106-446: Alexander II (Russian: Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич , romanized : Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich , IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ] ; 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia , King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881 . Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he
212-780: A Latin alphabet for the Russian language was discussed in 1929–30 during the campaign of latinisation of the languages of the USSR , when a special commission was created to propose a latinisation system for Russian. The letters of the Latin script are named in Russian as following (and are borrowed from French and/or German ): Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia Konstantin Pavlovich ( Russian : Константи́н Па́влович ; 8 May [ O.S. 27 April] 1779 – 27 June [ O.S. 15 June] 1831)
318-550: A Russian architect, even sketched a design of a monumental gate (which was never built) to commemorate the event. Modest Mussorgsky later wrote his piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition , the last movement of which, "The Great Gate of Kiev", is based on Hartmann's sketches. During the 1867 World's Fair in Paris, Polish immigrant Antoni Berezowski attacked the carriage containing Alexander, his two sons and Napoleon III . His self-modified double-barreled pistol misfired and struck
424-570: A Russian victory during Alexander II's rule. Just before the conclusion of the war the Russian Army, under the emperor's order, implemented the mass-killings and extermination of Circassian "mountaineers" in the Circassian genocide , which would be often referred to as "cleansing" and "genocide" in several historic dialogues. In 1857, Dmitry Milyutin first published the idea of mass expulsions of Circassian natives . Milyutin argued that
530-699: A brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78 , leading to the independence of Bulgaria , Montenegro , Romania and Serbia . He pursued further expansion into the Far East , leading to the founding of Vladivostok ; into the Caucasus , approving plans leading to the Circassian genocide ; and into Turkestan . Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges
636-598: A class of independent communal proprietors. The emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom. The architects of the emancipation manifesto were Alexander's brother Konstantin , Yakov Rostovtsev , and Nikolay Milyutin . On 3 March 1861, six years after his accession, the emancipation law was signed and published. A host of new reforms followed in diverse areas. The tsar appointed Dmitry Milyutin to carry out significant reforms in
742-547: A country which had never known the meaning of legality, to redesign the entire administration, to introduce freedom of the press in the context of untrammeled authority, to call new forces to life at every turn and set them on firm legal foundations, to put a repressed and humiliated society on its feet, and to give it the chance to flex its muscles. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855. As Tsesarevich, he had been an enthusiastic supporter of his father's reactionary policies. That is, he always obeyed
848-737: A disaster similar to the Crimean War. The Russian Emperor succeeded in his diplomatic endeavors. Having secured agreement as to non-involvement by the other Great Powers, on 17 April 1877 Russia declared war upon the Ottoman Empire. The Russians, helped by the Romanian Army under its supreme commander King Carol I (then Prince of Romania), who sought to obtain Romanian independence from the Ottomans as well, were successful against
954-477: A disorderly bachelor life. He abstained from politics, but remained faithful to his military inclinations, without manifesting anything more than a preference for the externalities of the service. In command of the Imperial Guards during the campaign of 1805, he had a share of the responsibility for the Russian defeat at the battle of Austerlitz , however he did capture the first French Imperial Eagle in
1060-429: A greatly simplified system of civil and criminal procedure also came into operation. Reorganisation of the judiciary occurred to include trial in open court, with judges appointed for life, a jury system, and the creation of justices of the peace to deal with minor offences at local level. Legal historian Sir Henry Maine credited Alexander II with the first great attempt since the time of Grotius to codify and humanise
1166-515: A hundred years later. The building of strategic railways and an emphasis on the military education of the officer corps comprised further reforms. Corporal punishment in the military and branding of soldiers as punishment were banned. The bulk of important military reforms were enacted as a result of the poor showing in the Crimean War. A new judicial administration (1864), based on the French model, introduced security of tenure. A new penal code and
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#17327720316351272-428: A keyboard or word processor set up for inputting Cyrillic, or else are not capable of typing rapidly using a native Russian keyboard layout ( JCUKEN ). In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout , such as for English QWERTY keyboards, and then use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic. There are a number of distinct and competing standards for
1378-635: A pacifist, a heavy smoker and card player. The death of his father gave Alexander a diplomatic headache, for his father was engaged in open warfare in the southwest of his empire. On 15 January 1856, the new tsar took Russia out of the Crimean War on the very unfavourable terms of the Treaty of Paris (1856) , which included the loss of the Black Sea Fleet , and the provision that the Black Sea
