Alexander II of Russia

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Alexander II (1818-1881) was emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881. He is called the "czar liberator" because he emancipated the serfs in 1861. His reign is famous in Russian history as the "era of great reforms."

Eldest son of Nicholas I, Alexander was born in Moscow on April 17, 1818. Vasili Zhukovski, the poet and courtier, was his principal tutor. Alexander spoke Russian, German, French, English, and Polish. He acquired a knowledge of military arts, finance, and diplomacy. From an early age he traveled extensively in Russia and abroad; in 1837, for example, he visited 30 Russian provinces, including Siberia, where no member of the royal family had ever been. Unlike his father, Alexander had experience in government before he acceded to the throne. He held various military commands and was a member of the state council (from 1840) and of the committee of the ministers (from 1842); during Nicholas's absence Alexander acted as his deputy.

Alexander's political philosophy eludes precise definition. However, there is ample evidence to indicate that he was an admirer of Nicholas's autocracy and bureaucratic methods.

Emancipation of the Serfs

Before he became czar, Alexander was not sympathetic to emancipation. He changed his mind because of Russia's technological and military backwardness in the Crimean War and because he believed that the liberation of the serfs was the only way to prevent a peasant uprising. Through a burdensome arrangement in which local commissions made studies and reported their findings to the government, an emancipation law was eventually formulated and proclaimed in 1861.

The new law stated that serfs were free to marry, acquire property, engage in trades, and bring suits in courts. Each estate proprietor had to prepare within a year an inventory determining the area of land actually in the possession of the peasants and defining the annual payment or services due from the liberated serfs. Each peasant household received its homestead and a certain amount of land (generally the same amount the family had cultivated for its own use in the past). The land usually became the property of the village commune, which had the power to redistribute it periodically among the households. The government bought the land from the owners, but the peasants had to redeem it by payments extending over 49 years. The proprietor kept only the portion of his estate that had been farmed for his own purposes.

The emancipation law of 1861, which liberated more than 40 million serfs, has been called the greatest single legislative act in history. It was a moral stimulus to peasant self-dignity. Yet there were many problems. The peasants had to accept the allotments, and generally they did not receive enough land and were overcharged for it. Since they became obligated for the payment of taxes and redemption reimbursements, their mobility was greatly limited. The commune replaced the proprietor as master over the peasants. The settlement, however, was on the whole liberal, despite some unsolved problems and the agrarian crises that emerged in part from its inadequacies.

Domestic Reforms

Because the emancipation of the serfs ended the landlords' rights of justice and police on their estates, it was necessary to reform the entire local administrations. The statute of 1864 created provincial and district assemblies, which handled local finances, education, scientific agriculture, medical care, and maintenance of the roads. The elaborate electoral system dividing voters into categories by class provided substantial representation to the peasants in the assemblies. Peasant and proprietor were brought together in order to work out local problems.

During Alexander's reign other reforms were initiated. The cities were granted municipal assemblies with functions similar to those of the provincial assemblies. The Russian judicial system and legal procedures, which were riddled with inequities, were reformed. For the first time in Russian history, juries were permitted, cases were debated publicly and orally, all classes were made equal before the law, and the court system was completely overhauled. Censorship was relaxed, and the universities were freed from the restrictions imposed on them by Nicholas I. The army, too, was reformed by Gen. Dimitri Miliutin, military schools were reorganized along liberal lines, and conscription was borne equally by all social groups.

Despite all these reforms, Alexander II became the target of revolutionaries in 1866. Terrorist activity continued throughout the 1870s. The underlying reasons were the lack of far-reaching social and constitutional reforms; the bloody suppression of the peasant uprisings, especially the slaughter of Bezna; the Polish insurrection of 1863 and its bloody defeat; and the general ultrareactionary trend of official policies. Conservatives and nationalists were welcomed by the Czar, but the liberals were alienated. The radicals went underground and espoused the cause of political and social revolution. A member of a terrorist group murdered Alexander II on March 1, 1881.

Foreign Policy

Encroachments begun under Nicholas I against Chinese territory in the Amur River valley were regularized by treaty in 1860. The Russians successfully repressed the Polish uprising of 1863. In 1877 Alexander went to war against Turkey on behalf of the rebellious Balkan Christians of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria.

Further Reading

Two full-length biographies of Alexander II are E. M. Almedingen, The Emperor Alexander II (1962), and Walter M. Mosse, Alexander II and the Modernization of Russia (1958; rev. ed. 1962). Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia, from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (1961), is a comprehensive study of the social and economic conditions of rural Russia from earliest times to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Geroid T. Robinson, Rural Russia under the Old Régime (1932), begins where Blum's book stops, and it discusses the peasant question from the emancipation act to the Revolution. George Fischer, Russian Liberalism, from Gentry to Intelligentsia (1958), traces the evolution of liberal forces from 1855 to 1905 as a transition from domination by the gentry to domination by professional groups. Hugh Seton-Watson, The Decline of Imperial Russia, 1855-1914 (1952), is a thorough and well-balanced survey of both internal and foreign policies.

