Alexander II: interesting facts. Alexander II - biography, facts from life, photographs, background information Alexander 2 facts

) - All-Russian Emperor from the Romanov dynasty. The first son of Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. He carried out a number of large-scale reforms, including university, judicial and military reforms. In 1861, on February 19, Alexander abolished serfdom, thanks to which he remained in history under the nickname – the Liberator. During the reign of Alexander II the Liberator, the territory of Russia expanded due to the annexation of the territories of the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus and part of Kazakhstan. He died as a result of a successful attempt on his life, organized by Narodnaya Volya.

Childhood and youth

Alexander's parents were Emperor Nicholas I and the daughter of the Prussian king Alexandra Feodorovna. The boy was born at lunchtime in the Bishop's House of the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin, where the princely couple celebrated Easter. This was the first child in the family of Nicholas and Alexandra and, therefore, from the very beginning of the boy’s life it was assumed that a potential heir to the throne was born.

Alexander received a diverse and high-quality education at home, being a pupil of such people as military officer Merder, Zhukovsky, Speransky, Arsenyev, Kankrin and others sing. As a result, the future emperor spoke 5 languages, had a good knowledge of history, natural science, philosophy, as well as logic, mathematics and statistics. For educational purposes, Alexander traveled around Russia at the age of 19, which lasted about three months, and later a trip to European countries, accompanied by co-pupils and adjutants of the Tsarevich A.V. Patkul and I.M. Vielgorsky.

Various testimonies of that time characterize the young Alexander II as a man endowed with a lively and analytical mind, good memory and a friendly attitude towards others, but he was a fickle socialite with no strong desires.

State activities before ascending the throne

Having reached the age of 18, Alexander II becomes a senator. The following year, the Tsarevich was introduced to the Holy Governing Synod, and in 1842 he became a member of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. The military career of the heir to the throne is advancing no less rapidly. By 1853, Alexander led all the troops of St. Petersburg, had the rank of adjutant general and was the ataman of the Cossack troops.

Alexander's reign

The death of Alexander's father in 1855 preceded his son's ascension to the throne. The political, social and economic situation in the empire at that moment was not developing in the most favorable way. The young emperor inherited a country that was defeated in the Crimean War, which had various problems in the field of agriculture, national minorities, as well as the peasant question, which was never resolved during the reign of Nicholas. The lost Crimean War led the country to international isolation, significantly damaging the image of Russia. Alexander made a successful attempt to carry out reforms that were required at all levels of the state.

The first step to correct the mistakes of the previous ruler was the Peace of Paris, concluded in March 1856. A little later, Alexander broke the political blockade of the state.

There were also changes in domestic policy. The stage of thaw and openness begins. The Supreme Censorship Committee is closed, and an amnesty is declared to the Decembrists, Petrashevites and Polish rebels.

Reforms of Alexander II

The importance of Alexander's reforms is difficult to overestimate. They concerned various social and economic issues. One of Alexander's most striking decisions was the abolition of serfdom. Due to a significant increase in the number of peasant uprisings and the declining prestige of the Russian Empire, Alexander made attempts to resolve these issues by removing peasant duties. By giving the peasants personal freedom and the opportunity to freely dispose of their own property, the emperor demonstrated the foresight of his policy. According to Alexander himself, it was necessary to destroy serfdom from above before it began to be destroyed by itself from below. This decision caused a strong resonance in society and was attacked by opponents of the reform.

The remaining reforms did not cause such strong rejection by certain sections of the population, but were no less important stage in the development of Russia. A self-government reform was carried out, which consisted of two provisions: zemstvo and city. Judicial reform has radically changed the principles of legal proceedings. From now on, the parties received equal rights in the adversarial process, and a jury appeared. Military reform, prompted by Russia's recent defeat in the war, now provided for conscription for all classes. The education reform was not so clear-cut and was subject to various criticisms.

Alexander II pursued a special policy towards national minorities. In connection with the Polish national liberation uprising, attempts were made to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church and Russify the Polish population. The Valuevsky Circular and the Emsky Decree were also issued limiting printing in the Ukrainian language. But thanks to Alexander II, such a concept as the Jewish Pale of Settlement ceased to exist. They could settle anywhere.

Personal life of Alexander II

Alexander met his future wife when he went to travel around Europe in 1837. Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria was not her own, but the adopted daughter of the Duke of Hesse, Louis II. The young Tsarevich passionately fell in love with the 15-year-old girl and soon wrote to his father and mother about his intention to marry. The parents' reaction was not the most encouraging, but over time Nikolai relented.
Princess Maria arrived in St. Petersburg in 1840, where she was warmly received by the imperial family. On April 16, 1841, Maria and Alexander were married.

The princely couple had six children. Frequent pregnancies had a negative impact on the health of Alexander’s wife and over time his feelings for Maria cooled.

Alexander 2 the Liberator - quite often you can hear this addition when mentioning the Russian emperor. How did the king get this nickname? The life story of Alexander 2 the Liberator, the reforms he carried out, and interesting facts will be discussed in the article.

Life story: birth and baptism

The biography of Alexander 2 the Liberator begins on April 17, 1818. He was born in one of the palaces of the Moscow Kremlin, where the imperial family came to celebrate Easter. Alexander was the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I. Due to the fact that Nicholas I’s brothers did not have sons, Alexander II was perceived as a potential heir to the throne after his birth.

In honor of the birth of the heir to the throne, a 201 cannon salute was fired in Moscow. At the beginning of May, Alexander’s baptism and confirmation took place in the Cathedral of the Chudov Monastery. On this occasion, the empress hosted a gala dinner.

Upbringing

The future emperor was educated at home, under the direct supervision of his father, who took the issue of raising and educating his son very seriously. The first persons assigned to Alexander at different times were: Adjutant General P. P. Ushakov, H. A. Lieven, Colonel K. K. Mederer.

The main mentor of the future tsar and teacher of the Russian language was the great Russian poet, scientist, and court adviser V. A. Zhukovsky. He also supervised the entire process of training and education of Alexander 2 the Liberator, drawing up and adjusting the curriculum.

Education

The heir to the throne studied foreign languages ​​- French, English and German. He studied fencing, fine arts, military and other sciences, including:

• Law of God, teachers - Archpriests Bazhanov V.B., Pavsky G.P.
• Legislation - Secretary of State Speransky M. M.
• History and statistics - academician Arsenyev K.I.
• Finance - economist and Minister of Finance Kankrin E.F.
• Foreign policy - diplomat Brunnov F.I.
• Physics and Mathematics - Academician Collins E.D.
• Natural history - academician Trinius K. B.
• Chemistry and technology - academician Hess G.I.

As noted in numerous testimonies, Alexander 2 the Liberator was very impressionable and amorous. Once, while staying in London in 1839, he developed a liking and then a crush on Princess Victoria. An interesting fact is that, having become monarchs, they experienced hostility and enmity, which was mutual.

Beginning of government activities

Alexander’s 16th birthday fell during Holy Week, and therefore the celebrations on the occasion of his coming of age, as well as the taking of the oath, were postponed until the Resurrection of Christ. On April 22, 1834, in the large church of the Winter Palace, the Tsarevich took the oath.

After which Emperor Nicholas I introduced him to the Senate, which was the main state institution of the empire, and a year later - to the Holy Governing Synod. Alexander 2 the Liberator in 1841 became a member of the State Council, and a year later - the Committee of Ministers.

Traveling around Russia and Europe

In 1837, the future emperor began his great journey across Russia, visiting 29 provinces in Transcaucasia, the European part of the state and Western Siberia. It is worth noting that he became the first sovereign to visit Siberia. On his trips he was accompanied by V.A. Zhukovsky, as well as adjutants A.V. Patkul and I.M. Vielgorsky.

Interesting fact: in Tobolsk, the Tsarevich saw several exiled Decembrists, after which he petitioned his father for their pardon and release. At the end of his journey through Russia, Alexander goes on a journey through Europe for one year.

Beginning of the reign

The years of the reign of Alexander 2 the Liberator lasted from 1855 to 1881. However, before ascending the throne, he served in military service. The Emperor in 1836 was already a major general, and 8 years later - a general. Under his command were the Guards Infantry. In 1849 he became the head of military educational institutions. From 1853 to 1856, during the Crimean War, he commanded all the capital's troops.

Nicholas I died on February 18, 1855, on the same day the history of Alexander 2 as emperor began. This was a very difficult period for the state, as it faced a number of difficult foreign and domestic political problems and issues: the Crimean War depleted the treasury, problems with Poland and the Balkans, the peasant question, as well as virtually complete international isolation.

First government decisions

The first, one of the most important steps taken by Alexander II, was the conclusion of the so-called Paris Peace, carried out in March 1856 on conditions that were not the worst in the existing situation. So, for example, England had intentions to continue the war until the complete defeat and division of the Russian Empire, which Alexander II managed to avoid.

Then he went to Berlin, where he met with his mother’s brother, King Frederick William 4 of Prussia, with whom he managed to secretly conclude a “dual alliance,” thereby breaking the foreign policy isolation of the Russian Empire.

On August 26, 1856, the coronation of Alexander II took place in the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral. On this occasion, he issued a manifesto, which granted indulgences and benefits to many categories of subjects, for example, the Decembrists, participants in the Polish uprising, and Petrashevites. Military settlements were also liquidated and recruiting fees were suspended for three years.

Peasant reform

Why is Alexander 2 called the Liberator? First of all, thanks to its reforms, one of which is the “Peasant” reform, also known as the abolition of serfdom in 1861. were as follows:

1. Peasants ceased to be considered slaves and became “temporarily obligated.”
2. They received complete civil and legal freedom (“free rural inhabitants”), as well as the right to own land.
3. Peasant houses and buildings, movable and other property were recognized as the property of the peasant.
4. Peasants were given the opportunity to choose self-government. Economic (lower) - rural society, administrative (higher) - volost.
5. The landowners retained ownership of all their lands, but they were obliged to provide the peasants with a field allotment and a house plot (“estate settlement”). The size of the allotment was regulated by law.
6. For the use of field plots, peasants were obliged to serve corvée or pay quitrent, and also did not have the right to abandon the land for 49 years.
7. Rural societies had the right to purchase estate plots, as well as field allotments. After the ransom, the peasants had no obligations to the landowners and were called “peasant-owners.”
8. The state provided landowners with a financial guarantee on preferential terms upon receipt of the redemption payment, after which the peasant paid the redemption payment to the state.

It was thanks, first of all, to this revolutionary reform that Emperor Alexander 2 was called the Liberator. He also carried out a number of unprecedented transformations, which were later called great.

Other reforms of Alexander 2. Table

The main transformations of the Tsar-Liberator include: financial, military, judicial and zemstvo, educational, and urban government reform.

The table of Alexander 2's reforms is presented below.

	Name
	Liquidation (disbandment) of military settlements	Abolition of settlements and release of military personnel from agricultural labor
	Finance reform	Modernization of the state's financial system and bringing it into line with the new capitalist type
	Reforming higher education	Systematization of higher educational institutions
	Judicial reform	A set of measures to change and improve the judicial system
	Zemstvo reform	Creation of a zemstvo institution of a self-government system
	Reform of city and village self-government	Transfer of powers to cities and towns with the possibility of independent governance
	Secondary education reform	Establishing the order of education
	Military reform	Reforming the troops, forming a new combat reserve system, strengthening the army

It can be argued that the historical portrait of Alexander 2 the Liberator shows the emperor as a great and competent reformer. However, it should be noted that, for example, the abolition of serfdom created many problems for the peasants themselves. Nevertheless, the transformations implemented by the emperor resolved a number of acute social and economic problems in the state.

