19a: Pax Russica

Peter the Great's visions and dreams were realized in the second half of the 18th century, largely through the greatest of his successors, who was born 4 years after his death - the daughter of two impoverished German nobles. The tale of how the former Princess Sophie became Empress Catherine II is a like a soap opera, except for being the truth. Under her reign (1762-1796) Russia became respected for diplomatic smarts as well as military might; the Empire expanded its boundaries to the east, west, and south. Catherine the Great would be Russia's last Empress, thanks to her son and successor Paul (1796-1801). A very contrary character - it can't have been easy being Catherine's son - his decree that only males could succeed to the throne was only one of the steps he took to undo his mother's legacy. He was deposed and murdered with the likely connivance of his son Alexander I (1801-1825) who was torn all his life between his grandmother's liberalism and his father's conservatism. In the course of his stunning victory over Napoleon, Alexander I settled into a very conservative outlook, while the young noblemen who had literally seen Paris and experienced French freedoms moved in the other direction. The Decembrist revolution, which broke out between Alexander I's death and the accession of his brother Nicholas I (1825-1855) was just one result. Conservative by nature, the circumstances of his coming to power made him downright reactionary. During his reign Russia became Europe's greatest power, hence the term "Pax Russica" -  and its effective policeman, hence the term "Gendarme of Europe."

In segment 19b: Catherine the Great we try to hit the high points of the reign of that enlightened despot, Catherine the Great. Unfairly disrespected as a dilettante and a nymphomaniac (she was neither of the above), she in fact completed educated Russia's turn to the West and secured its southern boundaries through a successful campaign against the Turks. Nor was her diplomacy any less adroit. In three successive partitions of Poland, she managed to split up and ultimately remove Russia's traditional enemy from the map of Europe. While her reforms were more flashy than substantive, she at least set a good example for her successors through her intellectual curiosity and willingness to examine seriously the problems confronting Russia.

In segment 19c: Alexander and Napoleon we encounter the reigns of Catherine's despised son Paul I (1796-1801) and beloved grandson Alexander I (1801-1825). Partly out of hatred for his mother and partly out of his own contrary character, Paul strove to undo just about every meaningful change his mother had enacted. Faced with the reality of rule by an unenlightened despot, the nobility killed Paul and raised Alexander to the throne. Alexander ruled at first in the liberal tradition Catherine had hoped for, granting some serfs their freedom and allowing Finland and Poland considerable autonomy after conquering them. However, his bouts with Napoleon and the pressure placed on his views by young nobles who had experienced Western European life at first hands rendered him conservative at first, and then downright repressive.

Segment 19d: The Gendarme of Europe will show us the way toward understanding Nicholas I (1825-1855), third son of Tsar Paul. He would have been just as happy to remain an officer in the Russian Army, and approached the rule of his country accordingly. The circumstances of the Decembrist Revolt which occurred along with his rise to power in 1825 turned him into a radical autocrat. He applied his passion for military order to Russian internal government and foreign policy alike under the guise of "Official Nationality." Yet the cat was out of the bag: the forces unleashed by Russia's westernization and status as a world power could not be suppressed by an act of will, no matter how strong that will might be. Couple that internal tension with Europe's growing fear of a Pax Russica and you are flirting with disaster.