He is the Janus of Russian history.

On the one side he faces the enormous problems of social and political reform, and yet he steals many a longing glance towards the dome of St.Sofia.

This instability in his nature has been thus pointedly criticised by his friend Prince Czartoryski:[236] "Grand ideas of the general good, generous sentiments, and the desire to sacrifice to them a part of the imperial authority, had really occupied the Emperor's mind, but they were rather a young man's fancies than a grown man's decided will.

The Emperor liked forms of liberty, as he liked the theatre: it gave him pleasure and flattered his vanity to see the appearances of free government in his Empire: but all he wanted in this respect was forms and appearances: he did not expect them to become realities.

He would willingly have agreed that every man should be free, on the condition that he should voluntarily do only what the Emperor wished." This later judgment of the well-known Polish nationalist is probably embittered by the disappointments which he experienced at the Czar's hands; but it expresses the feeling of most observers of Alexander's early career, and it corresponds with the conclusion arrived at by Napoleon's favourite aide-de-camp, Duroc, who went to congratulate the young Czar on his accession and to entice him into oriental schemes--that there was nothing to hope and nothing to fear from the Czar.