Assassination attempts

There were a total of 8 assassination attempts on Emperor Alexander II.

In April 1866, D.V. Karakozov shot at him, but the bullet flew above his head due to the fact that the shooter was pushed by Osip Komissarov (a peasant) who was nearby.

In May 1867, an emigrant from Poland, A. Berezovsky, shot, but the bullet hit the horse.

In April 1879, A.K. Solovyov fired 5 times, 4 shots in the direction of Alexander II. The shooter was captured and later executed.

In November 1879, an attempt was made to blow up the emperor's train in the Moscow region. However, by chance, Alexander II took a different train.

In February 1880, S. N. Khalturin caused an explosion on the first floor of the Winter Palace. The emperor, by coincidence, arrived at the palace later, so he was not injured. The explosion killed 11 security personnel.

On the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg, during a walk, Narodnaya Volya member I. Grinevitsky threw a bomb at the emperor’s feet. Alexander II the Liberator died from his wounds in the Winter Palace. An interesting fact is that it was on this day that the sovereign was supposed to approve a new constitutional draft created by M. T. Loris-Melikov. Alexander II was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Results of the board

Emperor Alexander II left a significant mark on the life of the state. He entered the annals of history as a liberator and reformer. The emperor abolished serfdom, introduced universal military service, and carried out judicial, educational and military reforms. Under his rule, censorship was limited and a number of rights and freedoms were granted.

During the reign of Alexander II, the Russian Empire significantly increased its territories. For example, the Far East and the North Caucasus were annexed during his reign. Under him there was a real flowering of Russian literature, the fame of which spread throughout the world.

However, the economic condition of the state worsened. Industry was in a depressed state, and there was widespread hunger in the villages. The external debt of the empire reached six billion rubles, which at that rate was a very impressive amount. There was a split in society, and acute contradictions of a social nature were noted.

Other negative results of his reign include the results of the Berlin Congress, which was unprofitable for the empire, as well as large expenses in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, a huge number of peasant uprisings in 1861-1863 (more than 1 thousand); large-scale uprisings of nationalists in the Polish kingdom, in the North-West of the Empire.

Conclusion

It is easy to evaluate reforms after many years and criticize the actions of the emperor. However, it is necessary to follow the realities of that time in order to understand the whole picture of what was happening as a whole. Today you can hear many negative assessments of the emperor’s performance. But we should not forget about the positive achievements that occurred during his reign.

In general, Alexander 2 did a lot for the development and prosperity of the state, although some reforms were not fully implemented. The Emperor deservedly went down in Russian history as a Liberator. In gratitude, the descendants erected a monument to Tsar Alexander 2 the Liberator in Moscow. Monuments were also erected in St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don. It should be noted that the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which is located in St. Petersburg, was built on the site of the death of the emperor.

Coronation:
Predecessor:	Nicholas I
Successor:
Heir:	Nicholas (before 1865), after Alexander III
Religion:	Orthodoxy
Birth:
Buried:	Peter and Paul Cathedral
Dynasty:	Romanovs
	Nicholas I
	Charlotte of Prussia (Alexandra Fedorovna)
	1) Maria Alexandrovna 2) Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova
	From the 1st marriage, sons: Nicholas, Alexander III, Vladimir, Alexey, Sergei and Pavel, daughters: Alexandra and Maria, from the 2nd marriage, sons: St. book Georgy Alexandrovich Yuryevsky and Boris daughters: Olga and Ekaterina
Autograph:
Monogram:

Reign of Alexander II

Big title

Beginning of reign

Background

Judicial reform

Military reform

Organizational reforms

Education reform

Other reforms

Autocracy reform

Economic development of the country

The problem of corruption

Foreign policy

Assassinations and murder

History of failed attempts

Results of the reign

Saint Petersburg

Bulgaria

General-Toshevo

Helsinki

Częstochowa

Monuments by Opekushin

Interesting Facts

Film incarnations

(April 17 (29), 1818, Moscow - March 1 (13, 1881, St. Petersburg) - Emperor of All Russia, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland (1855-1881) from the Romanov dynasty. The eldest son of first the grand ducal, and since 1825, the imperial couple Nikolai Pavlovich and Alexandra Feodorovna.

He entered Russian history as a conductor of large-scale reforms. Honored with a special epithet in Russian pre-revolutionary historiography - Liberator(in connection with the abolition of serfdom according to the manifesto of February 19, 1861). Died as a result of a terrorist attack organized by the People's Will party.

Childhood, education and upbringing

Born on April 17, 1818, on Bright Wednesday, at 11 o'clock in the morning in the Bishop's House of the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin, where the entire imperial family, excluding the uncle of the newborn Alexander I, who was on an inspection trip to the south of Russia, arrived in early April for fasting and celebrating Easter ; A 201-gun salvo was fired in Moscow. On May 5, the sacraments of baptism and confirmation were performed over the baby in the church of the Chudov Monastery by Moscow Archbishop Augustine, in honor of which Maria Feodorovna was given a gala dinner.

He received a home education under the personal supervision of his parent, who paid special attention to the issue of raising an heir. His “mentor” (with the responsibility of leading the entire process of upbringing and education and the assignment to draw up a “teaching plan”) and teacher of the Russian language was V. A. Zhukovsky, a teacher of the Law of God and Sacred History - the enlightened theologian Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky (until 1835), military instructor - Captain K. K. Merder, as well as: M. M. Speransky (legislation), K. I. Arsenyev (statistics and history), E. F. Kankrin (finance), F. I. Brunov (foreign policy) , Academician Collins (arithmetic), C. B. Trinius (natural history).

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

Beginning of government activities

Upon reaching adulthood on April 22, 1834 (the day he took the oath), the heir-tsarevich was introduced by his father into the main state institutions of the empire: in 1834 into the Senate, in 1835 he was introduced into the Holy Governing Synod, from 1841 a member of the State Council, in 1842 - the Committee ministers.

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

The future emperor's military service was quite successful. In 1836 he already became a major general, and from 1844 a full general, commanding the guards infantry. Since 1849, Alexander was the head of military educational institutions, chairman of the Secret Committees on Peasant Affairs in 1846 and 1848. During the Crimean War of 1853-1856, with the declaration of martial law in the St. Petersburg province, he commanded all the troops of the capital.

Reign of Alexander II

Big title

By God's hastening grace, We, Alexander II, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauride Chersonis, Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volyn, Podolsk and Finland, Prince of Estonia , Livlyandsky, Kurlyandsky and Semigalsky, Samogitsky, Bialystok, Korelsky, Tver, Yugorsky, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novagorod Nizovsky lands, Chernihiv, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavsky, Beloozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondian, Vitebsky, Mstislav and all northern countries, lord and sovereign Iverskiy, Kartalinsky, Georgia and Kabardinsky lands and Armenian regions, Cherkassky regions. and the Mountain Princes and other hereditary Sovereign and Possessor, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstin, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Beginning of reign

Having ascended the throne on the day of the death of his father on February 18, 1855, Alexander II issued a manifesto that read: “In the face of the invisibly co-present God, we accept the sacred scope of always having as one goal the well-being of OUR Fatherland. May we, guided and protected by Providence, who has called US to this great service, establish Russia at the highest level of power and glory, may the constant desires and views of OUR August predecessors PETER, KATHERINE, ALEXANDER, the Blessed and Unforgettable, be fulfilled through US OUR Parent. "

On the original His Imperial Majesty's own hand signed ALEXANDER

The country faced a number of complex domestic and foreign policy issues (peasant, eastern, Polish and others); finances were extremely upset by the unsuccessful Crimean War, during which Russia found itself in complete international isolation.

According to the journal of the State Council for February 19, 1855, in his first speech to the members of the Council, the new emperor said, in particular: “My unforgettable Parent loved Russia and all his life he constantly thought about its benefits alone. In His constant and daily labors with Me, He told Me: “I want to take for myself everything that is unpleasant and everything that is difficult, just to hand over to You a Russia that is well-ordered, happy and calm.” Providence judged otherwise, and the late Emperor, in the last hours of his life, told me: “I hand over My command to You, but, unfortunately, not in the order I wanted, leaving You with a lot of work and worries.”

The first of the important steps was the conclusion of the Paris Peace in March 1856 - on conditions that were not the worst in the current situation (in England there were strong sentiments to continue the war until the complete defeat and dismemberment of the Russian Empire).

In the spring of 1856, he visited Helsingfors (Grand Duchy of Finland), where he spoke at the university and the Senate, then Warsaw, where he called on the local nobility to “give up dreams” (fr. pas de rêveries), and Berlin, where he had a very important meeting for him with the Prussian king Frederick William IV (his mother’s brother), with whom he secretly sealed a “dual alliance,” thus breaking the foreign policy blockade of Russia.

A “thaw” has set in in the socio-political life of the country. On the occasion of the coronation, which took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin on August 26, 1856 (the ceremony was led by Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Drozdov); the emperor sat on the ivory throne of Tsar Ivan III), the Highest Manifesto granted benefits and concessions to a number of categories of subjects, in particular, the Decembrists , Petrashevites, participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831; recruitment was suspended for 3 years; in 1857, military settlements were liquidated.

Abolition of serfdom (1861)

Background

The first steps towards the abolition of serfdom in Russia were taken by Emperor Alexander I in 1803 with the publication of the Decree on Free Plowmen, which spelled out the legal status of freed peasants.

In the Baltic (Baltic Sea) provinces of the Russian Empire (Estonia, Courland, Livonia), serfdom was abolished back in 1816-1819.

According to historians who specifically studied this issue, the percentage of serfs to the entire adult male population of the empire reached its maximum towards the end of the reign of Peter I (55%), during the subsequent period of the 18th century. was about 50% and increased again by the beginning of the 19th century, reaching 57-58% in 1811-1817. For the first time, a significant reduction in this proportion occurred under Nicholas I, by the end of whose reign it, according to various estimates, was reduced to 35-45%. Thus, according to the results of the 10th revision (1857), the share of serfs in the entire population of the empire fell to 37%. According to the population census of 1857-1859, 23.1 million people (of both sexes) out of 62.5 million people inhabiting the Russian Empire were in serfdom. Of the 65 provinces and regions that existed in the Russian Empire in 1858, in the three above-mentioned Baltic provinces, in the Land of the Black Sea Army, in the Primorsky region, the Semipalatinsk region and the region of the Siberian Kyrgyz, in the Derbent province (with the Caspian region) and the Erivan province there were no serfs at all; in another 4 administrative units (Arkhangelsk and Shemakha provinces, Transbaikal and Yakutsk regions) there were also no serfs, with the exception of several dozen courtyard people (servants). In the remaining 52 provinces and regions, the share of serfs in the population ranged from 1.17% (Bessarabian region) to 69.07% (Smolensk province).