1484-490: A series of new appointments, replacing liberal ministers with conservatives. Under Minister of Education Dmitry Tolstoy , liberal university courses and subjects that encouraged critical thinking were replaced by a more traditional curriculum, and from 1871 onwards only students from gymnasiums could progress to university. In 1879, governor-generals were established with powers to prosecute in military courts and exile political offenders. The government also held show trials with
1590-472: A slave. So far did he forget all good manners and decency that, in the presence of his rough officers, he made demands on her, as his property, which will hardly bear being hinted of." Due to his violent treatment and suffering health problems as a result, Juliane separated from Konstantin in 1799; she eventually settled in Switzerland. An attempt by Konstantin in 1814 to convince her to return broke down in
1696-477: A tour of Europe, he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and they became acquainted. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself. In 1847, Alexander donated money to Ireland during the Great Famine . He has been described as looking like a German, somewhat of
1802-449: A violation of the kingdom's independence and even an act of war. Because of that setback, he was limited to the resources around him. If he decided to intervene, it would require a different source of manpower. He was limited to the handful of Polish troops he could gather together. Constantin thus refused to send his troops against the revolutionaries: "The Poles have started this disturbance, and it's Poles that must stop it", and he left
1908-529: Is known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Алекса́ндр Освободи́тель , romanized : Aleksándr Osvobodítel , IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐsvəbɐˈdʲitʲɪlʲ] ). The tsar was responsible for other liberal reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment , promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of
2014-706: Is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The Library of Congress system (ALA-LC) is used for newer acquisitions. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce. In many publications, a simplified form of the system is used to render English versions of Russian names, typically converting ë to yo , simplifying -iy and -yy endings to -y , and omitting apostrophes for ъ and ь . It can be rendered using only
2120-525: The Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), a radical revolutionary group which hoped to ignite a social revolution , organised an explosion on the railway from Livadia to Moscow, but they missed the emperor's train. On the evening of 5 February 1880 Stephan Khalturin , also from Narodnaya Volya , set off a timed charge under the dining room of the Winter Palace , right in the resting room of
2226-780: The April Uprising , causing a general outcry throughout Europe. Some of the most prominent intellectuals and politicians on the Continent, most notably Victor Hugo and William Gladstone , sought to raise awareness about the atrocities that the Turks imposed on the Bulgarian population. To solve this new crisis in the "Eastern question" a Constantinople Conference was convened by the Great Powers in Constantinople at
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#17327720316352332-713: The Confederate Navy . He sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands in a future war. He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought
2438-598: The Crimean War and during the Polish uprising . Encouraging Finnish nationalism and language can also be seen as an attempt to dilute ties with Sweden. During the Crimean War Austria maintained a policy of hostile neutrality towards Russia, and, while not going to war, was supportive of the Anglo-French coalition. Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria was diplomatically isolated following
2544-579: The Diet of Finland and initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy within the Russian Empire, including establishment of its own currency, the Finnish markka . Liberation of business led to increased foreign investment and industrial development. Finland also got its first railways , separately established under Finnish administration. Finally, the elevation of Finnish from a language of
2650-526: The Ems Ukase being an example. The authorities banned use of the Latin script for writing Lithuanian. The Polish language was banned in both oral and written form from all provinces except Congress Poland , where it was allowed in private conversations only. Nikolay Milyutin was installed as governor and he decided that the best response to the January Uprising was to make reforms regarding
2756-555: The Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) party killed him with a bomb. The Emperor had earlier in the day signed the Loris-Melikov constitution , which would have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives, had it not been repealed by his reactionary successor Alexander III . An attempted assassination in 1866 started a more conservative period that lasted until his death. The Tsar made
2862-507: The Pale of Settlement , and became eligible for state employment. Large numbers of educated Jews moved as soon as possible to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other major cities. The Alaska colony was losing money, and would be impossible to defend in wartime against Britain, so in 1867 Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $ 7.2 million (equivalent to $ 157 million in 2023). The Russian administrators, soldiers, settlers, and some of
