Y. E. Ariskina Supporters of the “Monarch-Citizen”:  Relations between F.-C. Laharpe  and the Private Committee

Abstract: In an autocratic state where the right to make important decisions belongs exclusively to the monarch, the factor of influence of the milieu on the person of the emperor is of great importance. In Russia at the beginning of the XIXth century. this factor is made all the more significant when through a coup d’eʹtat the throne came to be occupied by a young emperor, who did not have much experience in handling government affairs. Several court dignitaries gained the opportunity to have influence on Alexander I, including at the beginning of his reign conspirators, who were part of the Indispensable (State) Council of the emperor. However, the most important role in the milieu of this emperor was played by the Private Committee members – by four “young friends” of the emperor and his mentor F.-C. Laharpe. Laharpe was not only the mentor of Alexander I, but was also one of the major political figures of the Helvetic Republic, which took their relationship beyond the traditional scheme of “mentor–pupil” and gave it a particular character. It is interesting to consider both the external and the internal sides of the personal relationships and collective work of Laharpe, above all, with his colleagues in the Private Committee – with the “young friends” of Alexander I. The sources for this article are the letters of correspondence between Alexander I and Laharpe from the latter’s archive, published in Switzerland in 1978, as well as the published and archival material from the Stroganov collection. The correspondence between Alexander I and Laharpe until recently did not attract the attention of Russian scholars. The simultaneous consideration of the correspondence of Laharpe with the emperor and of the notes of P. A. Stroganov on the activities of the Private Committee allows to recreate the nature of the relationship and of the mechanisms of decision-making in the entourage of Alexander I.

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