Tsar of Russia (188194), born in St Petersburg, NW Russia, the younger son of Alexander II. He followed a repressive policy in home affairs, especially in the persecution of Jews (the pogroms), thousands of whom emigrated to the UK and USA. Abroad, he consolidated Russia's hold on C Asia to the frontier of Afghanistan, provoking a crisis with Britain (1885).
| Emperor Alexander III | ||
|---|---|---|
| Emperor of Russia | ||
| Painting by Ivan Kramskoi | ||
| Reign | 14 March 1881- 1 November 1894 | |
| Born | 10 March 1845 | |
| Died | 1 November 1894 | |
| Predecessor | Alexander II | |
| Successor | Nicholas II | |
| Consort | Maria Fyodorovna of Denmark | |
| Issue |
Nicholas II Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich Grand Duke George Alexandrovich Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna |
|
| Royal House | House of Romanov | |
| Father | Alexander II | |
| Mother | Marie of Hesse and by Rhine | |
Alexander III (March 10, 1845 – November 1, 1894) reigned as Emperor of Russia from March 14, 1881 until his death in 1894.
Early life
Alexander was born at St. Petersburg, the second son of Tsar Alexander II by his wife Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Rise to Power
During the first twenty years of his life, Alexander had little prospect of succeeding to the throne, because he had an elder brother, Nicholas, who seemed of robust constitution. Under these circumstances, the greatest solicitude was devoted to the education of Nicholas as tsarevich, whereas Alexander received only the perfunctory and inadequate training of an ordinary grand-duke of that period, which did not go much beyond secondary instruction, practical acquaintance with French, English and German, and a certain amount of military drill.
Education
Alexander became heir apparent by the sudden death of his elder brother in 1865. Pobedonostsev awakened in his pupil very little love for abstract studies or prolonged intellectual exertion, but he influenced the character of Alexander's reign by instilling into the young man's mind the belief that zeal for Russian Orthodox thought was an essential factor of Russian patriotism and that this was to be specially cultivated by every right-minded tsar.
On his deathbed, Alexander's elder brother Nicholas is said to have expressed the wish that his affianced bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor.
Foreign Relations
Alexander deprecated what he considered undue foreign influence in general, and German influence in particular, so the adoption of genuine national principles was off in all spheres of official activity, with a view to realizing his ideal of a homogeneous Russia—homogeneous in language, administration and religion.
The Bulgarians had been represented in St. Petersburg and Moscow not only as martyrs but also as saints, and a very little personal experience sufficed to correct the error.
In return for the Russian support, which had enabled him to create the German empire, it was thought that he would help Russia to solve the Eastern question in accordance with her own interests, but to the surprise and indignation of the cabinet of St. Petersburg he confined himself to acting the part of "honest broker" at the congress, and shortly afterwards he ostentatiously contracted an alliance with Austria for the express purpose of counteracting Russian designs in Eastern Europe.
Anti-reforms
During the campaign in Bulgaria he had found by painful experience that grave disorders and gross corruption existed in the military administration, and after his return to St. Petersburg he had discovered that similar abuses existed in the naval department.
In the last years of his reign, Alexander II had been much exercised by the spread of Nihilist doctrines and the increasing number of anarchist conspiracies, and for some time he had hesitated between strengthening the hands of the executive and making concessions to the widespread political aspirations of the educated classes.
Following advice of his political mentor Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Alexander III determined to adopt the opposite policy.
In foreign affairs he was emphatically a man of peace, but not at all a partisan of the doctrine of peace at any price, and he followed the principle that the best means of averting war is to be well prepared for it.
It was only in the last years of his reign, when Mikhail Katkov had acquired a certain influence over him, that he adopted towards the cabinet of Berlin a more hostile attitude, and even then he confined himself to keeping a large quantity of troops near the German frontier, and establishing cordial relations with France.
In 1887, once again the Peoples Will planned the murder of Tsar Alexander III.
In Central Asian affairs he followed the traditional policy of gradually extending Russian domination without provoking a conflict with the United Kingdom, and he never allowed the bellicose partisans of a forward policy to get out of hand. Alexander III was succeeded by his eldest son Nicholas II of Russia.
Emperor Alexander and his Danish-born wife regularly spent their summers in their Langinkoski manor near Kotka on the Finnish coast, where their children were immersed in a Scandinavian lifestyle of relative modesty.
The Czar Alexander's memorial is located in the city of Irkutsk at the enbankment of the Angara river.
Issue
Alexander III had six children of his marriage with Princess Dagmar of Denmark, later known as Marie Feodorovna. all dates prior to 1918 are in Old Style Calendar)
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tsar Nicholas II | May 6, 1868 | July 17, 1918 | married 1894, Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue |
| Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich | June 7, 1869 | May 2, 1870 | |
| Grand Duke George Alexandrovich | May 6, 1871 | August 9, 1899 | |
| Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna | April 6, 1875 | April 20, 1960 | married 1894, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov; had issue |
| Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich | November 22, 1878 | c.June 12, 1918 | married 1912, Natalya Sergeyevna Wulffert; had issue |
| Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna | June 13, 1882 | 24 November 1960 | married Peter Friedrich Georg, Duke of Oldenburg |
|
Preceded by: Alexander II |
Emperor of Russia March 14, 1881 – November 1, 1894 |
Succeeded by: Nicholas II |
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