The most thorough narrative of prerevolutionary Russian history available in English, particularly good for the 19th and 20th centuries, is Michael T. Florinsky, Russia: A History and Interpretation (1953). Alexander A. Kornilov, Modern Russian History from the Age of Catherine the Great to the End of the Nineteenth Century (1917; trans. 1943), gives an excellent picture of internal policies in the 19th century.

(1818 - 1881), tsar and emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881.

Alexander Nicholayevich Romanov is largely remembered for two events - his decision to emancipate the serfs and his assassination at the hands of revolutionaries. That the same tsar who finally ended serfdom in Russia would become the only tsar to be assassinated by political terrorists illustrates the turbulence of his time and its contradictions.

Education and the Great Reforms

Alexander was born in Moscow on April 17, 1818, the oldest son of Nicholas I. His education, unlike that of his father, prepared him for his eventual role as tsar from an early age. Initially his upbringing consisted primarily of military matters. Nicholas had his son named the head of a hussar regiment when Alexander was a few days old, and he received promotions throughout childhood. When he was six, Captain K. K. Merder, the head of a Moscow military school, became his first tutor. Merder was a career army man who combined a love for the military with a compassion for others. Both qualities attracted the tsarevich and shaped his outlook. Alexander also received instruction from Vasily Zhukovsky, the famous poet, who crafted a plan for education that stressed virtue and enlightenment. The young tsarevich made journeys throughout the Russian Empire and in Europe, and in 1837 he became the first emperor to visit Siberia, where he even met with Decembrists and petitioned his father to improve their conditions. During his trip to Europe in 1838 Alexander fell in love with a princess from the small German state of Hesse-Darmstadt. Although Nicholas I desired a better match for his son, Alexander married Maria Alexandrova in April 1841. They would have eight children, two of whom died young. Their third child, Alexander, was born in 1845 and eventually became the heir.

Nicholas I included his son in both the symbolic and practical aspects of governing. Nicholas had not received training for his role and believed that he was unprepared for the responsibilities of a Russian autocrat. He did not want Alexander to have a similar experience, and he included his son in the frequent parades, military spectacles, and other symbolic aspects central to the Nicholavan political system. Alexander loved these events and he took pleasure in participating at the numerous exercises held by Nicholas I. In several important respects, this military culture shaped Alexander's beliefs about ruling Russia.

Alexander also became a member of imperial councils, supervised the operation of military schools, and even presided over State Council meetings when his father could not. In 1846, Nicholas named Alexander chairman of the Secret Committee on Peasant Affairs, where the tsarevich demonstrated support of the existing socio-political order. In short, Alexander grew up in a system that stressed the necessity of an autocrat for governing Russia and he learned to worship his father from an early age. His education and training gave no indication of the momentous decisions he would make as tsar.

Few would have predicated the circumstances in which Alexander became emperor. Nicholas I died in 1855 amidst the disastrous Crimean War. Russia's eventual loss was evident by the time of Nicholas's death, and the defeat did much to undermine the entire Nicholaven system and its ideology of Official Nationality. Alexander had absorbed his father's belief in the autocracy, but he was forced by the circumstances of war to adopt policies that would fundamentally change Russia and its political system.

Alexander became emperor on February 19, 1855, a day that would reappear again during the course of his reign. His coronation as Russian Emperor took place in Moscow on August 26, 1856. Between these two dates Alexander grappled with the ongoing war, which went from bad to worse. Sevastopol, the fortified city in the Crimea that became the defining site of the war, fell on September 9, 1855. Alexander began peace negotiations and signed the resulting Treaty of Paris on March 30,1856. Russia lost its naval rights in the Black Sea in addition to 500,000 soldiers lost fighting the war. The prestige of the Russian army, which had acquired almost mythical status since 1812, dissipated with defeat. The events of the first year of his reign forced Alexander's hand - Crimea had demonstrated the necessity for reform, and Alexander acted.

Immediately after the war, Alexander uttered the most famous words of his reign when he answered a group of Moscow nobles in 1856 who asked about his intention to free the serfs: "I cannot tell you that I totally oppose this; we live in an era in which this must eventually happen. I believe that you are of the same opinion as I; therefore, it will be much better if this takes place from above than from below." Alexander's words speak volumes about the way in which the tsar conceived of reform - it was a necessity, but it was better to enact change within the autocratic system. This blend of reform-mindedness with a simultaneous commitment to autocracy became the hallmark of the era that followed. Once he had decided on reform, Alexander II relied on the advice of his ministers and bureaucracies. Nevertheless, Alexander did much to end serfdom in Russia, an act his predecessors had failed to enact.

