Alexander III

• Alexander III was the second son (third child) of Alexander II.
• Disagreed with his father’s reforms and was angered by his father’s affair with Catherine Dolgorukov.
• He witnessed his father’s assassination.
• The greatest influence Alexander III had when growing up was his tutor Konstantin Pobedonostsev, who had a very traditional Slavophile view.
• Pobedonostsev supported autocracy, Russian Orthodox Christianity and believed in the superiority of Russians over the other nationalities of the Empire.
• The Tsar was about 190cm tall and known for his immense strength.

  In 1888, he held up the collapsed roof of a railway car following a crash so that his children could escape.
• Married his dead brother’s fiancee Maria Feodorovna of Denmark as his dying wish.

  Alexander III had been in love with one of his mother’s ladies in waiting and he was initially against the marriage.

  The marriage did however appear to be happy and they had 6 children.
• Alexander III died of kidney failure in 1894 at the age of 49.