March 13 (March 1 according to the old style) - Memorial Day Tsar Liberator Alexander II Nikolaevich who became a victim of revolutionary terrorists on March 1, 1881.

He was born on April 17, 1818, on Bright Wednesday, in the Bishop's House of the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin. His teacher was the poet V.A. Zhukovsky, who instilled in him a romantic attitude to life.

According to numerous testimonies, in his youth he was very impressionable and amorous. So, during a trip to London in 1839, he had a fleeting crush on the young Queen Victoria (later, as monarchs, they experienced mutual hostility and enmity).

In 1837, Alexander made a long journey through Russia and visited 29 provinces of the European part, Transcaucasia and Western Siberia, and in 1838-1839 he visited Europe.

Alexander never - neither in his youth nor in his mature years - adhered to any particular theory or concept in his views on the history of Russia and on the tasks government controlled. His general views were characterized by the idea of ​​the inviolability of the autocracy and the existing statehood of Russia as a bulwark of its unity, of the divine origin of tsarist power. He confesses to his father, having familiarized himself with Russia on a trip: "I consider myself lucky that God has appointed me to devote my whole life to her". Having become an autocrat, he identified himself with Russia, considering his role, his mission as serving the sovereign greatness of the Fatherland.

Personal life

The personal life of Alexander II was unsuccessful. In 1841, at the insistence of his father, he married Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, Sophia Maria (Maria Alexandrovna, (†1880). They had 7 children: Alexandra, Nikolai, Alexander (the future Emperor Alexander III), Vladimir, Maria, Sergei, Pavel (the first two died: daughter in 1849, heir to the throne in 1865).

Tsar's wife Maria Alexandrovna

German by birth, Maria Alexandrovna was obsessed with her aristocracy. She did not love and did not respect Russia, she did not understand and did not appreciate her husband and was most of all engaged in embroidery or knitting and gossip about court romances, intrigues, weddings and funerals at the courts of Europe. Alexander was not satisfied with such a wife. In 1866 he fell in love with Princess Ekaterina Dolgoruky (†1922), whom he married immediately after the death of his first wife in 1880 in a morganatic marriage. (a marriage between persons of unequal status, in which the spouse (or spouse) of a lower position does not receive the same high social position as a result of this marriage). From this marriage he had 4 children.

The beginning of the reign

Alexander II ascended the throne at the age of 36 after the death of the father of Emperor Nicholas I on February 19, 1855. The coronation took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin on August 26, 1856 (the rite was led by Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) of Moscow). The full title of the emperor sounded like Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke Finnish. On the occasion of the coronation, the Sovereign declared an amnesty for the Decembrists, Petrashevists, participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-31.

The accession of Alexander II to the throne took place under very difficult circumstances. Finances were extremely upset by the unsuccessful Crimean War, during which Russia found itself in complete international isolation. (Russia was opposed by the combined forces of almost all the major European powers). The first important step was conclusion of the Peace of Paris (1856) - on conditions that were not the worst in the situation(In England, the mood was strong to continue the war until the complete defeat and dismemberment of the Russian Empire). Thanks to some diplomatic moves,Alexander II succeededbreak the foreign policy blockade of Russia. Representatives of seven powers (Russia, France, Austria, England, Prussia, Sardinia and Turkey) gathered in Paris. Russia was given Sevastopol, but the tsar was obliged not to start a fleet in the Black Sea. I had to accept this condition, terribly humiliating for Russia. The peace of Paris, although not beneficial for Russia, was nevertheless honorable for her in view of such numerous and powerful opponents.

Reforms of Alexander II

Alexander II went down in history as a reformer and Liberator (in connection with the abolition of serfdom according to the manifesto on February 19, 1861). He abolished corporal punishment and forbade beating soldiers with sticks. Before him, soldiers served for 25 years, soldiers' children were enlisted as soldiers from birth. Alexander introduced universal military service, extending it to all nationalities, while previously only Russians served.

State Bank, loan offices, railways, telegraphs, government post office, factories, factories - everything arose under Alexander II, as well as urban and rural public schools.

In his reign, serfdom was abolished (1861) . The liberation of the peasants was the cause of a new Polish uprising in 1863. Transforming Russia, Alexander made the Russification of the outskirts - Finland, Poland and the Baltic region - the cornerstone of the transformations.

GREAT REFORM OF ALEXANDER II

Estimates of some of the reforms of Alexander II are contradictory. The liberal press called his reforms "great". At the same time, a significant part of the population (part of the intelligentsia), as well as a number of statesmen of that era, negatively assessed these reforms.

Foreign policy

In the reign of Alexander II, Russia returned to the policy of the all-round expansion of the Russian Empire, previously characteristic of the reign of Catherine II.

During this period, Central Asia, the North Caucasus, the Far East, Bessarabia, Batumi were annexed to Russia. Victories in the Caucasian War were won in the first years of his reign. The advance to Central Asia ended successfully (in 1865-1881, most of Turkestan became part of Russia).

On the eastern outskirts of Asia, during the reign of Alexander II, Russia also made quite important acquisitions, moreover, by peaceful means. Under an agreement with China (1857), the entire left bank of the Amur went to Russia, and the Beijing Treaty (1860) provided us with part of the right bank between the river. Ussuri, Korea and the sea. Since then, the rapid settlement of the Amur Region began, various settlements and even cities began to appear one after another.

Under Alexander II, there was a "deal of the century" for the sale of Alaska. In 1867, the government decided to give up Russian possessions in North America and sold Alaska (Russian America) to the United States for $7 million. (by the way, the 3-story building of the district court in New York was then more expensive than the whole of Alaska).

In 1875, Japan ceded the part of Sakhalin that did not yet belong to Russia in exchange for the Kuril Islands.

But his main achievement was the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which brought liberation to the Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke.

The Turks conquered the Balkan Peninsula and all Christians were enslaved. For 500 years Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Croats and Armenians languished under the yoke of Muslims. All of them were slaves. Their property and lives belonged to the Turks. Their wives and daughters were taken from them into harems, their sons into slavery. Finally the Bulgarians revolted. The Turks began to pacify them with ferocious executions and torture. Alexander tried to achieve liberation peacefully, but in vain. Then Russia declared war on Turkey, and all the Russians enthusiastically went to shed their blood for their Christian brothers. In 1877 the Balkan Slavs were liberated!

Growing public discontent

The reign of Alexander II, despite the liberal reforms, was not calm. The economic situation of the country worsened: the industry was struck by a protracted depression, there were several cases of mass starvation in the countryside.

The deficit of the foreign trade balance and the state external debt (almost 6 billion rubles) reached a large size, which led to the disorder of money circulation and public finances.

The problem of corruption has escalated.

A split and sharp social contradictions formed in Russian society, which reached their peak by the end of the reign.

Other negative aspects usually include the results of the Berlin Congress of 1878, unfavorable for Russia, exorbitant expenses in the war of 1877-1878, numerous peasant protests (in 1861-1863: more than 1150 speeches), large-scale nationalist uprisings in the kingdom of Poland and the North-Western Territory (1863) and in the Caucasus (1877-1878).

Assassination attempts

Under Alexander II, the revolutionary movement developed strongly. Members of the revolutionary parties several times staged assassination attempts on the tsar.

The terrorists organized a real hunt for the Sovereign. There were repeated attempts on his life: Karakozov April 4, 1866 , Polish immigrant Berezovsky May 25, 1867 in Paris, Solovyov April 2, 1879 Petersburg, an attempt to blow up the imperial train near Moscow November 19, 1879 , explosion in the Winter Palace, produced by Khalturin February 5, 1880 .

According to rumors, in 1867, a Parisian gypsy told the Russian Emperor Alexander II: “Six times your life will be in the balance, but not cut short, and the seventh time, death will overtake you.” The prediction came true...

Murder

March 1, 1881 - the last attempt on Alexander II, which led to his death.

On the eve of February 28 (Saturday of the first week of Great Lent), the emperor in the Small Church of the Winter Palace, along with some other members of the family, communed the Holy Mysteries.

In the early morning of March 1, 1881, Alexander II left the Winter Palace for the Manege, he was accompanied by a rather small guard. He was present at the setting of the guards, and after drinking tea with his cousin, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna, the emperor went back to the Winter Palace through the Catherine Canal. The assassination attempt occurred when the royal cortege drove to the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg. Nikolai Rysakov was the first to throw the bomb, but the tsar was not hurt (this was the sixth unsuccessful attempt). He got out of the carriage and spoke to the Narodnaya Volya, asking his name and rank. At that moment, Ignatius Grinevitsky ran up to Alexander II and threw a bomb between himself and the tsar. Both were mortally wounded. The blast wave threw Alexander II to the ground, bleeding heavily from his crushed legs. The fallen emperor whispered: “Take me to the palace... I want to die there.” Alexander II was put into a sleigh and sent to the palace. There, after some time, Alexander II died.