The process of emancipation was a complicated and controversial affair. It began in 1856, when Alexander II formed a secret committee to elicit proposals for the reform and did not end until 1861, when the emancipation decree was issued on February 19. In between these two dates Alexander dealt with a great deal of debate, opposition, and compromise. Emancipation affected twenty million serfs and nearly thirty million state peasants, or 8 percent of the Russian population. By contrast, four million slaves were freed in the United States in 1863. Although the end result did not fully satisfy anyone, a fundamental break had been made in the economy and society of Russia. Even Alexander Herzen, who had labeled Nicholas I as a "snake that strangled Russia," exclaimed: "Thou hast conquered, Galilean!" Because of Alexander's role, he became known as the Tsar-Liberator.

Once emancipation had been completed, Alexander proceeded to approve further reforms, often referred to by historians as the Great Reforms. The tsar himself did not participate as much in the changes that came after 1861, but Alexander appointed the men who would be responsible for drafting reforms and gave the final approval on the changes. Between 1864 and 1874 Alexander promulgated a new local government reform (creating the zemstvo), a new judicial reform, educational reforms, a relaxed censorship law, and a new military law. All were carried out in the new spirit of glasnost, or "giving voice," that Alexander advocated. The tsar relied on officials who had been trained during his father's years on the throne, and thus the reforms are also associated with the names of Nicholas Milyutin, Petr Valuev, Dmitry Milyutin, and other "enlightened bureaucrats." Additionally, Russians from all walks of life debated the reforms and their specifics in an atmosphere that contrasted starkly with Nicholas I's Russia.

This new spirit brought with it a multitude of reactions and opinions. Alexander, a committed autocrat throughout the reform era, had to deal with rebellions and revolutionaries almost immediately after launching his reforms. These reactions were a natural product of the more relaxed era and of the policies Alexander advocated, even if he did not foresee all of their consequences. In particular, Alexander's decision to reform Russia helped to fuel a revolt in Poland, then a part of the Russian Empire. Polish nationalism in 1863 led to a Warsaw rebellion that demanded more freedoms. In the face of this opposition, Alexander reacted in the same manner as his father, brutally suppressing the revolt. Unlike his father, however, Alexander did not embark on a policy of Russification in other areas of the Empire, and even allowed the Finnish parliament to meet again in 1863 as a reward for loyalty to the empire.

At home, the reform era only served to embolden Russians who wanted the country to engage in more radical changes. The educated public in the 1850s and 1860s openly debated the details of the Great Reforms and found many of them wanting. As a result of his policies, Alexander helped to spawn a politically radical movement that called for an end to autocracy. A group that called itself "Land and Liberty" formed in Russia's universities and called for a more violent and total revolution among the Russian peasantry. A similar group known as the Organization made calls for radical change at the same time. On April 6, 1866, a member of this group, Dmitry Karakazov, fired six times at Alexander while he walked in the Summer Garden but spectacularly missed. Although the reform era was not officially over, 1866 marked a watershed in the life of Alexander II and his country. The tsar did not stay committed to the path of reform while the opposition that the era had unleashed only grew.

LATER YEARS

Alexander had let loose the forces that eventually killed him, but between 1866 and 1881 Russia experienced many more significant changes. Karakazov's attempt on Alexander's life came during a period of domestic turmoil for Alexander. The year before, the tsar's eldest son, Nicholas, died at the age of twenty-two. Three months after the assassination attempt, Alexander began an affair with an eighteen-year old princess, Ekaterina Dolgorukaia, which lasted for the remainder of his life (he later married her). Responding to the growing revolutionary movement, Alexander increased the powers of the Third Section, the notorious secret police formed by Nicholas I. The reform era and the initial spirit associated with it had changed irrevocably by 1866 even if it had not run its course.

Alexander began to concentrate on his role as emperor during the late 1860s and 1870s. In particular, he engaged in empire building and eventually warfare. He oversaw the Russian conquest of Central Asia that brought Turkestan, Tashkent, Samarkand, Khiva, and Kokand under Russian control. The gains in Central Asia came with a diplomatic cost, however. Expansion so near to the borders of India ensured that England looked on with increasing alarm at Russian imperialism, and during this period a "cold war" developed between the two powers.

