At the end of the eighteenth century, during the reign of Paul I (1796–1801), Russia joined the emerging Second Coalition in 1798 together with Britain, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire. The key motive for entering the war against the French Republic was the desire to halt French expansion in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as to restore the legitimate monarchies overthrown by the French Revolution. At that time Russia’s population reached about 36 million people, and its large army was capable of conducting campaigns on several theaters of war simultaneously. Nevertheless, by 1800, after Suvorov’s Italian and Swiss campaigns and the successes of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean, Paul I—dissatisfied with the actions of his allies—withdrew Russia from the war and began political rapprochement with the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, to form a joint front against Britain. However, the assassination of Paul I in 1801 halted the formation of a Russo-French alliance.
During the reign of Alexander I (1801–1825), Russia gradually became the principal power in the European coalitions opposing Napoleonic France. The western strategic direction was a clear priority of Russian foreign policy. Simultaneously, on the southern front Russia waged wars with the Ottoman Empire (1806–1812) and with Iran (1804–1813), seeking to push its borders farther south. The struggle with Napoleonic France during the wars of the Third and Fourth Coalitions (1805–1807) in alliance with Britain, Austria, and Prussia (from 1806) was marked by alternating successes and failures. After the unsuccessful Prussian campaign of 1807, the Treaty of Tilsit made Alexander I and Napoleon temporary allies, which enabled Russia to seize Finland from Sweden but simultaneously led to conflict with Britain. Following Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, Alexander I became convinced of the need for a determined and uncompromising struggle against Napoleonic France. After the Patriotic War of 1812, which ended with the destruction of the Grande Armée in Russia, the Russian army under Alexander’s command played a decisive role in the foreign campaigns of 1813–1814, ensuring the victory of the coalition of four great powers—Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain—over France. After Russian troops entered Paris in 1814, Alexander I exerted a decisive influence on the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna, which determined Europe’s post-war order and established the system of the Holy Alliance.
As a result of Russia’s triumphant conclusion of the coalition wars against France, as well as successful wars with Turkey and Iran, the empire’s borders expanded significantly. The most important territorial acquisitions were Finland (from the Russo-Swedish War of 1808–1809), Poland (according to the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna 1815), and Bessarabia (under the Treaty of Bucharest 1812 after the Russo-Turkish War). In addition, the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813) secured new southern frontiers in the Caucasus. By the end of 1815 the population of the Russian Empire reached 45 million, and it possessed the most powerful army in the world. Russia’s prestige in European politics attained its historical zenith.
