The accession of Nicholas i. Transl

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Preface

" If I am Emperor rfnly for one hour, I will '* show myself worthy of being so."

So spoke * the never-to-be-forgotten Emperor Nicholas I., on the morning of the 14th of December, 1825, to the assembled commanding officers of the regiments of the Guard.

And nobly did he fulfil this first Imperial sentence that passed hia lips ! Puring thirty years, amid Hike blessftigs of the world an^ the thunders of war,Jn justice and legislation, in the ' work of the internal reform and external aggrapdisement of his Russia, everywhere and on every occasion, did the Emperor Nicholas I. watch over her honour and her glory, the father and the first and most devoted son — of his country.

" I die " — wrote he in that touching document, his last will — " filled with ardent love " for our glorious Russia, which I have served " with all my soul, wil!h faith, with sincerity ; " I regret that I have not been able to do all

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" the good which I so sincerely desired." Man cannot do everything ; but Nicholas performed all that was possible for one man.

But never, perhaps, were two of the great qualities of the departed sovereign — courage and presence of mind — destined to exhibit themselves more brightly and more intensely, than in the first moments of his*rei^. In conformity with the truly filial idea of his august Heirapparent, a detailed account of the events of the 14th of December, and of the occurrences which preceded that day, was drawn up as early as the year 1848. After perusing the narrative, and having, by repeated corrections in his own handwriting, given it his last approval, the late Emperor of glorious memory decidedly refused to permit the publication of this narrative, ^ch had been the march and connection of events and the personal actions of the young Monarch, that the mere simple, strict, and naked truth must have in this case appeared to assume the mask of flattery ; and true greatness is ever accompanied by modesty.

The following narrative was twice printed, but on each occasion only to the extent of twenty-five copies, solely for the members of the Imperial House, and a few confidential friends, and was strictly preserved as a family secaret.

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At present, when Russia and Europe have been made acquainted with all the details of the last day of the life of this great man, His Majesty the present Emperor has deigned to think fit, for the eternal memory of his illustrious parent, also to make public the narrative of the Jirst day of his Imperial career. The Emperor Nicholas stands in no need of laudatory exclamations; but history requires truth and virtuous examples. This thought will reconcile the illustrious departed to the violation of a secret which his modesty had always kept from the world !

To the present edition, now accessible for the first time to the public at large, are added the prefaces placed at the head of thq . two • former editions, for the purpose of indicating the sources of our narrative and the history oi its composition. It is, moreover, completed by the insertion of several private letters written by august members of the Imperial House, which were not made use of in the first two impressions of the work, of two or three anecdotes taken from the papers of the late General- Aide-de-Camp Count A. C. Benkendorfi*, and by several other details.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST IMPRESSION

The memorable occurrences which signalised the period of time between the announcement of the decease of the Emperor Alexander I., of happy memory, and the evening following the 14th of December, 1825, have never yet been folly and satisfactorily described. Foreigners, in speaking of Russia, are very frequently liable to mistakes even when they vnsh to be just, and Bussian writers are limited by the conditions of a censorship which is an unavoidable, but at the same time a beneficent portion of our national institutions. Moreover, in the case of political events, private individuals know, for the most part, only the external side, only the symptoms or visible surface of objects, what may be said to be presented to their own point of view alone ; while in afiairs of this nature the real interest is often concentrated on the secret causes of such occurrences and on the combination of all the facts into one common bond. Lastly, there

Preface To The Fibst Impression. 7

are details which, buried in unpublished State-papers or preserved in the personal recollections of the actors in these events, remain inacces^ sible to the mass of the public. From the above causes all the descriptions hitherto given to the world of the period in question either abound with errors, omissions, nay, sometimes even with intentional suppressions, or they repeat facta known to everybody, but with more or less ornaments of style and fancy. Thus, for example, the best of the foreign narratives, viz. that inserted by the celebrated Schnitzler in his work, * Histoire intime de la Russie sous les Empereurs Alexandre et Nicolas, Paris, 1847,' contains, together with some truths, a considerable number of errors, and is in reality nothing else but an extended, though not however always exact, extract from the documents printed in 1826, in different languages, entitled, * Report of the Criminal Commission,' which the author clothed in the form of his own narrative, and completed with -a few anecdotes. On the other hand, in the best, or rather almost the only Russian work* in which this subject is spoken of in more than merely general terms, only ten small

• Historical Sketch of the Reign of His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas Pkvlovitch. By N. Ustrikloff. St. Petersburg, 1847.

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pages are devoted to these events — a space corresponding perhaps to the general extent of the work, but too limited to satisfy curiosity, or rather a feeling which here deserves a more dignified appellation — the desire for historic truth.

In the mean time contemporaries are growing old and dying, traditions are disappearing, the very eye-witnesses find their memory of the past growing dimmer and dimmer, while the truth, itself to a certain degree disfigured in verbal recitals, is gradually becoming mixed with inventions and embellishments, which so easily cling to every great event that has much occupied men's attention.

