Born Apr. 17 (29), 1818; died Mar. 1 (13), 1881. Emperor of Russia from Feb. 19, 1855. Oldest son of Nicholas I. General P. P. Ushakov was in charge of Alexander II’s education; his tutor was the poet V. A. Zhukov-skii. Married in 1841 to the princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, Maximiliana Wilhelmina Auguste Sofia Maria, who took the name of Maria Alexandrovna (1824–80). Married for a second time (morganatically) in 1880 to Princess E. M. Dol-gorukaia (Princess Iur’ievskaia). The most influential high officials at various times during his reign were la. I. Rosntovtsev, S. S. Lanskoi, P. A. Valuev, A. M. Gorchakov, P. A. Shuvalov, D. A. Miliutin, and M. T. Loris-Melikov.
Alexander II was a conservative in his political views. However, the course of the country’s economic development, the defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–56, the social ferment, and the revolutionary upsurge forced Alexander to implement in the 1860’s and 1870’s a series of bourgeois reforms: the abolition of serfdom, the establishment of the zemstvo (district assembly), and the enactment of judicial, municipal, military, and other reforms.
The fall of the revolutionary wave after the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863–64 made it easier for Alexander’s government to move to a reactionary course. The immediate occasion for this was the first attempt on Alexander’s life, by D. V. Karakozov on Apr. 4, 1866. There were a number of other assassination attempts: by A. Berezovskii (1867), by A. K. Solov’ev (Apr. 2, 1879), and by the Populists, who organized the explosion which struck the tsar’s train in the autumn of 1879 and the explosion in the Winter Palace, carried out by S. N. Khalturin (Feb. 5, 1880). At the end of the 1870’s repression against the revolutionaries intensified. In 1880, Alexander established the Supreme Administrative Commission, headed by Loris-Melikov, to struggle against the revolutionary movement. Its program, in addition to repressive measures, provided for a series of reforms.
In foreign relations, Alexander II maintained a Ger-manophile orientation; he revered his uncle Wilhelm I, the king of Prussia (from 1871, the emperor of Germany). The so-called Eastern Question, in particular the struggle to abolish the conditions of the Treaty of Paris of 1856, occupied an important place in his foreign policy. In 1877, in the attempt to strengthen Russian influence in the Balkans, Alexander began a war with Turkey.
On Mar. 1, 1881, in Petersburg, Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown by I. I. Grinevitskii in accordance with the sentence of the executive committee of the People’s Will.
P. A. ZAIONCHKOVSKII
Died 1605. King of Kakheti from 1574.
Alexander II attempted to reestablish fortified cities and monasteries in order to strengthen the country’s defense; he purchased guns in Moscow and enlisted gunners and gunsmiths. Kakheti’s commercial ties with European and Asian countries expanded during his reign. He fought to strengthen the centralization of power. Interested in an alliance with Russia, Alexander adopted an oath of loyalty to Tsar Fedor Ivanovich in 1587. He was murdered upon the instigation of the Iranian shah Abbas.