Events from the year 1861 in Russia

• Monarch – Alexander II

• February 27 – Russian troops fire on a crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule, killing 5 protesters.
• March 3 (February 19 O.S.) – Emancipation reform of 1861: Serfdom is abolished.
• March 13 – Tsushima incident: the Russian corvette Posadnik arrives at Tsushima Island in the Korea Strait, Japan, provoking a reaction from the Japan.
• April 24 (N.S.) – Bezdna in Russia is the scene of a peasant uprising; the military open fire and nearly 5000 are killed.^[1]
• May 21 – Russian sailors clash with Japanese samurai and farmers at Tsushima island.^[2]

• 16 November - Arvid Järnefelt, Finnish author (d. 1932)

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