THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ALEXANDER II

Also Known as Alexander the Liberator, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, King of Poland, and Grand Prince of Finland

YOUTH (1827)

YOUTH

Born on March 2, 1818

He was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia, and was therefore reared for the throne.

He was also tutored by Vasily Zhukovski, a prominent poet and literary critic.

He went on a six-month tour of Russia at the age of 19, and became the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia…

YOUNG MAN

EUROPEAN TOUR

…And then went on an extensive tour of Europe, visiting several different countries.

While abroad, he dated Queen Victoria in 1839, but decided against marrying her because the Tsar didn’t just want him to be Crown Prince of England.

He also met Princess Marie of Hesse while traveling, and married her in 1841.

CORONATION (1856)

THRUST INTO POWER

The previous Tsar, Nicholas I, died in 1855, in the middle of the Crimean War, and left his throne for Alexander,.

He signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856, and that ended the conflict.

The Crimean War proved that Russia was no longer an important world power, for one major reason: none of the other European countries were still practicing serfdom.

EMANCIPATION (1860)

EMANCIPATION

When Alexander’s advisors told him that Russia’s serf-based economy could not compete with industrialized nations, such as Britain and France, because of serfdom, he began to consider emancipating the serfs.

In 1861, he announced the Emancipation Manifesto, a document with 17 legislative acts that would free the serfs, allowing them to buy land from their landlords.

PERSONAL LIFE (1870)

PERSONAL LIFE

Pictured are Alexander II, his wife Maria Alexandrovich, (formerly Marie of Hesse) and his eldest surviving son, the future Alexander III.

Alexander II also had many mistresses, and fathered at least six illegitimate children.

He also had a dog named Milord, who was an Irish Setter, who he frequently took on walks through St. Petersburg.

REFORMS (1865)

REFORMS

In 1863, he re-established the Diet of Finland, and granted virtual autonomy from Russia to that Scandinavian country. The Finns loved him because of this, as the monument pictured in a few pages will suggests.

In 1864, he allowed each district to set up a Zemstvo, or local council with powers to provide roads, schools, and medical services; however, only the rich could elect members.

He improved municipal government by 1870, and started universal military conscription in 1874.

REFORMS

Finally, he created the Russian railway system so that peasants could sell their newly earned land’s crops, especially wheat, to the cities, who would pay significantly more than the people at home.

He also announced that he was thinking about a plan that would make Russia a parliamentary democracy in 1880, but then…

DEATH (1881)

DEATH

On March 13, 1881, the very day that he was to announce that he would create a Duma, or Russian parliament, he was assassinated by a revolutionary group called the Narodnaya Volya, or the People’s Will.

The first bomb thrown missed him, but the second not only severely injured the Emperor, but also killed the man who threw it, one Ignaty Grinevitsky.

The Emperor died at 3:30 that afternoon.

LEGACY

LEGACY

Ironically, because of the assassination, there would be no Duma in Russia until 1905, and by then it was too late to change the course of events.

Oppression resumed for the Russian people under Alexander III and Nicholas II.

However, he was fondly remembered by everyone in Russia and in Finland.

MILORD & ALEXANDER (1870)

CONNECTION TO F&S

Fathers and Sons happens during the early years of his reign, before he had initiated most of his reforms, including the emancipation of the serfs.

These reforms vastly improved the lives of peasants and servants, like Pyotr and Fenchenka

Finally, radicals like Bazarov might have joined groups like the Narodnaya Volya, although I’m quite sure that Turgenev would never have written about this, because as the introduction said, he didn’t want to go to Siberia.