Nicholas I 1796-1855
Emperor of Russia

The third son of Paul I, he married the daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia (1817) and became tsar on the death of his elder brother Alexander I in 1825. He suppressed the Decembrist Rebellion that year, which turned him against reform. He had a great sense of duty, but ruled by the ancient policy of the tsars - absolute despotism, supported by military power. Wars with Persia (now Iran) and Turkey gained Russia territory in Armenia and the Caucasus. He crushed a Polish rising (1830) and strove to extinguish the Polish nationality. He also attempted to Russianize all the inhabitants of the empire, and to convert Roman Catholics and Protestants to the Russian Orthodox Church. During the political storm of 1848-49 he assisted the Emperor of Austria in quelling the Hungarian insurrection, and tightened the alliance with Prussia. The re-establishment of the French Empire confirmed these alliances, but the opposition of Great Britain and France to his plans to dominate Turkey brought on the Crimean War, during which he died.

Bibliography: W Bruce Lincoln, Nicholas I (1978)