Global InformationAlexander II of Russia information
| Alexander II | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Photograph, 1878–81 | |||||
| Emperor of Russia | |||||
| Reign | 2 March 1855 – 13 March 1881 | ||||
| Coronation | 7 September 1856 | ||||
| Predecessor | Nicholas I | ||||
| Successor | Alexander III | ||||
| Born | 29 April 1818 Moscow Kremlin, Moscow Governorate, Russian Empire | ||||
| Died | 13 March 1881 (aged 62) Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | ||||
| Burial | Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | ||||
| Spouses | Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
(m. 1841; died 1880)Catherine Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (morganatic)
(m. 1880) | ||||
| Issue among others... |
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| House | Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov | ||||
| Father | Nicholas I of Russia | ||||
| Mother | Charlotte of Prussia | ||||
| Religion | Russian Orthodox | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
Alexander II (Russian: Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, tr. Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ]; 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881)[a] was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881.[1] Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Алекса́ндр Освободи́тель, tr. Aleksándr Osvobodítel, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐsvəbɐˈdʲitʲɪlʲ]).
The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment,[2] promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more conservative stance until his death.[3]
Alexander was also notable for his foreign policy, which was mainly pacifist, supportive of the United States, and opposite of Great Britain. Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and sent warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay ostensibly to deter attacks by the Confederate Navy[4] and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there were another war.[5] He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation.
Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78, leading to the independence of the Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Romanian and Serbian states, and pursued further expansion into the Far East, leading to the founding of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok; the Caucasus, approving plans leading to the Circassian genocide;[6] and Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881.[7]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Wallace 1911, p. 561.
- ^ "Reformation by the Tsar Liberator". InfoRefuge. 16 October 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
- ^ "Alexander II | emperor of Russia". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
- ^ Yegorov, Oleg (16 August 2017). "What role did Russia play in the U.S. Civil War?". Russia Beyond.
- ^ Claus-M., Naske (1987). Alaska, a history of the 49th state. Slotnick, Herman E. (2nd ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0806125732. OCLC 44965514.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Контрреформы 1889–1892 гг.: Содержание контрреформ // Николай Троицкий". scepsis.net (in Russian).