ALEXANDER II, Tsar of Russia. - B. in Moscow on 17/29 April 1818, d. in St. Petersburg on 1/13 March 1881. A. began his reign in 1855 by putting an end to the Crimean War with France and England and devoting himself to the implementation of reforms, among which the emancipation of the serfs stands out (1861). When the revolution broke out in Poland in 1863 and radical currents spread in Russia itself (the first attempt on A.'s life dates from 1866), the emperor stiffened both in foreign and in domestic policy. The Polish question worsened relations with France, while strengthening those with Prussia, and the determination to preserve the status quo led to the League of the Three Emperors (A. II, Francis Joseph, William I) in 1873. At the same time Russia was expanding in Central and Eastern Asia. In 1877 the Balkan question led A. to wage war on Turkey, and the Peace of San Stefano of the following year placed south-eastern Europe under Russian influence. When the great powers intervened at the Congress of Berlin (June-July 1878), A. was forced to renounce the advantages acquired at San Stefano. The domestic situation meanwhile showed a crescendo of terrorist acts, until the tsar himself fell victim to a bomb thrown at his carriage, in front of the Winter Palace.
As regards ecclesiastical policy, relations between A. and the Holy See were marked, during the first years of his reign, by correctness, if not by cordiality. Meeting Pius IX's desire to see the Concordat of 1847 implemented in the articles not yet fulfilled, the tsar gave assurances that he would provide for it. The Polish question, however, then gave rise to extremely violent friction: the persecutions of Catholics, the secularization of ecclesiastical property, the suppression of dioceses gave rise to lively protests on the part of the Pope. Writing to A. the noted letter of 22 April 1863, Pius IX declined any responsibility in the Polish revolt, and observed that if things had reached such a point it was due to the anti-Catholic policy pursued in Poland. On the other hand, the attitude of the revolutionaries, who identified their struggle for independence with the defense of Catholicism, helped to distort the true substance of the divergences between the Holy See and the tsar, to the point that Meyendorff, the Russian representative in Rome, went so far as to declare to the Pope that Catholicism was equivalent to revolution. The result of this declaration was the rupture of diplomatic relations. There was then a relaxation and relations were re-established, but in 1877 the presentation of a memorandum to the chargé d'affaires Urusov led to a new suspension of relations. After the death of Pius IX, Leo XIII succeeded in arranging with St. Petersburg preliminary agreements, signed on 31 October 1880 in Vienna by the nuncio Jacobini and by the ambassador Novikov. On the whole the action of the new Pontiff led to a greater understanding on the part of A. and of the Russian ruling circles, which remained favorably impressed especially by the encyclical of 28 December 1878 against socialism and nihilism.
Bibliography
Silvio Furlani