Under Alexander's leadership, the Russian Empire engaged in theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878, resulting in the independence ofBulgaria,Montenegro,Romania, andSerbia from theOttoman Empire. His expansionism on the Far Eastern front led to the founding ofVladivostok, and he also approved Russian military plans on the Caucasian front that culminated in theCircassian genocide.[6] While he was disappointed by the results of theCongress of Berlin in 1878, he abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was aPolish uprising in January 1863, to which he responded by stripping Poland's separate constitution and directly incorporating the kingdom into the Russian Empire. In the period preceding his assassination in 1881, Alexander had been proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements in the region.[7]
His uncleEmperor Alexander I died childless.Grand Duke Konstantin, the next-younger brother of Alexander I, had previously renounced his rights to the throne of Russia. Thus, Alexander's father, who was the third son of Paul I, became the newEmperor; he took the nameNicholas I. At that time, Alexander becameTsesarevich as his father's heir to the throne.
In the period of his life asheir apparent (1825 to 1855), the intellectual atmosphere ofSaint Petersburg did not favour any kind of change:freedom of thought and all forms of private initiative were suppressed vigorously by the order of his father. Personal and official censorship was rife; criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offence.[9]
The education of thetsesarevich as future emperor took place under the supervision of the liberal romantic poet and gifted translatorVasily Zhukovsky,[10] grasping a smattering of a great many subjects and becoming familiar with the chief modernEuropean languages.[9] Unusually for the time, the young Alexander was taken on a six-month tour of Russia (1837), visiting 20 provinces in the country.[11] He also visited many prominent Western European countries[12] in 1838 and 1839. As Tsesarevich, Alexander became the firstRomanov heir to visitSiberia[13] (1837). While touring Russia, he also befriended the then-exiled poetAlexander Herzen and pardoned him. It was through Herzen's influence that he later abolishedserfdom in Russia.
In 1839, when his parents sent him on a tour of Europe, he met twenty-year-oldQueen Victoria and they became acquainted. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself.[14] In 1847, Alexander donated money toIreland during theGreat Famine.[15]
He has been described as looking like a German, somewhat of a pacifist, a heavy smoker and card player. He spoke Russian and German.[16]
The death of his father gave Alexander a diplomatic headache, for his father was engaged in open warfare in the southwest of his empire. On 15 January 1856, the new tsar took Russia out of theCrimean War on the very unfavourable terms of theTreaty of Paris (1856), which included the loss of theBlack Sea Fleet, and the provision that theBlack Sea was to be a demilitarized zone similar to a contemporaneous region of theBaltic Sea. This gave him room to breathe and pursue an ambitious plan of domestic reforms.
Encouraged by public opinion, Alexander began a period of radical reforms, including an attempt not to depend on landed aristocracy controlling the poor, an effort to develop Russia's natural resources, and to reform all branches of the administration.[9]
Boris Chicherin (1828–1904) was a political philosopher who believed that Russia needed a strong, authoritative government by Alexander to make the reforms possible. He praised Alexander for the range of his fundamental reforms, arguing that the tsar was:
called upon to execute one of the hardest tasks which can confront an autocratic ruler: to completely remodel the enormous state which had been entrusted to his care, to abolish an age-old order founded on slavery, to replace it with civic decency and freedom, to establish justice in a country which had never known the meaning of legality, to redesign the entire administration, to introduce freedom of the press in the context of untrammeled authority, to call new forces to life at every turn and set them on firm legal foundations, to put a repressed and humiliated society on its feet, and to give it the chance to flex its muscles.[17]
Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855. As Tsesarevich, he had been an enthusiastic supporter of his father's reactionary policies. That is, he always obeyed the autocratic ruler. But now he was the autocratic ruler himself, and fully intended to rule according to what he thought best. He rejected any moves to set up a parliamentary system that would curb his powers. He inherited a large mess that had been wrought by his father's fear of progress during his reign. Many of the other royal families of Europe had also disliked Nicholas I, which extended to distrust of theRomanov dynasty itself. Even so, there was no one more prepared to bring the country around than Alexander II.[18] The first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of theCrimean War and, after the fall ofSevastopol, to negotiations for peace led by his trusted counsellor, PrinceAlexander Gorchakov. The country had been exhausted and humiliated by the war.[19] Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were rampant.[20]
The Emancipation Reform of 1861 abolishedserfdom on private estates throughout the Russian Empire. By this edict more than 23 million people received their liberty.[21] Serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property, and to own a business. The measure was the first and most important of the liberal reforms made by Alexander II.
