Alexander II (1818-1881)

Alexander II Nikolaevich the Liberator (1818-1881) - emperor since 1855. The eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I (1796-1855) and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (1798-1860). Statesman, reformer, diplomat. He was married to the German princess Maximilian-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt (1824-1880), who was named Maria Alexandrovna after the adoption of Orthodoxy. This marriage had 8 children, including the future emperor Alexander III (1845-1894). After the death of his wife Maria Alexandrovna, he entered into a morganatic marriage in 1880 with Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (1849-1922), who, after her marriage to the emperor, received the title of His Serene Princess Yuryevskaya. From E. M. Dolgorukova, Alexander II had three children, who inherited the surname and title of their mother. He inherited the throne on February 18 / March 3, 1855 at the end of the Crimean War, which was unsuccessful for Russia, which he managed to end with minimal losses for the Empire. He was married to the throne in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on August 26 / September 8, 1856. He began the Epoch of Great Reforms that put an end to the serf system and aimed at eliminating class contradictions. The first in a series of major transformations of Alexander II was the abolition of serfdom (February 19 / March 4, 1861). The police, financial, university and the entire secular and spiritual educational system as a whole was reformed. The beginning of the creation of all-estates zemstvo institutions, which were entrusted with the management of economic and other social issues at the local level, dates back to 1864. In 1874, he introduced a six-year general military service for young people from the age of 21. The internal and external wars of Emperor Alexander II were victorious. In 1864, the Caucasus War ended happily with the capture of Imam Shamil. According to the Aigun and Peking treaties with the Chinese Empire, Russia annexed the Amur and Ussuri regions in 1858-1860. In 1867-1873, the Empire expanded through the conquest of the Turkestan Territory and the Fergana Valley and the voluntary entry of the Bukhara Emirate and the Khiva Khanate as vassal. At the same time, in 1867, the overseas possessions - Alaska and the Aleutian Islands - were ceded to the United American Northern States, with which good relations were established during the American Civil War between North and South. In 1877, the Emperor, driven by sympathy for the oppressed Orthodox Balkan peoples, declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was defeated, which predetermined the state independence of Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro. The Russian Empire returned the part of Bessarabia that had been torn away in 1856 and annexed Ardahan, Batum and Kars. 1/14 March 1881 The Emperor was villainously killed by terrorists on the Catherine Canal. The fatal role was played by the fact that after the first explosion, which damaged the Emperor's carriage, but did not cause him the slightest damage, Alexander II, neglecting his safety, went out to help the wounded - a passing boy and a Cossack from the Convoy. At that moment, the terrorist I. Grinevitsky threw the second hellish machine right under the feet of the Emperor. Mortally wounded and experiencing terrible torment, the Sovereign maintained his presence of mind until the last minute and asked about the condition of his subjects who suffered during the assassination attempt. He died in the Winter Palace and was buried in the Ancestral Tomb of the Romanov Dynasty in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. On the site of the Tsar's martyrdom, a majestic church was erected - the Savior on the Blood. Alexander II entered the history of Russia and the whole world with the name of the Tsar-Liberator. His eldest son, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, died in Nice on April 11/24, 1865 from tuberculosis, and the throne was inherited by his second son, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich.