What were the major reforms by Alexander II of Russia?

Question

Why was he assasinated?

Answer 1

Alexander II is called the Tsar Liberator because he passed laws to liberate all the serfs i.e. the practise of virtually slavery for the peasant classes. He also ended the Crimean War which he inherited from his predecessor Nicholas I, by making peace with Britain & France. He was assassinated by nihilists i.e anarchists. These were terrorists active in many countries who just went around planting bombs, killing leaders for no particular reason i.e. they weren't working for revolution. The big tragedy is that Tsar Alexander II had plans to introduce a constitutional democracy (i.e. like Britain's) to replace the autocracy on his desk when he died. If this had gone through there might never have been a Russian revolution. One problem is that Alexander was not faithful to his wife. He had a mistress. His son hated him for this because of the way it humiliated his mother. When Alexander died, his son opposed all his reforms especially his plans to dilute the autocracy. It just shows how you can be a good person politically but moral failures can have huge influence

Answer 2

Alexander II abolished serfdom in Russia.

The light-hearted answer is that no good deed goes unpunished.

The real answer was that Russia was not moving far enough and fast enough.