Polishlanded proprietors of the Lithuanian provinces presented a petition hoping that their relations with the serfs might be regulated in a way more satisfactory for the proprietors. Alexander II 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.[9] Without consulting his ordinary advisers, Alexander ordered the Minister of the Interior to send a circular to the provincial governors ofEuropean Russia (serfdom was rare in other parts) containing a copy of the instructions forwarded to theGovernor-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.[9]
Emancipation was not a simple goal capable of being achieved instantaneously by imperial decree. It contained complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social, and political future of the nation. Alexander had to choose between the different measures recommended to him and decide, if the serfs would become agricultural laborers dependent economically and administratively on the landlords, or if the serfs would be transformed into a class of independent communal proprietors.[9] 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 brotherKonstantin,Yakov Rostovtsev, andNikolay Milyutin. On 3 March 1861, six years after his accession, the emancipation law was signed and published.
A host of new reforms followed in diverse areas.[22][23] The tsar appointedDmitry Milyutin to carry out significant reforms in the Russian armed forces. Further important changes were made concerning industry and commerce, and the new freedom thus afforded produced a large number oflimited liability companies.[9] Plans were formed for building a great network of railways, partly to develop the natural resources of the country, and partly to increase its power for defense and attack.[9]
Military reforms included universalconscription, introduced for all social classes on 1 January 1874.[24] Prior to the new regulation, as of 1861, conscription was compulsorily enforced only for the peasantry. Conscription had been 25 years for serfs who were drafted by their landowners, which was widely considered to be a life sentence.[25] Other military reforms included extending the reserve forces and the military district system, which split the Russian states into 15 military districts, a system still in use over a hundred years later. The building of strategic railways and an emphasis on the military education of the officer corps comprised further reforms.Corporal punishment in the military and branding of soldiers as punishment were banned.[26] The bulk of important military reforms were enacted as a result of the poor showing in the Crimean War.
A new judicial administration (1864), based on the French model, introduced security of tenure.[27] A newpenal code anda greatly simplified system of civil and criminal procedure also came into operation.[28] Reorganisation of the judiciary occurred to include trial in open court, with judges appointed for life, a jury system, and the creation of justices of the peace to deal with minor offences at local level. Legal historian SirHenry Maine credited Alexander II with the first great attempt since the time ofGrotius to codify and humanise the usages of war.[29]
Alexander II with his uncle, German EmperorWilliam I, on a hunting trip together, 1872
Alexander's bureaucracy instituted 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 theMinister of the Interior.[1]
Under Alexander's rulesJews could not own land, and were restricted in travel. However special taxes on Jews were eliminated and those who graduated from secondary school were permitted to live outside thePale of Settlement, and became eligible for state employment. Large numbers of educated Jews moved as soon as possible to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other major cities.[30][31]
TheAlaska colony was losing money, and would be impossible to defend in wartime against Britain, so in 1867 Russiasold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million (equivalent to $162 million in 2024). The Russian administrators, soldiers, settlers, and some of the priests returned home. Others stayed to minister to their native parishioners, who remain members of theRussian Orthodox Church into the 21st century.[32]
Alexander maintained a generally liberal course.[33] Radicals complained he did not go far enough, and he became a target for numerous assassination plots. He survived attempts that took place in 1866, 1879, and 1880. Finally 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881, assassins organized by theNarodnaya Volya (People's Will) party killed him with a bomb. The Emperor had earlier in the day signed theLoris-Melikov constitution, which would have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives, had it not been repealed by his reactionary successorAlexander III.[34]
