{{Infobox_Monarch | name =Александр III Александрович <br>Emperor Alexander III
| title =Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias
| image =[[Image:Kramskoy Alexander III.jpg|200px]]
| caption =Painting by [[Ivan Kramskoi]]
| reign =[[13 March]] [[1881]]–[[1 November]], [[1894]]
| coronation =
| predecessor =[[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]
| successor =[[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]
| heir =
| consort =[[Dagmar of Denmark]]
| issue =[[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]<br>[[Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich]]<br>[[Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke George Alexandrovich]]<br>[[Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna]]<br>[[Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich]]<br>[[Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna]]
| royal house =[[House of Romanov]]
| royal anthem =
| father =[[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]
| mother =[[Marie of Hesse and by Rhine]]
| date of birth ={{birth date|1845|3|10|df=y}}
| place of birth =[[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]]
| date of death ={{death date and age|1894|11|1|1845|3|10|df=y}}
| place of death =[[Livadiya]], [[Crimea]]
| buried =[[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]]
|}}
'''Alexander III Alexandrovich''' ([[10 March]] [[1845]] – [[1 November]] [[1894]]) ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Александр III Александрович) reigned as [[Tsar|Emperor]] of [[Russia]] from [[13 March]] [[1881]] until his death in 1894.
==Early life==
Alexander was born at [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]], the second son of Tsar [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] by his wife [[Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)]] . In disposition, he bore little resemblance to his soft-hearted, liberal father, and still less to his refined, philosophic, sentimental, chivalrous, yet cunning great-uncle [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]], who coveted the title of "the first gentleman of [[Europe]]." Although an enthusiastic amateur musician and patron of the ballet, he was seen as lacking refinement and elegance. Indeed, he rather relished the idea of being of the same rough texture as the great majority of his subjects. His straightforward, abrupt manner savoured sometimes of gruffness, while his direct, unadorned method of expressing himself harmonized well with his rough-hewn, immobile features and somewhat sluggish movements. His education was not such as to soften these peculiarities. He was also noted for his immense physical strength.
Perhaps an account from the memoirs of the artist [[Alexander Benois]] best describes an impression of Alexander III:
<blockquote><div align='justify'>
{{cquote|After a performance of the ballet '[[Tsar Kandavl]]' at the [[Mariinsky Theatre]], I first caught sight of the Emperor. I was struck by the size of the man, and although cumbersome and heavy, he was still a mighty figure. There was indeed something of the [[peasant|muzhik]] ''[Russian peasant]'' about him. The look of his bright eyes made quite an impression on me. As he passed where I was standing, he raised his head for a second, and to this day I can remember what I felt as our eyes met. It was a look as cold as steel, in which there was something threatening, even frightening, and it struck me like a blow. The Tsar's gaze! The look of a man who stood above all others, but who carried a monstrous burden and who every minute had to fear for his life and the lives of those closest to him. In later years I came into contact with the Emperor on several occasions, and I felt not the slightest bit timid. In more ordinary cases Tsar Alexander III could be at once kind, simple, and even almost... homely.}}
</div></blockquote>
==Rise to Power==
During the first twenty years of his life, Alexander had little prospect of succeeding to the throne, because he had an elder brother, [[Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia|Nicholas]], who seemed of robust constitution. Even when this elder brother first showed symptoms of delicate health, the notion that he might die young was never seriously taken; Nicholas was betrothed to the charming princess [[Dagmar of Denmark]]. Under these circumstances, the greatest solicitude was devoted to the education of Nicholas as tsarevich, whereas Alexander received only the perfunctory and inadequate training of an ordinary grand-duke of that period, which did not go much beyond secondary instruction, with practical acquaintance in French, English and German, and a certain amount of military drill.