To re-establish the facts in their purity, and at the same time to fill up, for the future historian of Russia, a blank which posterity would not pardon us for leaving. His Imperial Highness the Heir Apparent Cesar^vitch and Grand Duke Alexander Nicholkevitch was pleased, with His Majesty's permission, to entrust to the Secretary of State, Baron M. Korff, the compodtion, founded upon the most authentic data, of a description, as complete and detailed as possible, of the occurrences in question. This work is now terminated. It does not pretend to be a history, which is an undertaking only for posterity, but a faithful chronicle, the compilation of which

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PBEFAGE TO THE FIRST DiPBESSION. 9

was a duty imposed upon the conscience of contemporaries. A chronicle ought to relate events, and how they occurred: it is the province of history to appreciate them and to pronounce upon them a definitive judgment.

The materials for the present work have been furnished by the following sources : —

1. A detailed memoir, written in his own hand, drawn up by His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas Pavlovitch, for the Imperial family,

2. The recollections of His Highness the Grand Duke Michael Pkvlovitch, reduced to writing under his own immediate direction.

3. The narratives of the late Prince A. N. G^litzin and Count M. M. Sperknskii, taken down from their own lips during their lifetime.

4. The narratives, and in some cases the written memoranda, of living eye-witnesses and actors in the events of the 14th December: General- Aides-de-Camp Count Orloff, Count Levash6ff, Count Adlerberg, Per6vskii, Kav^lin, and Phil<Js6phoflF, and General Rost6vtsoff.

6. The narratives of several other credible eye-witnesses and the reminiscences of the compiler of the present notice.

6. Papers left i)y the late Prince V. P. Kotchub^i.

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. 7 4 The original acts of the Council of the Empire.

8. The acts of the Commission of Inquiry and Supreme Criminal Tribunal.

9. The Official Narrative of the 15th and 29th December, 1825.

10. The Complete Collection of the Laws. The description compiled upon the above data

was in all its details verified by His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael Pavlovitch, and by the greater part of the persons whose narratives were inserted in it, and ultimately corrected according to the personal instructions of His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas Pavlovitch.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND IMPRESSION

In the autumn of 1848 Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Olga Nicholkevna visited Russia. A short time previously the compilation of the present narrative had been terminated. The Grand Duchess, hearing of it in the Imperial family, expressed a desire to be furnished by the compiler with a copy for herself. He replied, that the only one in existence was in the possession of His Highness the Heir Apparent Oesar^vitch, and that the rough copies had been destroyed. The Grand Duchess then remarked, that, as manuscripts were liable to be easily destroyed, and still more easily to be filled, in the process of transcription by hand^ with errors sometimes disfiguring the true meaning, it would be better to print the narrative, at least for the Members of the Imperial family, and for a few other confidential persons. The idea of the Grand Duchess was communicated to His Imperial Highness the

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Grand Duke Heir Apparent, and, upon liis report. His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas Pavlovitch was pleased to give orders for twenty-five copies of the work to be printed, which was performed by the 14th of December, 1848.

In the course of time, partly from persons who had been honoured with the privilege of receiving copies of this little work, partly from his own researches and investigations, the compiler succeeded in collecting various fresh facts and data respecting the occurrences which he had described. Many of these new details turned out to be of no insignificant importance, and capable, moreover, of still further contributing to the attainment of the object he proposed, viz. that of leaving to posterity an account, as full and exact as possible, of events so important in the annals of his country. Out of the number of these materials, some which were collected during the life of His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael Pavlovitch of happy memory were laid before His Highness, in order to their being verified by his personal recollections ; the whole was then presented to His Imperial Highness the Heir Apparent Cesar^vitch, to whose suggestion the present work owes its existence, and lastly to His Majesty the Emperor. On each of them His Majesty was

Preface To The Second Impression. 13

pleased to make autograph annotations, and in this manner they received the fullest amount of authentication. Besides this, among the papers of General -Field -Marshal Prince Volk6nskii, many remarkable documents referring to this epoch were found after his decease in 1852, and among the rest various letters written by the Cesar^vitch Constantine Pavloviteh of happy memory, and by the Prince himself. It was then determined to proceed to a new impression of the work. With this object the materials recently coUecjted were distributed in their proper places, and in conformity with this re-arraugement the whole work was corrected, and in many parts completely recast. His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas Pkvlovitch deigned once more to peruse this final compilation in its complete state, and again corrected it in various passages.

The chief new materials, by which the former impression is now completed and perfected, are extracted from the following sources : —

1. An autograph contemporary memoir by Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Fe6dorovna.

2. The papers of His Imperial Highness the Cesar^vitch Constantine Pkvlovitch and of General-Field-Marshal Prince Volk6nskii.

3. The verbal and partly written communica-

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tions of the following persons : the Mitropolitan of Moscow, Philar^t; President of the Council of the Empire Prince Czemicheff; General- Aides-de- Camp Sukhozan^t, Islfenieff, Guerrois and Ignktieff; Lieutenant-General Sass, General of Infantry Golovin, Coininandant of St. Petersburg Baron Saltz, second Commandant of St. Petersburg Gretch, Hypodikkon Prokh6r Ivknoff, and other persons.

4. The memoirs left by the late General- A idesde-Camp Count Toll and Count Komar6vskii.

5. The documents preserved in the Archives of the Council of the Empire.

6. The documents preserved in the Staflf of the Guard.

7. The contemporary journals kept by the Kammer-Fourrier.

Some materials supplemental to their preceding communications, furnished by General- Aide»-de-Camp Count Orl6ff, Count Adlerberg, Philos6phoff, and Rost6vtsoif.

This second impression was also limited to fwenty-five printed copies.