Civilian and Political Life under
Tsar Nicholas I
(1826-1852)

   

 

 
A historical overview of the political and civilian events
that took place during the years 1826 to 1852
 

This section will focus on a history of significant social and political events that took place throughout the Russian Empire during the reactionary reign of Tsar Nicolas I.  Important achievements in literature, music, and science will also be noted in this section as this era was noteworthy for its thinkers who struggled against government censors.  The Russian Tsar of the period will also be profiled at a later time.  Dates are given in the modern Gregorian calendar, but old style Julian dates are sometimes given in parenthesis.

Political & Civil Events Historical Index
  

 
Statistics of the Russian Empire
1826-1852
 

Russian Leaders
(1826-1852)
1825-1855 Nicholas Romanov I

 

Timeline 1826-1852

 

1826
  23 February
(11 February)		 Russian Mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky develops non-Euclidian geometry (independently of Janos Bolyai).
  June Russia goes to war with Persia over territorial dispute in the Caucasus over Georgia, Armenia, and northern Azerbaijan.
  3 June
(22 May)		 Russian writer and historian Nikolay Karamzin dies at age 59 in St. Petersburg.
  3 July Tsar Nicolas adds two new departments to Imperial Chancery, the Second Department that was tasked with codifying Russian law and the Third Department that established a new national Gendarme force.
  6 December Tsar Nicholas forms the Committee of the 6th of December.  It was a secret committee to examine all state projects and papers of Tsar Alexander I and evaluate them.  It would ultimately fail to produce tangible results and was replaced by another committee in 1832.
1827
    Laws signed making Jews from 12-25 years old are subject to conscription.
1828
    Russian writer Nikolai Gogol moves to St. Petersburg where he befriends Alexander Pushkin.
  9 September
(28 August)		 Russian novelist Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is born.
    Tsar Nicolas adds a 4th Department to manage the Charitable and Educational estates under the Empress Mother Mary.
  April Russo-Turkish war begins.
  12 July Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is born.  He would later become a writer, leading socialist, and would be an influence on Vladimir Lenin.
  24 October General Mikhail Grigorievich Cherniaev is born.  He would lead the Russian conquest of Central Asia under Tsar Alexander II.
1829
   

Pyotr Chaadaev, a Russian philosopher writes 'Philosophical Letters' in French.  It was highly critical of Russia and could not be published in Russia because of government censorship.
1830
    Russian painter Karl Pavlovich Bryullov begins painting 'The Last Day of Pompeii'.  It was a painted on a huge canvas and was the first Russian painting to generate major interest abroad and was later donated to Nicolas I who placed it in the National Museum of Sciences for the instruction of young artists. 
    First metalled road is constructed from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
  20 November
(8 November)		 Russian tactician Mikhail Dragomirov was born.  He would later head the Nicholas Academy of the General Staff.
    Cholera outbreak in Moscow.
  August Cholera epidemic forces Alexander Pushkin to stay in Boldino for three months.  He would write Chapter 8 of 'Eugene Onegin' during this time.
    Mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky's work is first published in the 'Bulletin of the Kazan University'.
29 November Polish November Uprising begins when a group of conspirators in Warsaw led by Piotr Wysocki attacked the Belweder Palace.
  5 December Polish General Josef Chlopicki is named leader of the uprising.
1831
  25 January Polish rebels declare independence from Russia.
  29 January New Polish national government led by Adam Czartoryski is created.
  Summer Large cholera epidemic causes cantonists to revolt.  The revolt is brutally suppressed.
  8 September Russians under General Paskevich defeated 30,000 Poles under General Dembinski in the battle for Warsaw in the second Polish rising. Over 9,000 Poles died in the three-day battle.
  5 October Polish rebel army crosses into Prussia to surrender, ending the Polish November Uprising.
1832
  2 April Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov becomes Deputy Minister of Education and proposes his three principles of 'Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality'.
  12 September
(31 August)		 Alexandrine Theater in St. Petersburg is opened.
1833
    Russian law is codified and published for the first time by Michael Speransky.  The completed work comprises 45 volumes.
    Count Uvarov becomes Minister of Education.
  20 February A Russian naval squadron arrives at Constantinople to aide Turks against Egyptian Muhammad Ali.  Several weeks later 10,000 Russian troops would land on the Asian side of the Bosporus.
    First completed version of Alexander Pushkin's novel 'Eugene Onegin' is published in a mildly censored form.
    Briullov completes his painting 'The Last Day of Pompeii'.
  8 July Russia withdraws troops from Asiatic side of the Bosporus after the signing of the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi between Egypt and Turkey.
  15 October Convention of Berlin is signed by Austria, Prussia, and Russia.  The treaty was designed to protect the Old Order in Europe and divided the continent into separate areas of influence to maintain order over.
  12 November Alexander Borodin, major Russian composer of the 19th century, born. A noted chemist, he became famous for his opera "Prince Igor" which included the "Polovetsian Dances"
1834
    The University of St. Vladimir (later known as Kiev University) is founded.  In its first year it had only 62 students attending one of two departments: The Department of History and Philology and The Department of Physics and Mathematics.
  8 February
(27 January)		 Russian scientist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev is born in Tobolsk.  He would go on to co-develop the Periodic Table of Elements.
1835
    Alexandr Herzen, writer and thinker, is convicted of assisting in a festival where songs embarrassing the Tsar were sung and is exiled to Vyatka.
    Russian army engages in joint maneuvers with Prussian military in Kalish.
1836
    Nikolai Gogol's satirical play 'The Inspector General' is published.  It targeted the deep corruption in the Russian government.
    Tsar Nicolas adds 5th Department to the Imperial Chancery that is charged with reforming the condition of the state peasants.  It would last two years before being replaced by the new Ministry of State Domains.
  9 December Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka's opera 'Life for the Tsar' at the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg.  It would later be named 'Ivan Susanin' in Soviet times.
Russian periodical 'Telescope' prints part of Pyotr Chaadaev's 'Philosophical Letters'.  The editor was exiled to northern Russia and Chaadaev was declared insane.
1837
    Final edition of Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' is published with minor changes made by Pushkin, and several changes due to the Tsar's censorship were restored.
    Great fire occurs in the Winter Palace.
    D.A. Miliutin is appointed to Guards General Staff.  He would be a driving force in the reform of the Russian army after the Crimean war.
  8 February
(27 January)		 Alexander Pushkin challenges Georges D'Anthes to a dual amidst rumors of his wife having an affair with him.  Both men are wounded.
  10 February
(29 January)		 Writer Alexander Pushkin dies after being shot in a dual.
  23 February Count Mikhail Speransky dies in St. Petersburg at age 67.
    Kazakh resistance to Russian rule under Kenesary Kasimov begins.  It would last until 1838.
1838
    First Russian railroad is completed.  It linked St. Petersburg to the Tsar's residence at Tsarskoe Selo.
    Gubernskie vedomosti first published by order of the Tsar.
    Vissarion Belinsky, a literary critic of the Westernizing lobby, begins work on the 'Notes of the Fatherland'.  He would complete it in 1847.
1839
  21 March Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is born in Karevo.  He would go on to write the opera 'Boris Godunov'.
  (11 April) Russian reformer and statesman Count Mikhail Speransky dies.
  12 April Russian geographer and explorer Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky is born in Smolensk, Russia.
    D.A. Miliutin published an article on famous General Suvorov in 'Fatherland Notes' a leading periodical at the time.  The article underscored the need for modernization and reform.
  Winter Russia undertakes a punitive military expedition into Khiva (Turkistan) in retaliation for Turcoman raids into Russian territories.
1840
    Mikhail Lermontov, a Russian writer, publishes a revised version of 'Hero of Our Time' originally written in 1839.
  7 May
(25 April)		 Russian composer and opera writer Peter Tchaikovsky is born in Kamsko-Votkinsk.
