Russia: From the Vikings to the last tsar
A beginner's guide
Paul I to Alexander III
Paul of Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_I_of_Russia
Wikipedia article that is surprisingly thorough, giving not only a biography
of Catherine the Great's son and heir, but also an account of the academic reassessment
of Paul's life and reign, which began in the 1970s.
Monarch idealist: Emperor Paul I of Russia
www.roca.org/OA/51/51f.htm
Another reassessment of Paul, this time from a religious point of view, on
the Orthodox America website.
Alexander I of Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Russia
Extensive biographical article on the Russian tsar, in the Wikipedia.
Russia: War and peace, 1796-1825
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/
cstdy:@field(DOCID+ru0022)
A summary of the years following the death of Catherine the Great, including
Alexander I's foreign policies and Nicholas I's autocratic rule. From the Library
of Congress Country Studies.
The virtual battle of Borodino
www.hamilton.edu/academics/Russian/warandpeace/vb/
Experience the battle between Napoleon and Alexander I's imperial forces in
1812 through video clips, music, extracts from Tolstoy's War and Peace,
historical text and maps on this website from Hamilton College in New York
state.
Nicholas the Cop
http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/russia/
lectures/18nicholas.html
Lecture (partially obscured by a bear imprinted background) by Professor Gerhard
Rempel of Western New England College on the autocratic rule and ideology of
Nicholas I.
‘Love tyrannises all the ages’: The Decembrists of Siberia
www.nomadom.net/russia/decembrists.htm
Article that casts a romantic veil over the history of the army officers who revolted against the government in 1825.
Decembrists in Irkutsk
www.icc.ru/fed/dec.html
The fate of those soldiers and their families who had opposed Nicholas I but
had escaped execution, suffering instead exile in Siberia.
Crimean War Research Society
www.crimeanwar.org/cwrsentry.html
Military-oriented site where you can find Crimean War FAQs, an overview, chronology
and transcribed primary resources.
Alexander II and his times
www.emich.edu/public/history/moss/index.htm
'A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky
(with links to hundreds of images and other materials)' – a very full
(if print-based) website created by Professor Walter Moss of Eastern Michigan
University.
Alexander II
www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/russia/
Alex_II/default.htm
A number of short articles on the tsar, plus a glossary and a quiz.
Sophia Perovskaya
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSperovskaya.htm
Concise article about Perovskaya, leader of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will)
terrorist group, with plenty of links to other aspects of this precursor of
the Bolsheviks.
The triumph and defeat of Narodnaya Volya
www.workersliberty.org/node/1881
Rather opaque article on the terrorist organisation responsible for the assassination
of Alexander II, on the Workers' Liberty website.
Alexander III of Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_III_of_Russia
Excellent Wikipedia biography that emphasises the split between father (Alexander
II) and son vis à vis foreign and national policy.
Alexander III
www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/alexbio.html
Short biography of the despotic and anti-Semitic tsar who is regarded as Russia's
last true autocrat.
