1825: Emperor Nicholas I's accession to the throne

On 19 November 1825 Emperor Alexander I died and the succession passed to his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. Konstantin, however, rejected the throne and thus the younger brother, Nikolay, was to be the new Emperor. The ceremony of swearing loyalty to Nicholas I was to take place on Senate Square on 14 December 1825, but a group of radically-minded young officers of aristocratic birth sought to prevent his ascension to the throne, stirring up a rebellion in an effort to introduce a political reform. But the rebellion was cruelly suppressed. The participants came to be known as the Decembrists after the date of the revolt.
The uprising was to make Nicholas I more strict during his reign, exacting unwavering support both for his policies and for himself personally. The Emperor did much to enrich the imperial art collections and in 1852 he founded the Imperial Hermitage Museum, which was to be open to the public.