ALEXANDER (RUSSIA) 283 rope anew. On March 13, 1815, Alexander signed the proclamation by which the great sol- dier was outlawed. Waterloo soon followed, and for the second time Alexander entered Paris victoriously, July 11, 1815. His religious excitement now increased, and with it his in- difference first, and then his hostility to liberty. In Paris, in 1815, under the inspirations of the celebrated Mme. Krudener, he formed the holy alliance, which was to base the political order of the world on the principles of Christianity, or, as it came to be understood, of despotism. The czar now took the lead in European affairs. In Russia trade and industry revived, and efforts were made to expand the national re- sources. Alexander was inspired with the best intentions, but lacked the energy to carry them out. He began a partial abolition of serfdom by emancipating the serfs in the German Baltic provinces, but without allowing the peasantry the liberty of migrating from one province to another. In 1818 he virtually presided at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, and from that epoch may be dated the complete abandon- ment of his once cherished liberal and reform- atory ideas. Exhausted bodily by various ex- cesses, and mentally by the pressure of the terrible events in which for more than ten years he had played a part requiring almost superhuman efforts, he became the leader of the reaction against all free tendencies. Met- ternich adroitly played upon his fears, and he almost wholly abandoned to his ministers the internal administration of Russia, while he de- voted himself to suppressing liberal movements in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. At the congresses of Troppau (1820), Laybach (1821), and Verona (1822), he urgently sus- tained this policy. The constitution of Poland had been violated in its principal parts. Irri- tation increased between the nation and the sovereign; conspiracies were formed in con- nection with the Carbonarism then existing in France and the south of Europe. At the same time new ideas were brought to Russia by the armies returning from the west, especial- ly by those which had occupied France for sev- eral years. The political institutions and social state of other nations thus becoming better known, the desire spread rapidly for changes more in harmony with the spirit of the age. Discontent was increased by the absence of administrative ability and integrity. The army was disorganized. In imitation of Austria, and with the view of surrounding St. Petersburg with an immense military force, military colo- nies of the peasantry were created by Arak- tcheyeff, now the virtual ruler of the country. The censorship of the press was exceedingly se- vere. Alexander became more and more the prey of hypochondria, gloomy, distrustful, inaccessi- ble. The man who once received with a smile the memorials presented by his subjects, now ordered that any one who approached him in public should be arrested and kept 24 hours in prison. Once an active freemason, he now suppressed the lodges throughout the empire. The secret police, whose operations embraced not only Russia but all Europe, became more active than ever, the grand duke Constantine, brother of the czar, being at its head. The Jesuits, who, even after their suppression in the 18th century all over the world, had been tolerated in Lithuania and Russia, were expelled in 1821 and 1822, for spreading Ro- man Catholicism among wealthy Russian fami- lies, and their establishment at St. Petersburg was handed over to the Dominicans. Alexan- der estranged himself from many who had once been his friends. Only Volkonski, a thorough absolutist, but otherwise noble-minded, and Araktcheyeff, a despot by nature, remained un- shaken in his favor. Araktcheyeff, indeed, had been the favorite of Paul, and Alexander retained him near his person during his whole reign, as if to atone for his father's murder. Jo- seph de Maistre, the philosopher of absolutism, then residing at St. Petersburg, said of the czar after an interview that despotism was breathed out of his nostrils. Alexander ac- cused his people, the Poles, and all Europe indeed, of ingratitude. He hated every spot in turn, quitting St. Petersburg and Russia to visit foreign countries, and returning equally dissatisfied. Finally the outbreak in Greece fearfully increased the dissidence between the czar and the nation. The feeling and sympa- thies of the people were with the insurgents. For more than half a century the whole in- fluence of Russia had been employed to stir up the Greeks. Now, when the moment of action came, Alexander, under the advice of Metternich and Nesselrode, opposed the natu- ral policy of Russia, abandoned the Greeks to their fate, and suffered one of their leaders, Alexander Ypsilanti, once his favorite aide-de- camp and confidant, to pine in Austrian dun- geons. The marriage of the czar being child- less, he had become fondly attached to a natu- ral daughter by Mme. Naryshkin. The death of this girl, coupled with a fearful inundation at St. Petersburg in 1824, destroyed his mental equilibrium. These catastrophes he considered as the punishment of parricide. In September, 1825, in compliance with the order of his phy- sicians, he went with his wife on a journey to southern Russia. Arriving at Taganrog, he left the empress and continued his excursion into the Crimea. Attacked by the Crimean fever, combined with erysipelas, he returned to Taganrog, where he died. A few weeks before his death Count Witt, one of the chief authorities of the. military colonies in the south of Russia, disclosed to him the existence of a wide-spread conspiracy against the imperial family. He, however, was unmoved by the information, and his successor, his brother Nicholas, had to fight his way to the throne. ALEXANDER II., Nieolaieviteh, emperor of Russia, son of the czar Nicholas and Alex- andra Feodorovna (originally Charlotte), a sister of Frederick William IV. and William L