2968-565: The Romanov dynasty itself. Even so, there was no one more prepared to bring the country around than Alexander II. The first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol , to negotiations for peace led by his trusted counsellor, Prince Alexander Gorchakov . The country had been exhausted and humiliated by the war. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were rampant. The Emancipation Reform of 1861 abolished serfdom on private estates throughout
3074-849: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1863, the Russian Navy 's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively. The Treaty of Paris of 1856 stood until 1871, when Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War . During his reign, Napoleon III , eager for the support of the United Kingdom, had opposed Russia over the Eastern Question . France abandoned its opposition to Russia after
3180-436: The personal union with Russia, saw his actions as disobedience of the very constitution of which he felt personally proud. That also led to him being mocked, which he did not help by sending his adjutants with threats to those "guilty" of it like Wirydianna Fiszerowa . Nevertheless, Konstantin was an ardent supporter of Polish musicians, such as Maria Agata Szymanowska and Frédéric Chopin . After 19 years of separation,
3286-456: The British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system for bibliographic cataloguing requires some diacritics, two-letter tie characters , and prime marks. The standard is also often adapted as a "simplified" or "modified Library of Congress system" for use in text for a non-specialized audience, omitting the special characters and diacritics, simplifying endings, and modifying iotated initials. British Standard 2979:1958
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3392-815: The Bulgarians' first ruler. For his social reforms in Russia and his role in the liberation of Bulgaria, Alexander II became known in Bulgaria as the "Tsar-Liberator of Russians and Bulgarians". A monument to Alexander II was erected in 1907 in Sofia in the "National Assembly" square, opposite to the Parliament building. The monument underwent a complete reconstruction in 2012, funded by the Sofia Municipality and some Russian foundations. The inscription on
3498-651: The Cyrillic Characters Using the Latin Alphabet is an adoption of ISO 9:1995 . It is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). GOST 52535.1-2006 Identification cards. Machine readable travel documents. Part 1. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO standard for travel documents. It was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013 ( see below ). The standard
3604-635: The Poles, or he would be seen as a seed for the idea of a soon to be independent Poland, but he was effectively only trying to avoid a wider war. Konstantin died of cholera in Vitebsk (now in Belarus) on 27 June 1831 and did not live to see the suppression of the revolution. His frequent stands against the wishes of the Imperial Family were perceived in Russia as brave, even gallant. In Poland, he
3710-512: The Polish Army a similar version of Russia's supreme military. Alexander's policies were liberal by the standards of Restoration Europe. Classical liberals lapped up the freedoms of education, scholarship and economic development, but key deficiencies in Poland's autonomy like lack of control over the budget, military, and trade left them hungry for more. The Kalisz Opposition , led by
3816-491: The Polish independence than to Russian dominance. The securing of neutrality from Konstantin gave the Polish government the feeling that Russia would not attack Poland and gave it the chance effectively to quash the uprising. After ensuring Russian neutrality, Konstantin retreated behind Russian lines. That further confused the Polish government regarding its status with Russia because of a previous Russian promise to help put down
3922-491: The Russian Empire. By this edict more than 23 million people received their liberty. Serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property, and to own a business. The measure was the first and most important of the liberal reforms made by Alexander II. Polish landed proprietors of the Lithuanian provinces presented a petition hoping that their relations with
4028-476: The Russian armed forces. Further important changes were made concerning industry and commerce, and the new freedom thus afforded produced a large number of limited liability companies . Plans were formed for building a great network of railways, partly to develop the natural resources of the country, and partly to increase its power for defense and attack. Military reforms included universal conscription , introduced for all social classes on 1 January 1874. Prior to
4134-495: The Turks and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 ended with the signing of the preliminary peace Treaty of San Stefano on 19 February [ O.S. 3 March] 1878. The treaty and the subsequent Congress of Berlin (June–July 1878) secured the emergence of an independent Bulgarian state for the first time since 1396, and Bulgarian parliamentarians elected the tsar's nephew, Prince Alexander of Battenberg , as
4240-568: The administration. Boris Chicherin (1828–1904) was a political philosopher who believed that Russia needed a strong, authoritative government by Alexander to make the reforms possible. He praised Alexander for the range of his fundamental reforms, arguing that the tsar was: called upon to execute one of the hardest tasks which can confront an autocratic ruler: to completely remodel the enormous state which had been entrusted to his care, to abolish an age-old order founded on slavery, to replace it with civic decency and freedom, to establish justice in
