The Emperor’s unannounced pop-ins often proved traumatizing to those unfortunate enough to receive them – like the administrators of one high school. Nicholas strode into a classroom and saw that one of the best and brightest students was leaning on his elbow as he listened to a history lecture. The instructor was instantly dismissed on the emperor’s orders for allowing such a gross breach of discipline. Then, upon encountering another such egregious incident, Nicholas personally fired the school principal.
And still the tsar wasn’t finished with the school. He returned unexpectedly on another occasion, and Alexander Nikitenko recorded what ensued: “The sovereign arrived angry, went everywhere, asked about everything, with the obvious intention of finding something wrong. He did not like the face of one of the pupils. – ‘What sort of an ugly… mug is this!” he exclaimed, looking at him with fury. In conclusion he told the director:
”’Yes, in appearance you have everything in order, but what mugs your pupils possess! The First High School must be first in everything: they have not that vivacity, that fullness, that nobility which distinguishes, for instance, the pupils of the Fourth High School!’”
Source:
Farquhar, Michael. “Chapter 10 – Nicholas I (1825-1855): “A Condescending Jupiter”.” Secret Lives of the Tsars: Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014. 192-93. Print.
Further Reading:
Nicholas I (Russian: Николай I Павлович, tr. Nikolay I Pavlovich)
Alexander Vasilievich Nikitenko (Александр Васильевич Никитенко)
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