The Romanovs by Virginia Cowles

Author:Virginia Cowles [Cowles, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2015-07-12T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6 – Nicholas I 1825-1855

‘The Russian Empire,’ reported the correspondent of the London Times in November 1825, a few days after the death of Alexander I, ‘is in the strange position of having two self-denying Emperors and no active ruler.’

The situation was unparalleled in the history of nations. The Russian throne remained empty for three weeks while the dead sovereign’s two brothers, the Grand Duke Constantine and the Grand Duke Nicholas, each insisted that the other must wear the crown. The courtiers were astonished by this unexpected pas de deux, as Constantine long ago had made it plain that he did not wish to reign. Not only was he satisfied with his job as Viceroy of Poland, but determined to continue living in Warsaw with his Polish wife. Nicholas, on the other hand, was both willing and eager to rule.

Prince Golitsyn, who had helped Alexander I to draw up the document in which Constantine renounced the throne, found Nicholas’s behaviour nothing short of lunatic. The 29-year-old Grand Duke was attending a Te Deum in the Winter Palace when a messenger from faraway Taganrod brought him news of the Emperor’s death. Without a moment’s hesitation he slipped out and ordered the soldiers at the Palace to take the oath of allegiance to Constantine. Even when Golitsyn called an Imperial Council and showed them the letter in which Constantine repudiated the crown, Nicholas refused to accept the succession. He waived the rights conferred upon him and requested that copies of the Emperor’s letter should remain unopened. Next day pictures of Constantine appeared in the newspapers as ‘Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias’.

A week later Nicholas’s younger brother, Michael, arrived hot-foot from Warsaw with a letter from Constantine acknowledging Nicholas as Emperor. By this time the courtiers were beginning to laugh. But Nicholas still was not satisfied and sent Michael back to Warsaw for further corroboration. Countess Nesselrode, the Empress’s lady-in-waiting, wrote to Count Guriev that the two brothers were playing with the crown of Russia ‘throwing it back and forth as though it were an India rubber ball’.

Nicholas, however, was not as irrational as some people supposed. He was wise enough to know that the Guards divisions had a long tradition of deciding the succession to the throne; he also knew that the army loathed him because of his passion for discipline. ‘I hope military service will not make you adopt a brutal, harsh and imperious manner,’ his mother had warned him many years earlier. ‘It is sad that Nicholas is so wrong in his behaviour,’ wrote Countess Nesselrode, ‘making himself loathed and detested by the troops; they say he flies into rages and is severe, vindictive and mean.’ ‘His habitual expression has something severe and misanthropic which makes one feel uneasy,’ declared the Russian Ambassador at Stuttgart.

Although the Grand Duke Constantine was widely disliked by the nobility he had the support of the Guards regiments whom he had led through the Napoleonic campaigns. Nicholas therefore decided to prevaricate until

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