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Constantine Pavlovich Romanov () (27 April, 1779–27 June, 1831), grand duke and tsesarevich of Russia, was prepared by his grandmother, Catherine the Great, to become an emperor of a would-be restored Byzantine Empire. Although he was never crowned, he is sometimes listed among the Russian emperors as Constantine I. He was mainly known for his abdication from the throne in 1825, which led to the Decembrist rebellion later that year. In his capacity of the first Viceroy of the Congress Kingdom of Poland, he is remembered as a ruthless ruler.*
Early life Constantine was born at Tsarskoye Selo on 27 April 1779. Of the sons born to the tsar Paul Petrovich and his wife Maria Feodorovna, the princess of Württemberg, none more closely resembled his father in bodily and mental characteristics than did the second, Constantine Pavlovich. The direction of the boy's upbringing was entirely in the hands of his grandmother, the empress Catherine II. As in the case of her eldest grandson (afterwards the emperor Alexander I), she regulated every detail of his physical and mental education; but in accordance with her usual custom she left the carrying out of her views to the men who were in her confidence. Count Nicolai Ivanovich Saltykov was supposed to be the actual tutor, but he too in his turn transferred the burden to another, only interfering personally on quite exceptional occasions, and exercised no influence upon the character of the passionate, restless and headstrong boy. The only person who exerted a responsible influence was Cesar La Harpe, who was tutor-in-chief from 1783 to May 1795 and educated both the empress's grandsons. Like Alexander, Constantine was married by Catherine when he was sixteen years of age (26 February 1796); he made his wife, Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Queen Victoria's aunt), intensely miserable. After the first separation in the year 1799, she went back permanently to her German home in 1801. An attempt by Constantine in 1814 to win her back broke down on her firm opposition. Napoleonic Wars
Governor of Poland Constantine's importance in political history dates from when his brother, Tsar Alexander, installed him in the Congress Kingdom of Poland as viceroy, with a task of the militarization and discipline of Poland. In the Congress Poland created by Alexander he received the post of commander-in-chief of the forces of the kingdom; to which was added later (1819) the command of the Lithuanian troops and of those of the Russian provinces that had formerly belonged to the kingdom of Poland. His efforts to strengthen the secret police (Ochrana) and suppress the Polish patriotic movements led to popular discontent among his subjects. Ill-tempered and brutal http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521559170&id=NpMxTvBuWHYC&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&q=Constantine&vq=Constantine&dq=Constantine+Pavlovich+Poland&sig=m23MNyzzIbsAkHnegsNd5bXnixE p.125, Constantine also persecuted the liberal opposition, replaced Poles with Russians on important posts in local administration and the army, and often insulted and assaulted his subordinates, which led to conflicts within the officer corps. Finally, his disobedience of the constitution he was personally proud of, conflicted him with the Polish parliament, until then mostly dominated by supporters of the personal union with Russia. In Poland, he was viewed as a tyrant, and hated by both the military and civilian population. In Polish literature Constantine is represented as a cruel and despotic person.Kucherskaya PWN After nineteen years of separation, the marriage of Constantine and Juliane was formally annulled on 20 March 1820. Two months later, on 27 May 1820 Constantine married with the Countess Joanna Grudzińska, who was given the title of Her Serenity Princess Lowicka. Connected with this, he renounced any claim to the Russian succession, which was formally completed in 1822. After this marriage, in the late 1820s, he became increasingly attached to his new home, Poland. * One inch from the throne When Alexander I died on the 1st of December 1825, the grand-duke Nicholas had Constantine proclaimed emperor in St. Petersburg, in connection with which occurred the revolt of the Russian Liberals, known as the rising of the Dekabrists. Under the emperor Nicholas, Constantine maintained his position in Poland. Differences soon arose between him and his brother, in consequence of the share taken by the Poles in the Dekabrist conspiracy. Constantine hindered the unveiling of the organized plotting for independence which had been going on in Poland for many years, and held obstinately to the belief that the army and the bureaucracy were loyally devoted to the Russian empire. The eastern policy of the tsar and the Turkish War of 1828 and 1829 caused a fresh breach between them. It was due to the opposition of Constantine that the Polish army took no part in this war, so that there was in consequence no Russo-Polish comradeship in arms, such as might perhaps have led to a reconciliation between the two nations. The insurrection at Warsaw in November 1830 took Constantine completely by surprise. It was because of his failure to grasp the situation that the Polish regiments passed over to the revolutionaries; and during the revolution he showed himself incompetent and lacking in judgment. He was considered an enemy by most of the Polish insurgents. One of the opening events of the uprising included an assassination attempt on him http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521559170&id=NpMxTvBuWHYC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&q=Constantine&vq=Constantine&dq=Constantine+Pavlovich+Poland&sig=m1JO2H4OlnupK4KZjnM7oza2mvE p.132. While his soldiers were victorious, he did not live to see the suppression of the revolution. He died of cholera at Vitebsk on the 27th of June 1831. | ||||||||||
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