Alexander I: The Tsar Who Defeated Napoleon (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) - Hardcover

Rey, Marie-Pierre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875804667 ISBN 13: 9780875804668

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Alexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand duke by Catherine the Great, he ascended to the throne in 1801 after the brutal assassination of his father. In this magisterial biography, Marie-Pierre Rey illuminates the complex forces that shaped Alexander's tumultuous reign and sheds brilliant new light on the handsome ruler known to his people as "the Sphinx."

Despite an early and ambitious commitment to sweeping political reforms, Alexander saw his liberal aspirations overwhelmed by civil unrest in his own country and by costly confrontations with Napoleon, which culminated in the French invasion of Russia and the burning of Moscow in 1812. Eventually, Alexander turned back Napoleon's forces and entered Paris a victor two years later, but by then he had already grown weary of military glory. As the years passed, the tsar who defeated Napoleon would become increasingly preoccupied with his own spiritual salvation, an obsession that led him to pursue a rapprochement between the Orthodox and Roman churches.

When in exile, Napoleon once remarked of his Russian rival: "He could go far. If I die here, he will be my true heir in Europe." It was not to be. Napoleon died on Saint Helena and Alexander succumbed to typhus four years later at the age of forty-eight. But in this richly nuanced portrait, Rey breathes new life into the tsar who stood at the center of the political chessboard of early nineteenth-century Europe, a key figure at the heart of diplomacy, war, and international intrigue during that region's most tumultuous years.

About this title

About the Author

Marie-Pierre Rey is professor of Russian and Soviet history at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne) and director of the Slavic Research Center. She has written De la Russie à l'Union Sovietique and Le Dilemme Russe. An American translator of twenty years standing, Susan Emanuel has specialized in sociology, history, cultural studies, international relations, religion, and biography.

Reviews

Napoleon is, of course, a familiar figure to even those only vaguely aware of the details of his career. Tsar Alexander I, the ruler most directly responsible for ending the supposed invincibility of Napoleon, receives little notice, especially on this side of the Atlantic. Rey, a professor of Russian and Soviet history at the Sorbonne, has written a detailed yet highly readable biography of a man whose character remains elusive and controversial. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine the Great, ascended the throne in 1801 after the brutal murder of his father by disgruntled nobles. Like his grandmother, he seemed influenced by Enlightenment ideas, proposed a series of liberal reforms, yet eventually became a staunch defender of autocracy. As a military leader, he could be mercurial, but he showed considerable steel in his spine in resisting Napoleon’s invasion. Rey probes but never resolves Alexander’s contradictory impulses, but this is a well-done biography that is appropriate for general readers interested in European history. --Jay Freeman

Edition details

• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0875804667
• ISBN 13: 9780875804668
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 504