An attempted assassination in 1866 started a more conservative period that lasted until his death.[3] The Tsar made a series of new appointments, replacing liberal ministers with conservatives.[35] Under Minister of EducationDmitry Tolstoy, liberal university courses and subjects that encouraged critical thinking were replaced by a more traditional curriculum, and from 1871 onwards only students fromgymnasiums could progress to university.[36][35] In 1879, governor-generals were established with powers to prosecute in military courts and exile political offenders. The government also held show trials with the intention of deterring others from revolutionary activity, but after cases such as theTrial of the 193 where sympathetic juries acquitted many of the defendants,[37] this was abandoned.[35]
However, in 1856, at the beginning of his reign, Alexander made a memorable speech to the deputies of the Polish nobility who inhabitedCongress Poland, WesternUkraine,Lithuania,Livonia, andBelarus, in which he warned against further concessions with the words, "Gentlemen, let us have no dreams!"[40] This served as a warning to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The territories of the formerPoland-Lithuania were excluded from liberal policies introduced by Alexander. The result was theJanuary Uprising of 1863–1864 that was suppressed after eighteen months of fighting. Hundreds of Poles were executed, and thousands were deported toSiberia. The price of suppression was Russian support for theunification of Germany.[citation needed]
Themartial law in Lithuania, introduced in 1863, lasted for the next 40 years. Native languages,Ukrainian, andBelarusian, were completely banned from printed texts, theEms Ukase being an example. The authorities banned use of the Latin script for writing Lithuanian. ThePolish language was banned in both oral and written form from all provinces exceptCongress Poland, where it was allowed in private conversations only.
Nikolay Milyutin was installed as governor and he decided that the best response to the January Uprising was to make reforms regarding the peasants. He devised a program which involved the emancipation of the peasantry at the expense of the nationalistszlachta landowners and the expulsion ofRoman Catholic priests from schools.[41]Emancipation of the Polish peasantry from theirserf-like status took place in 1864, on more generous terms than the emancipation of Russian peasants in 1861.[42]
In 1863, Alexander II re-convened theDiet of Finland and initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy within the Russian Empire, including establishment of its own currency, theFinnish markka.[43] Liberation of business led to increasedforeign investment and industrial development. Finland also got its firstrailways, separately established under Finnish administration.[44] Finally, the elevation ofFinnish from a language of the common people to anational language equal toSwedish opened opportunities for a larger proportion of Finnish society. Alexander II is still regarded as "The Good Tsar" in Finland.[44]
These reforms could be seen as results of a genuine belief that reforms were easier to test in an underpopulated, homogeneous country than in the whole of Russia. They may also be seen as a reward for the loyalty of its relatively western-oriented population during theCrimean War and during thePolish uprising. Encouraging Finnish nationalism and language can also be seen as an attempt to dilute ties with Sweden.
During the Crimean WarAustria maintained a policy ofhostile neutrality towards Russia, and, while not going to war, was supportive of the Anglo-French coalition. Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria was diplomatically isolated following the war, which contributed to Russia's non-intervention in the 1859Franco-Austrian War, which meant the end of Austrian influence in Italy; and in the 1866Austro-Prussian War, with the loss of its influence in most German-speaking lands.[45]
During theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865), Russia supported theUnion, largely due to the view that the U.S. served as a counterbalance to their geopolitical rival,Great Britain. In 1863, theRussian Navy'sBaltic andPacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively.[46]
TheTreaty of Paris of 1856 stood until 1871, when Prussia defeated France in theFranco-Prussian War. During his reign,Napoleon III, eager for the support of the United Kingdom, had opposed Russia over theEastern Question. France abandoned its opposition to Russia after the establishment of theFrench Third Republic. Encouraged by the new attitude of French diplomacy and supported by the German ChancellorOtto von Bismarck, Russia renounced the Black Sea clauses of the Paris treaty agreed to in 1856. As the United Kingdom with Austria[47] could not enforce the clauses, Russia once again established afleet in the Black Sea. France, after the Franco-Prussian War and the loss ofAlsace–Lorraine, was fervently hostile to Germany and maintained friendly relations with Russia.
the matter of complete conquest of theCaucasus is near to conclusion. A few years of persistent efforts remain to utterly force out the hostile mountaineers from the fertile countries they occupy and settle on the latter aRussian Christian population forever.
Imam Shamil surrendered to Count Baryatinsky on 25 August 1859.
