Emperor of Russia from 1801 to 1825
Alexander I
(
Russian
:
Александр I Павлович
,
romanized
:
Aleksandr I Pavlovich
,
IPA:
[?l??k?sandr
?pavl?v??t?]
; 23 December [
O.S.
12 December] 1777 ? 1 December [
O.S.
19 November] 1825),
[a]
nicknamed "
the Blessed
",
[b]
was
Emperor of Russia
from 1801, the first king of
Congress Poland
from 1815, and the
grand duke of Finland
from 1809 to his death in 1825. He was the eldest son of
Emperor Paul I
and
Sophie Dorothea of Wurttemberg
.
The son of
Grand Duke
Paul Petrovich, later Paul I, Alexander succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled
Russia
during the chaotic period of the
Napoleonic Wars
. As prince and during the early years of his reign, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, but continued
Russia's absolutist
policies in practice. In the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and (in 1803?04) major liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. Alexander appointed
Mikhail Speransky
, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest advisors. The
Collegia
were abolished and replaced by the
State Council
, which was created to improve legislation. Plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution. Alexander also was hostile towards European powers. Unlike his predecessors who tried to westernize Russia so it could compete with European nations, Alexander was a Russian nationalist and
Slavophilist
who wanted Russia to develop on the basis of Russian culture rather than European.
In foreign policy, he changed Russia's position towards France four times between 1804 and 1812 among neutrality, opposition, and alliance. In 1805 he joined Britain in the
War of the Third Coalition
against
Napoleon
, but after suffering massive defeats at the battles of
Austerlitz
and
Friedland
, he switched sides and formed an alliance with Napoleon by the
Treaty of Tilsit
(1807) and joined Napoleon's
Continental System
. He fought a
small-scale naval war against Britain between 1807 and 1812
as well as a
short war against Sweden (1808?09)
after Sweden's refusal to join the Continental System. Alexander and Napoleon hardly agreed, especially regarding Poland, and the alliance collapsed by 1810. Alexander's greatest triumph came in 1812 when
Napoleon's invasion of Russia
proved to be a catastrophic disaster for the French. As part of the winning coalition against Napoleon, he gained territory in Finland and Poland. He formed the
Holy Alliance
to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe which he saw as immoral threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He also helped
Austria
's
Klemens von Metternich
in suppressing all national and liberal movements.
During the second half of his reign, Alexander became increasingly arbitrary, reactionary, and fearful of plots against him; as a result he ended many of the reforms he made earlier. He purged schools of foreign teachers, as education became more religiously driven as well as politically conservative.
Speransky was replaced as advisor with the strict artillery inspector
Aleksey Arakcheyev
, who oversaw the creation of
military settlements
. Alexander died of
typhus
in December 1825 while on a trip to southern Russia. He left no legitimate children, as his two daughters died in childhood. Neither of his brothers wanted to become emperor. After a period of great confusion (that presaged the failed
Decembrist revolt
of liberal army officers in the weeks after his death), he was succeeded by his younger brother,
Nicholas I
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Alexander was born at 10:45, on 23 December 1777 in
Saint Petersburg
,
[4]
and he and his younger brother
Constantine
were raised by their grandmother,
Catherine
.
[5]
He was baptized on 31 December
[6]
in
Grand Church of the Winter Palace
[7]
by
mitred
archpriest
[8]
Ioann Ioannovich Panfilov
[9]
(confessor of Empress Catherine II),
[10]
his
godmother
was Catherine the Great and his godfathers were
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
, and
Frederick the Great
.
[11]
He was named after Saint Petersburg
patron saint
-
Alexander Nevsky
.
[12]
Some sources
[13]
allege that she planned to remove her son (Alexander's father) Paul I from the succession altogether. From the free-thinking atmosphere of the court of Catherine and his Swiss tutor,
Frederic-Cesar de La Harpe
, he imbibed the principles of
Rousseau
's gospel of humanity. But from his military governor,
Nikolay Saltykov
, he imbibed the traditions of Russian autocracy.
Andrey Afanasyevich Samborsky, whom his grandmother chose for his religious instruction, was an atypical, unbearded
Orthodox priest
. Samborsky had long lived in England and taught Alexander (and Constantine) excellent English, very uncommon for potential Russian autocrats at the time.
[
citation needed
]
On 9 October 1793, when Alexander was still 15 years old, he married 14-year-old Princess
Louise of Baden
, who took the name Elizabeth Alexeievna.
His grandmother was the one who presided over his marriage to the young princess.
Until his grandmother's death, he was constantly walking the line of allegiance between his grandmother and his father. His steward Nikolai Saltykov helped him navigate the political landscape, engendering dislike for his grandmother and dread in dealing with his father.
[
citation needed
]
Catherine had the
Alexander Palace
built for the couple. This did nothing to help his relationship with her, as Catherine would go out of her way to amuse them with dancing and parties, which annoyed his wife. Living at the palace also put pressure on him to perform as a husband, though he felt only a brother's love for the Grand Duchess.
He began to sympathize more with his father, as he saw visiting his father's fiefdom at
Gatchina Palace
as a relief from the ostentatious court of the empress. There, they wore simple
Prussian
military uniforms, instead of the gaudy clothing popular at the French court they had to wear when visiting Catherine. Even so, visiting the tsarevich did not come without a bit of travail. Paul liked to have his guests perform military drills, which he also pushed upon his sons Alexander and Constantine. He was also prone to fits of temper, and he often went into fits of rage when events did not go his way.
Tsarevich
[
edit
]
Catherine's death in November 1796, before she could appoint Alexander as her successor, brought his father,
Paul
, to the throne. Alexander disliked him as emperor even more than he did his grandmother. He wrote that Russia had become a "plaything for the insane" and that "absolute power disrupts everything". It is likely that seeing two previous rulers abuse their autocratic powers in such a way pushed him to be one of the more progressive Romanov tsars of the 19th century. Among the rest of the country, Paul was widely unpopular. He accused his wife of conspiring to become another Catherine and seize power from him as his mother did from his father. He also suspected Alexander of conspiring against him, despite his son's earlier refusal to seize power from Paul.
