Tsar Nicholas II

ABOUT THE CHARACTER

Nicholas II (Russian: Николái Алексндрович Ромнов; Romaniz.: Nikolái Alexandrovich Romanov; Tsarskoye Selo, 18 May; 6 May in the Julian calendar, 1868 — Yekaterinburg, 17 July 1918), nicknamed "Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer" by the Russian Orthodox Church,[i] was the last Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland and Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of the Russian Empire. Emperor of Russia: Reign: November 1, 1894 to March 15, 1917 Coronation: May 26, 1896 Predecessor: Alexander III Successor: Monarchy abolished Grand Duke of Finland: Reign: November 1, 1894 on March 15, 1917 Predecessor: Alexander III Successor: title abolished Governors-General: Fyodor Logginovich van Heiden (1894-97) Nikolay Bobrikov (1898-1904) Ivan Mikhailovich Obolensky (1904-05) Nikolai Gerhard (1905-08) Woldemar von Boeckmann (1908-09) Franz Albert Seyn (1909-17) After the abdication of Nicholas II and before Finnish independence: Mikhail Stakhovich (March to September 1917) Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov (September to November 1917)

PERSONAL DATA

Born: May 18, 1868 Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russia Death: July 17, 1918 (aged 50) Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR Buried: July 17, 1998 Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russia Full name: Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov Wife: Alice of Hesse and Rhine Descendants: Olga of Russia, Tatiana of Russia, Maria of Russia, Anastasia of Russia, Alexei, Tsarevich of Russia House: Romanov Father: Alexander III of Russia Mother Dagmar of Denmark Religion: Russian Orthodox

COMING SOON

Son of Alexander III, he ruled from his father's death on November 1, 1894, until his abdication on March 15, 1917, when he renounced in his name and in the name of his heir, passing the throne to his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, who ruled the country for one day. During his reign he saw Russia decline from a world power to an economic and military disaster. He was heavily criticized for the Khodynka Tragedy, Bloody Sunday, and the deadly anti-Semitic pogroms that occurred during his reign. As Head of State, he approved the mobilization of August 1914 which marked the first fatal step towards the First World War, the revolution and consequent fall of the Romanov dynasty. His reign ended with the Russian Revolution of 1917, when, trying to return from headquarters to the capital, his train was stopped in Pskov and he was forced to abdicate. From then on, the Tsar and his family were imprisoned, first in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, then in the Governor's House in Tobolsk and finally in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the imperial family's doctor, a personal servant, the empress's maid and the family cook were executed in the basement of the house by the Bolsheviks in the early hours of July 16-17, 1918. It is known that this event was ordered from Moscow by Lenin and fellow Bolshevik leader Yakov Sverdlov. Nicholas and his family were later canonized as new martyrs by groups linked to the Russian Orthodox Church in exile.

BIRTH AND FAMILY

Nicholas was born on May 18, 1868 (May 6 in the Julian calendar) in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, on the outskirts of the then capital Saint Petersburg. He was the son of the then Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, future Tsar Alexander III, and his wife, Maria Feodorovna, née Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Nicholas had three younger brothers: Alexander, George and Michael and two younger sisters: Xenia and Olga. In her family, she was called Nicky. His paternal grandparents were Tsar Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna, née Princess Marie of Hesse. His maternal grandparents were King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. On his mother's side, Nicholas was a nephew of several monarchs, including King George I of Greece and Frederick VIII of Denmark, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, and Princess Tira of Hanover, Duchess of Cumberland and Teviotdale. Nicholas was of primarily German and Danish ancestry, his last ethnically Russian ancestor being Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia (1708–1728), daughter of Peter the Great.