In the hospital, before his death, the regicide came to his senses, but did not name his last name. Rysakov was unharmed, immediately arrested and interrogated by investigators. Fearing a death sentence, the 19-year-old terrorist told everything he knew, including betraying the entire core of Narodnaya Volya. Arrests of the organizers of the assassination began. At the trial of the "First March" Grinevitsky passed as Kotik, Elnikov or Mikhail Ivanovich. The real name of the killer of the king became known only in Soviet time. Oddly enough, this young man in life was not a "fiend of hell." Ignatius Ioakhimovich Grinevitsky was born in the Minsk province in 1856 in the family of an impoverished Polish nobleman. He successfully graduated from the Belostok real gymnasium and in 1875 entered the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg. Everyone knew him as a gentle, modest, affable person with a highly developed sense of justice. At the gymnasium, Ignatius was one of the best students and there he received the nickname Kotik, which then became his underground nickname. At the institute, he joined a revolutionary circle, was one of the organizers of the issue of Rabochaya Gazeta, and a participant in the "going to the people." According to the testimonies, Grinevitsky not only had a meek disposition, but was also a Catholic. It is hard to imagine how a believing Christian could commit murder. Obviously, he believed that the autocracy in Russia is a great evil, all means are good for its destruction, and he professed conscious self-sacrifice with a willingness to give himself "into the hands of the devil." What was it? The greatest ideological or just obscuration of the mind?

The death of the "Liberator", who was killed by the Narodnaya Volya on behalf of the "liberated", seemed to many a symbolic end to his reign, which, from the point of view of the conservative part of society, led to rampant "nihilism". They say that half of Russia wanted him dead. Political figures of the right wing said that the emperor died "on time": had he reigned for another year or two, the catastrophe of Russia (the collapse of the autocracy) would have become inevitable.

Demons- so F.M. Dostoevsky called revolutionary terrorists. In his last work, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky wanted to continue the theme of Demons. Alyosha Karamazov, almost a saint, the writer planned to “make” a terrorist who ended his life on the scaffold! Dostoevsky is often called a writer-prophet. Indeed, he not only predicted, but even described the future murderer of the tsar: Alyosha Karamazov is very similar to Ignaty Grinevitsky. The writer did not live to see the assassination of Alexander II - he died a month before the tragic event.

Despite the arrest and execution of all the leaders of the "Narodnaya Volya", terrorist acts continued in the first 2-3 years of the reign of Alexander III.

The results of the reign of Alexander II

Alexander II left a deep mark on history, he managed to do what other autocrats were afraid to take on - the liberation of the peasants from serfdom. We still enjoy the fruits of his reforms to this day. During his reign, Russia firmly strengthened its relations with the European powers, and resolved numerous conflicts with neighboring countries. The internal reforms of Alexander II are comparable in scale only to the reforms of Peter I. The tragic death of the emperor greatly changed the further course of history, and it was this event that 35 years later led Russia to death, and Nicholas II to a martyr's wreath.

The views of modern historians on the era of Alexander II were subject to drastic changes under the influence of the dominant ideology, and are not well-established.

Material prepared by Sergey Shulyak

- The Emperor of All Russia, the eldest son of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich and the Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, was born in Moscow on April 17, 1818. Generals Merder and Kavelin were his tutors. Merder drew attention to himself as a company commander in the school of guards ensigns established on August 18, 1823. Nikolai Pavlovich, then still the Grand Duke, having learned about his pedagogical abilities, meek disposition and rare mind, decided to entrust him with the upbringing of his son. Merder entered this important position on June 12, 1824, when the Grand Duke was barely 6 years old, and with tireless zeal he performed it for 10 years. There is no doubt that the influence of this highly humane educator on the young heart of his pet was the most beneficial. No less beneficial was the influence of another mentor of the Grand Duke - the famous poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, the head of his class studies. The best characterization of the upbringing received by Alexander can be the words spoken by Zhukovsky about his partner in the upbringing, General Merder, which can be fully attributed to himself: “There was nothing artificial in the upbringing given to them; but the unceasing action of his beautiful soul ... His pet ... heard one voice of truth, saw one disinterestedness ... could his soul not fall in love with good, could at the same time not acquire respect for humanity, so necessary in any life, especially in life near the throne and on the throne. There is no doubt that Zhukovsky, with his general influence, contributed to the preparation of the heart of his pupil for the future emancipation of the peasants.

Upon reaching the age of majority, the heir to the crown prince traveled around Russia, accompanied by Kavelin, Zhukovsky and the adjutant wing Yuryevich. He was the first of the royal family to visit (1837) Siberia, and as a result of this visit, the fate of political exiles was mitigated. Later, while in the Caucasus, the Tsarevich distinguished himself during the attack of the highlanders, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. In 1838, Alexander Nikolaevich traveled around Europe and at that time, in the family of the Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, he chose Princess Maximilian-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria (born July 27, 1824) as his wife, who upon arrival in Russia received St. Chrismation according to the charter of the Orthodox Church, December 5, 1840, with the name of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. The next day, the betrothal followed, and on April 16, 1841, the marriage took place.

From the marriage of Emperor Alexander II with Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the following children were born: led. book. Alexandra Alexandrovna, b. August 19, 1842, d. June 16, 1849; led. book. heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, b. September 8, 1843, d. April 12, 1865; led. book. Alexander Alexandrovich - now safely reigning Emperor Alexander III (see), genus. February 26, 1845; Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, born April 10, 1847, from August 16, 1874 in marriage to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, daughter of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Friedrich Franz II, b. May 2, 1854; led. book. Alexey Alexandrovich, b. January 2, 1850; led. book. Maria Alexandrovna, b. 5 October 1853, married to Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, from 11 January 1874; led. book. Sergei Alexandrovich, b. April 29, 1857, in marriage since June 3, 1884 with Elisaveta Feodorovna, daughter of Grand. hertz. Hessian, b. October 20, 1864; led. book. Pavel Alexandrovich, b. September 21, 1860, married since July 4, 1889 with the Greek Queen Alexandra Georgievna, b. August 30, 1870

While still heir, Alexander participated in the affairs of government. In the last years of the reign of Emperor Nicholas and during his travels, Alexander repeatedly replaced his august parent; in 1848, during his stay at the Vienna, Berlin and other courts, he performed various important diplomatic missions. Having taken military educational institutions under his control, Alexander took care of their needs with special love and the gradual improvement of both scientific teaching and education.

The accession of Alexander II to the throne on February 19, 1855 took place under very difficult circumstances. The Crimean War, where Russia had to deal with the combined forces of almost all the major European powers, was taking an unfavorable turn for us. The forces of the allies by that time had increased even more due to the addition of 15 tons of Sardinian troops to them; the enemy fleet acted against Russia on all seas. Despite, however, his peacefulness, which was also known in Europe, Alexander expressed his firm determination to continue the fight and achieve an honorable peace. Up to 360 tons of militia men were recruited, the same number was given by 3 recruiting sets. The steadfastness and courage of the Russian troops in defending Sevastopol caused enthusiastic surprise even from the enemies; the names of Kornilov, Nakhimov and others were covered with unfading glory. Finally, however, the terrible action of the enemy artillery, which destroyed our fortifications and daily carried off thousands of people, and the combined assault of Sevastopol by all the allies, carried out on August 27, forced the Russian troops to leave the southern part of the city and move to the north. The fall of Sevastopol, however, did not bring significant benefits to the enemy. On the other hand, the Russians were partly rewarded with success in Asia Minor: Kars, that impregnable fortress reinforced by the British, was taken on November 16 by General Muravyov with all his numerous garrison. This success gave us the opportunity to show our readiness for peace. The allies, also tired of the war, were willing to enter into negotiations, which began through the mediation of the Vienna court. Representatives of 7 powers (Russia, France, Austria, England, Prussia, Sardinia and Turkey) gathered in Paris and on March 18, 1856 a peace treaty was concluded. The main conditions of this agreement were as follows: navigation on the Black Sea and the Danube is open to all merchant ships; the entrance to the Black Sea, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles is closed to warships, with the exception of those light warships that each power maintains at the mouth of the Danube to ensure free navigation on it. Russia and Turkey, by mutual agreement, maintain an equal number of ships in the Black Sea. Russia, in the form of ensuring free navigation along the Danube, cedes to the Danubian principalities part of its territory at the mouth of this river; she also promises not to fortify the Åland Islands. Christians in Turkey are compared in rights with Muslims, and the Danubian principalities come under the general protectorate of Europe.

The peace of Paris, although unfavorable for Russia, was nevertheless honorable for her in view of such numerous and powerful opponents. However, its disadvantageous side - the limitation of the naval forces of Russia on the Black Sea - was eliminated during the life of Alexander II by a statement on October 19, 1870.

But the disadvantages of the treaty were redeemed by the good of the peace itself, which made it possible to turn all attention to internal reforms, the urgency of which became obvious.

Indeed, the Crimean War exposed many internal ulcers of our fatherland, showed the complete failure of our former way of life. A complete reorganization of many parts turned out to be necessary, but serfdom stood inexorable obstacles in the way of any improvement. The need for reforms became palpable, urgent. And with the advent of peace, a new era of internal renewal was not slow to begin. Already in the concluding words of the royal manifesto on March 19, 1856, announcing the end of the Crimean War, a whole program of the future activities of the tsar-liberator was expressed: may the striving for enlightenment and all useful activity develop everywhere and with renewed vigor, and each under the shadow of laws, equally fair for all, equally patronizing, may enjoy in the world the fruit of the labors of the innocent. Finally, and this is Our first living desire, light saving Faith, illuminating minds, strengthening hearts, may it preserve and improve more and more social morality, this surest guarantee of order and happiness.

In the same year, it was ordered to attend to the opening of women's gymnasiums and a scientific committee was established to draw up and review teaching programs and study guides. On the day of the coronation, August 26, the new manifesto of the sovereign was marked by a number of favors. Recruitment was suspended for 3 years, all state arrears, accruals, etc. were forgiven, various criminals were released or at least the punishment was mitigated, including state ones, who participated in the rebellion on December 14, 1825 and in secret societies of that time, Recruitment of underage Jews was canceled and recruitment between the latter was ordered to be carried out on a general basis, etc.

But all these private measures, met with enthusiasm by Russia, were only the threshold of those fundamental reforms that marked the reign of Alexander II. First of all and most urgently, it seemed to solve the question of serfdom, which, as it was obvious to everyone, was the main root of all other shortcomings of our warehouse. The idea of ​​the need to liberate the peasants and, moreover, with a plot of land prevailed already in the time of Emperor Nicholas. The entire intelligentsia regarded serfdom as a terrible and shameful evil. Literature continuously continued in this sense the glorious tradition of Radishchev. Suffice it to mention the names of Griboyedov, Belinsky, Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev. But the mood of the intelligentsia, which was predominantly noble, did not interfere with the fact that when the question in any form passed to the class discussion of the nobles, then in this environment it often met with a rebuff. Imp. Alexander II, assuming the throne, was convinced that the liberation of the peasants should take place precisely in his reign. Such was the general mood of the intelligentsia, and even among the peasants themselves there was a vague premonition of the imminent "will." The decrees on the militia of 1854 and at the beginning of 1855 caused considerable unrest in as many as 9 provinces, since the masses of the peasants expressed their desire to join the militia, considering service in the militia a transition to “freedom”.

The question seemed, therefore, urgent. When the sovereign spoke in Moscow about the need and timeliness of the liberation of the serfs, all of Russia was seized with enthusiastic, joyful hopes ... And in 1856 a special secret committee was established, and on January 3, 1857 had its first meeting under the direct supervision and chairmanship of the emperor, whose task was to consider the decrees and assumptions about serfdom. The composition of this committee included: Prince Orlov, gr. Lanskoy, Count Bludov, Minister of Finance Brock, Count VF Adlerberg, Prince Vas. A. Dolgorukov, Minister of State Property M. N. Muravyov, Chevkin, Prince P. P. Gagarin, Baron M. A. Korf and Ya. I. Rostovtsev. Of these, only Lanskoy, Bludov, Rostovtsev and Butkov, who managed the affairs of the committee, spoke in favor of the real emancipation of the peasants; the majority proposed only a number of measures to alleviate the situation of the serfs. The sovereign was dissatisfied with the course of affairs and appointed Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich a member of the committee. Meanwhile, on August 18, a petition was received from the nobility of 3 Lithuanian provinces for the release of the peasants, but with the preservation of the right to land for the landowners. In response to this petition, on November 20, the highest rescript was given to the Vilna military, Grodno and Kovno governors-general, in which the sovereign allowed the nobility of each of the named provinces to establish a committee that would develop a project to improve the life of the peasants. In the same year, the same permission was given to the nobility of St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, and the next year - to the nobles of Moscow and other provinces; On January 8, 1858, the secret committee was transformed into the "main committee on peasant affairs", which also included Count Panin, the Minister of Justice, and in March of the same year it was formed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the name "Zemstvo department of the Central Statistical Committee" a purely administrative body that played an important role in the whole affair. It included such persons as N. A. Milyutin, Ya. A. Solovyov, zealous champions of the idea of ​​liberation. The journalism of that time was also an energetic ally of the minority, and thanks to the positive will of the sovereign, the good cause, despite the opposition of the majority in the committee, quickly moved forward and even assumed wider dimensions than those that were set in the original rescripts to the nobility. Instead of "improving the life of the peasants," the question was posed directly on the basis of their complete emancipation. Feb 17 In 1859, a decree was announced on the establishment of "editorial commissions", of which Adjutant General Rostovtsev was appointed chairman. The projects worked out by the provincial committees were submitted to these commissions. The project developed by the editorial committee was supposed to go to the commission, which was composed of gr. Lansky, Count Palen and Gen. Muravyov and Rostovtsev, where the head of affairs was d.s. with. Zhukovsky. Finally, this commission presents the draft with its own considerations to the main committee. When the provincial committees finally submitted their drafts to the editorial commissions, two times (in August and December 1859) landowners were called from the provinces, two from each, to deliver the necessary information. Between these latter there were many conservatives, the main committee was also willing to slow down the matter, but the decisive will of the sovereign, who demanded that the committee finish its work by January 1861, and the influence of its new chairman, led. K. Konstantin Nikolaevich, who replaced Orlov, quickly moved things forward. On January 28, the provisions worked out by the editorial commissions and passed through the main committee were considered by the State Council, which adopted them with some changes in the sense of reducing the size of the peasant allotment. Finally, on February 19, 1861, a great manifesto followed, which is the glory of the liberator tsar - a manifesto on the liberation of the 22 million peasant population from serfdom.

The emancipation of the landlord peasants took place on the following principles. First of all, it was declared obligatory for the landowner to allocate his former peasants, in addition to the estate land, arable and haymaking, in the amounts determined in the regulation. Such an obligation for the landowner to assign the allotment to the peasants was limited only to small landlords, landowners of the Don Army Land, Siberian landowners and owners of private mining plants, for whom special allotment rules were established. Secondly, along with such an obligation for the landowner to give the peasants allotments, an obligation was declared for the peasants to accept the allotment and keep in their use for the duties established in favor of the landowner the worldly land allotted to them for the first nine years (until February 19, 1870). After 9 years, individual members of the community were given the right both to leave it and to refuse to use field lands and lands if they redeem their estate; society itself also acquires the right not to accept for its use such plots that individual peasants refuse. Thirdly, with regard to the size of the peasant allotment and the payments connected with it, according to general rules, it is customary to base on voluntary agreements between landowners and peasants, for which purpose a charter charter is concluded through mediators established by the situation, their congresses and provincial presences for peasant affairs, and in app. lips. - and special verification commissions. Such a voluntary agreement is limited only by the requirement that the peasants have at least the amount of land that is determined in the local regulations grouping the provinces, to determine the size of the shower allotment in each of them, into three lanes; and then, in accordance with the number of per capita allotments, local regulations also determine the size of the duties that the temporarily liable peasants had to bear in favor of the landowners before the ransom was made. These duties are either monetary, or determined in the form of quitrent, or in the form of a product service, corvée. As long as the temporarily liable peasants do not redeem their lands and are in the relationship of the guilty to the former landowner, the latter is provided with patrimonial police in the rural society of the temporarily liable peasants.

The regulation, however, is not limited to the rules of assigning land to the peasants for permanent use, but makes it easier for them to buy out the plots allotted for ownership with the help of a state buyout operation, and the government lends the peasants a certain amount against the land they acquire with payment by installments for 49 years and, giving this amount to the landowner in state interest-bearing papers, he takes all further settlements with the peasants upon himself. Upon approval by the government of the redemption transaction, all binding relations between the peasants and the landowner are terminated, and the latter enter the category of peasant proprietors.

Thus, peacefully and without significant shocks to the state mechanism, the great reform was accomplished, which since the time of Catherine II was considered to be on the waiting list, but which they were still afraid to start. Instead of 22 mil. enslaved people created a free peasant class with significant self-government within the community and volost. The rights granted to the landlord peasants by the regulation of February 19, 1861, were gradually extended to the peasants of the palace, appanage, ascribed and state.

