Marie-Pierre Rey is professor of Russian and Soviet history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and director of the Center for Research in the History of the Slavs.
The reign of Nicholas I began in December 1825 and ended in March 1855, when the Crimean War turned catastrophic for the Russian Empire.
Between these two dates passed thirty entire years placed under the seal of a regime hostile to the slightest political concession, brutal and police, which earned the sovereign the nickname of “Nicolas la Cudgel”.
Fervent defender of a national ideology closed to foreign influences, Nicolas I was nonetheless extremely active on the external scene;
fighting against the liberal ferment on European soil, expansionist at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and Persia, "the policeman of Europe" won major successes before coming up against the combined hostility of the Western powers facing him .
Nevertheless,
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