The position of the Jews under the Czars was never easy, but it became much worse when Czar Alexander I was succeeded by Czar Nicholas I in 1825.
Jacobs, Louis (translator), Tract on Ecstasy by Dobh Baer of Lubavitch, Vallentine Mitchell, 2006, ISBN 978-0-85303-590-9
One of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok's grandsons married the daughter of Dovber Schneuri, the Second of the Chabad Rebbe's and the first Chabad Rebbe to live in Lubavitch.
He is also a descendant of the Chabad chasidic dynasty through the Chabad Mitler Rebbe's daughter and son-in-law Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkass, son of Grand Rabbi Mordechai (Magid of Chernobyl).