Russia also pursued a more aggressive stance toward the Ottoman Empire, in part fueled by the rise of pan-Slavism at home. When Orthodox subjects rebelled against Turkey in 1875, numerous Russians called on the tsar to aid their fellow Slavs. Alexander, reluctant at first, eventually gave in to public opinion, particularly after Ottoman forces in 1876 slaughtered nearly thirty thousand Bulgarians who had come to aid the insurgents. Russia declared war on April 12, 1877. Although Russia experienced some difficulty in defeating the Turks, particularly at the fortress of Plevna, the war was presented to the Russian public as an attempt to liberate Orthodox subjects from Muslim oppression. Alexander's image as liberator featured prominently in the popular prints, press reports, and other accounts of the war. When Russian forces took Plevna in December 1877, they began a march to Istanbul that brought them to the gates of the Turkish capital. In the Caucasus, the final act took place on February 19, 1878, when Russian forces "liberated" the Turkish city of Erzerum. Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of San Stefano in March, which guaranteed massive Russian gains in the region. Alexander once more appeared to fulfill the role of Tsar-Liberator.

Alarmed by these developments, the European powers, including Russia's Prussian and Austrian allies, held an international conference in Berlin. Alexander saw most of his gains whittled away in an effort to prevent Russian hegemony in the Balkans. The resulting confusions helped to sow the seeds for the origins of World War I, but also provoked widespread disillusionment in Russia. Alexander considered the Berlin Treaty to be the worst moment in his career.

Alexander's domestic troubles only increased after 1878. The revolutionaries had not given up their opposition to the progress and scope of reform, and many Russian radicals began to focus their attention on the autocracy as the major impediment to future changes. A new Land and Freedom group emerged in the 1870s that called for all land to be given to the peasants and for a government that listened to "the will of the people." By the end of the decade, the organization had split into two groups. The Black Repartition focused on the land question, while the People's Will sought to establish a new political system in Russia by assassinating the tsar. After numerous attempts, they succeeded in their quest on March 1, 1881. As Alexander rode near the Catherine Canal, a bomb went off near the tsar's carriage, injuring several people. Alexander stepped out to inspect the damage when a second bomb landed at his feet and exploded. He was carried to the Winter Palace, where he died from massive blood loss.

Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, Alexander II was on his way to discuss the possibility of establishing a national assembly and a new constitution. This final reform would not be completed, and Alexander's era ended with him. The tsar's son and grandson, the future Alexander III and Nicholas II, were at the deathbed, and the sight of the autocrat dying as a result of his reforms would shape their respective rules. As Larissa Zakharova has concluded, the act of March 1 initiated the bloody trail to Russia's tragic twentieth century. Alexander II's tragedy became Russia's.

Bibliography

Eklof, Ben; Bushnell, John; and Zakharova, Larissa, eds. (1994). Russia's Great Reforms, 1855 - 1881. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Field, Daniel. (1976). The End of Serfdom: Nobility and Bureaucracy in Russia, 1855 - 1861. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1990). The Great Reforms: Autocracy, Bureaucracy, and the Politics of Change in Imperial Russia. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

Moss, Walter. (2002). Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky. London: Anthem Press.

Mosse, Werner. (1962). Alexander II and the Modernization of Russia. NY: Collier.

Rieber, Alfred. (1971). "Alexander II: A Revisionist View" Journal of Modern History. 43: 42 - 58.

Tolstoy, Leo. (1995). Anna Karenina. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Wortman, Richard. (2000). Scnearios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, Vol. 2: From Alexander II to the Abdication of Nicholas II. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Zakharova, Larissa. (1996). "Emperor Alexander II, 1855 - 1881." In The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Rediscovering the Romanovs, ed. Donald Raleigh. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

—STEPHEN M. NORRIS

For other people who went by the same title, see Alexander II.

Alexander II
Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias
Reign	2 March 1855 – 13 March 1881
Coronation	7 September 1856
Predecessor	Nicholas I
Successor	Alexander III
Spouse	Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
Issue
Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich Tsar Alexander III (Alexandrovich) Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich
House	House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Nicholas I
Mother	Charlotte of Prussia
Born	29 April 1818(1818-04-29) Moscow
Died	13 March 1881 (aged 62) St. Petersburg
Burial	Peter and Paul Cathedral

Alexander (Aleksandr) II Nikolaevich (Russian: Александр II Николаевич, Aleksandr II Nikolaevich) (29 April [O.S. 17 April] 1818, Moscow – 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881, Saint Petersburg), also known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Александр Освободитель, Aleksandr Osvoboditel') was the Emperor, or Czar, of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the Grand Duke of Finland and the King of Poland.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Reign 3 Emancipation of the serfs 4 Other reforms 5 Marriages and children 6 Suppression of separatist movements 7 Rewarding loyalty and encouraging Finnish nationalism within Russia 8 Assassination attempts 9 Assassination 10 Ancestors 11 See also 12 Gallery 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

Early life

Born in 1818, he was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. His early life gave little indication of his ultimate potential; until the time of his accession in 1855, aged 37, few imagined that he would be known to posterity as a leader able to implement the most challenging reforms undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great.

