Sergei Aleksandrovich

surname Romanov). Born Apr. 29 (May 11), 1857, in Tsarskoe Selo, now the city of Pushkin; died Feb. 4 (17), 1905, in Moscow. Russian grand duke; fourth son of the emperor Alexander II.

Sergei Aleksandrovich took part in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. From 1887 to 1891 he was commander of the Preo-brazhenskii Life Guards Regiment. In 1891 he became governor-general of Moscow, and in 1896 commander of the troops of the Moscow military district.

Sergei Aleksandrovich was a reactionary, an anti-Semite, and a religious fanatic. He was married to the empress’ sister and exerted much influence on Nicholas II in matters of domestic policy. His activity in Moscow was marked by the bloody disaster that took place in 1896 during the coronation, the encouragement of Zubatovshchina (seeZUBATOVSHCHINA), mass arrests of revolutionaries, persecution of legal public organizations and the press, and the deportation of Jews. Provoking the hatred of all of progressive Russia, Sergei Aleksandrovich, in V. I. Lenin’s words, “probably did more to make Moscow revolutionary-minded than many revolutionaries” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 11, p. 268). Sergei Aleksandrovich was killed by the Socialist Revolutionary I. P. Kaliaev in the Kremlin.