CZAREVICH

Nicholas became Tsarevich following the assassination of his grandfather, Alexander II on 13 March 1881, and the subsequent accession of his father, Alexander III. For security reasons the new Tsar and his family moved from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to their residence in the Gatchina Palace outside the city. Nicholas and his brothers were strictly educated, slept on hard cots, and their rooms were poorly furnished except for a religious icon of the Virgin and Child surrounded by pearls and other gems. His grandmother Maria Alexandrovna introduced English customs into the Romanov family: porridge for breakfast, cold baths and plenty of fresh air. The Tsarevich was educated by tutors in languages (French, German and English), geography, dance and other subjects. His father's advisor and former tutor Konstantin Pobedonostsev strongly emphasized the absolute autocracy of the tsar. Like many people of his time, he kept a detailed diary, in which he took notes of the most pedantic details of his day. They are full of unimportant details, about games with friends, temperature, distances traveled and so on. In May 1890, a few days before his 22nd birthday, he noted: Today I have definitively and eternally finished my education. In October of the same year, accompanied by his brother Jorge, he traveled to Egypt, India and Japan. This trip was arranged by his father Alexander III to supplement Nicholas's formal education, and to give him the opportunity to experience life outside of St. Petersburg and the palace. While in Japan, Nicholas survived an assassination attempt. Although Nicholas attended meetings of the Imperial Council, his duties were limited until his succession to the throne, which was not expected so soon since his father was only 49 years old.

CZAREVICH

In his youth, Nicholas was in love with his cousin Victoria Alexandra of the United Kingdom, daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexandra of Denmark, and described her as "serious, meticulous, and unfeminine in mind". Furthermore, about his cousin, Nicholas reported to his cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich: "She is truly a wonderful creature and the deeper you know her soul the more you exaggerate her virtues and qualities. I must confess that it is very difficult to unravel this for the first time; to know her views on things and people, but such difficulty contains a special charm that I am not able to explain." However, the Russian Orthodox Church forbade marriage between first cousins, and no engagement between Victoria Alexandra and Nicholas took place. In the meantime, Nicholas's parents, adherents of Pan-Slavism and openly anti-Germanism, sought a marriage between Nicholas and the Montenegrin princess Helena Petrović-Njegoš; Slavic and educated at the Russian imperial court, Helena was the favorite candidate of Tsar Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna, but the Tsarevich was not interested in her. Later, another union sought by Nicholas's parents was one between their son and Princess Helena of Orléans, daughter of the Count of Paris, which would have strengthened Russia's relations with France, but they eventually gave up on their son's insistence. Finally, the youngest daughter of German Emperor Frederick III, Princess Margaret of Prussia, was suggested as a potential bride for the Tsarevich in an attempt to pacify relations between Germany and Russia, but Nicholas declared that he "would rather become a monk than marry the boring Margaret." Contrary to his parents' wishes, Nicholas became engaged to Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, the fourth daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom.

PERSONALITY

From an early age, Tsar Nicholas demonstrated a shy temperament and inclinations that oriented him more towards domestic life. He had the manners of a student at an elite English school. He danced elegantly, was a good shot, rode horses and played sports. He spoke French and German and his English was so good that he could have fooled a professor at Oxford University by pretending to be an Englishman. He loved the history and pomp of the army, and the life of a soldier. His father granted him the rank of commander of a squadron of horse guards and he went to Krasnoe Selo, the large military camp outside St. Petersburg used by regiments of the Imperial Guard for summer maneuvers. There Nicholas took full part in the life and conversation of the dining rooms, and his modesty made him popular among his officers. No title meant more to him than that of colonel. Despite his personal qualities, as an absolute autocrat Nicholas was considered a failure. He found it impossible to reconcile his strict views of what was right and wrong for Russia with the responsibility of a modern monarch to compromise his views for the good of the nation. Nicolau hesitated in making important decisions. This made him seen by ministers as weak and contradictory. Many historians evaluate him as a monarch who lacked political sense. His benevolence towards his adversaries was non-existent. At the beginning of his reign he congratulated the "brave men of the Phanagoritsy regiment" who had shot the workers. When the governor-general of the Baltic provinces asked for a reprimand to be given to a certain adjutant-captain named Richter, who "executed, on his own initiative, without any trial, even people who offered no resistance", the tsar noted in the margin of the report: "Ah! This is a brave young man!"

PERSONALITY

Some historians regard Nicholas as having limited intelligence and weak will, faults which he tried to compensate for with occasional outbursts of stubbornness. He did not like power or its perks. In confidence to a minister, he once said that he held the reins of the State, not for pleasure, but because the country needed it. Apart from his wife and children, he only cared about Russia and the Army; Apart from the exercises he did outdoors, he was indifferent to everything else. Witnesses agree that he never looked happier than after he abdicated the throne. Like his father, Nicholas II wanted an autocratic model for the government of Russia. His favorite tsar was Alexei I, having given this name to his son.