After the peasant situation in a number of administrative reforms, the most important place is, without any doubt, the provision on zemstvo institutions. As early as March 25, 1859, the highest command was given to transform the provincial and district administrations, and the following leadership was indicated: “When organizing the executive and investigative part, enter into consideration the economic and administrative administration in the county, which is now divided among several committees and part is included in the composition of the police department; in this consideration, it is necessary to provide the economic administration in the county with greater unity, greater independence and greater confidence; at the same time, it is necessary to determine the degree of participation of each estate in the economic administration of the county. On October 23, 1859, these beginnings were indicated to be distributed for the transformation of provincial institutions. As a result, a special commission was set up at the Ministry of the Interior, the activity of which from the very beginning was facilitated by modern work carried out in a special commission at the Ministry of Finance to revise the system of taxes. As a result of all these works, the published 1 Jan. 1864 regulation on provincial and district zemstvo institutions, to which these latter are entrusted with the following matters: management of the property, capital and monetary collections of the zemstvo, arrangement and maintenance of buildings belonging to the zemstvo and means of communication, management of mutual zemstvo property insurance, care for the development of local trade and industry, the affairs of the people's food and public welfare of the poor, participation, mainly in economic terms, within the limits of the law, in the care of building churches, public education, public health and the maintenance of prisons, layout, appointment, collection and expenditure of local and some state monetary fees to meet zemstvo needs of the province or county. To manage all these zemstvo affairs, they are established: in each county - district assembly, meeting once a year and having its own permanent executive body called county zemstvo council; the province has provincial zemstvo assembly with its permanent executive body - provincial land administration. In connection with the reform of the zemstvo administration, there is also a decree approved on June 16, 1870. city ​​position, to which our cities are granted considerable self-government. According to this Regulation, the city public administration consists of city ​​election meetings, city duma and city ​​government chaired by the mayor. The scope of urban self-government within the city is very extensive. The Duma independently arranges city administration and economy, elects officials and appoints their salaries, establishes city taxes, manages city property, spends sums, takes care of the external improvement of the city, its health, education and industry, charitable institutions, etc., moreover, the exact execution of the decrees issued by city public institutions must be strictly monitored by the police authorities.

Among the reforms that marked the reign of Alexander II, one of the leading places undoubtedly belongs to judicial reform. This deeply thought-out reform had a strong and direct influence on the entire structure of state and public life, it introduced into it completely new, long-awaited principles - which are: the complete separation of the judiciary from the administrative and accusatory, the publicity and publicity of the court, the independence of judges, advocacy and adversarial order of legal proceedings, moreover, more important in terms of the severity of crimes, criminal cases are indicated to be transferred to the court of public conscience in the person of jurors. Already 29 Sept. In 1862, the main provisions regarding the transformation of the judiciary, drawn up by the Second Department of His Own imp. majesty's office. Then a special commission was established under the direct chairmanship of the Secretary of State, which, developing these provisions, drew up draft judicial statutes, later discussed in detail and corrected by the Council of State, and, finally, on November 24, 1864, by the highest decree, the Charter of Criminal and Civil Proceedings and the Charter about the penalties imposed by justices of the peace.

The essence of judicial reform is as follows. The court is made oral and public; judicial power is separated from accusatory power and belongs to the courts without any participation of administrative power; the main form of legal proceedings is the adversarial process; the case on the merits can be dealt with no more than in two instances; to the third instance (the cassation department of the Senate) can be transferred only upon requests for cassation of decisions in cases of a clear violation of the direct meaning of laws or rituals and forms of production; in cases of crimes entailing punishments, connected with the deprivation of all or some of the special rights and advantages of the state, the determination of guilt is left to jurors elected from local residents of all classes; clerical secrecy is abolished, and to intercede in cases and defend defendants, there are sworn attorneys at the courts, who are under the supervision of special councils composed of the same corporation. New judicial institutions received the following types: world courts, congresses of justices of the peace, district courts and judicial chambers. A county, constituting a world district, is divided into world sections, the number of which is determined by a special timetable. In each district of the peace there is a district justice of the peace, and in the district - several honorary justices of the peace; all of them are elected for 3 years from local residents who meet the conditions specified in the law, and are approved by the Governing Senate. For the final decision of the case subject to a world trial, district and honorary justices of the peace of the district convene regular congresses at the appointed time, the chairman of which is elected for 3 years from their own midst. - For several counties, a district court is established, consisting of a chairman appointed by the government and a certain number of members, and from one or more provinces a supreme judicial district is constituted, in which a judicial chamber is established, divided into departments, and both the chairman and the regular members of them are appointed government. In district courts and judicial chambers, to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant in criminal cases, jurors are elected from local inhabitants of all classes. Then, each of these two institutions has a special prosecutor and a certain number of his comrades. The prosecutor of the district court is subordinate to the prosecutor of the judicial chamber, and the latter is directly dependent on the Minister of Justice, as the prosecutor general.

Military administration also underwent transformations. Already at the beginning of the reign, military settlements were destroyed, the term of soldier's service was reduced from 25 to 15 years, humiliating corporal punishment was abolished, special attention was paid to raising the level of general education of army officers through reforms of military educational institutions. Further, due to the observed shortcomings in the structure of military command, which stemmed from its excessive centralization, in 1862 the highest order was given to the Ministry of War to subject the system of military command to a radical revision, bearing in mind the absolute need to strengthen command at the locations of troops. As a result of this revision, the highest approved on August 6, 1864, the Regulations on the military district administrations. Based on this provision, initially 10 military districts were organized, and then (Aug. 6, 1865) another 4. In each district, a chief commander appointed at the direct highest discretion was appointed, bearing the name of the commander of the troops of such and such a military district. This position may also be assigned to the local governor-general. In some districts, an assistant to the commander of the troops is also appointed. - Another significant measure for the transformation of our military system was the Charter on military service issued on January 1, 1874, according to which the entire male population of the empire, without distinction of status, is subject to military service, and this service consists in staying for 6 years in the ranks, 9 years in exile and up to 40 years of age in the militia. It must also be borne in mind that in 1867 a public court was also introduced in the army, judicial power is distributed among the regimental courts, district courts and the main military court in St. Petersburg. The composition of the courts, excluding the regimental ones, was supposed to be replenished with officers graduating from the course at the Military Law Academy.

Public education also attracted the attention of the sovereign. Especially importance had in this respect the issuance of a new and general statute Russian universities June 18, 1863, in the development of which, on the initiative of the Minister of Public Education A.V. Golovnin, a special commission under the Main Board of Schools, composed mainly of professors from St. Petersburg, participated. university. According to this statute, each university (under the general authority of the Minister of Public Education) is entrusted to the trustee of the educational district, who is entrusted with government control, within the limits determined by the statute, over the independent orders of the university. Each university consists of a certain number of faculties, as components of one whole. The management of the educational part is entrusted to the faculties and the council of the university. Each faculty constitutes an independent faculty meeting of ordinary and extraordinary professors, chaired by a dean elected by them for a term of 3 years. The council is made up of all ordinary and extraordinary professors, chaired by the rector, who is elected by the council for 4 years and confirmed in the rank by the highest order. The rector was also entrusted with the immediate management of the university. The charter determines what matters the faculties and the council can decide with their own power and what must go to the approval of the trustee and minister. For economic affairs, under the chairmanship of the rector from the deans and the inspector (invited only for student affairs), a board was established. A university court of three judges, annually elected by a council of professors, has been established to try student misdemeanors. In addition, the content of professors, the number of departments and the funds of the university are increasing.

On November 19, 1864, a new statute on gymnasiums also appeared, significantly modified and supplemented by the statute of June 19, 1871. According to these statutes, secondary educational institutions are divided into classical, in which the classical system is carried out with great firmness, and real. Public education in the full sense is regulated by the highest approved on June 14, 1864. Regulations on primary public schools. Attention was also paid to women's education. Already in the 60s, instead of the former closed women's institutions, open ones began to be arranged, with the admission of girls of all classes, and these new institutions were under the control of the Institutions of Empress Maria. Similar gymnasiums were also established by the Ministry of Public Education. In 1870, on May 24, a new Regulations on women's gymnasiums and pro-gymnasiums of the Ministry of Public Education. These educational institutions are accepted under the highest patronage of the Empress. They may be established with the permission of the trustees of educational districts in such cities where it will be possible to ensure their existence by means of public or private donations, and the ministry is allowed to provide these institutions with benefits, for which it is allocated annually a certain amount in accordance with the funds of the treasury, but not more than, however, 150 t. r. in year. Finally, the need for higher education for women led to the establishment of pedagogical courses and higher courses for women in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Kazan and Odessa.

The reform of the press also had a profound and beneficial effect on the development of public consciousness. Already in 1862, the main department of censorship was closed and part of its duties was assigned to the Ministry of the Interior, and the other - directly to the Minister of Education. Finally, on April 6, 1865, Temporary Rules for Press. The Central Administration for Press Affairs was entrusted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, within which the Main Directorate for Press Affairs was opened. This department is entrusted with three types of affairs: 1) monitoring of printed works published without the permission of censorship; 2) the supervision of printers, lithographs and bookshops, and 3) the administration of the remaining preliminary censorship. All periodicals and essays of at least 10 sheets published in the capitals, as well as all publications of scientific institutions, drawings, plans and maps are everywhere exempted from preliminary censorship.

The reign of Alexander II, so rich in terms of internal reforms, was also marked in terms of foreign policy a whole series of hostilities, which in the end again raised the temporarily diminished importance of Russia after the Crimean War and again brought her a proper position in the host of European powers. As a matter of fact, despite the fact that the matter of internal renewal absorbed almost all the attention of the government, especially in the first half of the reign of Alexander, the war with external enemies went on almost continuously on the outskirts of the state. First of all, upon his accession to the throne, Alexander II had to end another war, inherited from his previous reign along with the Crimean one. It was a war with the Caucasian highlanders. This struggle, which has been going on for a long time, costing us a lot of strength and means, has not yet given any decisive results. Shamil, the leader of the highlanders, even pushed us back from Dagestan and Chechnya. At the end of the Crimean War, the sovereign appointed Prince Baryatinsky as commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, and things went faster. Already in April 1859, Vedeno, the seat of Shamil, was taken, which entailed the subordination of almost all of Dagestan. Shamil with his adherents withdrew to the impregnable heights of Gunib, but was surrounded on all sides by Russian troops and on August 25, after their decisive attack, was forced to surrender. The Eastern Caucasus was thus conquered; there was still the conquest of the West. The latter was all the more difficult because the highlanders were actively supported by all our enemies, who did not want to allow the end of the Caucasian war. Despite the peace concluded with us, Turkey accepted the highlanders as Muslims under its protection, delivered weapons and reinforcements through its emissaries. England also collected money in favor of the Circassians, and the French ambassador in Constantinople clearly took their side. In Trabzon, the European consuls (with the exception of the Prussian) even formed a committee of "assistance to the highlanders." Despite, however, all these out-of-town election meetings, urban thinking, the work of subjugating and gradually pushing the highlanders to the sea moved forward, albeit slowly, thanks to the energy and familiarity with local conditions of General Evdokimov. At the beginning of 1863, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich was appointed governor of the Caucasus, and things went faster, so that on May 21, 1864, the Grand Duke could telegraph the sovereign about the complete conquest of the Western Caucasus.

In the same year, 2 more major events took place - the pacification of Poland and the conquest of Turkestan.

After the suppression of the Polish uprising in 1831, Poland was in the position of a rebellious country, so that next to the ordinary administration, there was also a special military and police department in it. Emperor Alexander II, having ascended the throne, destroyed this distinction between Poles and other Russian subjects. An amnesty was granted to political criminals, many benefits were granted to the Poles, and the establishment of an Agricultural Society with an unlimited number of members under the chairmanship of Count Zamoyski was allowed. Despite all these benefits, however, the revolutionary party did not give up its aspirations. The agricultural society also began to pursue the goals of national unification. Italian success national movement , unrest in the Austrian possessions - all this increased the hopes of the Polish patriots. In 1860, a series of demonstrations began against the Russians, which especially intensified in 1861. Despite these demonstrations, which even went as far as clashes between the people and the troops, the government continued its restrained and peaceful policy. The Poles were even announced the appointment of a well-known Polish patriot, the Marquis of Velepolsky, director of education and spiritual affairs, the establishment in the Kingdom of new schools and the State Council from eminent persons of the region, elected councils in provinces and counties and an elected municipal government in Warsaw. But all this could not satisfy the revolutionary party. An attempt was even made on the life of the newly appointed viceroy of the kingdom, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, and it was announced that a new Polish government (zhond) with a central people's committee would be established in all parts of former Poland. In view of all these threatening actions, the government resorted to a decisive measure - it announced a general recruitment in the Kingdom not by lot, but by nominal call, limiting it to the urban population and those of the rural residents who are not engaged in arable farming. This measure brought the revolutionary party to the last degree of irritation, and at the beginning of 1863, when the announcement of recruitment followed, the revolutionary committee called all Poles to arms. On the night of January 10-11, an attack was made on our detachments located in different places of the Kingdom. The company generally failed. When the last attempt made by the government towards reconciliation, namely the granting of forgiveness to those who laid down their arms before May 1, did not lead to anything, the government took vigorous measures to suppress the uprising. The intercession of the Western powers, who sent their notes on the Polish question, was rejected, and the general indignation that seized Russia due to the importunate and perky tone of these notes and expressed itself in a whole mass of addresses from all noble assemblies, expressing their devotion to the sovereign and readiness to die for him, forced the uninvited intercessors back down from their demands. The uprising was suppressed thanks to the energetic actions of the governor of Warsaw, gr. Berg and the Vilna governor-general gr. Muraviev. Following this, a number of measures were taken that contributed to the final appeasement of Poland, and the main figures in this field were Prince Cherkassky and N. A. Milyutin. The Polish peasants were granted landed property and secular self-government, cities and towns were freed from patrimonial dependence in relation to the landowners, in the provinces (of which the number was increased from 5 to 10) and counties, a government similar to that in force in the empire was introduced, etc. n. In 1869 (March 28), the highest will was proclaimed to take measures for the complete merging of the Kingdom with the rest of the empire and to abolish all the central government institutions in the Kingdom for this purpose. Finally, in 1869, the Imperial University was established to replace the Main School in Warsaw.

Simultaneously with all these events, a struggle was also waged on our Asian frontier. Already in the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, the Russians became a firm foot in Turkestan thanks to the subjugation of the Kirghiz. In 1864, as a result of the energetic and intensified actions of General Verevkin and Colonel Chernyaev, our frontier line moved forward significantly: Chernyaev took Aulieta and Chekment by storm, and Verevkin, for his part, conquered Turkestan. Having learned that the Emir of Bukhara intended to occupy Tashkent, which depended on Kokand, Chernyaev in 1865 quickly moved to this city, protected by 30 tons. garrison, and, with only 2000 people. and 12 cannons, took it by open assault. The struggle with the emir continued until 1868, when Samarkand and Uzhgut were taken. The emir was forced to accept and conclude an agreement, according to which he provided Russian merchants with complete freedom of trade and abolished slavery in his possessions. Back in 1867, the Turkestan Governor General was established from the Turkestan region with the addition of the Semirechensk region to it again. In 1871, Russian possessions were enriched by the annexation of Kulja, and in 1875 Kokand itself, which is now the Fergana region, was occupied. Even before the conquest of Kokand, the struggle with the Khiva khan began. Under the protection of his unfortunate, waterless steppes, the latter paid no attention to the treaty of 1842 concluded with the Russians, attacked Russian merchants, robbed them and took them into captivity. I had to take drastic measures. In 1873, three detachments moved to Khiva from three different directions: a detachment led by General Markozov marched from the shores of the Caspian Sea, General Verevkin marched from Orenburg, and General Kaufman, the chief commander of the entire expedition, marched from Tashkent. The first detachment was supposed to return, but the remaining two, despite the 45 ° heat, lack of water and all sorts of difficulties, reached Khiva, took it and conquered the entire state in 2 weeks. The Khan was forced to admit his dependence on the White Tsar, to cede part of his possessions at the mouth of the Amu Darya; further, he granted the Russian merchants complete freedom of trade and exclusive navigation along the Amu Darya, their disputes with the Khivans were to be resolved by the Russian authorities; under the khan himself, a council of noble Khiva and Russian officers was established, and, finally, he had to pay an indemnity of 2,200,000 rubles. After the subjugation of the Kirghiz and Turkmens, the annexation of Samarkand and Kokand and bringing Khiva and Bukhara into dependence, the Russians had only one more opponent in Central Asia - it was the Khan of Kashgar Yakub, patronized by the British, who delivered him the title of Emir from the Sultan of Constantinople. When in 1870 the Russians occupied Gulja and thus approached his possessions, he tried to resist, supported by the British. Yakub died in 1877, and the Chinese claimed his possessions, demanding that the Russians also return Kulja. After lengthy negotiations in St. Petersburg on February 24, 1881, through the Chinese authorized Marquis Tzeng, an agreement was concluded with the Chinese, according to which the Russians ceded Gulja to them and renounced their claims to Kashgar in exchange for various trade privileges.

In order to punish the Turkmens, who lived on the borders of Afghanistan and owned the cities of Geok-Tepe and Merv, for their predatory raids, an expedition was undertaken against them. On December 20, 1880, General Skobelev stormed Yanshkale, then Dengil-Tepe and Geok-Tepe, and on January 30, 1881, took Askhabad. The cession of Akhal-Teke by the Shah in connection with the acquisition of Lehabad and Geok-Tepe, however, brought us very advantageous positions on the northern border of Afghanistan. (cf. I. Strelbitsky"Land acquisitions of Russia in the reign of Emperor Alexander II from 1855 to 1881", St. Petersburg, 1881).

