Having observed the political lessons of the 18th
century (notably the French Revolution and its rather
unhealthy consequence for a particular monarch),
Alexander I recognized the need to overhaul his
country somehow. He was distracted however by
Napoleon who in 1812 sent an army of six hundred
thousand in Alexander's general direction, eventually
taking Moscow. That winter the Russians, under the
leadership of the brilliant Marshal Kutuzov, turned
the tide against the pesky little Corsican,
destroying most of the invading army and marching
victoriously into Paris. After the victory Alexander
went weird, becoming so wrapped up in what he saw as
his divine mission to preserve autocracy on the
planet that reforms became of little concern to him
and nothing major was accomplished. Still, the
economic and social problems Russia faced did not
disappear and many of the officers who saw Europe
during the war grew increasingly resentful at their
lack of say in how things were run in Russia.
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