Alexander II. “His whole life was one great service for the benefit of Russia”

2020 marks the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Alexander II, the Russian emperor, who in pre-revolutionary historiography received a special epithet - the Liberator, and the reforms he carried out were called the Great ones. The monarch, who gave the state a new direction of development, is illustrated by materials from the large-scale collection of the Presidential Library The House of Romanov. The Zemsky Sobor of 1613. They are presented in a collection Alexander II (1818–1881) and include biographical essays, research works, memoirs and speeches by contemporaries dedicated to the emperor, as well as rare photographs of the tsar and his family members. 

Alexander Nikolayevich, the first-born of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I, was born on April 17 (29 according to the new style) on April 1818, at 11 a.m. in the Moscow Kremlin. According to Schumacher, “by a strange coincidence, the cradle of the future Tsar-Liberator appeared in the same place as the cradle of the Transforming Tsar and the first Emperor of the Russian land - Peter the Great: only two of all Russian Emperors were Moscow natives".  

The guidance of the upbringing and education of the heir to the throne in 1825 was entrusted to the famous poet, court adviser Vasily Zhukovsky, who drew up a 12-year education plan for the prince based on a full university course. Mentors of the future emperor were Russian academics Eduard Collins, Karl Trinius, Mikhail Speransky and other prominent figures of their time. In 1837–1839, Alexander traveled to Russia and Europe to complete his education.

In 1831, he received the official title “Sovereign Heir, Tsesarevich and the Grand Duke”, and after taking the oath, the 16-year-old Alexander became a member of the main state authorities - the Senate, the Holy Synod, the State Council and the Committee of Ministers.

Alexander ascended the throne after the death of his father, Emperor Nicholas I, in February 1855 and was crowned August 26 (September 8), 1856. According to The review of the reign of Emperor Alexander II and his reforms: 1855-1871, available on the Presidential Library’s portal (1871), “the accession to the Throne of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolayevich followed in a difficult time for Russia - at the very height of the struggle with the most powerful powers of Western Europe, intervening in Our war with Turkey for the rights of Christians... Unhappy by the results, but still glorious For the Russian weapons, the Eastern War of 1853-1856 ended with the capture of Kars by the Russian troops. The world was signed on March 30, 1856". It was the so-called Treaty of Paris.

Alexander I was named the Tsar-Liberator for his reforms of exceptional scale and significance in almost all areas of the country's socio-economic life - financial, military, zemstvo and judicial reforms, educational reform and others.

The most important of these was the abolition of serfdom, which sent Russia along a different, capitalist way of development.

The need for a complete or partial change in the situation of the peasants was also understood by the predecessors of the emperor, but only Alexander II was able to realize their plans in full.

The reform was prepared long and thoroughly. In the spring of 1856, Alexander told representatives of the nobility: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above, rather than wait for the time when it itself begins to be abolished from below”, we read in the Historical Outline of the Life and Reign of Emperor Alexander II. In January 1857, the Main Committee on Peasant Affairs was established and the complex and arduous work of preparing the reforms began.

The abolition of serfdom was proclaimed by the manifesto of February 19 (March 3 in the new style) of 1861. “The essence of the peasant reform, announced by the Highest Manifesto, consisted in the complete personal liberation of the peasants with their well-known land plots... Great rights, by virtue of this reform, were granted to the peasants. The peasants were made free philistines, and general civil laws extended to them”, - wrote Alexey Vertelovsky in the historical essay Reforms of Emperor Alexander II (1880), posted on the Presidential Library’s portal.

“The emancipation of the peasants is the great work of Tsar Alexander, which earned him unfading glory throughout the world and throughout all ages! <...> These are the great transformations of the Tsar-Liberator. His deeds are the best monument to him!” - summed up the reform work of the emperor Mikhail Yermilov in the publication Tsar-Liberator and his reforms (1898).

The reforms carried out by Alexander II from 1861 to 1874 not only accelerated the development of Russia, but also intensified social tension and the growth of revolutionary sentiments. The implementation and consequences of the abolition of serfdom caused both the understandable discontent of a considerable number of landowners, and the speeches of some peasants who considered the conditions of release unprofitable.

Since 1866, several unsuccessful attempts were made on the emperor. March 1 (March 14, according to the new style) of 1881 in St. Petersburg, Alexander II was seriously injured and died a few hours later in the Winter Palace.

The Tsar-Liberator is buried in the tomb of the House of Romanov in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The world famous Church of the Savior on Blood was erected at the place of his death.