N. Lavrov "Russian Emperor Alexander II"

“He did not want to seem better than he was, and was often better than he seemed” (V.O. Klyuchevsky).

All-Russian Emperor, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov - the first son of Nicholas I from his marriage to Alexandra Feodorovna, daughter of the Prussian king Frederick William III, was born in the Kremlin, baptized in the Miracle Monastery and at baptism awarded the highest Russian Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.

Upbringing

His birth is a long-awaited event in the royal family, because... Nikolai's older brothers had no sons. In this regard, he was raised as the future heir to the throne.

According to tradition, he was immediately appointed chief of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. At the age of 7 he was promoted to cornet, and at the age of 11 he already commanded a company. Alexander liked both military service and war games, but as the heir to the throne, the idea of ​​his special purpose was constantly instilled in him - “to live for others.”

His systematic home education began at the age of 6. His father chose his mentors himself. The poet V.A. was appointed teacher. Zhukovsky, who compiled the “Teaching Plan” for 12 years. The basis of this plan was comprehensive education combined with morality. Zhukovsky was also a teacher of the Russian language. The teacher of the Law of God and Sacred History was Archpriest G. Pavsky, the military instructor was Captain K. Merder, a simple officer awarded for bravery at Austerlitz. He was an intelligent and noble man who worked in a cadet school and had experience working with children. Legislation was taught by M.M. Speransky, statistics and history - K.I. Arsenyev, economics – E.F. Kankrin, foreign policy - F.I. Brunnov, arithmetic - Academician Collins, natural history– K.B. Trinius, famous German and Russian botanist, academician St. Petersburg Academy Sci.

F. Kruger "Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich"

As a result, the prince received a good education, was fluent in French, German and English languages, from childhood he was distinguished by his responsiveness and impressionability, mental alertness, good manners and sociability.

But at the same time, the teachers noted that he was hot-tempered and unrestrained; gives in to difficulties, not having a strong will, unlike his father. K. Merder noted that sometimes he acted not out of inner need, but out of vanity or the desire to please his father and receive praise.

Nicholas I personally supervised his son’s education, organized exams twice a year and attended them himself. From the age of 16, he began to involve Alexander in state affairs: the prince was supposed to participate in meetings of the Senate, then he was introduced to the Synod, and in 1836 he was promoted to major general and was included in the tsar’s retinue.

The process of education of the crown prince ended with travels around Russia (May-December 1837) and abroad (May 1838 - June 1839). Before his trip to Russia, Nicholas I prepared a special “instruction” for his son, which said: “Your first duty will be to see everything with the indispensable goal of becoming thoroughly familiar with the state over which sooner or later you are destined to reign. Therefore, your attention should be equally directed to everything... in order to gain an understanding of the present state of affairs.”

Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich

During this trip, Alexander visited 28 provinces, seeing with his own eyes the ugliness of Russian reality. He was the first of the Romanov family to visit Siberia, where he met with the Decembrists, as a result of which he addressed his father in several letters “for the forgiveness of some unfortunates” and achieved a mitigation of their fate. On the journey, the Tsarevich was accompanied by Adjutant General Kavelin, the poet Zhukovsky, teacher of history and geography of Russia Arsenyev, physician Enokhin and young officers.

Later he even visited the Caucasus, where he distinguished himself in battle during an attack by highlanders, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.

Before leaving abroad, Nicholas I admonished his son: “Many things will tempt you, but upon closer examination you will be convinced that not everything deserves imitation; ... we must always preserve our nationality, our imprint, and woe to us if we fall behind it; in it is our strength, our salvation, our uniqueness.”

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

I. Makarov "Empress Maria Alexandrovna"

Maria Alexandrovna loved music and was well versed in it, and knew the latest European literature well. The breadth of her interests and spiritual qualities amazed many with whom she happened to meet. “With her intelligence, she surpasses not only other women, but also most men. This is an unprecedented combination of intelligence and pure feminine charm and... a charming character,” wrote the poet A.K. Tolstoy. In Russia, Maria Alexandrovna soon became known for her widespread charity - Mariinsky hospitals, gymnasiums and orphanages were in her field of vision and spread, earning high praise from her contemporaries.