TheRusso-Circassian War (1763–1864) concluded as a Russian victory during Alexander II's rule. Just before the conclusion of the war the Russian Army, under the emperor's order, implemented the mass-killings and extermination ofCircassian "mountaineers" in theCircassian genocide, which would be often referred to as "cleansing" and "genocide" in several historic dialogues.[51][52]
In 1857,Dmitry Milyutin first published the idea ofmass expulsions of Circassian natives.[53] Milyutin argued that the goal was not to simply move them so that their land could be settled by productive farmers, but rather that "eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements".[53][54] Tsar Alexander II endorsed the plans.[53] A large portion of indigenousMuslim peoples of the region wereethnically cleansed[54] from their homeland at the end of theRusso-Circassian War by Russia. A largedeportation operation was launched against the remaining population before the end of the war in 1864[55] and it was mostly completed by 1867.[56] Only a small percentage accepted surrender and resettlement within theRussian Empire. The remaining Circassian populations who refused to surrender were thus variously dispersed, resettled, or killeden masse.[57]
In April 1876, theBulgarian population in the Balkans rebelled againstOttoman rule. The Ottoman authorities suppressed theApril Uprising, causing a general outcry throughout Europe. Some of the most prominent intellectuals and politicians on the Continent, most notablyVictor Hugo andWilliam Gladstone, sought to raise awareness about the atrocities that the Turks imposed on the Bulgarian population. To solve this new crisis in the "Eastern question" aConstantinople Conference was convened by the Great Powers in Constantinople at the end of the year. The participants in the Conference failed to reach a final agreement.
After the failure of the Constantinople Conference, at the beginning of 1877, Emperor Alexander II started diplomatic preparations with the other Great Powers to secure their neutrality in case of a war between Russia and the Ottomans. Alexander II considered such agreements paramount in avoiding the possibility of causing his country a disaster similar to the Crimean War.[43]
The Russian Emperor succeeded in his diplomatic endeavors. Having secured agreement as to non-involvement by the other Great Powers, on 17 April 1877 Russia declared war upon the Ottoman Empire. The Russians, helped by the Romanian Army under its supreme commander King Carol I (then Prince of Romania), who sought to obtain Romanian independence from the Ottomans as well, were successful against the Turks and theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878 ended with the signing of the preliminary peaceTreaty of San Stefano on 19 February [O.S. 3 March] 1878. The treaty and the subsequentCongress of Berlin (June–July 1878) secured the emergence of an independent Bulgarian state for the first time since 1396, and Bulgarian parliamentarians elected the tsar's nephew,Prince Alexander of Battenberg, as the Bulgarians' first ruler.
For his social reforms in Russia and his role in the liberation of Bulgaria, Alexander II became known in Bulgaria as the "Tsar-Liberator of Russians and Bulgarians". Amonument to Alexander II was erected in 1907 in Sofia in the "National Assembly" square, opposite to the Parliament building.[43] The monument underwent a complete reconstruction in 2012, funded by the Sofia Municipality and some Russian foundations. The inscription on the monument reads in Old-Bulgarian style: "To the Tsar-Liberator from grateful Bulgaria". There is a museum dedicated to Alexander in the Bulgarian city ofPleven.