During the reign of Nicholas I, about a dozen different commissions were created to resolve the issue of abolishing serfdom, but all of them were ineffective due to the opposition of the nobility. However, during this period, a significant transformation of this institution took place (see article Nicholas I) and the number of serfs sharply decreased, which facilitated the task of the final abolition of serfdom. By the 1850s A situation arose where it could have happened without the consent of the landowners. As historian V.O. Klyuchevsky pointed out, by 1850 more than 2/3 of noble estates and 2/3 of serfs were pledged to secure loans taken from the state. Therefore, the liberation of the peasants could have occurred without a single state act. To do this, it was enough for the state to introduce a procedure for the forced redemption of mortgaged estates - with the payment to the landowners of only a small difference between the value of the estate and the accumulated arrears on the overdue loan. As a result of such a redemption, most of the estates would pass to the state, and the serfs would automatically become state (that is, actually free) peasants. It was precisely this plan that was hatched by P.D. Kiselev, who was responsible for the management of state property in the government of Nicholas I.

However, these plans caused strong discontent among the nobility. In addition, peasant uprisings intensified in the 1850s. Therefore, the new government formed by Alexander II decided to speed up the solution to the peasant issue. As the Tsar himself said in 1856 at a reception with the leader of the Moscow nobility: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until it begins to abolish itself from below.”

As historians point out, in contrast to the commissions of Nicholas I, where neutral persons or specialists on the agrarian issue predominated (including Kiselev, Bibikov, etc.), now the preparation of the peasant issue was entrusted to large feudal landowners (including the newly appointed ministers of Lansky , Panin and Muravyova), which largely predetermined the results of the agrarian reform.

The government program was outlined in a rescript from Emperor Alexander II on November 20 (December 2), 1857 to the Vilna Governor-General V. I. Nazimov. It provided for: the destruction of the personal dependence of the peasants while maintaining all the land in the ownership of the landowners; providing peasants with a certain amount of land, for which they will be required to pay quitrents or serve corvee, and, over time, the right to buy out peasant estates (a residential building and outbuildings). In 1858, to prepare peasant reforms, provincial committees were formed, within which a struggle began for measures and forms of concessions between liberal and reactionary landowners. The fear of an all-Russian peasant revolt forced the government to change the government program of peasant reform, the projects of which were repeatedly changed in connection with the rise or decline of the peasant movement, as well as under the influence and participation of a number of public figures (for example, A. M. Unkovsky).

In December 1858, a new peasant reform program was adopted: providing peasants with the opportunity to buy out land and creating peasant public administration bodies. To consider projects of provincial committees and develop peasant reform, editorial commissions were created in March 1859. The project drawn up by the Editorial Commissions at the end of 1859 differed from that proposed by the provincial committees by increasing land allotments and reducing duties. This caused discontent among the local nobility, and in 1860 the project included slightly reduced allotments and increased duties. This direction in changing the project was preserved both when it was considered by the Main Committee for Peasant Affairs at the end of 1860, and when it was discussed in the State Council at the beginning of 1861.

The main provisions of the peasant reform

On February 19 (March 3), 1861 in St. Petersburg, Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom and the Regulations on peasants emerging from serfdom, which consisted of 17 legislative acts.

The main act - “General Regulations on Peasants Emerging from Serfdom” - contained the main conditions of the peasant reform:

• Peasants ceased to be considered serfs and began to be considered “temporarily obliged”.
• The landowners retained ownership of all the lands that belonged to them, but were obliged to provide the peasants with “sedentary estates” and field allotment for use.
• For the use of allotment land, peasants had to serve corvee or pay quitrent and did not have the right to refuse it for 9 years.
• The size of the field allotment and duties had to be recorded in the statutory charters of 1861, which were drawn up by the landowners for each estate and verified by the peace intermediaries.
• The peasants were given the right to redeem the estate and, by agreement with the landowner, the field allotment; before this was done, they were called temporarily obliged peasants; those who exercised this right, until the full redemption was carried out, were called “redemption” peasants. Until the end of the reign of Alexander II, according to V. Klyuchevsky, more than 80% of former serfs fell into this category.
• The structure, rights and responsibilities of peasant public administration bodies (rural and volost) and the volost court were also determined.

Historians who lived in the era of Alexander II and studied the peasant question commented on the main provisions of these laws as follows. As M.N. Pokrovsky pointed out, the entire reform for the majority of peasants boiled down to the fact that they ceased to be officially called “serfs”, but began to be called “obligated”; Formally, they began to be considered free, but nothing changed in their position: in particular, the landowners continued, as before, to use corporal punishment against the peasants. “To be declared a free man by the tsar,” the historian wrote, “and at the same time continue to go to corvée or pay quitrent: this was a glaring contradiction that caught the eye. The “obligated” peasants firmly believed that this will was not real...” The same opinion was shared, for example, by the historian N.A. Rozhkov, one of the most authoritative experts on the agrarian issue of pre-revolutionary Russia, as well as a number of other authors who wrote about the peasant issue.

There is an opinion that the laws of February 19, 1861, which meant the legal abolition of serfdom (in legal terms of the second half of the 19th century), were not its abolition as a socio-economic institution (although they created the conditions for this to happen over the following decades ). This corresponds to the conclusions of a number of historians that “serfdom” was not abolished in one year and that the process of its abolition lasted for decades. In addition to M.N. Pokrovsky, N.A. Rozhkov came to this conclusion, calling the reform of 1861 “serfdom” and pointing to the preservation of serfdom in subsequent decades. Modern historian B.N. Mironov also writes about the gradual weakening of serfdom over several decades after 1861.

Four “Local Regulations” determined the size of land plots and duties for their use in 44 provinces of European Russia. From the land that was in the use of peasants before February 19, 1861, sections could be made if the peasants' per capita allotments exceeded the maximum size established for the given area, or if the landowners, while maintaining the existing peasant allotment, had less than 1/3 of the total land of the estate left.

Allotments could be reduced by special agreements between peasants and landowners, as well as upon receipt of a gift allotment. If peasants had plots of less than a small size, the landowner was obliged to either cut off the missing land or reduce duties. For the highest shower allotment, a quitrent was set from 8 to 12 rubles. per year or corvee - 40 men's and 30 women's working days per year. If the allotment was less than the highest, then the duties were reduced, but not proportionally. The rest of the “Local Provisions” basically repeated the “Great Russian Provisions”, but taking into account the specifics of their regions. The features of the Peasant Reform for certain categories of peasants and specific areas were determined by the “Additional Rules” - “On the arrangement of peasants settled on the estates of small landowners, and on benefits to these owners”, “On people assigned to private mining factories of the Ministry of Finance”, “On peasants and workers serving work at Perm private mining factories and salt mines”, “About peasants serving work in landowner factories”, “About peasants and courtyard people in the Land of the Don Army”, “About peasants and courtyard people in the Stavropol province”, “ About peasants and courtyard people in Siberia”, “About people who emerged from serfdom in the Bessarabian region”.

The “Regulations on the Settlement of Household People” provided for their release without land, but for 2 years they remained completely dependent on the landowner.

The “Regulations on Redemption” determined the procedure for peasants buying land from landowners, organizing the redemption operation, and the rights and obligations of peasant owners. The redemption of a field plot depended on an agreement with the landowner, who could oblige the peasants to buy the land at his request. The price of land was determined by quitrent, capitalized at 6% per annum. In case of redemption by voluntary agreement, the peasants had to make an additional payment to the landowner. The landowner received the main amount from the state, to which the peasants had to repay it annually for 49 years with redemption payments.

According to N. Rozhkov and D. Blum, in the non-black soil zone of Russia, where the bulk of serfs lived, the redemption value of land was on average 2.2 times higher than its market value. Therefore, in fact, the redemption price established in accordance with the reform of 1861 included not only the redemption of the land, but also the redemption of the peasant himself and his family - just as previously serfs could buy their freed land from the landowner for money by agreement with the latter. This conclusion is made, in particular, by D. Blum, as well as the historian B.N. Mironov, who writes that the peasants “bought not only the land... but also their freedom.” Thus, the conditions for the liberation of peasants in Russia were much worse than in the Baltic states, where they were liberated under Alexander I without land, but also without the need to pay a ransom for themselves.

Accordingly, under the terms of the reform, peasants could not refuse to buy out the land, which M.N. Pokrovsky calls “compulsory property.” And “to prevent the owner from running away from her,” writes the historian, “which, given the circumstances of the case, could have been expected, it was necessary to place the “released” person in such legal conditions that are very reminiscent of the state, if not of a prisoner, then of a minor or feeble-minded person in prison. under guardianship."

Another result of the reform of 1861 was the emergence of the so-called. sections - parts of the land, averaging about 20%, which were previously in the hands of peasants, but now found themselves in the hands of landowners and were not subject to redemption. As N.A. Rozhkov pointed out, the division of land was specially carried out by the landowners in such a way that “the peasants found themselves cut off by the landowner’s land from a watering hole, forest, high road, church, sometimes from their arable land and meadows... [as a result] they were forced to rent the landowner’s land land at any cost, on any terms." “Having cut off from the peasants, according to the Regulations of February 19, lands that were absolutely necessary for them,” wrote M.N. Pokrovsky, “meadows, pastures, even places for driving cattle to watering places, the landowners forced them to rent these lands only for work , with the obligation to plow, sow and harvest a certain number of acres for the landowner.” In memoirs and descriptions written by the landowners themselves, the historian pointed out, this practice of cuttings was described as universal - there were practically no landowners’ farms where cuttings did not exist. In one example, the landowner “bragged that his segments covered, as if in a ring, 18 villages, which were all in bondage to him; As soon as the German tenant arrived, he remembered atreski as one of the first Russian words and, renting an estate, first of all inquired whether this jewel was in it.”

Subsequently, the elimination of sections became one of the main demands not only of peasants, but also of revolutionaries in the last third of the 19th century. (populists, Narodnaya Volya, etc.), but also most revolutionary and democratic parties at the beginning of the 20th century, until 1917. Thus, the agrarian program of the Bolsheviks until December 1905 included the liquidation of landowner plots as the main and essentially the only point; the same demand was the main point of the agrarian program of the I and II State Duma (1905-1907), adopted by the overwhelming majority of its members (including deputies from the Menshevik, Socialist Revolutionary, Cadets and Trudoviks parties), but rejected by Nicholas II and Stolypin. Previously, the elimination of such forms of exploitation of peasants by landowners - the so-called. banalities - was one of the main demands of the population during the French Revolution.

According to N. Rozhkov, the “serfdom” reform of February 19, 1861 became “the starting point of the entire process of the origin of the revolution” in Russia.

The “Manifesto” and “Regulations” were published from March 7 to April 2 (in St. Petersburg and Moscow - March 5). Fearing the dissatisfaction of the peasants with the conditions of the reform, the government took a number of precautions (relocation of troops, sending members of the imperial retinue to places, appeal of the Synod, etc.). The peasantry, dissatisfied with the enslaving conditions of the reform, responded to it with mass unrest. The largest of them were the Bezdnensky uprising of 1861 and the Kandeyevsky uprising of 1861.

In total, during 1861 alone, 1,176 peasant uprisings were recorded, while in 6 years from 1855 to 1860. there were only 474 of them. The uprisings did not subside in 1862, and were suppressed very cruelly. In the two years after the reform was announced, the government had to use military force in 2,115 villages. This gave many people a reason to talk about the beginning of a peasant revolution. So, M.A. Bakunin was in 1861-1862. I am convinced that the explosion of peasant uprisings will inevitably lead to a peasant revolution, which, as he wrote, “essentially has already begun.” “There is no doubt that the peasant revolution in Russia in the 60s was not a figment of a frightened imagination, but a completely real possibility...” wrote N.A. Rozhkov, comparing its possible consequences with the Great French Revolution.

