Alexander I

Janet M. Hartley

This welcome addition to Profiles in Power sets the career of Tsar Alexander I of Russia (1801-1825) in the domestic and international context of his times. Alexander spent much of his reign locked in a titanic struggle with Napoleon, which reached its climax in the 1812 invasion of Russia. After Napoleon's defeat, Alexander was the most powerful ruler on the continent, and promoted a new vision for Europe, which was ultimately embodied in the Holy Alliance. At home, he was much engaged with plans for constitutions and reform. He is thus a dominant figure in both Russian and European history in the nineteenth century . Yet for all the immediate triumphs of his reign, its long-term impact on Russia was largely negative; his personal achievements seem often directly at odds with his declared aims, and his personality is riddled with contradictions. More than once he professed an...

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