alexander ii of russia

Sometimes called “Alexander the Liberation” for his 1861 order to free Russia’s 23 million serfs, Alexander II was naturally conservative far more than reformist in character. Nonetheless, he pushed through several reforms in an effort to modernize his empire.

He was assassinated by a shadowy revolutionary group in 1881, just as he was about to sign another batch of reforms that might have set Russia onto a democratic and constitutional course.

Attribution for music used in this episode:

Assassinations Podcast Theme Music (Intro, Outro, and Transitions) written and performed by Graeme Ronald