Nicholas I., emperor of Russia, was the third son of Paul I., and was born at St Petersburg, 7th July 1796. He was very carefully educated under the eye of his mother, a princess of Württemberg, and subsequently devoted his attention to military studies and political economy. He visited England and other European countries in 1816, and in the same year made a tour through the Russian provinces. On 13th July 1817 he married the eldest daughter of Frederick-William III. of Prussia—a union that long affected European politics—and lived in domestic retirement till the death of Alexander I. (December 1825), when, owing to the resignation of his elder brother Constantine, he succeeded to the throne of Russia. A long-prepared military conspiracy broke out immediately after his accession, which he suppressed with great vigour and cruelty. After a brief ebullition of reforming zeal, he reverted to the ancient policy of the czars—absolute despotism, supported by mere military power.
Soon after his accession a war with Persia commenced, but it was concluded by the peace of Turkmanchai (1828), which gave a considerable extent of territory to Russia. In the same year he entered upon a war with Turkey, in which victory, though at enormous cost, constantly attended his arms, and the peace of Adrianople obtained for Russia another increase of territory. The political movements of 1830, in the west of Europe, were followed by a national rising of the Poles, which was suppressed after a desolating contest of nine months, in which the utmost efforts of the whole military resources of Russia were required. Nicholas punished the rebellion by converting the kingdom of Poland into a mere Russian province, and strove to extinguish the Polish nationality. This policy, however, was viewed with great dissatisfaction throughout Europe, and the vanquished Poles were everywhere regarded with general sympathy. Russia, by Nicholas's mode of government, became more and more separated from the fellowship of the western nations. Intellectual activity was, as far as possible, restrained to things merely practical, education limited to preparation for the public service, the press was placed under the strictest censorship, and every means used to bring the whole mind of the nation under official guidance. His Panslavism (q.v.) also prompted him to Russianise all the inhabitants of the empire, and to convert Roman Catholics and Protestants to the Russian Greek Church, of which the czar is the head. War was waged against the mountaineers of the Caucasus with the greatest energy and perseverance, at the cost of immense sacrifices both of money and lives. The extension of British influence in central Asia was also viewed by him with alarm, and led to an unsuccessful expedition to Khiva. During the political storm of 1848–49 he abstained from interference until an opportunity was found in the request of the emperor of Austria for his assistance to quell the Hungarian insurrection. He succeeded at the same time in drawing closer the bonds of alliance between the Russian and Prussian monarchies. The re-establishment of the French empire still further tended to confirm these alliances, and led Nicholas to think that the time had at length come for carrying into effect the hereditary Russian scheme for the absorption of Turkey; but the unexpected opposition of Britain and France, and his own invincible repugnance to yield led to the Crimean War (q.v.). He died March 2, 1855. See Lacroix, Histoire de Nicolas I. (1864–73).—His great-grandson, Nicholas II., son of Alexander III., was born 18th May 1868, and succeeded his father in 1894. He married the Princess Alix of Hesse; and their coronation celebrations (marred by an accident that caused many deaths) took place in 1896. The chief event of his reign has been the entente with France.