4346-461: The army due to his disorderly conduct. His share in the battles in Germany and France was insignificant. At Dresden , on 26 August, his military knowledge failed him at the decisive moment, but at La Fère-Champenoise he distinguished himself by personal bravery. In Paris the grand duke excited public ridicule by the manifestation of his petty military fads. His first visit was to the stables, and it
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4452-413: The autocratic ruler. But now he was the autocratic ruler himself, and fully intended to rule according to what he thought best. He rejected any moves to set up a parliamentary system that would curb his powers. He inherited a large mess that had been wrought by his father's fear of progress during his reign. Many of the other royal families of Europe had also disliked Nicholas I, which extended to distrust of
4558-622: The basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards: no diacritics or unusual letters are required, although the interpunct character (·) may be used to avoid ambiguity. This particular standard is part of the BGN/PCGN romanization system which was developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use . The portion of
4664-561: The beginning of his reign, Alexander made a memorable speech to the deputies of the Polish nobility who inhabited Congress Poland , Western Ukraine , Lithuania , Livonia , and Belarus , in which he warned against further concessions with the words, "Gentlemen, let us have no dreams!" This served as a warning to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The territories of the former Poland-Lithuania were excluded from liberal policies introduced by Alexander. The result
4770-408: The brothers Bonawentura and Wincenty Niemojowski , pressed for reforms including more independence for the judiciary. Alexander, calling their actions an "abuse" of liberty, suspended the Polish parliament ( Sejm ) for five years and authorised Konstantin to maintain order in the kingdom by any means necessary. Konstantin, attempting to execute his brother's mandate to silence dissent, strengthened
4876-478: The character of the passionate, restless and headstrong boy. The only person who exerted a responsible influence was Cesar La Harpe , who was tutor-in-chief from 1783 to May 1795 and educated both the empress's grandsons. Catherine arranged Konstantin's marriage as she had Alexander's; Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , 14, and Konstantin, 16, were married on 26 February 1796. As Caroline Bauer recorded in her memoirs, "The brutal Constantine treated his consort like
4982-465: The coalition's history; while in 1807 neither his skill nor his fortune in war showed any improvement. After the peace of Tilsit he became an ardent admirer of Napoleon and an upholder of the Russo-French alliance. He therefore lost the confidence of his brother Alexander; to the latter, the French alliance was merely a means to an end. This view was not held by Konstantin; even in 1812, after
5088-511: The common people to a national language equal to Swedish opened opportunities for a larger proportion of Finnish society. Alexander II is still regarded as "The Good Tsar" in Finland. These reforms could be seen as results of a genuine belief that reforms were easier to test in an underpopulated, homogeneous country than in the whole of Russia. They may also be seen as a reward for the loyalty of its relatively western-oriented population during
5194-435: The crime then, when General Kutuzov insisted on investigating, “announced a special commission which outrageously declared that Madame Araujo had died of a stroke”. Konstantin continued as the heir of the empire. During this time, Konstantin's first campaign took place under the leadership of Suvorov . The battle of Bassignana was lost by Konstantin's fault; but at Novi he distinguished himself by personal bravery, so that
5300-417: The emperor Alexander I ), she regulated every detail of his physical and mental education; but in accordance with her usual custom, she left the carrying out of her views to the men who were in her confidence. Count Nikolai Saltykov was supposed to be the actual tutor, but he too in his turn transferred the burden to another, interfering personally only on exceptional occasions, and exercised no influence upon
5406-404: The emperor Paul bestowed on him the title of tsesarevich , which according to the fundamental law of the constitution belonged only to the heir to the throne. Though it cannot be proved that this action of the tsar denoted any far-reaching plan, it yet shows that Paul already distrusted the grand-duke Alexander. Konstantin never tried to secure the throne. After his father's death in 1801, he led
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#17327720316355512-567: The end of the year. The participants in the Conference failed to reach a final agreement. After the failure of the Constantinople Conference, at the beginning of 1877, Emperor Alexander II started diplomatic preparations with the other Great Powers to secure their neutrality in case of a war between Russia and the Ottomans. Alexander II considered such agreements paramount in avoiding the possibility of causing his country
5618-679: The establishment of the French Third Republic . Encouraged by the new attitude of French diplomacy and supported by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , Russia renounced the Black Sea clauses of the Paris treaty agreed to in 1856. As the United Kingdom with Austria could not enforce the clauses, Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea . France, after the Franco-Prussian War and