The implementation of the Peasant Reform began with the drawing up of statutory charters, which was largely completed by mid-1863. On January 1, 1863, peasants refused to sign about 60% of the charters. The purchase price of the land significantly exceeded its market value at that time, in the non-chernozem zone on average 2-2.5 times. As a result of this, in a number of regions there was an urgent effort to obtain gift plots and in some provinces (Saratov, Samara, Ekaterinoslav, Voronezh, etc.), a significant number of peasant gift-holders appeared.

Under the influence of the Polish uprising of 1863, changes occurred in the conditions of the Peasant Reform in Lithuania, Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine - the law of 1863 introduced compulsory redemption; redemption payments decreased by 20%; peasants who were dispossessed of land from 1857 to 1861 received their allotments in full, those dispossessed of land earlier - partially.

The peasants' transition to ransom lasted for several decades. By 1881, 15% remained in temporary obligations. But in a number of provinces there were still many of them (Kursk 160 thousand, 44%; Nizhny Novgorod 119 thousand, 35%; Tula 114 thousand, 31%; Kostroma 87 thousand, 31%). The transition to ransom proceeded faster in the black earth provinces, where voluntary transactions prevailed over compulsory ransom. Landowners who had large debts, more often than others, sought to speed up the redemption and enter into voluntary transactions.

The transition from “temporarily obligated” to “redemption” did not give the peasants the right to leave their plot - that is, the freedom proclaimed by the manifesto of February 19. Some historians believe that the consequence of the reform was the “relative” freedom of the peasants, however, according to experts on the peasant issue, the peasants had relative freedom of movement and economic activity even before 1861. Thus, many serfs left for a long time to work or trade hundreds miles from home; half of the 130 cotton factories in the city of Ivanovo in the 1840s belonged to serfs (and the other half - mainly to former serfs). At the same time, a direct consequence of the reform was a significant increase in the burden of payments. The redemption of land under the terms of the reform of 1861 for the vast majority of peasants lasted for 45 years and represented real bondage for them, since they were not able to pay such amounts. Thus, by 1902, the total amount of arrears on peasant redemption payments amounted to 420% of the amount of annual payments, and in a number of provinces exceeded 500%. Only in 1906, after the peasants burned about 15% of the landowners' estates in the country during 1905, the redemption payments and accumulated arrears were canceled, and the "redemption" peasants finally received freedom of movement.

The abolition of serfdom also affected appanage peasants, who, by the “Regulations of June 26, 1863,” were transferred to the category of peasant owners through compulsory redemption under the terms of the “Regulations of February 19.” In general, their plots were significantly smaller than those of the landowner peasants.

The law of November 24, 1866 began the reform of state peasants. They retained all the lands in their use. According to the law of June 12, 1886, state peasants were transferred to redemption, which, unlike the redemption of land by former serfs, was carried out in accordance with market prices for land.

The peasant reform of 1861 entailed the abolition of serfdom in the national outskirts of the Russian Empire.

On October 13, 1864, a decree was issued on the abolition of serfdom in the Tiflis province; a year later it was extended, with some changes, to the Kutaisi province, and in 1866 to Megrelia. In Abkhazia, serfdom was abolished in 1870, in Svaneti - in 1871. The conditions of the reform here retained the remnants of serfdom to a greater extent than under the “Regulations of February 19”. In Azerbaijan and Armenia, peasant reform was carried out in 1870-1883 and was no less enslaving in nature than in Georgia. In Bessarabia, the bulk of the peasant population was made up of legally free landless peasants - tsarans, who, according to the “Regulations of July 14, 1868,” were allocated land for permanent use in exchange for services. The redemption of this land was carried out with some derogations on the basis of the “Redemption Regulations” of February 19, 1861.

The peasant reform of 1861 marked the beginning of the process of rapid impoverishment of the peasants. The average peasant allotment in Russia in the period from 1860 to 1880 decreased from 4.8 to 3.5 dessiatines (almost 30%), many ruined peasants and rural proletarians appeared who lived on odd jobs - a phenomenon that practically disappeared in the middle XIX century

Self-government reform (zemstvo and city regulations)

Zemstvo reform January 1, 1864- The reform consisted in the fact that issues of local economy, collection of taxes, approval of the budget, primary education, medical and veterinary services were now entrusted to elected institutions - district and provincial zemstvo councils. The elections of representatives from the population to the zemstvo (zemstvo councilors) were two-stage and ensured the numerical predominance of the nobles. Vowels from the peasants were a minority. They were elected for a term of 4 years. All matters in the zemstvo, which concerned primarily the vital needs of the peasantry, were carried out by landowners, who limited the interests of the other classes. In addition, local zemstvo institutions were subordinated to the tsarist administration and, first of all, to the governors. The zemstvo consisted of: zemstvo provincial assemblies (legislative power), zemstvo councils (executive power).

Urban reform of 1870- The reform replaced the previously existing class-based city administrations with city councils elected on the basis of property qualifications. The system of these elections ensured the predominance of large merchants and manufacturers. Representatives of big capital managed the municipal utilities of cities based on their own interests, paying attention to the development of the central quarters of the city and not paying attention to the outskirts. Government bodies under the 1870 law were also subject to the supervision of government authorities. The decisions adopted by the Dumas received force only after approval by the tsarist administration.

Historians of the late XIX – early XX centuries. commented on the self-government reform as follows. M.N. Pokrovsky pointed out its inconsistency: in many respects, “self-government by the reform of 1864 was not expanded, but, on the contrary, narrowed, and, moreover, extremely significantly.” And he gave examples of such a narrowing - the resubordination of local police to the central government, prohibitions on local authorities from establishing many types of taxes, limiting other local taxes to no more than 25% of the central tax, etc. In addition, as a result of the reform, local power was in the hands of large landowners (while previously it was mainly in the hands of officials reporting directly to the tsar and his ministers).

One of the results was changes in local taxation, which became discriminatory after the completion of the self-government reform. Thus, if back in 1868 peasant and landowner land were subject to local taxes approximately equally, then already in 1871 local taxes levied on a tithe of peasant land were twice as high as the taxes levied on a tithe of landowner land. Subsequently, the practice of flogging peasants for various offenses (which previously was mainly the prerogative of the landowners themselves) spread among zemstvos. Thus, self-government in the absence of real equality of classes and with the defeat of the majority of the country’s population in political rights led to increased discrimination against the lower classes by the upper classes.

Judicial reform

Judicial Charter of 1864- The Charter introduced a unified system of judicial institutions, based on the formal equality of all social groups before the law. Court hearings were held with the participation of interested parties, were public, and reports about them were published in the press. Litigants could hire lawyers for their defense who had a legal education and were not in public service. The new judicial system met the needs of capitalist development, but it still retained the imprints of serfdom - special volost courts were created for peasants, in which corporal punishment was retained. In political trials, even with acquittals, administrative repression was used. Political cases were considered without the participation of jurors, etc. While official crimes remained beyond the jurisdiction of general courts.

However, according to contemporary historians, the judicial reform did not produce the results that were expected from it. The introduced jury trials considered a relatively small number of cases; there was no real independence of judges.

In fact, during the era of Alexander II, there was an increase in police and judicial arbitrariness, that is, something opposite to what was proclaimed by the judicial reform. For example, the investigation into the case of 193 populists (the trial of the 193 in the case of going to the people) lasted almost 5 years (from 1873 to 1878), and during the investigation they were subjected to beatings (which, for example, did not happen under Nicholas I neither in the case of the Decembrists, nor in the case of the Petrashevites). As historians have pointed out, the authorities kept those arrested for years in prison without trial or investigation and subjected them to abuse before the huge trials that were created (the trial of 193 populists was followed by the trial of 50 workers). And after the trial of the 193s, not satisfied with the verdict passed by the court, Alexander II administratively tightened the court sentence - contrary to all the previously proclaimed principles of judicial reform.

Another example of the growth of judicial arbitrariness is the execution of four officers - Ivanitsky, Mroczek, Stanevich and Kenevich - who in 1863-1865. carried out agitation in order to prepare a peasant uprising. Unlike, for example, the Decembrists, who organized two uprisings (in St. Petersburg and in the south of the country) with the aim of overthrowing the Tsar, killed several officers, Governor-General Miloradovich and almost killed the Tsar’s brother, four officers under Alexander II suffered the same punishment ( execution), like 5 Decembrist leaders under Nicholas I, just for agitation among the peasants.

In the last years of the reign of Alexander II, against the backdrop of growing protest sentiments in society, unprecedented police measures were introduced: the authorities and police received the right to send into exile any person who seemed suspicious, to conduct searches and arrests at their discretion, without any coordination with the judiciary , bring political crimes to the courts of military tribunals - “with their application of punishments established for wartime.”

Military reform

Milyutin's military reforms took place in the 60-70s of the 19th century.

Milyutin's military reforms can be divided into two conventional parts: organizational and technological.

Organizational reforms

Report of the War Office 01/15/1862:

• Transform the reserve troops into a combat reserve, ensure that they replenish the active forces and free them from the obligation to train recruits in wartime.
• The training of recruits will be entrusted to the reserve troops, providing them with sufficient personnel.
• All supernumerary “lower ranks” of the reserve and reserve troops are considered on leave in peacetime and called up only in wartime. Recruits are used to replenish the decline in the active troops, and not to form new units from them.
• To form cadres of reserve troops for peacetime, assigning them garrison service, and to disband internal service battalions.

It was not possible to quickly implement this organization, and only in 1864 did a systematic reorganization of the army and a reduction in the number of troops begin.

By 1869, the deployment of troops to the new states was completed. At the same time, the total number of troops in peacetime compared to 1860 decreased from 899 thousand people. up to 726 thousand people (mainly due to the reduction of the “non-combat” element). And the number of reservists in the reserve increased from 242 to 553 thousand people. At the same time, with the transition to wartime standards, new units and formations were no longer formed, and units were deployed at the expense of reservists. All troops could now be brought up to wartime levels in 30-40 days, while in 1859 this required 6 months.

The new system of troop organization also contained a number of disadvantages:

• The organization of the infantry retained the division into line and rifle companies (given the same weapons, this made no sense).
• Artillery brigades were not included in the infantry divisions, which negatively affected their interactions.
• Of the 3 brigades of cavalry divisions (hussars, uhlans and dragoons), only the dragoons were armed with carbines, and the rest did not have firearms, while all the cavalry of European states was armed with pistols.

In May 1862, Milyutin presented Alexander II with proposals entitled “The main grounds for the proposed structure of military administration in districts.” This document was based on the following provisions:

• Abolish the division in peacetime into armies and corps, and consider the division to be the highest tactical unit.
• Divide the territory of the entire state into several military districts.
• Place a commander at the head of the district, who will be entrusted with supervision of the active troops and command of local troops, and also entrust him with the management of all local military institutions.

Already in the summer of 1862, instead of the First Army, the Warsaw, Kiev and Vilna military districts were established, and at the end of 1862 - Odessa.

In August 1864, the “Regulations on Military Districts” were approved, on the basis of which all military units and military institutions located in the district were subordinate to the Commander of the District Troops, thus he became the sole commander, and not an inspector, as was previously planned (with all artillery units in the district reported directly to the chief of artillery of the district). In the border districts, the Commander was entrusted with the duties of the Governor-General and all military and civil power was concentrated in his person. The structure of the district government remained unchanged.

