Alexander II

(1818-81) Czar of Russia (r.1855-81). Fearing revolution, he emancipated the serfs in 1861; his Zemstvo Statute (1864) introduced district and provincial assemblies; his Duma Statute (1870) established self-governing councils in larger towns. He reformed the imperial army and introduced conscription in 1874. He was assassinated by the terrorist Narodnaya Volya in 1881.