Alexander 3 was the 2nd son in the family. Alexander III - biography, information, personal life

Many descriptions of the appearance of Alexander III have reached us. Estimates of his activities in history are very diverse. He was a good family man, a kind person, but the burden of power was not his own. He did not have the qualities that an emperor was supposed to have. Alexander felt this inside and was constantly very critical of himself and his actions. This was the tragedy of the emperor’s personality in the history of Russia.

He reigned for thirteen years. Many argue that if not for the death of the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, then everything could have happened differently. Nicholas was a humane and liberal person, he could have carried out liberal reforms and introduced a constitution, and perhaps Russia would have been able to avoid both revolution and further collapse of the empire.

The entire 19th century Russia was wasted, it was time for transformation, but not a single monarch dared to do anything grandiose. Alexander III was guided in his policy only by good intentions; he believed that by preserving everything liberal, he was preserving the future of the dynasty and the empire as a whole.

Personality of Alexander III

Alexander Alexandrovich grew up in a large family. He was born in February 1845, the third child. The girl Alexandra was born first, then Nikolai, and then Alexander. They had six sons, so there were no problems with heirs. Naturally, all attention was focused on Nikolai Alexandrovich as the heir to the throne. Nikolai and Alexander studied literacy and military affairs together, and were enlisted in the guards regiments from birth. At the age of eighteen, Alexander already bore the title of colonel. Over time, the training of Nicholas and Alexander began to differ; naturally, the teaching of the heir was much broader.

At the age of sixteen, Nicholas reached his legal age and was moved to separate apartments in the Winter Palace. Then Nikolai visited Western Europe, where he underwent treatment because he experienced back pain. In Denmark, he proposed to Princess Dagmara.

When he ended up in Nice, his mother Maria Alexandrovna came to see him, since his health was not improving. In April 1865, the heir became very ill; all his relatives and the bride and mother came to Nice. They only managed to stay with Nikolai for a few days. Alexander, mother Maria Alexandrovna and Nikolai’s fiancée were always at the bedside. The Tsarevich died on April 12, 1865, and Alexander Alexandrovich was proclaimed heir to the throne.

It was clear to everyone in the family that Alexander III was not successful in his government activities. Aunt Elena Pavlovna more than once spoke out that the third brother, Vladimir Alexandrovich, should have become the heir to the throne. Brother Konstantin Nikolaevich spoke about Alexander Alexandrovich’s complete unpreparedness to occupy the imperial throne. The new heir did not like to study, he liked military affairs, and he always preferred playing instead of studying.

Alexander III Alexandrovich

When Alexander was proclaimed heir to the throne, he received the rank of major general and was appointed ataman of the Cossack troops. He was already a mature man, and therefore absolutely unprepared for the new fate that befell him unexpectedly. They began to intensively teach him law, history, and economics. Alexander himself was an honest, sincere, straightforward, clumsy and shy man. In October 1866, the wedding of Alexander and the former bride of his brother Nikolai took place; she received the name Maria Feodorovna. Despite the fact that Alexander had feelings for Princess Meshcherskaya, and Maria Feodorovna for the late Tsarevich, their marriage turned out to be happy.

Alexander was the heir to the throne at the age of 15. His views were right-wing and very nationalistic. and his son had different views on national politics and some other things. Due to the unpopularity of some of the emperor’s decisions, like-minded people soon begin to group around the heir and those who are representatives of other directions begin to listen to Alexander Alexandrovich III, since the future belongs to him.

The Russian-Turkish War was a real event for the heir; he was on the territory of hostilities. Officers noted that Alexander was easy to communicate with and devoted his free time to archaeological excavations.

The heir participated in the creation of the Russian Historical Society. The society was supposed to attract people to study the history of the Fatherland, as well as promote science in Russia. It specialized in studying the history of Russia after the reign.

At the end of the 1870s. Alexander Alexandrovich's responsibilities are expanding. When he leaves St. Petersburg, the heir is engaged in current state affairs. At this time, the state is in a period of crisis. There are more and more attempts by terrorists to change the situation through illegal means. The situation becomes more complicated within the emperor's family. He transports his mistress E. Dolgorukaya to the Winter Palace. The Empress, who had long known about her husband's affair, was very offended. She was sick with consumption and in May 1880 she died in the palace all alone; she was in Tsarskoe Selo with Ekaterina Dolgoruky.

The heir loved his mother very much and adhered to the reading of family ties; he was furious; he did not like his father’s behavior. The hatred especially intensified when the father soon married his mistress. Soon she and their children were transported to Crimea. In order to improve relations with his stepmother, the father often invited his son there. On one visit, everything only got worse, because Alexander saw how his stepmother took over his mother’s rooms there.

Emperor Alexander III

On March 1, 1881, he approved Loris-Melikov’s draft constitution and scheduled a meeting for March 4. But on March 1, as a result of two explosions, he died. When Alexander III took power, he did not make any promises to continue his father’s policies. In the first months, the emperor had to deal with many things: the funeral of his father, accession to the throne, the search for revolutionaries and reprisals against them. It should be noted that the emperor was merciless towards his father’s murderers; they were hanged.

There was also a problem in my father’s second family. In his last letter, he instructed his son to take care of them. Alexander III wanted them to leave St. Petersburg, and conversations about this began with their stepmother. She and her children went to Nice, where she later lived.

In politics, Alexander III chose the path of autocratic power. A meeting on the Loris-Melikov project was held on March 8, and the project did not receive support. Alexander III spoke out that the project would usurp the rights of the monarch, so he recognized Loris-Melikov as a politically unreliable official, which could have had dire consequences for the latter.

Some, despite their fear, spoke out about the timeliness and need to introduce a constitution in Russia and change legislation. But the autocrat showed that he did not intend to establish a rule-of-law state in Russia. Soon the manifesto “On the Inviolability of Autocracy” was created. By 1882, all representatives of “lousy liberalism” were ousted from government ministries, and in their place, the closest associates of the current emperor sat in the offices. During his reign, the role of the State Council declined; it was reduced only to helping the emperor in implementing his intentions; he was always angry if any of his ideas met criticism in the State Council. In politics, Alexander III was similar to his grandfather. They both treated the state as an estate. He fought against bureaucracy, against the extravagance of the royal court, and tried to save money.

The imperial family grew, and the emperor began to reduce its representatives. Only the children and grandchildren of the emperor were grand dukes, and the rest became simply princes with imperial blood, thus their monetary support was reduced.

He also carried out a number of counter-reforms, all of his father’s previously liberal reforms came to naught. The emperor went down in history as the “peacemaker king.” During his reign, Russia did not wage wars. In foreign policy, Russia is moving away from cooperation with Germany and Austria. But he gets closer to France, then to England.