Emperor
[
edit
]
Ascension
[
edit
]
Alexander became Emperor of Russia when his father was assassinated on 23 March 1801. Alexander, then 23 years old, was in the
Saint Michael's Castle
at the moment of the assassination and his accession to the throne was announced by General
Nicholas Zubov
, one of the assassins. Historians still debate Alexander's role in his father's murder. The most common theory is that he was let into the conspirators' secret and was willing to take the throne but insisted that his father should not be killed. Becoming emperor through a crime that cost his father's life would give Alexander a strong sense of remorse and shame.
Alexander I succeeded to the throne that day
and was crowned in the
Kremlin
on 15 September of that year.
[
citation needed
]
Domestic policy
[
edit
]
The
Orthodox Church
initially exercised little influence on Alexander's life. The young emperor was determined to reform the inefficient, highly centralised systems of government that Russia relied upon. While retaining for a time the old ministers, one of the first acts of his reign was to appoint the
Private Committee
, comprising young and enthusiastic friends of his own?
Viktor Kochubey
,
Nikolay Novosiltsev
,
Pavel Stroganov
and
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
?to draw up a plan of domestic reform, which was supposed to result in the establishment of a
constitutional monarchy
in accordance with the teachings of the
Age of Enlightenment
.
A few years into his reign the liberal
Mikhail Speransky
became one of the emperor's closest advisors, and he drew up many plans for elaborate reforms. In the
Government reform of Alexander I
the old
Collegia
were abolished and new Ministries were created in their place, led by ministers responsible to the Crown. A Council of Ministers under the chairmanship of the Sovereign dealt with all interdepartmental matters. The
State Council
was created to improve the technique of legislation. It was intended to become the Second Chamber of a representative legislature. The
Governing Senate
was reorganized as the Supreme Court of the Empire. The codification of the laws initiated in 1801 was never carried out during his reign.
Alexander wanted to resolve another crucial issue in Russia, the
status of the serfs
, although this was not achieved until 1861 (during the reign of his nephew
Alexander II
). His advisors quietly discussed the options at length. Cautiously, he extended the right to own land to most classes of subjects, including
state-owned peasants
, in 1801 and created a new social category of "
free agriculturalist
," for peasants voluntarily emancipated by their masters, in 1803. The great majority of serfs were not affected.
When Alexander's reign began, there were three universities in Russia, at
Moscow
,
Vilna
(Vilnius), and
Dorpat
(Tartu). These were strengthened, and three others were founded at
St. Petersburg
,
Kharkiv
, and
Kazan
. Literary and scientific bodies were established or encouraged, and his reign became noted for the aid lent to the sciences and arts by the Emperor and the wealthy nobility. Alexander later expelled foreign scholars.
[25]
After 1815 the
military settlements
(farms worked by soldiers and their families under military control) were introduced, with the idea of making the army, or part of it, self-supporting economically and for providing it with recruits.
Views held by his contemporaries
[
edit
]
Called an autocrat and "
Jacobin
",
a man of the world and a mystic, Alexander appeared to his contemporaries as a riddle which each read according to his own temperament.
Napoleon Bonaparte
thought him a "shifty
Byzantine
",
and called him the
Talma
of the North, as ready to play any conspicuous part. To
Metternich
he was a madman to be humoured.
Castlereagh
, writing of him to
Lord Liverpool
, gave him credit for "grand qualities", but added that he is "suspicious and undecided";
and to
Jefferson
he was a man of estimable character, disposed to do good, and expected to diffuse through the mass of the Russian people "a sense of their natural rights".
[26]
In 1803,
Beethoven
dedicated his
Opus 30 Violin Sonatas
to Alexander who in response gave the famous composer a diamond at the
Congress of Vienna
where they met in 1814.
Napoleonic Wars
[
edit
]
Alliances with other powers
[
edit
]
Upon his accession, Alexander reversed many of the unpopular policies of his father, Paul, denounced the
League of Armed Neutrality
, and made peace with
Britain
(April 1801). At the same time he opened negotiations with
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
. Soon afterwards at
Memel
he entered into a close alliance with Prussia, not as he boasted from motives of policy, but in the spirit of true
chivalry
, out of
friendship
for the young King
Frederick William III
and his beautiful wife
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
.
The development of this alliance was interrupted by the short-lived peace of October 1801, and for a while it seemed as though
France
and Russia might come to an understanding. Carried away by the enthusiasm of Frederic-Cesar de La Harpe, who had returned to Russia from Paris, Alexander began openly to proclaim his admiration for French institutions and for the person of Napoleon Bonaparte. Soon, however, came a change. La Harpe, after a new visit to Paris, presented to Alexander his
Reflections on the True Nature of the Consul for Life
, which, as Alexander said, tore the veil from his eyes and revealed Bonaparte "as not a true
patriot
",
but only as "the most famous tyrant the world has produced".
Later on, La Harpe and his friend Henri Monod lobbied Alexander, who persuaded the other Allied powers opposing Napoleon to recognise
Vaudois
and
Argovian
independence, in spite of
Bern
's attempts to reclaim them as
subject lands
. Alexander's disillusionment was completed by the execution of the
duc d'Enghien
on trumped up charges. The Russian court went into mourning for the last member of the
House of Conde
, and diplomatic relations with France were broken off. Alexander was especially alarmed and decided he had to somehow curb Napoleon's power.
