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leges for the nobility. Western ideas continued to enter Russia. With the out-
break of the French Revolution in 1789, however, Catherine felt it necessary to
prevent new trends in Europe from affecting Russian life.
Catherine was succeeded by her son, Paul. The most important political devel-
opments at the close of the century took place in foreign policy. The most impor-
tant political developments at the close of the century took place in the area of
relations with Revolutionary France, where Napoleon Bonaparte had embarked
on a process of territorial expansion. Under the direction of Paul, Russia followed
an inconsistent course of action concerning France. Russia took the lead in form-
ing a European alliance against France, then deserted its allies and went over to
the French side. At home Paul's policies seemed just as erratic, and his attacks on
the nobility created powerful enemies and led to his overthrow and murder in
1801 in a palace revolution led by Counts Nikita Panin and Peter Pahlen.
Paul was succeeded by his son Alexander, whom Catherine had groomed as
her possible successor, educating him in the ideals of the French Enlightenment
that she held so dear. Two developments made Alexander I's reign a crucial one
in Russian history. First, success in defeating Napoleon in 1812 and leading the
westward advance against France made Russia the most powerful and respected
country on the continent. Only a century after Peter the Great had led Russia
into the European diplomatic community, Alexander brought Russia to its peak
of prestige and influence.
The other development saw Alexander as the first czar to address seriously
the twin problems of serfdom and autocracy. In the end, however, Alexander
made only minor changes in the system of serfdom. He feared noble opposition
and the social disruption that sweeping change would bring. Similarly, he stopped
short of political reforms that would infringe on his rights of autocrat. Yet the
issue of reform would not disappear, as attested by the Decembrist conspiracy
of 1825. Its participants are considered the first in a line of revolutionists who
drew their inspiration from the political systems of Western Europe.
Between 1825 and 1855 Russia was ruled by a committed conservative.
Nicholas I sought to preserve the existing order at home and in the rest of
Europe. Serfdom and autocracy remained untouched. Russia's political and mil-
itary influence played a vital role limiting the effect of the 1848 revolutions in
central Europe. Only with the calamity of the Crimean War did Russia's inter-
national prestige fall sharply. Within Russia, however, lively debates broke out
in the 1840s. Slavophiles and Westernizers sparred over the nature of Russia's
past and the proper course for its future.
Nicholas died in the midst of the Crimean War, and it was up to his son
Alexander II to extricate Russia from the war and address the problems that the
war had brought to the surface. The reign of Alexander II brought rapid and
intensive change to Russian life. Events moved in marked contrast to the immo-
bility during the era of Nicholas I. The czar himself took the lead in one sweep-
ing reform: the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Meanwhile, disappointment
over the limits of change led to the development of a widespread radical move-
ment calling for change from below. Populism, with its call for peasant revolu-
tion, became a permanent part of Russian political life.
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