By unsympathetic critics he
has been not inaptly described as "the Don Quixote of Autocracy," and
for thirty years he remained faithful to his principles; but toward the
close of his reign, in his struggle with England and France, he learned
by bitter experience that true national greatness is not to be found in
militarism. This salutary lesson was happily laid to heart by his son
and successor, Alexander II., and the more enlightened of his subjects.
The period of triumphant militarism was accordingly followed by a period
of national repentance, which was also a memorable epoch of beneficent
reforms and genuine progress.
No sooner was peace concluded in 1856 than premonitory symptoms of the
new order of things became apparent in St. Petersburg, in Moscow, and
throughout the country generally. To all who had eyes to see and ears to
hear, the war had proved that if their country was to compete
successfully with its rivals, it must adopt a whole series of
administrative and economic reforms; and there was a general desire that
those reforms should be undertaken as speedily as possible. The young
Czar took the lead in the work of national regeneration, and he had the
good fortune to find sympathy and co-operation among the educated
classes. For the first time in Russian history--for on previous
occasions the efforts of reforming Czars had always encountered a good
deal of passive resistance--the Government and the people were anxious
to aid each other, and the main results may be described as eminently
satisfactory.
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