In the period of his life as heir apparent, the intellectual atmosphere of St. Petersburg was unfavourable to any kind of changes, freedom of thought and all private initiative being, as far as possible, suppressed vigorously. Personal and official censorship was rife; criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offense. Some 26 years after he had the opportunity of implementing changes he would, however, be assassinated in public by Narodnaya Volya terrorist organization.

His education as a future Tsar was carried out under the supervision of the liberal romantic poet and gifted translator Vasily Zhukovsky^[1], grasping a smattering of a great many subjects, and feeling exposure to the chief modern European languages. His alleged lack of interest in military affairs detected by later historians could be only his reflection on the results on his own family and on the whole spirit of the country by the unsavoury Crimean War. Unusually for the time, the young Alexander was taken on a six-month tour of Russia, visiting 20 provinces in the country. He also visited many prominent Western European countries.

Reign

Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855. The first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War, and, after the fall of Sevastopol, to negotiations for peace, led by his trusted counselor Prince Gorchakov. It was widely thought^[who?] that the country had been exhausted and humiliated by the war. Encouraged by public opinion he began a period of radical reforms, including an attempt to not to depend on a landed aristocracy controlling the poor, to develop Russia's natural resources and to thoroughly reform all branches of the administration.

Painting by Mihály Zichy of the coronation of Tsar Alexander II and the Empress Maria Alexandrovna, which took place on 26 August/7 September 1856 at the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The painting depicts the moment of the coronation in which the Tsar crowns his Empress

After Alexander became tsar in 1855, he maintained a generally liberal course. Despite this he was a target for numerous assassination attempts (1866, 1873, 1880). On March 13 [O.S. March 1] 1881 members of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) party killed him with a bomb. The tsar had earlier in the day signed the Loris-Melikov constitution which that would have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives, had it been not repealed by the reactionary successor Alexander III.^[2]

Emancipation of the serfs

Main article: Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia

Czar Alexander II and his wife, Empress Maria, with their son, the future Czar Alexander III

In spite of his obstinancy in playing Russian Autocrat, Alexander II acted for several years somewhat like a constitutional sovereign of the continental type. Soon after the conclusion of peace, important changes were made in legislation concerning industry and commerce, and the new freedom thus afforded produced a large number of limited liability companies. Plans were formed for building a great network of railways—partly for the purpose of developing the natural resources of the country, and partly for the purpose of increasing its power for defense and attack.

The existence of serfdom was tackled boldly taking advantage of a petition presented by the Polish landed proprietors of the Lithuanian provinces, and hoping that their relations with the serfs might be regulated in a more satisfactory way (meaning in a way more satisfactory for the proprietors), he authorized the formation of committees "for ameliorating the condition of the peasants," and laid down the principles on which the amelioration was to be effected.

This step was followed by one still more significant. Without consulting his ordinary advisers, Alexander ordered the Minister of the Interior to send a circular to the provincial governors of European Russia, containing a copy of the instructions forwarded to the governor-general of Lithuania, praising the supposed generous, patriotic intentions of the Lithuanian landed proprietors, and suggesting that perhaps the landed proprietors of other provinces might express a similar desire. The hint was taken: in all provinces where serfdom existed, emancipation committees were formed.

But the emancipation was not merely a humanitarian question capable of being solved instantaneously by imperial ukase. It contained very complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social and political future of the nation.

Alexander had to choose between the different measures recommended to him. Should the serfs become agricultural labourers dependent economically and administratively on the landlords, or should they be transformed into a class of independent communal proprietors?

The emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom.

The architects of the emancipation manifesto were Alexander's brother Konstantin, Yakov Rostovtsev, and Nikolay Milyutin.

On 3 March 1861 , 6 years after his accession, the emancipation law was signed and published.

Other reforms

Army and navy reorganisation and rearmament was initiated in response to the overwhelming defeat suffered by Russia in the Crimean War, and an awareness of military advances being implemented in other European countries. The changes included universal military conscription, the creation of an army reserve and the military district system (still in use a century later), the building of strategic railways, and an emphasis on military education of the officer corps.

A new judicial administration based on the French model (1864); a new penal code and a greatly simplified system of civil and criminal procedure.

An elaborate scheme of local self-government (Zemstvo) for the rural districts (1864) and the large towns (1870), with elective assemblies possessing a restricted right of taxation, and a new rural and municipal police under the direction of the Minister of the Interior.

Marriages and children

Wikisource has original text related to this article: An intimate glimpse into the family life of Alexander II (1871)

During his bachelor days, Alexander made a state visit to England in 1838. Just a year older than the young Queen Victoria, Alexander's approaches to her were indeed short-lived. Victoria married her German cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in February 1840. On 16 April 1841, aged 23, Tsarevitch Alexander married Princess Marie of Hesse in St Petersburg, thereafter known in Russia as Maria Alexandrovna.

