General Notes

Nicholas I (1796-1855), emperor of Russia (1825-55), third son of Emperor Paul
I, born in Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin). On the death of his eldest brother,
Emperor Alexander I, Nicholas came to the throne after suppressing the
Decembrist revolt, staged by reform-minded army officers who favored the
accession of his brother Constantine. His domestic policy was autocratic and
his foreign policy aggressive. He introduced military discipline into the
civil service, tried to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas by rigid
censorship and strict state control of universities, and sought to promote the
Russian language and religion among his non-Russian subjects. He waged war
successfully against Iran (1826-28) and Turkey (1828-29). During 1830-31
Nicholas crushed Polish revolts against Russian authority and abolished the
Polish constitution. In 1849 he aided Austria in the suppression of uprisings
in Hungary. His schemes to add more Turkish territory to his domain alarmed
the Western European powers and led to the Russian defeat in the Crimean War.