Encyclopedia
Nicholas II of Russia was the last
Emperor of Russia,
King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917. Nicholas proved unable to manage a country in political turmoil and command its army in
World War I. His rule ended with the
Russian Revolution of 1917, after which he and his family were executed by
Bolsheviks. Nicholas's full name was
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Romanov . His official title was
Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. He is sometimes referred to as
Nicholas the Martyr due to his execution without trial and as
Bloody Nicholas because of the tragic events during his coronation. Subsequent to his canonization, he has been regarded as
Saint Nicholas The Passion Bearer by the
Russian Orthodox Church.
Family background and early life
Nicholas was born in
Saint Petersburg, the eldest son of Emperor
Alexander III and
Maria Fyodorovna . His paternal grandparents were
Alexander II of Russia and his first consort
Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. His maternal grandparents were
Christian IX of Denmark and
Louise of Hesse-Kassel.
Nicholas did not have an easy childhood. He was constantly bullied by his father Alexander III who did not appreciate Nicholas's shy and sensitive disposition. In front of his friends, his father called him a "
girly girl" and had doubts about his son succeeding him to the throne. His mother,
Maria Fyodorovna, was a clinging possessive woman who spoiled Nicholas.
Nicholas fell in love with
Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, a daughter of
Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the latter a daughter of Queen
Victoria and
Prince Albert. Alexander did not approve of this match; hoping to cement Russia's new alliance with
France, he had hoped that Nicholas would marry Princess Hélène, the daughter of
Count Philippe of the
House of Orleans. Only on his deathbed did Alexander consent to Nicholas' marriage to Alix for fear of imperiling the perpetuation of the Romanov Dynasty.
As Tsarevich, Nicholas did a considerable amount of travelling. During a notable trip to the
Empire of Japan, a failed assassination attempt by a sword-wielding man left him with a scar on his forehead. The quick action of his cousin,
Prince George of Greece, who parried the second blow with his cane, possibly saved his life. The motivations for this attack remain unclear.
Becomes Emperor
Deemed overly soft by his hard and demanding father, Nicholas received little grooming for his imperial role.
When Alexander died at the age of 49 in 1894 of kidney disease after an unexpectedly rapid deterioration of health, Nicholas felt so unprepared for the duties of the crown that he tearfully asked his cousin, "What is going to happen to me and all of Russia?" He nevertheless decided to maintain the conservative policies favored by his father. While Alexander had concentrated on the formulation of general policy, Nicholas devoted much more attention to the details of administration.
Relationship with the Duma
Under the pressure of the
Russian Revolution of 1905, on August 6, 1905
Tsar Nicholas II issued a manifesto about the convocation of the Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. In the subsequent October Manifesto Tsar pledged to introduce basic
civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the
State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers.
Nicholas' relations with the
Duma were not good. The First Duma, with a majority of ?adets, almost immediately came into conflict with him. Although Nicholas initially had a good relationship with his relatively liberal prime minister,
Sergei Witte, Alexandra distrusted him, and as the political situation deteriorated, Nicholas dissolved the Duma. Witte, unable to grasp the seemingly insurmountable problems of reforming Russia and the monarchy wrote to Nicholas on 14 April, 1906 resigning his office . Nicholas was not ungracious to Witte and an Imperial Rescript was published on 22 April creating Witte a Knight of the Order of Saint
Alexander Nevsky, with diamonds. .
After the second Duma resulted in similar problems, the new prime minister
Pyotr Stolypin unilaterally dissolved it, and changed the electoral laws to allow for future Dumas to have a more conservative content, and to be dominated by the liberal-conservative Octobrist Party of Alexander Guchkov. Stolypin, a skillful politician, had ambitious plans for reform. These included making loans available to the lower classes to enable them to buy land, with the intent of forming a farming class loyal to the crown. His plans were undercut by conservatives at court who had more influence with the Emperor. By the time of Stolypin's assassination by Dmitry Bogrov, a Jewish student in a theatre in Kiev on 18 September, 1911, he and the Emperor were barely on speaking terms, and his fall was widely foreseen.
