Alexander I of Russia

Who was Alexander I of Russia?

Alexander I,. reigned as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825. He was the first Russian King of Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania.

He was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I and succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and tsar 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. He promised constitutional reforms and a desperately needed reform of serfdom but made no concrete proposals and nothing happened. In the second half of his reign he was increasingly arbitrary, reactionary and fearful of plots against him; he ended many earlier reforms. He purged schools of foreign teachers, as education became more religiously oriented as well as politically conservative.