He was an extremely divided fellow, suddenly kind, suddenly cruel, suddenly cowardly, suddenly fierce, known as the "two-faced god"; he hated his grandmother and father, but in order to inherit the emperor's throne, he learned how to please his grandmother and father from an early age; someone wanted to kill his father, he knew about this conspiracy, but stood by, and when the news of his father's murder came, he cried half to death; he and his wife lived for many years, and he had more than n lovers outside, but he also played ambiguous with his own sister. He was defeated by Napoleon, the European overlord, but when Napoleon invaded his territory, he was severely wounded by him, and it was not long before he entered Napoleon's Paris as a victor; because of napoleon's defeat, he was regarded as the "savior" and "liberator" by all of Europe, and also engaged in a "holy alliance" to maintain the monarchy of all Europe, but the literati were annoyed with him, and his own poet Pushkin said that he was a "cowardly and cunning monarch", and the English poet Byron thought he was" Reactionary Demon King". This person is Alexander I, the fourteenth Tsar of the Russian Romanov Dynasty, because he has too many mysteries and too strange personality, so he is called "The Mysterious Tsar", and he is also known as the "Sphinx of the North" - Sphinx, which is the winged monster of the sphinx in Western mythology.
Alexander I
Alexander I was born at the Russian court on December 23, 1777, the eldest son of Archduke Paul Petrovich and Duchess Maria Fyodolovna, and his birth thrilled his grandmother so much that the old man decided to educate this precious grandchild himself. Alexander's grandmother is not an ordinary woman, in the history of Russia, only two tsars have been revered as "the great emperor", one is peter the great, the "father of the Russian Empire" who led the rise of Russia, and the other is this woman - Catherine II (the great), this empress is extremely intelligent, the means are invincible, she killed her husband and ascended the throne, a lifetime of affection, the desire for the opposite head and territory is endless, she plays with the beautiful men and the heads of the country, while aggressively invading and expanding, She has embezzled a large amount of land for Russia, and today's Russian territory is so large that she "owes an indispensable contribution." She once said something extremely frightening: "I can live to be 200 years old, and then the whole of Europe will be Russian!"
Catherine II in the film and television drama
Alexander's toys, books, and tutors as a child were personally chosen by his fierce imperial grandmother, but he did not like her in his heart, and was especially disgusted by her debauched private life. And he did not treat his father Paul very well, Paul was irritable, always jealous, moody, and had a long-standing feud with his mother Catherine II, always staying in the Prussian barracks to train soldiers. Alexander knew from an early age the bad relationship between his grandmother and father, and although he did not like them himself, he was a genius of acting, extremely good at observing colors, pretending to deceive, and seeing the wind and steering. When he was nine years old, he often wrote flattering letters to his grandmother, using words to express how much he loved his grandmother, and always made her happy; for his father, he also threw himself into his favor, often went to his father's military camp to participate in exercises, and told his father that many of his grandmother's practices were wrong. In this way, he successfully maneuvered between grandma and dad.
Alexander I at a young age
Alexander is not only like this to his relatives, in fact, he is also very "fake" to everyone, always happy and smiling, even if he wants to beat someone to death, he will praise this person's goodness on the surface. This character, he maintained for a lifetime. Even his greatest rival, Napoleon, later called him a "diplomatic genius," and his hypocritical smile and speech earned him two other nicknames: "Actor on the Throne" and "Two-Faced God in Russian History."
In 1796, Catherine the Great died, and the old lady had decided to make her precious grandson Alexander the heir, but Paul burned the holy oracle of the Empress Dowager and ascended the throne herself, that is, "Paul I". Alexander knew about it, but still pretended to be obedient to his father. Four years later, in 1800, when a group of nobles who had been offended by Paul I were preparing a coup d'état, Alexander, who knew the plan of action, pretended not to know and still pretended to be a good baby in front of his father. In March 1801, when the coup d'état conspirators broke into the palace and strangled Paul I, Alexander burst into tears and announced that his father had died of a stroke and that he would inherit the throne. This year, he was 24 years old.
