Conclusion

Abstract

Something approximating historical consensus posits a critical shift in Europe and the world around the year 1830, with the next decade or so, by implication, exhibiting attributes of a substantively new era. If the 1830s represent such a threshold, then the year 1837 reveals its significance for Russia with particular clarity. From 1835 to 1840, a whole series of shifts and transformations occurred, with 1837 serving as their center or pivotal point.