==Education==
[[Image:Coronation of Tsar Alexander III & Empress Mariia Feodorovna -1883.JPG|thumb|right|390px|<center>Portrait by the artist Georges Becker of the coronation of Tsar Alexander III and [[Dagmar of Denmark|Empress Maria Fyodorovna]], which took place on May 15/28, 1883 at the [[Cathedral of the Dormition|Uspensky Sobor Cathedral]] of the [[Moscow Kremlin]]. On the left of the dais can be seen his young son and heir, [[Nicholas II of Russia|the Tsarevich Nicholas]], and behind Nicholas can be seen a young [[Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke George]] ]]
[[Image:Shilder AlexanderIII.jpg|right|thumb|270px|<center>Portrait by [[Nikolay Shilder]] of Tsar Alexander III]]
Alexander became [[heir apparent]] by the sudden death of his elder brother in 1865. It was then that he began to study the principles of law and administration under [[Konstantin Pobedonostsev]], who was then a professor of [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] at [[Moscow State University]] and who later (in 1880) became [[chief procurator]] of the [[Holy Synod]]. Pobedonostsev awakened in his pupil very little love for abstract studies or prolonged intellectual exertion, but he influenced the character of Alexander's reign by instilling into the young man's mind the belief that zeal for [[Russian Orthodoxy|Russian Orthodox]] thought was an essential factor of Russian [[patriotism]] and that this was to be specially cultivated by every right-minded tsar.
On his deathbed, Alexander's elder brother Nicholas is said to have expressed the wish that his affianced bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor. This wish was swiftly realized, when on [[9 November]], [[1866]], Alexander wed the princess of [[Denmark]]. The union proved a most happy one and remained unclouded to the end. Unlike that of his parents, there was no adultery in the marriage. During those years when he was heir-apparent—1865 to 1881—Alexander did not play a prominent part in public affairs, but he allowed it to become known that he had certain ideas of his own which did not coincide with the principles of the existing government.
[[Image:Alexander-Maria.jpg|thumb|200px|<center>Alexander and his wife [[Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)|Empress Maria Fyodorovna]] vacationing in Copenhagen in 1893.]]
==Foreign Relations==
Alexander deprecated what he considered undue foreign influence in general, and German influence in particular, so the adoption of genuine national principles was off in all spheres of official activity, with a view to realizing his ideal of a homogeneous Russia—homogeneous in language, administration and religion. With such ideas and aspirations he could hardly remain permanently in cordial agreement with his father, who, though a good patriot according to his lights, had strong German sympathies, often used the German language in his private relations, occasionally ridiculed the exaggerations and eccentricities of the Slavophiles and based his foreign policy on the Prussian alliance.
The antagonism first appeared publicly during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], when the Tsar supported the cabinet of [[Berlin]] and the tsarevich did not conceal his sympathies with the French. It reappeared in an intermittent fashion during the years 1875–1879, when [[Eastern Question|the Eastern question]] produced so much excitement in all ranks of Russian society. At first the tsarevich was more Slavophile than the government, but his [[phlegmatic]] nature preserved him from many of the exaggerations indulged in by others, and any of the prevalent popular illusions he may have imbibed were soon dispelled by personal observation in [[Bulgaria]], where he commanded the left wing of the invading army.
Never consulted on political questions, he confined himself to his military duties and fulfilled them in a conscientious and unobtrusive manner. After many mistakes and disappointments, the army reached [[Constantinople]] and the [[Treaty of San Stefano]] was signed, but much that had been obtained by that important document, had to be sacrificed at the [[Congress of Berlin]]. Prince [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]] failed to do what was confidently expected of him by the Russian Tsar.
In return for the Russian support, which had enabled him to create [[German Empire|the German empire]], {{Fact|date=June 2007}} it was thought that he would help Russia to solve the Eastern question in accordance with her own interests, but to the surprise and indignation of the cabinet of St Petersburg he confined himself to acting the part of "honest broker" at the congress, and shortly afterwards he ostentatiously contracted an alliance with [[Austria]] for the express purpose of counteracting Russian designs in [[Eastern Europe]]. The tsarevich could point to these results as confirming the views he had expressed during the Franco-Prussian War, and he drew from them the practical conclusion that for Russia the best thing to do was to recover as quickly as possible from her temporary exhaustion and to prepare for future contingencies by a radical scheme of military and naval reorganization. In accordance with this conviction, he suggested that certain reforms should be introduced.
