The statue also includes four allegorical sculptures, representing four different virtues - Law (Latin: Lex), Work (Labor), Peace (Pax) and Light (Lux).

Emperor Alexander II (1818–1881) was a ruler beloved by the Finns, whose reign and influence helped to produce significant societal changes.

[3] He died in 1881 as a victim of a bombing assassination, and in 1884 the Diet of Finland held a design contest for a monument placed at the Senate Square.

According to experts, the statue should be located in the centre of the square in line with the main entrance doors to the Senate and to the University of Helsinki.

The figure of Alexander II standing on top of the red granite pedestal is depicted in the uniform of an officer of the Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion, giving a speech at the 1863 Diet of Finland.

Coats of arms on each side of the plinth are oriented geographically: to the south under Lex: Uusimaa and Tavastia; to the west under Labor: Satakunta, Finland Proper and Åland; to the north under Pax: Laponia and Ostrobothnia; and to the east under Lux: Kexholm (current Priozersk in Russia), Savonia and Karelia.

[1] The most famous part of the monument is the sculpture Law at the pedestal, whose figures have later been interpreted as the Finnish Maiden and the lion of the coat of arms of Finland.

So the Law sculpture of the parliament was moved to the government assembly hall of the Presidential Palace in place of the former throne of the ruler, where it remains to this day.

A column published in Uusi Suomi in summer 1918 demanded the removal of the statue of the Russian "conqueror hostile to our fatherland" and that it should be placed in a museum.

This threat was connected to the Lapua Movement's goal to manipulate the presidential elections by inciting intense nationalism, but this was met with widespread resistance.

The vandalised bust of Alexander I had previously been removed from the celebration hall of the university, where it had been replaced with a marble relief by Wäinö Aaltonen, later destroyed in the bombing of Helsinki in World War II in 1944.

According to Erik Kruskopf "A lot of things were said in that conversation, including that we could perhaps accept a Russian in front of the church seeing as there are twelve Jews on its roof.