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Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917.
- Overview
- Early life and reign
- World War I
Nicholas II’s father was Tsar Alexander III, and his mother was Maria Fyodorovna, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark.
What was Nicholas II’s family like?
In 1894 Nicholas II married Alexandra, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. They had four daughters—Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia—and one son, Alexis.
How did Nicholas II die?
The Russian Revolution toppled the Romanov dynasty, and Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, 1917. The royal family was arrested by the Bolsheviks and held in seclusion. On July 17, 1918, the Bolsheviks murdered Nicholas, his family, and their closest retainers.
How did Nicholas II change the world?
Nikolay Aleksandrovich was the eldest son and heir apparent (tsesarevich) of the tsarevitch Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (emperor as Alexander III from 1881) and his consort Maria Fyodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark). Succeeding his father on November 1, 1894, he was crowned tsar in Moscow on May 26, 1896.
Neither by upbringing nor by temperament was Nicholas fitted for the complex tasks that awaited him as autocratic ruler of a vast empire. He had received a military education from his tutor, and his tastes and interests were those of the average young Russian officers of his day. He had few intellectual pretensions but delighted in physical exercise and the trappings of army life: uniforms, insignia, parades. Yet on formal occasions he felt ill at ease. Though he possessed great personal charm, he was by nature timid; he shunned close contact with his subjects, preferring the privacy of his family circle. His domestic life was serene. To his wife, Alexandra, whom he had married on November 26, 1894, Nicholas was passionately devoted. She had the strength of character that he lacked, and he fell completely under her sway. Under her influence he sought the advice of spiritualists and faith healers, most notably Grigori Rasputin, who eventually acquired great power over the imperial couple.
Nicholas also had other irresponsible favourites, often men of dubious probity who provided him with a distorted picture of Russian life, but one that he found more comforting than that contained in official reports. He distrusted his ministers, mainly because he felt them to be intellectually superior to himself and feared they sought to usurp his sovereign prerogatives. His view of his role as autocrat was childishly simple: he derived his authority from God, to whom alone he was responsible, and it was his sacred duty to preserve his absolute power intact. He lacked, however, the strength of will necessary in one who had such an exalted conception of his task. In pursuing the path of duty, Nicholas had to wage a continual struggle against himself, suppressing his natural indecisiveness and assuming a mask of self-confident resolution. His dedication to the dogma of autocracy was an inadequate substitute for a constructive policy, which alone could have prolonged the imperial regime.
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Soon after his accession Nicholas proclaimed his uncompromising views in an address to liberal deputies from the zemstvos, the self-governing local assemblies, in which he dismissed as “senseless dreams” their aspirations to share in the work of government. He met the rising groundswell of popular unrest with intensified police repression. In foreign policy, his naïveté and lighthearted attitude toward international obligations sometimes embarrassed his professional diplomats; for example, he concluded an alliance with the German emperor William II during their meeting at Björkö in July 1905, although Russia was already allied with France, Germany’s traditional enemy.
After its ambitions in the Far East were checked by Japan, Russia turned its attention to the Balkans. Nicholas sympathized with the national aspirations of the Slavs and was anxious to win control of the Turkish straits but tempered his expansionist inclinations with a sincere desire to preserve peace among the Great Powers. After the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo, he tried hard to avert the impending war by diplomatic action and resisted, until July 30, 1914, the pressure of the military for general, rather than partial, mobilization.
The outbreak of World War I temporarily strengthened the monarchy, but Nicholas did little to maintain his people’s confidence. The Duma was slighted, and voluntary patriotic organizations were hampered in their efforts; the gulf between the ruling group and public opinion grew steadily wider. Alexandra turned Nicholas’s mind against the popular commander in chief, his father’s cousin the grand duke Nicholas, and on September 5, 1915, the emperor dismissed him, assuming supreme command himself. Since the emperor had no experience of war, almost all his ministers protested against this step as likely to impair the army’s morale. They were overruled, however, and soon dismissed.
- John L.H. Keep
Apr 2, 2014 · Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia under Romanov rule. His poor handling of Bloody Sunday and Russia’s role in World War I led to his abdication and execution. Updated: May 26, 2021....
Nicholas II - Last Tsar, Abdication, Execution: When riots broke out in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on March 8, 1917, Nicholas instructed the city commandant to take firm measures and sent troops to restore order. It was too late.
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Nicholas II . Nicholas II, Russian Nikolay Aleksandrovich, (born May 18, 1868, Tsarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg, Russia—died July 16/17, 1918, Yekaterinburg), Tsar of Russia (1894–1917). Son of Alexander III, he received a military education ...
u. v. w. x. y. z. Nicholas II, 1914 © Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia. He was deposed during the Russian Revolution and executed by the Bolsheviks. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov...
Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, had neither the qualities or the desire to rule Imperial Russia. Born in Tsarskoye Selo in 1868, Nicholas was the eldest son of Alexander III, the fearsome tsar who had reimposed autocracy and oppression on the Russian empire after the murder of Alexander II.