In 1864, 6 more military districts were created: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Finland, Riga, Kharkov and Kazan. In subsequent years, the following were formed: the Caucasian, Turkestan, Orenburg, West Siberian and East Siberian military districts.

As a result of the organization of military districts, a relatively harmonious system of local military administration was created, eliminating the extreme centralization of the War Ministry, whose functions were now to exercise general leadership and supervision. Military districts ensured the rapid deployment of the army in the event of war; with their presence, it became possible to begin drawing up a mobilization schedule.

At the same time, reform of the War Ministry itself was underway. According to the new staff, the composition of the War Ministry was reduced by 327 officers and 607 soldiers. The volume of correspondence has also decreased significantly. It can also be noted as positive that the Minister of War concentrated in his hands all the threads of military control, but the troops were not completely subordinate to him, since the heads of military districts depended directly on the tsar, who headed the supreme command of the armed forces.

At the same time, the organization of the central military command also contained a number of other weaknesses:

• The structure of the General Staff was built in such a way that little space was allocated to the functions of the General Staff itself.
• The subordination of the main military court and the prosecutor to the Minister of War meant the subordination of the judiciary to the representative of the executive branch.
• The subordination of medical institutions not to the main military medical department, but to the commanders of local troops, had a negative impact on the organization of medical treatment in the army.

Conclusions of organizational reforms of the armed forces carried out in the 60-70s of the 19th century:

• During the first 8 years, the Ministry of War managed to implement a significant part of the planned reforms in the field of army organization and command and control.
• In the field of army organization, a system was created that could, in the event of war, increase the number of troops without resorting to new formations.
• The destruction of the army corps and the continued division of infantry battalions into rifle and line companies had a negative effect in terms of combat training of troops.
• The reorganization of the War Ministry ensured relative unity of military administration.
• As a result of the military district reform, local government bodies were created, excessive centralization of management was eliminated, and operational command and control of troops and their mobilization were ensured.

Technological reforms in the field of weapons

In 1856, a new type of infantry weapon was developed: a 6-line, muzzle-loading, rifled rifle. In 1862, more than 260 thousand people were armed with it. A significant part of the rifles were produced in Germany and Belgium. By the beginning of 1865, all infantry were rearmed with 6-line rifles. At the same time, work continued to improve rifles, and in 1868 the Berdan rifle was adopted for service, and in 1870 its modified version was adopted. As a result, by the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the entire Russian army was armed with the latest breech-loading rifled rifles.

The introduction of rifled, muzzle-loading guns began in 1860. The field artillery adopted 4-pound rifled guns with a caliber of 3.42 inches, superior to those previously produced in both firing range and accuracy.

In 1866, weapons for field artillery were approved, according to which all batteries of foot and horse artillery must have rifled, breech-loading guns. 1/3 of the foot batteries should be armed with 9-pounder guns, and all other foot batteries and horse artillery with 4-pounder guns. To re-equip the field artillery, 1,200 guns were required. By 1870, the rearmament of field artillery was completely completed, and by 1871 there were 448 guns in reserve.

In 1870, artillery brigades adopted high-speed 10-barrel Gatling and 6-barreled Baranovsky canisters with a rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute. In 1872, the 2.5-inch Baranovsky rapid-firing gun was adopted, in which the basic principles of modern rapid-firing guns were implemented.

Thus, over the course of 12 years (from 1862 to 1874), the number of batteries increased from 138 to 300, and the number of guns from 1104 to 2400. In 1874, there were 851 guns in reserve, and a transition was made from wooden carriages to iron ones.

Education reform

During the reforms of the 1860s, the network of public schools was expanded. Along with classical gymnasiums, real gymnasiums (schools) were created in which the main emphasis was on teaching mathematics and natural sciences. The University Charter of 1863 for higher educational institutions introduced partial autonomy of universities - the election of rectors and deans and the expansion of the rights of the professorial corporation. In 1869, the first higher women's courses in Russia with a general education program were opened in Moscow. In 1864, a new School Charter was approved, according to which gymnasiums and secondary schools were introduced in the country.

Contemporaries viewed some elements of the education reform as discrimination against the lower classes. As the historian N.A. Rozhkov pointed out, in real gymnasiums, introduced for people from the lower and middle classes of society, they did not teach ancient languages ​​(Latin and Greek), unlike ordinary gymnasiums that existed only for the upper classes; but knowledge of ancient languages ​​was made mandatory when entering universities. Thus, access to universities was actually denied to the general population.

Other reforms

Under Alexander II, significant changes took place regarding the Jewish Pale of Settlement. Through a series of decrees issued between 1859 and 1880, a significant part of Jews received the right to freely settle throughout Russia. As A.I. Solzhenitsyn writes, the right of free settlement was given to merchants, artisans, doctors, lawyers, university graduates, their families and service personnel, as well as, for example, “persons of the liberal professions.” And in 1880, by decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs, it was allowed to allow those Jews who settled illegally to live outside the Pale of Settlement.

Autocracy reform

At the end of the reign of Alexander II, a project was drawn up to create a supreme council under the tsar (including major nobles and officials), to which part of the rights and powers of the tsar himself were transferred. We were not talking about a constitutional monarchy, in which the supreme body is a democratically elected parliament (which did not exist and was not planned in Russia). The authors of this “constitutional project” were the Minister of Internal Affairs Loris-Melikov, who received emergency powers at the end of the reign of Alexander II, as well as the Minister of Finance Abaza and the Minister of War Milyutin. Alexander II approved this plan two weeks before his death, but they did not have time to discuss it at the Council of Ministers, and a discussion was scheduled for March 4, 1881, with subsequent entry into force (which did not take place due to the assassination of the Tsar). As the historian N.A. Rozhkov pointed out, a similar project for reform of the autocracy was subsequently presented to Alexander III, as well as Nicholas II at the beginning of his reign, but both times it was rejected on the advice of K.N. Pobedonostsev.

Economic development of the country

Since the early 1860s. An economic crisis began in the country, which a number of historians associate with Alexander II’s refusal of industrial protectionism and the transition to a liberal policy in foreign trade. Thus, within several years after the introduction of the liberal customs tariff in 1857 (by 1862), cotton processing in Russia fell 3.5 times, and iron smelting decreased by 25%.

The liberal policy in foreign trade continued further, after the introduction of a new customs tariff in 1868. Thus, it was calculated that, compared with 1841, import duties in 1868 decreased on average by more than 10 times, and for some types of imports - even 20-40 times. According to M. Pokrovsky, “customs tariffs of 1857-1868. were the most preferential that Russia enjoyed in the 19th century...” This was welcomed by the liberal press, which dominated other economic publications at the time. As the historian writes, “financial and economic literature of the 60s provides an almost continuous chorus of free traders...” At the same time, the real situation in the country’s economy continued to deteriorate: modern economic historians characterize the entire period until the end of the reign of Alexander II and even until the second half of the 1880s. as a period of economic depression.

Contrary to the goals declared by the peasant reform of 1861, agricultural productivity in the country did not increase until the 1880s, despite rapid progress in other countries (USA, Western Europe), and the situation in this most important sector of the Russian economy also only worsened. For the first time in Russia, during the reign of Alexander II, periodically recurring famines began, which had not occurred in Russia since the time of Catherine II and which took on the character of real disasters (for example, mass famine in the Volga region in 1873).

Liberalization of foreign trade led to a sharp increase in imports: from 1851-1856. to 1869-1876 imports increased almost 4 times. If previously Russia's trade balance was always positive, then during the reign of Alexander II it worsened. Beginning in 1871, for several years it was reduced to a deficit, which by 1875 reached a record level of 162 million rubles or 35% of export volume. The trade deficit threatened to cause gold to flow out of the country and depreciate the ruble. At the same time, this deficit could not be explained by the unfavorable situation in foreign markets: for the main product of Russian exports - grain - prices on foreign markets from 1861 to 1880. increased almost 2 times. During 1877-1881 The government, in order to combat the sharp increase in imports, was forced to resort to a series of increases in import duties, which prevented further growth of imports and improved the country's foreign trade balance.

The only industry that developed rapidly was railway transport: the country's railway network was growing rapidly, which also stimulated its own locomotive and carriage building. However, the development of railways was accompanied by many abuses and a deterioration in the financial situation of the state. Thus, the state guaranteed the newly created private railway companies full coverage of their expenses and also the maintenance of a guaranteed rate of profit through subsidies. The result was huge budget expenditures to support private companies, while the latter artificially inflated their costs in order to receive government subsidies.

To cover budget expenses, the state for the first time began to actively resort to external loans (under Nicholas I there were almost none). Loans were attracted on extremely unfavorable conditions: bank commissions amounted to up to 10% of the borrowed amount, in addition, loans were placed, as a rule, at a price of 63-67% of their face value. Thus, the treasury received only a little more than half of the loan amount, but the debt arose for the full amount, and annual interest was calculated from the full amount of the loan (7-8% per annum). As a result, the volume of government external debt reached 2.2 billion rubles by 1862, and by the beginning of the 1880s - 5.9 billion rubles.

Until 1858, a fixed exchange rate of the ruble to gold was maintained, following the principles of monetary policy pursued during the reign of Nicholas I. But starting in 1859, credit money was introduced into circulation, which did not have a fixed exchange rate to gold. As indicated in the work of M. Kovalevsky, during the entire period of the 1860-1870s. To cover the budget deficit, the state was forced to resort to issuing credit money, which caused its depreciation and the disappearance of metal money from circulation. Thus, by January 1, 1879, the exchange rate of the credit ruble to the gold ruble fell to 0.617. Attempts to reintroduce a fixed exchange rate between the paper ruble and gold did not yield results, and the government abandoned these attempts until the end of the reign of Alexander II.

The problem of corruption

During the reign of Alexander II there was a noticeable increase in corruption. Thus, many nobles and noble persons close to the court established private railway companies, which received state subsidies on unprecedentedly preferential terms, which ruined the treasury. For example, the annual revenue of the Ural Railway in the early 1880s was only 300 thousand rubles, and its expenses and profits guaranteed to shareholders were 4 million rubles, thus, the state only had to maintain this one private railway company annually to pay an additional 3.7 million rubles from his own pocket, which was 12 times higher than the income of the company itself. In addition to the fact that the nobles themselves acted as shareholders of the railway companies, the latter paid them, including persons close to Alexander II, large bribes for certain permits and resolutions in their favor

Another example of corruption can be the placement of government loans (see above), a significant part of which was appropriated by various financial intermediaries.

There are also examples of “favoritism” on the part of Alexander II himself. As N.A. Rozhkov wrote, he “unceremoniously treated the state chest... gave his brothers a number of luxurious estates from state lands, built them magnificent palaces at public expense.”

In general, characterizing the economic policy of Alexander II, M.N. Pokrovsky wrote that it was “a waste of funds and effort, completely fruitless and harmful for the national economy... They simply forgot about the country.” Russian economic reality of the 1860s and 1870s, wrote N.A. Rozhkov, “was distinguished by its crudely predatory character, the waste of living and generally productive forces for the sake of the most basic profit”; The state during this period “essentially served as a tool for the enrichment of the Gründers, speculators, and, in general, the predatory bourgeoisie.”