On the eastern outskirts of Asia, during the reign of Alexander II, Russia also made quite important acquisitions, moreover, by peaceful means. According to the Aigun Treaty concluded with China in 1857, the entire left bank of the Amur departed to us, and the Beijing Treaty of 1860 provided us with part of the right bank between the river. Ussuri, Korea and the sea. Since then, the rapid settlement of the Amur Region began, various settlements and even cities began to appear one after another. In 1875, Japan ceded a part of Sakhalin that did not yet belong to us in exchange for the Kuril Islands, which we did not need at all. In the same way, in order not to scatter its forces and round off the Asian border, the government decided to abandon our former possessions in North America and ceded them to the United North American States for a monetary reward, which served as the basis of our friendship with the latter.

But the largest, most glorious military enterprise of the reign of Alexander II is Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878

After the Crimean War, Russia, preoccupied with its own internal affairs, for some time completely removed itself from Western European affairs. So, in 1859, during the Austro-Italian clash, Russia limited itself to armed neutrality. The latter responded to the intervention of the Roman Curia in the government's relations with its Catholic subjects by canceling the concordat of 1847 on December 4, 1866, and in June 1869 forbidding the Catholic bishops of the empire to take part in the council convened by Pius IX. During the Danish-Prussian war, the emperor tried to be only an intermediary and remained in the same neutral position during the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. fleet on the Black Sea.

Taking advantage of the defeat of France and the isolation of England, the Russian Chancellor, Prince Gorchakov, in a circular dispatch dated October 19, declared that Russia did not intend to embarrass itself with the mentioned article any longer, and the London Conference on March 1 (13), 1871 recognized this change, deleting the article from the treaty. After the fall of Napoleon 3, the emperors entered into a close alliance with each other, called the "Triple". The Berlin Congress of 1872, the arrival of the German emperor in St. Petersburg in 1873 and the frequent visits of the 3 emperors further strengthened this alliance. The Eastern question, however, soon subjected this friendship of the West to us to a severe test.

The fate of the Slavic tribes kindred to us on the Balkan Peninsula has always attracted the attention and sympathy of the Russian people and government. Of these tribes, in the 60s, the Serbs, Romanians and Montenegrins achieved some independence; this was not the fate of the Slavs in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Bulgaria. Here Turkish oppression and arbitrariness reigned in all its unbridledness, causing frequent desperate uprisings of the inhabitants, brought to extremes. In 1874 an uprising broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Turks suffered defeat after defeat. To calm the rebels, the representatives of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary drew up a reform program for Turkey in Berlin. But the Turks, relying on England's obvious sympathy for them, not only rejected this program, but boldly killed the French and German consuls in Thessaloniki, who stood up for one Bulgarian girl, and then, not being able to defeat the rebels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, attacked the defenseless Bulgaria. Since 1864, the Port began to settle here the Circassians who were evicted from the Caucasus in order to avoid Russian domination. Accustomed to living in their homeland by robbery and robbery, these predators, called bashi-bazouks, began to oppress the Bulgarian peasants, forcing them to work for themselves, like serfs. The ancient hatred between Christians and Muslims flared up with renewed vigor. The peasants took up arms. And so, in order to avenge this uprising, Turkey sent thousands of Circassians, bashi-bazouks and other irregular troops against Bulgaria. Civilians were treated equally with the rebels. Terrible rampages and massacres began. In Batak alone, out of 7,000 inhabitants, 5,000 people were beaten. An investigation undertaken by the French envoy showed that 20,000 Christians perished within 3 months. All Europe was indignant. But this feeling was most pronounced in Russia and in all the Slavic lands. Serbia and Montenegro stood up for the Bulgarians. General Chernyaev, the winner of Tashkent, took command of the Serbian army as a volunteer. Russian volunteers from all classes of society flocked to the aid of the rebels; The sympathy of society was expressed by all sorts of voluntary donations. Serbia, however, was not successful due to the numerical superiority of the Turks. Public opinion in Russia loudly demanded war. Emperor Alexander II, in his characteristic peacefulness, wanted to avoid it and reach an agreement through diplomatic negotiations. But neither the Constantinople Conference (November 11, 1876) nor the London Protocol led to any results. The Turks refused to fulfill even the mildest demands, counting on the support of England. War became inevitable. On April 12, 1877, our troops stationed near Chisinau were ordered to enter Turkey. On the same day, our Caucasian troops, whose commander-in-chief was appointed Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, entered the borders of Asiatic Turkey. started Eastern war 1877- 78G.(see this word), covering such a loud, unfading glory of the valor of the Russian soldier.

Treaty of San Stefano 19 Feb. 1878, in addition to its direct goal - the liberation of the Balkan Slavs - brought brilliant results to Russia. The intervention of Europe, which jealously followed the successes of Russia, with the Treaty of Berlin, significantly narrowed the scope of these results, but nevertheless they remain very significant. Russia acquired the Danube part of Bessarabia and the Turkish regions bordering on Transcaucasia with the fortresses of Kars, Ardagan and Batum, turned into a free port.

Emperor Alexander II, who sacredly and courageously did the work assigned to him by fate - the construction and exaltation of a huge monarchy, aroused the delight of true patriots and the astonishment of enlightened people of the whole world, and met evil ill-wishers. With madness and fury pursuing goals incomprehensible to anyone, the organizers-destructors created a whole series of attempts on the life of the sovereign, who was the pride and glory of Russia, attempts that interfered so much with his great undertakings, embarrassed his peace and bewildered the numerous kingdom, completely calm and the king devoted. Various police measures, one after another created, and the enormous powers given at the end of the reign to the Minister of the Interior, Count. Loris-Melikov, to the great sadness of the Russian people, did not reach the goal. On March 1, 1881, the sovereign, for whom a large population was ready to lay down his life, died a martyr's death from a villainous hand that threw an explosive projectile. On the terrible site of the murder of the great sovereign in St. Petersburg, the Church of the Resurrection is being erected, the same temples and various monuments in memory of the liberator tsar were built in different places of the Russian land, and the Russian people, remembering the name of the liberator tsar, always make the sign of the cross.

Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron

The Russian Emperor Alexander II was born on April 29 (17 according to the old style) in 1818 in Moscow. The eldest son of the Emperor and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. After his father's accession to the throne in 1825, he was proclaimed heir to the throne.

He received an excellent education at home. His mentors were lawyer Mikhail Speransky, poet Vasily Zhukovsky, financier Yegor Kankrin and other outstanding minds of that time.

He inherited the throne on March 3 (February 18, according to the old style), 1855, at the end of an unsuccessful year for Russia, which he managed to complete with minimal losses for the empire. He was married to the kingdom in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on September 8 (August 26, according to the old style), 1856.

On the occasion of the coronation, Alexander II announced an amnesty for the Decembrists, Petrashevites, participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831.

The transformations of Alexander II affected all spheres of activity of Russian society, forming the economic and political contours of post-reform Russia.

On December 3, 1855, the Supreme Censorship Committee was closed by imperial decree and the discussion of state affairs became open.

In 1856, a secret committee was organized "to discuss measures to arrange the life of the landlord peasants."

On March 3 (February 19, according to the old style), 1861, the emperor signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom and the Regulations on peasants who emerged from serfdom, for which he was called the "tsar-liberator". The transformation of the peasants into a free labor force contributed to the capitalization of agriculture and the growth of factory production.

In 1864, by issuing the Judicial Statutes, Alexander II separated the judiciary from the executive, legislative and administrative powers, ensuring its complete independence. The process became public and competitive. The police, financial, university and all secular and spiritual educational system as a whole was reformed. By 1864, the beginning of the creation of all-estate zemstvo institutions, which were entrusted with the management of economic and other public issues in the field, also dates back. In 1870, on the basis of the City Regulations, city dumas and councils appeared.

As a result of reforms in the field of education, self-government became the basis for the activities of universities, and secondary education for women was developed. Three Universities were founded - in Novorossiysk, Warsaw and Tomsk. Innovations in the press significantly limited the role of censorship and contributed to the development of the mass media.

By 1874, the army was re-equipped in Russia, a system of military districts was created, the War Ministry was reorganized, the officer training system was reformed, general military service was introduced, and the period of military service(from 25 to 15 years, including service in the reserve), corporal punishment has been abolished.

The emperor also established the State Bank.

The internal and external wars of Emperor Alexander II were victorious - the uprising that broke out in 1863 in Poland was suppressed, the Caucasian War ended (1864). According to the Aigun and Beijing treaties with the Chinese Empire, Russia annexed the Amur and Ussuri regions in 1858-1860. In 1867-1873, the territory of Russia increased due to the conquest of the Turkestan Territory and the Ferghana Valley and the voluntary entry into the vassal rights of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khiva Khanate. At the same time, in 1867, overseas possessions - Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were ceded to the United States, with which good relations were established. In 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Turkey suffered a defeat that predetermined the state independence of Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro.

