Alexander II of Russia

8.4: ALEXANDER II OF RUSSIA

Tsar Alexander II of Russia was reformer who granted freedom to over twenty million serfs in 1861. Two decades later, he was on the brink of signing into law a program of changes to the Russian system of government that might have set the empire on a road to some form of democracy and constitutional monarchy. That was thwarted when assassins from a shadowy radical group called People’s Will killed the Russian emperor on the snowy streets of St. Petersburg.