ALESSANDRO III, tsar of RUSSIA. — Born on 26 February/10 March 1845, died on 20 October/1 November 1894 at Livadia. Having succeeded his father A. II, assassinated in 1881, A. III strengthened the autocratic regime at home. In foreign policy, cordial relations with Austria and Germany weakened, especially with Vienna, owing to the divergence of views that arose over the Bulgarian question. Relations with the German Empire nevertheless underwent no changes until the fall of Bismarck, but the personal policy of Wilhelm II nullified the mutual advantages of the Russo-German friendship, which had remained firm, despite not a few misunderstandings, for almost thirty years. To avoid Russia’s isolation, A. III therefore drew closer to France toward the end of his reign.
In ecclesiastical policy, we may say that relations with the Holy See were never strained or unacceptable. On 24 December 1882, agreements were signed in Rome between the Russian plenipotentiary Butenev and Pope Leo XIII’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Jacobini, concerning the suppression of the dioceses of Minsk, Lublin, and Lutzk-Zitomir, and matters relating to the seminaries and the Ecclesiastical Academy of Petersburg. In addition, the Russian government undertook to suspend the exceptional measures taken against the Polish clergy in 1865 and to modify the Ordinance of 1866. But these agreements were scarcely implemented in practice. After 1887, when Leo XIII began openly opposing the Triple Alliance, A. proposed a modus vivendi on the basis of the agreements of 1882. What mattered most to the emperor was the introduction of the Russian language into the rite, a request to which the Pope did not, however, consent. Relations did not thereby become strained; on the contrary, in 1894 a Russian legation was established at the Holy See: its first head was Isvolski.