In April 1866, there was an attempt on the emperor's life inSt. Petersburg byDmitry Karakozov.[58] 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 (which was never built) to commemorate the event.Modest Mussorgsky later wrote his piano suitePictures at an Exhibition, the last movement of which, "The Great Gate of Kiev", is based on Hartmann's sketches.[citation needed]
During the1867 World's Fair in Paris, Polish immigrantAntoni Berezowski attacked the carriage containing Alexander, his two sons andNapoleon III.[59] His self-modified double-barreled pistol misfired and struck the horse of an escorting cavalryman.[citation needed]
On the morning of 20 April 1879, Alexander was briskly walking towards the Square of the Guards Staff and facedAlexander Soloviev, a 33-year-old former student. Having seen a menacing revolver in his hands, the Emperor fled in a zigzag pattern. Soloviev fired five times but missed; he was sentenced to death and hanged on 28 May.[citation needed]
The student acted on his own, but other revolutionaries were keen to murder Alexander.[60] In December 1879, theNarodnaya Volya (People's Will), a radical revolutionary group which hoped to ignite asocial revolution, organised an explosion on the railway fromLivadia[citation needed] to Moscow, but they missed the emperor's train.[citation needed]
On the evening of 5 February 1880,Stephan Khalturin, also fromNarodnaya Volya, set off a timed charge under the dining room of theWinter Palace, right in the resting room of the guards a story below, killing 11 people and wounding 30 others.[60]The New York Times (4 March 1880) reported "the dynamite used was enclosed in an iron box, and exploded by a system of clockwork used by the manThomas in Bremen some years ago."[61] However, dinner had been delayed by the late arrival of the tsar's nephew, thePrince of Bulgaria, so the tsar and his family were not in the dining room at the time of the explosion and were unharmed.[60]
The explosion killed one of the Cossacks and wounded the driver.The assassination of Alexander II, drawing by G. Broling, 1881
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.[citation needed]
As he was known to do every Sunday for many years, the emperor went to theMikhailovsky Manège for the militaryroll call. He travelled both to and from theManège in a closed carriage accompanied by fiveCossacks and Frank (Franciszek) Joseph Jackowski, a Polish noble, with a sixth Cossack[63] sitting on the coachman's left. The emperor's carriage was followed by two sleighs carrying, among others, the chief of police and the chief of the emperor's guards. The route, as always, was via theCatherine Canal and over thePevchesky Bridge.[citation needed]
The street was flanked by narrow pavements for the public. A young member of theNarodnaya Volya ("People's Will") movement,Nikolai Rysakov,[60] was carrying a small white package wrapped in a handkerchief. He later said of his attempt to kill the Tsar:
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.[64]
The explosion, while killing one of theCossacks and seriously wounding the driver and people on the sidewalk,[60] had only damaged thebulletproof carriage, a gift fromNapoleon III of France. The emperor emerged shaken but unhurt.[60] Rysakov was captured almost immediately. Police Chief Dvorzhitzky heard Rysakov shout out to someone else in the gathering crowd. Dvorzhitzky offered to drive the Tsar back to the Palace in his sleigh. The Tsar agreed, but he decided to first see the culprit, and to survey the damage. He expressed solicitude for the victims. To the anxious inquires of his entourage, Alexander replied, "Thank God, I'm untouched".
Nevertheless, a second young member of theNarodnaya Volya,Ignacy Hryniewiecki,[60] standing by the canal fence, raised both arms and threw something at the emperor's feet. He was alleged to have shouted, "It is too early to thank God".[65] Dvorzhitzky was later to write:
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 emperor. 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 czar'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, sabres, and bloody chunks of human flesh.[66]
Later, it was learnt there was a third bomber in the crowd.Ivan Emelyanov stood ready, clutching a briefcase containing a bomb that was to be used if the other two bombers failed.[67]
Alexander was carried by sleigh to theWinter Palace[60] to his study where almost the same day twenty years earlier, he had signed theEmancipation Edict freeing the serfs. Alexander was bleeding to death, with broken legs, bleeding knees, his stomach ripped open, and his face mutilated.[68] Members of theRomanov family came rushing to the scene.[citation needed]
Alexander II on his deathbed
The dying emperor was givenCommunion andLast Rites. When the attending physician,Sergey Botkin, was asked how long it would be, he replied, "Up to fifteen minutes."[69] At 3:30 that day, the standard of Alexander II (his personal flag) was lowered for the last time.[citation needed]
TheChurch of the Savior on Blood was built on the site of Alexander II's assassination.Alexander II, also known as theGrand Duke of Finland, was well regarded among the majority ofFinns.[70] Statue of Alexander II at theSenate Square inHelsinki, Finland, flowered on 13 March 1899, the day of the commemoration of the emperor's death.