ENGAGEMENT, MARRIAGE AND ASCENSION

Nicholas became engaged to Alice of Hesse and by Rhine in April 1894, during the wedding of his cousin Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, Alice's brother. Alice was hesitant to accept the marriage proposal because of the requirement that she would have to convert from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy and renounce her initial faith. In the conversion ceremony, this aspect was eliminated, making it easy for her to convert with a clear conscience. Nicholas and Alice became formally engaged on April 8, 1894. Alice converted to Orthodoxy in November 1894 and took the name Alexandra Feodorovna. Expecting to live another 20 or 30 years, Alexander did not bother to give his son a political education, and consequently Nicholas received little training for this imperial duty. However, in mid-1894 Alexander III's health unexpectedly declined rapidly. Alexander died at the age of 49 in 1894, from kidney disease. Nicholas, feeling unprepared for the duties of the crown, asked his cousin in tears: What will become of me and Russia? I'm not ready to be czar and I never wanted to be. I don't understand anything about government business. I don't even know how to talk to the ministers. Finance Minister Sergei Witte, however, recognized early on the need for training for Nicholas. Witte suggested to Alexander III that Nicholas serve as Chairman of the Trans-Siberian Railway Committee. Alexander argued that Nicholas was not mature enough to take on serious responsibilities, to which Witte replied that if Nicholas were not introduced to affairs of state, he would never be prepared to understand them. Nicholas also served as chairman of the Special Famine Relief Committee, established after the devastating famines and droughts of 1891–1892.

ENGAGEMENT, MARRIAGE AND ASCENSION

Possibly, despite his ill-preparedness and ineptitude, Nicholas was not on the whole untrained for his duties as tsar. Throughout his reign, he decided to maintain his father's conservative policies. While Alexander concentrated on formulating general policy, Nicholas devoted more attention to the details of administration. The wedding of Nicholas and Alice, originally planned for the following spring, was brought forward at Nicholas's insistence. Staggering beneath the weight of his new office, he had no intention of allowing the one person who gave him confidence to leave his side. The wedding took place on November 26, 1894. Alexandra wore the traditional Romanov bride's dress, and Nicholas wore a hussar uniform. Holding a candle, Nicholas and Alexandra looked at the subways. A few minutes before one o'clock in the afternoon they were married. Although he had visited Britain before his accession, where he observed the House of Commons in debate and was apparently impressed by the machinery of democracy, Nicholas rejected any idea of giving Russia any power to elect representatives. Shortly after assuming the throne, a delegation of peasants and workers from several local town assemblies (zemstvos) went to the Winter Palace to propose reforms at court, as well as the adoption of a constitutional monarchy. Although the arguments they submitted in advance were couched in mild and loyal terms, Nicholas became enraged and ignored the Imperial Family Council's recommendation, saying: …it has come to my attention that during the last few months there have been heard in zemstvo assemblies the voices of those who indulge in a foolish dream that the zemstvos would be invited to participate in the government of the country. I hope everyone knows that I devote all my strength to maintaining, for the good of the whole nation, the absolute principle of autocracy, as firmly and strongly as my late father.

TRAGEDY OF KHODYNKA

On May 14, 1896, Nicholas was crowned Tsar in the Dormition Cathedral, located inside the Kremlin. On May 18, 1896, after the coronation, mass hysteria occurred, which became known as the Khodynka Tragedy. A celebratory banquet in commemoration of the Tsar's coronation was prepared for the people of Khodynka Field. There would be theaters, 150 buffets would distribute gifts and 20 pubs were built for the celebration. On the evening of May 17, some people heard the news of the gifts that were to be distributed and began to arrive early. Suddenly a rumor spread among the crowd that there would not be enough beer and gifts for everyone. The police force failed to maintain order. An estimated 1,429 people died and another 9,000 to 20,000 were injured. Nicholas and Alexandra were informed of the tragedy, but not immediately. A festive ball was to take place that evening at the French embassy. The Tsar considered not attending, as it would appear that he did not feel sorry for the losses of his subjects. But he ended up following his uncles' advice and attending the party, so as not to offend Paris.

