Alexander II, Nikolayevitch, emperor of Russia, born in 1818. Succeeded his father as czar in 1855. He married in 1841 Marie, daughter of the Grand Duke Louis II, of Hesse-Darmstadt. He terminated the Crimean War soon after his accession by the Treaty of Paris. Though trained by his father to a military life, he devoted himself to the internal affairs of his country, improved the popular education, and emancipated the Russian serfs. He waged war successfully on Turkey in 1877-78. He was assassinated in Petrograd, 1881.

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