The eighth volume of the project "History of the Russian State" describes the period 1855-1894, when Russian politics makes sharp turns and society changes dramatically. The collapse of the empire and the civil war are still far away, but the lightning of a future thunderstorm is already sparkling in the Russian sky and the first blood is pouring. The era of Alexander II and Alexander III leads to an answer to the question: why did everything turn out the way it did? Alexander II - the Liberator, who began a radical reform of Russian society and gave free will to the peasants, is dying at the hands of terrorists. And in the stable and well-fed reign of the Peacemaker Alexander II, contradictions are laid, and forces arise that will lead to disaster at the beginning of the next century.
