Alexander III became a peculiar exception to the Romanov dynasty and managed to earn the title of Peacemaker during his lifetime. But the time of his rule of the country was not so cloudless, and the thirteen years that he spent on the royal throne still cause heated debate among historians.
Alexander III - the story of accession to the throne
Alexander was the second child in the family, and the royal throne was not intended for him, he did not receive proper education in his youth, but only mastered the basics of military engineering, which was traditional for Russian princes. But after the death of Brother Nicholas and the announcement of Alexander III by the Tsarevich, he had to master the world history and the history of the Russian land, literature, law, the foundations of economics and foreign policy.
Prior to the accession to the Russian throne, Alexander went from the ataman of the Cossacks and a member of the State House of Ministers to the commander of the detachment in the Russian-Turkish war. After the murder of his father, in March 1881, Alexander III became emperor of a great power. The first years of the reign he had to spend in Gatchina, under heavy guard, since the discontent of the terrorist Narodovoltsy did not subside for several more years.
Reformer or peacemaker?
Alexander III began his rule in the country during the confrontation of the two parties and in order to nullify this struggle, he had to strengthen the position of the autocracy, decisively canceling the idea of his father about the constitutionality of the country. And by the end of the first year of his reign, he managed to stop the riots, to develop a network of secret police, and not without punitive measures. Alexander considered universities to be the main centers of the development of terrorism, and by 1884 he had almost completely got rid of their autonomy, imposed complete bans on student associations and their monopoly, and blocked access to education for lower classes and Jews.
Dramatic changes began in the zemstvos. The peasants were deprived of the right to vote, and now only representatives of the merchants and nobility were seated in state institutions. In addition, Alexander abolished communal land ownership and ordered the peasants to redeem their allotments, for which so-called peasant banks were created.
The peacemaking merits of this monarch consisted in strengthening the borders of the state, creating a more powerful army with a reserve reserve and minimizing Western influence on Russia. At the same time, he managed to exclude any bloodshed during the entire period of his rule by the state. Moreover, he helped to extinguish military conflicts in other countries, which is why Alexander III was called a peacemaker.