5724-628: The face of her firm opposition. Konstantin's violent behaviour continued unabated. In 1802, he asked a close friend, General Karl Baur, to hand over his mistress, the wife of a Portuguese businessman, Madame Araujo. Baur agreed but Araujo refused to sleep with the Grand Duke. In retaliation, he had her kidnapped and brought to his Marble Palace where “he and his aides beat and gang-raped her, starting with generals, then officers and finally servants and guardsmen, breaking her legs and arms. She died soon afterwards.” Emperor Alexander I attempted to cover up
5830-410: The fall of Moscow, he pressed for a speedy conclusion of peace with Napoleon, and, like field marshal Kutuzov , he too opposed the policy which carried the war across the Russian frontier to victorious conclusion upon French soil. His personal behaviour towards both his own men and French prisoners was eccentric and cruel. During the campaign, Barclay de Tolly was twice obliged to send him away from
5936-572: The goal was not to simply move them so that their land could be settled by productive farmers, but rather that "eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements". Tsar Alexander II endorsed the plans. A large portion of indigenous Muslim peoples of the region were ethnically cleansed from their homeland at the end of the Russo-Circassian War by Russia. A large deportation operation
6042-514: The guards a story below, killing 11 people and wounding 30 others. The New York Times (4 March 1880) reported "the dynamite used was enclosed in an iron box, and exploded by a system of clockwork used by the man Thomas in Bremen some years ago." However, dinner had been delayed by the late arrival of the tsar's nephew, the Prince of Bulgaria , so the tsar and his family were not in the dining room at
6148-649: The horse of an escorting cavalryman. On the morning of 20 April 1879, Alexander was briskly walking towards the Square of the Guards Staff and faced Alexander Soloviev , a 33-year-old former student. Having seen a menacing revolver in his hands, the Emperor fled in a zigzag pattern. Soloviev fired five times but missed; he was sentenced to death and hanged on 28 May. The student acted on his own, but other revolutionaries were keen to murder Alexander. In December 1879,
6254-550: The intention of deterring others from revolutionary activity, but after cases such as the Trial of the 193 where sympathetic juries acquitted many of the defendants, this was abandoned. After Alexander II became Emperor of Russia and King of Poland in 1855, he substantially relaxed the strict and repressive regime that had been imposed on Congress Poland after the November Uprising of 1830–1831. However, in 1856, at
6360-443: The introduction of a dedicated Latin alphabet for writing the Russian language. Such an alphabet would not necessarily bind closely to the traditional Cyrillic orthography. The transition from Cyrillic to Latin has been proposed several times throughout history (especially during the Soviet era), but was never conducted on a large scale, except for informal romanizations in the computer era. The most serious possibility of adoption of
6466-401: The loss of Alsace–Lorraine , was fervently hostile to Germany and maintained friendly relations with Russia. In the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) the states of Romania , Serbia , and Montenegro gained international recognition of their independence while Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia achieved their autonomy from direct Ottoman rule. Russia took over Southern Bessarabia , lost in 1856.
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#17327720316356572-586: The marriage of Konstantin and Juliane was formally annulled on 20 March 1820. Two months later, on 27 May, Konstantin married the Polish Countess Joanna Grudzińska , who was given the title of Her Serene Highness Princess of Łowicz. Connected with that, he renounced any claim to the Russian succession, which was formally completed in 1822. After the marriage, he became increasingly attached to his new home of Poland. When Alexander I died on 1 December 1825, Grand Duke Nicholas had Konstantin proclaimed emperor in Saint Petersburg. In Warsaw meanwhile, Konstantin abdicated
6678-510: The matter of complete conquest of the Caucasus is near to conclusion. A few years of persistent efforts remain to utterly force out the hostile mountaineers from the fertile countries they occupy and settle on the latter a Russian Christian population forever. — Imperial rescript of Alexander II ordering the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Circassians and advancement of Russian settler-colonial program in Caucasus. (Dated 24 June, 1861) The Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864) concluded as
6784-468: The monument reads in Old-Bulgarian style: "To the Tsar-Liberator from grateful Bulgaria". There is a museum dedicated to Alexander in the Bulgarian city of Pleven . In April 1866, there was an attempt on the emperor's life in St. Petersburg by Dmitry Karakozov . To commemorate his narrow escape from death (which he himself referred to only as "the event of 4 April 1866"), a number of churches and chapels were built in many Russian cities. Viktor Hartmann ,
6890-405: The new regulation, as of 1861, conscription was compulsorily enforced only for the peasantry. Conscription had been 25 years for serfs who were drafted by their landowners, which was widely considered to be a life sentence. Other military reforms included extending the reserve forces and the military district system, which split the Russian states into 15 military districts, a system still in use over
