Tsar Aleksandr III

      Emperor Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Romanov III, or Tsar Alexander III, suceeded his father, Alexander II, after his assassination in 1881. For most of his life, Alexander had no prospect of becoming emperor. His brother, Nikolai Alexandrovich, was the tsarevich, and was to become Nikolai II. Nikolai, however, died in 1866. Alexander married his brother's fiancee, the Danish Princess Dagmar, and took up the studies of the throne.

      Alexander II was in the process of drafting a ukaz, a list of commissions similar to a constitution for the people, that would have formed a Russian Parliament. The day he finished it, however, on the very eve of its signing, he was assassinated by The People's Will, a band of nihilists striking against the autocratic rule of tsarism.

      Upon his ascension, Alexander III scrapped the ukaz entirely and ruled absolutely. He greatly limited the power of the zemstvo, republican municipal bodies similiar to city councils that had been established for the peasants by his father. He also downplayed the importance of foreign policy to create his vision of an homogenous Russian government. He did, however, maintain a policy of peace with most of the world, and established relations with France, something not seen since Napoleon turned on Alexander I and marched into Smolensk and Moscow.

      Alexander III died in November of 1894, and was succeeded by the eldest of his two sons, Nikolai Alexandrovich II. Nikolai married his bride, Princess Alix von Hesse, within months of his father's death.