Chapter Three

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For such a major figure, Alexander I has been neglected by historians; the most important biography remains N. K. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr I: ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie (The Emperor Alexander I: his Life and Reign) (4 vols, St Petersburg, 1897–8). Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, L’Empereur Alexandre Ier: Essai d’Etude Historique (2 vols, St Petersburg, 1912) is also significant. There are two modern popular biographies: A. Palmer, Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace (London, 1974), and H. Troyat, Alexandre Ier: le Sphinx du Nord (Paris, 1980; English translation by J. Pinkham as Alexander of Russia: Napoleon’s Conqueror, London, 1984). There is also a good short study, J. M. Hartley, Alexander I (London, 1994). On the Jewish Statute of 1804 see J. D. Klier, Russia Gathers her Jews: The Origins of the ‘Jewish Question’ in Russia, 1772–1825 (DeKalb, Illinois, 1986), pp.116–43. F. Ley, Alexandre 1er et sa Sainte-Alliance (1811–1825), avec des documents inédits (Paris, 1975), pp.52–3. F. Ley, Mme de Krüdener et son temps, 1764–1824 (Paris, 1961), p.298; Hartley, Alexander I, pp.116–17. The best biography of Mme von Krüdener is Ley, Mme de Krüdener, which draws on important archives in private hands. On Golitsyn as Alexander’s confidant, see Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, L’Empereur Alexandre Ier, vol.1, p.173. For Castlereagh’s attitude see J. W. Derry, Castlereagh (London, 1976), pp.186–8; for the argument that the alliance was a hypocritical ploy see, among others, H.-H. Pirenne, La Sainte-Alliance:Organisation Européene de la Paix Mondiale (2 vols, Neuchatel, 1946–9). F. Ley, Alexandre Ier et sa Sainte-Alliance (Paris, 1975), p.217. Ibid, p.176. Rev. R. Pinkerton to Rev. Dr Steinkopff, 20 April (old style)

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