X-Nico

14 unusual facts about Nicholas I of Russia


Alexander Ostrovsky

Tsar Nicholas I came to see the performance and appeared to be impressed, mostly by the "edifying" finale.

Älvdalen

The town is widely known for being the place of manufacturing, in 1839, of the 4-meter granite vase (called Älvdalen Vase), installed in the Summer Garden in Saint Petersburg (a gift from Charles XIV John of Sweden to Nicholas I of Russia).

Charles Januarius Acton

He was selected as interpreter in the interview which the Pope had with the Czar Nicholas I of Russia.

Dmitry Tatishchev

Tatishchev was a connoisseur of and collector of art, and held in his collection 200 paintings and 160 rare gems, which were bequeathed to Tsar Nicholas I.

Edward Maynard

Practicing in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. his clientele included the country's political elite, including Congressmen and Presidents, and it is reported that he was offered but declined the position of Imperial Dentist to Tsar Nicholas I.

George Dawe

In 1826 Nicholas I invited him to his coronation ceremony and in 1828 he was officially appointed First Portrait Painter of the Imperial Court.

Kremlin Clock

Initially, the national anthem "God Save The Tsar!" was proposed, but Tsar Nicholas I forbade it, stating that "the chimes can play any song except for the anthem".

Louis Marie Baptiste Atthalin

The King sent Atthalin to Russia, to officially inform the Emperor Nicholas I of his new reign.

Mariinsky Palace

Stackensneider's palace was conceived by Emperor Nicholas I as a present to his daughter Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia on the occasion of her marriage to Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg, Eugène de Beauharnais's son.

Norris Locomotive Works

Such sovereigns included Tsar Nicholas of Russia and King Louis-Philippe of France, who was so pleased with his model that he gave Norris a gold medal and a handsome gold box.

Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland

The Statute, signed by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, replaced the personal union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Russian Empire with the "eternal incorporation" of Poland into Russia.

Panas Myrny

In it Myrny depicts social oppression, internal struggle between various social groups, the tsarist legal system, the stern life of a soldier during the time of Tsar Nicholas I, police violence, and spontaneous protests against lies and injustice.

Slavyanka, Azerbaijan

Along with a number of other villages in northwestern Azerbaijan, Slavyanka was settled in 1844 by the Doukhobors, members of a Pacifist dissenter Christian group resettled to Transcaucasia by Nicholas I from the Molochna River settlements in today's Zaporizhia Oblast of the Ukraine.

Taormina

Starting from the 19th century Taormina became a popular tourist resort in the whole of Europe: people who visited Taormina include Oscar Wilde, Nicholas I of Russia, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Nietzsche (who here wrote his Also sprach Zarathustra), Richard Wagner and many others.


Bernhard Heine

Heine declined an offer of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I to take over the position of an orthopaedic senior consultant at the imperial school in Kronstadt and returned to Würzburg.

Bullet catch

Anderson, or The Great Wizard of the North as he was called, performed for P.T. Barnum, Czar Nicholas, Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert and toured in the United States and Australia, thus bringing the bullet catch into mainstream magic illusions.

Constantine ruble

The Constantine ruble is a rare silver coin of the Russian Empire bearing the profile of Constantine, the brother of emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I.

Count Nikolay Adlerberg

His father, Vladimir Fyodorovich Adlerberg was a close friend of Nicholas I; in 1852-1870 he was President of the Russian Imperial Post Department, who introduced the first Russian post stamps.

Dovber Schneuri

The position of the Jews under the Czars was never easy, but it became much worse when Czar Alexander I was succeeded by Czar Nicholas I in 1825.

George Nayler

A year later, Nayler succeeded Heard as Garter and went on foreign missions to award the Garter to Frederick VI of Denmark in 1822, John VI of Portugal (who created Nayler a Knight Commander of the Order of the Tower and Sword) in 1823, Charles X of France in 1825 and Nicholas I of Russia in 1827.

Helsinki Cathedral

The church was originally built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

Isaac Mayer Dick

Dick sought to educate and enhance the socioeconomic status of all Russian Jews and corresponded on that subject with Count Uvarov, minister of education under Nicholas I.

Nicoletta Romanoff

Her maternal grandfather is Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia, which makes her a great-great-great-great granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia.

Prince Kirill Romanovsky-Iskander

He was a grandson of Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich, the disgraced grandson of Tsar Nicholas I; thus, Kirill was a patrilineal great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.

Urbain Dubois

He worked as a chef in several countries in central Europe before becoming chef to Prince Alexey Orlov, an ambassador for Nicholas I of Russia.