O'Meara , Patrick The Russian Nobility in the Age of Alexander I (review)

Abstract

SEER, 98, 2, APRIL 2020 376 new information about Merkel’s own life and work. A few letters appear in summary only, and the collection includes album entries by Merkel. This is a superb edition, beautifully produced and reflecting huge research, erudition and tenacious labour. The footnotes are replete with multifarious detail. The Afterword gives a judicious assessment of Merkel’s epistolary legacy, including the problems of categorizing letters written for and received by publicists and journal editors, and the difficult principles of selection. Volume two, due in 2021, will provide commentary, bibliography and comprehensive personal index. A very impressive scholarly achievement and a worthy anniversary offering for an undeservedly neglected personality. Cambridge Roger Bartlett O’Meara, Patrick. The Russian Nobility in the Age of Alexander I. Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York, 2019. xvi + 367 pp. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $120.00 Among the numerous books on Alexander I and those on Russian nobility, Patrick O’Meara’s study is the first attempt to situate Alexander I’s reign in the context of the political culture of the nobility. In this attempt, O’Meara enriches the discussion by using a variety of rarely used sources, among which hitherto unavailable documents and personal accounts from Nizhnii Novgorod archives, that shed a new and refreshing light on existing facts and assumptions, allowing a deeper insight in the mechanisms at work that define the relationship between Alexander’s reign and the nobility. After a general description of the position of the Russian nobility from the start of Alexander’s reign, the author’s analysis concentrates on five major topics: education, the nobles’ role in local government and administration, state reform, serf reform, and the role of the radical nobility. The picture emerging from O’Meara’s study is that in all of these aspects the relationship between the nobles and the tsar is characterized by confusion, division, ambivalences, ambiguities and a lack of mutual understanding. But, as the author shows, it is not just the relationship between nobles and tsar that complicates the picture. The nobility’s group consciousness was low, and instead of a coherent estate the Russian nobles formed a diverse collection of ranked and privileged individuals who pursued their own personal interests, rather than the desired linking pin between state and people the government could rely on. This, in combination with Alexander’s capriciousness and his power over any nobleman’s career, might indicate the fruitfulness of the cooperation between tsar and nobility. REVIEWS 377 The design of ambitious plans by the tsar and his ministers, followed by disappointment when the nobility turned out to be incapable or unwilling to execute the plans, is a recurring pattern in this cooperation. Attempts to implement a coherent educational system in the provinces with the aim to prepare young nobles for a career in (local) administration were frustrated by nobles who refused to see the benefits of a proper education. The often poor provincial nobles reckoned their sons would benefit more from a military career, where ranks and privileges were easier to obtain, whereas for their daughters home teaching would suffice. The provincial nobles exhibited a similar narrow perspective when it came to reforms in the realms of local or provincial government and serfdom. O’Meara also recognizes the successes. The Boarding School for Nobles at Moscow University and Tsarskoe Selo Lycée are presented as examples of a successful implementation of policy, and although many nobles were poorly educated, the author also pays attention to the fair amount of intelligent, welleducated and capable nobles. On the other hand the author describes how in the second period of Alexander’s reign the government herself undermined this policy. As across the entire study, O’Meara shows his expertise on the era in the description of the relationship between Alexander and the nobility during and after the Napoleonic wars, which forms a central part of the book. The victory over France offered opportunities to build up a constructive relationship. As O’Meara points out, however, these opportunities to gain the trust of the nobles were annihilated by at least two events that took place before and after the victory. The author identifies the...