In 1841, Nicholas I appointed the heir to the State Council, which was actually the beginning of his state activities.

And since 1842, Alexander already performed the duties of the emperor during his absence in the capital. At this stage of his activity, he shared the conservative views of his father: in 1848 he supported preventive measures to tighten censorship in connection with revolutionary events in Europe, concerning the protection of educational institutions from the “revolutionary infection”.

Beginning of the reign

Monogram of Alexander II

The sudden death of Nicholas I, accelerated by the tragic events of the Crimean War, naturally led Alexander to the throne. Russia was faced with a number of acute problems that Nicholas I could not solve: the peasant problem, the eastern, Polish and other problems, state financial problems upset by the Crimean War, the international isolation of Russia, etc. Nicholas in the last hours of his life said to his son: “I surrender my command to you, but, unfortunately, not in the order you wanted, leaving you with a lot of work and worries.”

Alexander's first decisive step was the conclusion of the Paris Peace in 1856 with conditions that were not the worst for Russia. He then visited Finland and Poland, where he called on the local nobility to “give up their dreams,” which strengthened his position as a decisive emperor. In Germany, he secured a “dual alliance” with the Prussian king (his mother’s brother) Frederick William IV, thereby weakening the foreign policy blockade of Russia.

But, having begun his reign with effective support for the conservative views of his father, under the pressure of circumstances he was forced to switch to a policy of reform.

N. Lavrov "Portrait of Emperor Alexander II"

Alexander's reformsII

In December 1855, the Supreme Censorship Committee was closed and the free issuance of foreign passports was allowed. By Coronation Day (August 1856), an amnesty was declared for political prisoners, and police supervision was weakened.

But Alexander understood that serfdom hampered the development of the state, and this was the basis for returning to peasant question, which was the main thing at this moment. Speaking to the nobles in March 1856, he said: “There are rumors that I want to announce the liberation of serfdom. This is not fair... But I won’t tell you that I am completely against it. We live in such an age that in time this must happen... It is much better for it to happen from above than from below.”

In 1857, a Secret Committee of proxies emperor, who began developing provisions in individual regions, to then unite them for all of Russia into the “Regulations” on the abolition of serfdom. Commission members N. Milyutin, Y. Rostovtsev and others tried to prepare compromise solutions, but the constant pressure of the nobility on the authorities led to the fact that the project protected primarily the interests of the landowners. On February 19, 1861, the Manifesto for the Emancipation of the Peasants was signed, and thus conditions were created for capitalist production (23 million landowner peasants received personal freedom and civil rights), but many points of the “Regulations” limited the peasants to economic and legal dependence on the rural community controlled by the authorities. In relation to the landowner, the peasants remained “temporarily obligated” until the debt was paid (within 49 years) for the allocated land plots and had to carry out the previous duties - corvée, quitrent. The landowners received the best plots and huge redemption sums.

But, despite the limitations of the peasant reform, Alexander II went down in history as the Tsar-Liberator.

January 1, 1864 was held Zemstvo reform . Local economic issues, tax collection, budget approval, primary education, medical and veterinary services were entrusted to elected institutions - district and provincial zemstvo councils. The election of representatives was of two degrees, but with a predominance of the nobility. They were elected for a term of 4 years.

V. Timm "Coronation"

Zemstvos dealt with issues of local government. At the same time, in everything that concerned the interests of the peasants, the zemstvos were guided by the interests of the landowners who controlled their activities. That is, self-government was simply a fiction, and elected positions were filled at the direction of the landowner. Local zemstvo institutions were subordinate to the tsarist administration (primarily governors). The zemstvo consisted of: zemstvo provincial assemblies ( legislature), zemstvo councils (executive power).

City government reform. Ensured the participation of various segments of the population in local government, but at the same time the autocracy still remained both the highest legislative and executive body, which nullified these reforms, since the lack of sufficient material resources increased dependence local government from the government.