Alexander II's death caused a great setback for the reform movement. One of his last acts was the approval ofMikhail Loris-Melikov'sconstitutional reforms.[71] Though the reforms were conservative in practice, their significance lay in the value Alexander II attributed to them: "I have given my approval, but I do not hide from myself the fact that it is the first step towards a constitution."[72]In a matter of 48 hours, Alexander II planned to release these plans to the Russian people. Instead, following his succession, Alexander III, under the advice ofKonstantin Pobedonostsev, chose to abandon these reforms and went on to pursue a policy of greater autocratic power.[73]
The assassination triggered major suppression of civil liberties in Russia, andpolice brutality burst back in full force after experiencing some restraint under the reign of Alexander II, whose death was witnessed firsthand by his son,Alexander III, and his grandson,Nicholas II, both future emperors who vowed not to have the same fate befall them. Both of them used theOkhrana to arrest protestors and uproot suspected rebel groups, creating further suppression of personal freedom for the Russian people. A series of anti-Jewishpogroms and antisemitic legislation, theMay Laws, were yet another result.[43]
Finally, the tsar's assassination also inspiredanarchists to advocate "'propaganda by deed'—the use of a spectacular act of violence to incite revolution."[74]
In 1881, theAlexander Church, designed by Theodor Decker and named after Alexander II, was completed inTampere.[75][76] Also, with construction starting in 1883, theChurch of the Savior on Blood was built on the site of Alexander's assassination and dedicated in his memory.
In 1838–39, the young bachelor, Alexander made theGrand Tour of Europe which was standard for young men of his class at that time. One of the purposes of the tour was to select a suitable bride for himself. His fatherNicholas I of Russia suggestedPrincess Alexandrine of Baden as a suitable choice, but he was prepared to allow Alexander to choose his own bride, as long as she was not Roman Catholic or a commoner.[77] Alexander stayed for three days with the maidenQueen Victoria. The two got along well, but there was no question of marriage between two major monarchs.[citation needed]
In Germany, Alexander made an unplanned stop in Darmstadt. He was reluctant to spend "a possibly dull evening" with their hostLouis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, but he agreed to do so becauseVasily Zhukovsky insisted that his entourage was exhausted and needed a rest.[77] During dinner, he met and was charmed byPrincess Marie, the 14-year-old daughter of Louis II. He was so smitten that he declared that he would rather abandon the succession than not marry her.[78] He wrote to his father: "I liked her terribly at first sight. If you permit it, dear father, I will come back to Darmstadt after England."[79] When he left Darmstadt, she gave him a locket that contained a piece of her hair.[78]
Alexander's parents initially did not support his decision to marry Princess Marie of Hesse. There were troubling rumors about her paternity. Although she was the legal daughter of Louis II, there were rumors that Marie was the biological daughter of her mother's lover,Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy.[78] Alexander's parents worried that Marie could have inherited her mother's tendency toconsumption. Alexander'smother considered the Hesse family grossly inferior to the Hohenzollerns and Romanovs.[78]
In April 1840, Alexander's engagement to Princess Marie was officially announced.[80] In August, the 16-year-old Marie left Darmstadt for Russia.[80] In December, she was received into the Orthodox Church and received the namesMaria Alexandrovna.[81]
On 16 April 1841, aged 23, Tsesarevitch Alexander married Marie in St. Petersburg.
Alexander's second son,Grand Duke Alexander became heir and married his latebrother's fiancée. The couple married in November 1866, with Dagmar converting to Orthodoxy and taking the name Maria Feodorovna.[citation needed]
Alexander's favorite child was his daughter,Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. He reflected that his daughter had "never caused us anything but joy. We lost our eldest girl and we had so ardently wished for another – her birth was a joy and a delight, not to be described, and her whole life has been a continuation."[84] In 1873, a quarrel broke out between the courts of Queen Victoria and Alexander II, when Victoria's second son,Prince Alfred, made it known that he wished to marry the Grand Duchess. The tsar objected to the queen's request to have his daughter come to England in order to meet her,[85] and after the January 1874 wedding in St. Petersburg, the tsar insisted that his daughter be granted precedence over the Princess of Wales, which the queen rebuffed.[86] Later that year, after attending the engagement ceremonies of his second surviving son,Vladimir, toMarie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Berlin, Alexander II, with his third son,Alexei, accompanying him, made a visit to England.[87] While not a state visit, but simply a trip to see his daughter, he nevertheless partook in receptions at Buckingham Palace and Marlborough House, inspected the artillery at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, reviewed troops at Aldershot and met both Prime MinisterBenjamin Disraeli and the leader of the opposition,William Gladstone.[88] Disraeli observed of the tsar that "his mien and manners are gracious and graceful, but the expression of his countenance, which I could now very closely examine, is sad. Whether it is satiety, or the loneliness of despotism, or fear of a violent death, I know not, but it was a visage of, I should think, habitual mournfulness."[88]
In 1866, Alexander II took a mistress,Catherine Dolgorukova, with whom he would father three surviving children. In 1880, he moved his mistress and their children into the Winter Palace. Alexander's affair alienated all his children except Alexei and Marie Alexandrovna.[89] Courtiers spread stories that the dying Empress Marie was forced to hear the noise of Catherine's children moving about overhead, but their respective rooms were actually far.[90] In May 1880, Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna visited Russia to see her dying mother. She was horrified to learn that Catherine lived in the Palace and she confronted him.[91] Shocked by the loss of support from his daughter, he quietly retreated toGatchina Palace for military reviews.[91] The quarrel, however, evidently, jolted his conscience enough to lead him to return to St. Petersburg each morning to ask after his wife's health.[91]
Empress Marie Alexandrovna suffered fromtuberculosis. She succumbed to it on 3 June 1880.
Tsar Alexander II, photo bySergei Lvovich Levitsky, 1881 (The Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection, Toronto, Canada)
On 18 July [O.S. 6 July] 1880, Alexander II married his mistressCatherine Dolgorukovamorganatically in a secret ceremony atTsarskoye Selo.[92] The action scandalized both his family and the court. It violated Orthodox custom which required a minimum period of 40 days mourning between the death of a spouse and the remarriage of a surviving spouse, eliciting criticism in foreign courts.[93] Alexander bestowed on Catherine the title of Princess Yurievskaya and legitimized their children.[93]
Before their marriage, Alexander and Catherine had four children:
Alexander II appears prominently in the opening two chapters ofJules Verne'sMichael Strogoff (published in 1876 during Alexander's own lifetime). The Emperor sets the book's plot in motion and sends its eponymous protagonist on the dangerous and vital mission which would occupy the rest of the book. Verne presents Alexander II in a highly positive light, as an enlightened yet firm monarch, dealing confidently and decisively with a rebellion. Alexander's liberalism shows in a dialogue with the chief of police, who says "There was a time, sire, when NONE returned from Siberia", to be immediately rebuked by the Emperor who answers:"Well, whilst I live, Siberia is and shall be a country whence men CAN return."[94]
The filmsKatia (1938) andMagnificent Sinner (1959) depict a highly fictionalized account of the Tsar's romance with the woman who became his second wife.
InThe Tiger in the Well,Philip Pullman refers to the assassination – though he never names Alexander – and to the pogroms that followed. The anti-Jewish attacks play an important role in the novel's plot.Andrew Williams's historical thriller, To Kill A Tsar, tells the story of The People's Will revolutionaries and the assassination through the eyes of an Anglo-Russian doctor living in St Petersburg.
Oscar Wilde's first play,Vera; or, The Nihilists, written in 1879, features Russian revolutionaries who seek to assassinate a fictional tsar.[95] It was originally planned to be staged in 1881 in London, but when Alexander II was actually assassinated that year, the play was canceled.[95] The play was produced again in New York in 1883, but to poor reviews, and has remained virtually unknown ever since.[96]
Alexander II's reasons tosell Alaska to the United States in 1867 are fictionized in the epilogue of the novelForty-Ninth[97] by Boris Pronsky and Craig Britton, in a form of a letter to Catherine Dolgorukova. Prior to that, the book explores the events immediately after the first assassination attempt on the Tsar in 1866, as well as the relationship with his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich.
Mark Twain describes a short visit with Alexander II in Chapter 37 ofThe Innocents Abroad, describing him as "very tall and spare, and a determined-looking man, though a very pleasant-looking one nevertheless. It is easy to see that he is kind and affectionate. There is something very noble in his expression when his cap is off."[98]
^King, Charles.The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. p. 94.In a policy memorandum in of 1857, Dmitri Milyutin, chief-of-staff to Bariatinskii, summarized the new thinking on dealing with the northwestern highlanders. The idea, Milyutin argued, was not to clear the highlands and coastal areas of Circassians so that these regions could be settled by productive farmers...[but] Rather, eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements.Tsar Alexander II formally approved the resettlement plan...Milyutin, who would eventually become minister of war, was to see his plans realized in the early 1860s.
