Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace

by Alan Warwick Palmer

Book Overview

As Alan Palmer himself writes in his preface, 'Alexander 1, ruler of Russia for the first quarter of the nineteenth century, is remembered today mainly on three counts: as the Tsar who refused to make... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060132647
• ISBN13: 9780060132644
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 487 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

From my 1974 "hardcover edition" review

I'm not sure whether this softcover edition is a "revised" version or just a reprint of the 1974 hardcover -- so until someone comes forward with this information, I thought my "hardcover edition" review might be helpful. Author Alan W. Palmer could hardly have chosen a more interesting personality to write about than "Alexander the Blessed," as he was known among his people after having defeated Napoleon Bonaparte. Actually, Tsar Alexander I of Russia was second in world renown only to his infamous nemesis during this period of history. Alexander I ruled as Russia's Emperor from 1801-1825. Make no mistake about it, Alexander was an autocrat but not a very despotic one. He always asserted that he wanted to end serfdom but could never deal with the politics of this national shame. Both his life and his political career are well-documented here by Palmer and it seems to have transpired in two distinct phases: his reformer period and his [religiously] "mystical" period, the latter being a time when his people saw little of him publicly and when he seems to have recanted on initiating reform. Of course, Alexander's big achievement was to defeat Napoleon when the latter invaded the Russian homeland in 1812 and drove his massive army all the way to Moscow. We know the story: Napoleon rested for a few weeks there in a deserted and fire-scorched Moscow; Alexander (in St. Petersburg) refused all communication with him; Napoleon ultimately panicked, began to pursue the Russian Army to the southwest, then changed his mind and retreated to France, post-haste and leaving his troop caravans behind to fend for themselves during one of the worst Russian winters on record. Napoleon lost about a half-million men during the escapade. Alexander then pushed on to Paris and eventually saw Napoleon exiled to Elba. Napoleon escaped his island captivity a short time later and briefly ruled again but the Englishman, Wellington, ended that futile campaign and Bonaparte was again sent into isolation and exile. All these facts can be garnered from a good many books including Tolstoy's fictional War and Peace. But Palmer has done as good a job as anyone in keeping it all straight, sifting through Russian cultural proclivities, and presenting it to us in Anglicized form. The more remarkable tale about Alexander, though, is his supposed death. At the time when this book was first published, Palmer subscribed to the view that Alexander did, in fact, die in southern Russia (Taganrog) in 1825. Legends were generated from spotty hearsay at the time which subsequently reeked of little more than rumors that Alexander had faked his death and ultimately became the Russian mystic ("starets") Feodor Kuzmich, a hermitic monk who resided peacefully in Siberia until his death many years later. Since 1991 many closed books have opened in Russia (chiefly due to the fall of the Soviet Union) and credible cases have now been made that Tsar Alexander I did in actuality re-emerge in Siber