About the book: 2015 / Emperor Nicholas I (1796–1825) was not at all the soulless and poorly educated martinet that he had long been represented as, he was a monarch , who have done a lot for the prosperity of Russia. Under him, a breakthrough was made in legislation, the construction of railways began, and the conditions were prepared for the abolition of serfdom. However, the end of his reign occurred during the unsuccessful Crimean War, and this fatally influenced the assessment of his merits and even the ideas of his contemporaries about how he died, giving rise to rumors of his suicide.