==Anti-reforms==
During the campaign in Bulgaria he had found by painful experience that grave disorders and gross corruption existed in the military administration, and after his return to St Petersburg he had discovered that similar abuses existed in the naval department. For these abuses, several high-placed personages—among others two of the grand-dukes—were believed to be responsible, and he called his father's attention to the subject. His representations were not favourably received. Alexander II had lost much of the reforming zeal which distinguished the first decade of his reign, and had no longer the energy required to undertake the task suggested to him. The consequence was that the relations between father and son became more strained. The latter must have felt that there would be no important reforms until he himself succeeded to the direction of affairs. That change was much nearer at hand than was commonly supposed. On [[13 March]] [[1881]] Alexander II was assassinated by a band of [[Nihilist]]s, [[Narodnaya Volya]] (People's Will), and the autocratic power passed to the hands of his son.
In the last years of his reign, Alexander II had been much exercised by the spread of Nihilist doctrines and the increasing number of anarchist conspiracies, and for some time he had hesitated between strengthening the hands of the executive and making concessions to the widespread political aspirations of the educated classes. Finally he decided in favour of the latter course, and on the very day of his death he signed an ukaz, creating a number of consultative commissions which might have been easily transformed into an assembly of notables.
Following advice of his political mentor [[Konstantin Pobedonostsev]], Alexander III determined to adopt the opposite policy. He at once canceled the ukaz before it was published, and in the manifesto announcing his accession to the throne he let it be very clearly understood that he had no intention of limiting or weakening the autocratic power which he had inherited from his ancestors. Nor did he afterwards show any inclination to change his mind.
All the internal reforms which he initiated were intended to correct what he considered as the too liberal tendencies of the previous reign, so that he left behind him the reputation of a sovereign of the retrograde type. In his opinion Russia was to be saved from anarchical disorders and revolutionary agitation, not by the parliamentary institutions and so-called [[liberalism]] of [[western Europe]], but by the three principles which the elder generation of the Slavophils systematically recommended—nationality, [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]] and autocracy. His political ideal was a nation containing only one nationality, one language, one religion and one form of administration; and he did his utmost to prepare for the realization of this ideal by imposing the Russian language and Russian schools on his German, Polish and other non-Russian subjects (with the exception of the Finns), by fostering Eastern Orthodoxy at the expense of other confessions, by persecuting the [[Jew]]s and by destroying the remnants of German, Polish and Swedish institutions in the outlying provinces. These policies were implemented by "[[May Laws]]" that banned [[Jew]]s from rural areas and [[shtetl]]s even within the [[Pale of Settlement]].
In the other provinces he sought to counteract what he considered the excessive liberalism of his father's reign. For this purpose he removed what little power had by [[zemstvo]], an elective local administration resembling the county and [[parish council]]s in [[England]], had and placed the autonomous administration of the peasant communes under the supervision of landed proprietors appointed by the government. These came to be known as [[land captains]], who were much feared and resented amongst the peasant communities throughout Russia. At the same time he sought to strengthen and centralize the Imperial administration, and to bring it more under his personal control.
In foreign affairs he was emphatically a man of peace, but not at all a partisan of the doctrine of peace at any price, and he followed the principle that the best means of averting war is to be well prepared for it. Though indignant at the conduct of Prince Bismarck towards Russia, he avoided an open rupture with Germany, and even revived for a time the Three Emperors' Alliance.
