Alexander I Essay Research Paper Alexander I — страница 3

hands. For Alexander, it was a period of fatigue, discouragement, and dark thoughts. For Russia, it was a period of reaction and struggle against real and imagined revolution. Alexander thought he saw “the reign of Satan” everywhere. In opposition, secret societies spread, composed of young men, mostly from the military, who sought to regenerate and liberalize the country. Plots were made. Alexander was warned of them, but he refused to act decisively. Alexander left Russia in poor condition. At the end of his reign he left his Polish mistress of 13 years, Maria Naryshkina, and returned to his wife, Elizabeth, who had suffered from his unfaithfulness and neglect for years. He was a troubled and broken man. One fall, he and Elizabeth traveled to southern Russia. There, on

November 19, 1825 in the town of Taganrog, it is claimed to have faked his own death, disappearing to become a monk named Kuzmich, wandering the forests of Siberia for years afterward as a hermit. The Soviet Government fanned the flames of these rumors when it announced his coffin had been opened in the 1920’s and was found to be empty. Alexander I lacked the consistency of character needed to carry out his position as the Tsar of Russia. His childhood was corrupted by family and education rendered him unstable as a leader. Alexander alienated liberals by encouraging expectations that he could not, or would not, fulfill. He confused conservatives by arousing fears that proved unjustified. Carrying his faith to extreme lengths, and pursuing peculiar fantasies, Alexander

neglected the affairs of Russia. When he died, he left a legacy of poverty-stricken serfs, dangerously situated nobles, and had set a precedent for active discontent for the system in which Russia lived.