The Emperor admired S.Yu. Witte, future Minister of Finance. He considered him the person who would be able to use and realize the full economic potential of Russia. Witte also said that Alexander would sooner or later come to liberal reforms anyway. But, unfortunately, he did not have enough time for this. In 1894, his nephritis disease worsened, and his health became worse. He became weaker, lost weight, and his memory also began to suffer. He died at the end of 1894 in Crimea. The eldest son Nicholas II took over the country; his father considered him a man not ready for imperial power.

Alexander III video

Family of Emperor Alexander III

Spouse. Alexander Alexandrovich received his wife, as well as the title of Tsarevich, “as an inheritance” from his elder brother, Tsarevich Nicholas. It was a Danish princess Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmara (1847-1928), in Orthodoxy Maria Feodorovna.

Nikolai Alexandrovich met his bride in 1864, when, having completed his home education, he went on a trip abroad. In Copenhagen, in the palace of the Danish king Christian XI, he was introduced to the royal daughter Princess Dagmara. The young people liked each other, but even without this their marriage was a foregone conclusion, as it corresponded to the dynastic interests of the Danish royal house and the Romanov family. The Danish kings had family connections with many of the royal houses of Europe. Their relatives ruled England, Germany, Greece and Norway. The marriage of the heir to the Russian throne with Dagmara strengthened the dynastic ties of the Romanovs with European royal houses.

On September 20, the engagement of Nikolai and Dagmara took place in Denmark. After this, the groom still had to visit Italy and France. In Italy, the Tsarevich caught a cold and began to have severe back pain. He reached Nice and there he finally went to bed. Doctors declared his condition threatening, and Dagmara went to the south of France with her queen mother, accompanied by Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich. When they arrived in Nice, Nikolai was already dying. The Tsarevich understood that he was dying, and he himself joined the hands of his bride and brother, asking them to get married. On the night of April 13, Nikolai Alexandrovich died from tuberculous inflammation of the spinal cord.

Alexander, unlike his father and grandfather, was not a great lover of women and a connoisseur of female beauty. But Dagmara, an eighteen-year-old beautiful graceful brown-haired woman, made a great impression on him. The new heir's falling in love with the bride of his deceased brother suited both the Russian imperial and Danish royal families. This means that he will not have to be persuaded into this dynastic union. But still, we decided to take our time and wait a little for the sake of decency with the new matchmaking. Nevertheless, in the Romanov family they often remembered the sweet and unhappy Minnie (as Dagmara was called Maria Feodorovna at home), and Alexander did not stop thinking about her.

In the summer of 1866, the Tsarevich began his trip to Europe with a visit to Copenhagen, where he hoped to see his dear princess. On the way to Denmark, he wrote to his parents: “I feel that I can and even really love dear Minnie, especially since she is so dear to us. God willing, everything will work out as I wish. I really don’t know what dear Minnie will say to all this; I don’t know her feelings towards me, and it really torments me. I'm sure we can be so happy together. I earnestly pray to God to bless me and ensure my happiness.”

The royal family and Dagmara received Alexander Alexandrovich cordially. Later, already in St. Petersburg, the courtiers said that the Danish princess did not want to miss the Russian imperial crown, so she quickly came to terms with replacing the handsome Nicholas, with whom she was in love, with the clumsy but kind Alexander, who looked at her with adoration. But what could she do when her parents decided everything for her long ago!

The explanation between Alexander and Dagmara took place on June 11, about which the newly minted groom wrote home on the same day: “I was already planning to talk to her several times, but I still didn’t dare, although we were together several times. When we looked at the photographic album together, my thoughts were not at all on the pictures; I was just thinking about how to proceed with my request. Finally I made up my mind and didn’t even have time to say everything I wanted. Minnie threw herself on my neck and began to cry. Of course, I also couldn’t help but cry. I told her that our dear Nyx prays a lot for us and, of course, is rejoicing with us at this moment. Tears kept flowing from me. I asked her if she could love anyone else besides dear Nyx. She answered me that there was no one except his brother, and again we hugged tightly. There was a lot of talk and reminiscing about Nix and his death. Then the queen, king and brothers came, everyone hugged us and congratulated us. Everyone had tears in their eyes."

On July 17, 1866, the young couple were engaged in Copenhagen. Three months later, the heir's bride arrived in St. Petersburg. On October 13, she converted to Orthodoxy with the new name Maria Feodorovna, and the grand ducal couple became engaged, and two weeks later, on October 28, they got married.

Maria Fedorovna quickly learned Russian, but until the end of her life she retained a slight, peculiar accent. Together with her husband, she made a slightly strange couple: he was tall, overweight, “masculine”; She is short, light, graceful, with medium-sized features of a pretty face. Alexander called her “beautiful Minnie”, was very attached to her and only allowed her to command him. It is difficult to judge whether she truly loved her husband, but she was also very attached to him and became his most devoted friend.

The Grand Duchess had a cheerful, cheerful character, and at first many courtiers considered her frivolous. But it soon became clear that Maria Fedorovna was extremely intelligent, had a good understanding of people and was able to judge politics sensibly. She turned out to be a faithful wife and a wonderful mother to her children.

Six children were born into the friendly family of Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Fedorovna: Nikolai, Alexander, Georgy, Mikhail, Ksenia, Olga. The childhood of the Grand Dukes and Princesses was happy. They grew up surrounded by parental love and the care of specially trained nannies and governesses sent from Europe. At their service were the best toys and books, summer holidays in the Crimea and the Baltic Sea, as well as in the St. Petersburg suburbs.

But it did not at all follow from this that the children turned out to be spoiled sissies. Education in the Romanov family was traditionally strict and rationally organized. Emperor Alexander III considered it his duty to personally instruct the governesses of his offspring: “They should pray well to God, study, play, and be naughty in moderation. Teach well, don’t push, ask according to the full strictness of the laws, don’t encourage laziness in particular. If there is anything, then address it directly to me, I know what needs to be done, I repeat, I don’t need porcelain, I need normal, healthy, Russian children.”

All children, especially boys, were brought up in Spartan conditions: they slept on hard beds, washed with cold water in the morning, and received simple porridge for breakfast. Older children could be present with their parents and their guests at the dinner table, but they were served food last, after everyone else, so they did not get the best pieces.

The education of imperial children was designed for 12 years, 8 of which were spent on a course similar to the gymnasium. But Alexander III ordered not to torment the great princes and princesses with ancient languages ​​that were unnecessary to them. Instead, natural science courses were taught, including anatomy and physiology. Russian literature, three major European languages ​​(English, French and German) and world and Russian history were required. For physical development, children were offered gymnastics and dancing.