It was only in the last years of his reign, when [[Mikhail Katkov]] had acquired a certain influence over him, that he adopted towards the cabinet of [[Berlin]] a more hostile attitude, and even then he confined himself to keeping a large quantity of troops near the German frontier, and establishing cordial relations with France. With regard to Bulgaria he exercised similar self-control. The efforts of Prince Alexander and afterwards of Stamboloff to destroy Russian influence in the principality excited his indignation, but he persistently vetoed all proposals to intervene by force of arms.
In 1887, once again the Peoples Will planned the murder of Tsar Alexander III. Among the conspirators captured were one [[Aleksandr Ulyanov]]. Ulyanov was sentenced to death and hanged on [[May 5]] [[1887]]. Alexander Ulyanov was the brother of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who would later take the pseudonym [[Vladimir Lenin|V.I. Lenin]].
In [[Central Asia]]n affairs he followed the traditional policy of gradually extending Russian domination without provoking a conflict with the [[United Kingdom]], and he never allowed the bellicose partisans of a forward policy to get out of hand. As a whole his reign cannot be regarded as one of the eventful periods of [[History of Russia|Russian history]]; but it must be admitted that under his hard, unsympathetic rule the country made considerable progress. He died of nephritis at the [[Livadia Palace]] on [[1 November]] [[1894]] and was buried at the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]] in [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]]. Alexander III was succeeded by his eldest son [[Nicholas II of Russia]].
Emperor Alexander and his Danish-born wife regularly spent their summers in their [[Langinkoski]] manor near [[Kotka]] on the [[Finland|Finnish]] coast, where their children were immersed in a Scandinavian lifestyle of relative modesty.
Tsar Alexander's memorial is located in the city of [[Irkutsk]] at the embankment of the [[Angara]] river.
==Ancestors==
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<div style="background: #ccddcc; text-align: center; border: 1px solid #667766" class="NavHead">'''Ancestors of Alexander III of Russia'''
</div>
<div class="NavContent" style="display:none;">
<center>{{ahnentafel-compact5
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|border=1
|boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0;
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
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|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= 1. '''Alexander III of Russia'''
|2= 2. [[Alexander II of Russia]]
|3= 3. [[Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)|Marie of Hesse and by Rhine]]
|4= 4. [[Nicholas I of Russia]]
|5= 5. [[Charlotte of Prussia]]
|6= 6. [[Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse]]
|7= 7. [[Wilhelmine of Baden]]
|8= 8. [[Paul I of Russia]]
|9= 9. [[Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)|Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg]]
|10= 10. [[Frederick William III of Prussia]]
|11= 11. [[Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]]
|12= 12. [[Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse]]
|13= 13. [[Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|14= 14. [[Margrave Charles Louis of Baden|Charles Louis of Baden]]
|15= 15. [[Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|16= 16. [[Peter III of Russia]]
|17= 17. [[Catherine II of Russia]]
|18= 18. [[Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg]]
|19= 19. [[Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
|20= 20. [[Frederick William II of Prussia]]
|21= 21. [[Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|22= 22. [[Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]]
|23= 23. [[Friederike Caroline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|24= 24. [[Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|25= 25. [[Karoline of Zweibrücken]]
|26= 26. [[Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|27= 27. [[Luise of Leiningen-Heidesheim]]
|28= 28. [[Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden]]
|29= 29. [[Karoline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|30= 30. [[Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|31= 31. [[Karoline of Zweibrücken]]
}}</center>
</div></div>
==Issue==
Alexander III had six children of his marriage with [[Dagmar of Denmark|Princess Dagmar of Denmark]], also known as Marie Feodorovna.