Tsarevich Alexei's illness
Further complicating domestic matters was the matter of the succession. Alexandra bore him four daughters before their son
Alexei was born on August 12, 1904. The young heir proved to be afflicted with
hemophilia, a disease that prevents blood clotting properly, which at that time was virtually untreatable and usually led to an untimely death. Because of the fragility of the autocracy at this time, Nicholas and Alexandra chose not to divulge Alexei's condition to anyone outside the royal household. In fact, there were many in the Imperial household who were unaware of the exact nature of the Tsarevich's illness. They knew that he suffered from some serious malady; however, the exact nature of his suffering was not revealed to all.
In desperation, Alexandra sought help from a mystic,
Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin seemed to help when Alexei was suffering from internal bleeding, and Alexandra became increasingly dependent on him and his advice, which she accepted as coming directly from
God. It has been widely speculated that Rasputin was able to use hypnosis on the young boy as a means of calming him and thus helping to stem the flow of blood to the injured body part. Rasputin was known to have been studying hypnosis as late as 1913, in St. Petersburg, but he was discovered by Stephen Beletsky, the head of the Special Police detachment that monitored all of Rasputin's activities. He was expelled from the city by the police when this was discovered. Rasputin was murdered by
Grand Duke Dmitri with other conspirators in December 1916, by being, in sequence, poisoned, shot several times, beaten, and drowned in the river. It was the latter which became the cause of his death.
The Great War
Following the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by
Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serb nationalist association known as the
Black Hand, in
Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, Nicholas vacillated as to Russia's course. The rising ideas of the Pan-Slav movement had led Russia to issue treaties of protection to Serbia. Nicholas wanted neither to abandon
Serbia to the ultimatum of
Austria-Hungary, nor to provoke a general war. In a series of letters exchanged with the German Kaiser the two proclaimed their desire for peace, and each attempted to get the other to back down. Nicholas took concrete measures in this regard, demanding that Russia's mobilisation be only against the Austrian border, in the hopes of preventing war with the
German Empire. It proved too late for personal communications to determine the course of events. The Russians had no contingency plans for a partial mobilisation, and on July 31, 1914, Nicholas, under political pressure from abroad, and military pressure at home, took the fateful step of confirming the order for a general mobilisation. As Germany and Austria-Hungary had mutual defence treaties in place, this led almost immediately to a German mobilisation and declaration of war, and the outbreak of
World War I.
The outbreak of war on August 1, 1914, found Russia grossly unprepared, yet an immediate attack was ordered against the German province of
East Prussia. The Germans mobilized there with great efficiency and completely defeated the two Russian armies which had invaded. The Russian armies, however, later had considerable success against both the Austro-Hungarian armies and against the forces of the
Ottoman Empire.
Gradually a war of attrition set in on the vast Eastern Front, where the Russians were facing the combined forces of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and they suffered staggering losses. Nicholas, feeling that it was his duty, and that his personal presence would inspire his troops, decided to lead his army directly. He assumed the role of commander-in-chief after dismissing his cousin from that position, the highly respected and experienced
Nikolai Nikolaevich following the loss of the Russian Kingdom of
Poland.
His efforts to oversee the war left domestic issues essentially in the hands of Alexandra. As a German she was unpopular, and the Duma was constantly calling for political reforms. Political unrest continued throughout the war. Cut off from public opinion, Nicholas did not understand how suspicious the common people were of his wife, who was also the victim of destructive rumours about her dependence on
Grigori Rasputin. Nicholas had refused to censor the press and wild rumours and accusations about Alexandra and Rasputin appeared almost daily. Anger at the damage that Rasputin's influence was doing to Russia's war effort and to the monarchy led to his murder by a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Yusupov, on December 16 1916.
Revolution and abdication
The government's inability to maintain constant supplies and an active economy over a prolonged period of warfare led to mounting national hardship. The army's initial failure to maintain the temporary military successes up to June 1916 led to renewed strikes and riots in the following winter. With Nicholas away at the front in 1915, authority appeared to collapse , and St. Petersburg was left in the hands of strikers and mutineering conscript soldiers. At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917 , on 2 March / 15 March , 1917, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. He issued the following statement:
- In the days of the great struggle against the foreign enemies, who for nearly three years have tried to enslave our fatherland, the Lord God has been pleased to send down on Russia a new heavy trial. Internal popular disturbances threaten to have a disastrous effect on the future conduct of this persistent war. The destiny of Russia, the honor of our heroic army, the welfare of the people and the whole future of our dear fatherland demand that the war should be brought to a victorious conclusion whatever the cost. The cruel enemy is making his last efforts, and already the hour approaches when our glorious army together with our gallant allies will crush him. In these decisive days in the life of Russia, We thought it Our duty of conscience to facilitate for Our people the closest union possible and a consolidation of all national forces for the speedy attainment of victory. In agreement with the Imperial Duma We have thought it well to renounce the Throne of the Russian Empire and to lay down the supreme power. As We do not wish to part from Our beloved son, We transmit the succession to Our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, and give Him Our blessing to mount the Throne of the Russian Empire. We direct Our brother to conduct the affairs of state in full and inviolable union with the representatives of the people in the legislative bodies on those principles which will be established by them, and on which He will take an inviolable oath.
