The emperor, who equated his fate with the fate of the country, in 13 years turned Russia into one of the strongest powers in the world
Emperor Alexander III, who ascended the throne on March 14 (2 according to the old style), 1881 *, got a very difficult inheritance. From his infancy, preparing for a military career, after the death of his older brother Nikolai, he was forced to change his whole life in order to prepare for the ascension to the throne. Since childhood, worried about a lack of parental love, which mainly went to the elder and younger brothers, Alexander Alexandrovich was forced in the last years of his inheritance to die almost daily from fear for the life of his parent. Finally, he accepted the royal crown not from the hands of the aging and gradually retiring emperor, but from the hands of a mortally wounded father, whose life was cut short by people who in such a monstrous way tried to build a "kingdom of freedom."
Is it any wonder that the most consistent course of the thirteen-year reign of Alexander III was a decisive turn from liberal ideas brought in from outside to traditional Russian values. According to many contemporaries, the penultimate emperor seemed to embody the spirit of his grandfather, Nicholas I. The motto “Orthodoxy. Autocracy. Narodnost”was perceived by Alexander as a guide to action. Perhaps the fact that Nicholas I, as eyewitnesses said, had a sincere affection for his second grandson and made great efforts to provide him with the education that he considered faithful, played a role in this. And he did not lose: it was to the lot of the grandson, who unexpectedly for himself first became the Tsarevich, and then the Emperor, had the honor to turn Russia into one of the most powerful world powers in a short time.
Nicholas I and Alexander III are related not only by the direct connection between the grandfather and the grandson, but also in many respects by the circumstances of their accession to the throne. For Nicholas, the reign began with an uprising on Senate Square, and for Alexander - with the murder of his father by the People's Will. Both of them were forced to start by investigating the actions of people whose actions seemed impossible, inconceivable, inhuman to them - and, alas, demanded the same harsh reaction.
That is why the era of the reign of Alexander III, which in traditional Russian historiography is called the era of counterreforms, was only partly such. Yes, the emperor deliberately went to the cancellation of many of his father's innovations, seeing in them not so much an improvement in life in the country as an excuse to weaken the security of the population, from the very top to the bottom. It must be remembered that the terrorists-revolutionaries, talking about the people's welfare and calling for the death of "tyrants", did not at all consider the victims from among the retinue or bystanders to be the victims. They simply did not notice them, believing not just permissible, but necessary such "incidental damage": they say, this is only how the inhuman essence of autocracy will become clearer.
Alexander III with his wife Maria Fedorovna. Photo: wreporter.com
And this autocracy in the person of Alexander III had a very humane essence. Having gone through a serious life school during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, having seen enough of peasant problems during the years of leadership of the Special Committee for the collection and distribution of benefits to the hungry during the poor harvest of 1868, Tsarevich Alexander perceived the whole of Russia as a single economy, the success of which is equally depends on both the autocrat and the last peasant.
“What can be said about him, who alone ruled the fate of a huge country that stood at a crossroads? - writes in his introductory article to the collection "Alexander III. Statesmen through the eyes of contemporaries "Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valentina Chernukha. - Undoubtedly, both the character of the country and the peculiarity of the time demanded from the new tsar not only the qualities of a statesman, but an outstanding figure who knows how to balance the desired and the possible, the necessary and achievable, to see the goals close and long-term, to choose people for their implementation, in accordance with the tasks, and not with personal sympathies. As a person he was, of course, a bright character, a whole person, bearer of strong principles and beliefs. he had many sincere friends, for almost all or many of his human qualities evoked sympathy. His appearance - a huge, clear-eyed man with a direct and firm gaze - corresponded as accurately as possible to his direct and open character, which was therefore easily guessed. His personality clearly dominated him over the state person and was clearly manifested in politics the king, through which his character shines through."