6996-406: The new system and the old one, citizens who wanted to retain the old version of a name's transliteration, especially one that had been in the old pre-2010 passport, could apply to the local migration office before they acquired a new passport. The standard was abandoned in 2013. In 2013, Order No. 320 of the Federal Migration Service of Russia came into force. It states that all personal names in
7102-433: The new-born Grand Prince Constantine, gave him as nursemaid a Greek by the name of Helen, and talks in her own circles about how to place him on the throne of the Eastern empire. At the same time she is setting up a town at Tsarskoe Selo to be called Konstantingorod. The direction of the boy's upbringing was entirely in the hands of his grandmother, the empress Catherine II . As in the case of her eldest grandson (afterwards
7208-451: The nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more conservative stance until his death. Alexander was also notable for his foreign policy, which was mainly pacifist, supportive of the United States , and opposed to Great Britain . Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and sent warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay to deter attacks by
7314-417: The order of his father. Personal and official censorship was rife; criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offence. The education of the tsesarevich as future emperor took place under the supervision of the liberal romantic poet and gifted translator Vasily Zhukovsky , grasping a smattering of a great many subjects and becoming familiar with the chief modern European languages . Unusually for
7420-410: The passports must be transliterated by using the ICAO system , which is published in Doc 9303 " Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3 ". The system differs from the GOST R 52535.1-2006 system in two things: ц is transliterated into ts (as in pre-2010 systems), ъ is transliterated into ie (a novelty). In a second sense, the romanization or Latinization of Russian may also indicate
7526-403: The peasants. He devised a program which involved the emancipation of the peasantry at the expense of the nationalist szlachta landowners and the expulsion of Roman Catholic priests from schools. Emancipation of the Polish peasantry from their serf -like status took place in 1864, on more generous terms than the emancipation of Russian peasants in 1861. In 1863, Alexander II re-convened
7632-539: The post of commander-in-chief of the forces of the kingdom to which was added in 1819 the command of the Lithuanian troops and of those of the Russian provinces that had belonged to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (so called Western Krai ). During his rule, he was in charge of appointing all military leaders, including those in Poland. Each of these men were required to serve his goal of making
7738-529: The priests returned home. Others stayed to minister to their native parishioners, who remain members of the Russian Orthodox Church into the 21st century. Alexander maintained a generally liberal course. Radicals complained he did not go far enough, and he became a target for numerous assassination plots. He survived attempts that took place in 1866, 1879, and 1880. Finally 13 March [ O.S. 1 March] 1881, assassins organized by
7844-425: The rebellion. The patriotic Poles could not have been more pleased. Konstantin, on 3 December, retreated toward Russia. Following the failure of the uprising, Konstantin expressed admiration for the valor of the Polish insurgents. The policy of neutrality at all costs has led to Konstantin being viewed two ways through the scope of history. Either he would be viewed by the Russian royal family as weak and sympathetic to
7950-473: The rebellion. The timid response that he did give was that he would not attack the city of Warsaw without giving it 48 hours' notice, that he would intercede between the emperor and the Polish Kingdom, and would not order Lithuanian troops to enter Poland. What he was trying to accomplish was to remain neutral at all costs, which led to a belief among his fellow Russians that he was more sensitive towards
8056-463: The revolution on the evening of the 29th, at 6pm." Like the assassination, the recruitment of army units by the rebels failed; only two units joined them, and only the capture of the armory and the subsequent arming of the populace kept the revolt alive. Konstantin saw the revolt as a strictly Polish affair and refused to use troops, as he could have, because it was foolish politically. He could trust his Russian troops, but to use them might be considered
8162-616: The romanization of Russian Cyrillic , with none of them having received much popularity, and, in reality, transliteration is often carried out without any consistent standards. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System , is a system that has been used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems. OST 8483
8268-404: The secret police ( Ochrana ) and suppressed the Polish patriotic movements, leading to further popular discontent. Konstantin also harassed the liberal opposition , replaced Poles with Russians on important posts in local administration and the army and often insulted and assaulted his subordinates, which led to conflicts in the officer corps . The Sejm, until then mostly dominated by supporters of
8374-532: The serfs might be regulated in a way more satisfactory for the proprietors. Alexander II authorized the formation of committees "for ameliorating the condition of the peasants", and laid down the principles on which the amelioration was to be effected. Without consulting his ordinary advisers, Alexander ordered the Minister of the Interior to send a circular to the provincial governors of European Russia ( serfdom