Opposition to Napoleon
[
edit
]
In opposing Napoleon I, "the oppressor of Europe and the disturber of the world's peace," Alexander in fact already believed himself to be fulfilling a divine mission. In his instructions to
Niklolay Novosiltsev
, his special envoy in London, the emperor elaborated the motives of his policy in language that appealed little to the prime minister,
William Pitt the Younger
. Yet the document is of great interest, as it formulates for the first time in an official dispatch the ideals of international policy that were to play a conspicuous part in world affairs at the close of the revolutionary epoch.
[c]
Alexander argued that the outcome of the war was not only to be the liberation of France, but the universal triumph of "the sacred
rights of humanity
".
To attain this it would be necessary "after having attached the
nations
to their
government
by making these incapable of acting save in the greatest interests of their subjects, to fix the relations of the states amongst each other on more precise rules, and such as it is to their interest to respect".
A general treaty was to become the main basis of the relations of the states forming "the European Confederation".
While he believed the effort would not attain universal peace, it would be worthwhile if it established clear principles for the prescriptions of the rights of nations.
The body would assure "the positive rights of nations" and "the privilege of neutrality," while asserting the obligation to exhaust all resources of mediation to retain peace, and would form "a new code of the law of nations".
[29]
1807 loss to French forces
[
edit
]
Meanwhile, Napoleon, a little deterred by the Russian autocrat's youthful ideology, never gave up hope of detaching him from the coalition. He had no sooner entered
Vienna
in triumph than he opened negotiations with Alexander; he resumed them after the
Battle of Austerlitz
(2 December). Russia and France, he urged, were "geographical allies";
there was, and could be, between them no true conflict of interests; together they might rule the world. But Alexander was still determined "to persist in the system of disinterestedness in respect of all the states of Europe which he had thus far followed",
and he again allied himself with the Kingdom of Prussia. The
campaign of Jena
and the
Battle of Eylau
followed; and Napoleon, though still intent on the Russian alliance, stirred up Poles, Turks and Persians to break the obstinacy of the Tsar. A party too in Russia itself, headed by the Tsar's brother Constantine Pavlovich, was clamorous for peace; but Alexander, after a vain attempt to form a new coalition, summoned the Russian nation to a holy war against Napoleon as the enemy of the Orthodox faith. The outcome was the
rout of Friedland
(13/14 June 1807). Napoleon saw his chance and seized it. Instead of demanding harsh peace terms, he offered to the chastened autocrat his alliance, and a partnership in his glory.
The two Emperors met at
Tilsit
on 25 June 1807. Napoleon knew well how to appeal to the exuberant imagination of his new-found friend. He would divide with Alexander the Empire of the world; as a first step he would leave him in possession of the
Danubian Principalities
and give him a free hand to deal with Finland; and, afterwards, the Emperors of the
East
and
West
, when the time should be ripe, would drive the
Turks
from Europe and march across Asia to the conquest of
India
. Nevertheless, a thought awoke in Alexander's impressionable mind an ambition to which he had hitherto been a stranger. The interests of Europe as a whole were utterly forgotten.
[30]
Prussia
[
edit
]
The brilliance of these new visions did not, however, blind Alexander to the obligations of friendship, and he refused to retain the Danubian principalities as the price for suffering a further dismemberment of Prussia. "We have made loyal war", he said, "we must make a loyal peace".
It was not long before the first enthusiasm of Tilsit began to wane. The French remained in Prussia, the Russians on the Danube, and each accused the other of breach of faith. Meanwhile, however, the personal relations of Alexander and Napoleon were of the most cordial character, and it was hoped that a fresh meeting might adjust all differences between them. The
meeting took place at Erfurt
in October 1808 and resulted in a treaty that defined the common policy of the two Emperors. But Alexander's relations with Napoleon nonetheless suffered a change. He realised that in Napoleon sentiment never got the better of reason, that as a matter of fact he had never intended his proposed "grand enterprise" seriously, and had only used it to preoccupy the mind of the Tsar while he consolidated his own power in
Central Europe
. From this moment the French alliance was for Alexander also not a fraternal agreement to rule the world, but an affair of pure policy. He used it initially to remove "the geographical enemy" from the gates of Saint Petersburg by
wresting Finland from Sweden
(1809), and he hoped further to make the Danube the southern frontier of Russia.
Franco-Russian alliance
[
edit
]
Events were rapidly heading towards the rupture of the Franco-Russian alliance. While Alexander assisted Napoleon in the
War of the Fifth Coalition
in 1809, he declared plainly that he would not allow the
Austrian Empire
to be crushed out of existence. Napoleon subsequently complained bitterly of the inactivity of the Russian troops during the campaign. The tsar in turn protested against Napoleon's encouragement of the Poles. In the matter of the French alliance he knew himself to be practically isolated in Russia, and he declared that he could not sacrifice the interest of his people and empire to his affection for Napoleon. "I don't want anything for myself", he said to the French ambassador, "therefore the world is not large enough to come to an understanding on the affairs of Poland, if it is a question of its restoration".
[31]
Alexander complained that the
Treaty of Schonbrunn
, which added largely to the
Duchy of Warsaw
, had "ill requited him for his loyalty", and he was only mollified for the time being by Napoleon's public declaration that he had no intention of restoring Poland, and by a convention, signed on 4 January 1810, but not ratified, abolishing the Polish name and orders of chivalry.
But if Alexander suspected Napoleon's intentions, Napoleon was no less suspicious of Alexander. Partly to test his sincerity, Napoleon sent an almost peremptory request for the hand of the grand-duchess
Anna Pavlovna
, the tsar's youngest sister. After some little delay Alexander returned a polite refusal, pleading the princess's tender age and the objection of the dowager empress to the marriage. Napoleon's answer was to refuse to ratify the 4 January convention, and to announce his engagement to the Archduchess
Marie Louise
in such a way as to lead Alexander to suppose that the two marriage treaties had been negotiated simultaneously. From this time on, the relationship between the two emperors gradually became more and more strained.
