Alexander III

(1845-94) Czar of Russia (r.1881-94). Autocratic and intolerant, he persecuted nationalists, liberals and Jews. He rounded off the conquests of his predecessors in Central Asia, provoking a crisis with Britain when he advanced into Afghanistan in 1885. He signed the Reinsurance Treaty (1887) with Bismarck and made a military alliance with France in 1894.