The Presidential Library cinema club – about life and death of the Tsar Liberator Alexander II

The Presidential Library cinema club features the screening and discussion of the film "Alexander II" (1991) by the documentary filmmaker, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Konstantin Artyukhov. The "Coronation Collection of Alexander II" was solemnly introduced into the multimedia hall of the library. A huge richly illustrated volume aroused great interest of those present, they were able to leaf through pages thanks to Presidential Library specialists before the meeting of the cinema club.

"Konstantin Artyukhov is the patriarch of our cinema, he made about 100 documentary films", - said Sergei Nekrasov, director of the All-Russian Pushkin Museum, who was present at the meeting of the cinema club. - This intelligent man, possessing a subtle taste and deep knowledge, created an impressive cinema collection about outstanding figures of Russian culture. No wonder Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev once said: "Kostya Artyukhov and Slava Vinogradov - the best, but modest ones". After experiencing all the social changes that have fallen to the lot, he continues to work calmly and dignifiedly. His film about Alexander has long become a classic".

"Yes, the monarchy is a splendid spectacle", - the voice-over says,  - and the coronation captures with its greatness". The screen is large - the symbols of the monarch's power: the state, the scepter, the crown. Much was expected of a young, handsome monarch, full of ideas for improving the methods of government. Alexander II's accession to the throne on February 19, 1855, occurred at a rather complicated historical moment: he inherited from his father a state exhausted by the Crimean War, "discovering the internal sores of Russia and the complete failure of the old way of life". Radical changes were simply necessary in these historical conditions.

The reforms were not long in coming. Catherine the Great thought about the abolition of serfdom. But society at that time was not yet ready, the nobility did not want to lose their rights to their peasants. The grandson of the Empress Alexandra had to solve a multifaceted problem. On February 19, 1861, the Most Gracious Manifesto on the granting of will to serf people was announced across Russia, on the highest will, and the nobility, by the word of the sovereign, renounced the right of ownership to them.

The film by Artyukhov shows the scale of state reforms conducted by Alexander II. They can be compared to the massive reform of the state by Peter I. The abolition of serfdom entailed a number of other reforms: judicial, administrative (zemstvo and urban), military and educational.

Alexander could do even more for the good of the country, but fate was uncharitable to him. By the time of his reign, terrorists had come out into the arena of political struggle, who had decided to achieve their goals in the most "simple" way: murder.

Anxious forebodings tormented Alexander. Although, as described in the film, the German fortune-teller predicted to him a happy escape from seven attempts, and at first the predictions began to come true. On April 4, 1865, an account was opened: Dmitry Karakozov fired at the Emperor almost at point-blank range from the Summer Garden. Then there were the bombers Solovyov, Khalturin, Zhelyabov. 11 soldiers died in the explosion in the dining room of the Winter Palace. "What do they want from me?" - exclaimed the Emperor. "They poison me like a wild beast".

The last was the fateful attempt on the Catherine's canal, in the place of which the Savior on Spilled Blood was later built. A fragment from the artistic painting "Sophia Perovskaya" is masterfully embedded in the documentary. The Emperor knew that he was dying. I managed to say only: "It's cold, it’s cold ... Let us go the palace. I want to die there ... ". He died in his office in the Winter Palace from the loss of blood.

The film about the tsar-reformer was presented by the Youth Center of the Union of Cinematographers of St. Petersburg. His cinema club is conceptually close to the problems of the Presidential Library's cinema club - on both sites the tasks of uncovering the classics of documentary films, familiarity with the work of recognized masters are set.