Alexander II of Russia

During his travels to European countries in his early years, Alexander II of Russia fell in love with Princess Marie from the small German state of Hesse-Darmstadt. They were married on April 16, 1841 in St Petersburg, following which she became known as Maria Alexandrovna.

They together had six sons and two daughters, among whom their first-born daughter died an infant and their second-born son died at the age of 22, after getting engaged to Dagmar of Denmark Maria Feodorovna. Their third child, Alexander III, became their heir and also got engaged to Maria Feodorovna later.

He is said to have developed an interest in the 16-year-old Princess Catherine Dolgorukov after she was sent to the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg following her father's death. The two became intimate in July 1866, presumably after she was moved by pity following the death of his eldest son, Nicholas Alexandrovich, and an assassination attempt on his life.

Alexander Nikolaevich, the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and of Charlotte of Prussia, was born on April 29, 1818, in Moscow, Russia. His parents, both great-great-grandchildren of Frederick William I of Prussia, were third cousins, and had seven children together, including four sons and three daughters.

His father, who was not first in the line of succession, was not brought up to be an emperor. As such, he was determined to prepare his son for his future role as tsar, and often took him to military parades and other symbolic events of the era, which Alexander Nikolaevich enjoyed very much.

His father had named him the head of a hussar regiment when he was only a few days old, and he continued to receive promotion throughout his childhood. His early education was focused primarily on military matters; since he was six years old, he was taught by Captain K. K. Merder, the head of a Moscow military school.

Later, his mother insisted that the responsibility of the Alexander Nikolaevich's moral and intellectual development is supervised by Vasily Zhukovsky, a liberal romantic poet and gifted translator. During this time, he learned a number of modern European languages and gained knowledge on a variety of subjects.

Living under the shadow of his authoritarian father, he remained a dedicated autocrat throughout his life. Despite, the influence of Zhukovsky is notable in his reforms, especially during the early years of his reign.

Alexander II of Russia inherited the throne after his father's death, on February 19, 1855, at a time when the country was on the verge of a disastrous defeat in the Crimean War. After the fall of the fortified city of Sevastopol on September 9, 1855, he began peace negotiations, signing the Treaty of Paris on March 30, 1856, which cost Russia naval rights in the Black Sea.

He was formally crowned the Russian Emperor on August 26, 1856 in Moscow. Following the first major defeat of the Russian army since 1812, he was forced to modernize the military and the entire political system in order to be on par with more advanced Western countries.

One of the first endeavors he undertook was the improvement of communications by extending the coverage of railway tracks throughout Russia. It resulted in faster movement of economic goods, especially grain, Russia's major export product, as well faster response in defense and attack.

He followed this reform with another more significant one, the emancipation of the serfs, for which he is still remembered as 'Alexander the Liberator'. While the actual implementation of this reform was slow and unsatisfactory to some extent, it still had an immense psychological impact at the time.

In the following years, he enlisted the service of a number of enlightened bureaucrats who performed reforms in their respective fields. He appointed Dmitry Milyutin as the Minister of War who carried out sweeping military reforms including compulsory 6-year military service for all males aged 21, including nobles. Introduced on January 1, 1874, the reform changed the face of the Russian army permanently.

After the introduction of conscription in the Russian Army, Poland, which was under his reign, saw spontaneous revolt by youths which later received support from high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and politicians. In order to abolish the threat of guerilla warfare, many were publicly executed, while many more were deported to Siberia.

Poland subsequently lost its separate constitution and became incorporated directly into Russia, which resulted in a 40-year-long period of martial law starting in 1863, and the exclusion of native languages in almost all forms. The territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were excluded from the emperor's liberal policies.

In contrast, Finland, which stayed loyal to the Russian empire during the Crimean War and the Polish uprising, was allowed increased autonomy and the Finnish language was granted the status of a national language. Finland was further allowed to have its own currency, saw increased foreign investment and established its first railways, all of which encouraged Finnish nationalism and earned the emperor 'The Good Tsar' moniker.

When the orthodox Bulgarian subjects on the Balkans rebelled against Ottoman rule in 1875, Alexander, sensing a rise of support for them, started diplomatic negotiations with other nations, securing their neutral stance if war commences. After the Ottomans killed nearly thirty thousand Bulgarians, he declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and eventually defeated the Turkish forces on March 3, 1878, signing the Treaty of San Stefano.

In the following Congress of Berlin, Bulgaria emerged as an independent state for the first time since 1396, with his nephew being elected the first ruler. He once again reinforced his image as 'Tsar Liberator' and is still remembered as such in Bulgaria, which even erected a monument in his honor.