POGROMS

Nicholas's administration published anti-Semitic propaganda that encouraged riots, resulting in the pogroms of 1903–1906. Viacheslav Plehve, the Minister of the Interior, paid the Kishinev newspaper "Bessarabets" for anti-Semitic material, and the press during the Russo-Japanese War accused the Jews of being a fifth column. These accusations encouraged the outbreak of numerous pogroms, especially after Russia lost the war. They also resulted from the government's reaction to the 1905 Revolution.

CAPTIVITY AND EXECUTION

In August 1917, the government of Kerensky, now holding the post of prime minister after Lvov's abdication, evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk in the Ural Mountains, claiming that this would protect them from the growing tide of revolution. There they lived in the old Governor's Mansion in considerable comfort. On April 30, 1918, they were transferred to their final destination: the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. After the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, the conditions of their imprisonment became stricter, and discussion of putting Nicholas on trial became more frequent. Nicholas followed the events of the October Revolution with interest, but without alarm. He continued to underestimate Lenin's importance, but he began to feel that his abdication had done Russia more harm than good. In the meantime, he and his family were busy being cordial. The sight of Nicholas and his family began to change the impressions of even hardened revolutionaries. Anatoly Yakimov, a member of the guards who were captured by the White Army said: I still have an impression of them that will forever remain in my soul. The Tsar was not young, his beard was already turning gray… [He wore] a soldier's blouse with an officer's belt fastened by a buckle around his waist. The buckle was yellow…the blouse was khaki, the same color as her pants and worn boots. His eyes were kind, and he had an overall benevolent expression. I had the impression that he was a kind, simple, frank and talkative person. Sometimes I felt like he was talking to me directly. He looked at us as if he enjoyed talking to us. The Tsarina was nothing like him. She looked stern and had the manners and appearance of an arrogant and angry woman. Sometimes we used to discuss them among ourselves and decided that she was different and looked exactly like a Tsarina. She looked like she was older than the Tsar. Gray hair was clearly visible.

CAPTIVITY AND EXECUTION

...on her temples and her face was not that of a young woman. All my bad thoughts about the Tsar disappeared after I had remained among the guards for a while. After seeing them [the Tsar and his family] several times, I began to feel something entirely different towards them; I started to feel sorry for them. Pity them as human beings. I am telling you the complete truth. You may or may not believe me, but I said to myself: "Let them run away... Something must be done to make them run away." In Yekaterinburg, the tsar was forbidden to wear epaulettes, and the sentries scrawled obscene drawings on the fence to offend his daughters. On March 1, 1918, the family was put on soldiers' rations, which meant the departure of ten devoted servants. From then on, butter and coffee were considered luxuries. What kept the family going was the faith that someone would help them. An official announcement appeared in the national press two days after the death of the Tsar and his family in Yekaterinburg. It reported that the monarch had been executed on the order of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet under pressure from the approach of the Czech Legion. Although the official Soviet clarified that the responsibility for the decision lay with the local superiors of the Ural Regional Soviet, Leon Trotsky, in his diary, declared that the execution took place on the authority of Lenin and Sverdlov. The execution took place on the night of July 16–17 under the leadership of Yakov Yurovsky and resulted in the deaths of Nicholas II, his wife, his four daughters, his son, his personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife's maid Anna Demidova, the family cook Ivan Kharitonov, and the servant Alexei Trupp. Nicholas was the first to die. He was shot multiple times in the head and chest by Yurovsky. The last to die were Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga and Maria, who were struck with bayonets.

CAPTIVITY AND EXECUTION

They wore more than 3 pounds of diamonds, which provided them with initial protection from bullets and bayonets. In January 1998, remains excavated from beneath a dirt road near Yekaterinburg in 1991 were identified as those of Nicholas II and his family (excluding one of his daughters and Alexei). Identifications made separately by Russian, British and American scientists using DNA analysis agreed and proved conclusive. In April 2008, Russian authorities announced that they had found two missing Romanov skeletons near Yekaterinburg and that they were confirmed by DNA tests to belong to Alexei and one of his sisters.[79] On October 1, 2008, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that Tsar Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and should be rehabilitated.