Foreign policy

During the reign of Alexander II, Russia returned to the policy of 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, and Batumi were annexed to Russia. Victories in the Caucasian War were won in the first years of his reign. The advance into Central Asia ended successfully (in 1865-1881, most of Turkestan became part of Russia). After long resistance, he decided on a war with Turkey in 1877-1878. Following the war, he accepted the rank of Field Marshal (April 30, 1878).

The meaning of annexing some new territories, especially Central Asia, was incomprehensible to part of Russian society. Thus, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin criticized the behavior of generals and officials who used the Central Asian war for personal enrichment, and M.N. Pokrovsky pointed out the meaninglessness of the conquest of Central Asia for Russia. Meanwhile, this conquest resulted in great human losses and material costs.

In 1876-1877 Alexander II took personal part in concluding a secret agreement with Austria in connection with the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the consequence of which, according to some historians and diplomats of the second half of the 19th century. became the Berlin Treaty (1878), which entered Russian historiography as “defective” in relation to the self-determination of the Balkan peoples (which significantly curtailed the Bulgarian state and transferred Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria).

In 1867, Alaska (Russian America) was transferred to the United States.

Growing public discontent

Unlike the previous reign, which was almost not marked by social protests, the era of Alexander II was characterized by growing public discontent. Along with the sharp increase in the number of peasant uprisings (see above), many protest groups emerged among the intelligentsia and workers. In the 1860s, the following arose: S. Nechaev’s group, Zaichnevsky’s circle, Olshevsky’s circle, Ishutin’s circle, the Earth and Freedom organization, a group of officers and students (Ivanitsky and others) preparing a peasant uprising. During the same period, the first revolutionaries appeared (Petr Tkachev, Sergei Nechaev), who propagated the ideology of terrorism as a method of fighting power. In 1866, the first attempt was made to assassinate Alexander II, who was shot by Karakozov (a lone terrorist).

In the 1870s these trends intensified significantly. This period includes such protest groups and movements as the circle of Kursk Jacobins, the circle of Chaikovites, the Perovskaya circle, the Dolgushin circle, the Lavrov and Bakunin groups, the circles of Dyakov, Siryakov, Semyanovsky, the South Russian Union of Workers, the Kiev Commune, the Northern Workers' Union, the new organization Earth and Freedom and a number of others. Most of these circles and groups until the end of the 1870s. engaged in anti-government propaganda and agitation only from the late 1870s. a clear shift towards terrorist acts begins. In 1873-1874 2-3 thousand people (the so-called “going to the people”), mainly from among the intelligentsia, went to the countryside under the guise of ordinary people in order to propagate revolutionary ideas.

After the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863-1864 and the attempt on his life by D.V. Karakozov on April 4, 1866, Alexander II made concessions to the protective course, expressed in the appointment of Dmitry Tolstoy, Fyodor Trepov, Pyotr Shuvalov to the highest government posts, which led to a tightening of measures in the field of domestic policy.

Increasing repression by police authorities, especially in relation to “going to the people” (the trial of the 193 populists), caused public outrage and marked the beginning of terrorist activity, which subsequently became widespread. Thus, the assassination attempt by Vera Zasulich in 1878 on the St. Petersburg mayor Trepov was undertaken in response to the mistreatment of prisoners in the trial of 193. Despite the irrefutable evidence that the assassination attempt had been committed, the jury acquitted her, she was given a standing ovation in the courtroom, and on the street she was greeted by an enthusiastic demonstration of a large crowd of people gathered at the courthouse.

Over the following years, assassination attempts were carried out:

1878: - against the Kyiv prosecutor Kotlyarevsky, against the gendarme officer Geiking in Kyiv, against the chief of gendarmes Mezentsev in St. Petersburg;

1879: against the Kharkov governor, Prince Kropotkin, against the chief of gendarmes, Drenteln, in St. Petersburg.

1878-1881: a series of assassination attempts took place on Alexander II.

By the end of his reign, protest sentiments spread among different strata of society, including the intelligentsia, part of the nobility and the army. The public applauded the terrorists, the number of terrorist organizations themselves grew - for example, the People's Will, which sentenced the Tsar to death, had hundreds of active members. Hero of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. and the war in Central Asia, the commander-in-chief of the Turkestan army, General Mikhail Skobelev, at the end of Alexander’s reign, showed sharp dissatisfaction with his policies and even, according to the testimony of A. Koni and P. Kropotkin, expressed his intention to arrest the royal family. These and other facts gave rise to the version that Skobelev was preparing a military coup to overthrow the Romanovs. Another example of the protest mood towards the policies of Alexander II can be the monument to his successor Alexander III. The author of the monument, sculptor Trubetskoy, depicted the tsar sharply besieging the horse, which, according to his plan, was supposed to symbolize Russia, stopped by Alexander III at the edge of the abyss - where the policies of Alexander II led it.

Assassinations and murder

History of failed attempts

Several attempts were made on Alexander II's life:

• D. V. Karakozov April 4, 1866. When Alexander II was heading from the gates of the Summer Garden to his carriage, a shot was heard. The bullet flew over the emperor’s head: the shooter was pushed by the peasant Osip Komissarov, who was standing nearby.
• Polish emigrant Anton Berezovsky on May 25, 1867 in Paris; the bullet hit the horse.
• A.K. Solovyov on April 2, 1879 in St. Petersburg. Solovyov fired 5 shots from a revolver, including 4 at the emperor, but missed.

On August 26, 1879, the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya decided to assassinate Alexander II.

• On November 19, 1879, there was an attempt to blow up an imperial train near Moscow. The emperor was saved by the fact that he was traveling in a different carriage. The explosion occurred in the first carriage, and the emperor himself was traveling in the second, since in the first he was carrying food from Kyiv.
• On February 5 (17), 1880, S. N. Khalturin carried out an explosion on the first floor of the Winter Palace. The emperor had lunch on the third floor; he was saved by the fact that he arrived later than the appointed time; the guards (11 people) on the second floor died.

To protect state order and fight the revolutionary movement, on February 12, 1880, the Supreme Administrative Commission was established, headed by the liberal-minded Count Loris-Melikov.

Death and burial. Society's reaction

March 1 (13), 1881, at 3 hours 35 minutes in the afternoon, died in the Winter Palace as a result of a fatal wound received on the embankment of the Catherine Canal (St. Petersburg) at about 2 hours 25 minutes in the afternoon on the same day - from a bomb explosion (the second in the course of the assassination attempt ), thrown at his feet by Narodnaya Volya member Ignatius Grinevitsky; died on the day when he intended to approve the constitutional draft of M. T. Loris-Melikov. The assassination attempt occurred when the emperor was returning after a military divorce in the Mikhailovsky Manege, from “tea” (second breakfast) in the Mikhailovsky Palace with Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna; The tea was also attended by Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, who left a little later, having heard the explosion, and arrived shortly after the second explosion, giving orders and commands at the scene. The day before, February 28 (Saturday of the first week of Lent), the emperor, in the Small Church of the Winter Palace, together with some other family members, received the Holy Mysteries.

On March 4, his body was transferred to the Court Cathedral of the Winter Palace; On March 7, it was solemnly transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The funeral service on March 15 was led by Metropolitan Isidore (Nikolsky) of St. Petersburg, co-served by other members of the Holy Synod and a host of clergy.

The death of the “Liberator”, killed by the Narodnaya Volya on behalf of the “liberated”, seemed to many to be the symbolic end of his reign, which led, from the point of view of the conservative part of society, to rampant “nihilism”; Particular indignation was caused by the conciliatory policy of Count Loris-Melikov, who was viewed as a puppet in the hands of Princess Yuryevskaya. Right-wing political figures (including Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Evgeny Feoktistov and Konstantin Leontyev) even said with more or less directness 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.

Not long before, K.P. Pobedonostsev, appointed Chief Prosecutor, wrote to the new emperor on the very day of the death of Alexander II: “God ordered us to survive this terrible day. It was as if God’s punishment had fallen on unfortunate Russia. I would like to hide my face, go underground, so as not to see, not to feel, not to experience. God, have mercy on us. "

The rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest John Yanyshev, on March 2, 1881, before the funeral service in St. Isaac's Cathedral, said in his speech: “The Emperor not only died, but was also killed in His own capital... the martyr’s crown for His sacred Head is woven on Russian ground, among His subjects... This is what makes our grief unbearable, the illness of the Russian and Christian heart incurable, our immeasurable misfortune our eternal shame!

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who at a young age was at the bedside of the dying emperor and whose father was in the Mikhailovsky Palace on the day of the assassination attempt, wrote in his emigrant memoirs about his feelings in the days that followed: “At night, sitting on our beds, we continued to discuss the catastrophe of the past Sunday and asked each other what would happen next? The image of the late Sovereign, bending over the body of a wounded Cossack and not thinking about the possibility of a second assassination attempt, did not leave us. We understood that something incommensurably greater than our loving uncle and courageous monarch had gone with him irrevocably into the past. Idyllic Russia with the Tsar-Father and his loyal people ceased to exist on March 1, 1881. We understood that the Russian Tsar would never again be able to treat his subjects with boundless trust. He will not be able to forget the regicide and devote himself entirely to state affairs. The romantic traditions of the past and the idealistic understanding of Russian autocracy in the spirit of the Slavophiles - all this will be buried, along with the murdered emperor, in the crypt of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Last Sunday’s explosion dealt a mortal blow to the old principles, and no one could deny that the future of not only the Russian Empire, but the entire world, now depended on the outcome of the inevitable struggle between the new Russian Tsar and the elements of denial and destruction.”

The editorial article of the Special Supplement to the right-wing conservative newspaper “Rus” on March 4 read: “The Tsar has been killed!... Russian tsar, in his own Russia, in his capital, brutally, barbarously, in front of everyone - with a Russian hand... Shame, shame on our country! Let the burning pain of shame and grief penetrate our land from end to end, and let every soul tremble in it with horror, sorrow, and the anger of indignation! That rabble, which so impudently, so brazenly oppresses the soul of the entire Russian people with crimes, is not the offspring of our simple people themselves, nor their antiquity, nor even the truly enlightened newness, but the product of the dark sides of the St. Petersburg period of our history, apostasy from the Russian people, treason its traditions, principles and ideals."

At an emergency meeting of the Moscow City Duma, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: “An unheard-of and terrifying event occurred: the Russian Tsar, liberator of peoples, fell victim to a gang of villains among a people of many millions, selflessly devoted to him. Several people, the product of darkness and sedition, dared to encroach with a sacrilegious hand on the centuries-old tradition of the great land, to tarnish its history, the banner of which is the Russian Tsar. The Russian people shuddered with indignation and anger at the news of the terrible event.”

In issue No. 65 (March 8, 1881) of the official newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti, a “hot and frank article” was published that caused “a stir in the St. Petersburg press.” The article, in particular, said: “Petersburg, located on the outskirts of the state, is teeming with foreign elements. Both foreigners, eager for the disintegration of Russia, and leaders of our outskirts have built their nest here. [St. Petersburg] is full of our bureaucracy, which has long lost the sense of the people’s pulse. That’s why in St. Petersburg you can meet so many people, apparently Russians, but who reason as enemies of their homeland, as traitors to their people.”

