The Guardian: Poland warns Russia planning ‘hybrid strikes’ against countries supporting Ukraine – as it happened
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Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination on 13 March 1881. He is also known as Alexander the Liberator because of his historic Edict of Emancipation, which officially abolished Russian serfdom in 1861. Crowned on 7 September 1856, he succeeded his father Nicholas I and was succeeded by his son Alexander III.
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politics · Emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881 · ruler · statesperson · monarch · also Alexander II of Russia, Alexander Nikolayevich, Alexander the Liberator, Alexander II Nikolaevich, Russia
Born 17 April 1818 · Died 1 March 1881 · Q83171
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2026· 5 entries
BBC: Rosenberg: Russia's elections will have few surprises, but for the Kremlin they matter
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BBC: Russia says at least seven killed in largest Ukrainian attack of 2026
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The Guardian: Ukrainian drone attack on Russia kills at least six, says Moscow
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NPR: Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia
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2012· 1 entry
Funded by the Sofia Municipality and some Russian foundations
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1938· 1 entry
“Well, whilst I live, Siberia is and shall be a country whence men CAN return.”
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1907· 1 entry
In Sofia in the "National Assembly" square, opposite to the Parliament building
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1883· 2 entries
The Church of the Savior on Blood was built on the site of Alexander's assassination and dedicated in his memory
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But to poor reviews, and has remained virtually unknown ever since
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1881· 6 entries
Died 1881-03-01.
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The Alexander Church, designed by Theodor Decker and named after Alexander II, was completed in Tampere
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“Dopo la disastrosa guerra di Crimea, Alessandro II procedette a una semiemancipazione dei contadini e a un certo numero di riforme liberali sul piano degli zemstvo, dei tribunali, della stampa, dell'istruzione ecc. Lo zar stesso precisò la linea ispiratrice delle sue riforme: emancipare i contadini dall'alto per evitare che si emancipassero dal basso. (Lev Trockij)”
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Alexander had been proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements in the region
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“It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below.”
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In London, but when Alexander II was actually assassinated that year, the play was canceled
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1880· 1 entry
Moved his mistress and their children into the Winter Palace
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1879· 2 entries
Features Russian revolutionaries who seek to assassinate a fictional tsar
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Governors-general were established with powers to prosecute in military courts and exile political offenders
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1873· 1 entry
A quarrel broke out between the courts of Queen Victoria and Alexander II, when Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, made it known that he wished to marry the Grand Duchess
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1870· 1 entry
And subsequently joined Germany and Austria-Hungary in the League of the Three Emperors in 1873
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1867· 3 entries
Sold Alaska to the United States, owing partly to his concern that it would be nearly impossible to prevent the Russian Empire's North American colonies, which bordered British Columbia and the North-Western Territory
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Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7
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Are fictionized in the epilogue of the novel Forty-Ninth by Boris Pronsky and Craig Britton, in a form of a letter to Catherine Dolgorukova
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1866· 3 entries
Alexander II took a mistress, Catherine Dolgorukova, with whom he would father three surviving children
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As well as the relationship with his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich
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Started a more conservative period that lasted until his death
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1865· 1 entry
Nicholas died of cerebrospinal meningitis
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1864· 2 entries
Alexander II found Nicholas a bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and younger sister to Alexandra, Princess of Wales and King George I of Greece
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On more generous terms than the emancipation of Russian peasants in 1861
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1863· 3 entries
Alexander II re-convened the Diet of Finland and initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy within the Russian Empire, including establishment of its own currency, the Finnish markka
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The Russian Navy's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively
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Alexander II re-convened the Diet of Finland and initiated several increasing Finland's autonomy within the Russian Empire, including establishment of its own currency, the Finnish markka
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1857· 1 entry
Dmitry Milyutin first published the idea of mass expulsions of Circassian natives
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1856· 1 entry
At the beginning of his reign, Alexander made a memorable speech to the deputies of the Polish nobility who inhabited Congress Poland, Western Ukraine, Lithuania, Livonia, and Belarus, in which he warned against further
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1855· 4 entries
Awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of William (1855).
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Substantially relaxed the strict and repressive regime that had been imposed on Congress Poland after the November Uprising of 1830–1831
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Aged 37, few imagined that posterity would know him for implementing the most challenging reforms undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great
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Career landmark: Emperor of all the Russias (1855–1881).
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1847· 1 entry
Alexander donated money to Ireland during the Great Famine
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1839· 1 entry
When his parents sent him on a tour of Europe, he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and they became acquainted
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1834· 1 entry
Awarded Knight of the Order of the Elephant (1834).
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1829· 1 entry
Won: Poland with Golden Sword "For Bravery", 28 November 1877 (July 1829).
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1818· 1 entry
Born 1818-04-17.
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