ALEXANDER II (1818-1881, St. Petersburg), Emperor (since 1855). He was a son of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. Tsarevitch (from 1831), General of Infantry (1847), Honorary Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1826). His first marriage was to the Princess of Hesse and Rhine, who took the name of Maria Alexandrovna; his second (morganatic) marriage to Princess E.M. Dolgorukova (1880), who received the title of Princess Yuryevskaya. He was a member of the Committee for the Neva Bridge Construction (1841), and the head of the Committee of the St. Petersburg - Moscow Railway Construction (1842). From 1849, he commanded the Guard and Grenadier Corps, was the head of the Main Military Schools (until 1860), and Trustee of the Chesme Military Hospital. In the 1860-70s, he carried out various reforms, such as peasant (abolishment serfdom, 1861), judicial (1864), land (1865), city (see City reform 1870), and military (the 1860-70s) reforms, all of which came to be known in Russian history as the Great Reforms of Alexander II. Many people had considerable influence on state affairs and government throughout different periods of his reign, including his brother Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, aunt Grand Princess Elena Pavlovna, P.D. Kiselev, Y.I. Rostovtsev, P.A. Valuev, D.A. Milyutin, A.M. Gorchakov, P.A. Shuvalov (see the Shuvalovs), and M.T. Loris-Melikov. In 1866-81, members of secret revolutionary societies made a number of attempts on Alexander II's life, some of them in St. Petersburg. In 1866, D.V. Karakozov shot at the Tsar through the ironwork of the Summer Garden (a chapel was built on the place of attempt; not preserved), in 1879, A.K. Solovyev made an attempt on Palace Square; in 1880, S.N. Khalturin planted an explosive in the Winter Palace. On 1 March 1881, Alexander II was fatally wounded on the Catherine Canal Embankment (today Griboedova Canal) as a result of a terrorist attack by members of the group Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), and died several hours later in the Winter Palace. He was buried in the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral. The Holy Resurrection Cathedral was built on site of the assassination. Before taking the crown, Alexander II lived in Anichkov Palace, then in the Winter Palace. In summertime he preferred the Tsarskoe Selo (particularly the Zubov Wing of the Catherine Palace), and the Farmer Palace in Alexandria. He owned Petrovsky Island, Anichkov Palace, a cottage, a personal dacha in Peterhof (1843), the Ropsha grange in the Peterhof District, and the city of Gatchina.

References: Александр II и его эпоха: К 140-летию со дня восшествия на престол: Тез. докл. конф. СПб., 1995; Захарова Л. Г. Александр II // Романовы: Ист. портреты, 1762-1917. М., 1997. Кн. 2. С. 404-490; Толмачев Е. П. Александр II и его время: В 2 кн. М., 1998; Александр II и Царское Село: Кат. выст. / Гос. музей-заповедник "Царское Село". СПб., 2000.

Y. A. Kuzmin.

MARIA ALEXANDROVNA (1824-1880, St. Petersburg), Empress (from 1856). Nee Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. Emperor Alexander II's wife (from 1841). In 1844-62, she was patroness of the Womens' Patriotic Society Vyborgskaya School. From 1860, she became the main patron of the Empress Maria's Department of Institutions. She opened Women's High Schools and Women's Eparchial Schools for many estates. She contributed to the creation of barrack infirmaries at Rozhdestvenskaya City Hospital (1871; 4 Suvorovsky Avenue), which later bore her name, and a school for medical assistants attached to the hospital (1872). She assisted the establishment of the Russian Society for the Red Cross. She supported her husband in carrying out the Great Reforms of the 1860-70s, and from the mid-1860s stopped playing any independent political role. In 1876-77, she voiced support for the Slavs in the Balkans. She owned Alexandria near Peterhof. She was buried at the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral.

References: Бертенсон И. В. Императрица Мария Александровна в ее заботах о деятельности Российского общества Красного Креста // Рус. старина. 1892. Т. 73, янв. С. 1-12.

Y. A. Kuzmin.

17 April. The Church of St. Zosimus and St.Sabbatius of the Solovetsky was consecrated in the wooden barrak of the 1st Lafe-Guard Rifle Battalion in the presence of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Alexander II, Emperor
Maria Alexandrovna, Empress