Anon, Jewish history under Russian empire predates Alexander. Russians were pressuring Jews into assimilation and submission to a centralized system early on. In Vilno, Misnagdim and Chasidim were appealing to Russ. gov. against each other, and this was of course used by Russians to divide and conquer. Similar to Pompey coming to make peace for Chashmonaim.
At some point, R. Salanter was offered a position as a head of Russian-led educational system. He hesitated, thinking that he would have a positive effect on it, but at the end his, and others, decision was to totally disassociate from the Russian-forced school and rabbinical system, so that nobody would confuse an appointed “official” rabbi and a real one.
There were also several visits by groups of gedolim to Petersburg, trying to argue for various leniencies in schooling.