(Marie was the legal daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Wilhelmina of Baden, although some gossiping questioned whether the Grand Duke Ludwig or Wilhelmina's lover, Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, was her biological father.  Alexander was aware of the question of her paternity).

The marriage produced six sons and two daughters:

• Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna (30 August 1842 – 10 July 1849), nicknamed Lina, died of infant meningitis in St. Petersburg at the age of six
• Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (20 September 1843 – 24 April 1865), engaged to Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna)
• Tsar Alexander III (10 March 1845 – 1 November 1894), married 1866, Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (22 April 1847 – 17 February 1909), married 1874, Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Maria Pavlovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (14 January 1850 – 14 November 1908), had (presumably illegitimate) issue
• Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (17 October 1853 – 20 October 1920) married 1874, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue
• Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (29 April 1857 – 4 February 1905), married 1884, Elisabeth of Hesse (Elizabeth Feodorovna)
• Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich (3 October 1860 – 24 January 1919), married 1889, Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Alexandra Georgievna), had issue; second marriage 1902, Olga Karnovich, had issue

Alexander had many mistresses during his marriage and fathered 7 known illegitimate children. These included:

• Antoinette Bayer (20 June 1856 – 24 January 1948) with his mistress Wilhelmine Bayer
• Michael-Bogdan Oginski (10 October 1848 – 25 March 1909) with mistress Countess Olga Kalinovskya (1818–1854)
• Joseph Raboxicz
• Charlotte Henriette Sophie Jansen( 15 November 1844 – July 1915) with mistress Sophie Charlotte Dorothea Von Behse (1828–1886)

On 6 July 1880, less than a month after Tsarina Maria's death on 8 June, Alexander formed a morganatic marriage with his mistress Princess Catherine Dolgorukov, with whom he already had four children:

• George Alexandrovich Romanov Yurievsky (12 May 1872 – 13 September 1913). Married Countess Alexandra Zarnekau and had issue. They later divorced.
• Olga Alexandrovna Romanov Yurievsky (7 November 1874 – 10 August 1925). Married Count Georg Nikolaus of Nassau, Count of Merenberg.

• Boris Alexandrovich Yurievsky (23 February 1876 – 11 April 1876).
• Catherine Alexandrovna Romanov Yurievsky (9 September 1878 – 22 December 1959) Her first husband was the 23rd Prince Alexander Alexandrovich Bariatinski, (1870–1910) the son of the 22nd Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Bariatinski, (1848–1909). Her second husband, later divorced, was Prince Serge Obolensky, (1890–1978).

Suppression of separatist movements

Jan Matejko's Polonia depicts the aftermath of the failed Polish January 1863 Uprising, crushed by Alexander II. Captives await exile to Siberia; Russian officers and soldiers supervise a blacksmith placing shackles on "Polonia", a woman representing Poland.

At the beginning of his reign, Alexander expressed the famous statement "No dreams" addressed for Poles, populating Congress Poland, Western Ukraine, Lithuania, Livonia and Belarus. The result was the January Uprising of 1863–1864 that was suppressed after eighteen months of fighting.

Hundreds of Poles were executed, and thousands were deported to Siberia. The price for suppression was Russian support for Prussian-united Germany. Twenty years later, Germany became the major enemy of Russia on the continent.

All territories of the former Poland-Lithuania were excluded from liberal policies introduced by Alexander. The martial law in Lithuania, introduced in 1863, lasted for the next 40 years. Native languages, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belarusian were completely banned from printed texts, see a , e.g., Ems Ukase. The Polish language was banned in both oral and written form from all provinces except Congress Kingdom, where it was allowed in private conversations only.

Rewarding loyalty and encouraging Finnish nationalism within Russia

The monument to Alexander II "The Liberator" at the Senate Square in Helsinki was erected in 1894, 13 years after the assassination of Alexander II. At that time, Finland was still a Russian province. The date "1863" refers to the reopening of the Diet of Finland. This monument, expressing the Finns' gratitude to this Tsar, survived unharmed through many later periods of tension and war with Russia under various of its later regimes.

In 1863 Alexander II re-established the Diet of Finland and initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy from Russia including establishment of its own currency, the Markka. Liberation of enterprise led to increased foreign investment and industrial development.

Finally, the elevation of Finnish from a language of the common people to a national language equal to Swedish opened opportunities for a larger proportion of the society. Alexander II is still regarded as "The Good Tsar" in Finland.

These reforms could be seen as results of a genuine belief that reforms were easier to test in an underpopulated, homogeneous country, than the in whole of Russia. They may also be seen as a reward for the loyalty of its relatively western-oriented population during the Crimean war and during the Polish uprising. Encouraging Finnish nationalism and language can also be seen as an attempt to dilute ties with Sweden.

