page_title: Russian interregnum of 1825
section_title: Death of Alexander
hierarchical_section_title: Russian interregnum of 1825 / Death of Alexander
caption_attribution_description: English: The death of Alexander I of Russia in Taganrog
context_page_description: The Russian interregnum of 1825 began December 1 [O.S. November 19] with the death of Alexander I in Taganrog and lasted until the accession of Nicholas I and the suppression of the Decembrist revolt on December 26 [O.S. December 14]. In 1823 Alexander secretly removed his brother Constantine from the order of succession, after Constantine informed Alexander he had no intention of ruling the Empire, and appointed Nicholas heir presumptive. This unprecedented secrecy backfired with a dynastic crisis that placed the whole House of Romanov at peril. Only three men, apart from Alexander himself, were fully aware of his decision, and none of them was present in the Winter Palace when the news of Alexander's death reached Saint Petersburg on December 9 [O.S. November 27] 1825.
  Military governor Mikhail Miloradovich persuaded hesitant Nicholas to pledge allegiance to Constantine, who then lived in Warsaw as the viceroy of Poland. The State Council, faced with a legal Gordian Knot, concurred with Miloradovich; the civil government and the troops stationed in Saint Petersburg recognized Constantine as their sovereign – a sovereign who did not intend to reign.
context_section_description: On September 13 [O.S. September 1], 1825 Alexander left Saint Petersburg to accompany the ailing Empress Elizabeth to spa treatment in Taganrog, then a "rather agreeable town" on the coast of the Sea of Azov. Golitsyn pleaded with Alexander to publish the secret manifesto of 1823 but the emperor refused: "Let us rely on God. He will know how to order things better than us mortals." The statesmen who accompanied Alexander – Pyotr Volkonsky, Hans Karl von Diebitsch and Alexander Chernyshyov – were not aware of the manifesto.
  Alexander and Elizabeth traveled to the south separately; he reached Taganrog September 25 [O.S. September 13], she ten days later. Their relations had considerably improved since the death of Alexander's illegitimate daughter Sophie Naryshkina in June 1824. The reunion in Taganrog, according to Volkonsky, became the couple's second honeymoon (Wortman noted that this and similar sentimental opinions, influenced by Nicholas's propaganda, should not be taken literally).
  After a stay with Elizabeth, Alexander left Taganrog on a tour of Crimea that was cut short by a bout of "bilious remittent fever" that struck Alexander on November 9 [O.S. October 27] in Alupka. Return to Taganrog brought no improvement; on November 10 Alexander lost consciousness for the first time. He "strenuously refused all medical assistance" of his Scottish physician James Wylie. Diebitsch reported the state of Alexander's health to Constantine in Warsaw. The disease consumed Alexander and on November 29 [O.S. November 17] it seemed that he was in terminal agony. Only then did Diebitsch and Volkonsky notify the court in Saint Petersburg of the inevitable.
  Alexander struggled for two more days and died at 10:50 on December 1 [O.S. November 19]. At the moment of Alexander's demise, Constantine and Michael stayed in Warsaw, Nicholas and Empress Maria in Saint Petersburg. Of the three men entrusted with full knowledge of Alexander's manifest, only Golitsyn was present in Saint Petersburg.
  Diebitsch promptly dispatched a courier to His Majesty Emperor Constantine in Warsaw; a second courier left for Saint Petersburg with a letter for Empress Maria. The courier to Warsaw, owing to shorter distance and better roads, arrived at Constantine's palace two days ahead of the courier sent to Saint Petersburg. Constantine and Michael received the news in the evening of December 7 [O.S. November 25]. Constantine immediately assembled his court and publicly renounced any claims to the throne. He spent all night drafting the responses to Diebitsch and to His Majesty Emperor Nicholas and Empress Maria in Saint Petersburg. The messenger, Grand Duke Michael, left Warsaw after dinner on December 8 [O.S. November 26].
caption: Death of Alexander at the Alexander I Palace in Taganrog, December 1 [O.S. November 19] 1825
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