- In the name of Our dearly beloved homeland, We call on Our faithful sons of the fatherland to fulfill their sacred duty to the fatherland, to obey the tsar in the heavy moment of national trials, and to help Him, together with the representatives of the people, to guide the Russian Empire on the road to victory, welfare, and glory. May the Lord God help Russia!
However
he did so in his own name, and that of his son, in favor of his brother, saying, "We bequeath Our inheritance to Our brother the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich and give him Our Blessing on his accession to the throne." Grand Duke
Mikhail declined to accept the throne, which then theoretically fell vacant, pending a decision on the next rightful heir. Contrary to popular belief, Mikhail never abdicated, as he was technically never formally crowned. The abdication of Nicholas II and the subsequent revolution brought three centuries of the Romanov dynasty's rule to an end.
Death
The provisional Russian government at first kept Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children confined in the
Alexander Palace 15 miles from St. Petersburg at Tsarskoe Selo . Attempting to remove them from the vicinity of the capital and so from possible harm, the
Kerensky government moved them east to
Tobolsk, in
Siberia in August 1917. They remained there through the Bolshevik October Revolution in November 1917, but were then moved to
Red Army and Bolshevik-controlled
Yekaterinburg. The Emperor and his family, including Botkin, Kharitonov and Trupp were executed at 2:33 A.M. on the morning of July 17 1918. According to
Yurovsky he read to Nicholas a letter from the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet saying:
- In view of the fact that your relatives continue their offensive against Soviet Russia, the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet has decided to sentence you to death.
According to Yurovsky,
Nicholas II cried:
- Lord, oh my God! Oh my God! What is this? I can't understand you.:
The bodies were disposed in a truck which Yurovsky ordered at midnight and taken to the forest to be disposed. The
execution was covered up as a disappearance for a while.
Soon after, the Bolsheviks announced that only Nicholas had been shot, but that the members of his family had been spirited away to another place. Most reports showed that they had all been executed by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by
Yakov Yurovsky, a watchmaker from Perm. Other witnesses swore to have seen the Empress and her daughters in Perm.
King
Alfonso XIII of Spain negotiated with the new Soviet government interceding for the remaining members of the family that he thought alive.
Then in 1989, Yakov Yurovsky's own report was published, which seemed to show conclusively what had happened that night. The execution took place as units of the Czechoslovak Legion, making their retreat out of Russia, approached Yekaterinburg. Fearing that the Legion would take the town and free him, the Emperor's
Bolshevik jailers pursued the immediate liquidation of the Imperial Family, arguing that there was "no turning back." The telegram giving the order on behalf of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow was signed by
Jacob Sverdlov, after whom the town was subsequently renamed. Nicholas was the first to die. He was assassinated with multiple bullets to the head and chest.
The bodies of Nicholas and his family, after being soaked in acid and burned, were long believed to have been disposed of down a mineshaft at a site called the Four Brothers. Initially, this was true — they had indeed been disposed of there on the night of July 17. The following morning — when rumors spread in Yekaterinburg regarding the disposal site — Yurovsky removed the bodies and concealed them elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the bodies in a sealed and concealed pit on Koptyaki Road, a cart track 12 miles north of Yekaterinburg. Their remains were later found in 1991 and reburied by the Russian government following a state funeral. The process to identify the remains was exhaustive. Samples were sent to Britain and the United States for DNA testing. The tests concluded that five of the skeletons were members of one family and four were unrelated. Three of the five were determined to be the children of two parents. The mother was linked to the British royal family, as was Alexandra. The father was determined to be related to Grand Duke George Alexandrovich. British scientists said they were more than 98.5% sure that the remains were those of the Emperor, his family and their attendants. Finally, a ceremony of Christian Burial was held in 1998, and the bodies were laid to rest with State honours.