© Infographic

© Infographic

The reforms of 1861-1874 created the prerequisites for a more dynamic development of Russia, increased the participation of the most active part of society in the life of the country. The reverse side of the transformations was the aggravation of social contradictions and the growth of the revolutionary movement.

Six attempts were made on the life of Alexander II, the seventh was the cause of his death. The first was the shot of the nobleman Dmitry Karakozov in the Summer Garden on April 17 (4 according to the old style), 1866. By a lucky chance, the emperor was saved by the peasant Osip Komissarov. In 1867, during a visit to Paris, the leader of the Polish liberation movement, Anton Berezovsky, attempted on the emperor. In 1879, the populist revolutionary Alexander Solovyov tried to shoot the emperor with several revolver shots, but missed. The underground terrorist organization "Narodnaya Volya" purposefully and systematically prepared regicide. The terrorists blew up the tsarist train near Aleksandrovsk and Moscow, and then in the Winter Palace itself.

The explosion in the Winter Palace forced the authorities to take extraordinary measures. To fight the revolutionaries, the Supreme Administrative Commission was formed, headed by General Mikhail Loris-Melikov, popular and authoritative at that time, who actually received dictatorial powers. He took harsh measures to combat the revolutionary terrorist movement, while at the same time pursuing a policy of bringing the government closer to the "well-intentioned" circles of Russian society. So, under him in 1880, the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery was abolished. Police functions were concentrated in the Police Department, formed within the Ministry of the Interior.

On March 14 (Old Style 1), 1881, as a result of a new attack by the Narodnaya Volya, Alexander II was mortally wounded on the Ekaterininsky Canal (now the Griboedov Canal) in St. Petersburg. The explosion of the first bomb thrown by Nikolai Rysakov damaged the royal carriage, wounded several guards and passers-by, but Alexander II survived. Then another thrower, Ignatius Grinevitsky, came close to the tsar and threw a bomb at his feet. Alexander II died a few hours later in the Winter Palace and was buried in the family tomb of the Romanov dynasty in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. On the site of the death of Alexander II in 1907, the Church of the Savior on Blood was erected.

In the first marriage, Emperor Alexander II was with Empress Maria Alexandrovna (nee Princess Maximilian-Wilhelmina-August-Sophia-Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt). The emperor entered into a second (morganatic) marriage with Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova, granted the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, shortly before her death.

The eldest son of Alexander II and heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, died in Nice of tuberculosis in 1865, and the throne was inherited by the emperor's second son, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich (Alexander III).

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Future king Alexander II was born on April 29 (April 17, old style), 1818. From birth, the first-born of the imperial couple Nikolai Pavlovich and Alexandra Feodorovna was perceived as a potential heir to the throne, because the elder brothers of the king had no children. Therefore, special attention was paid to the upbringing and education of the future emperor. Sacred history and the Law of God taught him Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky, taught arithmetic academic Collins, the basics of military affairs - Colonel Karl Merder, and legislation - statesman Mikhail Speransky. The teacher of the Russian language and the main mentor of Alexander Nikolaevich, responsible for his education and upbringing, was a court adviser, poet Vasily Zhukovsky.

main direction domestic policy Russia during the reign of Alexander II began liberal reforms, nicknamed "great". In the 1860-70s, financial, zemstvo, judicial, censorship, military reforms, reforms of secondary and higher education, and city government were carried out. Crowning this list of transformations is the peasant reform. On March 3 (February 19, old style), 1861, the emperor signed two documents: "Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom" and "Regulations on peasants emerging from serfdom." According to them, the peasants ceased to be considered serfs and received the status of "temporarily liable". They were endowed with a house adjoining plot and a field plot, for the use of which the peasants had to serve corvee or pay dues for 49 years.

Alaska is also associated with the name of Alexander II: a peninsula sold by the emperor to the United States of America in 1867. This remote possession was costly to the treasury, it was also believed that in case of war it would be difficult to defend it. Nevertheless, under Alexander II, Russia significantly expanded its borders, the territories of Central Asia, the North Caucasus, the Far East and Bessarabia were annexed to it.

The personal life of the king has always been at the hearing of his contemporaries. In his youth, he often fell in love with court ladies-in-waiting, with some he had stormy romances. One of the ladies of Alexander's heart was a young Queen Victoria whom he met during a trip to London in 1839. In 1841, the twenty-three-year-old heir to the throne married the seventeen-year-old princess of the House of Hesse, who in Orthodoxy received the name Maria Alexandrovna. While married, the emperor continued to have an affair, and by the end of 1870 he began to live in two families, without particularly hiding it. Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova, the young mistress of the tsar, together with their common illegitimate children, lived in separate chambers in the Winter Palace, next to the lawful wife of Alexander II.

In July 1880, a few months after the death of Maria Alexandrovna, the emperor married Catherine. The wedding took place hastily, before the end of the mourning. Alexander II wanted to crown his chosen one and make their common children heirs to the throne, but did not have time: their family happiness with Dolgorukova lasted less than a year. On March 13 (March 1, old style), 1881, the emperor died as a result of another (sixth) assassination attempt. The wound received from a bomb thrown under his feet by the People's Will Ignaty Grinevitsky turned out to be fatal.

Alexander I was born on April 29, 1818, in Moscow. In honor of his birth in Moscow, a volley of 201 guns was fired. The birth of Alexander II took place during the reign of Alexander I, who had no children, and the first brother of Alexander I, Constantine, did not have imperial ambitions, because of which the son of Nicholas I, Alexander II, was immediately considered as the future emperor. When Alexander II was 7 years old, his father had already become emperor.

Nicholas I approached the education of his son very responsibly. Alexander received an excellent home education. His teachers were outstanding minds of that time, such as lawyer Mikhail Speransky, poet Vasily Zhukovsky, financier Yegor Kankrin and others. Alexander studied the Law of God, legislation, foreign policy, physical and mathematical sciences, history, statistics, chemistry and technology. In addition, he studied military sciences. Mastered English, German and French. The poet Vasily Zhukovsky was appointed educator of the future emperor, who at the same time was Alexander's teacher of the Russian language.

Alexander II in his youth. Unknown artist. OK. 1830

Alexander's father personally oversaw his education by attending Alexander's examinations, which he himself arranged every two years. Nikolai also attracted his son to state affairs: from the age of 16, Alexander had to attend meetings of the Senate, later Alexander became a member of the Synod. In 1836, Alexander was promoted to major general and included in the retinue of the king.

The training ended with a trip to the Russian Empire and Europe.

Nicholas I, from the "admonition" to his son before a trip to Russia: “Your first duty will be to see everything with the indispensable goal of getting to know in detail the state over which sooner or later you are determined to reign. Therefore, your attention should be equally directed to everything ... in order to get an idea of ​​the real state of things.

In 1837, Alexander, in the company of Zhukovsky, adjutant Kavelin, and several other people close to him, made a great trip around Russia and visited 29 provinces of the European part, Transcaucasia and Western Siberia.

Nicholas I, from the "admonition" to his son before a trip to Europe: “Many things will seduce you, but on closer examination you will see that not everything is worthy of imitation; ... we must always preserve our nationality, our imprint, and woe to us if we leave it behind; it is our strength, our salvation, our originality.”

In 1838-1839 Alexander visited the countries of Central Europe, Scandinavia, Italy and England. In Germany, he met his future wife, Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of the Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, with whom they married two years later.

The beginning of the reign

The throne of the Russian Empire went to Alexander on March 3, 1855. In this difficult time for Russia, the Crimean War, in which Russia had no allies, and the adversaries were the advanced European powers (Turkey, France, England, Prussia and Sardinia). The war for Russia at the time of Alexander's accession to the throne was almost completely lost. The first important step of Alexander was to reduce the country's losses to a minimum, the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty in 1856. After the emperor visited France and Poland, where he spoke with calls to “stop dreams” (meaning dreams of defeating Russia), later he entered into an alliance with the king of Prussia, forming a “dual alliance”. Such actions greatly weakened the foreign policy isolation of the Russian Empire, in which it was during the Crimean War.

However, the problem of the war was not the only one that the new emperor inherited from the hands of his late father: the peasant, Polish and eastern questions. In addition, the economy in the country was severely depleted by the Crimean War.

Nicholas I, before his death, addressing his son: “I hand over my team to you, but, unfortunately, not in the order I wanted, leaving you a lot of work and worries”

Period of Great Reforms

Initially, Alexander supported his father's conservative policy, but long-standing problems could no longer remain unresolved, and Alexander began a reform policy.

