Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II was emperor of Russia from 1855 until his assassination in 1881. His reign brought the emancipation of the serfs and reforms to the military, courts, and local government.

Emancipation Reform of 1861: The 1861 law that ended legal serfdom in the Russian Empire and assigned former serfs land under redemption terms. Alexander II’s signature reform freed millions, but land allotments and payments left many peasants dissatisfied.
Russian serfdom: A system that bound many Russian peasants to landowners and restricted their movement and legal status. It was the social institution Alexander II’s emancipation decree dismantled.
Nicholas I of Russia: Emperor of Russia from 1825 to 1855, whose reign emphasized autocracy and ended during the Crimean War. Alexander II inherited the throne and a war-weakened state from his father.
Dmitry Milyutin: A Russian general and statesman who served as war minister and led major military reforms under Alexander II. Milyutin designed and implemented the 1874 universal military-service reform.
Manifesto of Emancipation: The 1861 imperial proclamation that announced the emancipation of Russia’s serfs. It publicly declared the central social transformation associated with Alexander II.
Zemstvo: An elected district or provincial council established in parts of the Russian Empire by the 1864 zemstvo statute. Alexander II’s local-government reform created zemstvos to manage services such as schools, roads, and public health.
Redemption payments: Long-term payments by former Russian serfs to the state for land allotments received after emancipation. They made emancipation a negotiated transfer of land rather than an unconditional grant.
Crimean War: A war fought from 1853 to 1856 between Russia and an alliance including the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France, and Sardinia. Russia’s defeat exposed military and administrative weaknesses that gave urgency to Alexander II’s reforms.
Nikolay Milyutin: A Russian official and reformer who helped develop the plans for the emancipation of the serfs. He was a leading bureaucratic architect of the 1861 emancipation settlement.
January Uprising: A Polish insurrection against Russian rule that began in 1863 and was suppressed in 1864. Its suppression showed the coercive limits of Alexander II’s reforming image in the empire’s western territories.

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