Emperor Alexander II, Reformer & Liberator

Most historians acknowledge Alexander’s gradual change in thinking over the 26 years of his reign by discussing a combination of three major influences on his decision to move away from autocracy toward sharing rule with the Russian people.

His Father’s Influence

Alexander was influenced by his father, Nicholas I, who was the third son of Paul I and not prepared to reign. Because Nicholas felt he lacked the necessary skills and knowledge to reign, he relied on brute force. As a result, Alexander II grew up under his father’s motto of “autocracy, Orthodoxy and nationality.” In hindsight, Nicholas’ doctrines of maintaining the primitive Slavic life and culture caused Russia to fall behind Western Europe’s progress, making it difficult for the next heir to inherit the Romanov throne.

The Crimean and Ottoman Wars

These wars wore Alexander down. He inherited his father’s position in the Crimean War (a military conflict fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance made up of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia). Many historians blame Russia’s miserable performance during the Crimean War  for prompting the 38-year-old newly crowned Alexander to compare the strength of modern, industrialized nations with Russia’s serf-based economy. The result was Alexander’s 1861 Emancipation Manifesto proposing 17 legislative acts to abolish serfdom within the Russian Empire. If you are curious about the specifics of his reforms, the details are available here: Primary Sources for the Great Reforms. You may also enjoy an interesting 2017 discussion by Kate V. Lipmann, The Doomed Reformers of Russia, comparing the USSR’s “glasnost” and “perestroika” (introduce by Gorbachev in 1985 – 1991) with Alexander II’s reforms.

The results of the Crimean War encouraged the internal problems which contributed to Russia’s defeat. Alexander tried to restore his country’s status and influence through extreme military spending to restructure and rearm Russia’s army according to European standards. Two decades after his humiliating Crimean defeat, he had the opportunity to test his new military might. In 1876, Bulgaria revolted against the Ottoman Empire and was brutally crushed. Since the Russian tsar was perceived by the masses as a symbol of sacred and divine power—referred to as ‘Little Father Tsar’—Alexander saw himself as the champion of the oppressed Bulgarian Orthodox Christians. He brought Russia into the conflict in 1877. As a result of Russia’s support, Bulgaria became a sovereign country in 1878 and still honors Alexander II as one of its founding fathers. (However, two hundred thousand Russian soldiers were killed during the war.)

Radical Opposition

Although Alexander was a good-hearted ruler with an intelligent mind, having supreme authority over a country covering 1/6 of the earth is no small task. He realized that no matter how many reforms he implemented, the liberals and radicals wanted more freedom, including a parliamentary democracy. He perceived this opposition as threatening his rule which created constant opposition from the nihilists who preferred a policy of terrorism to obtain reform.

But there were additional reasons for Alexander’s decision to implement a constitution.

He was a man of compassion.

Although he was forced to bring his military into two wars, violence was not in his nature. As a family man himself, he personalized his soldiers as members of families and grieved for their injuries and death. Alexander showed little interest in military affairs as a young man. Unlike the strict military education of many previous Russian heirs, Alexander’s tutors were wide-varied: military instructor, General Karl Merder, reformer Mikhail Speransky and  the liberal romantic poet and gifted translator Vasily Zhukovsky, who introduced his student to the modern European languages. In early adulthood, Alexander make friends with exiled poet Alexander Herzen and later pardoned him. Herzen was a great influence on urging Alexander to abolished serfdom in Russia. During his reign, Alexander encouraged the arts: ballet, opera, and drama. He invited famous singers and composers to his residence and commissioned artists to paint works on the most prominent events of the day. After the Crimean and Ottoman Wars, he displayed a marked passion for helping orphans and children and made personal wards of many of the children whose parents died because of Russian war policies. 

He was a family man.