^Edvard Radzinsky,Alexander II: the Last Great Tsar, p. 63.
^Edvard Radzinsky,Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar, pp. 65–69, 190–91 & 199–200.
^Radzinsky, Edvard (2005). "How to Bring Up a Caesar".Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. Translated byBouis, Antonina (reprint ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 62.ISBN978-0743281973.The tsesarevich was the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia, where convicts and exiles were sent.
^Justin McCarthy,Death and Exile, the Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922, Princeton, New Jersey, 1995
^abcKing, Charles.The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. p. 94. "In a policy memorandum in of 1857, Dmitri Milyutin, chief-of-staff to Bariatinskii, summarized the new thinking on dealing with the northwestern highlanders. The idea, Milyutin argued, was not to clear the highlands and coastal areas of Circassians so that these regions could be settled by productive farmers ... [but] Rather, eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements.Tsar Alexander II formally approved the resettlement plan ... Milyutin, who would eventually become minister of war, was to see his plans realized in the early 1860s".
^abRichmond 2008, p. 79. "In his memoirsMilutin, who proposed deporting Circassians from the mountains as early as 1857, recalls: "the plan of action decided upon for 1860 was to cleanse [ochistit'] the mountain zone of its indigenous population".
^King, Charles.The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. p. 95.. "One after another, entire Circassian tribal groups were dispersed, resettled, or killed en masse".
^Verhoeven, Claudia (2009).The odd man Karakozov: Imperial Russia, modernity, and the birth of terrorism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-4652-8.
^Tarsaidze, Alexandre (1970).Katia: Wife before God. New York: Macmillan.
^Heilbronner, Hans, 'Alexander III and the Reform Plan of Loris-Melikov',The Journal of Modern History, 33:4 (1961) 384–97 [386]
^Venturi, Franco,Roots of Revolution: A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in Nineteenth Century Russia, trans. by Francis Haskell (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960)
^abJohn Van der Kiste, "The Romanovs 1818–1959," p. 11
^abcdJohn Van der Kiste, "The Romanovs 1818–1959," p. 12
^Edvard Radzinsky, "Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar," p. 67
^abJohn Van der Kiste, "The Romanovs 1818–1959," p. 13
^"Alexander II of Russia".Spirit of the Times; A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage (1835–1861).25: 304. 11 August 1855.
^John Van der Kiste, "The Romanovs 1818–1959," p. 30
^M. Wattel; B. Wattel (2009).Les Grand'Croix de la Légion d'honneur de 1805 à nos jours. Titulaires français et étrangers. Paris: Archives & Culture. p. 514.ISBN978-2-35077-135-9.
^Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1840), "Großherzogliche Hausorden"p. 7Archived 7 June 2020 at theWayback Machine
Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Great Reforms: Autocracy, Bureaucracy, and the Politics of Change in Imperial Russia (1990)
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.onlineArchived 12 January 2006 atarchive.today
Pereira, N.G.O.,Tsar Emancipator: Alexander II of Russia, 1818–1881, Newtonville, Mass: Oriental Research Partners, 1983.
Polunow, Alexander (2005).Russia in the Nineteenth Century: Autocracy, Reform, And Social Change, 1814–1914. M E Sharpe Incorporated.ISBN978-0-7656-0672-3.
Radzinsky, Edvard,Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005.
Watts, Carl Peter. "Alexander II's Reforms: Causes and Consequences"History Review (1998): 6–15.OnlineArchived 18 April 2022 at theWayback Machine
Zakharova, Larissa (1910).Alexander II: Portrait of an Autocrat and His Times. Perseus Books.ISBN978-0-8133-1491-4.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
"Alexander II (Obituary Notice, Monday, March 14, 1881)".Eminent Persons: Biographies reprinted from the Times. Vol. II (1876–1881). London: Macmillan and Co. 1893. pp. 268–291.hdl:2027/osu.32435022453492.
.jpg)
.jpg)
_detail_01.jpg)
.jpg)
_monument_in_Helsinki%2c_Finland.jpg)
_-_panoramio.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_detail.jpg)
.jpg)
