Assassination of Alexander II of Russia

"Five times your people tried to kill my father before he fell. Five times!"

― Alexander III to Nikolai Orelov.

The assassination of Alexander II of Russia was an act of regicide on Tsar Alexander II of Russia committed by radical Assassins of the Narodnaya Volya faction of the Russian Brotherhood Ignacy Hryniewiecki and Nikolai Rysakov for the emperor's reforms.

Previous attempts

Following a crushing defeat in the Crimean War in 1856, Tsar Alexander II enacted a series of laws attempting to put an end to serfdom in Russia, drawing criticism from both the nobility and those who believed that the reforms were not going far enough. These measures would lead to several attempts on his life.

In 1866, Alexander II, known as a Templar ally, was nearly assassinated by Russian Assassin Dmitry Karakozov, but the attempt was thwarted and Karakozov was captured. As a consequence, Karakozov was executed for his role but not before telling British Assassin Simeon Price to look over his family against the Russian secret police. From this attempt, twenty four of Dmitry's friends were imprisoned, enslaved, or exiled to Serbia. In addition, the Russian Brotherhood also conducted other four failed assassination attempts against Alexander II.

The Assassination of Alexander II

On 13 March 1881, the Narodnaya Volya plotted their assassination with a pair of bombs entrusted to Assassins Ignacy Hyriewiecki and Nikolai Rysakov. They planned to ambush the tsar at Madaya Sadovaya Street while he was in his carriage surrounded by pedestrians. When Tsar Alexander II was driven onto the street, Nikolai Rysakov threw his bomb and destroyed the carriage. The tsar had to leave his carriage and managed to be personally attacked by a second bomb by Ignacy Hryniewiecki. Alexander was ultimately killed from the second explosion.

Aftermath

Despite Simeon's attempt to save Nikolai, Nikolai was later captured by the Russian police, who chased him down, and subsequently executed for his crimes. As a result of Alexander II's death, Russian Jewish residents were unjustly held responsible and persecuted by the government and hatemongers. In fact, Alexander's son and successor Alexander III stopped all ongoing reforms his father started.

Behind the scenes

Historically, Alexander died thirty minutes later away from the public streets and inside the Winter Palace.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Fall (indirect mention only)
• Assassin's Creed: Initiates (first mentioned)
• Who's In Your Blood? (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot (first appearance)