An anti-monarchist representative of the left wing of the Cadets, V.P. Obninsky, in his work “The Last Autocrat” (1912 or later), wrote about the regicide: “This act deeply shook up society and the people. The murdered sovereign had too outstanding services for his death to pass without a reflex on the part of the population. And such a reflex could only be a desire for a reaction.”

At the same time, the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya, a few days after March 1, published a letter which, along with a statement of “execution of the sentence” to the tsar, contained an “ultimatum” to the new tsar, Alexander III: “If the government’s policy does not change , revolution will be inevitable. The government must express the will of the people, but it is a usurper gang.” Despite the arrest and execution of all the leaders of Narodnaya Volya, terrorist acts continued in the first 2-3 years of the reign of Alexander III.

The following lines by Alexander Blok (poem “Retribution”) are dedicated to the assassination of Alexander II:

Results of the reign

Alexander II went down in history as a reformer and liberator. During his reign, serfdom was abolished, universal military service was introduced, zemstvos were established, judicial reform was carried out, censorship was limited, and a number of other reforms were carried out. The empire expanded significantly by conquering and incorporating the Central Asian possessions, the North Caucasus, the Far East and other territories.

At the same time, the economic situation of the country worsened: industry was struck by a protracted depression, and there were several cases of mass starvation in the countryside. The foreign trade deficit and public external debt reached large sizes (almost 6 billion rubles), which led to a breakdown in monetary circulation and public finances. The problem of corruption has worsened. A split and acute social contradictions formed in Russian society, which reached their peak towards the end of the reign.

Other negative aspects usually include the unfavorable results of the Berlin Congress of 1878 for Russia, exorbitant expenses in the war of 1877-1878, numerous peasant uprisings (in 1861-1863: more than 1150 uprisings), large-scale nationalist uprisings in the kingdom of Poland and the North-Western region ( 1863) and in the Caucasus (1877-1878). Within the imperial family, the authority of Alexander II was undermined by his love interests and morganatic marriage.

Assessments of some of Alexander II's reforms are contradictory. Noble circles and the liberal press called his reforms “great.” At the same time, a significant part of the population (peasantry, part of the intelligentsia), as well as a number of government figures of that era, negatively assessed these reforms. Thus, K.N. Pobedonostsev at the first meeting of the government of Alexander III on March 8, 1881 sharply criticized the peasant, zemstvo, and judicial reforms of Alexander II. And historians of the late XIX - early XX centuries. they argued that the real liberation of the peasants did not occur (only a mechanism for such liberation was created, and an unfair one at that); corporal punishment against peasants (which remained until 1904-1905) was not abolished; the establishment of zemstvos led to discrimination against the lower classes; Judicial reform was unable to prevent the growth of judicial and police brutality. In addition, according to specialists on the agrarian issue, the peasant reform of 1861 led to the emergence of serious new problems (landowners, the ruin of the peasants), which became one of the reasons for the future revolutions of 1905 and 1917.

The views of modern historians on the era of Alexander II were subject to dramatic changes under the influence of the dominant ideology, and are not settled. In Soviet historiography, a tendentious view of his reign prevailed, resulting from general nihilistic attitudes toward the “era of tsarism.” Modern historians, along with the thesis about the “liberation of the peasants,” state that their freedom of movement after the reform was “relative.” Calling the reforms of Alexander II “great,” they at the same time write that the reforms gave rise to “the deepest socio-economic crisis in the countryside,” did not lead to the abolition of corporal punishment for peasants, were not consistent, and economic life in 1860-1870 -e years was characterized by industrial decline, rampant speculation and farming.

Family

• First marriage (1841) with Maria Alexandrovna (07/1/1824 - 05/22/1880), nee Princess Maximiliana-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt.

• The second, morganatic, marriage with a long-time (since 1866) mistress, Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (1847-1922), who received the title Your Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya.

Alexander II's net worth as of March 1, 1881 was about 12 million rubles. (securities, State Bank tickets, shares of railway companies); In 1880, he donated 1 million rubles from personal funds. for the construction of a hospital in memory of the Empress.

Children from first marriage:

• Alexandra (1842-1849);
• Nicholas (1843-1865);
• Alexander III (1845-1894);
• Vladimir (1847-1909);
• Alexey (1850-1908);
• Maria (1853-1920);
• Sergei (1857-1905);
• Pavel (1860-1919).

Children from a morganatic marriage (legalized after the wedding):

• His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Yuryevsky (1872-1913);
• Your Serene Highness Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1873-1925);
• Boris (1876-1876), posthumously legitimized with the surname “Yuryevsky”;
• Your Serene Highness Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1878-1959), married to Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky, and then to Prince Sergei Platonovich Obolensky-Neledinsky-Meletsky.

In addition to the children from Ekaterina Dolgoruky, he had several other illegitimate children.

Some monuments to Alexander II

Moscow

On May 14, 1893, in the Kremlin, next to the Small Nicholas Palace, where Alexander was born (opposite the Chudov Monastery), it was laid, and on August 16, 1898, solemnly, after the liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral, in the Most High presence (the service was performed by Metropolitan of Moscow Vladimir (Epiphany) ), a monument to him was unveiled (the work of A. M. Opekushin, P. V. Zhukovsky and N. V. Sultanov). The emperor was sculptured standing under a pyramidal canopy in a general's uniform, in purple, with a scepter; the canopy made of dark pink granite with bronze decorations was crowned with a gilded patterned hipped roof with a double-headed eagle; The chronicle of the king's life was placed in the dome of the canopy. Adjacent to the monument on three sides was a through gallery formed by vaults supported by columns. In the spring of 1918, the sculptural figure of the Tsar was thrown off the monument; The monument was completely dismantled in 1928.

In June 2005, a monument to Alexander II was inaugurated in Moscow. The author of the monument is Alexander Rukavishnikov. The monument is installed on a granite platform on the western side of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. On the pedestal of the monument there is the inscription “Emperor Alexander II. He abolished serfdom in 1861 and freed millions of peasants from centuries of slavery. Conducted military and judicial reforms. He introduced a system of local self-government, city councils and zemstvo councils. Ended the many years of the Caucasian War. Liberated the Slavic peoples from the Ottoman yoke. Died on March 1 (13), 1881 as a result of a terrorist attack.”

Saint Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, at the site of the death of the Tsar, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was erected using funds collected throughout Russia. The cathedral was built by order of Emperor Alexander III in 1883-1907 according to a joint project by architect Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev), and consecrated on August 6, 1907 - on the day of the Transfiguration.

The tombstone installed over the grave of Alexander II differs from the white marble tombstones of other emperors: it is made of gray-green jasper.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, Alexander II is known as Tsar Liberator. His manifesto of April 12 (24), 1877, declaring war on Turkey, is studied in a school history course. The Treaty of San Stefano on March 3, 1878 brought freedom to Bulgaria after five centuries of Ottoman rule that began in 1396. The grateful Bulgarian people erected many monuments to the Tsar-Liberator and named streets and institutions throughout the country in his honor.

Sofia

In the center of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, on the square in front of the People's Assembly, stands one of the best monuments to the Tsar-Liberator.

General-Toshevo

On April 24, 2009, a monument to Alexander II was inaugurated in the city of General Toshevo. The height of the monument is 4 meters, it is made of two types of volcanic stone: red and black. The monument was made in Armenia and is a gift from the Union of Armenians in Bulgaria. It took Armenian craftsmen a year and four months to make the monument. The stone from which it is made is very ancient.

Kyiv

In Kyiv from 1911 to 1919 there was a monument to Alexander II, which was demolished by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution.

Kazan

The monument to Alexander II in Kazan was erected on what became Alexander Square (formerly Ivanovskaya, now May 1) near the Spasskaya Tower of the Kazan Kremlin and was inaugurated on August 30, 1895. In February-March 1918, the bronze figure of the emperor was dismantled from the pedestal, until the end of the 1930s it lay on the territory of the Gostiny Dvor, and in April 1938 it was melted down to make brake bushings for tram wheels. The “Labor Monument” was first built on the pedestal, then the monument to Lenin. In 1966, a monumental memorial complex was built on this site, consisting of a monument to Hero of the Soviet Union Musa Jalil and a bas-relief to the heroes of the Tatar resistance in Nazi captivity of the “Kurmashev group”.

Rybinsk

On January 12, 1914, the laying of a monument took place on Red Square in the city of Rybinsk - in the presence of Bishop Sylvester (Bratanovsky) of Rybinsk and the Yaroslavl governor Count D.N. Tatishchev. On May 6, 1914, the monument was unveiled (work by A. M. Opekushin).

Repeated attempts by the crowd to desecrate the monument began immediately after the February Revolution of 1917. In March 1918, the “hated” sculpture was finally wrapped and hidden under matting, and in July it was completely thrown off the pedestal. First, the sculpture “Hammer and Sickle” was placed in its place, and in 1923 - a monument to V.I. Lenin. The further fate of the sculpture is unknown; The pedestal of the monument has survived to this day. In 2009, Albert Serafimovich Charkin began working on recreating the sculpture of Alexander II; The opening of the monument was originally planned in 2011, on the 150th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom, but most townspeople consider it inappropriate to move the monument to V.I. Lenin and replace it with Emperor Alexander II.

Helsinki

In the capital of the Grand Duchy of Helsingfors, on Senate Square in 1894, a monument to Alexander II, the work of Walter Runeberg, was erected. With the monument, the Finns expressed gratitude for strengthening the foundations of Finnish culture and, among other things, for recognizing the Finnish language as the state language.

Częstochowa

The monument to Alexander II in Częstochowa (Kingdom of Poland) by A. M. Opekushin was opened in 1899.

Monuments by Opekushin

A. M. Opekushin erected monuments to Alexander II in Moscow (1898), Pskov (1886), Chisinau (1886), Astrakhan (1884), Czestochowa (1899), Vladimir (1913), Buturlinovka (1912), Rybinsk (1914) and in other cities of the empire. Each of them was unique; According to estimates, “the Czestochowa monument, created with donations from the Polish population, was very beautiful and elegant.” After 1917, most of what Opekushin created was destroyed.

• And to this day in Bulgaria, during the liturgy in Orthodox churches, during the great entrance of the liturgy of the faithful, Alexander II and all the Russian soldiers who fell on the battlefield for the liberation of Bulgaria in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 are remembered.
• Alexander II is the current current head of the Russian state who was born in Moscow.
• The abolition of serfdom (1861), carried out during the reign of Alexander II, coincided with the beginning of the American Civil War (1861-1865), where the struggle for the abolition of slavery is considered its main cause.

Film incarnations

• Ivan Kononenko (“Heroes of Shipka”, 1954).
• Vladislav Strzhelchik (“Sofya Perovskaya”, 1967).
• Vladislav Dvorzhetsky (“Yulia Vrevskaya”, 1977).
• Yuri Belyaev (“The Kingslayer”, 1991).
• Nikolai Burov (“The Emperor’s Romance”, 1993).
• Georgy Taratorkin (“The Emperor’s Love”, 2003).
• Dmitry Isaev (“Poor Nastya”, 2003-2004).
• Evgeny Lazarev (“Turkish Gambit”, 2005).
• Smirnov, Andrey Sergeevich (“Gentlemen of the Jury”, 2005).
• Lazarev, Alexander Sergeevich (“The Mysterious Prisoner”, 1986).
• Borisov, Maxim Stepanovich (“Alexander II”, 2011).

