Alexander II Research Paper

Alexander II & Alexander III

Alexander was the eldest son of Tsar Nicholas I and was born in Moscow in 1818. Alexander became Tsar of Russia in 1855 after his father's death. At that time Russia was in the Crimean War but then in 1856 russia signed the Treaty of Paris that put an end to the war. Alexander knew that his military power wasn't strong enough anymore and his advisers informed him that Russia's economy is not even close enough to be competed with industrialized nations such as Great Britain and France. This is when Alexander II considered to abolish serfdom in Russia but the nobility objected and Alexander's reply was "It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below." So Alexander abolished serfdom and all peasants were allowed and able to
buy land from their landlords.
He introduced other new reforms in 1864 such as allowing to elect councils for each city to administer local affairs and the councils were able to take decisions such as building schools, roads, hospital and etc. There was an attempt of assassination on Alexander II but failed. In October, 1879 group of terrorist came to live and were called People's Will and wanted to assassinate Alexander II and they even tried to several times but failed. The People's WIll contacted the Russian governmHe ent and offered a deal which was stopping the terror campaign in return they demand a constitution that provided free elections and an end to censorship for the Russian people. And on 25th of February, 1880, Alexander accepted to consider the People's Will demand to grant a constitution for the Russian people. He tried to keep the reformers satisfied but at the same time
preserve the powers of the autocracy.
After failure of the Russian government to announce details of the new constitution, The People's Will made another plan for assassination of Alexander II and this time they succeeded.
Alexander the second faced many challenges under the reign from 1855-1881. What he really struggled with was the nationalism, The People Will and the radicals.

Alexander the third was Alexander the second's son. Alexander III was influenced by his tutor called Konstantin Pobedonostsev who did not like democracy and freedom of speech. Alexander III wanted to restore Russia's nobility back to Free Russia. He also acted on restoring the principles of absolute monarchy.
Most importantly he had three main beliefs: repression of opponents, undoing the reforms of his father and restore Russia's position internationally. These were called as "Russification". Alexander III wanted nothing for himself but only for his country. His policy was different and effective because Alexander had the intensity in himself. The little power that Zemstva had were removed and local justices of the peace were also removed and replaced by a system of land captains who were right under the Minister of the interior's hand. Alexander invented many restriction as to what people could do and could not. Education was also reformed. Students were not allowed to taught history unless he had permission from the Minister of Education. Even the church was used to improve and extend the power of tsar. The church was under the Government's control. Alexander III was mentally strong and got the job done and that's why he succeeded met those challenges to reform and extend his power in Russia.