Events from the year 1801 in Russia

• Monarch – Paul I (until 23 March), Alexander I (from 23 March)

• September 8 - Solar eclipse of September 8, 1801
• September 12 - Annexation of Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti confirmed
• October 8 - Treaty of Paris ends Russian participation in the War of the Second Coalition
• Indian March of Paul - attempted Russian attack on British India
• Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts founded
• Olonets Governorate
• Penza Governorate
• Caucasus Viceroyalty

• Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Decembrist (d. 1826)
• Vladimir Dal, doctor, official, lexicographer and folklorist (d. 1872)
• Alexander Gagarin, general and nobleman (d. 1857)
• Alexander von Güldenstubbe, Baltic German general (d. 1884)
• Grigory Karelin, explorer, naturalist (d. 1872)
• Nikolay Mozgalevsky, Decembrist (d. 1844)
• Mikhail Ostrogradsky, mathematician and physicist (d. 1862)
• Viktor Nikitich Panin, Minister of Justice 1841-1862 (d. 1862)
• Ksenofont Polevoy, writer, critic, translator (d. 1867)
• Alexander Polyakov, artist (d. 1835)
• Alexander Postels, naturalist, mineralogist (d. 1871)
• Fedor Solntsev, painter and art historian (d. 1892)
• Adam Rzewuski, Polish-Russian general (d. 1888)
• Pavel Solomirsky, businessman (d. 1861)
• Aleksandr Varlamov, composer of art songs (d. 1848)
• Moritz von Jacobi, German Jewish physicist and inventor (d. 1872)

• Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, daughter of Paul I of Russia (b. 1783)
• Ivan Gannibal, general (b. 1735)
• Ivan Lazarevich Lazarev, Russo-Armenian banker (b. 1735)
• Vasily Petrovich Orlov, cavalry general, (b. 1745)
• Paul I of Russia, emperor (b. 1754)
• Nicholas Vasilyevich Repnin, statesman and general (b. 1734)
• Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova, sadist and murderer (b. 1730)
• Johann Hermann von Fersen, Saxon-born general (b. circa 1740)