The emperor himself taught children traditional Russian games in the fresh air and the usual activities of a simple Russian person in organizing his life. His heir Nikolai Alexandrovich, being an emperor, enjoyed sawing wood and could light the stove himself.

Taking care of his wife and children, Alexander Alexandrovich did not know what dramatic future awaited them. The fate of all the boys was tragic.

Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich (05/06/1868-16(07/17/1918)- heir to the throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II the Bloody (1894-1917), became the last Russian Tsar. He was overthrown from the throne during the February bourgeois revolution of 1917 and in 1918, along with his entire family, was shot in Yekaterinburg.

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich (1869-1870)- died in infancy.

Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich (1871-1899)- Heir-Tsarevich under his elder brother Nicholas II in the absence of male children. Died of consumption (tuberculosis).

Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (1878-1918)- Heir-Tsarevich under his elder brother Nicholas II after the death of his brother Georgy Alexandrovich and before the birth of Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich. In his favor, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne in 1917. He was shot in Perm in 1918.

To the wife of Alexander III Maria Feodorovna and daughters Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna (1875-1960) who was married to her cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, And Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960) managed to escape abroad.

But in those days when Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Feodorovna were happy with each other, nothing foreshadowed such a tragic outcome. Parental care brought joy, and family life was so harmonious that it formed a striking contrast with the life of Alexander II.

The heir-Tsarevich managed to look convincing when he demonstrated an even, respectful attitude towards his father, although in his soul he could not forgive him for betraying his sick mother for the sake of Princess Yuryevskaya. In addition, the presence of a second family for Alexander II could not but unnerve his eldest son, as it threatened to disrupt the order of succession to the throne in the Romanov dynasty. And although Alexander Alexandrovich could not condemn his father openly and even promised him after his death to take care of Princess Yuryevskaya and her children, after the death of his parent he tried to quickly get rid of the morganatic family by sending him abroad.

According to the status of the heir, Alexander Alexandrovich was supposed to be engaged in a variety of government activities. He himself most liked things related to charity. His mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, a famous philanthropist, managed to instill in her son a positive attitude towards helping the suffering.

By coincidence, the heir's first position was the post of chairman of the Special Committee for the collection and distribution of benefits to the hungry during the terrible crop failure of 1868, which befell a number of provinces in central Russia. Alexander's activity and management in this position immediately brought him popularity among the people. Even near his residence, the Anichkov Palace, a special mug for donations was displayed, into which St. Petersburg residents daily put from three to four thousand rubles, and on Alexander’s birthday there were about six thousand in it. All these funds went to the starving people.

Later, mercy for the lower strata of society and sympathy for the hardships of their lives would find expression in the labor legislation of Emperor Alexander III, which stood out for its liberal spirit against the background of other political and social initiatives of his time.

The Grand Duke's mercy impressed many. F. M. Dostoevsky wrote about him in 1868: “How glad I am that the heir appeared before Russia in such a good and majestic form, and that Russia thus testifies to her hopes for him and her love for him. Yes, even half the love I have for my father would be enough.”

Mercy may have also dictated the Tsarevich's peacefulness, which was unusual for a member of the Romanov family. He took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Alexander did not show any special talents at the theater of war, but he acquired a strong conviction that war brings incredible hardships and death to the ordinary soldier. Having become emperor, Alexander pursued a peacemaking foreign policy and in every possible way avoided armed conflicts with other countries, so as not to shed blood in vain.

At the same time, some of Alexander’s actions are an excellent illustration of the fact that loving and pitying all of humanity often turns out to be simpler and easier than respecting an individual person. Even before the start of the Russian-Turkish war, the heir had an unpleasant quarrel with a Russian officer of Swedish origin, K. I. Gunius, who was sent by the government to America to purchase guns. Alexander Alexandrovich did not like the samples brought. He harshly and rudely criticized the choice. The officer tried to object, then the Grand Duke shouted at him, using vulgar expressions. After his departure from the palace, Gunius sent the Tsarevich a note demanding an apology, and otherwise threatened to commit suicide in 24 hours. Alexander considered all this stupidity and did not think to apologize. A day later the officer was dead.

Alexander II, wanting to punish his son for his callousness, ordered him to follow Gunius’ coffin to the grave. But the Grand Duke did not understand why he should have felt guilty for the suicide of an overly scrupulous officer, since rudeness and insults towards subordinates were practiced by the male part of the Romanov family.

Among Alexander Alexandrovich’s personal interests, one can highlight his love for Russian history. He contributed in every possible way to the founding of the Imperial Historical Society, which he himself headed before ascending the throne. Alexander had an excellent historical library, which he replenished throughout his life. He gladly accepted historical works brought to him by the authors themselves, but, carefully arranging them on the shelves, he rarely read. He preferred the historical novels of M. N. Zagoskin and I. I. Lazhechnikov to scientific and popular books on history and judged Russia’s past from them. Alexander Alexandrovich had a special curiosity about the past of his family and wanted to know how much Russian blood flowed in his veins, since it turned out that on the female side he was more likely German. The information extracted from the memoirs of Catherine II that her son Paul I could have been born not from her legal husband Peter III, but from the Russian nobleman Saltykov, oddly enough, pleased Alexander. This meant that he, Alexander Alexandrovich, was more Russian in origin than he had previously thought.

From fiction, the Tsarevich preferred the prose of Russian writers of the past and his contemporaries. The list of books he read, compiled in 1879, includes works by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Goncharov and Dostoevsky. The future emperor read “What to do?” Chernyshevsky, became acquainted with illegal journalism published in foreign emigrant magazines. But in general, Alexander was not an avid bookworm, reading only what a very averagely educated person of his time could not do without. In his leisure hours, he was occupied not by books, but by theater and music.

Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Fedorovna visited the theater almost weekly. Alexander preferred musical performances (opera, ballet), and did not disdain operetta, which he attended alone, since Maria Feodorovna did not like her. Amateur performances were often staged in the Anichkov Palace of the Grand Duke, in which family members, guests, and children’s governesses played. The directors were professional actors who considered it an honor to work with the heir’s troupe. Alexander Alexandrovich himself often played music at home concerts, performing simple works on the horn and bass.

