Alexander II of Russia
Biography
Emancipation 1861 freed 23 million serfs, the largest single liberation in history, on terms that kept them in commune debt. Judicial and military reform, Zemstvo local government, the Great Reforms. Poland suppressed 1863, expansion in Central Asia. Assassinated 1881 by Narodnaya Volya bombs on the day he approved mild constitutional reform. His death doomed reform, reaction reigned.
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