8480-568: The suppression of the revolt in the hands of the Polish government. Polish Prince Ksawery Lubecki , realizing that the insurgents had formed no government by midnight, assembled some members of the council and other prominent personalities on his own initiative. They sent a delegation to the grand duke, but when he stated again that he did not wish to intervene in any way, the committees decided to take matters into their own hands. Konstantin's involvement remained minimal, showing considerable restraint in not wanting to use Russian troops to help put down
8586-556: The system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports , transliteration was based on French rules but without diacritics and so all names were transliterated in a French-style system . In 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports , a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs , but
8692-525: The system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST R 52535.1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports and introduces its own system of transliteration. In 2010, the Federal Migration Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all personal names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST R 52535.1-2006. Because of some differences between
8798-462: The throne. His younger brother Nicholas became tsar in 1825. The succession controversy became the pretext of the Decembrist revolt . Konstantin was known to eschew court etiquette and to take frequent stands against the wishes of his brother Alexander I, for which he is remembered fondly in Russia, but in his capacity as the governor of Poland he is remembered as a hated ruler. Konstantin
8904-555: The throne. When that became public knowledge, the Northern Society scrambled in secret meetings to convince regimental leaders not to swear allegiance to Nicholas. The efforts would culminate in the Decembrist revolt . Under Nicholas I , Konstantin maintained his position in Poland. Differences soon arose between him and his brother because of the part taken by the Poles in the Decembrist conspiracy. Konstantin hindered
9010-451: The time of his accession in 1855, aged 37, few imagined that posterity would know him for implementing the most challenging reforms undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great . His uncle Emperor Alexander I died childless. Grand Duke Konstantin , the next-younger brother of Alexander I, had previously renounced his rights to the throne of Russia. Thus, Alexander's father, who
9116-508: The time of the explosion and were unharmed. Romanization of Russian The romanization of the Russian language (the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script ), aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essential for computer users to input Russian text who either do not have
9222-495: The time, the young Alexander was taken on a six-month tour of Russia (1837), visiting 20 provinces in the country. He also visited many prominent Western European countries in 1838 and 1839. As Tsesarevich, Alexander became the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia (1837). While touring Russia, he also befriended the then-exiled poet Alexander Herzen and pardoned him. It was through Herzen's influence that he later abolished serfdom in Russia. In 1839, when his parents sent him on
9328-538: The unveiling of the organized plotting for independence, which had been going on in Poland for many years, and held obstinately to the belief that the army and the bureaucracy were loyally devoted to the Russian Empire. The eastern policy of the Tsar and the Turkish War in 1828 to 1829 caused a fresh breach between them. The opposition of Konstantin made the Polish army take no part in the war. An assassination attempt
9434-593: The usages of war. Alexander's bureaucracy instituted an elaborate scheme of local self-government ( zemstvo ) for the rural districts (1864) and the large towns (1870), with elective assemblies possessing a restricted right of taxation, and a new rural and municipal police under the direction of the Minister of the Interior . Under Alexander's rules Jews could not own land, and were restricted in travel. However special taxes on Jews were eliminated and those who graduated from secondary school were permitted to live outside
9540-671: The use of diacritics) that faithfully represents the original and allows for reverse transliteration for Cyrillic text in any contemporary language. The UNGEGN , a Working Group of the United Nations , in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71 . It may be found in some international cartographic products. American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA-LC) romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in
9646-585: The war, which contributed to Russia's non-intervention in the 1859 Franco-Austrian War , which meant the end of Austrian influence in Italy; and in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War , with the loss of its influence in most German-speaking lands. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Russia supported the Union , largely due to the view that the U.S. served as a counterbalance to their geopolitical rival,
9752-507: Was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg . He was the heir-presumptive for most of his elder brother Alexander I 's reign, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823. For 25 days after the death of Alexander I, from 19 November (O.S.)/1 December 1825 to 14 December (O.S.)/26 December 1825 he was known as His Imperial Majesty Konstantin I Emperor and Sovereign of Russia , although he never reigned and never acceded to
9858-650: Was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881. Born in Moscow , Alexander Nikolayevich was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (eldest daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ). His early life gave little indication of his ultimate potential; until
