Aleksandr was the eldest son of
Vasily of Suzdal, the sixth prince on the throne of
Suzdal. Aleksandr inherited the throne after his father died in 1309. Aleksandr is first mentioned in 1327 when he joined
Ivan I of Moscow in a punitive expedition against
Tver that was ordered by
Özbeg Khan following a
popular uprising against the
Tatars. Tver was sacked and its prince,
Aleksandr, had fled. For his role in the expedition, Özbeg rewarded Aleksandr with the title of grand prince in 1328. The grand principality was shared between Aleksandr and Ivan, with
Vladimir and the
Volga district going to Aleksandr and
Novgorod and
Kostroma going to Ivan. According to
John I. L. Fennell, "Suzdal' seemed a suitable replacement for the house of Tver' as a counterbalance to the principality of Moscow" in the eyes of Özbeg. Aleksandr again joined the Russian princes led by Ivan in a campaign against Aleksandr in 1329, after he was granted sanctuary in
Pskov. As grand prince, Aleksandr preferred to remain in Suzdal, the center of his appanage, which is evident from the semi-legendary account of him transferring the
veche bell from the
Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir to Suzdal, his only independent act as grand prince: {{Blockquote|text= This Prince Alexander from Vladimir took the
veche bell from the Church of the Holy Mother of God to Suzdal and the bell ceased to ring as in Vladimir. And Prince Alexander thought he had been rude to the Holy Mother of God, and he ordered it taken back to Vladimir. And when the bell was brought back and installed in its place, its peal once again became acceptable to God. Lev Cherepnin says that "this was apparently done on the orders of the Tatar khan, who aimed to suppress the
veche systems in Russian cities", while Yury Krivosheyev concludes that the bell "was meant to serve not so much the interests of the prince but the interests of the community (including princely interests)". Boris Pudalov says that these interpretations are unsupported by the sources; instead, he says that "a likely motivation for the Suzdal prince's actions was the desire to adorn and elevate his princely 'capital' and assert his authority over Vladimir, which was losing its former greatness as the capital of the grand principality". After his death in 1331, his younger brother
Konstantin inherited the principality of Suzdal, while Ivan became the sole grand prince after receiving the
yarlyk (patent) from Özbeg. ==See also==