(NB. all dates prior to 1918 are in [[Old Style]] Calendar)
{| border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
!Name!!Birth!!Death!!Notes
|-
|[[Nicholas II of Russia|Tsar Nicholas II]]||[[May 6]] <!-- (Last Czar of Russia) -->[[1868]]||[[July 17]] [[1918]]||married 1894, [[Alexandra Fyodorovna of Hesse|Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine]]; had issue
|-
|[[Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich]]||[[June 7]] [[1869]]||[[May 2]] [[1870]]|| died of meningitis, photographed posthumously [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10221.htm#i102210]
|-
|[[Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke George Alexandrovich]]||[[May 6]] [[1871]]||[[August 9]] [[1899]]|| died of tuberculosis; no issue
|-
|[[Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna]]||[[April 6]] [[1875]]||[[April 20]] [[1960]]||married 1894, [[Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia|Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov]]; had issue
|-
|[[Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich]]||[[November 22]] [[1878]]||c.[[June 12]] [[1918]]||married 1912, [[Natalia, Princess Brassova|Natalya Sergeyevna Wulffert]]; had issue
|-
|[[Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna]]||[[June 13]] [[1882]]||[[24 November]] [[1960]]||married Peter Friedrich Georg, Duke of Oldenburg
|}
==See also==
*[[Tsars of Russia family tree]]
==References==
*{{1911}}
==Bibliography==
# John F. Hutchinson, Late Imperial Russia: 1890-1917
==External links==
{{Commons|Alexander III of Russia}}
*[http://www2.sptimes.com/treasures/TC.2.3.18.html A short biography]
*[http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/alexbio.html Another biography]
*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7033272&pt=Alexander%20III%20Romanov FindAGrave] 'Alexander III Alexandrovich Romanov'
{{start box}}
{{s-hou|[[Romanov|House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov]]|10 March|1845|1 November|1894|[[House of Oldenburg]] }}
{{s-reg|}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of Russian rulers|Emperor of Russia]]|after=[[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]|before=[[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]|years='''[[March 13]][[1881]] – [[November 1]][[1894]]'''}}
{{end box}}
{{Russian emperors}}
{{House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov}}
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Alexander III
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
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|DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|1845|3|10|df=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH=
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1894|11|1|df=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH=
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[[Category:Russian emperors]]
[[Category:Rulers of Finland]]
[[Category:House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov]]
[[Category:House of Glücksburg]]
[[Category:Knights of Malta]]
[[Category:People from Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]
[[Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece]]
[[Category:1845 births]]
[[Category:1894 deaths]]
[[Category:Orthodox monarchs]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Black Eagle]]
[[ar:ألكسندر الثالث]]
[[bg:Александър III (Русия)]]
[[ca:Alexandre III de Rússia]]
[[cs:Alexandr III. Alexandrovič]]
[[cy:Alexander III o Rwsia]]
[[da:Alexander 3. af Rusland]]
[[de:Alexander III. (Russland)]]
[[et:Aleksander III]]
[[es:Alejandro III de Rusia]]
[[eo:Aleksandro la 3-a (Rusio)]]
[[fr:Alexandre III de Russie]]
[[gl:Alexandre III de Rusia]]
[[ko:러시아의 알렉산드르 3세]]
[[hr:Aleksandar III., ruski car]]
[[io:Aleksandr 3ma]]
[[it:Alessandro III di Russia]]
[[he:אלכסנדר השלישי, קיסר רוסיה]]
[[hu:III. Sándor orosz cár]]
[[ka:ალექსანდრე III (რუსეთი)]]
[[nl:Alexander III van Rusland]]
[[ja:アレクサンドル3世]]
[[no:Aleksander III av Russland]]
[[nn:Aleksander III av Russland]]
[[pl:Aleksander III Romanow]]
[[pt:Alexandre III da Rússia]]
[[ro:Alexandru al III-lea al Rusiei]]
[[ru:Александр III]]
[[sr:Александар III Александрович]]
[[sh:Aleksandar III., ruski car]]
[[fi:Aleksanteri III (Venäjä)]]
[[sv:Alexander III av Ryssland]]
[[tr:III. Aleksandr (Rusya)]]
[[uk:Олександр III (російський імператор)]]
[[zh:亚历山大三世 (俄国)]]