360 Romanov dynasty Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire, fought from 1853 to 1856 at the end of the reign of Nicholas I, made it obvious that Russia needed reform ALEXANDER II The next czar, Alexander II, the son of Nicholas I, helped Russia reform Alexander ruled from 1855 to 1881 and became known as the czar liberator because he freed the serfs Alexander II realized that forcing labor from the serfs was not an economical way for Russia to operate, and many nobles were also beginning to think that serfdom should be ended Just before the American Civil War began, Alexander II freed the serfs with the Emancipation Act of February 18, 1861 The Emancipation Act freed 52 million serfs, or about 45 percent of Russia’s population, but it did not solve Russia’s problem of peasant unrest Only serfs who had been farmers were given land, excluding house serfs Serfs had to continue working for estate owners for two years after being freed and had to pay over a 49-year period for the land that they had been given Alexander II also instituted other reforms He changed the military and shortened the required time of service for peasants from 25 to six years He created the legal profession, opening trials and instituting equal treatment under the law Beginning in 1864 he instructed the Ministry of Education to create a national system of primary schools As people, especially university students, became better educated they became more critical of the government University students and the populace at large began to demand changes On March 13, 1881, an agitator threw a hand-made bomb at Alexander’s carriage He got out of the carriage to see what had happened, and a second bomb exploded The czar and his assassin, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, were killed Alexander III succeeded his father, and, fearful of his father’s murderers, he tightened the autocratic rule in Russia, reversing many of the reforms that the more liberal Alexander II had pushed through He renewed the policy of Russian Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationalism Marxism began to grow during his reign, with Bolshevik and Menshevik groups forming, and leaders like Lenin, Plekhanov, and Pavel Martov emerging as revolutionaries Alexander’s son Nicholas II began ruling Russia in 1894, after Alexander unexpectedly died of kidney disease at age 49 Industrialism had finally reached Russia, and a working middle class was emerging Nicholas II did not want to allow workers to unite and form unions, as they were doing all over the world After the czar created state-approved unions, he refused to meet a striking Russia’s czar Alexander II was killed by an assassin’s bomb on March 13, 1881 group from one of these and ordered his soldiers to fire upon it The resulting massacre of hundreds of people, which came to be known as Bloody Sunday, set off a revolt in 1905 that motivated Nicholas II to endorse the October Manifest, which gave people civil liberties and created the Duma Russia went to war in 1914 to defend the Serbs when Austria declared war on Serbia, but the Russian armies had inadequate weapons and suffered from poor leadership Nicholas II himself went to the lines to lead his armies, but the problems increased and many soldiers deserted These soldiers were instrumental in the February Revolution in 1917, which ended the Romanov dynasty Nicholas II and his family were put under house arrest and taken to Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks killed the last Romanov czar, Nicholas II, and his family