Alexander II of Russia facts for kids

Full name
	Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov

Alexander II
Alexander II
Emperor of Russia
Reign	2 March 1855 – 13 March 1881
Coronation	7 September 1856
Predecessor	Nicholas I
Successor	Alexander III
Born	29 April 1818; Moscow Kremlin, Moscow, Moscow Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	13 March 1881 (aged 62); Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Burial	Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Consort	Marie of Hesse; (m. 1841; died 1880) ; Catherine Dolgorukova (morganatic);
Issue; among others...	Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna; Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich; Alexander III of Russia; Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich; Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich; Maria, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich; George Yuryevsky; Catherine Yurievskaya;
Full name
	Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov
House	Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Nicholas I of Russia
Mother	Charlotte of Prussia
Religion	Russian Orthodox
Signature

Alexander II (29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881) was the Emperor of Russia from 2 March 1855 until his assassination on 13 March 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland.

Alexander's most significant reform as Emperor was emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganising the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more reactionary stance until his death.

Alexander pivoted towards foreign policy and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there were another war. He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78, pursued further expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881.

Images for kids

Alexander II as a boy. (George Dawe, 1827)
Procession of Alexander II into Dormition Cathedral from the Red Porch during his coronation
Leaving church in Pskov, 1864
The U.S. 7.2 million USD check used to pay for Russian Alaska in 1867
Battle of Mrzygłód during the January Uprising in 1863
Imam Shamil surrendered to Count Baryatinsky on August 25, 1859
In 1877, Russian general Iosif Gurko liberated Veliko Tarnovo, ending the 480-year rule of the Ottoman Empire.
Alexander II and Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna
The explosion killed one of the Cossacks and wounded the driver
Emperor Alexander II and his wife, Empress Maria, with their son, the future Alexander III by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky 1870
Tsar Alexander II, photo by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, 1881 (The Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection, Toronto, Canada)
Lesser Coat of Arms of the Empire of Russia