. When he came to write The History of Russia, by Russia he meant the state, and by the state he understood the absolute monarchy. He did not, indeed, go so far as to oppose European influences, but he preferred Muscovite Russia to the Russia of Peter the Great, considering Ivan III a greater man than Peter. "The strength of the state is to be found in the strength of the sentiment of obedience displayed by the people"—such was the political doctrine of the leading historian of the restoration epoch.
Nevertheless, a few reforms were carried out in the earlier years of Alexander's reign. Corporal punishment was mitigated, and torture was abolished. Somewhat later (1817), when the clericalist reaction was already in full swing, slitting of the nostrils was done away with.[1] For a few years the censorship was less severe. Middle and elementary schools were founded, and four universities were created (Dorpat, St. Petersburg, Kharkov, and Kazan). In 1803 the lot of the peasantry was somewhat alleviated. The principal aim of the reforms of Alexander's reign was, however, the improvement of the administration and of the army, in order to increase the functional efficiency of absolutist government. In this connection may be mentioned the establishment of separate ministries, among them a ministry of education (officially known as the ministry of public instruction), in 1802; the foundation of the council of state in 1810; and the formation of the military colonies on the frontier.
By the French revolution, and subsequently by Napoleon, the great power whose bases had been established by Peter was drawn into the field of European politics. The reaction in Europe looked upon Alexander as the guardian of monarchy, and the overthrow of Napoleon in Russia continued Alexander's faith in absolutism.[2] Attention to European concerns and to
- ↑ This punishment had no longer been applicable to women since 1757.
- ↑ In judging the relative power of the various states we must recall the statistics of population. In 1798, when the armies of Tsar Paul under the command of Suvarov were being equipped for the campaign in Europe, the inhabitants of European Russia numbered 38,000,000, and of Asiatic Russia 5,000,000. At this time the population of France was 26,000,000, of Great Britain and Ireland 11,000,000, of Prussia 6,000,000, of Poland 9,000,000, of Austria 16,500,000 (or with the Netherlands and Lombardy 19,500,000), and of Turkey 23,000,000.