Another personal grievance for Alexander towards Napoleon was the annexation of
Oldenburg
by France in December 1810, as
Wilhelm, Duke of Oldenburg
(3 January 1754 – 2 July 1823) was the uncle of the tsar. Furthermore, the disastrous impact of the Continental System on Russian trade made it impossible for the emperor to maintain a policy that was Napoleon's chief motive for the alliance.
Alexander kept Russia as neutral as possible in the ongoing French war with Britain, Russia's
own war with Britain
barely any more than nominal. He allowed trade to continue secretly with Britain and did not enforce the blockade required by the Continental System.
In 1810, he withdrew Russia from the Continental System and trade between Britain and Russia grew.
Relations between France and Russia worsened progressively after 1810. By 1811, it became clear that Napoleon was not adhering to his side of the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit. He had promised assistance to Russia in its
war against the Ottoman Empire
, but as the campaign went on, France offered no support at all.
With war imminent between France and Russia, Alexander started to prepare the ground diplomatically. In April 1812, Russia and Sweden signed a
treaty for mutual defence
. A month later, Alexander secured his southern flank through the
Treaty of Bucharest (1812)
, which ended the war against the Ottomans formally.
His diplomats managed to extract promises from Prussia and Austria that should Napoleon invade Russia, the former would help Napoleon as little as possible and that the latter would give no aid at all.
[
citation needed
]
The
minister of war
,
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
, had managed the reform and improvement of the
Imperial Russian Army
before the start of the 1812 campaign. Primarily on the advice of his sister and Count
Aleksey Arakcheyev
, Alexander did not take operational control as he had done during the 1805 campaign, instead delegating control to his generals, Barclay de Tolly, Prince
Pyotr Bagration
and
Mikhail Kutuzov
.
War against Persia
[
edit
]
Despite brief hostilities in the
Persian Expedition of 1796
, eight years of peace passed before a new conflict erupted between the two empires. After the Russian annexation of the Georgian
Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti
in 1801,
a subject of
Persia
for centuries, and the incorporation of the
Derbent Khanate
as well quickly thereafter, Alexander was determined to increase and maintain Russian influence in the strategically valuable
Caucasus
region.
In 1801, Alexander appointed
Pavel Tsitsianov
, a die-hard Russian imperialist of
Georgian
origin, as Russian commander in chief of the Caucasus. Between 1802 and 1804 he proceeded to impose Russian rule on Western Georgia and some of the
Persian
controlled khanates around Georgia. Some of these khanates submitted without a fight, but the
Ganja Khanate
resisted, prompting an attack. Ganja was ruthlessly sacked during the
Siege of Ganja
, with some 3,000
[39]
– 7,000
inhabitants of Ganja executed, and thousands more expelled to Persia. These attacks by Tsitsianov formed another casus belli.
[
citation needed
]
On 23 May 1804, Persia demanded withdrawal from the regions Russia had occupied, comprising what is now
Georgia
,
Dagestan
, and parts of
Azerbaijan
. Russia refused, stormed Ganja, and declared war. Following an almost ten-year stalemate centred around what is now Dagestan, east Georgia, Azerbaijan, northern
Armenia
, with neither party being able to gain the clear upper hand, Russia eventually managed to turn the tide. After a series of successful offensives led by General
Pyotr Kotlyarevsky
, including a decisive victory in the
Siege of Lankaran
, Persia was forced to sue for peace. In October 1813, the
Treaty of Gulistan
, negotiated with British mediation and signed at
Gulistan
, made the Persian Shah
Fath Ali Shah
cede all Persian territories in the
North Caucasus
and most of its territories in the
South Caucasus
to Russia. This included what is now Dagestan, Georgia, and most of Azerbaijan. It also began a large demographic shift in the Caucasus, as many Muslim families emigrated to Persia
French invasion
[
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]
In the summer of 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia. It was the occupation of
Moscow
and the desecration of the
Kremlin
, considered to be the sacred centre of Holy Russia, that changed Alexander's sentiment for Napoleon into passionate hatred.
[42]
[d]
The campaign of 1812 was the turning point for Alexander's life; after the
burning of Moscow
, he declared that his own soul had found illumination, and that he had realized once and for all the divine revelation to him of his mission as the peacemaker of Europe.
While the Russian army retreated deep into Russia for almost three months, the nobility pressured Alexander to relieve the commander of the Russian army, Field Marshal Barclay de Tolly. Alexander complied and appointed Prince Mikhail Kutuzov to take over command of the army. On 7 September, the
Grande Armee
faced the Russian army at a small village called
Borodino
, 110 kilometres (70 mi) west of Moscow. The
battle that followed
was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 soldiers and resulting in 70,000 casualties. The outcome of the battle was inconclusive. The Russian army, undefeated in spite of heavy losses, was able to withdraw the following day, leaving the French without the decisive victory Napoleon sought.
[
citation needed
]
A week later
Napoleon entered Moscow
, but there was no delegation to meet the Emperor. The Russians had evacuated the city, and the city's governor, Count
Fyodor Rostopchin
, ordered several strategic points in Moscow to be set ablaze. The loss of Moscow did not compel Alexander to sue for peace. After staying in the city for a month, Napoleon moved his army out southwest toward
Kaluga
, where Kutuzov was encamped with the Russian army. The French advance toward Kaluga was checked by the Russian army, and Napoleon was forced to retreat to the areas already devastated by the invasion. In the weeks that followed the
Grande Armee
starved and suffered from the onset of the
Russian Winter
. Lack of food and fodder for the horses and persistent
attacks
upon isolated troops from Russian peasants and
Cossacks
led to great losses. When the remnants of the French army eventually
crossed
the
Berezina
river in November, only 27,000 soldiers remained; the
Grande Armee
had lost some 380,000 men dead and 100,000 captured. Following the crossing of the Berezina, Napoleon left the army and returned to
Paris
to protect his position as Emperor and to raise more forces to resist the advancing Russians. The campaign ended on 14 December 1812, with the last French troops finally leaving Russian soil.
[
citation needed
]
The campaign was a turning point in the
Napoleonic Wars
.
[
citation needed
]
Napoleon's reputation was severely shaken, and French hegemony in Europe was weakened. The
Grande Armee
, made up of French and allied forces, was reduced to a fraction of its initial strength.
[
citation needed
]
These events triggered a major shift in European politics. France's ally Prussia, soon followed by Austria, broke their imposed alliance with Napoleon and switched sides, triggering the
War of the Sixth Coalition
.
[
citation needed
]
War of the Sixth Coalition
[
edit
]
With the Russian army following up victory over Napoleon in 1812, the Sixth Coalition was formed with Russia, Prussia, Great Britain, Sweden, Spain, and other nations. Although the French were victorious in the initial battles during the
campaign in Germany
, the entry of Austria into the war led to France's decisive defeat at the
Battle of Leipzig
in the autumn of 1813, which proved to be a massive victory for the Coalition. Following the battle, the Pro-French
Confederation of the Rhine
collapsed, thereby ending Napoleon's hold on territory east of the
Rhine
forever. Alexander, being the supreme commander of the Coalition forces in the theatre and the paramount monarch among the three main Coalition monarchs, ordered all Coalition forces in Germany to cross the Rhine and invade France.
[
citation needed
]
The Coalition forces, divided into three groups,
entered northeastern France
in January 1814. Facing them in the theatre were the French forces numbering only about 70,000 men. In spite of being heavily outnumbered, Napoleon defeated the divided Coalition forces in the battles at
Brienne
and
La Rothiere
, but could not stop the Coalition's advance and triumphant victory over Napoleon. Austrian Emperor Francis I and King Frederick William III of Prussia felt demoralized upon hearing about Napoleon's victories since the start of the campaign. They even considered ordering a general retreat. But Alexander was far more determined than ever to victoriously enter Paris whatever the cost, imposing his will upon
Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg
, and the wavering monarchs.
On 28 March, Coalition forces advanced towards Paris and prepared to launch an assault.
Camping outside the city on 29 March, the Coalition armies were to assault the city from its northern and eastern sides the next morning on 30 March. The
battle
started that same morning with intense artillery bombardment from the Coalition positions. Early in the morning the Coalition attack began when the Russians attacked and drove back the French skirmishers near
Belleville
before being driven back themselves by French cavalry from the city's eastern suburbs. By 7:00 a.m. the Russians attacked the
Young Guard
near
Romainville
in the centre of the French lines and after some time and hard fighting, pushed them back. A few hours later the Prussians, under
Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher
, attacked north of the city and carried the French position around
Aubervilliers
, but did not press their attack. The
Wurttemberg
troops seized the positions at
Saint-Maur
to the southeast, with Austrian troops in support. The Russian forces then assailed the heights of
Montmartre
in the city's northeast. Control of the heights was severely contested, until the French forces surrendered.
Alexander sent an envoy to meet with the French to hasten the surrender. He offered generous terms to the French and although having intended to avenge Moscow,
he declared himself to be bringing peace to France rather than its destruction. On 31 March
Talleyrand
gave the key of the city to the tsar. Later that day the Coalition armies triumphantly entered the city with Alexander at the head of the army followed by the King of Prussia and Prince Schwarzenberg. Until this battle it had been nearly 400 years since
a foreign army had entered Paris
, during the
Hundred Years' War
.
[
citation needed
]
On 2 April, the
Senat conservateur
passed the
Acte de decheance de l'Empereur
, which declared Napoleon deposed. Napoleon was in
Fontainebleau
when he heard that Paris had surrendered. Outraged, he wanted to march on the capital, but his
marshals
refused to fight for him and repeatedly urged him to surrender. He abdicated in favour of his son on 4 April, but the Allies rejected this out of hand, forcing Napoleon to abdicate unconditionally on 6 April. The terms of his abdication, which included his exile to the Isle of
Elba
, were settled in the
Treaty of Fontainebleau
on 11 April. A reluctant Napoleon ratified it two days later, marking the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition.
[
citation needed
]
Postbellum
[
edit
]
Peace of Paris and the Congress of Vienna
[
edit
]
Alexander tried to calm the unrest of his conscience by correspondence with the leaders of the evangelical revival on the continent, and sought for omens and supernatural guidance in texts and passages of scripture. It was not, however, according to his own account, until he met the
Baroness de Krudener
?a religious adventuress who made the conversion of princes her special mission?at
Basel
, in the autumn of 1813, that his soul found peace. From this time a mystic pietism became the avowed force of his political, as of his private actions. Madame de Krudener, and her colleague, the evangelist
Henri-Louis Empaytaz
, became the confidants of the emperor's most secret thoughts; and during the campaign that ended in the occupation of Paris the imperial prayer-meetings were the oracle on whose revelations hung the fate of the world.
Such was Alexander's mood when the downfall of Napoleon left him one of the most powerful sovereigns in Europe. With the memory of the
Treaty of Tilsit
still fresh in men's minds, it was not unnatural that to cynical men of the world like Klemens Wenzel von Metternich he merely seemed to be disguising "under the language of evangelical abnegation" vast and perilous schemes of ambition.
The puzzled powers were, in fact, the more inclined to be suspicious in view of other, and seemingly inconsistent, tendencies of the emperor, which yet seemed all to point to a like disquieting conclusion. For Madame de Krudener was not the only influence behind the throne; and, though Alexander had declared war against the Revolution, La Harpe (his erstwhile tutor) was once more at his elbow, and the catchwords of the gospel of humanity were still on his lips. The very proclamations which denounced Napoleon as "the genius of evil", denounced him in the name of "liberty," and of "enlightenment".
Conservatives suspected Alexander of a monstrous intrigue by which the eastern autocrat would ally with the Jacobinism of all Europe, aiming at an all-powerful Russia in place of an all-powerful France. At the Congress of Vienna Alexander's attitude accentuated this distrust. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, whose single-minded aim was the restoration of "a just equilibrium" in Europe, reproached the Tsar to his face for a "conscience" which led him to imperil the concert of the powers by keeping his hold on Poland in violation of his treaty obligation.
[48]
Liberal political views
[
edit
]
Once a supporter of limited liberalism, as seen in his approval of the representative institutions in the
Ionian Islands
, Grand Duchy of Finland and the
Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland
in 1815,
[49]
[50]
from the end of the year 1818 Alexander's views began to change. A
revolutionary
conspiracy
among the officers of the
Russian Imperial Guard
, and a plot to kidnap him on his way to the
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
, are said to have shaken his liberal beliefs. At Aix he came for the first time into intimate contact with Metternich. From this time dates the ascendancy of Metternich over the mind of the Russian Emperor and in the councils of Europe. It was, however, no case of sudden conversion. Though alarmed by the revolutionary agitation in Germany, which culminated in the murder of his agent, the dramatist
August von Kotzebue
(23 March 1819), Alexander approved of Castlereagh's protest against Metternich's policy of "the governments contracting an alliance against the peoples", as formulated in the
Carlsbad Decrees
of July 1819, and deprecated any intervention of Europe to support "a league of which the sole object is the absurd pretensions of "absolute power".
[51]
He still declared his belief in free institutions with limitations. "Liberty", he maintained, "should be confined within just limits. And the limits of liberty are the principles of order".
[52]
It was the 1820
revolutions
in
Naples
and
Piedmont
, combined with increasingly disquieting symptoms of discontent in
France
, Germany, and among his own people, that completed Alexander's conversion. In the seclusion of the little town of
Troppau
, where in October 1820 the powers met in
conference
, Metternich found an opportunity for cementing his influence over Alexander, which had been wanting amid the turmoil and intrigues of Vienna and Aix. During a friendly conversation over afternoon tea, the disillusioned autocrat confessed his mistake. "You have nothing to regret," he said sadly to the exultant chancellor, "but I have!".
[53]
The issue was momentous. In January Alexander had still upheld the ideal of a free confederation of the European states, symbolised by the Holy Alliance, against the policy of a dictatorship of the great powers, symbolised by the Quadruple Treaty; he had still protested against the claims of collective Europe to interfere in the internal concerns of the sovereign states. He gave in on 19 November by signing the Troppau Protocol, which consecrated the principle of intervention.
Revolt of the Greeks
[
edit
]
At the
Congress of Laibach
, which had been adjourned in the spring of 1821, Alexander received news of the
Greek revolt
against the Ottoman Empire. From this time until his death, Alexander's mind was conflicted between his dreams of a stable confederation of Europe and his traditional mission as leader of the Orthodox crusade against the Ottomans. At first, under the careful advice of Metternich, Alexander chose the former.
Siding against the Greek revolt for the sake of stability in the region, Alexander expelled its leader
Alexander Ypsilantis
from the Russian Imperial Cavalry, and directed his foreign minister, Ioannis Kapodistrias (known as
Giovanni, Count Capo d'Istria
), himself a Greek, to disavow any Russian sympathy with Ypsilantis; and in 1822, he issued orders to turn back a deputation from the Greek
Morea
province to the
Congress of Verona
on the road.
He made some effort to reconcile the principles at conflict in his mind. The
Ottoman Sultan
Mahmud II
had been excluded from the Holy Alliance under the principle that the affairs of the East were the "domestic concerns of Russia" rather than of the concert of Europe; but Alexander now offered to surrender this claim and act "as the mandatory of Europe," as Austria had acted in Naples, but still to march as a Christian liberator into the Ottoman Empire.
Metternich's opposition to this assertion of Russian power, putting the Austrian-led balance of power above the interests of Christendom, first opened Alexander's eyes to the true character of Austria's attitude towards his ideals. Once more in Russia, far from the fascination of Metternich's personality, he was once again moved by the aspirations of his people.
In 1823 the
1817?1824 cholera pandemic
reached
Astrakhan
and the Tsar ordered an anti-
cholera
campaign that was imitated in other countries.
Personal life
[
edit
]
On 9 October 1793, Alexander married Louise of Baden, known as Elizabeth Alexeievna after her conversion to the Orthodox Church. He later told his friend Frederick William III that the marriage, a political match devised by his grandmother, Catherine the Great, regrettably proved to be a misfortune for him and his spouse.
Their two children died young,
though their common sorrow drew the spouses closer together. Towards the end of Alexander's life their reconciliation was completed by the wise charity of the Empress in sympathising deeply with him over the death of his beloved daughter Sophia Naryshkina, the daughter of his mistress
Maria Naryshkina
,
with whom he had a relationship from 1799 until 1818. In 1809, Alexander I was widely and famously rumoured to have had an affair with the Finnish noblewoman
Ulla Mollersvard
and to have had a child by her, but this is not confirmed.
Death
[
edit
]
With his mental health deteriorating, Alexander grew increasingly suspicious of those around him, more withdrawn, more religious, and more passive. Some historians conclude his profile "coincides precisely with the
schizophrenic
prototype: a withdrawn, seclusive, rather shy,
introvertive
, unaggressive, and somewhat apathetic individual".
In the autumn of 1825 the Emperor undertook a voyage to the south of Russia due to the increasing illness of his wife. During his trip he himself caught
typhus
, from which he died in the southern city of
Taganrog
on 19 November 1825 (Old Style). However, his death would not be widely known until December, due to Taganrog being far from the capital or any other large city.
[59]
His two brothers disputed who would become tsar?each wanted the other to do so. His wife died a few months later as the emperor's body was transported to Saint Petersburg for the funeral. He was interred at the
Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral
of the
Peter and Paul Fortress
in Saint Petersburg on 13 March 1826.
Conspiracy Theory about Death
[
edit
]
Many believe that Tsar Alexander I
faked his death
and lived as a
hermit
by name of
Feodor Kuzmich
, although this fact is debated by historians and some reject the legend; however, popular writers often resurrect them.
[61]
The main claim for the belief that Alexander I faked his death involves the curious similarities between Alexander and Kuzmich. Svetlana Semyonova, president of Russian Graphological Society, analyzed both Alexander's and Kuzmich's handwriting and concluded that they were the same. Furthermore, there are rumors that Alexander's wife also faked her death a year after his death and became a nun in Saint Petersburg. The priest attending Feodor Kuzmich on his deathbed reportedly asked him if he was, in fact, Alexander the Blessed. In response, Kuzmich said, "Your works are wonderful, Lord ... There is no secret, which is not opened."
[62]
Children
[
edit
]
Archives
[
edit
]
Alexander's letters to his grandfather,
Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Wurttemberg
, (together with letters from his siblings) written between 1795 and 1797, are preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart) in
Stuttgart
, Germany.
[68]
Honours
[
edit
]
He received the following orders and decorations:
[69]
Ancestry
[
edit
]
Ancestors of Alexander I of Russia
|
---|
|
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
During Alexander's lifetime Russia used the Julian calendar (Old Style), but unless otherwise stated, any date in this article uses the Gregorian Calendar (New Style)?see the article "
Old Style and New Style dates
" for a more detailed explanation.
- ^
Russian:
Благословенный
,
romanized:
Blagoslovenny
- ^
It was issued at the end of the 19th century in the Rescript of
Nicholas II
and the
conference of The Hague
(
Phillips 1911
, p. 557 cites: Circular of Count Muraviev, 24 August 1898).
- ^
On the historiography, see
Lieven 2006
, pp. 283?308.
- ^
Bushkovitch, Paul (2012).
A concise history of Russia
. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 154.
ISBN
978-0-521-54323-1
.
- ^
"Читать"
.
Литмир ? электронная библиотека
. Retrieved
27 July
2021
.
- ^
"Alexander I"
. Archived from
the original
on 22 June 2011
. Retrieved
1 January
2009
.
- ^
"Vikent - Детство и юность императора Александра I"
.
vikent.ru
. Retrieved
27 July
2021
.
- ^
"Alexander I of Russia"
.
history.wikireading.ru
.
Archived
from the original on 28 July 2021
. Retrieved
27 July
2021
.
- ^
"HTC: Liturgical Ranks"
.
www.holy-trinity.org
. Retrieved
27 July
2021
.
- ^
"Александро-Невская Лавра - Панфилов Иоанн Иоаннович"
.
lavraspb.ru
. Retrieved
28 July
2021
.
- ^
"Читать"
.
Литмир ? электронная библиотека
. Retrieved
28 July
2021
.
- ^
"Александр I"
.
www.museum.ru
. Retrieved
27 July
2021
.
- ^
"Александр I Павлович"
.
myhistorypark.ru
(in Russian)
. Retrieved
27 July
2021
.
- ^
McGrew 1992
, p. 184
- ^
Flynn 1988
, p.
[
page needed
]
.
- ^
Lipscomb, Bergh & Johnston 1903
, p.
[
page needed
]
;
Jefferson to Priestley, Washington, 29 November 1802
- ^
Phillips 1911
, p. 557 cites
Instructions to M. Novosiltsov
, 11 September 1804. Tatischeff, p. 82
- ^
Phillips 1911
, p. 557 cites: Savary to Napoleon, 18 November 1807. Tatischeff, p. 232.
- ^
Phillips 1911
, pp. 557, 558 cites: Coulaincourt to Napoleon, 4th report, 3 August 1809. Tatischeff, p. 496.
- ^
Baddeley 1908
, p. 67 cites "Tsitsianoff's report to the Emperor: Akti, ix (supplement), p. 920".
- ^
Phillips 1911
, p. 558 cites: Alexander speaking to Colonel Michaud. Tatischeff, p. 612.
- ^
Phillips 1911
, p. 558 cites Castlereagh to Liverpool, 2 October 1814. F.O. Papers. Vienna VII.
- ^
Richard Stites (2014).
The Four Horsemen Riding to Liberty in Post-Napoleonic Europe
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
9780199981489
.
- ^
Julia Berest (2011).
The Emergence of Russian Liberalism: Alexander Kunitsyn in Context
. Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN
9780230118928
.
- ^
Phillips 1911
, p. 558 cites:
Despatch of Lieven
, 30 Nov (12 Dec.), 1819, and
Russ. Circular
of 27 January 1820. Martens IV. part i. p. 270.
- ^
Phillips 1911
, pp. 558, 559 cites:
Apercu des idees de l'Empereur
, Martens IV. part i. p. 269.
- ^
Phillips 1911
, p. 559 cites: Metternich
Mem.
- ^
Bushkovitch, Paul (2012).
A concise history of Russia
. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 154.
ISBN
978-0-521-54323-1
.
- ^
Raleigh, Donald J.; Iskenderov, Akhmed Akhmedovich (1996).
The emperors and empresses of Russia : rediscovering the Romanovs
. Internet Archive. Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe.
ISBN
978-1-56324-759-0
.
- ^
"Святой праведный старец Феодор Томский"
.
† Православие в Томске
. Retrieved
3 November
2023
.
- ^
Palmer 1974
, p.
[
page needed
]
.
- ^
Manifesto
- ^
Genealogy of Nikolai Lukash.
Retrieved 20 January 2021
- ^
Ehrenberg, Gustaw.
"Szlachta w roku 1831"
.
Wolne Lektury
. Retrieved
14 February
2023
.
- ^
"Herzog Friedrich Eugen (1732-1797) - Briefwechsel des Herzogs mit dem kaiserlichen Hause von Russland, 1795-1797 - 3. Schreiben der jungen Großfursten Alexander und Konstantin und Großfurstinnen Alexandrina, Anna, Katharina, Elisabeth, Helene, Maria"
. Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
. Retrieved
22 November
2021
.
