Tsar of Russia from 1855, born in St Petersburg, NW Russia, the son of Nicholas I. He succeeded to the throne during the Crimean War, and signed the Treaty of Paris which ended it in 1856. A determined reformer, the great achievement of his reign was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 (hence his byname), followed by reform of the legal and administrative systems, and the establishment of elected assemblies in the provinces. Despite his liberal views, his government was severe in repressing peasant unrest and revolutionary movements, and he was assassinated.
| Alexander II Nikolaevitch | ||
|---|---|---|
| Emperor of the Russian Empire | ||
| Reign | March 2, 1855-March 13, 1881 | |
| Coronation | March 2, 1855 | |
| Born | April 17, 1818 | |
| Moscow | ||
| Died | March 13, 1881 | |
| St. Petersburg | ||
| Predecessor | Nicholas I | |
| Successor | Alexander III | |
| Consort | Marie of Hesse and by Rhine | |
| Issue |
Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich Tsar Alexander III (Alexandrovich) Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich |
|
| Royal House | House of Romanov | |
| Father | Nicholas I | |
| Mother | Charlotte of Prussia | |
Alexander (Aleksandr) II Nikolaevitch (Russian: Александр II Николаевич) (born April 17, 1818 in Moscow;
Born in 1818, he was the eldest son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Early life
In the period of thirty years during which he was heir apparent, the atmosphere of St. Petersburg was unfavourable to the development of any intellectual or political innovation.
Under supervision of the liberal poet Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander received the education commonly given to young Russians of good family at that time: a smattering of a great many subjects, and exposure to the chief modern European languages.
Emperor
Alexander succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855.
Fortunately for Russia the autocratic power was now in the hands of a man who was impressionable enough to be deeply influenced by the spirit of the time, and who had sufficient prudence and practicality to prevent his being carried away by the prevailing excitement into the dangerous region of Utopian dreaming.
However, the growth of a revolutionary movement to the "left" of the educated classes led to an abrupt end to Alexander's changes when he was assassinated by a bomb in 1881. It is interesting to note that after Alexander became czar in 1855, he maintained a generally liberal course at the helm while providing a target for numerous assassination attempts (1866, 1873, 1880)..
Emancipation of the serfs
Though he carefully guarded his autocratic rights and privileges, and obstinately resisted all efforts to push him farther than he felt inclined to go, Alexander for several years acted somewhat like a constitutional sovereign of the continental type. 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.
Alexander had little of the special knowledge required for dealing successfully with such problems, and he had to restrict himself to choosing between the different measures recommended to him.
The architects of the emancipation manifesto were Alexander's brother Konstantin, Yakov Rostovtsev, and Nikolay Milyutin.
Other reforms
Other reforms followed: army and navy re-organization (1874);
Alexander II resolved to try the effect of some moderate liberal reforms in an attempt to quell the revolutionary agitation, and for this purpose he instituted a ukase for creating special commissions, composed of high officials and private personages who should prepare reforms in various branches of the administration.
Marriages and children
On April 16, 1841 he married Princess Marie of Hesse in St. Petersburg, the daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, thereafter known as Maria Alexandrovna. The marriage produced six sons and two daughters:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna | August 30, 1842 | July 10, 1849 | |
| Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich | September 20, 1843 | April 24, 1865 | engaged to Dagmar of Denmark |
| Tsar Alexander III | March 10, 1845 | November 1, 1894 | married 1866, Dagmar of Denmark; had issue |
| Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich | April 22, 1847 | February 17, 1909 | married 1874, Princess Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; had issue |
| Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich | January 14, 1850 | November 14, 1908 | married 1867/1870, Alexandra Vasilievna Zhukovskaya; had issue |
| Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna | October 17, 1853 | October 20, 1920 | married 1874, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh; had issue |
| Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich | April 29, 1857 | February 4, 1905 | married 1884, Elizabeth of Hesse; |
| Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich | October 3, 1860 | January 24, 1919 | married 1889, Alexandra of Greece and Denmark; had issue |
On July 6, 1880, less than a month after Tsarina Maria's death on June 8, Alexander formed a morganatic marriage with his mistress Princess Catherine Dolgoruki, with whom he already had three children.
Suppression of national movements
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.
All territories of the former Poland-Lithuania were excluded from liberal policies introduced by Alexander.
Rewarding loyalty and encouraging Finnish nationalism
Comparison with the treatment of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland is very interesting. In 1863 Alexander II re-established the Diet of Finland and initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy from Russia including establishment of own currency, the Markka.
Alexander's attitude towards Finland should be seen as genuine belief in reforms.
Assassination attempts
In 1866 there was an attempt on his life in Petersburg by Dmitry Karakozov.
On the morning of April 20, 1879, Alexander II was walking towards the Square of the Guards Staff and faced Alexander Soloviev, a 33 year-old former student.
The student acted on his own, but other revolutionaries were keen to kill Alexander.
Assassination
After the last assassination attempt, Count Loris-Melikov was appointed the head of the Supreme Executive Commission and given extraordinary powers to fight the revolutionaries.
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