In December 1855, the Supreme Censorship Committee was closed and the free issue of foreign passports was allowed. In the summer of 1856, on the occasion of the coronation, the new emperor granted amnesty to the Decembrists, Petrashevists (freethinkers who were about to rebuild political system in Russia, arrested by the government of Nicholas I) and participants in the Polish uprising. A “thaw” began in the socio-political life of the country.

In addition, Alexander II liquidated in 1857 military settlements, established under Alexander I.

The next was the solution of the peasant question, which greatly hampered the development of capitalism in the Russian Empire and every year increased the gap from the advanced European powers.

Alexander II, from an address to the nobles in March 1856: “Rumors are circulating that I want to announce the emancipation of serfdom. It's not fair... But I won't tell you that I'm totally against it. We live in such an age that in time this must happen ... It is much better for it to happen from above than from below.

The reform of this phenomenon was prepared for a long time and carefully, and only in 1861 Alexander II signed Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom and Regulations on peasants leaving serfdom, compiled by trusted persons of the emperors, for the most part liberals such as Nikolai Milyutin, Yakov Rostovtsev and others. However, the liberal attitude of the developers of the reform was suppressed by the nobility, who for the most part did not want to lose any personal benefits. For this reason, the reform was carried out more in the interests of the nobility than in the interests of the people, since the peasants received only personal freedom and civil rights, and they had to buy land for the needs of the peasants from the landowners. Nevertheless, the government helped the peasants with the redemption of subsidies, which allowed the peasants to immediately buy the land, remaining indebted to the state. Despite these aspects, Alexander II for this reform was immortalized in history as the "tsar-liberator".

Reading of the Manifesto of 1861 by Alexander II on Smolnaya Square in St. Petersburg. Artist A.D. Kivshenko.

The reform of serfdom was followed by a series of reforms. The abolition of serfdom created a new type of economy, while the finances built on the feudal system reflected its outdated type of development. In 1863, the Financial Reform was carried out. In the process of this reform, the State Bank of the Russian Empire and the Main Redemption Institution under the Ministry of Finance were created. The first step was the emergence of the principle of publicity in the formation of the state budget, which made it possible to minimize embezzlement. Treasuries were also created to administer all state revenues. Taxation after the reform began to resemble modern, with the division of taxes into direct and indirect.

In 1863, an educational reform was carried out, which made available secondary and higher education, a network of public schools was created, schools for commoners were created. Universities received special status and relative autonomy, which in turn had a positive effect on the conditions scientific activity and prestige of the teaching profession.

The next major reform was Zemstvo reform carried out in July 1864. According to this reform, local self-government bodies were created: zemstvos and city dumas, which themselves resolved economic and budgetary issues.

There was a need for a new judicial system to govern the country. In 1864, the Judicial Reform was also carried out, which guaranteed the equality of all classes before the law. The institution of juries was created. Also, most of the meetings became open and public. All meetings were competitive.

In 1874, a military reform was carried out. This reform was motivated by the humiliating defeat of Russia in the Crimean War, where all the shortcomings of the Russian army and its lagging behind the European ones surfaced. It provided transition from recruitment to universal conscription and reduction in terms of service. As a result of the reform, the size of the army was reduced by 40%, a network of military and cadet schools was created for people from all classes, the General Staff of the Army and military districts were created, the rearmament of the army and navy, the abolition of corporal punishment in the army and the creation of military courts and military procurators with adversarial litigation.

Historians have noted that Alexander II made decisions on reforms not because of his own convictions, but because of his understanding of their necessity. So we can conclude that for Russia of that era they were forced.

Territorial changes and wars under Alexander II

Internal and external wars during the reign of Alexander II were successful. The Caucasian War successfully ended in 1864, as a result of which the entire North Caucasus was captured by Russia. According to the Aigun and Beijing treaties with the Chinese Empire, Russia annexed the Amur and Ussuri regions in 1858-1860. In 1863, the emperor successfully suppressed an uprising in Poland. In 1867-1873, the territory of Russia increased due to the conquest of the Turkestan Territory and the Ferghana Valley and the voluntary entry into the vassal rights of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khiva Khanate.

In 1867, Alaska (Russian America) was sold to the United States for $7 million. Which at that time was a bargain for Russia in view of the remoteness of these territories and for the sake of good relations with the United States.

Growth of dissatisfaction with the activities of Alexander II, assassination attempts and murder

During the reign of Alexander II, unlike his predecessors, there were more than enough social protests. Numerous peasant uprisings (dissatisfied with the conditions of the peasant reform of the peasants), the Polish uprising and, as a result, the attempts of the emperor to Russify Poland led to waves of discontent. In addition, numerous protest groups appeared among the intelligentsia and workers, who formed circles. Numerous circles began to propagate revolutionary ideas with "going to the people." Government attempts to bring these processes under control only exacerbated the process. For example, in the process of 193 populists, society was outraged by the actions of the government.

“In general, in all sections of the population, some kind of indefinite displeasure is manifested, which has seized everyone. Everyone complains about something and seems to want and wait for a change.

Assassinations and terror of important government officials spread. While the audience literally applauded the terrorists. Terrorist organizations grew more and more so, for example, "Narodnaya Volya", which sentenced Alexander II to death by the end of the 70s, had more than a hundred active members.

Plason Anton-Antonovich, a contemporary of Alexander II: “Only during an armed uprising that has already flared up is there such a panic that seized everyone in Russia at the end of the 70s and in the 80s. In all of Russia, everyone fell silent in clubs, in hotels, on the streets and in the markets ... And both in the provinces and in St. Petersburg, everyone was waiting for something unknown, but terrible, no one was sure of the future "

Alexander II literally did not know what to do and was completely at a loss. In addition to the dissatisfaction of society, the emperor had problems in the family: in 1865, his eldest son Nikolai died, his death undermined the health of the empress. As a result, there was complete alienation in the emperor's family. Alexander came to his senses a little when he met Ekaterina Dolgoruky, but this connection also caused censure from society.

Prime Minister Pyotr Valuev: “The sovereign looks tired and himself spoke of nervous irritation, which he intensifies to hide. Crowned ruin. In an era where strength is needed in him, obviously you can’t count on it. ”

Osip Komissarov. Photo from the collection of M.Yu. Meshchaninov

The first attempt on the tsar was carried out on April 4, 1866 by a member of the Hell society (a society adjoining the People and Will organization) Dmitry Karakozov, he tried to shoot at the tsar, but at the moment of the shot he was pushed by a peasant Osip Komisarov (later a hereditary nobleman).

“I don’t know what, but my heart somehow especially beat when I saw this man who hastily made his way through the crowd; I involuntarily followed him, but then, however, forgot him when the sovereign approached. Suddenly I see that he took out and aims a pistol: it instantly seemed to me that if I threw myself at him or pushed his hand to the side, he would kill someone else or me, and I involuntarily and forcefully pushed his hand up; then I don’t remember anything, how I was bewildered myself.

The second assassination attempt was carried out in Paris on May 25, 1867 by the Polish emigrant Anton Berezovsky, but the bullet hit the horse.

On April 2, 1879, a member of Narodnaya Volya, Alexander Solovyov, fired 5 shots at the emperor from a distance of 10 steps, when he, unguarded and escorted, was walking around the outskirts of the Winter Palace, but not a single bullet hit the target.

On November 19 of the same year, members of Narodnaya Volya unsuccessfully tried to mine the tsar's train. The emperor again smiled luck.

On February 5, 1880, Stepan Khalturin, a Narodnaya Volya member, undermined the Winter Palace, but only soldiers from his personal guard died, the emperor himself and his family were not injured.

Photo of the halls of the Winter Palace after the explosion.

Alexander II died on March 1, 1881, an hour after another assassination attempt from the explosion of a second bomb thrown under his feet on the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg by the People's Will Ignaty Grinevitsky. The emperor died on the day when he intended to approve Loris-Melikov's constitutional project.

The results of the reign

Alexander II went down in history as a "tsar-liberator" and a reformer, although the reforms carried out did not fully solve many of Russia's age-old problems. The territory of the country has increased significantly, despite the loss of Alaska.

However, the economic condition of the country worsened under him: the industry plunged into depression, the state and external debt reached large sizes, and a deficit in the foreign trade balance formed, which led to a breakdown in finance and monetary relations. The society was already so restless, and by the end of the reign, a complete split formed in it.

Personal life

Alexander II often spent time abroad, was a passionate lover of hunting large animals, loved ice skating and greatly popularized this phenomenon. He himself suffered from asthma.

He himself was a very amorous person, during a trip to Europe after his studies he fell in love with Queen Victoria.

He was twice married and married. From his first marriage with Maria Alexandrovna (Maximiliana of Hesse) he had 8 children, including Alexander III. From his second marriage with Ekaterina Dolgorukova, he had 4 children.

Family of Alexander II. Photo by Sergey Levitsky.

In memory of Alexander II, the Church of the Savior on Blood was erected at the site of his death.