Judicial reform of 1864 was a major step in the history of Russia towards the development of civilized norms of legality; they were based on the principles of modern law:

• independence of the court from the administration;
• irremovability of judges;
• publicity;
• competitiveness (in criminal courts, the institution of jurors elected from the population was introduced; for legal assistance to the population, the institution of sworn attorneys was introduced).

But as soon as the new courts demonstrated their work in a new capacity, the authorities immediately began to subordinate them to the regime. For example, legal proceedings in political cases were carried out not by juries, but by military courts; special courts were retained for peasants, clergy, etc.

Military reform. Taking into account the lessons of the Crimean War, serious changes were carried out in the army in 1861-1874. The conditions for soldier's service were eased, combat training was improved, and the military command system was streamlined: Russia was divided into 15 military districts. In 1874, the Charter on universal military service was approved, replacing conscription.

In addition to these reforms, transformations affected the sphere of finance, education, the media, and the church. They received the name “great” and contributed to the strengthening of the country’s economy and the formation rule of law.

Historians note, however, that all the reforms of Alexander II were carried out not because of his convictions, but because of the necessity he recognized, so his contemporaries felt their instability and incompleteness. In connection with this, a conflict began to grow between him and the thinking part of society, who feared that everything that had been done “risks being lost if Alexander II remains on the throne, that Russia is in danger of returning to all the horrors of the Nikolaev region,” as P. Kropotkin wrote.

Since the mid-60s, contemporaries have noted fatigue and some apathy in the emperor’s behavior, which led to weakening transformative activities. This is due both to misfortunes and troubles in the family, and to multiple (7 in total) attempts by “grateful” subjects on the life of the emperor. In 1865, his eldest son Nicholas, heir to the throne, died of a serious illness in Nice. His death undermined the empress's health, which was already weak. Doctors’ recommendations to abstain “from marital relations” strengthened the long-standing alienation in the family: in a short time, Alexander changed several mistresses until he met 18-year-old E. Dolgorukaya. This connection also led to disapproval from society.

Attempts on Alexander's lifeII

On April 4, 1886, the first attempt on the life of the emperor occurred. The shooter was D. Karakozov, a member of the secret society “Hell”, adjacent to “Earth and Freedom”, when Alexander II was heading to his carriage, leaving the gates of the Summer Garden. The bullet flew past the emperor - the shooter was pushed by the peasant O. Komissarov.

On May 25, 1879, during a visit to the World Exhibition in Paris, Pole A. Berezovsky shot at him. The bullet hit the horse.

On April 2, 1879, a member of the “Narodnaya Volya” A. Solovyov fired 5 shots at the gates of the Winter Palace, but the emperor remained unharmed - the shooter missed.

On November 18 and 19, 1879, members of the “People's Will” A. Zhelyabov, A. Yakimova, S. Perovskaya and L. Hartmann unsuccessfully tried to blow up the royal train traveling from Crimea to St. Petersburg.

On February 5, 1880, Narodnaya Volya member S. Khalturin prepared an explosion in the Winter Palace, the guard soldiers on the first floor were killed, but none of the royal family, who were on the third floor, were injured.

The assassination attempt occurred when the emperor was returning from a military divorce at the Mikhailovsky Manege. During the explosion of the first bomb, he was not injured and could have left the embankment of the Catherine Canal, where the assassination attempt took place, but he got out of the carriage to the wounded - and at that time Grinevitsky threw the second bomb, from which he himself died and the emperor was mortally wounded.

Alexander II with his wife. Photo by Levitsky

Result of the reign

Alexander II went down in history as a reformer and liberator. During his reign

• Serfdom was abolished;
• universal conscription;
• zemstvos were established;
• judicial reform was carried out;
• censorship is limited;
• 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.

But M. Paleolog writes: “At times he was overcome by severe melancholy, reaching deep despair. Power no longer interested him; everything he tried to accomplish ended in failure. None of the other monarchs wished more happiness for their people: he abolished slavery, abolished corporal punishment, carried out wise and liberal reforms. Unlike other kings, he never sought bloody laurels of glory. How much effort he spent to avoid the Turkish war... And after its end he prevented another military clash... What did he receive as a reward for all this? From all over Russia, he received reports from governors that the people, deceived in their aspirations, blamed the tsar for everything. And police reports reported an alarming increase in revolutionary ferment.”

