Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was the fifth son and seventh child of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. He was an influential figure during the reigns of his brother Emperor Alexander III of Russia and his nephew Emperor Nicholas II, who was also his brother-in-law through Sergei's marriage to Elisabeth, the sister of Empress Alexandra.
Photograph by Sergey Levitsky, c. 1894
Grand Duke Sergei with his parents and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna
Grand Duke Sergei with his younger brother Grand Duke Paul
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in his youth
Alexander III was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. This policy is known in Russia as "counter-reforms". Under the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907), he opposed any socio-economic moves that limited his autocratic rule.
Portrait photograph, 1885
Alexander III as Tsesarevich, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, 1865
Grand painting by artist Georges Becker of the coronation of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Fyodorovna, which took place on 27 May [O.S. 15 May] 1883 at the Uspensky Sobor of the Moscow Kremlin. On the left of the dais can be seen his young son and heir, the Tsarevich Nicholas, and behind Nicholas can be seen a young Grand Duke George.
Alexander receiving rural district elders in the yard of Petrovsky Palace in Moscow; painting by Ilya Repin