The Tsar who tried to modernize the old regime from above through emancipation and reform, and became the revolutionaries' prime target
To the Moscow nobility in 1856: "The existing order of serf-owning cannot remain unchanged. It is better to begin abolishing serfdom from above than to wait until it begins to abolish itself from below."
Taking the throne in 1855 amid the defeat of the Crimean War, Alexander II declared it better to abolish serfdom 'from above than to wait until it begins to abolish itself from below,' and in 1861 he emancipated 23 million serfs, following up with zemstvo self-government, judicial reform, and universal military conscription. Hailed as the 'Tsar-Liberator,' he found his reforms too little for the radicals and too much for the conservatives, and after an assassination attempt in 1866 he turned toward reaction. On 13 March 1881, the very day he approved the Loris-Melikov constitutional draft, a bomb thrown by a member of the People's Will mortally wounded him; he died in the Winter Palace. His death ended the era of Great Reforms, ushered in the reaction of Alexander III, and confirmed revolutionary terrorism as a decisive method in Russian politics.
Activities and affiliations
- 1855–1881 Monarchs and royalty · Russian Empire
Career Timeline
- 1825Becomes Tsesarevich upon the accession of his father Nicholas I
- 1855Accedes to the throne; inherits a losing Crimean War
- 1856Treaty of Paris ends the war; amnesty for political prisoners at coronation
- 1861Edict of Emancipation — frees 23 million serfs
- 1863–64Suppresses the Polish uprising; reconvenes the Finnish Diet
- 1864Zemstvo (local self-government) and judicial reforms
- 1874Universal military conscription — military reform
- 1877–78Russo-Turkish War; liberation of Bulgaria
- 1880Entrusts Loris-Melikov with a constitutional draft
- 1881.3.13Mortally wounded by a bomb thrown by Ignacy Hryniewiecki of the People's Will; dies at the Winter Palace
The 1861 emancipation and land redemption
On 3 March 1861 (19 February Old Style), Alexander II signed the Emancipation Manifesto, accompanied by 17 legislative acts freeing the empire’s serfs. They gained personal freedom and were promised land, but land was not automatically distributed to them without payment. Legal ownership remained with the landlords, and peasants continued to work for them while land inventories, allotments, and prices were calculated. Peasants were to use government loans to redeem their allotments from landlords and repay those loans to the government over 49 years.
The settlement compromised among liberal, conservative, bureaucratic, and landed interests, and did not satisfy the peasants. By 1881 about 85 percent had received land, and redemption became compulsory. Many peasants remained burdened by land hunger and redemption payments after their release from serf status. The government ended the payment system in 1905. Emancipation thus changed peasants’ legal status while delaying their acquisition of land and imposing long-term debt.