The Tsarevich was also famous as a passionate collector of works of art. He himself was not very well versed in art and preferred portraits and battle paintings. But in his collections, which filled the Anichkov Palace and chambers in the imperial residences that belonged to him, there were works by the Itinerants, whom he disliked, and works by old European masters and modern Western artists. As a collector, the future emperor relied on the taste and knowledge of connoisseurs. On the advice of Pobedonostsev, Alexander also collected ancient Russian icons, which formed a separate, very valuable collection. In the 1880s. The Grand Duke purchased for 70 thousand rubles a collection of Russian paintings by gold miner V. A. Kokorev. Subsequently, the collections of Alexander III formed the basis of the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

The serene life of the Tsarevich's family, slightly overshadowed only by the presence of his father's morganatic family, ended on March 1, 1881. Alexander III, from the age of twenty, was preparing to reign for sixteen years, but did not imagine that the throne would go to him so unexpectedly and in such tragic circumstances.

Already on March 1, 1881, Alexander received a letter from his teacher and friend, Chief Prosecutor of the Synod K. P. Pobedonostsev, which said: “You are getting a Russia that is confused, shattered, confused, yearning to be led with a firm hand, so that the ruling the authorities saw clearly and knew firmly what they wanted and what they did not want and would not allow in any way.” But the new emperor was not yet ready for firm, decisive actions and, according to the same Pobedonostsev, in the first days and weeks of his reign he looked more like a “poor sick, stunned child” than a formidable autocrat. He wavered between his desire to fulfill his earlier promises to his father to continue reforms and his own conservative ideas about what the power of the emperor should look like in autocratic Russia. He was haunted by the anonymous message he received immediately after the terrorist attack that ended the life of Alexander II, which stood out among the sympathetic condolences, which, in particular, stated: “Your father is not a martyr or a saint, because he suffered not for the church, not for the cross, not for the Christian faith, not for Orthodoxy, but for the sole reason that he dissolved the people, and this dissolved people killed him.”

The hesitation ended by April 30, 1881, when a manifesto was born that defined the conservative-protective policy of the new reign. Conservative journalist M.N. Katkov wrote about this document: “Like manna from heaven, the people's feelings were waiting for this royal word. It is our salvation: it returns the Russian autocratic Tsar to the Russian people.” One of the main compilers of the manifesto was Pobedonostsev, who took as a model the Manifesto of Nicholas I of December 19, 1815. People knowledgeable in politics again saw the shadow of Nicholas’s reign, only the place of a temporary worker, as Arakcheev and Benckendorff had been in their time, was now taken by another person . As A. Blok wrote, “Pobedonostsev spread his owl’s wings over Russia.” Modern researcher V.A. Tvardovskaya even saw special symbolism in the fact that the beginning of the reign of Alexander III was marked by the execution of five Narodnaya Volya members, while the reign of Nicholas I began with the execution of five Decembrists.

The manifesto was followed by a series of measures repealing or limiting the reform decrees of the previous reign. In 1882, new “Temporary Rules on the Press” were approved, which lasted until 1905, putting all press and book publishing in the country under government control. In 1884, a new university charter was introduced, which virtually destroyed the autonomy of these educational institutions and made the fate of teachers and students dependent on their loyalty to the authorities. At the same time, the fee for obtaining higher education has doubled, from 50 to 100 rubles per year. In 1887, the infamous “cook’s children” circular was adopted, which recommended limiting the admission to the gymnasium of children of domestic servants, small shopkeepers, artisans and other representatives of the lower classes. In order to maintain public peace, even the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom was prohibited.

All these measures did not give the imperial family confidence in their own safety. The public regicide, organized by the People's Will, instilled fear in the Winter Palace, from which its inhabitants and their immediate circle could not get rid of.

On the first night after his father's death, Alexander III was able to fall asleep only because he was very drunk. In the following days, the entire royal family was in great anxiety about their fate. Pobedonostsev advised the emperor to personally lock the door at night not only to the bedroom, but also to the rooms adjacent to it, and before going to bed to check whether anyone was hiding in closets, behind screens, or under furniture. The sight of the emperor crawling in the evening with a candle under his own bed in search of hidden terrorists did not inspire optimism for the Romanovs, their courtiers and servants who lived in the Winter Palace.

Alexander III was not a coward by nature, but the actions and words of the people he trusted instilled uncertainty and suspicion in his soul. So, in order to strengthen the importance of his figure in the eyes of the tsar, the St. Petersburg mayor N.M. Baranov constantly invented non-existent conspiracies, caught some mythical conspirators and terrorists digging tunnels under the tsar's palaces. After some time, Baranov was exposed as a lie, but a shadow of fear of the assassination attempts he invented remained in the emperor’s soul.

Fear made Alexander III an involuntary criminal. One day he unexpectedly entered the room of the palace guard on duty. The officer who was there, Baron Reitern, smoked, which the tsar did not like. In order not to irritate the sovereign, Reitern quickly removed his hand with the lit cigarette behind his back. Alexander decided that with this movement the officer was hiding the weapon with which he intended to kill him, and he struck the baron on the spot with a shot from his own pistol.

Pobedonostsev wanted to take advantage of Alexander III’s dislike for St. Petersburg and his fear of St. Petersburg residents in order to realize his dream of re-establishing an Orthodox autocratic kingdom with its capital in ancient Moscow. In the very first days of the new reign, when the body of Emperor Alexander II still lay in the Winter Palace, he repeated to his son: “Flee from St. Petersburg, this damned city. Move to Moscow and move the government to the Kremlin." But Alexander III was also wary of Moscow with its provincial free-thinking, which grew in it without constant supervision from the capital’s authorities. He believed that he could hide from danger in his St. Petersburg and country palaces.

For two years, an atmosphere of general fear forced the postponement of the official coronation ceremony of the emperor. It took place only in May 1883, when police measures managed to stabilize the situation in the country: stop the wave of terrorist attacks against government officials, calm the peasants, and shut the mouth of the liberal press.

Pobedonostsev called the coronation celebrations in Moscow a “coronation poem.” During these May days, the people were able to see their new emperor for the first time. Only selected representatives of aristocratic families and foreign diplomats invited by the Ministry of the Court were allowed into the Kremlin for the ceremony itself. M. N. Katkov, who received the pass with difficulty, wrote that nature itself welcomed the coronation: “When the king appeared, the sun appeared before the people in all the appearance of its rays, the king disappeared from the eyes of the people, the sky became covered with clouds and it rained. When gun shots announced the completion of the sacrament, the clouds instantly dispersed.” The artist V.I. Surikov, who was present at the ceremony in the Assumption Cathedral, described with admiration his impression of the tall, powerful figure of the fair-haired and blue-eyed sovereign, who, in his opinion, seemed at that moment “a true representative of the people.” It should be noted that the king threw a brocade coronation robe over his usual clothes. Even at the moment of his greatest triumph, he did not change his habit of dressing simply and comfortably.

On the days of the coronation, a celebration was organized for the common people on Khodynka Field. About 300 thousand residents of surrounding villages and towns gathered there, but this time everything went calmly. Khodynka’s bloody “glory” was yet to come.

In honor of the coronation, the peasants, as was customary, were forgiven arrears and fines. Officials received awards, orders, and some nobles received new titles. Many gifts were distributed to the courtiers: about 120 thousand rubles were spent on diamonds for maids of honor and court officials alone. But, contrary to custom, no amnesties were given to political criminals. Only N.G. Chernyshevsky was transferred from Vilyuysk to settle in Astrakhan.

On May 18, 1883, another remarkable event took place - the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, built according to the design of the architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton. This building was conceived as a monument to the victory in the war of 1812 and was built over several decades (the temple was designed under Nicholas I). The manifesto for the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, signed by Alexander III, noted that it should serve as “a monument of peace after a cruel war undertaken not to conquer, but to protect the Fatherland from a threatening conqueror.” The emperor hoped that this temple would stand for “many centuries.” He could not know that the church, founded by his ancestor for the edification of subsequent generations, would briefly outlive the autocratic monarchy of the Romanovs and would be one of the many silent victims of the revolutionary reorganization of the world.

But the pacification of society and the unity of the monarchy and the people that seemed to be achieved during the coronation in Moscow was illusory, and the victory over terrorism was temporary. Already in 1886, a new underground organization was created at St. Petersburg University to fight the autocracy, which included student revolutionary circles from higher educational institutions of the capital. On the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, young revolutionaries planned a terrorist attack against Alexander III. On the morning of March 1, 1887, the emperor was supposed to attend the annual funeral service in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The terrorists were preparing to throw a bomb under the sleigh when the emperor drove along Nevsky Prospekt. The attempt failed only because there was a traitor in the group who reported everything to the authorities. The perpetrators of the terrorist attack, St. Petersburg University students Vasily Generalov, Pakhom Andreyushkin and Vasily Osipanov, were arrested on the day appointed for the assassination of the Tsar, at 11 a.m. on Nevsky. Explosive shells were found on them. The organizers of the terrorist attack, Alexander Ulyanov, the elder brother of V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), and Pyotr Shevyrev, as well as other members of the organization, were also detained. A total of 15 people were arrested.

The case of the assassination attempt on Alexander III was considered at a closed meeting of the Special Presence of the Senate. Five terrorists (Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Osipanov, Generalov and Andreyushkin) were sentenced to death, the rest faced life imprisonment in the Shlisselburg fortress or twenty years of hard labor in Siberia.

The failed assassination attempt made a grave impression on the emperor himself. In the margins of the “First March” case, he made a pessimistic note: “This time God saved, but for how long?”

A strange incident happened to the royal family in October of the following year, 1888. The royal train on which the Romanovs were returning from the south derailed 50 kilometers from Kharkov. Seven carriages were smashed to pieces, 20 servants and guards were killed, and 17 were seriously injured. No one from the imperial family died, but some of the children of Alexander III suffered, especially the Grand Duchess Xenia, who remained a hunchback for the rest of her life.

The wounding of the children was hidden by order of the emperor. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, the royal family organized a “celebration of the crash,” during which prayers of gratitude were offered to God for the miraculous salvation. The king, his wife and children drove through the streets of the capital to show the people that everyone was safe and sound.

The cause of the crash also remained not entirely clear. The Minister of Railways, K.N. Posyet, was fired allegedly because the sleepers on that section of the road were rotten and could not withstand the weight of the train traveling at high speed. But in society they said that this was another attempt on the life of the emperor and his family, which ended in failure only by luck.

Or rather, the family was saved on that ill-fated day not only by chance, but also by the courage of the emperor, who was ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of his wife and children (a rare case for an autocrat of the Romanov dynasty). At the time of the crash, the tsar and his relatives were in the dining car. They had just been served pudding for dessert. From the terrible blow, the roof of the car began to fall inward. Alexander, distinguished by his heroic strength, took her on his shoulders and held her until his wife and children got out. At first, the king did not feel anything except severe muscle fatigue from inhuman tension. But after a while he began to complain of back pain. Doctors determined that the king’s kidneys were damaged from the stress and impact of the accident, which later became one of the reasons for his fatal illness.

The alarming feeling of constant danger was fueled by police reports about real and imaginary conspiracies, anonymous letters from well-wishers and adventurers. Also in 1888, during a performance at the Mariinsky Theater, the artist Alexander Benois accidentally met the gaze of Alexander III. Benoit saw the eyes of a man driven into a corner: irritated and at the same time forced to constantly fear for himself and his loved ones.

Unlike his father, Alexander III took the possibility of extermination of himself and his family members seriously by terrorists. He took all the security measures that were available at the time.

The Emperor did not move to Moscow, however, even in St. Petersburg he felt more like a guest than a permanent resident. “Prisoner of Gatchina” – that’s what his contemporaries called him. Gatchina was located far from the capital. This suburban imperial residence was fortified under Paul I and resembled a castle.

The Gatchina Palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi in 1766 for the favorite of Catherine II, Grigory Orlov. It had all the attributes of a palace building with dance halls and luxurious apartments. But the royal family occupied small rooms in it, intended for courtiers and servants. Paul I once lived in them with his wife and children.

The location of the palace would be an honor to any fortification. It stands on a wooded hill surrounded by three lakes (White, Black and Silver). Around it, ditches were dug and walls were built with watchtowers, with underground passages connecting the palace and fortifications with the lakes. Alexander III voluntarily imprisoned himself in this castle with an underground prison, hoping to thus ensure a quiet life for his family.

Military guards were stationed for several kilometers around Gatchina, allowing only those who had written permission from the palace administration to enter the residence. True, in the summer and autumn the royal family often vacationed in the more cheerful and elegant Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo, traveled to the Crimea, to Livadia, which the Empress especially loved, and to Danish Fredensborg. In St. Petersburg, the emperor lived mainly in the Anichkov Palace. Winter reminded him too much of the last minutes of the life of his beloved father and inspired fears due to the inability to effectively control this huge structure with many doors, windows, nooks and stairs.

In the 1880s. The royal family left the palaces almost secretly, unnoticed by prying eyes. Later, the Romanovs’ move generally began to resemble a special police operation. The family always gathered quickly and left the house suddenly; the day and hour were never set in advance or discussed. The exit from the palace was covered by a thick chain of security; policemen dispersed passers-by and onlookers from the sidewalk.