When the Alexander married 16-year-old German princess, Marie of Hesse, she converted to Orthodoxy as Maria Alexandrovna. Their marriage was a love match resulting in six sons and two daughters. Alexander took an active role in his children’s lives and doted on Nicholas, his oldest son and heir, determined to prepare him properly for leadership. However, when Tsesarevich Nicholas contacted spinal meningitis and died at age 21, Alexander’s family life shattered. The loss of the son Alexander was grooming to replace him and the estrangement from his grieving wife, brought another influencial personality into his life.

He became alienated from His Wife

After her son’s death, Empress Maria’s health deteriorated (tuberculosis), and she spent much of her time in warmer climates away from her family. Her rejection of her husband devastated him, and the rift between Alexander and his wife grew. In 1866, a lonely emperor met Catherine Dolgorukov (Katia) on his official visit to the Smolny Institute—an educational institution and finishing school for girls of noble origin. Alexander was 47 and Katia was only 17. Alexander immediately fell in love and established Katia as his mistress, a relationship which grew to include 4 children and turned into marriage a month after Maria died in 1880. Alexander and Katia’s marriage was a morganatic union—a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the husband’s titles and privileges from being passed to the wife and children born of the marriage.

He became disillusioned.

Around this time, the emperor lost interest in public activity, probably due to the rise of  nihilists and despite his numerous reforms implemented to make their lives easier. He looked for comfort in his second family. He insisted on bringing Katia and his children to live with him in the palace and granted Katia the title of Princess Yurievskaya in order to legitimize their four children. They carried the title Prince and Princess Yurievsky after Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, Catherine’s earliest ancestor and the Scandinavian conqueror of Russia. (Moscow residents cherish Yuri’s memory as the legendary founder of their city and erected a monument in his honor.)

Alexander’s behavior was considered scandalous by his adult children and the country as well. However, no one had power to do anything about it. The emperor showed great tenderness and compassion to both families and was a family man twice over, spending as much time and playing with his second family as much as he did with his first.

He felt the people deserved a say in their government.

On 25 February 1880, Alexander announced that he was considering granting the Russian people a constitution. When criticized, Alexander referenced Katia’s influence on his decision and the constant threats on his own life, explaining that the empire cannot continue as a playground for the privileged. He felt the people deserved a Duma of elected representatives and the gradual curtailing of Russia’s autocracy, completed in stages. He favored a constitution to satisfy the reformers and also preserve the autocracy—a constitutional monarchy.

He loved the freedom of interacting with his people.

Alexander endured five assassination attempts (1867 – 1880) followed by the sixth successful one in 1881 which took his life. Despite the constant threat of violence, easy-going Alexander insisted on following his usual routine which included walks in the park and the Sunday review of the troops of the guard. The radicals took advantage of this, and it was on his last Sunday carriage ride after reviewing the troops that Alexander was murdered. Katia had warned him that day not to go out because she had a premonition that something bad might happen. The tsar would not listen.

The backend of Alexander’s bullet-proof carriage was bombed. A Cossack guard and several bystanders were killed. Although the emperor’s coachman begged Alexander to return to the palace, Alexander stepped out of his carriage and to help the wounded. A second nihilist took advantage of the situation and threw a bomb directly at Alexander. Amazingly, Alexander II died on the same day he intended to sign a manifesto designed to gradually move Russia to a constitutional government. The Church of the Spilled Blood was erected on the spot where his carriage was bombed.

Alexander was an emperor who loved his people and tried to make their lives better.

He was a complex man who intended to pull his beloved country into the modern age through a series of reforms. Despite Alexander’s efforts to provide his people with an open government, a strong military, and a revitalized, modern nation, many of his reforms were reversed by his son and successor, Alexander III. Like the rest of the Romanov family, Alexander III’s extreme reaction was based on deep shock at the violence of his father’s death and the suffering he endured at the hands of the people he loved. This is an excellent video displaying the St. Petersburg locations connected with Alexander II’s death: His Assassination Location. (Try to ignore the commercials!)