Mystery and legend
Two skeletons were not found - Alexei, the 13-year old heir to the throne; and one of his sisters, possibly Tatiana, Maria or Anastasia. Olga was the only child of Nicholas II and Alexandra to be successfully identified by both the American and Russian scientists.
Anastasia received worldwide notoriety when rumors spread that she alone had survived the murders.
Hollywood has made films based on this legend.
Anna Anderson gained a measure of notoriety through her claims to be Anastasia, and her supporters claimed she knew information about the Romanovs that only an intimate member of the family would know. However, DNA testing on Anna Anderson's remains proves she was an imposter, and modern research and investigations indicate Anastasia did not survive, although the location of the missing bodies is unknown.
An oddity of coincidence also appears here as much of the Russian Royal lineage often compared their Empire to that of Rome. Interestingly, the Romanov dynasty lost power and the Imperial Russian Empire itself ended on the Ides of March, the same date as the assassination of
Julius Caesar.
Issue
The children of Nicholas II and empress Alexandra as follows:
Sainthood
In 1981 Nicholas and his immediate family were canonised as
saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia as
martyrs. On August 14, 2000 they were canonised by the synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church. They were not named
martyrs, since their death did not result immediately from their Christian faith; instead they were canonised as passion bearers. According to a statement by the Moscow synod, they were glorified as saints for the following reasons:
- In the last Orthodox Russian monarch and members of his family we see people who sincerely strove to incarnate in their lives the commands of the Gospel. In the suffering borne by the Royal Family in prison with humility, patience, and meekness, and in their martyrs deaths in Ekaterinburg in the night of 4/17 July 1918 was revealed the light of the faith of Christ that conquers evil.
DNA dispute
Ever since Dr. Peter Gill's results were published and confirmed by American scientists, they have been disputed by some critics. The Russian Orthodox Church refused to acknowledge the remains as genuine.
During the interment of the bones in 1998, the bones were referred to as 'Christian victims of the Revolution'. One reason for this dispute was the absence of any mark from Nicholas's saber wound he received on a visit to Japan as the tsarevich. Tests done by Japanese scientists showed that the blood of Nicholas's nephew Tikhon did not match with the published profile of Nicholas obtained by Dr. Gill. A Stanford study done in 2003 suggested some sort of contamination.
Notes
References
- Victor Alexandrov, "The End of The Romanovs", London
- Paul Grabbe, "The Private World of the Last Tsar" New York
- Greg King, The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II
- Greg King and Penny Wilson, "The Fate of the Romanovs"
- Andrei MaAylunas and Sergei , The Flight of the Romanovs
- Shay McNeal, "The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar"
- Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra
- Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs. The Final Chapter ISBN 345-40640-0
- Bernard Pares, "The Fall of the Russian Monarchy" London , reprint London
- Edvard Radzinsky, The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II
- Anthony Summers and Tom Mangold, The File on the Tsar
- Editor: A.Yarmolinsky, "The Memoirs of Count Witte" New York & Toronto
External links
- The Alexander Palace Time Machine
- Letters of Nicholas II
- The Tsar at Stavka
- Letters of Nicholas II to his wife during WWI
- Letters Written from Exile, compiled by Sarah Miller
- - the memoirs of Mossolov, head of Nicholas's Court Chancellery from 1900-1916
- Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo by Count Paul Beckendorff
- Thirteen Years at the Russian Court by Pierre Gilliard
- Six Years at the Russian Court by Margaret Eager
- Memories of the Russian Court by Anna Vyrubova
- Letters of the Tsaritsa to the Tsar 1914-1917
- Marriage Ceremony of Nicholas and Alexandra
- Jewels of the Romanovs
- Nicholas and Alexandra Exhibition
- by Leon Trotsky.
- An immensely detailed site on the historical context, circumstances and drama surrounding the Romanov's execution.
- , Nicolay Sokolov. Investigation of murder of the Romanov Imperial Family in 1918. In Russian
- , Edvard Radzinski. In Russian.
- A media presentation of the last Imperial Family.
- "Moscow News"
|-
|-
