Burdens of Engagement NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

The grandson of Catherine the Great (r. 1762–96) and the son of Emperor Paul (r. 1796–1801) ascended the throne at twenty-three, after his father’s assassination. In the first part of his reign, the new tsar was strongly influenced by the Enlightenment principles he learned from his grandmother, as well as by the education acquired through his progressive tutor, a Swiss philosophe named Frédéric-César de LaHarpe (1754–1838). Although Alexander possessed charm and diplomatic skill, scholars believe that the tsar's complicated relations with his father and grandmother, and the murder of Paul, contributed to Alexander's strong feelings of guilt, contradiction, and mysticism, which manifested themselves in the second part of his rule, as the ministries, schools, and foreign policy were placed in the hands of religious zealots who undid the beneficial aspects of the emperor’s early years in power.