2-481-261 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Equestrian portrait of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, c1861-c1865. Alexander (1818-1881) was Tsar from 1855. Known as 'The Liberator', he emancipated Russia's serfs in 1861. The pace of reform under Alexander's rule was too slow for some, however, and on 13 March 1881 he was assassinated in St Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a nihilist student. Found in the collection of the Russian State Film and Photo Archive, Krasnogorsk.