When dying, Tsar Nicholas told his eldest son and successor: "I         
          hand over to you my command." And so started a reign that continued        
          the autocratic rule of Russia, but which, had it not been for an           
          assassin, might have brought democracy to Russia and so altered            
          history as we know it.                                                     
             As with all Russian Emperors, Alexander II was fascinated by the        
          art of war. Aged eleven, he visited Berlin and Potsdam, there becoming     
          a Colonel in the Third Prussian Uhlan Regiment. He was kinder than his     
          predecessors and would help the unfortunate and oppressed. As              
          Tsarevich, he interceded with his father for the "Decembrist" exiles;      
          their hardship was reduced but they had to wait until Alexander II had     
          become Tsar to be allowed to return from exile.                            
             In 1838 and 1839 he toured Europe, dined with Queen Victoria at         
          Buckingham Palace, and became engaged to Princess Marie of Hessen. At      
          first his parents opposed but relented when Alexander averred he would     
          renounce the throne rather than give in.                                   
             Not yet married, he wanted to break off the engagement to marry         
          Olga Kalinowski. However, his father disliked both Poles and               
          inconstancy and would not hear of it. Nicholas I also complained that      
          his son did not listen to his advice, that he played cards while on        
          military manoeuvres, and had started to smoke.                             
             Even though he had a harmonious marriage, his reputation suffered       
          because of amorous escapades. He started an affaire with Princess          
          Dolgorouky, almost 30 years younger, and fathered three children by        
          her. Succeeding at the age of thirty-six, Alexander II was perhaps the     
          best prepared heir-apparent ever in Russia. He abolished slavery and       
          insisted on the serfs being able to obtain land. By these reforms he       
          avoided civil war. Even legal beatings were almost entirely abolished.     
             Becoming Tsar at the time of the Crimean War, he visited the front      
          before having to accept the peace terms. Twenty years later, Russia        
          would defeat the Turks but, on both occasions, the Russian army was        
          shown as being incompetent. In the second Polish revolution of the         
          century, 1863/64, he suppressed the Poles severely and from then on        
          treated them as a conquered nation.                                        
             But unrest started to fester in Russia and this would ultimately        
          lead to the Revolution of 1917. At first the Nihilists only protested      
          but later became violent; mysterious fires devastated St.Petersburg,       
          and there were calls to murder the imperial family.                        
             In St.Petersburg, on 4th of April 1866, Dmitry Karakozov took aim       
          to shoot Alexander II; however, at the last moment a bystander             
          deflected his aim and so saved the Emperor's life. Karakozov was           
          hanged but, in 1867, while visiting Paris, a Pole fired at Alexander       
          II. A period of repression then began, but the Nihilists recovered and     
          violence accelerated. Alexander Solovyov ambushed the Emperor while on     
          a morning walk in the grounds of the Winter Palace, firing five shots      
          but which the Emperor managed to avoid. Solovyov was hanged and with       
          him many other Nihilists.                                                  
             In 1879 the Nihilists formed an association named The People's Will     
          and pronounced the death sentence on the Tsar. It was an irrational        
          decision as all they could hope for was to replace the Tsar with the       
          even more reactionary Alexander III. Six times they tried, not with        
          guns but with explosives. One mine was useless because the Tsar            
          changed the route he was travelling; the second did not explode; the       
          third exploded but destroyed the wrong railway-carriage. The most          
          spectacular failure was a huge explosion in the Winter Palace, 5           
          February 1880, killing or injuring over fifty people---but not the         
          Tsar as he was late for dinner.                                            
             Because of these attempts he brought his mistress, Princess             
          Catherine Dolgorouky, and their children to live in the Winter Palace.     
          The Empress Marie, living on a floor below, could hear the                 
          bastard-children of her husband play in the room above her own. When       
          the Empress died, the Tsar waited forty days before marrying               
          Catherine, who now became known as Princess Yourevsky.                     
             The Tsar tried to introduce a more democratic form of government        
          but his assassins stopped his efforts. In St.Petersburg, on 1st of         
          March 1881, a grenade was thrown at him while alone in his carriage        
          but did no harm. Instead of continuing his journey, the Tsar stopped       
          and walked back to talk to his assailant who had been arrested. When       
          he turned to go back to his carriage, another Nihilist threw a second      
          grenade. Alexander II was then taken to the Winter Palace where he         
          died, the general reaction in Russia being one of indifference.   
 

Source: Leo van de Pas