- ^
Russian Imperial Army - Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich of Russia
(In Russian)
- ^
Almanach de la cour: pour l'annee ... 1799
. l'Academie Imp. des Sciences. 1799. pp.
45
,
52
,
61
,
85
.
- ^
Per Nordenvall (1998). "Kungl. Maj:ts Orden".
Kungliga Serafimerorden: 1748?1998
(in Swedish). Stockholm.
ISBN
91-630-6744-7
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Posttidningar, 30 April 1814, p. 2
- ^
Liste der Ritter des Koniglich Preußischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler
(1851), "Von Seiner Majestat dem Konige Friedrich Wilhelm II. ernannte Ritter"
p. 10
- ^
Angelo Scordo,
Vicende e personaggi dell'Insigne e reale Ordine di San Gennaro dalla sua fondazione alla fine del Regno delle Due Sicilie
(PDF)
(in Italian), p. 9, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 4 March 2016
- ^
M. & B. Wattel. (2009).
Les Grand'Croix de la Legion d'honneur de 1805 a nos jours. Titulaires francais et etrangers
. Paris: Archives & Culture. p. 513.
ISBN
978-2-35077-135-9
.
- ^
Teulet, Alexandre (1863).
"Liste chronologique des chevaliers de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit depuis son origine jusqu'a son extinction (1578-1830)"
[Chronological list of knights of the Order of the Holy Spirit from its origin to its extinction (1578-1830)].
Annuaire-bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire de France
(in French) (2): 113
. Retrieved
20 May
2020
.
- ^
J ..... -H ..... -Fr ..... Berlien (1846).
Der Elephanten-Orden und seine Ritter
. Berling. pp.
124
?125.
- ^
Shaw, Wm. A. (1906)
The Knights of England
,
I
, London,
p. 51
- ^
Bayern (1824).
Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Konigreichs Bayern: 1824
. Landesamt. p. 6.
- ^
Guerra, Francisco (1819),
"Caballeros Existentes en la Insignie Orden del Toison de Oro"
,
Calendario manual y guia de forasteros en Madrid
(in Spanish): 42
, retrieved
2 November
2020
- ^
"Ritter-Orden: Militarischer Maria-Theresien-Orden"
,
Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Kaiserthumes Osterreich
, 1824, p. 17
, retrieved
2 November
2020
- ^
"Militaire Willems-Orde: Romanov, Aleksandr I Pavlovitsj"
[Military William Order: Romanov, Alexander I Pavlovich].
Ministerie van Defensie
(in Dutch). 19 November 1818
. Retrieved
2 November
2020
.
- ^
Luigi Cibrario (1869).
Notizia storica del nobilissimo ordine supremo della santissima Annunziata. Sunto degli statuti, catalogo dei cavalieri
. Eredi Botta. p. 102.
- ^
Braganca, Jose Vicente de; Estrela, Paulo Jorge (2017).
"Troca de Decoracoes entre os Reis de Portugal e os Imperadores da Russia"
[Exchange of Decorations between the Kings of Portugal and the Emperors of Russia].
Pro Phalaris
(in Portuguese).
16
: 9
. Retrieved
2 November
2020
.
- ^
Staatshandbuch fur das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach
(1819), "Großherzogliche Hausorden"
p. 8
- ^
Aleksandr Kamenskii,
The Russian Empire in the Eighteenth Century: Searching for a Place in the World
(1997) pp 265?280.
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The Cambridge history of Iran: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic
. Cambridge University Press. p. 332.
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- Baddeley, John F. (1908).
The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus
. London: Longmans, Green and Company. p.
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- Berlin, A. (1768). "Table 23".
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[
Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living
] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. p.
23
.
- Chapman, Tim (2001).
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(illustrated, reprint ed.). Routledge. p.
29
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978-0-415-23110-7
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- Cox, Robert W. (1987).
Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History
. Columbia University Press. p.
121
.
- Esdaile, Charles (2009).
Napoleon's Wars: An International History
. Penguin. pp.
192
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- Flynn, James T. (1988).
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- "Jefferson to Priestley, Washington, 29 November 1802"
.
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Attribution:
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Hartley, Janet M. et al. eds.
Russia and the Napoleonic Wars
(2015), new scholarship
- Lieven, Dominic.
Russia Against Napoleon
(2011)
excerpt
- McConnell, Allen.
Tsar Alexander I: Paternalistic Reformer
(1970)
online free to borrow
- Palmer, Alan.
Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974)
- Rey, Marie-Pierre.
Alexander I.: the Tsar who defeated Napoleon
(2012)
- Troyat, Henri
.
Alexander of Russia
(Hodder & Stoughton, 1984)
- Zawadzki, Hubert. "Between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander: The Polish Question at Tilsit, 1807."
Central Europe
7.2 (2009): 110?124.
External links
[
edit
]
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Tsareviches
1
| |
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Without special title
| |
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Tsesareviches
| |
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- 1
Title of
Tsarevich
was used for all Tsar's sons from the times of Ivan IV to Peter I. Only heirs to the throne included in this template.
- 2
Ivan IV
's son from his fifth (or seventh) marriage, and thus illegitimate by the
canon law
- 3
Son of a
man
claimed to be
tsarevich Dmitry
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2nd generation
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8th generation
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9th generation
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10th generation
| |
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- 1
born a Grand Duke, but stripped of his title by
Alexander III
's
ukase
of 1886, limiting the style to sons and male-line grandsons of a tsar
- 2
title of pretence granted by Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich as claimant to the Russian throne
- 3
title of pretence granted by Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich as claimant to the Russian throne
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1811
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1812
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1813
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1814
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1815
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Info
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Coalition
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Miscellaneous
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