by Morley Evans
This is the coronation of Alexander III.
Coronation of Alexander III and Empress Maria Federovna |
This painting (it is not a photograph) of the coronation of Alexander III of Russia in 1845 illustrates the Russian State. If one compares this to the coronation of Elizabeth II, in 1953, one sees the same elements of social control: the sovereign; the aristocracy; the church; the military.
The immediate line of succession goes from Alexander I (1801-1825); Nicholas I (1825-1855); Alexander II ( 1855-1881); Alexander III (1881-1894); Nicholas II (1894-1917).
Social reforms in the Russia Empire began with Alexander II who freed the serfs in 1861 and introduced many other important reforms. Napoleon was defeated by Alexander I in 1812. Russia brought peace to Europe. The Russian army paraded in Paris. Napoleon was exiled to Elba. This triumph would be repeated by Joseph Stalin in 1945 when Hitler attempted to better Napoleon.
Note: The Russian campaign was a complete disaster. Napoleon invaded Russia with over 500,000 men. More than ninety percent were lost. Le Grande Armée was destroyed.
Alexander III died of nephritis in 1894 when he was 49 years old. He was succeeded by the Tsarevitch Nicholas II who was 26.
The Great War ended the Romanov line and destroyed the Russian Empire that became the Soviet Union.
German Field Marshal Erich Ludendorff eliminated the Russian front by sending Vladimir Lenin to St. Petersburg during the Great War on the "sealed train". Lenin organized a coup d'état seizing power from the Mensheviks who had been trying to set up a system similar to British parliamentary democracy, retaining the tzar and the social structure while reforming it.
Like the French revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks abolished the power structure. They made peace with Germany on unfavourable terms; executed (in secret) the tzar and his family; destroyed and replaced the aristocracy; abolished religion and persecuted the Orthodox Church; replaced the market with a Marxian bureaucracy. A pervasive terror was launched by Felix Dzerzhinsky that lasted into the Stalinist era.
NOTE: Stalin was to the Russian Revolution what Napoleon was to the French Revolution. Napoleon's only ally was the United States.
Social order is necessary. Human societies create institutions because they need them. Social structures cannot be thrown away without consequences. Fear and terrorism are poor substitues for willing consent. War is useful. A common enemy welds people together. That is why "War is the Health of the State."
Stalin's purges consolidated his power by eliminating his Bolshevik rivals, especially Trotsky. "Iron Felix" and the Lubyanka remained. A Soviet joke asks, "Why is the Lubiyanka the tallest building in Moscow?" The answer is, "Because you can see Siberia from the basement." Siberia isn't the only thing one could see there. The basement contained the torture chambers.
Better times have returned to Russia and its people. People are unaware that the Russian Revolution, the French Revolution, and all the liberalizing revolutions were predated by the American Revolution which contains the essential elements and dowfall of all the rest.
Americans, you are not different.
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