Assassination attempts

In 1866, there was an attempt on the tsar's life in St. Petersburg by Dmitry Karakozov. To commemorate his narrow escape from death (which he himself referred to only as "the event of 4 April 1866"), a number of churches and chapels were built in many Russian cities. Viktor Hartmann, a Russian architect, even sketched a design of a monumental gate (planned, never built) to commemorate the event. Modest Mussorgsky later wrote his Pictures at an Exhibition; the last movement of which, "The Great Gate of Kiev", is based on Hartmann's sketches.

On the morning of 20 April 1879, Alexander II was briskly walking towards the Square of the Guards Staff and faced Alexander Soloviev, a 33-year-old former student. Having seen a menacing revolver in his hands, the Tsar fled. Soloviev fired five times but missed, and was sentenced to death and hanged on 28 May.

The student acted on his own, but other revolutionaries were keen to murder Alexander. In December 1879, the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), a radical revolutionary group which hoped to ignite a social revolution, organized an explosion on the railway from Livadia to Moscow, but they missed the tsar's train.

On the evening of 5 February 1880 Stephan Khalturin, also from Narodnaya Volya, set off a charge under the dining room of the Winter Palace, right in the resting room of the guards a story below. Being late for dinner, the tsar was unharmed; although 11 other people were killed and 30 wounded. The dining room floor was also heavily damaged.

Assassination

The new monument to Alexander II in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow

The assassination of Alexander II. Drawing by G. Broling 1881

Main articles: Narodnaya Volya (organization) and Pervomartovtsi

After the last assassination attempt in February 1880, Count Loris-Melikov was appointed the head of the Supreme Executive Commission and given extraordinary powers to fight the revolutionaries. Loris-Melikov's proposals called for some form of parliamentary body, and the Emperor seemed to agree; these plans were never realized.

On 13 March (1 March Old Style Date), 1881, Alexander fell victim to an assassination plot.

As he was known to do every Sunday for many years, the tsar went to the Manezh to review the Life Guards. He traveled both to and from the Manezh in a closed carriage accompanied by six Cossacks with a seventh sitting on the coachman's left. The tsar's carriage was followed by two sleighs carrying, among others, the chief of police and the chief of the tsar's guards. The route, as always, was via the Catherine Canal and over the Pevchesky Bridge.

The street was flanked by narrow sidewalks for the public. A young member of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) movement, Nikolai Rysakov, was carrying a small white package wrapped in a handkerchief.

"After a moment's hesitation I threw the bomb. I sent it under the horses' hooves in the supposition that it would blow up under the carriage...The explosion knocked me into the fence."^[3]

The explosion, while killing one of the Cossacks and seriously wounding the driver and people on the sidewalk, had only damaged the bulletproof carriage, a gift from Napoleon III of France. The tsar emerged shaken but unhurt. Rysakov was captured almost immediately. Police Chief Dvorzhitsky heard Rysakov shout out to someone else in the gathering crowd. The surrounding guards and the Cossacks urged the tsar to leave the area at once rather than being shown the site of the explosion. A second young member of the Narodnaya Volya, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, standing by the canal fence, raised both arms and threw something at the tsar's feet. He was alleged to have shouted, "It is too early to thank God".^[4] Dvorzhitsky was later to write:

The Church of the Savior on Blood commemorates the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated.

"I was deafened by the new explosion, burned, wounded and thrown to the ground. Suddenly, amid the smoke and snowy fog, I heard His Majesty's weak voice cry, 'Help!' Gathering what strength I had, I jumped up and rushed to the tsar. His Majesty was half-lying, half-sitting, leaning on his right arm. Thinking he was merely wounded heavily, I tried to lift him but the tsar's legs were shattered, and the blood poured out of them. Twenty people, with wounds of varying degree, lay on the sidewalk and on the street. Some managed to stand, others to crawl, still others tried to get out from beneath bodies that had fallen on them. Through the snow, debris, and blood you could see fragments of clothing, epaulets, sabers, and bloody chunks of human flesh."^[5]

Later it was learned there was a third bomber in the crowd. Ivan Emelyanov stood ready, clutching a briefcase containing a bomb that would be used if the other two bombers failed.

Alexander was carried by sleigh to the Winter Palace to his study where ironically, twenty years before almost to the date, he had signed the Emancipation Edict freeing the serfs. Alexander was bleeding to death, with his legs torn away, his stomach ripped open, and his face mutilated.^[6] Members of the Romanov family came rushing to the scene.

The dying tsar was given Communion and Extreme Unction. When the attending physician, Dr. S. P. Botkin, asked how long it would be, replied, "Up to fifteen minutes"^[7] At 3:30 that day the standard of Alexander II was lowered for the last time.