Alexander II found the only consolation and meaning of life in his love for E. Dolgoruky - “a person who thought about his happiness and surrounded him with signs of passionate adoration.” On July 6, 1880, a month and a half after the death of the Emperor's wife Maria Alexandrovna, they entered into a morganatic marriage. E. Dolgorukaya received the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya. This marriage also increased discord in the royal family and at court. There is even a version that Alexander II intended to carry out the planned transformations and abdicate the throne in favor of his son Alexander and go with a new family to live in Nice.

Thus, “the first of March tragically stopped both state reforms and the emperor’s romantic dreams of personal happiness... He had the courage and wisdom to abolish serfdom and begin to build a rule of law state, but at the same time he remained virtually a prisoner of the system, the foundation of which he began to abolish with his reforms,” - writes L. Zakharova.

Emperor Alexander II with children. Photo from 1860

Children of Alexander II from his 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).

From marriage with Princess Dolgoruka (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).
  • In addition to the children from Ekaterina Dolgoruky, he had several other illegitimate children.

At the insistence of Alexander III, Dolgorukaya-Yuryevskaya soon left St. Petersburg with her children, born before marriage. She died in Nice in 1922.

In memory of the martyrdom of Emperor Alexander II, a temple was built at the site of his murder.

The temple was erected by order of Emperor Alexander III in 1883-1907 according to the joint project of the architect Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev). The temple is made in the “Russian style” and is somewhat reminiscent of Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral. It took 24 years to build. On August 6, 1907, on the day of Transfiguration, the cathedral was consecrated as the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

06.05.2017

Alexander II took control of the Russian Empire when it was far from in the best condition: discontent and unrest caused by backwardness in all spheres of life were intensifying in the country. The peasant issue became acute, local self-government reforms were needed, and the situation in the international arena was shaken. Did the emperor manage to cope with the problems? We will find out about this by reading some interesting facts from the biography of Alexander II.

1. Alexander II was born on April 17, 1818. Since the boy was the heir, a lot of attention was paid to his upbringing. Nicholas, remembering the difficulties he had to face upon ascending the throne (he knew absolutely nothing about the art of government), took serious measures to ensure that the crown prince received a decent education. His main mentor was the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, a person very close to the imperial family, Pushkin’s senior comrade. Zhukovsky made it clear to the emperor: he would raise the heir in the spirit of enlightenment and humanism, so that he would not grow up to be a “soldier.”
2. In addition to Zhukovsky, Alexander II’s teachers were: lawyer and reformer Mikhail Speransky, Minister of Finance Yegor Kankrin.
3. Immediately after Alexander's 16th birthday, Nicholas I gives his son a considerable amount of responsibility, introducing him to the Senate and the Holy Synod.
4. In 1837, Nicholas I Pavlovich sent the young man on a long trip around Russia so that he could become more closely acquainted with the life and way of life of his people and know their urgent needs. Alexander traveled to 28 provinces, after which he went abroad to complete his education in Russia.
5. The most important act of Alexander II was the abolition of serfdom in 1861. After this he received the nickname "Liberator". It is interesting that it was the Tsar-Liberator who was the subject of many assassination attempts. They tried to kill him as many as 7 times! The last, seventh attempt was successful...
6. During the last assassination attempt, fate again showed mercy to Alexander II at first - the first bomb did not hit him. However, instead of leaving the dangerous place, the emperor approached the terrorist and began to question him. At that moment, the second Narodnaya Volya, who was nearby, received a sign from his own people and threw a bomb. She fell right under the king’s feet, and he received multiple mortal wounds.
7. In the field of foreign policy, Alexander II achieved an increase in the authority of Russia, which noticeably suffered after the lost Crimean War. In that big role played by diplomat Gorchakov, Pushkin’s classmate, who managed to break the Anglo-Franco-Austrian alliance.
8. Alexander II had to sell Alaska to America. Today he is accused of this. Meanwhile, the emperor had no other choice: at that time there simply would not have been enough resources to develop the region.
9. Alexander II married twice: he lived in the first for many years until the death of his wife Maria Alexandrovna, who bore him 8 children. The second marriage, morganatic, was concluded with the young Ekaterina Dolgorukaya after the death of her first wife from tuberculosis. Children were also born in the second marriage.

