Alexander II Nicholoevich ROMANOV, TSAR OF RUSSIA

                   Tsar 1855-1881- Stammtafaln says died 1 Mar 1881.
ALEXANDER II (1818-1881) was czar of Russia from 1855 to 1881. He succeeded his father, Nich olas I. Alexander is called the czar liberator because he freed Russia's serfs in 1861. He also introduced local self-government and a court system based on French models. He modernized the Russian army and defeated the Turks in 1878 (see RUSSO-TURKISH WARS). He was assassinated in 1881 by revolutionaries who thought he was too conservative. See also RUSSIA (Alexander II).
Additional Information:
Reign: 1855 to 1881; On March 3, 1861, over the strong objections of the landowning nobility , Alexander II freed the serfs and began a program of dramatic reform. He abolished corporal punishment, restructured the judiciary and the educational system and denied many of the privileges the nobility had enjoyed. In fact, the emancipation of the serfs brought financial hardship to many landowning families. Tsar Alexander II could not admit that reform had failed and that his regime was ingrained with terror, choking in bureaucracy, drowning in ignorance and greed. He grew more rigid, more cranky, more repressive and now the deadly spiral spun faster and faster. More young men and women arrested; more violence against the state; more attempts at assassination; more assassinations; more arrests; more executions. Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by revolutionaries. Notes: Harrison E. Salisbury (American Historian)