It no longer occurred to Alexander III to take a walk alone or with two or three officers in the Summer Garden or on the embankment. Subjects during this reign rarely had the pleasure of seeing their sovereign and members of his family. Usually this happened only during large state celebrations, when the royal family was at a considerable distance from the public, separated from it by several rows of guards.

Being an involuntary recluse of Gatchina, Alexander III became increasingly interested in the personality and history of the reign of Paul I, his great-grandfather. In the palace, for almost a century, the office of this overthrown and murdered emperor with the things that belonged to him had been preserved intact. There hung a large, life-size portrait of Paul in the costume of a grand master of the Order of Malta, and there was his personal Gospel. Alexander often came to this room, prayed and reflected on his fate.

The emperor collected historical evidence about the life and death of his great-grandfather. One day he came across papers relating to a conspiracy against Paul I. They were brought by Princess M.A. Panina-Meshcherskaya to refute the opinion that her great-grandfather I.P. Panin had participated in a conspiracy against the Tsar. Alexander III carefully read the documents, but Meshcherskaya did not return them, but included them in his own archive.

Alexander III's interest in Paul I was no secret to his contemporaries. Some saw this as a secret sign of fate. Writers I. S. Leskov and P. A. Kropotkin (who was also a revolutionary anarchist), with their vivid imagination, predicted the same death for the tsar at the hands of his entourage.

Under the influence of such prophecies and his own thoughts about the impossibility of hiding behind the walls of his residences from all people, the emperor became increasingly suspicious. He couldn't even trust the palace servants. The Emperor always remembered that the terrorist Zhelyabov at one time lived quietly in the palace under the guise of a court carpenter. There was always a guard of Life Cossacks at the door of the Tsar's office. The premises where the royal family gathered were always checked and guarded.

Alexander was haunted by the fear of being poisoned. Each time, provisions for the royal table were bought in a new place, and for whom the purchases were made were carefully hidden from the merchant. The cooks also changed daily and were appointed at the last minute. Before entering the kitchen, the cook and his assistants were thoroughly searched, and during cooking, someone from the royal family and a court official were always with them.

At the same time, Alexander III can hardly be called an unhappy sovereign. In many ways, his constant concern for himself and his family was explained by the fact that he was happy in his personal life and did not want to lose this happiness. Unlike his ancestors, Alexander was an almost ideal husband and father. His conservatism extended to family values. He was faithful to his wife, and in his relationships with children he skillfully combined parental strictness and kindness.

Falling in love with “dear Minnie” (as he continued to call Empress Maria Feodorovna) over the years turned into deep respect and strong affection. The couple were almost never separated. Alexander III loved his wife to accompany him everywhere: to the theater, to the ball, on trips to holy places and to military parades, reviews and divorces. Over time, Maria Feodorovna became well versed in politics, but never sought independent government activity, preferring traditional women's occupations - raising children and managing the household. Nevertheless, Alexander himself often turned to her for advice on various issues, and gradually it became clear to everyone around him that in complex matters it was better to rely on the help of the empress, who had such great influence on the emperor.

Alexander III had very modest needs, so it was difficult to “buy” his favor with some rare trifle, but he always favored people who knew how to please the empress, who had an exalted nature and adored everything beautiful. Historians like to tell the story of the military engineer-inventor S.K. Dzhevetsky, who proposed a new model of submarine to the Russian military department. At that time, submarines were a novelty, and the military hesitated whether to adopt Drzewiecki’s invention. The decision had to be made by the king himself, who, as always, relied on the intelligence and taste of his wife. A sample of the boat was brought to Gatchina, to Silver Lake, which was famous for the exceptional transparency of its water. A whole performance was staged for the royal couple. The boat floated underwater, and the emperor and empress watched it from the boat. When the Tsar and Tsarina went out onto the pier, a boat suddenly floated up, and Drzewiecki came out with a bouquet of beautiful orchids, which he presented to Maria Feodorovna “as a gift from Neptune.” The Tsarina was delighted, Alexander III became emotional and immediately signed an order to begin the construction of 50 submarines with a generous reward paid to the inventor. Dzhewiecki’s model was objectively a good development, but it was precisely thanks to the engineer’s gallant trick that the decision to use it in the Russian navy was made easily and quickly.

Alexander III loved all his children very much. He sincerely rejoiced at his sons' success in school, sports, horse riding and shooting exercises.

Especially in the imperial family, the eldest of the daughters, Grand Duchess Ksenia, was pitied and spoiled. She suffered more than other children during the Tsar's train disaster and grew up disabled. Her father spent a lot of time with her, and she was very attached to him. Unable to play and frolic with her brothers and sister for health reasons, Ksenia took on the duties of family secretary and chronicler and, during her father’s absence at home, wrote him detailed letters about how everyone was living without him and what they were doing.

Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna gave some preference to the heir to the throne Nikolai Alexandrovich - Niki and Mikhail Alexandrovich, who bore the not very euphonious family nickname Mimishkin-Pipishkin-Kakashkin. Their upbringing was carried out by K.P. Pobedonostsev, who by this time had turned from a moderate conservative into a gloomy retrograde. But the emperor, who was under his influence, believed that he could not find a better mentor for his sons.

While still a Grand Duke, Alexander III paid great attention to the education of his boys. But over time, also under the influence of fear for the life and safety of his family, it began to seem to him that education was not so important - the main thing was that the children were healthy and happy. He himself did not have deep knowledge, and yet, he believed, he coped well with the management of a huge empire. The level of educational training in the royal family under Alexander III decreased and was no longer much different from the level of home education that children in wealthy Russian families with not very high cultural demands received. The artist A. N. Benois, who often visited the palace, noted that the upbringing and education of the heir to the crown prince, the future Nicholas II, did not correspond to the “superhuman role of the autocrat.”

Love for his wife and children is probably the most attractive personality trait of Alexander III. Most of his energy was spent on family life and building good relationships with his family; he spent his time and the best qualities of his soul on his family. Obviously, he would be a good landowner - the father of a large family, zealous and hospitable. But the country expected a lot more from the sovereign - political achievements and deeds, which Alexander Alexandrovich turned out to be incapable of.

He was kind and fair to his own children. But his attention and mercy to strangers was limited by the framework of Christian virtue, which he understood too narrowly and primitively. Thus, the tsar was sincerely moved by the story of the little daughter of one of the cool ladies of the Smolny Institute, told to him by Pobedonostsev. The emperor gave a girl named Olya Ushakova and her poor mother 500 rubles from his own funds for a summer vacation. True, then he chose to forget about her. Alexander III was generally irritated by conversations and publications in the press that there were many street children and young beggars in Russia. In his empire, as in his family, order had to be maintained, and what could not be corrected (like the injury of Grand Duchess Xenia) should not be made public.

