Alexander II of Russia was the Emperor of All Russia from 1855 until 1881. He was known as the Liberator for the emancipation of serfdom. During his reign, he was the target of four assassination attempts by Narodnaya Volya. This was a revolutionary socialist group active from 1879 to 1884. They used terrorism and murder to seek political reform and the fall of Tsarist autocracy in the Russian Empire. On the morning on March 13, 1881, the rebels were successful. The first bomb exploded under the emperor’s carriage. Unhurt, Alexander II got out and was inspecting the damage when Ignacy Hryniewiecki threw a second bomb and mortally wounded the emperor. His son, Alexander III of Russia, commissioned the Church of the Savior on Blood on the spot where his father was attacked.
