"CONSTITUTIONALISM" 89much to Rosenkampfs surprise and against his will and better
judgment. A similar offer made to Freiherr vom Stein was rejected by
the Prussian statesman; in 1809 came Speransky's plan. 1 This interest
iIi constitutions did not disappear during the so-called "reactionary"
period of Alexander's reign, i.e. after 1812 and the Congress of Vienna.
At the opening of the Polish Sejm in. 1818, the Emperor expressed his
hope that he still would be able to give a constitution to his Russian
lands too. And after General Balashov's experiment with a reform of
the regional administration (1816) came the project of a Charter
written by Novosiltsev (1820).2 To the very end of his life, Alexander
kept thinking about constitutional reforms and projects, as witness
his words to Karamzin on the eve of his departure to Taganrog in
August 1825.^3 This consistent interest which verges on obsession goes
a long way to disprove the opinion held by some historians that his
constitutionalism was only a youthful infatuation, a romantic pipedream which evaporated soon after his accession. It further provides
evidence that, contrary to the belief held by many in the 1820's, the
Emperor had not turned away from his earlier intentions of reform
under the influence of mysticism, the reactionary counsels of Metter-
nich, or the brutal militarism of Arakcheev.
Was then Alexander's persistent toying with constitutional changes
a hypocritical sham? Or perhaps was it only due to his meek yielding
to the pressures of public opinion and the stronger wills of his advisers?
Historians have now discredited the legend, which originated in his
own lifetime, that Alexander was a weak person, easily influenced by
his entourage. As a matter of fact, modern research and the publication
of new documents at the beginning of this century, have clearly shown
that some of the policies which had been attributed to outside influences.
as for example, Arakcheev, Madame de Kruedener, Metternich, Queen
Louise of Prussia, had been Alexander's own. More often than not, the
Emperor pursued their implementation in the teeth of the most
stubborn resistance and opposition of his family, ministers, and even1 For instance, in 1811 Alexander I declared to Count Armfelt (the Swedish-
Finnish leader who had entered Russian service): "Je vous jure que ces formes
(constitutionnelles) me plaisent bien davantage que eet exercice d'un libre arbitre,
qui n'a pour base que ma volonte, et qui admet un principe de perfection chez Ie
souverain qui n'est pas,· helas, dans l'humanite. Ici je ne peux me tromper que
parceque je Ie veux bien; toutes les lumieres me sont offertes; la je ne suis entanr!
que d'incertitude et presque toujours d'habitudes qui ont supplee aux lois" (italics
mine, MR), Shil'der, Imperator Aleksandr Pervyi, vol. III, p. 8.
2 See G. Vernadsky, La charte constitutionnelle de l'Empire russe de l'an 1820.
3 The conversation took place on August 28, 1825. Schiemann, Geschichte
Russlands unter Kaiser Nikolaus I, vol. I, p. 498, also Shil'der, lmperator Aleksander
Pervyi, vol. IV, p. 352.