Biography of Alexander II
~ written by Jeff Schmidt
Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov was born on April 29, 1818 in the city of Moskva. He was the eldest son of Nicholas I and experienced the same education as many young Russians from similar, wealthy families. He was taught a wide variety of subjects with a special emphasis on European languages. It was during this time he became an officer of the Guard. Since he was heir to the throne, he was eventually made the director of the military schools in Russia. To his father’s dismay, Alexander did not share the same love for the army as his father did. Some believe the reason for this is the influence his tutor, Zhukovsky. Zhukovsky was a humanitarian poet who helped introduce the literature of the German Romantic School to the Russian public. In 1841, Alexander married the daughter of the Grand Duke Louis II of Hesse. Her name was Maria Alexandrovna, and she gave birth to six sons and two daughters. The first was Alexandra Alexandrovna, the second was Nicholas Alexandrovich, Alexander III Alexandrovich, Vladimir, Alexis, Marie Alexandrovna, Serge Alexandrovich, Paul Alexandrovich.
Fourteen years later, in 1855, Alexander became the Tsar of Russia. Nicholas I had died and left his son to claim the throne during the Crimean war. Consequently, the first several years of his reign were spent dealing with the war and the eventual peace agreement after the loss of Sevastopol. After the peace treaty was settled, Alexander began a massive movement for reform.
Alexander began the reformations of the country due to massive public support towards that direction. For several years, he began making changes concerning the industry and overall commerce of the country. A large number of limited liability companies were allowed to form as the new legislation took hold. During this time, plans for a huge railway network, which would help industry and defensive goals, were being discussed. Alexander II seeing the need to connect Russia with itself and the outside world through his experiences by way of the Crimean war put into action a mass railroad network soon to become the Trans-Siberan Railroad. Immediately, this progress was stopped by the existence of serfdom. Alexander decided to confront this obstacle and sent a letter to certain local governments that had serfdom. This letter praised the patriotic behavior of a certain area that had abolished serfdom. The other governments quickly followed suit and the serfs were freed. On the 3rd of March 1861, the serfs’ freedom was made official by the signing of an emancipation document. Soon after, other reforms were made in Russia that helped to benefit the society.
For the next several years, Alexander was able to stay out of European affairs and continued to improve the country. This changed, however, when Russia experienced the crisis of 1875. The Russo-Turkish war erupted as a result and was eventually concluded with the Congress of Berlin in 1878. The outcome at this conference went incredibly against Russia and caused widespread hatred for the Tsar. Thus, numerous assassination attempts occurred and eventually, after signing a new constitution for Russia, Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown in his sleigh on March 13, 1881.