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\n \n MARIA ALEXANDROVNA (1824-1880, St. Petersburg), Empress (from 1856). Nee Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. Emperor Alexander II's wife (from 1841). In 1844-62, she was patroness of the Womens' Patriotic Society Vyborgskaya School. From 1860, she became the main patron of the Empress Maria's Department of Institutions. She opened Women's High Schools and Women's Eparchial Schools for many estates. She contributed to the creation of barrack infirmaries at Rozhdestvenskaya City Hospital (1871; 4 Suvorovsky Avenue), which later bore her name, and a school for medical assistants attached to the hospital (1872). She assisted the establishment of the Russian Society for the Red Cross. She supported her husband in carrying out the Great Reforms of the 1860-70s, and from the mid-1860s stopped playing any independent political role. In 1876-77, she voiced support for the Slavs in the Balkans. She owned Alexandria near Peterhof. She was buried at the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral.

References: Бертенсон И. В. Императрица Мария Александровна в ее заботах о деятельности Российского общества Красного Креста // Рус. старина. 1892. Т. 73, янв. С. 1-12.

Y. A. Kuzmin.\n
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