№ 1011-1014. History of Russian State. Emperor Alexander II (1811-1881)

V.A. Zhukovsky( 1783-1852) put the ideas of the Swiss pedagogue Pestalotsi into the foundation of his educational plan for the heir of the Russian throne. Pestalotsi considered 3 factors to be important for the up-bringing of a person: the person of an educator, the living conditions and the feeling of philanthropy. Zhukovsky thought that a ruler should be not erudite but enlightened. The enlightenment should familiarize him with all the information necessary for the common welfare. He paid much attention to the moral education of the crown prince, aimed at cultivating the respect for the low in him, he considered history to be the main science for the future monarch.

The crowning festivities took place in Moscow from the 14th to the 26th of August, 1856. The big and the small crown, the scepter, the orb, the purples, the crown signs of the Apostle Andrew The First Called, the State Stamp, the Sword and the Banner were taken to the old capital for the festivities. The ceremonial departure was not executed by a solemn slow cortege of coaches but it was made by the railway. During the coronation Aleksander Nikolaevich solemnly sat on the throne of John III and Marija Aleksandrovna sat on the throne of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov.

Soon after the coronation the emperor declared in his speech to the noblemen that the serfdom can be born no more. He founded a special secret committee from the highest officials of the empire. This committee was supposed to elaborate all the reasons for the serfdom abolishment and was later on transformed into the Main committee on the peasants’ case. 23 million peasants got the desired freedom on the 19th of February, 1861. The greatest state act in the Russian history was carried out.

Alexander II, having arrived to the Russian troops on the 12th of April, 1877 issued a manifest on the beginning of the war with Turkey. The emperor was with his army till the defeat of Plevna, he wanted to witness the heroic deeds of his troops. He took care of the wounded soldiers and officers, whom he visited in hospitals and even took to his carriage from the battlefield. The monarch acted as the Commander in chief at the critical moments of the war.