9964-662: Was born in Tsarskoye Selo on 27 April 1779, the second son of the Tsesarevich Paul Petrovich and his wife Maria Fyodorovna , daughter of Friedrich II Eugen , Duke of Württemberg . Of all Paul's children, Konstantin most closely resembled his father both physically and mentally. His paternal grandmother Catherine the Great named him after Constantine the Great , the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire . A medal with antique figures
10070-632: Was launched against the remaining population before the end of the war in 1864 and it was mostly completed by 1867. Only a small percentage accepted surrender and resettlement within the Russian Empire . The remaining Circassian populations who refused to surrender were thus variously dispersed, resettled, or killed en masse . In April 1876, the Bulgarian population in the Balkans rebelled against Ottoman rule . The Ottoman authorities suppressed
10176-639: Was made on the life of Grand Duke Konstantin, which precipitated the November 1830 insurrection in Warsaw (the November Uprising ). After the attempt on Konstantin's life, a secret court was set up to prosecute those who were responsible. "It was learned that Nicholas had ordered the Grand Duke Konstantin ... to start an energetic investigation and court-martial the culprits ... the committee at its session of 27 November decided irrevocably to start
10282-431: Was not a simple goal capable of being achieved instantaneously by imperial decree. It contained complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social, and political future of the nation. Alexander had to choose between the different measures recommended to him and decide, if the serfs would become agricultural laborers dependent economically and administratively on the landlords, or if the serfs would be transformed into
10388-483: Was rare in other parts) containing a copy of the instructions forwarded to the Governor-General of Lithuania, praising the supposed generous, patriotic intentions of the Lithuanian landed proprietors, and suggesting that perhaps the landed proprietors of other provinces might express a similar desire. The hint was taken: in all provinces where serfdom existed, emancipation committees were formed. Emancipation
10494-521: Was said that he had been marching and drilling even in his private rooms. Konstantin's importance in political history dates from when his brother, Tsar Alexander, installed him in Congress Poland as de facto viceroy (however, he was not the "official viceroy", namestnik of the Kingdom of Poland ), with a task of the militarization and discipline of Poland. In Congress Poland, he received
10600-568: Was struck to commemorate his birth; it bears the inscription "Back to Byzantium" which clearly alludes to Catherine's Greek Plan . According to the British ambassador James Harris , Prince Potemkin 's mind is constantly taken up with the idea of creating an empire in the East; he has managed to fascinate the Empress with these feelings, and she proved so subject to his chimeras that she christened
10706-569: Was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/ IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, but directly refers to the ICAO romanization ( see below ). Names on street and road signs in the Soviet Union were romanized according to GOST 10807-78 (tables 17, 18), which was amended by newer Russian GOST R 52290-2004 (tables Г.4, Г.5), the romanizations in both the standards are practically identical. ISO/R 9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968,
10812-547: Was the January Uprising of 1863–1864 that was suppressed after eighteen months of fighting. Hundreds of Poles were executed, and thousands were deported to Siberia . The price of suppression was Russian support for the unification of Germany . The martial law in Lithuania, introduced in 1863, lasted for the next 40 years. Native languages, Ukrainian , and Belarusian , were completely banned from printed texts,
10918-570: Was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages. ISO 9:1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R 9:1968, which it deprecates; for Russian, the two are the same except in the treatment of five modern letters. ISO 9:1995 is the first language-independent, univocal system of one character for one character equivalents (by
11024-681: Was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced on 16 October 1935. Developed by the National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography at the USSR Council of Ministers , GOST 16876-71 has been in service since 1973. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as an official standard of the COMECON . GOST 7.79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship, and Publishing–Rules for Transliteration of
11130-401: Was the third son of Paul I, became the new Emperor ; he took the name Nicholas I . At that time, Alexander became Tsesarevich as his father's heir to the throne. In the period of his life as heir apparent (1825 to 1855), the intellectual atmosphere of Saint Petersburg did not favour any kind of change: freedom of thought and all forms of private initiative were suppressed vigorously by
11236-460: Was to be a demilitarized zone similar to a contemporaneous region of the Baltic Sea . This gave him room to breathe and pursue an ambitious plan of domestic reforms. Encouraged by public opinion, Alexander began a period of radical reforms, including an attempt not to depend on landed aristocracy controlling the poor, an effort to develop Russia's natural resources, and to reform all branches of
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