Alexander (of Russia) II - Early life, Emperor, Emancipation of the serfs, Other reforms, Marriages and children, Suppression of national movements

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.

Portions of the summary below have been contributed by Wikipedia.

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.