История России XIX столетия. том IV

Chetvyortyy tom posvyashchyon seredyne y zavershenyyu tsarstvovanyya ymperatora Nykolaya I. Shag za shagom Nykolay Pavlovych otkazyvaetsya ot osushchestvlenyya proektov reform, kotorye zaveshchal emu Aleksandr I dlya perekhoda ot absolyutyzma k konstytutsyonnomu predstavytelnomu pravlenyyu. Nesmotrya na bumazhnuyu aktyvnost mnogochyslennykh sekretnykh komytetov, krepostnoe rabstvo ne bylo ny otmeneno, ny dazhe sushchestvenno ogranycheno. Gymnazycheskoe y unyversytetskoe obrazovanye stanovytsya prerogatyvoy vysshykh soslovyy, da y dlya nykh zhyostko ogranychyvaetsya vsyo bolee svyrepeyushchey tsenzuroy y prekrashchenyem mezhdunarodnykh kulturnykh kontaktov. Byurokratyya, lyshyonnaya kontrolya so storony obshchestva, utopaet v korruptsyy y ne sposobna napravyt Rossyyu po puty bystrogo khozyaystvennogo razvytyya, promyshlennoy revolyutsyy, za kotoroy Nykolaevskaya ymperyya sovershenno ne pospevaet. No Tsar, ostavayas uverennym v voennom mogushchestve «ego strany», ydyot na novye vneshnepolytycheskye avantyury, shchedro tratya na nykh krov russkykh soldat y narodnye dengy. Eto dolgoe tsarstvovanye zavershaetsya nykomu ne nuzhnoy Krymskoy voynoy y pozornym porazhenyem v ney.

The fourth volume is dedicated to the middle and end of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. Step by step, Nikolai Pavlovich refuses to implement the reform projects that Alexander I bequeathed to him for the transition from absolutism to constitutional representative government. Despite the paper activity of numerous secret committees, serfdom was neither abolished nor even significantly limited. Gymnasium and university education is becoming the prerogative of the upper classes, and even for them it is severely limited by increasingly rampant censorship and the cessation of international cultural contacts. The bureaucracy, deprived of control by society, is drowned in corruption and is unable to guide Russia along the path of rapid economic development and the industrial revolution, which the Nikolaev Empire is completely unable to keep up with. But the Tsar, remaining confident in the military might of "his country," goes on new foreign policy adventures, lavishing on them the blood of Russian soldiers and people's money. This long reign ends with the unnecessary Crimean War and the shameful defeat in it.