person
Alexander I of Russia
Tsar Alexander
also: царь Александр, Tsar Alexander, Alexander I
Emperor of Russia (r. 1801-1825), who drove Napoleon's invading army out of Russia in 1812; he died in Taganrog in 1825, and the old shepherd recalls, as a boyhood memory dating the length of his acquaintance with Zhmenya, going out to watch the Tsar's body carried by post-cart from Taganrog to Moscow for burial.
Reading notes
- Happiness §18 the late Tsar Alexander, the one who drove out the Frenchman
Alexander I (r. 1801-1825) defeated Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia and died unexpectedly in Taganrog in 1825; his body was carried by slow post-cart procession from Taganrog back to Moscow and St. Petersburg for burial. The old shepherd dates the length of his acquaintance with Zhmenya (some sixty years) by his own boyhood memory of going out with others to watch that funeral cortege pass -- a real historical event used here purely as a folk-memory yardstick for deep time, not as a plot element.