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Under Alexander I (r. 1801–25), the reform-minded grandson
of Catherine the Great, new universities and secondary schools
opened; scientific, literary, and scholarly societies flourished;
and journals reflected the diversity of cultural and intellectual
interests of the literate public. Between 1803 and 1833, sixteen
Russian maritime expeditions traveled around the world, documenting
heretofore little-known lands and peoples.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Russia and much of the rest of Europe faced
threats, first from revolutionary France and then from Napoleon’s imperial ambitions.
The military alliances and campaigns that ensued intensified contacts with western
influences and led to their further absorption. Symbolically, Russia’s europeanization
reached its pinnacle when Alexander I led the allied troops into Paris in 1814
and again in 1815 after the final defeat of Napoleon.
Victory over France saw the emergence of a proud and self-confident Russia, a
nation whose literature embraced the Romantic and nationalist movements that
were sweeping contemporary Europe. Russians were stimulated to reflect on their
country’s relationship to the outside world, and many began to critically examine
the empire’s political values and practices. Following Alexander’s death, officers
who had become acquainted with western political thought and institutions during
the Napoleonic campaigns rebelled because the government refused to allow them
fuller participation in the public life of the empire. While the so-called Decembrist
Revolt was easily put down by Alexander's brother and successor, Nicholas I,
it demonstrated that for the empire, europeanization and other global engagements
carried implications that Peter the Great had not anticipated.
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The founding of St. Petersburg in 1703 signaled Tsar Peter’s intention to make
Russia an equal partner in the European family of nations as well as a world
force; by 1825, both goals had been achieved. Over the course of the 19th and
early 20th centuries, the sciences, arts, and letters all flourished in the empire,
with Russians in the vanguard of international trends.
But as history has often shown, the many strains of maintaining a vast empire,
and the injustices committed against populations absorbed in the building process,
can lead to discontent and internal dissent. The forcible absorption of lands
and peoples such as the Chechens, for example, during this period initiated a
conflict that remains unresolved to this day.
Internally, the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 clearly signaled a desire for political
and economic reforms along western European lines, but the last four tsars failed
to fully satisfy domestic demands for change. In 1917, after decades of unrest
and in the midst of an unpopular war, the Romanov dynasty fell, only four years
after celebrating its tercentenary.
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© 2003-2004
The New York Public Library
are specific to Muscovy/Russia's internal development.
are important world historical or cultural events.
indicates specific points of sociocultural or military engagement
between Muscovy/Russia and foreign powers or individuals.