Paul I
Don't look at Alexander was put on the Tsar's throne by the coup d'état, but he was so sophisticated, he didn't trust these guys at all, and when his power was secure, he immediately expelled them from the court and gathered a group of reform-minded elites to help him govern the country. From government institutions to educational issues, from the establishment of military tuns to serfdom, he "changed" a little, but Russia's conservative forces were too strong, and the Tsar himself had to maintain his autocratic rule, so he could not change anything famous. Didn't Pushkin, who sing the praises of freedom, be exiled by the government of Alexandria I?
Pushkin
Alexander I's greatest achievement was the defeat of Napoleon of France. But at the beginning, Russia's performance was indeed not bad, Napoleon's ambitions were very large, Alexander's ambitions were not small, and it was strange not to fight. Alexander triumphantly allied himself with Prussia, Austria, and England to go to war with France, but at the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805 (the famous "Battle of the Three Emperors"), he and the Austrian Emperor Franz II joined forces with Napoleon, but they were defeated and Alexander was directly scared away. Napoleon then captured Berlin, marched into Poland, and approached the Russian border. Alexander's Russian army was repeatedly defeated and could not be forced to make peace. In 1807, he and Napoleon held peace talks, and the two sides reached an agreement that no one should provoke anyone and would not interfere with each other's expansion. Alexander was satisfied, and soon he sent an army to invade Finland, formally annexing Finland in 1809. In terms of aggressive expansion, he was indeed very similar to his grandmother.
Alexander I met with Napoleon
The peace and friendship between France and Russia is only superficial, Napoleon's dream is the hegemony of Europe, and the behemoth of Russia always makes him think about it. On June 12, 1812, the god of war personally led an army of 600,000 to invade Russia, Alexander panicked, wrote a letter to ask for peace, but Napoleon's determination to annex Russia was determined, the French army advanced all the way, and entered Moscow in September (then the second capital of Russia, the first capital was St. Petersburg), but soon Napoleon was unlucky, the Russian winter came, the French army could not hold back, plus Alexander's famous general, the one-eyed Marshal Kutuzov with flexible tactics and Napoleon's life, Russia's guerrilla warfare was also widely unfolded. Eventually Napoleon withdrew from Russian land with the remnants of his army.
In December, Napoleon was in a difficult situation
Alexander was overjoyed, he felt that it was not enough to drive out Napoleon, and that this enemy must be completely destroyed to be satisfied, and Marshal Kutuzov thought that the Russian army had been tired for a long time and could no longer be tossed, and Alexander did not listen at all. In 1813, Alexander formed the Sixth Coalition with Britain, Prussia, Austria and other countries, and severely damaged the French army in the Battle of Leipzig. In 1814, when the Russian army marched into Paris, Alexander also rode a white horse to the former capital of Napoleon, and since then the tsar's popularity has soared throughout Europe, like a "liberator". After the war, he and the other victorious powers held a conference in Viana and formed the famous Holy League, which stipulated that if there was a revolutionary anti-monarch in any country, it would join forces to intervene in which country.
Alexander I accomplished his most glorious deeds, and in his later years he became depressed and unconcerned about politics, reading the Bible all day, begging for God, and often kneeling alone before the Holy Face to pray. On November 19, 1825, the mysterious Tsar died suddenly at the age of 49.
Russians entering Paris
There is another thing that makes people feel incredible about this mysterious tsar, and that is his "sister-in-love complex". Alexander and Empress Elisabeth Alexeievna had been separated for many years, and he had many lovers and illegitimate children outside, but his favorite woman was his beautiful sister, Princess Catherine, whose relationship seemed to go beyond ordinary brothers and sisters. They all lived in the court, but corresponded almost every day, please see some of the language in his letter to his sister —
"I love you like a madman, you're one of the most perfect things in the world."
"I like to kiss and squash your little nose."
"Unfortunately, I can't kiss you as tenderly in your bedroom as I used to."
……
What do you think? Scary enough?! Do you think this is the love of a brother to a sister? Even if Western society is open, it is not so exaggerated, right?! Moreover, when Napoleon proposed to the princess, Alexander was half angry and refused. Fearing that Napoleon would be pestering him again, he married his precious sister to the unscrupulous Duke of Germany, who soon fell ill and died, and the brothers and sisters began to be intimate again.
This is the life of this mysterious tsar, what did he think all day? What is the structure of his brain? It's so complicated, no one can tell! But his historical influence on Russia and Europe was enormous.
This article is written exclusively by Li Meng, like, remember to subscribe to this headline number.