The assassination caused a great setback for the reform movement. One of Alexander II's last ideas was to draft plans for an elected parliament, or Duma, which were completed the day before he died but not yet released to the Russian people. The first action Alexander III took after his coronation was to tear up those plans. A Duma would not come into fruition until 1905, by Alexander II's grandson, Nicholas II, who commissioned the Duma following heavy pressure on the monarchy by the Russian Revolution of 1905.

A second consequence of the assassination was anti-Jewish pogroms and legislation. Though only one Jew was involved in the assassination conspiracy, over 200 Jews who had nothing to do with the murder of Alexander II were beaten to death in these pogroms.^{[citation needed]}

A third consequence of the assassination was that suppression of civil liberties in Russia and police brutality burst back in full force after experiencing some restraint under the reign of Alexander II. Alexander II's murder and subsequent death was witnessed firsthand by his son, Alexander III, and his grandson, Nicholas II, both future Tsars, who vowed not to have the same fate befall them. Both used the Okhrana to arrest protestors and uproot suspected rebel groups, creating further suppression of personal freedom for the Russian people.

Ancestors

v • d • e Ancestors of Alexander II of Russia

16. Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp               8. Peter III of Russia                       17. Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia               4. Paul I of Russia                             18. Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst               9. Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst Catherine II of Russia                       19. Princess Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp               2. Nicholas I of Russia                                   20. Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg               10. Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg                       21. Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis               5. Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg                             22. Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt               11. Margravine Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt                       23. Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia               1. Alexander II of Russia                                         24. Prince Augustus William of Prussia               12. Frederick William II of Prussia                       25. Duchess Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel               6. Frederick William III of Prussia                             26. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt               13. Landgravine Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt                       27. Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken               3. Princess Charlotte of Prussia                                   28. Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow               14. Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz                       29. Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen               7. Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz                             30. Landgrave George William of Hesse-Darmstadt               15. Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt                       31. Countess Maria of Leiningen-Dagsburg

See also

• Tsars of Russia family tree

Gallery

Portrait of Tsar Alexander II wearing the greatcoat and cap of the Imperial Horse-Guards Regiment. circa 1865	Photo of Tsar Alexander II. 1871	Alexander II, portrait by Konstantin Makovsky. 1881	The Monument to the Tsar Liberator in Sofia commemorates Alexander II's decisive role in the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.
A monument to Alexander II in Częstochowa, the spiritual heart of Poland.

References

1. ^ The McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world biography, vol. 1. McGraw-Hill, 1973. ISBN 9780070796331; p. 113
2. ^ This Day in History - March 13, 1881, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4833, retrieved 2009-11-11 
3. ^ Radzinsky, Edvard, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar,(Freepress 2005) p. 413
4. ^ Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, Dell Publishing Company, New York, p.16
5. ^ Ibid.p.415
6. ^ Massie, p.16
7. ^ Ibid. 419

This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (September 2009)

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Further reading

• Moss, Walter G., Alexander II and His Times: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. London: Anthem Press, 2002. online
• Radzinsky, Edvard, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005.
• Edward Crankshaw, Shadow of the Winter Palace : Russia's Drift to Revolution, 1825–1917, Perseus Books Group, ISBN 0306809400 (0-306-80940-0).
• https://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/baumann/baumann_ch2_pt1.pdf. On the conquests in Central Asia in the 1860s by people such as General Mikhail Grigorevich Chernyayev, (Cherniaev), (Russian: Михаил Григорьевич Черняев, 24 October 1828 – 16 August 1898), a.k.a. The Lion of Tashkent".
• Larissa Zakharova , Alexander II: Portrait of an Autocrat and His Times, Softcover, Westview Press, ISBN 0813314917 (0-8133-1491-7).
• Ben Eklof (Editor), Larissa Zakharova (Editor), John Bushnell (Editor), Softcover, "Russia's Great Reforms, 1855–1881", (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies). ISBN 0253208610 (0-253-20861-0)
• Russia in the Nineteenth Century: Autocracy, Reform, And Social Change, 1814–1914, by Alexander Polunow, Thomas C. Owen, Larissa G. Zakharova Softcover, M E Sharpe Inc, ISBN 0765606720 (0-7656-0672-0)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander II of Russia

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Alexander II Nikolaevitch

• The Assassination of Tsar Alexander II from In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)
• Insidious Siberian

Alexander II of Russia House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg Born: 17 April 1818 Died: 13 March 1881
Regnal titles
Preceded by Nicholas I	Emperor of Russia 2 March 1855 – 13 March 1881	Succeeded by Alexander III
Russian royalty
Preceded by Constantine I of Russia	Heir to the Russian Throne 1825–1855	Succeeded by Nicholas Alexandrovich

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Persondata
NAME	Alexander II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Nikolaevich, Aleksandr II
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Emperor of Russia
DATE OF BIRTH	17 April 1818(1818-04-17)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Moscow
DATE OF DEATH	13 March 1881
PLACE OF DEATH	St. Petersburg

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