The assassination of Alexander II: the place outside the Winter Palace is strewn with corpses and debris of the bomb-explosion, while Alexander emerges alive from his coach. Process print (?).

Alexander II (1818-1881), emperor of Russia (1855-1881). Inspired by his liberal education and by distress at the outcome of the Crimean war, which had demonstrated Russia's backwardness, he entered on a programme of domestic reforms, including emancipation of serfs in 1861. A period of repression after 1866 led to the resurgence of revolutionary terrorism and to Alexander's own assassination. In March 1881 he was mortally wounded by bombs in a plot sponsored by the "People's Will" movement