“They (Nicholas I and Alexander III. - Author's note) had a common psychology - the owner of a large estate, solely responsible for everything,” continues Valentina Chernukha. - There were, of course, positive aspects in this feeling of the owner. Firstly, Alexander III was a hard worker, he literally pulled the state cart, delving into all foreign and domestic political affairs. He was always overwhelmed with urgent and large matters, and therefore he did not like social entertainment very much: balls, receptions at which he was supposed to be present, and strove, showing himself, to leave unnoticed. Secondly, the emperor was economically thrifty. The story of his darned, darned trousers, which were repaired by a servant, is well known. Foreign Minister Nikolai Girs was shocked when he saw a "big patch" on the tsar's leggings. And here is how Sergei Witte, who was minister of finance during his reign, wrote about his sovereign: “I said that he was a good master; Emperor Alexander III was a good master not because of a sense of self-interest, but because of a sense of duty. The royal family, but even among the dignitaries, I never met that feeling of respect for the state ruble, for the state penny that Emperor Alexander III possessed. He shores every penny of the Russian people, the Russian state, as the best owner could not keep it."
Of course, it was simply impossible for such an owner as Alexander III to imagine how he would hand over the farm to the management of people who looked at the value of each worker in this farm in a completely opposite way! Therefore, the motto of the official populism was much closer to Alexander Alexandrovich than the slogans of the populist-terrorists. That is why he patronized the Orthodox Church, seeing in it not "opium for the people", not an institution ensuring the unquestioning submission of the people to the monarch, as was often the case in Europe, but a mentor and consoler of Russia.
Alexander III on deck. Photo: civilization-history.ru
Here, in this master's attitude to Russia, which Alexander firmly and consistently demonstrated throughout his reign, his desire to make it as strong and independent as possible is rooted. And for this he needed not only "two loyal allies - the army and the navy" (with him, it must be admitted, they turned into a real formidable force, with which the whole of Europe reckoned), but also a powerful economy. To raise it, Alexander Alexandrovich did a lot. He, perhaps, can be called the first ideologist of import substitution: by introducing protective duties on many technological goods and technologies themselves and at the same time providing support to Russian industrialists, he ensured that during his reign, his own metallurgical and heavy industries grew in the country. This made it possible not only to re-equip the army and navy at the expense of our own capabilities, but also to lengthen the railway network by 10,000 versts: the idea of a strong transport connection between the center and the outskirts was one of the most important for the emperor. And there was something to connect: it was under Alexander III that the territory of the Russian Empire grew by 429,895 km2, and mainly due to Central Asia and the Far East. And they managed to do this practically without a single shot - few kings, emperors, chancellors and presidents of that era could boast of the same achievement! But the reason that the tsar achieved his goals at such a price was simple: Alexander categorically did not want to pay for the expansion of the country with the lives of its inhabitants.
Finally, like any zealous owner, Alexander III did his best to contribute not only to the labors of his subjects, but also to their education. By enacting a very rigid university charter, which liberal-minded contemporaries called "stifling", he actually achieved, first of all, that students and professors finally focused their efforts on education, and not on political discussions and the implementation of dubious ideas. At the same time, the "strangler of free university thought" founded the first university in Siberia - Tomsk, which quickly became a major scientific and educational center. He also achieved that the number of the lowest educational institutions in the country - parochial schools - increased eightfold in 13 years, and the number of students in them increased by the same amount: from 105,000 people to almost a million boys and girls!
Most of the laws were aimed at achieving a single goal. And this goal was more than worthy: to do everything so that free interpreters of the idea of political freedoms would not let Russia into the world, which is slowly but surely regaining its former greatness. Alas, too little time was allotted to the peacekeeping emperor to lay a truly solid foundation for the country's security. Perhaps most accurately about the role that Alexander III played in both Russian and world history, a week after his death, the famous historian Vasily Klyuchevsky said: “13 years of the reign of Emperor Alexander III have passed, and the more hastily the hand of death hastened to close his eyes, the wider and more amazed Europe's eyes were opened to the world significance of this short reign … Science will give Emperor Alexander III an appropriate place not only in the history of Russia and all of Europe, but also in Russian historiography, and will say that he won a victory in the area where these victories, defeated the prejudice of peoples and thereby contributed to their rapprochement, conquered the public conscience in the name of peace and truth, increased the amount of good in the moral circulation of mankind, encouraged and raised Russian historical thought, Russian national consciousness, and did all this so quietly and silently that only now that he is no longer there, Europe has understood what he was to her."