Where order was violated, it was restored with all due severity. Almost never using physical punishment on his own children, the emperor approved of the reasoning of Prince V.P. Meshchersky, his courtier, about the need for rods in the education of the common people, since without them the offspring of peasants and townspeople would face debauchery and drunkenness in the future. Education in the families of ordinary citizens of the empire had to be strictly religious; Non-marital forms of family existence were not recognized. Alexander III ordered to take the children by force from the Tolstoyan nobleman D. A. Khilkov and his common-law wife Ts. V. Wiener and hand them over for adoption to Khilkov’s mother. The reason was that the Khilkovs were unmarried and did not baptize their children. The emperor was not interested in what the true relationships were within this family; the petition of Pobedonostsev, who acted on the denunciation of Khilkova Sr., was enough for him.

Under Alexander III, the highest state activities in Russia acquired an increasingly obvious clan character. Since the time of Nicholas I, many important posts in the empire were occupied by representatives of the House of Romanov. Large marriages of the Romanovs by the end of the 19th century. led to the fact that the number of grand dukes: uncles, nephews, relatives, cousins ​​and second cousins ​​of the emperor - increased significantly. They all crowded at the foot of the throne and craved money, fame and honorary positions. Among them were well-educated, well-mannered and capable people, but there were also many whose main talent was belonging to the Romanov family. But, as often happens in other family clans, they were the ones who wanted to rule and rule more than others.

Unfortunately, during the time of Alexander III, among the Romanovs there was no longer such an effective statesman as Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich was under his father Alexander II. Quite the contrary, the emperor’s uncles and brothers did more harm to the cause they served than benefited the empire. Under the chairmanship of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, the State Council from an effective advisory body under the tsar turned into a discussion club, where each of its members expressed to others everything that came to mind, without paying any attention to the demands of the present political moment. The sovereign's younger brother, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, actually ruined the work of the naval department he headed. Admiral General A. A. Romanov replaced in this post his uncle, the liberal and clever Konstantin Nikolaevich, who was disliked by Alexander III, and in the few years of his “work” managed to level out everything that had been achieved under his predecessor in the development of the Russian fleet. Russia saw the fruits of the activities of Grand Duke Alexei Romanov with all sad clarity during the Russo-Japanese War, during which the heroism of sailors was powerless against the combat power of enemy ships and their coastal artillery. The tsar’s other brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who became Moscow governor-general in 1891, also irritated his contemporaries. He was a tough, harsh and proud person, tormented his subordinates with petty regulations, and frightened the subordinate population with the quick and thoughtless use of punitive measures. It is no coincidence that he became one of the targets of the hunt of revolutionary terrorists.

As modest and respectable as Alexander III was in everyday life, his closest relatives were just as dissolute. It was as if they were trying to take advantage of those benefits and privileges “allowed” by Romanov that the emperor did not want or was unable to use. The Grand Dukes enjoyed traveling to foreign resorts; without limiting their means, they spent a lot on gambling, entertainment, women, clothes and decorations, and furnishings for their palaces. Alexey Alexandrovich was famous for his revelry, on which the funds of the naval department were mainly spent. Sergei Alexandrovich had a reputation as one of the dirtiest libertines of his time, known for his relationships with people of the same sex. In any European country of that time, this would have excluded him from big politics for a long time, but in Russia, everything that had to do with the Romanov family could not be openly discussed and condemned in society. Even the best of the grand dukes - the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, philanthropist and famous art collector Vladimir Alexandrovich - was a lazy person, a glutton and a drunkard, who staged outrageous antics in the capital's restaurants.

The Romanovs did not consider embezzlement, embezzlement of government money, and bribery to be serious offenses. Alexander III became angry with his brothers only when their behavior and vices became public knowledge. Even when the St. Petersburg police chief had to intervene in a fight started by one of the grand dukes in a restaurant or other entertainment establishment in the capital, the scandal was hushed up, and the matter was limited to an intra-family reprimand. By the standards of the family clan, only Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich, who became entangled in debt and stole diamonds from the Empress’s casket, was seriously punished. He was first exiled to Turkestan, and in 1882 he was sent to settle on the state estate of Smolenskoye in the Vladimir province, where he spent several years under house arrest, not having the right to appear in the capitals.

As emperor, Alexander III controlled the destinies of not only his own children, but also all members of the Romanov dynasty, grossly interfering in their personal lives. The Romanovs lived according to the laws of the 18th century, which excluded the possibility of persons who did not belong to the ruling clans of Europe infiltrating the family. This norm was strictly observed, despite its absurdity for the end of the 19th century, especially in relation to those members of the dynasty who would never have to inherit the throne (the emperor's first and second cousins). Alexander III categorically forbade his nephew Nikolai Nikolaevich to marry the divorced noblewoman Burenina. Such a marriage, in his opinion, caused much more damage to the royal family than the homosexuality of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Such trifles as a broken heart and the unfortunate fate of a nephew were not taken into account.

After the assassination of Alexander 2, his son Emperor Alexander 3 began to rule Russia. This ruler took over the rule of the country at the age of 20. Since childhood, this young man had a passion for military sciences, which he studied more willingly than others.

The death of his father made a strong impression on Alexander 3. He felt the danger revolutionaries could pose. As a result, Emperor Alexander 3 vowed that he would do everything possible to destroy the beginnings of the revolution in Russia. On March 2, 1881, the Russian government swore allegiance to the new emperor. In his speech, the emperor emphasized that he intended to continue his father's course and maintain peace with all countries of the world in order to focus on internal problems.

The abolition of serfdom did not solve all the problems of the peasants. Therefore, the new emperor paid great attention to solving the peasant issue. He believed that, at all costs, it was necessary to preserve peasant communities in Russia, which were supposed to preserve the coexistence of peasants and save them from poverty. Wanting to strengthen this legislatively, Emperor Alexander 3 in 1893 issued a law that extremely limited the possibility of leaving the community.

During the reign of Alexander 3 in Russia, great attention began to be paid to the working conditions of workers. In 1882, a law was passed that prohibited the labor of children under 12 years of age. Therefore, by law, children aged 12 to 15 years were required to work no more than 8 hours a day. In 1885, a law was passed prohibiting night work for children and women. In 1886, a law was passed defining the relationship between the entrepreneur and the worker. Thus, Russia became the first country in Europe to legally control the working conditions of workers in factories and factories.