1. On the day Alexander celebrated his 16th birthday, geologist Nordenschild discovered a new mineral in the Urals and named it alexandrite in honor of the Tsarevich. They say that the future emperor took the stone with him as an amulet. On the day of the last assassination attempt, he forgot alexandrite in the palace...

Alexander II could have done more for Russia. Tendencies towards this have emerged: on the day when the seventh assassination attempt took place, the tsar was going to sign papers on a reform that would give the third estate the right to participate in the discussion of state reforms. Death prevented the plans from coming true. Russia passed into the hands of another ruler.

Alexander II (short biography)

The future Russian Emperor Alexander II was born on April twenty-ninth, 1818. Being the son of Nicholas the First and heir to the throne, he was able to receive a diverse education. In the role of his teachers, it is worth highlighting officer Merder, as well as Zhukovsky. His father had a significant influence on the formation of the character of the future ruler. Alexander II ascends the throne after his death in 1855. By this point, he already has experience in management, since he acted as ruler while his father was absent in the capital. This ruler went down in history as Alexander the Second Liberator.

His wife in 1841 was Maximiliana Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria (Maria Alexandrovna) - Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was able to give birth to seven children to the sovereign, but two of them (the eldest) died. Since 1880, Alexander has been married to Princess Dolgorukaya, the future mother of his four children.

The nature of the domestic policy of this ruler was significantly different from the policy of Nicholas the First, marked by many successful reforms. The most important of them, of course, was the peasant reform of 1861, according to which serfdom was completely abolished. This reform has created an urgent need for further changes in various Russian institutions.

In 1864, according to Alexander's decree, zemstvo reform was carried out and the institution of district zemstvo was established.

In 1870, an urban reform was carried out, which had a positive impact on the development of cities and industry in general. Councils and city councils are established, which are representative bodies of government. The judicial reform of 1864 was marked by the introduction of European legal norms, but some features of the former judicial system were preserved (for example, a special court for officials).

Next in line was military reform, the result of which was general conscription, as well as army organization standards closer to European standards. Later, the State Bank was created and the planning of the first Russian Constitution began.

Foreign policy of this Russian ruler was also successful. During the reign of Alexander II, Russia was able to regain its former power, subjugate North Caucasus, win Turkish war. However, there were also mistakes (loss of Alaska).

Alexander II died on March 1, 1881.

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 a.m. in the Bishop's House of the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin, where the entire imperial family, with the exception of 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, Vyatsky, 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 his father’s death 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. Yes, guided and protected by Providence, who has called US to this great service, let us establish Russia on highest level power and glory, may the constant desires and visions of OUR August predecessors PETER, KATHERINE, ALEXANDER, Blessed and Unforgettable OUR Parent, be fulfilled through US. "

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 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 have specifically studied this issue, percentage serfs to all adults male population 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 Black Sea Army, in the Primorsky region, the Semipalatinsk region and the region of the Siberian Kirghiz, in the Derbent province (with the Caspian region) and the Erivan province there were no serfs at all; back at 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, within of this period There was a significant transformation of this institution (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 due to the rise or decline peasant movement, as well as under the influence and participation of a number of public figures (for example, A. M. Unkovsky).

In December 1858 it was adopted new program peasant reform: 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 is “ General position about 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 buy out the estate and, by agreement with the landowner, the field allotment; until this was done, they were called temporarily obliged peasants, those who took advantage of this right were called “redemption” peasants until the full redemption was carried out. 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 European Russia. From the land that was in the use of the peasants before February 19, 1861, sections could be made if the per capita allotments of the peasants exceeded top size established for a 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 " Local provisions“Basically they repeated “Velikorossiyskoye”, 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 Arrangement of Household People” provided for their release without land, but for 2 years they remained in complete dependence from 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 landowners’ land from watering holes, forests, high road, churches, sometimes from their arable land and meadows... [as a result] they were forced to rent the landowner’s 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 requirement was the main point of the agrarian program I and II State Duma(1905-1907), accepted 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. Early elimination similar forms 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. Two years after the announcement of the reform, the government had to apply military force in 2115 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.

Influenced Polish uprising 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. So, by 1902 total amount 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. 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 of the 19th 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. Organs government controlled under the law of 1870 they 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 unified system 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 linear 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 authority. 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 it was developed the new kind infantry weapons: 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 were opened in Moscow with general education program. 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. started in the country economic crisis, 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 it was supported fixed rate ruble to gold, 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 Russia became part of most of Turkestan). 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 organization Earth and Freedom, a group of officers and students (Ivanitsky and others) who prepared peasant revolt. 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 countryside under the guise of ordinary people in order to promote revolutionary ideas.

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

For security public order and fight against revolutionary movement On February 12, 1880, the Supreme Council was established administrative commission led 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. "

Rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest John Yanyshev, 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 was woven on Russian soil, among His subjects... This is what makes our grief unbearable, the disease of the Russian and Christian heart incurable , our immeasurable disaster is 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. Romantic traditions 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 damaged death blow 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. Large sizes The foreign trade balance deficit and public external debt reached (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” and did not lead to the abolition corporal punishment for the peasants, were not consistent, but economic life in the 1860-1870s. 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. Completed many years Caucasian war. Released 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 on the declaration of war on Turkey is studied in school course stories. The Treaty of San Stefano on March 3, 1878 brought freedom to Bulgaria after five centuries of Ottoman rule that began in 1396. 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 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. Further fate The exact 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).

Was born future ruler Russia on April 17, 1818 in Moscow. He became the first and only heir to the throne born in the mother see since 1725. There, on May 5, the baby was baptized in the Cathedral of the Chudov Monastery.

The boy received a good education at home. One of his mentors was the poet V. A. Zhukovsky. He told the crowned parents that he would prepare his pupil not to be a rude martinet, but a wise and enlightened monarch, so that he would see in Russia not a parade ground and a barracks, but a great nation.

The poet’s words turned out to be not empty bravado. Both he and other educators did a lot to ensure that the heir to the throne became truly educated, culturally and progressively thinking person. From the age of 16, the young man began to take part in the administration of the empire. His father introduced him to the Senate, then to the Holy Governing Synod and other highest government bodies. A young man passed by and military service, and quite successfully. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) he commanded the troops stationed in the capital and held the rank of general.

The reign of Alexander II (1855-1881)

Domestic policy

Emperor Alexander II, who ascended the throne, inherited a difficult inheritance. A lot of foreign policy and domestic policy issues have accumulated. Financial position the country was extremely difficult due to the Crimean War. The state, in fact, found itself isolated, pitting itself against the strongest countries in Europe. Therefore, the first step of the new emperor was the conclusion of the Paris Peace, signed on March 18, 1856.

The signing was attended by Russia on the one hand and the allied states of the Crimean War on the other. These are France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire. The peace conditions for the Russian Empire turned out to be quite mild. She returned the previously occupied territories to Turkey, and in return received Kerch, Balaklava, Kamysh and Sevastopol. Thus, the foreign policy blockade was broken.

On August 26, 1856, the coronation took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. In this regard, came out highest manifesto. He granted benefits to certain categories of subjects, suspended recruitment for 3 years and abolished military settlements since 1857, which were widely practiced during the reign of Nicholas I.

But the most important thing in the activities of the new emperor was abolition of serfdom. A manifesto about this was announced on February 19, 1861. At that time, there were 23 million serfs out of 62 million people inhabiting the Russian Empire. This reform was not perfect, but it destroyed the existing social order and became a catalyst for other reforms that affected the court, finance, army, and education.

The merit of Emperor Alexander II is that he found the strength to suppress the resistance of opponents of the changes, which were many nobles and officials. In general, public opinion in the empire sided with the sovereign. And the court flatterers called him Tsar-Liberator. This nickname has taken root among the people.

A discussion of the constitutional structure began in the country. But the question was not about a constitutional monarchy, but only about some limitation of absolute royal power. It was planned to expand the State Council and create a General Commission, which would include representatives of zemstvos. As for the Parliament, they did not intend to create it.

The emperor planned to sign the papers, which were the first step towards a constitution. He announced this on March 1, 1881 during breakfast with Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich. And literally a couple of hours later the sovereign was killed by terrorists. The Russian Empire was once again unlucky.

At the end of January 1863, an uprising began in Poland. At the end of April 1864 it was suppressed. 128 instigators were executed, 800 were sent to hard labor. But these speeches accelerated peasant reform in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus.

Foreign policy

Emperor Alexander II pursued a foreign policy taking into account the further expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire. The defeat in the Crimean War showed the backwardness and weakness of weapons in the land army and navy. Therefore, a new foreign policy concept was created, which was inextricably linked with technological reforms in the field of weapons. All these issues were supervised by Chancellor A. M. Gorchakov. He was considered an experienced and efficient diplomat and significantly increased the prestige of Russia.

In 1877-1878, the Russian Empire fought with Turkey. As a result of this military campaign, Bulgaria was liberated. It became an independent state. Vast territories were annexed in Central Asia. The empire also included the North Caucasus, Bessarabia, and the Far East. As a result of all this, the country has become one of the largest in the world.

In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to America (for more details, see the article Who Sold Alaska to America). Subsequently, this caused a lot of controversy, especially since the price was relatively low. In 1875, the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan in exchange for Sakhalin Island. In these matters, Alexander II was guided by the fact that Alaska and the Kuril Islands are remote, unprofitable lands that are difficult to manage. At the same time, some politicians criticized the emperor for annexing Central Asia and the Caucasus. The conquest of these lands cost Russia great human sacrifices and material costs.

The personal life of Emperor Alexander II was complex and confusing. In 1841 he married Princess Maximiliana Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria of Hesse (1824-1880) of the Hessian dynasty. The bride converted to Orthodoxy in December 1840 and became Maria Alexandrovna, and on April 16, 1841 the wedding took place. The couple have been married for almost 40 years. The wife gave birth to 8 children, but the crowned husband was not distinguished by fidelity. He regularly took on mistresses (favorites).

Alexander II with his wife Maria Alexandrovna

Her husband's infidelities and childbirth undermined the empress's health. She was often sick, and died in the summer of 1880 from tuberculosis. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Less than a year had passed after the death of his wife, and the sovereign entered into an organic marriage with his longtime favorite Ekaterina Dolgoruka (1847-1922). The relationship with her began in 1866, when the girl was 19 years old. In 1972, she gave birth to a son from the emperor, named George. Then three more children were born.

It should be noted that Emperor Alexander II loved Dolgorukaya very much and was very attached to her. By a special decree, he bestowed the surname Yuryevsky and the titles of His Serene Highness on the children born from her. As for the environment, it disapproved of the organic marriage with Dolgoruka. The hostility was so strong that after the death of the sovereign, the newly-made wife and their children emigrated from the country and settled in Nice. There Catherine died in 1922.

The years of Alexander II's reign were marked by several attempts on his life (read more in the article Attempts on Alexander II). In 1879, the Narodnaya Volya members sentenced the emperor to death. However, fate protected the sovereign for a long time, and the assassination attempts were thwarted. It should be noted here that the Russian Tsar was not known for cowardice and, despite the danger, appeared in in public places either alone or with a small retinue.

But on March 1, 1881, the autocrat’s luck changed. The terrorists carried out their murder plan. The assassination attempt was carried out on the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg. The body of the sovereign was mutilated by the bomb thrown. On the same day, Emperor Alexander II died, having taken communion. He was buried on March 7 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to his first wife Maria Alexandrovna. On Russian throne Alexander III entered.

Leonid Druzhnikov