On March 4, 1855, Alexander II ascended the throne. He went down in history as a great reformer and “liberator.” His reign is interesting not only for its political initiatives, but also for personal factors that played an important role in his reign.

Mother's prediction

Emperor Alexander II was perhaps the last ruler born in Moscow. His family moved here in 1817 to support and help rebuild the city, which suffered as a result of Napoleon's invasion. The birth of Alexander on April 17 (29) became a real holiday in the Romanov family, because over the past 20 years only girls were born in the family. It was 1818 - Alexander I had not yet shown symptoms of the illness that ended his life, the terrible uprising on Senate Square had not yet occurred, and Alexander’s successor, to whom fate had not given a son, had not yet been announced. But already during the birth, the mother of the future emperor Alexandra Fedorovna predicted the future of the newborn: “When mother (Maria Feodorovna), approaching us, said, “This is a son,” our happiness doubled, however, I remember that I felt something impressive and sad at the thought that this little creature would one day become an emperor.”
A year later, the will of Alexander I became known to make his brother Nikolai Pavlovich his successor. The presence of a male heir in his family played a certain role in this decision.

Talisman stone

On April 17, 1834, the Grand Duke turned 16 years old, the young Tsarevich was declared an adult. On the same day, in the Urals, the Finnish geologist Nordenschild discovered a previously unknown gemstone and named it “Alexandrite” in honor of his heir. With all the abundance of omens and predictions that accompanied the reign of Alexander II, conversations about this stone were especially remembered by contemporaries. Alexandrite has the unique property of changing its color - from green to blood red. Because of this, mystical properties began to be attributed to the stone and were more than once compared with the fate of the emperor: “...here is that prophetic Russian stone...The insidious Siberian! He was all green, like hope, and by the evening he was covered in blood... there is a green morning and a bloody evening in him... This is fate, this is the fate of the noble Tsar Alexander! ”, Nikolai Leskov wrote in one of his stories.

Alexandrite became the emperor’s talisman, who more than once warded off trouble from him, but on the ill-fated day of the last assassination attempt - March 1 (13), 1881, Alexander forgot to take the stone with him.

Father's last parting words

Alexander II, as often happens in the imperial family, had a difficult relationship with his father. Nicholas I understood perfectly well what fate awaited his son and did not slack in his upbringing. In addition, his contemporaries remember him as “a despot in everything,” including in the family. He himself said more than once: “I look at human life only as a service, since everyone serves.” Nikolai did not forget about his role even on his deathbed. He handed over the reins to his son with great regret: “I’m handing over the command to you, but, unfortunately, not in the order I wanted, leaving you with a lot of work and worries. I had two thoughts, two desires: to free Eastern Christians from under the Turkish yoke; second: free the Russian peasants from the power of the landowners. Now the war is hard, there is no need to think about the liberation of Eastern Christians, promise me to liberate the Russian serfs.”
It should be noted that before his accession to the throne, Alexander II was a staunch conservative. After these memories, it may seem that Alexander II changed his position in order to fulfill the will of his father, but this is not so. The Crimean War and the defeat of Nicholas taught him an important lesson - you can’t live like that anymore.

Selling Alaska

What Alexander has always been blamed for is selling Alaska to the United States. The main claims are that the rich region, which brought furs to Russia, and with more careful exploration could become a gold mine, was sold to America for some 11 million royal rubles. The truth is that after the Crimean War, the Russian Empire simply did not have the resources to develop such a distant region, and besides, the Far East was a priority. In addition, even during the reign of Nicholas, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, presented to the sovereign a report on the need to strengthen ties with America, which sooner or later would raise the question of expanding its influence in this region, which was strategically important for the latter.
Alexander II returned to this issue only when the country needed money for reforms. The emperor had a choice - either to solve the pressing problems of the people and the state, or to cherish the distant prospect of the possible development of Alaska. The choice was made in favor of topical issues. At 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867, Alaska became US property.

Step forward

Alexander II can safely be called an experimenter. This quality was manifested not only in his numerous reforms, which brought him the historical name “Liberator”. Alexander II tried to get as close as possible to the people and understand their needs. Already in the 20th century, Solzhenitsyn wrote in his accusatory work “The Gulag Archipelago”: “There is a known case that Alexander II, the same one surrounded by revolutionaries who sought his death seven times, once visited a pre-trial detention house on Shpalernaya and in solitary confinement 227 (solitary confinement ) ordered himself to be locked up, sat there for more than an hour - he wanted to understand the state of those he kept there.”

Undesirable marriage

Alexander II respected and dearly loved his wife Maria, but was not an exemplary husband. It’s impossible to list all his mistresses, but he had the most sincere feelings for Ekaterina Dolgorukaya, who became his second wife. When they met, he was already forty-one years old, and she was only thirteen. The romance began six years later, in 1865, when Catherine took her place at court among the empress’s ladies-in-waiting. In 1866, the emperor proposed his hand in marriage to her: “Today, alas, I am not free, but at the first opportunity I will marry you, from now on I consider you my wife before God, and I will never leave you.”
On June 3, 1880, Empress Maria Alexandrovna died in splendid isolation. The marriage with Catherine became possible, despite all the discontent and censure of the court, which did not stop calling her “an impudent adventurer.” Many historians, in particular Leonid Lyashchenko, subsequently linked the strengthening of the split in society with the split in the royal family.
Being the second legal wife of Alexander II, Catherine did not become empress. A morganatic marriage was concluded between them, in which the wife of lower origin does not become equal in status to her husband.

Unfinished business

On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was mortally wounded on the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by Narodnaya Volya member I. I. Grinevitsky. Ironically, he died on the very day when he decided to launch the constitutional project of M. T. Loris-Melikov, which would have granted the third estate the right to participate in the discussion of the political initiatives of the monarch. This move was supposed to lead to a decline in revolutionary terror in the country. On March 1 (13) at noon, the emperor announced to Loris-Melikov that the project would be discussed on March 4 at a meeting of the Council of Ministers. Then he turned to his sons Alexander (future Alexander III) and Vladimir: “I do not hide from myself that we are following the path of the constitution.” Four hours later the emperor was killed.

On March 13, 1881, Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in St. Petersburg. He died in his apartment in the Winter Palace an hour after being mortally wounded: on the Catherine Canal, Narodnaya Volya member Ignatius Grinevitsky threw a bomb halfway to the Tsar. During the quarter century on the throne, the monarch carried out a number of important reforms and solved many of the country’s pressing socio-economic problems, but the discontent of the population still grew every day. Some called the emperor the Liberator, while others conducted anti-government propaganda.

the site tells the most interesting facts about Alexander II.

Mascot

On April 17, 1834, on the 16th birthday of the future Emperor Alexander II, geologist Nordenschild discovered an unknown gem in the Urals that could change color from green to blood red. He named the find “Alexandrite” - in honor of the young Tsarevich. They said that from then on the stone became a talisman for the heir to the throne: wherever he went, he always took alexandrite with him. Having already become an emperor, he still believed that the stone brought good luck and warded off misfortune. According to rumors, on the day of his murder, Alexander forgot the talisman in the bedchamber.

Love of my life

In 1841, the future Emperor Alexander II married the 17-year-old daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse. He was madly in love with his wife, Maria Feodorovna, but his feelings quickly cooled. It is no secret that the tsar had many mistresses, and in 1859 he met the main love of his life - Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova. At that time she was still a child, but years later, at their next meeting, the emperor realized that his heart had been conquered. The Tsar made Dolgorukova his mistress. At first, the princess made her way into the Winter Palace through a secret passage, and after some time, Alexander generally settled his beloved in his residence, appointing her as Maria Alexandrovna’s maid of honor. Moreover, Dolgorukova’s apartments were located directly above the chambers of the empress, who understood everything perfectly.

A month and a half after the death of Maria Alexandrovna, the tsar entered into a morganatic marriage with Dolgorukova. Family happiness was not destined to last long: a year later, Alexander II would be killed.

Tsar Hunter

Alexander II loved to hunt and often went hunting alone, even though it was dangerous. The sovereign took only a dog with him: his favorite was a black setter named Milord. The trophies obtained by the tsar decorated the walls of the Lisinsky pavilion near St. Petersburg. Now in the armory room of the Gatchina Palace you can see a collection of spears with which the emperor hunted bears.

The future emperor on a horse ride. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Liberator

The most famous reform of Alexander II was the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861. And, although the peasants found themselves in an even more difficult situation due to the fact that they had to pay corvee, quitrent and debts for the land plots provided to them, they officially became free people. For this reform, Alexander began to be called the Liberator.

Alaska

Many criticized Alexander II for selling Alaska, but modern historians argue that the emperor simply had no other choice. After the Crimean War, the Russian Empire had no financial resources left, and the tsar had two important goals: carrying out reforms and developing Alaska. In order to raise the standard of living of the population as quickly as possible, Alexander decided to sell the rich region to America to strengthen ties with this country. On March 30, 1864, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for 11 million rubles.

Ice skating fashion

Until the mid-19th century, ice skating was not popular in Russia. It was Alexander II who introduced the fashion for this entertainment. In 1860, he ordered the construction of a large ice skating rink near the Mariinsky Palace. There he rode in full view of the admiring townspeople along with his daughter. St. Petersburg residents wanted to glide on the ice like their sovereign, and soon ice skating became the main winter pastime.

Voluntary confinement

Alexander II always tried to be closer to the people. Before becoming a tsar, he traveled all over the Russian provinces to understand how people lived in the country. Many years later, during his reign, he arrived at the pretrial detention house on Shpalernaya Street and asked the commandant to lock himself in solitary confinement, where he sat for more than an hour. In this way he tried to feel the condition of the prisoners awaiting trial.

Unfinished business

The people's dissatisfaction with life in the country grew every day, and on March 13, 1881, Alexander II decided to launch Loris-Melikov's constitutional project. The document was supposed to give the third estate the right to participate in the discussion of the tsar's political initiatives. The monarch believed that the adoption of this project would soften revolutionary sentiments. The Emperor announced that the document would be discussed three days later at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, but it never took place: on March 13, the Tsar’s life was cut short.

Seven assassination attempts

The Narodnaya Volya member Grinevitsky threw a bomb at the Tsar’s feet. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

There were attempts on the life of Alexander II seven times. The first attempt was organized in 1866: then a bullet from the shooter’s pistol flew over the Tsar’s head. The second time, a year later, another shooter also missed and the bullet hit the horse. The third revolutionary was also unsuccessful. In 1879, terrorists wanted to blow up the imperial train, but they mixed up the train. A year later, a Narodnaya Volya member who got a job as a carpenter in the Winter Palace caused an explosion on the first floor when the Tsar was about to dine on the third. 11 guards were killed, but Alexander II himself was late for dinner that time and remained unharmed. A year later, terrorists were planning to blow up the monarch's carriage, but one of the conspirators was late for the appointed time and did not take his position on time.

Finally, they wanted to make another explosion attempt on Malaya Sadovaya Street: they even dug a gallery there for laying a mine. On that day, March 13, 1881, the emperor's motorcade changed its route. The assassination plan was quickly changed, and the bomb was thrown at the feet of the Tsar on the Catherine Canal.

Asthma

Few people know that the emperor suffered from asthma. The attack could start at any time. Subsequently, the second wife of Alexander II, Ekaterina Dolgorukova, recalled that she always carried pillows with oxygen with her, which she gave to the king when his illness worsened.