In determining the foreign policy of the state, Emperor Alexander 3 made the only correct conclusion in the current situation. Russia took a position of neutrality. Alexander 3 did not want to interfere in the bloody European conflicts, which for a century had been stopped only by the Russian army. The Emperor said that Russia has no friends, there are only state interests that must be followed. A similar opinion was expressed much later by the British Prime Minister Churchill, who, speaking about England, noted that England has no permanent friends, only permanent interests. As for Alexander 3, he said that Russia has only 2 friends: its army and its fleet.

An exception to the policy of neutrality was made only for the Balkans, since Emperor Alexander 3 wanted to strengthen Russia's influence in this region, primarily at the expense of Bulgaria, which was grateful to Russia for its independence. But everything happened differently. At the end of 1885, an uprising broke out in eastern Rumelia, which led to the separation of the province from Turkey and its entry into Bulgaria. This contradicted the provisions of the Berlin Treaty and was a pretext for a new war in the Balkans. The Emperor was angry with the Bulgarians, who accepted Rumelia into their fold without consulting Russia. As a result, not wanting to get involved in the war that was about to begin between Bulgaria and Turkey, the Russian emperor recalled all officials from Bulgaria, as well as all Russian officers. Austria took advantage of this and elevated its ruler to the Bulgarian throne.

Subsequently, the ruler of the Russian Empire continued to adhere to a policy of neutrality, as a result of which Russia had no allies, but also no enemies. The reign of Alexander 3 lasted until 1894. On October 20, 1894, Emperor Alexander 3 died.

Born on March 10 (February 26, old style) 1845 in St. Petersburg. He was the second son of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

He received the traditional military engineering education for grand dukes.

In 1865, after the death of his elder brother, Grand Duke Nicholas, he became crown prince, after which he received more fundamental knowledge. Among Alexander's mentors were Sergei Solovyov (history), Yakov Grot (history of literature), Mikhail Dragomirov (military art). The greatest influence on the Tsarevich was the law teacher Konstantin Pobedonostsev.

In his father’s reforms, he saw, first of all, negative aspects - the growth of government bureaucracy, the difficult financial situation of the people, imitation of Western models. The political ideal of Alexander III was based on ideas about patriarchal-paternal autocratic rule, the inculcation of religious values ​​in society, the strengthening of the class structure, and nationally distinctive social development.

On April 29, 1881, Alexander III issued a manifesto “On the Inviolability of Autocracy” and launched a series of reforms that were aimed at partially curtailing the liberal initiatives of his father-reformer.

The tsar's domestic policy was characterized by increased control of the central government over all spheres of state life.

To strengthen the role of the police, local and central administration, the “Regulations on measures to protect state security and public peace” (1881) was adopted. The “Temporary Rules on the Press,” adopted in 1882, clearly outlined the range of topics that could be written about and introduced strict censorship. In addition, a number of “counter-reforms” were carried out, thanks to which it was possible to suppress the revolutionary movement, primarily the activities of the Narodnaya Volya party.

Alexander III took measures to protect the class rights of noble landowners: he established the Noble Land Bank, adopted a Regulation on hiring for agricultural work that was beneficial for landowners, strengthened administrative guardianship over the peasantry, helped strengthen the communalism of peasants, and the formation of the ideal of a large patriarchal family.

At the same time, in the first half of the 1880s, he took a number of measures to alleviate the financial situation of the people and mitigate social tension in society: the introduction of compulsory redemption and the reduction of redemption payments, the establishment of the Peasant Land Bank, the introduction of factory inspection, and the gradual abolition of the poll tax.

The emperor paid serious attention to increasing the social role of the Orthodox Church: he increased the number of parochial schools and tightened repression against Old Believers and sectarians.

During the reign of Alexander III, the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was completed (1883), parishes that had been closed during the previous reign were restored, and many new monasteries and churches were built.

Alexander III made a significant contribution to the restructuring of the system of state and public relations. In 1884 he issued the University Charter, which curtailed the autonomy of universities. In 1887, he issued a “circular about cooks’ children,” which limited the entry into gymnasiums of children from the lower classes.

He strengthened the social role of the local nobility: since 1889, peasant self-government was subordinated to zemstvo chiefs - who united judicial and administrative power in their hands to officials from local landowners.

He carried out reforms in the field of urban government: zemstvo and city regulations (1890, 1892) tightened the administration's control over local government and limited the rights of voters from the lower strata of society.

He limited the scope of the jury trial and restored closed proceedings for political trials.

The economic life of Russia during the reign of Alexander III was characterized by economic growth, which was largely due to the policy of increased patronage of domestic industry. The country rearmed its army and navy and became the world's largest exporter of agricultural products. The government of Alexander III encouraged the growth of large capitalist industry, which achieved notable successes (metallurgical production doubled in 1886-1892, the railway network grew by 47%).

Russian foreign policy under Alexander III was distinguished by pragmatism. The main content was a turn from traditional cooperation with Germany to an alliance with France, which was concluded in 1891-1893. The aggravation of relations with Germany was smoothed out by the “Reinsurance Treaty” (1887).

Alexander III went down in history as the Peacemaker Tsar - during his reign, Russia did not participate in a single serious military-political conflict of that time. The only significant battle - the capture of Kushka - took place in 1885, after which the annexation of Central Asia to Russia was completed.

Alexander III was one of the initiators of the creation of the Russian Historical Society and its first chairman. Established the Historical Museum in Moscow.

He simplified court etiquette and ceremony, in particular, abolished genuflection before the king, reduced the staff of the court ministry and introduced strict supervision over the expenditure of money.

The emperor was pious, distinguished by frugality and modesty, and spent his leisure time in a narrow circle of family and friends. He was interested in music, painting, history. He collected an extensive collection of paintings, objects of decorative and applied art, and sculptures, which after his death was transferred to the Russian Museum founded by Emperor Nicholas II in memory of his father.

The personality of Alexander III is associated with the idea of ​​a real hero with iron health. On October 17, 1888, he was injured in a train accident near the Borki station, 50 km from Kharkov. However, saving the lives of loved ones, the emperor held the collapsed roof of the carriage for about half an hour until help arrived. It is believed that as a result of this excessive stress, his kidney disease began to progress.

On November 1 (October 20, old style), 1894, the emperor died in Livadia (Crimea) from the consequences of nephritis. The body was taken to St. Petersburg and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Alexander III's wife was the Danish princess Louise Sophia Frederica Dagmara (in Orthodoxy - Maria Fedorovna) (1847-1928), whom he married in 1866. The emperor and his wife had five children: Nicholas (later Russian Emperor Nicholas II), George, Ksenia, Mikhail and Olga.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources