The Crimean War - A History of Russia

Alexander the second alexander was born in 18 18, after the end of the napoleonic wars. Czar nicholas lived just long enough to see his beloved army collapse under the weight of 25 years of corrupt stagnation. Alexander came to power prepared to implement the largest and most consequential set of social and political reforms russia had seen since peter the great. He was going to do what no czar before him had dared to do: he was going to free the serfs.