    Alexander Herzen returns to Moscow where he would meet fellow writer Vissarion Belinsky.
1841
    Ban against the sale of peasants individually.
  27 July Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, Russian poet and romantic novelist, dies after a duel.
1842
  9 December Mikhail Glinka's second opera 'Ruslan and Ludmila' is first performed at the Bolshoi Theater.
    Russian writer Nikolai Gogol publishes 'Dead Souls'.  It was another famous satirical work that pointed out social problems and solutions for Russia.
1843
    Russia recalls its ambassador from Greece during Greek revolution, but does not intervene militarily.
    Tsar Nicolas establishes a 6th Department of the Imperial Chancery.  It was a temporary agency tasked with the administration of Caucasian regions.
1844
    Traditional Jewish communities in Courland and along the Baltic are dissolved.
  18 March
(6 March)		 Russian composer and classical music teacher Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov is born at Tikhvin.
  5 October
(23 September)		 Russian statesman, Chief Censor, and head of the Third Section Alexander von Benckendorff dies.
  21 November
(9 November)		 Writer Ivan Krylov dies in St. Petersburg at age 75.
1845
  10 March Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov is born.  He would become Tsar of Russia in 1881 until his assassination in 1894.
  16 May Russian biologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov is born in Ukraine, he would later be known for his pioneering research on the human immune system.
1846
    Corn Laws (protectionist tariffs) of England are abolished resulting in an increase of Russian grain exports.
  February Polish Krakow rebellion occurs, but is quickly suppressed.  The city is then claimed by the Austrian empire.
    Kazakh resistance to Russian rule under Kenesary Kasimov flares up again.  It would last until his death in 1847.
    Fyodor Doestoyevsky publishes 'Poor Folk' a book about the lives of poor people in Russia.  It received great reviews and he was hailed as the 'new Gogol'.
  30 May Peter Carl Faberge born in St. Petersburg he would later become a famous jeweler to the Tsars.
  24 August Admiral Ivan Fedorovich Krusenstern dies in Reval, Estonia.  He led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world and was director of the Russian Naval College.
1847
    Alexandr Herzen, pro-Western writer and thinker, leaves Russia forever.  He was later credited for creating the political climate that led to the emancipation of the serfs.  He is also known as the father of Russian socialism.
  5 January Russian scientist Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky is born in the village of Orekhovo in Vladimir Oblast.  He would later go on to be considered the founder of modern aero and hydrodynamics.
    Vissarion Belinsky, a writer and critic, publishes 'A Letter to Gogol' to respond Gogol's conservatism.
    Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin, electrical engineer and one of the inventors of the electric light bulb, is born in Stenshino.
  14 September
(2 September)		 Electrical engineer Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov is born.  He would go on to invent the first modern arc lamp without a regulator and a system of electric lighting using alternating current.
1848
    The Year of Revolutions
Revolutions occur in France, Prussia, and in parts of Austrian empire (Hungary and in Italian provinces).
    The Khanate of the Kazakh Great Horde is abolished by Russia.
  2 April A secret committee chaired by D.P. Buturlin begins censoring magazines and newspapers.
  15 May Russian artist Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov is born in Vyatka.  He would later go on to be a key figure in the revivalist movement in Russian art.
    Fyodor Doestoyevsky publishes 'The Double: A Petersburg Poem'.
  17 June Russian forces under General Paskevich move into Hungary to crush rebellion there.
  July Russian forces suppress revolution in Moldova and Walachia.
1849
    Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes 'Netochka Nezvanova'.
    F. I. Goremykin, a Russian army officer and a professor at the Nicolas Academy, publishes a book asking for military reforms.
    Fyodor Dostoevsky, a famous Russian writer, is arrested and imprisoned for being a member of the Petrashevsky Circle, a banned discussion group that studied Western philosophy and literature.
  16 November Fyodor Dostoevsky is found guilty of subversion and sentenced to death.  The sentence is later reduced to forced labor in Siberia.
   Summer Russian troops under General Paskevich invade Hungary at the request of the Austrian government to assist in crushing Hungarian revolutionaries.
  14 September Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, was born. Famous for his Nobel Prize-winning behavioral studies on dogs in the 1890s.
1850
  29 November Wearing traditional Jewish dress is forbidden in Courland and parts of Western Russia.
    Dispute in the Holy Land between Catholic and Orthodox groups over stewardship over Christian holy sites.
1851
     Members of the gentry in Western regions (Courland and the Baltic provinces) are required to perform compulsory state service.
    11 April Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev dies.  He had been commander of the Black Sea Fleet, had led an expedition to Antarctica, and had led a Russian expedition around the world.
  13 November St. Petersburg-Moscow railway opened
1852
    Ivan Turgenev, a Russian novelist and playwright of pro-Western leanings, publishes  'A Sportsman's Sketches'.  It is a novel about the terrible conditions of the serfs in Russia.  It would later be read by Tsar Alexander II.
  4 March Famous Russian writer Nikolai Gogol dies.
    Novelist Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy writes the first of his three autobiographical novels 'Childhood'.  The story tells of a rich landowners son who discovers how he is different from his peasant friends.
    Ivan Turgenev writes an obituary for Nikolai Gogol.  It was not approved by the censors in St. Petersburg but was published in Moscow.  He was then sentenced to a month in prison and exile for two years.

  

 

Statistics of the Russian Empire
(1826-1852)

 
Russian Empire Land Area (1855): 7.8 million square miles
National Population (1825): 43,000,000 people
Barge Haulers on Volga & Oka (1851): 150,000 people
Population of Cantons (1844): 224,000 people
 

Selected Items from
1826 - 1852

Earlier Political Events

Back to
'Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Nationality'

Later Political Events