Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

170 II. Россия — Восток a time of severe suppression of freedom and liberalism both within the country, and in Europe. At the same time, as has often happened in history, tyranny accompanies the flourishing of culture. The second quarter of the 19th century is the golden age of Russian literature, natural science and arts. Nicholas I, taking a sharply conservative position and strictly adhering to it, tried to preserve the state and social system that had developed over centuries, which did not contribute to the growth of Russia’s international influence and the solution of internal problems. The defeat of Russia in the Crimean War (1853–1856) showed a deep crisis of public administration, persistently dictated the need for radical changes in all spheres of life, and at the same time, brought the country out of a state of political stagnation, causing protest in wide sections of society against the existing order, caused an increase in peasant uprisings. Autocracy, as a form of governing the empire, was perhaps shaken for the first time. “After the war of 1853–1856, a new stage began in the development of public self-awareness, which was expressed in a sharp intensification of the intellectual activity of representatives of Russian social thought. The Crimean War and its results updated the imperative of renewal, making it a dominant element of both public initiatives and various government practices in the first years of the reign of Emperor Alexander II. The patri- otic upsurge that gripped Russian society during the war made it possible to transform foreign policy failure into a powerful transformative impulse, which the supreme power was able to sense and implement within the framework of the Great Reforms of the 1860s and 1870s”. 1 The country had a hard time emerging from the crisis generated by the defeat in the Crimean War and the subsequent humiliation by the Paris Peace of 1856. The time for diplomats had come. 1 Krot M. N., Chernicin S. V., Zavyalova O. O. The Patriotic Enthusiasm during the Crimean War (1853–1856) аs a factor of modernization turn in Russia. P. 104.